Tractor Math

What do Tractors and Math have in common?  Little kids.

We had a beautiful oak die in our back yard recently.

It was home to many squirrels who barked and swatted their tails at my dog. 

Home to cardinals, mockingbirds, and bluejays along with other birds that we enjoyed watching.

But it was right next to the house. Smack dab between my neighbor and us.

It had to go.

I called my most favorite tree guys who are legit lumberjacks.

They don't have giant trucks with buckets to hoist men into the air.  They have a man who climbs up the tree with a chainsaw attached to his belt.  This lumberjack then ties himself to the tree, carefully ties the branches he will cut so they go down gently to the crew beneath, and then he cuts the enormous tree up.  In 3 hours they are leaving my house and all I am left with is a short tree stump. 

The one piece of big equipment they brought however was a tractor.

My boy was in heaven.

We stayed outside all morning long watching our lumberjacks take care of our oak.  All the while, the  tractor went back and forth delivering the cut up tree to dump truck.

My kiddos were entertained and it was done before naptime.  #winwin

Aaaaannnnnd, it was the perfect premise to our Tractor Day from our 

Farm Unit from Experience Early Learning (EEL)!

Tractor Day was filled with playing with tractors and cars, reading our new I Can Read Book and playing Tractor Math.  

Materials: die, pencil, manipulatives (pigs from EEL), and a "tractor" (EEL sent us this picture, but you could use anything including a box or a toy tractor)

How to Play: roll the die.  Using your manipulatives, place that amount into the tractor bed. Roll again.  Put that amount into the tractor bed.  Now add the two.  To challenge my Kindergartener, I whipped out some lined primary paper and had her write her math equations.

She loved this game so much!  She loved picking out her pigs each time she rolled. I think writing the equations on the lined paper really gave her this sense of accomplishing some kind of work.  It was great practice writing her numbers, and I was extremely impressed as some of these equations were starting to come to her mentally without having to count one by one.

What did the man child do all day?  Besides yelling at the window about the "Tractor" that was no longer there, he played with a toy tractor, tried to steal the pigs from the basket (leading to a sister meltdown and sharing of the pigs), played with said stolen shared pigs, and played with stickers.  

Tractor Day was enjoyed by all... including this momma.

Turning Preschool into Kindergarten

Hi! I'm Leslie- a homeschooling momma to a 5 year old girl and 22 month old boy.  The 2 are as different as night and day.  I share our adventures here to both inspire learning at home and chronicle our lives, because honestly, I never started the baby books and my kids will just have to look back on their childhood through this blog... ha! #keepinitreal

For three years now my little girl has been able to use the 

Experience Preschool: Mother Goose Time curriculum, and I am so excited my son will too.

However the recent challenge has been: how can I make it a little more challenging for my Kindergarten daughter while still using if for my toddler son?

Little ones love to do what the bigs are doing and my son is no exception.

This can be quite a challenge, but MGT has really made it so simple for us to boost math and reading while my son gets to enjoy learning too.

Here are a few modifications we have made to meet the need of our family on our "COW" day...

READING

Who doesn't love a good Mother Goose Rhyme!? 

A poster of Hey Diddle Diddle came in our Cow Day discovery bag and I laminated it.

We read it with the beat and my son danced around and smiled.

I read it slowly several times, pointing to each word as I read it being careful not to go faster than I was pointing.  Then I wrote the sight word "the" and asked my little girl to circle them on the laminated poster.  It took her a little bit.  

She then counted her circled sight word  and wrote it in the moon.

This activity alone helped her in word recognition, writing (drawing her circle shape), counting, and writing her numbers, and my son was able to enjoy the rhythm and cadence of the poem.

And I have a beautiful nursery rhyme poster to practice reading with again and again!

MATH

Each month, Experience Preschool sends us counting clip cards.  Kiddos can clip clothespins to the cards to indicate which number is represented (great for fine motor skills).  Instead of clips, my girl wanted to place pigs, which are our monthly math manipulative, so that's what we went with.  

How did I change this to make it more challenging for kindergarten?

Once she had finished with her cards (which I also laminated because I LOVE my laminator), 

I had her write the number of the amount of pigs on her cards.

Then I had her add the 2 cards together.  She could count the pigs, but she also counted her fingers to come up with 7.  I turned around to do something with her little brother and turned back and she had used the 7 pigs to make the number 7 all on her own! I was so impressed!

