Insects

This week we learned about insects.  I was inspired because we had the exterminator out a while back.  Whatever they used outside, drove a few bugs inside.  Also, we had a few unidentified bugs in our hall bathroom upstairs.  During this period, Lauren started running into our room and saying, “Ahh, there’s a bug in my room!” or believing she might have found one on the floor, often finding nothing more than a piece of fuzz.  I figured that if we learned about insects, she could start thinking about them and be more logical, less scared.

However, I found that even thinking about bugs can be a little gross, so I realized I needed to attempt to make some things a little more girl friendly.

We only did three days of lessons this week; grasshoppers, ants, and flies. 

Day One – Grasshoppers

First, we talked about insects in general.  We learned several facts about insects which we reviewed over and over.  They have an exoskeleton.  They have three body parts; the head, thorax and abdomen.  They always have six legs, so spiders are not insects.  They have antenna which they use to smell. 

We watched these youtube videos:

Icky Icky Insects http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYawa4piO4k

What is an Insect? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4g5oHKzldmY

I used these flashcards. http://www.scribd.com/doc/98941946 

I had bought these toys from Amazon :  http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Republic-Polybag-Insect-Pieces/dp/B000H72C16/ref=sr_1_2?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1341286843&sr=1-2&keywords=insects  -

I believe that having a toy that relates to what we are learning is very beneficial because each time it is played with, in their minds, they are reviewing what they know about it.  Also in their imaginative playing, they can use what they know to enhance their reasoning and imagining. 

We used the grasshopper toy, we identified the three body parts, counted the legs, found the antenna.  Then, we just discussed the grasshopper.  We talked about the fact that it eats grass.  We talked about how the males chirp to attract females and we listened to a grasshopper chirping on youtube.  We talked about the fact it jumps and why, which is just to help it move faster.  We also talked about farmers sometimes have problems if there are too many grasshoppers because they can eat the crops.

We used this coloring sheet, we used markers to color differently the head, thorax and abdomen. 
http://www.scribd.com/doc/98941848

I prepared a reading exercise that was going to serve us all week, but Lauren had a shorter attention span for insects and so we only did this the first day.

I also made cards to do math word problems with insects, but we really didn’t get to it.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/98941918

Day two:  Ants

For Allie, we just said “Ant, Grasshopper” and had her try to pick the right toy.

As I was finding that Lauren has no special odd-for-a-girl interest in insects, I tried to engage her in other ways before the lesson along with getting Allie interested.  So, we watched the “Ants Go Marching” and played rhythm instruments with it.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_904086&src_vid=ARfLaNJcpsw&v=ooCFd3uStbg&feature=iv

We looked at the ant toy and identified the parts, reviewed the term “exoskeleton”

We watched this video:  http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/kids/animals-pets-kids/wild-detectives-kids/wd-ep4-ants/

Craft:  We made ants out of marbles, fake grass turf samples from Home Depot and beading wire.  I just had these things on hand, I was originally plannig to make them out of pom-poms and cut up pipe cleaners. 

Day Three:  Flies

We introduced the fly to Allie by playing with it.  Even though this seems so simple, showing her the behavior of the fly is a pretty sophisticated things…has they go by the ear, how they land for a moment and take off.  I think, in some ways, this is teaching to a one year old at it’s finest.

I continued using peer pressure of getting Allie engaged to peak Lauren’s interest, we watched this video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPuw9wZrl10  Shoo Fly, Don’t Bother Me.

We reviewed the parts of the bug flashcards.  We looked at the fly toy and identified the parts, reviewed exoskeleton and antenna.  We talked about flies, they live 15 days and like to eat fruit and veggies.

GAME!  We had a ball with this game!  I used the fly swatter and covered it with tape.  I made slips of paper with grasshoppers, ants and flies on it.  I had Lauren hit the right bug after I called its name, I let Allie hit whatever she could.  This video is towards the end of the game, but it was a big hit as you can tell.

Fly craft:  http://www.freekidscrafts.com/index.php?option=com_events&task=view_patterns&id=834 Found this craft online.  Here is the finished product.

With every lesson that we do, I always "raid" the library and get many, many books on the subject.  Even if the books are sometimes not at the right level for them, I might still sometimes borrow them because we can still talk about the pictures.

