Tonight Daddy joined us for school! It was so fun to have him be a part of the lesson. I’m so thankful for the flexibility that homeschooling allows us. I was able to go get a much-needed second round of antibiotics from the sinus infection that wants to hold on all.year.long, and we were still able to keep up on our pace for this week’s plans by finishing a few lessons after dinner.

We read the story of the Boys and the Frogs, and how their fun of throwing rocks in a pond was not so much fun for the frogs.

Here is a sneak peak into the lovely Teacher’s Manual that I get every month.

We used little plastic frogs and flipped them around the table, and then played a little game.

Natalie wanted to decorate hers. She is pure girl.

We were having so much fun that we moved on to Day 8, which talked about Crabs! We made our own crabs out of the letter C.

Peter loved having his daddy sitting right next to him during the lesson.

Yay for C!

I just love this picture. It was a reminder of me of one of the blessings that Mother Goose Time has been for our family. You see, I’m a pretty lazy person. I am not super-crafty and if left up to me, we would do worksheets all day. I dig that. But Mother Goose Time provides such fun activities for the kids – taking most of the work out of it by providing the needed materials (and just what you need, not extras that you then have to find a place to store). And so now I have these sweet memories, like this picture, where my boys are working together. And it’s giving Peter some great memories as well!

Crab headbands!

And…Peter is done. 🙂

WE pretty much called it a night, literally at this point, as it was bedtime. But it was fun to try out a new routine and see what night school can look like every once in a while.

As an official Mother Goose Time Blog Ambassador,
I receive curriculum in exchange for posting about our honest and authentic experiences with the curriculum.
Click here for more information on Mother Goose Time.

Today was Day 6 – The Crow and the Pitcher! The kids were so excited because this meant we got to play with water and what they call “jewels,” the little blue stones that came with a previous month’s curriculum as math manipulatives! They were stoked!
This is not my first ball game. Towels were carefully laid out before they sat down.

As the story goes, a crow added stones to a pitcher of water that contained only a little bit of water, which it couldn’t reach with its beak due to the narrow neck of the pitcher. By adding stones, the water level rose and it was able to quench its thirst. So we started adding stones to see if our water levels would change.

Nat was so excited to see the difference we marked on her tub.

Here was Peter’s tub.

And then of course, they free-played with the water and ‘jewels’ for a little while after this, as I pulled out the next activity’s materials.

Crow Shakers!
I’m realizing now that I didn’t get a before picture of the materials, but the kiddos designed the crows themselves, cutting out the beaks. Natalie chose to add red eyelashes and a yellow bow, as well as a long tail.

Here is Peter’s with his short little stubby tail and pokey hair.

Needless to say, there was a lot of musical activity after they were finished. The shakers may have secretly disappeared after moving on to the next activity. 🙂

And just for fun, here is my sweet little Peter building Robot Towers. Because just like the more intentional stuff, I am a huge advocate for free-play learning as well.

 

As an official Mother Goose Time Blog Ambassador,
I receive curriculum in exchange for posting about our honest and authentic experiences with the curriculum.
Click here for more information on Mother Goose Time.

Looking over the pictures I took this past week during school time, it occurred to me how much my kids are learning while having fun. Part of our activity on Day 4 was literally a board game based on the day’s Fable, The Hare and the Tortoise.  A lot of this pictures speak for themselves, so I’m going to let my words be few for once!

 

Rare sighting of Fuzzy while the kids are awake. Normally she recluses to my bedroom until the kids’ naptime.

Our daily fable from the Storybook provided in this month’s Fable & Folktales box.

The rest of the story (spoiler alert)

The fun game with today’s activity. This time, the Lion & the Mouse from Day 1’s fable got to join in on the race.

Peterman was quite excited about the large cube die.

The suspense! Who will win?!

Also, a hidden benefit to this game is an opportunity for Natalie to learn how to lose well. We’ve had some trouble with her competitive nature already, which she gets from her Daddy, and so it’s nice to have some moments to practice this, in the safety of our own home, where I can easily address any bad attitudes or meltdowns without the complications of my embarrassment and disturbing others in the process. (Anyone else relate to this?!)

Day 4 included a journal activity (Each month they receive a new one. I love journaling with a passion, so I love this aspect!), so Natalie started designing her cover.

Natalie and Peterman

Day 4’s journal activities also included this fun tracing practice sheet.

Natalie started out tracing the Hare’s path, which she did really quickly because she wasn’t very interested at the moment. However, it was a great learning opportunity, as her work was pretty sloppy, to encourage her to go slowly with the Tortoise’s path. Afterwards, we compared her work and accuracy with the two paths, and discussed the importance of diligence and the quality of our work.

Peter, all the while, is exploring his journal and the fun magnifying glasses from Day 1 that correspond with this month’s theme poster.

He decided they needed a little embellishment.
Since Peter was happily playing independently for the moment, we took advantage and pulled out Natalie’s More Math book.
As you can see, they have such cute images that correspond with the fables that we have been reading this past week.

As we were discussing how to spell Harwood, Peter was obviously listening in, as he informed me that he had also written Harwood in his journal.

Obviously.

But on a serious note, I love that he is taking in our conversation and probably gleaning more than I will ever know.

So, back to the More Math books. I just love them! They are so cute, and I love how well they allow me to see her progress! For example, since Natalie has loved math for as long as I can remember, I tend to take for granted that she’s retaining certain skills revolving around numbers. However, as you can see below, we had a little mix-up as she started out the exercise. I wish I had gotten a picture before she scribbled them out, but her 9 & 3 had become a “P” & “E”.

Of course, these are really common mistakes as you are learning to write, but I was actually surprised because for so long she has interpreted most symbols as numbers more than letters, so it was interesting to see that changing a bit.

Peter was still having fun entertaining himself, so we continued on.

This is the More Literacy book for August. This specific activity was asking Natalie to identify the beginning letters for each of the words listed, also referring to the previous day’s Fable, the Grasshopper and the Ants.

Thinking through her options

Fiddle was a little confusing for her, as she thought it was supposed to be a violin.

Success!

The whole day really just felt like we were playing games instead of following a curriculum. I also love how it is teaching me to be more intentional in moments that are less structured to be intentional to still ask questions and find the learning opportunities in them.

As an official Mother Goose Time Blog Ambassador,
I receive curriculum in exchange for posting about our honest and authentic experiences with the curriculum.
Click here for more information on Mother Goose Time.