Little brother had a fantastic time moving pigs from number card to number card.
I tried to get him  to place them on just the dots, but he wasn't going for it.
He sure is cute though....

STEAM

There are some things that are just perfect as is for my little learners!  Our STEAM station was awesome as my kids got to practice milking cows using disposable plastic gloves.n  I filled one with water and the other with mud.  By then end of our experiment, my girl could definitely tell that the thicker the liquid, the harder it is for it to come out!

Please know that my poor girl decided to not listen when I and her Daddy told her not to run in the house.  She tripped and hit her face on the coffee table resulting in a dent in her forehead and seriously bruised nose.  We took her to the doctor and had a CT scan done and everything came back with good results.
 She also learned her lesson. Unfortunately it was the hard way. 

Our monthly boxes might be a little over his head and need a little addition to challenge my girl,
but I could NOT ask for a better resource that I can easily make fit my kiddos needs.


Have fun experiencing all the learning!!!

Mystery Math Mats: Shapes

Hi! I'm Leslie- a homeschooling momma to a 5 year old girl and 21 month old boy.  The 2 are as different as night and day.  I share our adventures here to both inspire learning at home and chronicle our lives, because honestly, I never started the baby books and my kids will just have to look back on their childhood through this blog... ha! #keepinitreal

Teaching children to offer or ask for help is an important skill to develop during the early years.  Practicing extending and accepting assistance fosters a learning environment where it is okay to need help and gives children the confidence to ask questions and see support when needed.

There is such a thing as becoming a crutch however,  That is when encouragement comes in- cheering on my kiddos to do what I know they can or at least try to do.

I want to help but I do not want to be a crutch.

Many times as a homeschooling momma, I have to step back and watch and keep my hands to myself and let my kiddo face her challenge, encourage her, and when she has done her best and still needs help, I need to be there to guide but not do it for her.

Not going to lie, our Math activity for our "Help" day was a great learning experience for both my girl and myself!

Mother Goose Time sent us new Math Shape Mats called "Mystery Puzzles" along with our 

Multi-style Tangrams.  I love these mats!  You match the shapes first at the bottom.  Then the kiddos will use all BUT one to make the image at the top of the card.

On the back of the card, are little answer keys so show which shapes will be used.  

The shaded shapes are the ones you use and the white is the one you do not use.

These would be great for quiet time boxes!

Look at that sweet smile of accomplishment on the bottom right hand picture!

The challenge of figuring out what shapes work and which didn't was such a confidence booster for my girl!

Below is the Mystery Mat that had her stumped and had me biting my tongue and keeping my hands tucked away as to not give her the answer but guide her.

I decided to film her as she struggled and reasoned what to do.

I am so thankful she didn't get frustrated (which is what usually happens) and kept trying.  She eventually asked for help, and I was challenged with not giving her the answer 

but guiding her in her thinking.

She felt so accomplished and happy when she finally got the answer!

My boy didn't miss out on the math game either.  I was super impressed with him matching the circle, triangle, and small rectangular shapes!  

Not minutes after completing our Mystery Math Mats and cleaning up all the shapes did my boy then dump the entire basket on the floor!

Help quickly came in the form of his big sister. 

Perfect opportunity to help others on our Help Day.

Problem solved.

I hope we see more of these Mystery Math mats in the future. 

I'll keep you posted when we do!

Until then,

Happy Learning friends!

Bird Activities for Little Learners

Hi! I'm Leslie- a homeschooling momma to a 5 year old girl and 21 month old boy.  The 2 are as different as night and day.  I share our adventures here to both inspire learning at home and chronicle our lives, because honestly, I never started the baby books and my kids will just have to look back on their childhood through this blog... ha! #keepinitreal

"Momma, can we learn about parrots today?"

Absolutely!  I pulled out my bird bag from our Mother Goose Time: Family & Pets box.

Bam.  Math games, craft lesson, even a book with sight words to begin our reading-all ready to go. 

Add in the plethora of parrot/bird books on my shelf and we are set. 

Since we had just listened to lots of songs while studying our memory work for Classical Conversations, I decided we needed some game time.  So I started our bird day with our math game, Feed the Birds.  I had a ton of these little bottles from my breast feeding days with Everett and they made the perfect containers for this game.

