The Pink Tower

I finally bought a pink tower.  I've been thinking about it for years, but decided not to buy one since O(5) has one at school.  Then, since E(2) won't be going to Montessori Preschool until she is 4, I decided to go ahead and get one for her.  I'm so glad that I did, and I wish I'd bought it sooner (maybe 4 and a half years ago!).

I bought our pink tower from Amazon, and it came with an instruction booklet which lays out how to give the pink tower lesson.  That was helpful, so I gave the lesson to E(2).  She really just wanted to play pretend with the pink tower, so I related the different sized blocks to the different members of the Ingalls family...the biggest was Pa, then Ma, then Mary, then Laura, and so on.  This made all the difference, and she loved it!  I know that probably wasn't very "Montessori" of me, but it's what she loves, and it worked for us!








After building the pink tower vertically and horizontally, I let her just play and explore with the blocks.  She grabbed the instruction book and said "Let me see the designs!  I want to make designs!"  Unfortunately, there aren't any designs in the book, but she still loved looking at it.  I'm going to make some design cards for her soon.

1st Grade Homeschool Curriculum...Still Researching

Thanks for all of the comments on the 1st grade homeschool curriculum post!  I've spent hours and hours (in the middle of the night...I should be sleeping!) researching curriculums, and here's where we are right now...

I REALLY like History Odyssey and Science Odyssey.  If anyone has any links to reviews or blog posts about this curriculum, please email me or leave a comment!

I also REALLY like Rightstart Math and Life of Fred, and we may do both.

I'm leaning towards Language Lessons for Little Ones 3, Spelling through Copywork, and Pictures in Cursive (all from Queen Homeschool).

I'm still undecided about Spanish.  I've been focusing on the other subjects, but I'll start reading more about Spanish programs soon.

We have FIAR Volume 2, so we'll probably use that.  We did a couple of books before O started Montessori school, and we really enjoyed it.

 O(5) is VERY interested in American History, and I haven't found anything that really strikes me yet.  So, I may create our own American History curriculum based around the American Girl books.  We've read or listened to the audio books (via Tales 2 Go...best ipad app ever!) for almost all of the books, and I think we could have a great time using these books as the basis of our history study.  O and I have already talked about this at length, and she thinks it's a great idea, too :)

I'm intrigued by Pink and Green Mama's Exploring Great Artist E-books, and I'd love to read reviews of these books, so if you have used these books or know of someone who has, please let me know.

Maybe Maestro Classics for music...Again, I'd love to hear from you if you have used these.

Raining Rainbows

When I saw this fun and simple activity on Jo's blog, I knew it was one we had to try!

To make a raining rainbow fill a clear container with water and cover the top with shaving cream.  Drip food coloring onto the top of the shaving cream.  Then, watch and wait until  the rainbow begins to rain through the cloud of shaving cream. We were so excited when the colors started "raining" down from our cloud of shaving cream!  (I admit that I was more excited than the girls!)



The top of the shaving cream looked really pretty!



After we watched the raining rainbow for a while, we placed pieces of white card stock onto the colored shaving cream to make prints.  The girls loved this part the most of all, and they somehow ended up covered in shaving cream!  We scraped off the shaving cream to leave behind a swirly and colorful print, but I forgot to take a picture of the final product.



Simple, beautiful, messy, and fun!  Doesn't get much better than that!

Map and Globe Study...Argentina!

The girls and I spent some time learning about Argentina using our Smart Globe.  We found Argentina on the globe and listened to the national anthem.  We listened to the basic facts and historical facts.








While O(5) and I were learning using the SmartGlobe, E(2) was building Argentina with her blocks!  She kept saying "This is Argentina!"  She has really enjoyed our study of Argentina much more than I expected.  When we went out of town for the weekend, she asked "Are we going to Argentina?"



After we finished using our globe, we all cuddled together on the couch with the ipad and fingerwalked using google earth from our house to Argentina.  It was fun to discuss our path, and O said we were definitely stopping in Costa Rica to see our friends!  We then looked at pics of Argentina on the ipad.  The girls LOVED the pics of the glaciers and waterfalls.  E is determined that she is going to slide down Iguazu Falls.  She says "I"m going to go under the fence and slide down it!"  O says she's taking a frisbee to throw at the falls to see what happens, and then she taking a second frisbee to sit on so she can slide down the falls!  Silly girls!  

Dinosaur Roar! and A Dinosaur Felt Board Activity

Dinosaur Roar! was one of E(2)'s favorite books during "D" week, so I was excited to find printable story props for this book on KizClub.com.



After printing out the dinosaurs, I cut them out and glued small pieces of sandpaper to the back.  The sandpaper works perfectly, and they stuck to our felt board.   Both girls LOVE playing with the dinosaurs.




After they played with them for a while, I read the book and we put the dinosaurs in order as I read.

Gel Drawing Board

I made this gel drawing board for E(2) before our last vacation.  I thought it would be the perfect activity for our plane trip.  Luckily, I realized before we left on our trip that this was a terrible idea since our plane was small and unpressurized, and therefore the gel bag would explode!  Phew....glad we didn't have to learn that the hard way :)

Anyway, the gel drawing board is lots of fun and super simple to make.  It's actually the only thing that I've ever made that Elliott has really, really liked!  His brother also had fun drawing with it.  The girls like it, too, but not nearly as much as the adults in our family!

