One thing that I just want to say is how much I have fallen in love with "themed base learning". The way that all of the Mother Goose Time lessons work together for an overall theme is perfect! It helps young children and toddlers think through an entire process or idea and make connections. I feel like it's one of the biggest reasons L-Bug has learned so much already. So after thinking about the fact that ALL of our lessons in one month are tied in to an overall theme it makes sense to bring in the idea that animals have homes too. People live in buildings and houses, even boats and RVs like we learned in week one. This week we we are on a little bit of a school break. we aren't going to be doing a TON of lesson because we have VBS and a lot of other summer fun family things going on. BUT, we are still doing a little bit of school and following along with each weeks "theme" from our MGT curriculum. This weeks theme was all about animal homes & habitats, so what better way to learn about it then with a field trip to the Zoo!!! A big thank you to L-Bug's Mamaw and Papa for taking us on our zoo trip. We saw so many animals and along the way we talked about the animals, what environments they lived in and what kind of homes they lived in. L-Bug was very interested to learn that some animals lived in trees (like monkeys) and that others lived in holes in the ground (like foxes and anteaters). Actually she said "WHHHAAATTT?!" A lot throughout the day... haha
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Last week we talked all about the different kinds of places people live like houses, apartments, castles, houseboats and RVs. This week we are learning about the different rooms in a home! We've talked about washing our hands in the bathroom, doing the laundry in the laundry room, cooking dinner in the kitchen, the list goes on and on! We talked about something all homes need, doors and windows! I used some construction paper and cut out windows and doors for each of our different types of homes and then L-Bug put them all together. The next day we went on a little hunt through the house to find the different doors and count the windows! L-Bug wanted to bring one of her new keys, because she said we needed to unlock all of the doors first. We had a lot of fun this week playing with these little keys that came with our Mother Goose Time Curriculum kit. We played a fun process of elimination game. I would tell L-Bug "Ok let's find on orange key so we can unlock an orange door. Then I would say let's fin the orange door with one window." Or for the blue I would say "Let's find the blue door with NO windows." We would unlock the door and find the friend who was hiding behind it. L-Bug thought all of her friends needed to have their keys back too ;) So she laid them down on the door with them. We talked about many rooms this week. I can ask L-Bug simple questions like "What room do we go potty in or take a bath in?", "What room do we watch TV and sit on the couch to talk in?", "What room do we cook in?", etc and she answers them all! She knows her rooms really well and if I ask her to go to a specific room in the house she pretty much knows where to go! Here is some fun we had learning about the kitchen! We went through our "I Can Read" book and talked about cooking. When I asked L-Bug "Where do we cook at?" she answered "On the stove, hot, hot" I said "Yes, but what room is the stove in?" she told me it was "In the Kitcen". Then we made some soup! We made some vegetable soup in the book, then we made alphabet soup! We sang the ABCs as we put the letters in with the noodles. Then she stirred it up and we sang them again. Once we were done stirring we scooped the letters out and I showed them to L-Bug as I had her say them with me. She really liked scooping them out! Then we cooked up some lunch! L-Bug has really been enjoying helping out in the Kitchen. She loves to help Grammy put away the dishes, she likes helping Mommy wipe down the table and ANYTIME anyone offers to let her help cooks she's ready to go! So when I told her we were making mac-n-cheese she jumped all over it! She even wanted to take Grampy his bowl after she was all done cooking! She was very proud of how yummy it tasted :) Another one of L-Bug's favorite school activities this week was learning about the bedroom and acting out the song "5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed". We had a fun little booklet that folded up as we went. And we had little monkey cutouts and a paper bed for them to jump on. She liked telling them "No Monkeys! No jumpin'! It's dangerous, right mommy?" I feel like even the simplest lessons from this week taught L-Bug so many different things. I love the way it all ties in together and helps her to make so many different connections!
We all know summer is full of fun travel and busy schedules! But for us being on the go is VERY normal. I don't want L-Bug's lessons put on hold or her school to take the back burner just because we have busy schedules so I try to make sure we can do some school on the go too! Typically while going through the month's curriculum and setting it all up I will "flag" days with activities we can do on the go. This way if I know we have a really busy day or two I can put together a car bag for school. Here is one that I put together for 7 hour trip we made in the car. Five different activities to do all sorted into their own little bags. You'll see a little later where they get put and I also have markers, crayons, pencils and stickers set aside for the trip as well. I have two different lap boards I like to use... this one holds all of the papers and little materials we will be using. L-Bug doesn't get this because if she opens it all of the materials will be EVERYWHERE! After "prepping" the materials, like I did in the photo above, I stack them inside in the order I will be pulling them out to do. This saves time from me having to dig through to find the pieces to this or the parts to that. When we stop for a restroom break we don't need mom spending 15 minutes trying to get the school bag pulled out and get everything ready to use. Here is the second lap board I like using. It's got a soft cushion underneath so there is no plastic pieces poking her in the legs. It also has two zipper pockets on the sides where I put crayons, pencils and markers. L-Bug can take out one at a time and we don't have to worry about crayons getting lost under the seat. I also like the bands in each corner that hold down the paper while she's working! Here is what our school "go bag" looks like once it's all packed up! I prep the whole day/trip to be put into this bag so school is easy to grab and hand to her. If there is something that needs to be read to her I typically record it because if I'm driving I can't read at the same time! All I have to do is push the play button once we start the lesson and pause it to ask her questions or wait for her response. Usually at a gas, food or bathroom stop I'll pull out an activity for L-Bug to do.While she's working I talk to her just like I normally would during a lesson, asking questions explaining different things to her... etc. Here is L-Bug working hard on our last road trip! She sure did have fun :) She was VERY entertained the whole trip and she had a lot of fun! It was a great way for her to keep busy without watching endless episodes of cartoons!