MGT sent these cute birds with numbers, tweezers and yarn (I used  pipe cleaners I had already cut for Everett).  All I had to do was put the little birds on jars and add some dry beans for the game.  Although MGT suggested using number cards in our pocket cube, I have really loved using these big foam dice (also from MGT).  They really help with one-to-one correspondence.  Avaleigh tossed the die seeing how many pieces of bird food she needed to retrieve with her tweezers and which bird was to get that amount.  

Everett didn't use tweezers (although he wanted to) but he worked on his pincer grip and pouring.

Both kiddos had a blast and kept at it until all the food was given to the birds.

After a fun activity like that, it's great to have some quiet time.

Our Literacy lesson was perfect!

Our new I Can Read book came with pointers and sight word cards.

The pointers I placed on a key ring (8 for a dollar at Dollar Tree), and

I grabbed a $3 pocket chart while at Target this summer! Perfect for the sight words!  

I first went over the sight words with my girl and we practiced making the sentence "it is a..." and then used the picture card.  After practicing our sight words, I had her open up the 

I Can Read book: What Is It? and she began reading all on her own!  I had to help her a little on the last page, but the words were unfamiliar.  

We are really working on reading this year, but taking it very slow.  

We read the book again, this time using our pointer to point to the word "is".  

I love how the very last page gives the kids something to do that is kind of like a brain break.

She was getting tired, so it was the perfect time for my girl to draw her pet, 

our golden retriever Bailey.

"Why did you use orange?"

"Because that is the color of Bailey's fur, momma," Avaleigh said as she pointed.

"There wasn't enough room to write my name, so I wrote it this way."  Yall, she wrote her name backwards.  I'm really impressed.

After outdoor time, lunch, and putting Everett down for a nap, it was time to do our 

Invitation to Create: Birds.

MGT sent us everything but the markers, glue, and outdoor materials.

We observed the picture of the birds and talked about them.  Avaleigh decided she wanted her picture to look like the one provided (I am not surprised), so we went outdoors to gather sticks, leaves, and acorns.

"Momma, make a bird with me.  You can make one and I can make one."

Done.  First she created "stairs" on her bird, then all of a sudden, my girl said, 

"These are tears (blue lines) because my bird doesn't have a momma."

"My bird can be his momma," I said.  "Maybe they can be tears of joy."

Later when Avaleigh told her daddy about the picture, she mentioned that her bird had tears of joy because he had a momma. 

Her finished piece.

Love it.

Happy learning friends!

Math with Mixed Ages

Hi! I'm Leslie- a homeschooling momma to an almost 5 year old girl and 19 month old boy.  The 2 are as different as night and day.  I share our adventures here to both inspire learning at home and chronicle our lives, because honestly, I never started the baby books and my kids will just have to look back on their childhood through this blog... ha! #keepinitreal

Homeschooling is tough with toddlers.
They're into all the things.  All of them.
I've tried to do our schooling when he naps, but it's hard when that is the time to get dinner, chores, and a few moments to reheat the morning cup of coffee...again.

I have loved how active our Mother Goose Time games are and how easy it is to incorporate my 19 month old rambunctious son with my cautious and studious little girl.  Flexibility. 
Teaching is always about flexibility.

As we observed Monet's Haystacks, we did an animal search and match math game.

I layed out 6 animal cards face down, and folded their matches placing them in a basket filled with "hay."  My son's task was to pull a card from the hay, and my preschooler had the task to find its' match from the upside down cards.  It challenged her memory and built up his sensory experiences. 

Our Pointillism day was inspired by A Sunday on La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat.

While observing the painting, I asked my girl:

"What stands out to you?' "How did the artist make this painting?" 

"What kind of weather are they experiencing?"

She pointed out the umbrellas as something that stood out to her.  Our math game suggested a parachute or sheet to hide button on, but with just the 3 of us, I used an actual umbrella to make this game work.

My son threw the foam die with pictures of our monthly manipulatives, buttons, on them.  He loves to throw all the things, so he threw the die, and my preschooler would climb under the umbrella to find the corresponding buttons.

We counted all the buttons she gathered (21) and then I let her create pictures with her buttons, just like Seurat used dots to make his masterpiece.

So thankful for Mother Goose Time and the ease I have to play and learn with my kiddos.
Hoping next school year will be just as easy as we venture more towards Kindergarten


Happy Learning!