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!

Preschool Bird Food Math

Hi! I'm Leslie- a homeschooling momma to an almost 5 year old girl and 18 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

It's a new month which means a new month of Mother Goose Time learning!

This month our theme is A to Zoo and we are studying a new animal each day. 

B is for Bird and BOTH my kiddos were able to participate in our MATH activity for the day! 

Our day started with all of us creating a bird puppet (pictured above).  My son made the blue one with scribbles (he loves to color), I made the red/orange/yellow bird, and my preschooler made both the purple bird and rainbow bird.  MGT sent us all the materials! All we had to do was add some markers and glue.

We started our bird math game by first discussing birds.

"What do birds eat, Avaleigh?"

Puffins eat fish, hummingbirds eat nectar from flowers, chickens eat worms, and ducks eat bread.  Lots of birds eat seeds, too.

That unexpected response comes from her love of Puffin Rock, books, and our recent adventure to the duck pond. :)  Using playdough, we all made balls of bird seed and worms.  Even my boy made some fat worms!  I was amazed when I looked down and there was a playdough worm under his hand!

We made a bunch of bird food and added it to a bowl.  Earlier in the year, we found this abandoned bird's nest and added it to our nature collection. We decided it would be a great addition to our math game, so we placed our bird puppets that we made earlier in the nest.

MGT sent us some number cards and a picture of a bird's nest, but we chose to use our actual nest for this game.  We placed the number cards face down.  Avaleigh was challenged to flip over 2 cards, count out the number of bird food for each card, and then add them together.  She then practiced writing her numbers and wrote her first addition math sentence! 

You could even make subtraction number sentences after your bird puppets "eat" some of their food! 

We did 4 different rounds of this before she asked to play something else.

Although our game didn't last a long time, I was so happy both kids could participate and I really wanted to document both her first math sentence and his first time to play with playdough.

Find more A to Zoo adventures on our Facebook page!

Follow us on Pinterest for more great ideas!

And have fun learning with your littles, friends!

Butterfly Metamorphosis Activities for Preschoolers

Our butterfly adventures ended this week.  We released our butterflies at the end of our last day.  It was the perfect way to end our week on Metamorphosis and our unit on Bees and Butterflies.
I shared the other week some egg-celent ideas (pun intended cuz I'm cheesy like that) from
Mother Goose Time as we studied the Egg in our Metamorphosis week.
 But here are our faves from the rest of the week of Metamorphosis.

Caterpillar 

Using our attribute blocks, my girl would roll a shape and we built the longest caterpillar we could naming each shape as we added to the body.  Her favorite activity though was building the caterpillar from the cornstarch noodles (amazing! check them out if you haven't).  MGT sent us a straw to make legs out of, but it would not stab into the noodles easily.  So I cut up some pipe cleaners and those worked great.  

We then took turns hiding the caterpillar and the other pretended to be a bird as we attempted to find the caterpillar.  It led to some great talks about predator and prey.

Chrysalis
On our Chrysalis day, we discussed the letter "X".  It was a great letter for that day, since we could make an X with our arms and hold ourselves pretending to be a chrysalis.
We made a pattern of the life cycle (I added the egg to our pattern cards below) of a butterfly, and my 4 year old drew it out.  I was so proud of her drawing!

Butterfly
It's so hard to teach her with my 16 month old who wants to be into ALLLLL of the things.   Lately I have been trying really hard to see what MGT has planned and how I can incorporate him into her lesson.  Our butterfly letter game was the perfect opportunity.  My son could throw the cube with our letter cards in it, and my daughter could use the butterflies and attach them to the flowers.  Doing this outside even made it more fun for both of them!  I try to take our learning outside as often as I can.
They both had a BLAST doing this activity.

Our butterfly day ended with us releasing our newest pets.
One amazing thing that happened was when we brought the carrier outside all the butterflies started to spread and open their wings.  They never looked like this indoors.  It is amazing how God designed them to know what to do.  Some flew off quickly, others had to be coaxed, and one even crawled onto my girl's finger to be released.  Definitely a cool experience for her and me.

What a great month of learning!  I loved how we could go outside and see all the bees and the butterflies around us.  In May, we will be studying Bubbles, Boats and Floats, and I will try to share a daily adventure on my FB page, so if you haven't followed me there, check it out :)


Happy Learning!