Even though I didn't do everything I wanted to this week, I still feel really, really great about it because Lauren is no longer afraid of bugs.  She found an Earwig, picked it up and called it her “pet bug”  When we see bugs, she stops and investigates its specific qualities.  We had to drag her away from some ants on a sidewalk.  Bugs are incredible and so ubiquitous, it was even fun for me to contemplate them.   There are more #’s of just beetles than all other creatures of Earth combined.  It is the most successful creature on the planet.  Pretty cool!!

Firefighters

We were inspired to learn about firefighters because we had the chance to tour a fire station this week.  I wanted them to have a rich understanding of the nature of job.

Monday –

Today was about, not firefighting, but FIRE.  I wanted Lauren to have a respect for the seriousness and danger of fire.  I wanted to show Lauren why firefighters are necessary.  I wanted to give Lauren a sense of history of the evolution of firefighting.

1.       Videos:  I looked for videos relating to firefighters on Netflix and found several.  I chose “Barney: Let's Go to the Fire House” because it was generalized, a good introduction that both could like.  I let them watch this in place of Sesame Street.

2.       Allie:  Had a lesson with Allie.  “Hot and Cold”  I took some stones and I put some in the freezer overnight and I put some in the microwave (not too long).  I gave them to her one at a time, and I told her “This is hot”  “This is cold” etc.  I helped her sort which is hot/cold.

3.       Allie:  Gave Allie a “Touch and Feel” flashcard with a firetruck.

4.       Vocabulary with Lauren:  Firetruck, Firefighter, Fire Hydrant, Smoke Detector.   A note:  Lauren adores flashcards.  I make them myself using cardstock and a free template on Microsoft word.  The reason she LOVES flash cards is the technique we use…

a.       Introduction:  On the first day, I go through the cards and talk about each picture.  I tend to like to include at least one word which is familiar to help her feel successful from the start.  I ask her to repeat the words to help with pronounciation

b.      I use the Montessori 3 Part technique for new vocabulary.         

                                                               i.      Place two cards down, ask her, ie “Which one is smoke detector”

                                                             ii.      Place all cards down, ask her, ie “Which one is smoke detector”  She gets to keep the cards when she gets it right

                                                            iii.      THEN, perhaps after a few days, ask her “What is this”  This gives her a very good chance to hear the vocabulary many times.

5.       Spanish – I printed four cards with the same grammer and different vocabulary.  We discussed it and then used the 3-part technique to learn it.

a.       “Los bomberos estan ayudando”

b.      “Los bomberos estan caminando”

c.       “Los bomberos estan durmiendo”

d.      “Los bomberos estan corriendo"

6.       Main Lesson – Fire.  

a.       I talked to her, I told her how fire is a special and unique type of phenomenon.  I told her how fire spreads very fast.  We talked about what color it is.  I told her that sometimes, fire can spread so fast that it can be very dangerous.

b.      We looked at a video of a house on fire, we watched the entire sequence of it getting bigger and the firefighters coming to put it out.  I specifically avoided talking about firefighters because I wanted to concentrate on the fire itself.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJYRsmqayFo

c.       I told her how a long time ago, fires could grow very, very fast.  I told her that we are lucky that today, firefighters are able to use a lot of good equipment and training to put out fires.  I told her how once there was a very famous fire, The Great Chicago Fire.  We looked at youtube videos of that.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3Q3wwRAGiw (I skipped to the pictures)

7.       Craft – I presented two foam pieces to be the house, a printout of a firefighter and tissue paper.  We used the tissue paper to make it look like there was a fire at the house and blue tissue paper to look like water from the hose.

Tuesday –

Today, I wanted to concentrate on the training of the firefighters.  Different than what is taught in schools, I like to focus on the fact that firefighting is a job that people do and that any person comes to learn to do from training.  I want her to look at a firefighter and see a person, not a job.  Looking at the training was super fun and alluded to a bigger concept in life

1.        We took our scheduled  tour of the fire station. 

2.       We reviewed our vocabulary and Spanish.

3.       Main Lesson – Firefighter training.  We talked about it.  We watched some videos

a.       http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eb1hm66F6k

b.      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P19dfFZjLDQ

c.       http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZpr-ru9OV4

d.      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pjFPxc00nI

4.       Fireman Math! – I printed out some cute firetrucks and I used word problems to help teach Lauren math!  I would tell a story, about there being a fire and 1 or 2 firetrucks coming.  Then, I would put the “+” sign down and tell the second half of the story, about more firetrucks coming.  Then I would put the “=” sign and I would ask Lauren, how many fire trucks total.  She LOVED this!!  Some stories were about parades.

