The Road To Easter

February 24, 2009 By bigbinder 2 Comments

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday in our church, and today we will be making a little craft to take us through Lent.  I meant to do this Saturday, but we had a lot going on.  I hope we don’t have to leave out the important Mardi Gras tradition of shoving a few jelly filled donuts in our faces.  We are partial to the Paczki’s from Marge’s Donut Den but they are available everywhere.

A five year old boy in the house means that anything car-related is pretty much a good bet for him. And a younger sister in the house means anything her big brother thinks is fun is a good bet for her.  It’s not often that the Catholic Liturgical calendar can be expressed through a car activity, and I’m sure this will be a big hit. 

Domestic-Church has a guide to a ‘Lent Car’ on its website.  Scroll down to “Road To Easter”. I’m not going to run out and buy anything for this project, I’m just going to tape some paper together, draw the ‘map’ on it, and stick it on the wall. 

I’ll just cut out two cars and let the kids decorate it them, then also print and cut out the weekly symbols that get attached to the map.  There are also some suggested activities that I like too.  I think I’ll just keep the glue sticks handy and move them along the cars every few days.

Now, off to Marge’s for a post-craft treat!

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

Share
Filed Under: Country Day Homeschool, Something to Make Saturday

I'll Make Tamales Next Time

November 5, 2008 By bigbinder 2 Comments

A few weeks ago, the kids and I went to Blandford Nature Center’s Harvest Festival.  One of the demonstrations showed how corn is harvested, dried, shucked, then the kernels are cracked and made into feed or further ground into flour.

Knowing a good kids craft opportunity when I see one (ha!), I asked the corn guy if I could take home some of the husks laying around on the ground.  He looked at me a little weird, then said, “sure…”.

The pumpkin we carved at the Kentwood Library’s ‘Family Carving Event’ last Saturday had already been half eaten by ravenous squirrels, so I decided it was time to bust out the husks on Sunday and set out to make corn husk dolls with the kids.

This was one of my worst ideas ever.  I used the directions from Family Fun magazine.  My kids don’t know how to tie knots, braid, or roll corn husks so they were bored with the process and started hacking the yarn into little pieces instead.  Naturally, I yelled at them gently brought their attention back to our project.  Eventually I just let them go and play with something else, then come back at the end to make hairstyle and fashion choices for their dolls. 

My husband was thoroughly impressed, somehow having never seen a corn husk doll in his life.  They did turn out kind of cute, but I use the corn husks for what I’m good at next time – cooking.

For more Hobby Hump Day, visit 3inunder3.

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

Share
Filed Under: Country Day Homeschool Tagged With:

Family Time

November 1, 2008 By bigbinder 2 Comments

OK, I’ve done it.  Not being the biggest Halloween fan, I have successfully forced myself into festive-mode this year.  I even went so far as to wear a horrible turtleneck with pumpkins on it to A.P.’s school party.  I put it on immediately before entering the school, and removed it in the parking lot – but still.  So now it’s over, and so is fall apparently.  We have one more Autumn/Harvest activity you’ll read about later this week, then we’ll move on to something else.

Here is a lesson that fit really well with our current theme.  The program it came from is really neat I want to do a post about it.  Plus, I told some of my Great Start buddies Brenna and Rachel that I would so now I have to. Nothing like accountability to keep you blogging along.

Last month, I went to (and blogged about) the Hearts At Home Conference.  One of the speakers was Kirk Weaver.  He is from an organization called Family Time and did a presentation called, “Deepening Your Child’s Faith”.  Now before I lose some people, I’ll repeat something he said.  Although this is developed around Christian principles, they can all be converted into non-religious character building lessons for children.

The idea is that parents, not church or school, hold the primary responsibility for building their children’s faith and character.  We need to do more than send them off to Sunday school, no matter how fantastic it might be.  They need to hear these principles taught at home.  Family Time offers a format and specific lessons to help you.

Mr. Weaver said that we have 10,000 minutes in a week.  20 of them should be used to help our kids grow spiritually. That’s the plan; once a week for 20 minutes.  It should not be called “BIBLE LESSONS” or “CHARACTER BUILDING” or anything like that.  Call it “Family Time” and kids won’t even know they’re learning; they will be as excited as they are during a rousing family game of Candy Land.