Transportation Math Game

This month we have been studying different modes of transportation with our Mother Goose Time preschool curriculum.  Today we had a math game the my girl loved and we played over... and over... and over.  We ended up adjusting the game to make it a little more challenging in the math department.  Here's how the initial game went:

MGT sent us the game board, transportation manipulatives, and the cards to use in our cube.

There are 6 cards: a train, bus, ship, plane, stop sign (skip), and "all" transportation modes.

We rolled the cube and that vehicle got to move one square towards the bridge.

The train won! My girl really wanted to take the winner across the bridge.

"The ship, plane, and bus are all sad, Momma, because they did not make it to the bridge." So we played again and again, but I wanted to make it a little more challenging.

I decided to throw in another die as pictured below. 

Now we would roll to see what vehicle would get to move, but then the foam die would be rolled to tell us the amount of spaces it would move.

This quick addition allowed her to count more instead of just one.  She had to count the die and then count the squares.  We have played with these foam dice so much that she pretty much knows the "look" of each number on the die. 

Finally the ship won!

We actually rolled a 6 here for the ship and that allowed it to reach the bridge on 2 rolls. 

My girl loved this game!  We decided to show Daddy when he comes home and play again together. 

I am always so impressed with the quality of our games from MGT, and so thankful we can play some simple board games together that are perfect for her level and still can be easily adjusted to simplify or challenge if needed.

Happy gaming my friends!

Coloring to the Next Level

Coloring can be lots of fun, therapeutic, and helps so much with fine motor skills 

especially for preschoolers.

However, how do you take coloring to the next level? How can you make it more than just coloring?

Mother Goose Time solved that mystery as we studied

 Mysteries in the Air with our Nature Detective box.

Here, let me explain....

Level One:

My teacher guide suggested that learners first sort colors into groups 6 main groups: 

Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Violet.

We have a container of crayons, and I set out bowls and cups from her play kitchen to help her sort her crayons.  She even scribbled on white paper to determine what some colors were.

Level One complete.

Level Two:

Number all your containers 1-6.  Get a die and roll it.  Learners must pick a crayon from that container.  Not only are learners going over 1-1 correspondence as they count the dots on the die, but they are also going over number recognition, and understanding that colors have variety.

 It is super helpful to have a wide variation of colors within that color, for example there can be 

blue-violets, cerulean blue, and regular blue sorted into the Blue container.  

Level 2 complete.

Level Three:

Add Music.  Once learners have their colors in hand, play music.  We used our Nature Detectives CD but any music would suffice.  However, when the music stops, coloring must stop.  Someone new rolls the die, colors are picked, music is played and coloring continues.  The cycle game continues until the picture is complete.

Eventually, my girl asked me to join in with her.  She would give me a red, and she would pick her red.  I would turn on the music and play it until I decided to pause it.  She rolled the die again and would choose my color from the cup along with hers and we continued to color together.  This activity probably took us at least 30-45 minutes to complete from the sorting through the coloring.  She loved it.  As did I.

I was really impressed with the end result.

Follow more of our adventures by liking us on Facebook!

DITL Homeschool: Preschooler and 5 Month Old

**This is a long post.  But it is exactly what happened last Friday.**

I roll over and look at the clock. 7:03 am. 

I glance at the monitor.  Everett is still asleep in his crib, but Avaleigh's bed is empty.

"Are you on the floor," I say groggily.

Up pops her little head like a wack-a-mole.  

"Go tee-tee," I tell her.

My husband, Jason, knows I was up 4 different times throughout the night nursing our
teething 5 month old.

He lets me sleep and prepares breakfast for our 3.5 year old girl, Avaleigh.

At 7:55 he kisses my forehead and tells me bye.

I look at the monitor.  Everett is moving. Time for me to move.

Get to the coffee.

In the living room, I sip my caffeine infused go juice while nursing my little boy. I let our dog, Bailey, outside.  Avaleigh finishes watching Super Why! and eating her cheese quesadilla her daddy made her.

We have a play date with some friends at 9:30.

It takes us 18 minutes to load into the car but we make it on time!

**This is a first and is NOT TYPICAL**

My friend enjoys baby snuggles while the 3 other kiddos (4 and under)
destroy her house with toys everywhere.