To make the gel drawing board, I filled a gallon sized ziploc bag with hair gel, food coloring, and glitter.  I cut a foam core board the same size as the ziploc bag.  I taped the bag to the foam core board using zebra print duct tape.





I put a piece of clear contact on the back, so that it would work as a dry erase board.





This is a great activity for the car, and I'm planning to make some smaller ones in different colors for the girls to use in the car.  Fun stuff!

Art with Anything...Painting with Liquid Watercolors on Salt and Sticky Contact Paper

I recently checked out Mary Ann Kohl's book, Art with Anything, from the library and now I have lots of ideas for art projects with the girls.  This is especially great since O(5) told me that she wants to do a different art activity each day!

Our first activity from Art with Anything was to paint on sticky contact paper with salt and liquid watercolor paints.

First, I taped 2 pieces of contact paper (sticky side up) to 2 cookies sheets.  Then, the girls had a great time shaking and pouring salt onto their contact paper.



After, they completely covered the contact paper with salt, they painted the salt covered paper with liquid watercolors.  I told them to use a gentle and light touch so that they wouldn't dislodge the salt.  However, the salt moved even when they used a light touch which was frustrating for O(5).








Eventually, she stopped trying to use a light touch and had fun filling her paintbrush up with salt!








We let the paintings dry overnight, and then hung them up on the sliding glass door this afternoon.  When I saw them, I reminded myself that it's the process that counts not the final product.  However, when we hung the painting on the door, E(2) rushed over while saying over and over "It's beautiful!  It's SO beautiful!"  Love her!

Homeschool Curriculum for 1st Grade...Help Needed!!!

O(5) will be in 1st grade next year, and it will be our first year of "official" homeschooling!!!  I can't wait, and she is really excited, too (most of the time).  I really want to make our curriculum choices soon because I want to have plenty of time to familiarize myself with the materials and have everything prepared.  I want our first year to go as smoothly as possible!  I'd like to have a Montessori and Charlotte Mason style homeschool.  E(2) will also be homeschooled, but she's easy...I have everything that I used with O when she was 3, and I have John Bowman's Montessori at Home book  (which is an absolute treasure).

I'd LOVE to have input on which curriculums have worked for you and which haven't.  Here are the ones that I've looked at online, but have never actually seen in real life.

For math, I'm interested in Right Start Math and/or Life of Fred. 

For reading/language, I'm interested in Language Lessons for the Very Young.  

We'll continue with World Geography and Cultural Studies through our cultural exchange packages.

I'd like to have a Spanish curriculum, but have no idea what to get.  Right now, we watch Little Pim dvds (which we LOVE), but I'd like to have an actual curriculum.

O wants to learn to read and write in cursive, so I'm thinking of getting Pictures in Cursive.

She would also like to learn more about American History.  She has a good foundation from reading the Little House on the Prairie books and American Girl books.  

I'm not sure what to use for Science, and I'm not sure what else I'll need to teach.  PLEASE offer any advice that you have through comments to this post or emails to me at chasingcheerios@gmail.com.  THANK YOU!!!

Argentinean Lentil Stew and Chipas

The girls and I have cooked several Argentinean foods lately, and we've really enjoyed it!  I don't love to cook, so our study of Argentina has been a good motivator for me.  It has also motivated me to include the girls in meal preparation more often (which they have loved).

Last week, we made Argentinean Lentil Stew.  I found the recipe on Allrecipes.com.  The girls didn't love the stew, but they ate it.  O(5) loved peeling and helping cut the carrot.  She also helped cut the apple.

We also made Chipas (Argentinean Cheese Bread), which they LOVED!  O(5) said that kneading the dough was more fun than playing with playdough!

The girls loved mixing in all of the ingredients.  I'm guessing that I should have melted the butter, but I usually don't think of things like that until it's too late.




Kneading the dough is SO much fun!




They REALLY loved rolling the dough into golf ball sized balls.



Deeeelicious!

1 Million Page Views!!!

I just stopped by computer (briefly...no time to write a post) and noticed that this blog has just passed the 1 million mark for page views!!!  Thanks for reading!

Our Peace Basket

The girls (especially O) love our peace basket.  It sits on the floor behind a chair (O chose the location), and they enjoy going back there for some peaceful moments.

When I put together the peace basket, my goal was to include items that would reach a variety of their senses.  So, we have a whelk shell for the girls to hold up to their ears to hear the ocean (they have to be very still and quiet to hear the sounds of the "waves"), a finger labyrinth to trace, a cinnamon stick to smell, a book to read (When I Make Silence by Jennifer Howard), and our Starry Night Bottle to shake and then watch the "stars" settle to the bottom.



I decided to remake our Starry Night Jar after E(2) was shaking it and slammed it into her face (she was ok).  I decided that a plastic bottle may hit with a little less force when shaking than a glass jar!  Also, I LOVE the round Christmas Coke bottles.  (I also love Coke...it's an addiction that I'm trying to break...I haven't had one in more than a week!) So, before Christmas, I bought many round Coke bottles to use for various Discovery bottles.  The round bottle works perfectly for our Starry Night bottle.  I just poured the contents from the jar into the bottle and added extra water to fill it up.

I know that most people glue the tops of their discovery bottles so that the kids don't open them with disastrous consequences, but I've never done this.  So far (going on 4 years), the girls have never opened a bottle.  I like to have the option of pouring out the contents and using the bottles for something else, which is why I don't glue them.