The lessons outline for you:

  • A teaching goal
  • Scripture (as a note, I use the Message Bible with modern language because it’s easier for kids to comprehend – now is not the time to worry about the original Greek word for this or that)
  • A list of materials needed
  • Music, if appropriate
  • Lesson outline

You can buy books with lessons for different age groups.  You can also buy an online subscription. Or, you can get free lessons from the website.  We did the “Slow Down And Look Around” lesson last week.  You can click on the link for details; basically the kids find a leaf, then draw it.  Then they have to do back, and look at the details.

Neither my husband nor I grew up in a family that did these kinds of activities so it was kind of uncomfortable for us.  The kids loved it though, and we are going to stick with the plan and do it once a week, knowing that our confidence will grow with time.  Also, it’s super easy and pretty effortless for planning so that helps.  After all, if I can wear a pumpkin-print turtleneck to a school party - I can do anything, right?

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

Share
Filed Under: Country Day Homeschool, Something to Make Saturday Tagged With:

Colorfall

October 16, 2008 By bigbinder Leave a Comment

One of our Country Day Home School field trips was to Meijer Gardens which is in the midst of ColorFall. When we went, there was a kids tram running.  It’s like the regular tram, but with smaller seats and no old people.  It was $3 for adults and $1 for kids.  It was called a Tree-rific Tour, or something.  On each seat there was a tool kit and at each stop the kids were asked to pull a certain thing out of the it so they could talk about it.  For example, at the birch tree, there was a Popsicle stick because apparently Popsicle sticks are made out of birch wood.  I had no idea.  It was fun to see the entire sculpture park really open up for the kids, who never want to go past the Children’s Garden.

We’ve also been reading (and re-reading) some fall books.  They are all in our library; mostly from Scholastic book orders or warehouse sales.  Here’s the lineup:

  • Fall Leaf Project, Margaret McNamara.  Some kids box up leaves to send to under-leafed children in an undisclosed location; possibly the desert.  I like that it introduces the idea that there are different kinds of leaves from different trees, and what they look like.
  • Perfect Pumpkins, Jeff Bauer.  It’s the worlds shortest science textbook, complete with two page chapters and a glossary.
  • When The Leaf Blew In, Steve Metzger.  A family favorite; this was one of the first books A.P. memorized entirely learned to read.
  • Possum’s Harvest Moon, Anne Hunter. The classic “woe is me no one will come to my party. Oh wait! You all came after all!” childrens book, this time with Possum as the protagonist.
  • Apple Picking Day, Samantha Brooke.  What will that crazy Big Red Clifford get into next?
  • Plumply, Dumply Pumpkin, Mary Serfozo.  This is a really cute book about finding the perfect pumpkin to carve, and is another family favorite.

Other than waiting around for the Charlie Brown movie to come on TV in a few weeks, I don’t really have any ideas for the video (meaning, my husband’s) portion of Country Day Home School.  Any ideas out there?

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

Share
Filed Under: Country Day Homeschool Tagged With: , , ,

American Pie For Kids

October 13, 2008 By bigbinder 3 Comments

I decided it was time for another ‘lesson’ in our Country Day Home school.  Seeing as it is fall in Michigan, I would be a fool to pass up all of the autumn-related activities around. Actually, it’s probably stuff we would do anyway, but I’m going to hunt around for a few coloring pages and call it a lesson plan :)   

This weekend we hit my favorite orchard, Schwallier’s.  It’s always a little bittersweet for me because it reminds me of the good old days when 3inunder3 lived here.  This is a kind of mid-sized orchard as far as activities go.  It’s not overwhelming, but there is a corn silo sand box (except it’s dried corn), a big slide, animals to pet and feed, a fake cow to milk and the Cow Train. 

That’s the best.  It’s made of old barrels flipped on their sides with wheels added and the top cut out.  It’s then painted to look like a cow.  There is a seat in each ‘car’ and they’re chained together, then pulled by a little tractor.  The farm dog runs along side on every trip, and the kids came back screaming with laughter.  I bought them each a ticket ($2), but will pass along the info I myself got too late that if your kids share a cow, they only need one ticket for both of them.  

Tonight we took the apples from our orchard outing and made an apple pie.  I don’t do pie crusts, so I just sliced the apples, let the kids add the rest of the ingredients (I consulted Betty Crocker), rolled out the freshly thawed crust, and let them dump it all together.  I just took the pie out of the oven and it smells wonderful. The kids went to bed before it was done baking, so I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see how it tastes. 