After 2 hours, it's time for us to go home and make lunch.  Daddy will be home for lunch soon.

We walk through the door at 11:38.

I quickly prepare Avaleigh's lunch.  I grab a frozen peanut butter and jelly and place it on the counter to thaw (I made a bunch earlier in the week), place some yellow peppers , broccoli, and a cheese stick on her tray.  I grab a container of a leftover pasta dish from the refrigerator and get it in a dish for Jason to reheat when he walks through the door.

I grab my fussy baby and take him to the living room to nurse.

12:10
Jason gets home and enjoys lunch with Avaleigh.  After his lunch and while I am still nursing, he makes me a taco quesadilla from leftover taco meat I made earlier in the week  

Everett finally finishes nursing, and I can eat. Avaleigh plays, Everett sits and babbles, while Jason and I talk some.  I quickly finish lunch, and get Avaleigh down for her nap.  I set her alarm for an hour and 20 minutes and tuck her in.   I hear Jason washing the dishes in the kitchen.  I am so thankful for him.  Our dishwasher went out in August 2 days before we had to put our beloved golden retriever, Peyton, down.  We just never replaced it.

I talk to Jason for a bit while I play with Everett in his bouncer.  It's close to his nap time-
I might get them both to nap at the same time!  

Jason leaves to go back to work at 1:00, and I put Everett in the only place he naps- his swing.

I open up my laptop debating about doing a post... 

It's been 10 minutes... I peek at Everett- he's asleep!

The house is still, peaceful, and I need a shower.

I can't tell you the last time I showered... gross I know, but it's the life I am in right now.

I shower.  I dry off enjoying the silence of the house and wrap my hair in a towel.

I head back to the computer in the dining room.  Bailey spots me out of her peripheral vision and I spook her.  She leaps up, barking nonstop, tearing into the living room while I'm running to shoosh her.  The silence is gone. The baby awakens. Ugh.

Bailey calms down after a bit.   Everett is wide eyed in his swing.  I give him his pacifier and he falls asleep again.  Whew.

I check the news on the my laptop and see what has happened in Santa Fe, Texas.  I have time to pray before I hear Avaleigh's alarm beeping.  I race to her room to turn it off.

It's 2 pm.  She shifts in her bed.

"Momma, what we going to learn about today?"

Most of the time we do our Mother Goose Time in the afternoon.

"I don't know.  You'll have to choose, but first you need to go tee-tee."

As she goes to the bathroom, I place 2 of our discovery bags from our Growing Gardens theme on the playroom floor.  I check on Everett- still sleeping.  I check on Avaleigh- she's pooping.

"You want to come read me a book?" she asks from the potty.  

I squeeze reading time wherever we can, so I grab Sunny Day- one of our Usborne books.

It has a lot of info about flowers and gardens and I think it'll be a great start to our MGT time.

I read.  She poops.  Momlife.

Afterwards, we quietly head to the playroom.  She decides she wants to learn about flowers.

She completes the calendar, finds the day of the week, and places our weather card on the window before she sits with me at the play table to discuss what she knows about flowers.

We sing a song to the tune of muffin man, and it hits me! 

We have flowers on our tomato plant.  I turn to my girl, "Let'ts go look at our garden real quick."
We grab shoes and head outside.

Yikes!  The leaves are wilted and I tell Avaleigh we have to water our plants.  We talk about how important water is for our plants as we hose them down.   Then we inspect our grape tomato plant.

She locates the little yellow flowers, and I tell her that in that spot there will soon be a tomato.  She finds a green tomato growing where a flower once was.

It's hot.
We head back inside.  Everett is crying.   The clock reads 2:53, and our MGT stops.

I get my girl some snacks and turn on Magic School Bus: Goes to Seed.  She'll learn about plants while I nurse. We watch and talk about how the bees pollinate the flowers while I nurse her brother.
After her show, and he's done, we head back to the playroom to finish our flower lesson.

I set up the Pollinating Letter F game and remember her bee costume from Halloween.

"Would you like to become a bee?"
She jumps up and down and we head to her closet.  I help her put her Dollar Tree Bee wings on and the headband from the costume we borrowed from a friend.  Perfect.