5.       Activity – Mock Training.  Put some water bottles on the table outside and had Lauren try to aim the hose and knock them down. 

Wednesday –

Today we talked about firefighters and fire trucks.  We talked about why firefighters are considered real life heros.  We talked about sirens. 

1.        Review flash cards and Spanish.

2.       Firetruck Math again, we just enjoyed it J

3.       Egg Carton Craft – crafts are great for reinforcing vocabulary and helping to encourage further imagining and contemplating what we are talking about.  I found this craft idea online.

1.       Activity – What is that sound?  I used youtube to play different sounds and including sirens several times.  We talked about the purpose of sirens.

4.       Allie craft – printed a picture of a firetruck and had Allie fingerpaint it with red.

5.       We bought a Melissa and Doug firetruck set.  We just played with it and imagined scenarios.  I put it on their toy shelf to return to as the mind desires.

6.       Watched “All About Big Red Engines” on Netflix.  Lauren also discovered “Fireman Sam”

Thursday -

Was tired, did no lesson

Friday - 

Fire safety at home

1.        Review flashcards and Spanish

2.       Main Lesson – talked about fire safety around the home. 

a.       Talked about what to do if there is a fire

b.      Counted all the smoke detectors

c.       Tested the smoke detectors

d.      Took a look at the fire extinguisher and talked about what it is (uses a chemical, not water), where we keep it (in kitchen because most likely to have a fire) how to use it (looked at the instructions and noticed how easy they were to read), the meter showed it was full, the color is red because people know that means fire.

Saturday, we went to the Hall of Flame Museum.  Lauren LOVED looking at the pictures of historical fires.  She loved looking at some of the old fire engines starting from the 1700’s and how they were horse draw.  We noticed the buckets they used instead of hoses.  Mostly, we loved the children’s area, we got to talk about the fire pole and dress up!  J

Months of the Year

I picked this topic because I noticed that another almost three year old knew her birthday.  Lauren knew her birthday is in August, but not that it was the 23^rd.  It is my philosophy to never approach the kids with something to master without understanding the nature of it.  I really like to think of teaching your child as if you were teaching an alien.  You would never tell an alien, hey, memorize these month words and here are some cartoonish pictures to ease the monotony of your memorization.   The most important part would be to explain the nature of months, memorizing the names is secondary importance.  However, in a practical sense of having the month names memorized, I have discovered that an understanding of the subject really lends itself to better memorization.  Also, there is a really wonderful benefit to me, a lover of philosophical thinking, it gives me the chance to research it and analyze it myself!  I was tickled that just hours ago, Lauren was on the phone and her Godfather said, “Hey, your birthday is coming up soon!”  And Lauren started laughing and said, “No silly, my birthday is in August, and it’s June!”

I hope how simple it was to teach this isn’t disappointing; but here it is!

Tuesday

My introduction conversation:

If I wanted to tell someone what your birthday is, what would I say?   I would say, August 23^rd.  August is the name of the month and 23^rd is the day in the month.  We use months to help us know what day of the year it is.  It takes the Earth one year,  that is 365 days, to go around the sun.  There 365 days and 365 nights.  Your birthday is the 235^th day of the year.  Many, many years ago, lots of people decided to make it easier to remember what day of the year it was by making up something called months.  So instead of saying, this is the 235^th day of the year, they say, this is August 23. It is just easier, and people liked it better.  Months have about 30 days, it is so much easier to count to 30 than 365.  (We read our kids storybooks and let them watch TV shows that have much more complicated storylines than this!  Introducing concepts respectful to their lack of prior knowledge in a logical, story-like way creates a very rich palette for the goal of this week’s lessons; which is to understand months and dates.)

There are twelve months.  Why do you think we have twelve months?  (This just helps her think, and realize that she doesn’t know why)  Well, there’s no real reason that we have twelve months.  In fact, many, many, many years ago (reinforces the concept of “year”), our calendar only had 10 months, but then, we added two months because e of two very important people.  Those people were soooo important, that people added two months to the calendar using their name.  One man’s name was Julius, can you guess which month we named after Julius?  The other is Augustus, can you guess what month is named after Augustus? (The fact that there is a good chance she could guess August will help her self confidence and make her enjoy the lesson more) Wouldn’t that be amazing if a lot of people thought you were soooo cool that they decided to name a whole month after you???  Maybe that month would be called Laurentember.  And Allie’s month could be Allietober.  And Mommy’s month could be Momurary!   (I am not expecting Lauren would fully and richly know this history, but I feel like it helps  draw more attention to the thinking about the names of the months.  However, true facts will help  set the course for later learning.)

