G is for Giraffe & H is for Hippo

We didn't do a whole lot during G week as the kids have all been dealing with a cough/cold. We made it to the library and read a lot of Giraffe books as well as curious George books. We did a pre-writing activity and that was about it.

This week for H here are a few of our ideas. Many of them are Hippo related, but we'll also talk about other H words like House, Horse, Honey, Hat, Heart, Hide.

* Hip, Hip, Hip, Hippopatamus, Hip, Hip, Horray God made all of us song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSaJN0m70Ws

* We're using a lot of ideas on this website: coloring page, matching activity, simple puzzle: http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/blog/2010/11/letter-h-for-hippo.html

* We already listened to "I want a Hippopatamus for Christmas". It's almost November. I think it's fine ;)

* Going to play Hide & Seek

* Play dress-up with different hats. Create our own hats!

* Work on memorizing: Psalm 119:11

I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

 

* H scavenger hunt around the house. I'll draw pictures of things for Hope to find around the house & she then has to find them & collect them. Isaac even enjoys helping with this one! :)

 

 

F is for FOOD

I've been a bit quiet on the blog - blame the broken arm and not feeling 100% myself. The past two weeks have been filled with DINOSAURS and ELEPHANTS for homeschool. We did some great Dino activities, read a bunch of books and Hope was really enjoying the puzzles, in particular, as she could manage those without her left hand. E week - well, let's just say I won't get homeschool mother of the year. We got elephant books from the library. I still haven't read them to the kids. We did do one pre-writing activity after I found some great paint stamps to use.

On to a new week!

Some of the ideas we'll do this week:

* make stamps out of food - you can use apples, potatoes, etc to cut simple shapes into, then dip them into paint and use them like a stamp.

 

* Talk about fruits & vegetables. Go to a market to buy some. Have the kids sort which ones are fruits & which are vegetables

* Bake/Cook/Prepare food all week :)

 

* Using old magazines (if I can find some), we will make a large F on paper and have the kids go through magazines to find pictures of food, then glue them to the large F as a collage.

 

* Learn how to set the table

* Talk about communion

* Put together a food package as a gift for someone we might know is in need,

*  Get pictures of different foods - sort by color.

* Use food to count - ex. "1 apple, 2 bananas, 3 grapes..."

* Grocery store rainbow hunt & eating a rainbow: http://www.toddlerapproved.com/2012/05/eating-rainbow-two-fun-activities-for.html

C is for Clothing

* disclaimer: My dear friend, Loretta, is also homeschooling her 4 year old here in Dar. We are coordinating during the weekends a bit and doing the same letter for the week. We are trying to get together once a week to do some activities together. She always has great ideas, and some of the weekly ideas on the blog are hers! Thanks, Loretta!! :)

* another disclaimer: I don't know what I'm doing. I try to incorporate gross motor skills and fine motor skills each week through various activities. I also try to incorporate some music, colors, counting (in English and Swahili) and physical activity each week. I also hope to expose Hope to some basic life skills - not expecting her to DO these things all the time, but showing her, i.e. cooking, laundry, using simple tools, etc.

Finally, onto the letter C...

Bible Story: A New Beginning (Noah's ark, from Genesis 6 - 9)

Activities:
* sorting/folding clothes - I'll give Hope a basket of her own clothes, having her sort them by color. Then, I will help her learn how to fold the various items.

* washing clothes - I'll show Hope the process of how we wash clothes, hang them on the line, take them off the line, and ironing.

* We will visit a few shops and pick out material to buy. We will then design a simple skirt or hand puppet or something. We will learn about how clothes are made. Towards the end of the week, we will have our friend sew our design together!

* Color Scavenger Hunt/matching: have various colors of construction paper on the floor and have Hope hunt for clothes that match the colors.

* Both Loretta and I cloth diaper, so a counting activity we will try is to lay out some cloth diapers, with a number on them. We will have the kids attach the same number of clothes pins to the diaper.

Physical Activity: Loretta came up with a great idea of doing a "dress up relay" of sorts when we get together. It will include dressing in various clothing items, but also racing/running.

Music: "Who Built the Ark", "Arky, Arky", and "Jesus Loves Me"

Craft: I have some paper dolls that my mom sent to me. We will play with the dolls a bit, and also use some scrapbooking paper to design new clothes for our paper dolls!

B is for Butterfly

 

Bible: "The Terrible Lie" - Talk about how God is absolute truth

Printable letter search: we'll use something like the butterfly letter search found HERE

Craft: Love the Butterfly on THIS site. I'm hoping to fill our dining room windows with these fun crafts from our letters each week.

Books: "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and we'll see what else we find at the library.

Counting/Sorting: Holy smokes - this lady has done it all: B is for Butterly ideas
Pretty much just going to use her site for all my B activities!! For sure going to use the matching butterly game. I plan to make some butterflies out of fun scrapbook paper that I have, then cutting them in half for Hope to match.