A new month a new theme! This month is called "The Alphabet House" and this week we are focusing on the different places we live. With our recent move we've been talking to L-Bug a lot about our "new home" she understands that this is our new house and apparently she loves it!
First up we worked on our theme poster. I LOVE these posters because they are so colorful and cute and L-Bug loves them too. She will spend 15-25 minutes just talking to me about what she sees, answering my post-it questions and matching the magnifying glass and then doing the actions on the back of the magnifying glasses!
Then we had fun painting our house cut out! L-Bug and I talked about the outside of our house: Doors, a roof, windows and a garage. We talked about a yard and how some yards have grass and trees. Then we talked about the inside of the house and the different rooms.... I said we have our bedrooms where we sleep and I asked her "what's in your closet?" She said "My pretty clothes and shoes." Then I said we have bathrooms where we go potty and take our baths "Gettin' naked" was her response to that. We talked about a few other rooms and when I talked about the kitchen she told me school was over and it was time to eat her lunch. Haha
After nap we went on a walk and when we got outside I had L-Bug tell me about her house again and what she saw. Then I took her picture. I told her that she has lived in three houses and I talked about Germany and Italy and now our new home. Once we got home I showed her pictures of her first two house. She doesn't remember the one in Germany but boy, oh boy, did she remember her Italy house and she wanted to know where all her stuff was! I had to explain that it was still on the boat coming over and she remembered that it was going on a truck too! I can't wait until our stuff gets here and she can fully feel like we have moved into our new home!
On apartment day we talked about people living in apartments and how apartments have lots of floors. I reminded L-Bug about the elevator we would ride when we stayed in the hotel and she told me about how she liked to push the buttons. Well with our Mother Goose Time materials and a little imagination L-Bug and I played a game in an elevator.
L-Bug would press the elevator button for the floor that her friends needed to get off on. Then we would count from 1 to that number. Once we got to the button number we would make an elevator ding noise and then L-Bug would take that griend off of the elevator and put them into the toy bucket (or their "house").
We played with our foam shapes and shape mats to make different kinds of houses that people live in.
We talked about castles and L-Bug told me Princess Sofia lives in one (one her favorite tv cartoons). Then we made crowns and she decorated her's with Sofia stickers and she made a pet dragon to live at her castle. We watched the princess Sofia episode where Sofia her friends build their dream castles for school.
We read our new Mother Goose Time book for this week! Goldilocks is an adorable story that is retold in a way where Goldilocks looses her teddy bear and when she falls asleep she dreams about cleaning up the mess to find him.
L-Bug enjoyed this book a lot! The second time we read it she showed me the messy pages and when we read through the story she was happy to tell me it was ALL CLEAN! Then we talked about how we need to keep our rooms clean so we don't loose our toys. We had a fun week learning about where people live! I can't wait to share a fun little book that I'm making with L-Bug that is all about the different places her friends & family live around the world.
So if you saw my post about re-designing the new school room you know I've got A LOT of work ahead of me! I've been running through a lot of ideas and planning and some things are finally coming together! Here is a base example of the new circle time wall that I'll be putting up. There are still quite few things I need to add to it until it's finished...
I used a simple metal oil drip pan so that I could create a magnetic interactive circle time board. Then I got some contact paper to cover it with to make it look nicer!
I attached the contact paper leaving some metal showing so I can screw it up onto the wall.
I got these magnetic clips to use for a few of the items, but I've got some other plans too! I got a few of these mini-clothes pins to use and I think I'll be hot gluing them down to use for things like the month. I also got magnetic strip that can be cut and applied to the weather pieces!
I've still got a LOT of work ahead of me but I'm starting to find ideas that I like and want to use in our new school room!
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Proud supporter of Mother Goose Time curriculum!All the posts in this blog are from real life experiences. We've taken the activities and materials provided in the Mother Goose Time curriculum and modified it in different ways to fit our lifestyle. Enjoy the read!
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December 2023
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