Put sun on floor.  Tape the months to the floor around the sun.  

Have Lauren hold the Earth and walk around the sun, listening to these song.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5enDRrWyXaw , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEOhuuKtFYU , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrVjQSaTQc4   We revisited these songs many times in the next few days J

Talk about the months….do you know what month your birthday is?  August, let’s walk to August.  Ok, what month is Allie’s birthday in?  May, let’s find May.  My birthday is in July, it’s right next to your month.  Daddy’s birthday is in December.

Now, I have introduced months to Lauren in a respectful , intellectual way.  This approach is exhilarating to her, she incorporates this information and applies these analytical thinking skills in all her thinking!!  She loves it!!

Wednesday

We listened to the youtube videos again.  We see how far we can go remembering the songs.  In passing, we pointed out that people commonly use pictures to describe the months, ie Santa for December, and why that is.   

I am incorporating reading into our lesson.  We are focusing on sightword method of reading right now.  I put the names of the months on the table and we organized the ones with the same letter together.  Then, I would name a month and ask Lauren to guess which written word was that month.  She can use the first letter to pick the right month often.  Repeating the vocabulary over and over is so important.  Don’t do it in a dry way;  songs, books, talking about it, art projects, field trips.  Just incorporating the new vocabulary in a big deal.

We are also incorporating math.  We have followed a path of Montessori in learning numbers…here is the link to the cards which we love:  http://www.montessoriprintshop.com/uploads/MF-9_Large_Number_Cards.pdf  Even though, she has put together numbers up to 9,999, we are still practicing before moving on.  I want to reinforce the vocabulary of numbers and it gave me the opportunity to reinforce the concepts of 12 months, 30 or 31 days per month, 365 days a year, and family birthdays.

We have a magnetic calendar.  We used the magnets to put the calendar together.  This also worked on ordinal numbers(first, second, third).  I didn’t try to master that with her because it is dry.  It was merely an introduction, but she did seem to pick up on it.  We put events on the calendar.  I said, “What if someone asked you if you could go bowling on August the 20^th.  Find 20 on the calendar”  And so on.  We also discussed that the year is 2012, because there have been 2012 years since Jesus was born. 

Thursday

We reviewed the numbers and the sight reading words.  We listened and tried to sing the months of the year song.  Then, we had a huge art project.  I printed off the months and we decorated them based on something about the month.  We put a sticker on some important days. 

Friday

My plan was to go to a Hallmark store and notice how the cards related to special dates.  We were going to read the cards and notice the cultural ways that people make each other happy by sending greetings on certain dates.  BUT, that morning, I got a call from a WORLD FAMOUS JAZZ STRING BASSIST that is a friend from my home town.  He was touring…the freaking planet, going to four different countries on three continents this MONTH, and we got to spend the day with him!!!!  I think we’re going to do some more review of the months this coming week.

A Whole New World

No, I’m not writing this blog because I want to affect a new world order.  I have an interest in children because I have a good memory of my thoughts when I was a young child.  I remember trying to figure out what was going on.  I remember that when I heard about things, my thoughts would run off in imagination, trying to piece together an understanding of my world.  This makes sense.  A new soul is bound to have many questions.  We are all aware of this.  Some adults enjoy chuckling at their kids when they piece things together in an odd and wrong way.  What I think some people are not considering is that children, although very cute, are serious human beings.  They are thinking hard about their experiences, often consciously, and trying to piece them together.  This is not easy and it can be intimidating.  That is why I feel guiding them deliberately is the loving way to parent.  It is compassionate and loving act to consider your children’s mind, help to introduce them to and help them to interpret the world.  Not only is it an act of love, but guiding them is a great service to yourself as a person that is forever tied to your children.  You are building one of your most important relationships and they will affect your own quality of life.  They can ideally be the richest and most enjoyable relationships of your life, communicating with you better than almost anyone.   Your children will also be your most important relationships, besides your spouse, in the later years of your life.  Guiding a child toward the knowledge of the world is an exhilarating journey of self reflection and the opportunity to grow a deeper appreciation and perspective of your own life.  Most importantly, it is your duty.  As a mother and citizen of humanity, guiding your children is the greatest work of your life.