Learning about South Africa

The girls and I had fun learning about South Africa during February.  We didn't do as many activities as I planned, but we still had fun and learned a lot.

We started off our studies by coloring the South African flag...

and pictures of African children (both coloring sheets are from Activity Village). We found Africa on our large wall map and put the appropriate animals on the continent. We read lots of books about Africa. and we watched videos of children in Africa on Discovery Streaming.

3 Part Animal Puzzles

E(2) had so much fun putting these animal puzzle cards together last week! She put a couple together correctly, and then decided that it was hilarious to mix them up!

Playing with Sunlight

I love the way the sun shines through our color blocks! Building in a stream of sunlight with these blocks is such a simple, soothing, and beautiful activity. E(2)'s blue hand. Yellow and blue feet I'm pretty sure that I like this activity even more than the kids do :) Here's a link to blocks that are similar to ours. All links to amazon are affiliate links. Thanks for supporting Chasing Cheerios.

A Day at O(5)'s School

I was a substitute teacher at O(5)'s school on Tuesday, and she was THRILLED! E(2) was also very excited that we got to stay all morning, and she got to eat snack and have recess with O and her friends. Spending the day with my girls in a real schoolroom helped me to realize that we really need a dedicated room for our homeschool next year. It's so much more peaceful to have so few distractions and to be able to focus on just a few things at a time. Here are a few pics from our morning... E(2) really enjoyed this water dropper work. I need to set up something like this for her at home. O(5) enjoyed doing lots of "relaxing" work. They both love polishing silver. We have the knobless cylinders and pattern cards at home. We don't use them very often, but E(2) recently enjoyed using them. I need to put them on a lower shelf, so that she can reach them a little easier. O(5) was proud to show us how to polish a plant's leaves. This is another work that I want to set up at home.

Continent Puzzle Map Work

The continent puzzle map was one of E(2)'s most frequently chosen activities in February...she LOVES it! We sing the continent song as we work, and we do the puzzle together. 

 We also listen to Geography Songs, and E and O both LOVE the British Isles song...it's very catchy and it sticks in your head after you listen to it a few times. We all randomly break out into singing "The British Isles! The British Isles! In the Atlantic across the channel from France..."

                                                                     

Famous Landmarks Work

I recently bought this Safari Around the World Toob (from Michael's) and set up a matching activity for the girls.  Both girls (ages 2 and 5) LOVE playing with the landmark figures, and they also enjoy matching the figures to the pictures.

I was excited when I remembered that I had famous landmark cards (from the Target dollar section), so we had matching cards for all but 2 of the landmarks.  To do this work, E(2) and I laid out the cards and then took out the landmarks one by one to match them.





E(2) picked up the Statue of Liberty and said "I want to go see her one day!"  When we drove by our local courthouse, she said "there's the empire state building!"  One day when we were playing in our yard, she kept saying "Machu Picchu" over and over again.












Both girls (and their mama and daddy) want to go see the real Eiffel Tower one day!





This fun work is a great addition to our cultural studies!  Obviously, due to our family's current medical situation (Elliott's brain tumor), the organization of the next cultural exchange is on hold.  However, once he is well, I plan on getting it set up again.  For the next exchange, I plan to create groups of 4 (each person sends out 3 packages), so you may want to start collecting trinkets and fun things.  Please do not email asking to be a part of the exchange because I am not starting the organization now...just giving you a heads up!






Let me know if anyone else sets up this work for your kiddos!  It's so much fun to hear such little ones talking about famous landmarks (that I'd probably never heard of until high school!), and it really inspires them to learn more about each place.  What fun!

A Typical Morning

I receive many, many emails asking what a typical day looks like for the girls and me.  I never really know how to respond because each day is different, and I'm always trying to find a schedule that really suits us.  However, we've fallen into a fairly typical morning routine that I'll share with you...

After E(2) and I drop O(5) off at Montessori Preschool, we come home and do housework for about 45 minutes to an hour.  Usually, E loves to help me.  She enjoys carrying the dirty clothes to the laundry room and stuffing them into the washing machine.  She likes pushing in the drawer containing the detergent and closing the door of the washing machine.  She also loves to put the wet clothing into the dryer, clean the lint filter, and close the dryer door.



Another favorite "chore" is cleaning the toilets.  When she hears me cleaning the toilets, she always runs to help.  She's gotten pretty good at scrubbing cabinet doors, and I'm planning to teach her to dust.  She does a good job with the power sweeper, and she's getting better about picking up her toys and books.

After we finish cleaning, we go upstairs (our laundry room is downstairs and the den and kitchen are upstairs) to play.  While I straighten up the kitchen, she has independent free play.  She usually chooses to build with her unit blocks, play pretend with her small animals, or look at books.

After I finish in the kitchen, I sit down with her near her Montessori shelf.  If she's interested in doing Montessori "work", we'll sit together on a rug and choose work.  She usually only chooses 2 or 3 works per day (if she chooses any at all).  If she is interested in working on her letter of the week, I'll read to her from our book and offer letter activities to her.  We usually spend no more than 45 minutes per day doing Montessori or letter of the week "work."  Often, we'll spend our time doing puzzles and playing with blocks and completely forget about the letter activities and Montessori shelf work :)

Here's the work that she chose one day a few weeks ago...

She loves cutting!




It's been months since she chose these fine motor works, and I was glad to see that she still really enjoys them.








At around 11am, we'll usually gather a bunch of books and snuggle on the couch for our morning read-a-thon.  This is our favorite part of the morning, and we usually read aloud for about an hour before going to pick O up from school.

When the weather is nice, we spend less time cleaning and doing activities and more time outside.  I love to take E for daily kayak rides in the lake.  I really miss those rides, and I can't WAIT until the weather is nice enough to get back into that routine!

So, there's a typical morning for E(2) and me.  It's pretty simple.  I feel strongly that most of her time should be spent engaging in pretend play, playing outside, and being read to from high quality children's books.

Oh, and we also spend lots of time listening to music and dancing!  She has been completely obsessed with The Nutcracker Ballet for months, so we play lots of ballet music and spend LOTS of time dancing!