 I place Everett on the floor and sit next to him.  Bailey tries to squeeze herself as close as she can.  I think she believes Everett is hers.  Everett works on his tummy time, while I call out letters to his sister. Avaleigh uses tweezers to get the yellow pollen pom poms to the letters I call out.  The pom poms stick to the tweezers, so she uses her fingers to remove them from the tweezers and places them on the letters.
She's good at this game, but it takes her a little while to find the letters.
She's getting bored with it and I know we need to stop.
"Let's finish the letters in your name, and then we can get out some play dough," I tell her.

"Thank you, Momma! I love play dough."

We finish, but leave everything there.  I am hoping we can play again later... maybe after dinner.
It's 4:45.  I put Everett in his swing again for a short power nap.  Jason will be home soon.  I grab the container with all our play dough and let Avaleigh pick out some colors.



We head back to the playroom.  I place jewels, pony beads, buttons, shape cutters, and a few play dough supplies in our green flower tray from Dollar Tree.
We begin to make flowers.
Avaleigh finds a bee toy and starts talking about what she learned from Magic School Bus and our book Sunny Day.  We talk about the bee gathering nectar to take to the hive, and we make sure our flowers have nectar for the bee.

5:20 Jason comes home.  Everett wakes up.
Avaleigh tells her daddy all about what we learned today.
I am so proud of her as she tells him about "First a flower then a squash, Daddy!"
She points to her toy bee on her play dough flower.  "Daddy, look.  The bee.  It's getting nectar."

We go into the driveway to play a bit before dinner.
A friend stops by who has been working on the house next door.  We go to survey his work.  It's amazing!  They are hoping to move in at the end of July.  Everett is getting fussy.  What time is it?
We head home.  Holy smokes!  It's 6:38!  I feed Everett inside while Jason and Avaleigh finish talking to our friend.  They come inside and Jason gets the leftovers together for dinner.

We eat.  Afterwards, Avaleigh plays, Jason finishes the dishes, I work on the laundry placing a pile of clean clothes on Avaleigh's bed to put away before bedtime. Everett sits awaiting his bath. It's 7:20 and I bathe him and head to his nursery to nurse him to sleep.  Jason and Avaleigh take Bailey outside to play.  At 8:15 I place my sleeping baby in his crib.  His eyes open. UGH!  I give him his pacifier and leave.  I grab the monitor and go outside to meet the rest of the family.

Daddy and Avaleigh are building a fire in the old chimenea bottom.  Sticks are gathered in a pile and Avaleigh is excited. "You want to come sit down with us?" She inquires.
Yes.  Yes I do.
Jason gets the fire going.  It's over 80 degrees outside and we have a fire.  Whatever.
"We're camping.  We need a teepee," she says.
"I think you mean tent."  She agrees.
The monitor lights up red.  Everett is hollering.
I go inside. Again. And again. Finally deciding I need to nurse him to sleep at 8:45.
Jason and Avaleigh come inside.  He gives her a quick shower and puts her to bed while I deal with Everett.  I emerge from the nursery at 9:30.  He's still awake, but my nerves are shot.  I need some alone time.  Avaleigh's door is shut but I know she's not asleep.
I scoop some ice cream.  I need some Bluebell chocolate peanut butter in my life.  I take my ice cream into the bedroom and talk to Jason.
I savor every bite as I witness Everett finally fall asleep on the monitor.
Whew.

It's almost 10pm.  I check the monitor to see Avaleigh.  She's not in bed.
I get up and find her hiding in the living room.
"I need to go tee-tee."  She's smart.  She knows when she says this we take her word for it, and she doesn't get into so much trouble.
"You better," I say as I take her to the potty.
She tee-tees a few drops.
Afterwards, I tuck her into bed and tell her she better not get up again.  It's late.

I head back to our bedroom.  It's 10pm.  I'm exhausted but want to spend some time with Jason.
We decide we need to laugh so we turn on our favorite episode of Arrested Development: Mr. F.
We both laugh hysterically as at the giant mole and rocket man part.  It's our fave.

After our show, I turn in and he heads to the office to work on web development stuff.  He has a website business on the side that allows me to stay home with the kids.

I pray for good rejuvenating sleep and a baby that will sleep through the night.
Because tomorrow will come quickly and it will all start again.