Outside Play: Our home has a cement wall around it, which means I can use sidewalk chalk AGAIN this week! :) I'm going to draw butterflies randomly on the walkway and wall around our house, and we'll go on a "butterfly hunt" to try and find all of them. Who knows? Maybe we'll see some real butterlfies on the hunt!

Music: "If I were a butterfly": Do you remember this song? Can't wait to teach Hopey, she's going to love it! :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imO2NiKo_AQ

Snack: My friend sent me a picture of the cutest butterfly snack - found it on pinterest here. So many of the snack ideas I find are unavailable here in Dar. We don't have a lot of crackers, hard to find pretzels (and they are expensive when we find them), and cereal is over $6/box for the very very off brand. So a snack with apples, PB and carrots is a perfect fit!

A is for Apple

Hope is turning 4 on Septmeber 15th.  For her to attend Kindergarten at HOPAC, she must be 5 years old by the start of the school year. Next year she will miss that cutoff by 2-3 weeks. Therefore, she not only has this year home with me, but next year also.

 

I want my daughter to love learning. I want her to be engaged. I want her to love books and being creative and enjoy music and activity. I am not naturally a 'pinterest' mom, nor am I a teacher. I don't love or have a passion for crafts and creating fun things for my kids. I used to adore when Hope's speech therapist came over with all kinds of fun activities and let all of my kids engage - at least my kids were getting it somewhere! :) So this is a bit of stretch for me, but I'm feeling called to attempt a little bit of "mommy school" with Hope this year. I'm trying to really be intentional in these precious years I have home with my kids.

 

I'll document a bit of what I do, hopefully regularly, on this blog. It's mainly a way to keep track of different links I use and if it goes well, to reference it if/when I need to for Geneva. Feel free to send me ideas, links, blogs, etc.

 

At this point I'll plan a 'theme' and just see how long it takes to get through it. We're not going to direct our lives around having a regular 'school time' so it may take a few weeks just to get through the letter A.

 

For our Bible stories, I'll be using the JESUS STORYBOOK BIBLE

A is for Apple

 

Printable color page: HERE

 

Bible: Read the creation account "The Beginning: a perfect home" -  GOD AS CREATOR.

 

Craft: coffee filter apples: HERE

Activity: make applesauce (incorporate counting/measuring)

Counting: counting activity - we will probably use beans, as those are always in my pantry

Sensory: I think I'll attempt a sensory bin. It will likely include various dried beans as the base and perhaps small laminated apples and both upper and lower case "A"s. I don't have a great Hobby Lobby near by to pick up cute other apple accessories. I'll throw in a few small plastic cups for sorting and maybe a sand shovel. Hope's not ready to start identifying 'things that start with A", thought that would work in a sensory bin for older kids.

Outside Play: I'm going to write in sidewalk chalk all the letters of the alphabet, with multiples of  both lower and upper case A. We'll try different activities - have her find and circle all the A's, jump from one A to the next, and probably a connect - the - dot type activity (so when I space out the A's, I'll make them in the shape of an apple)

Book: Check out the HOPAC library for a book on apples!

The Story of the Apple Star: HERE

Music:

Sing to the tune: I'm a Little Teapot I'm a little apple, short and round, I make a munchy, crunchy sound, If you bite into me you will see - I'm delicious as can be!

Apples (sung to tune of "Are you Sleeping?") Picking apples picking apples one by one one by one Put them in a basket Put them in a basket Oh what fun! Oh what fun!


Apples, Apples 
(Tune: "Twinkle, Twinkle") Apples juicy, apples round, On the tree or on the ground. Apples yellow, apples red, Apple pie and juice and bread! Apples crunchy, apples sweet, Apples are so good to eat!

http://www.alphabet-soup.net/dir2/applesong.html

Almond Poppeyseed Bread

Almond Poppyseed Bread

Bread:

3 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

3 eggs

1 1/8 cups cooking oil

2 1/4 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups milk

1 1/2 T. poppy seeds

1 1/2 tsp almond extract

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 tsp butter flavoring extract (or 1 1/2 tsp melted butter can be substituted)

Glaze:

1/4 cup orange juice

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp almond extract

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp butter flavor extract (or 1 1/2 tsp melted butter can be substituted)

Instructions:
For the bread: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all of the ingredients together. Pour into greased and floured baking pans. Makes 6 small loaves or 2 large loaves. Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes for large pans and less for smaller pans. If you have a dark metal pan make sure to bake it for less time at a lower temperature. I overdid this batch a little bit because I used a dark pan. I like the disposable foil bread pans the best.

For the Glaze:

Pour all ingredients into a small saucepan and let cook on stove on medium heat until sugar dissolves. Remove bread from pans and pour glaze over warm bread. Use knife or spatula to bring the glaze that has run off up and over the warm bread until it stays on.