I think I did something kind of stupid though.  I love to cook, and I try and teach my kids cooking terms.  A.P. asked me why the apples were getting soft when we let them sit with the other ingredients, and I told him they were macerating.  Have you ever heard a 5 year old with a speech dis fluency say ‘macerating’?  I am just waiting for a call from his teacher on that one.

I realized that my lesson plans had left out dramatic play.  At this point it is probably painfully obvious that I have never even stumbled into an education class in my life. Good thing I don’t home-school for real.  Fortunately, my kids saved the day with this one.  They put on a play in the bathtub (after all that messy maceration).  They used washcloths which the kids can slip their hands into that look like a dog and a bunny that  Grandma Nonnie gave them for Christmas last year.  This is the first time they have become puppets.

I had to shut my eyes while they ‘got ready’; which involved pulling the shower curtain shut and crouching down below the edge of the tub.  I took my front row seat and watched a brilliant play in which the puppets ‘Lover’ (the bunny) and ‘Lover Bunny’ (the dog) went to an orchard and picked apples.  It turns out that Lover and Lover Bunny were husband and wife.  Then the husband died, so the wife found another husband.  Then they all died.  Then they lived happily ever after. The puppeteers then engaged in a very long ‘bowing’ ceremony which took longer than the actual play.  

This lesson plan continues, so stay tuned for a few more activities we have lined up for the next week (or so) here at Country Day Homeschool!

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

Share
Filed Under: Country Day Homeschool Tagged With:

Jimmy's Boa

September 8, 2008 By bigbinder 1 Comment

Country Day Homeschool is in session! Our first lesson is based on a Reading Rainbow episode about the book “The Day Jimmy’s Boa Ate the Wash” by Trinka Hakes Noble.  This is a fantastic program that highlights a children’s book, then expands on it.  Unfortunately, our local PBS station moved the show from 3:00pm to 6:30am.  I’m going to be upset with them about that for a long, long time.

No worries though, as the local library system allows requests from area libraries and one library in particular (Hudsonville) has a ton of these episodes.  We happen to own the book, so our lesson will include watching the show, then re-reading the book.

I found a website with some great ‘discussion’ questions also.  This book has a lot of cause and effect situations, so asking what caused something was the best suggestion I got from this site.  You can read more here.  There is even a cause and effect cheat sheet. We’ll round the first day out with a rousing version of “I’m Being Swallowed By A Boa Constrictor“.

The Reading Rainbow website also offers suggestions for activities for each episode.  The two activities are making a haystack snack out of chow mein noodles and peanut butter because a haystack falls on a cow in the book.  All kinds of chaos ensues when Jimmy’s Boa escapes, so the other activity is making a snake out of a paper plate.  We’ll try both of these on the second day of the lesson as they seem easy and at least in one case, tasty.

In the episode, the host visits a pet shop, so we will follow suit.  I know the Zoo has some snakes too, but I’m zoo-ed out at the moment.  I’m not sure if this will take longer than two days, or if it will not even take up two days.  Either way, it will be fun to find out!

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

Share
Filed Under: Country Day Homeschool Tagged With: ,

Country Day Homeschool

September 5, 2008 By bigbinder 3 Comments

We sent A.P. to 3 year old preschool and debated for a long time about whether to send Maybelle this year.  Ultimately, we decided against it.  This doesn’t mean that she will hang out and do nothing for a year.  I am working on a preschool ‘homeschool’ curriculum for her and a snack program that includes all the cupcakes we want.

I also decided my school needed a name.  For some reason, I have always liked ”Detroit Country Day”.  This was the name of the only school that ever beat my high school at Michigan Junior Classical League competitions.  What is the MJCL? I don’t know what it is today; but back then it was a bunch of uppity kids who decide not only to take Latin, but travel around the state trying to speak it.  As far as the obvious and completely fair question of “Why in the world did you join the MJCL instead of moping around or toilet papering houses like normal high school kids?” I cannot offer an answer. 

I am naming Maybelle’s preschool “Country Day Homeschool“, but I will not charge myself $8,920 a year tuition. No; this will be done on the cheap.  She may, however, be required to wear plaid jumpers though.  They’re really stinkin’ cute.

Look for lesson plans in the near future; school starts Monday!

Related Posts with Thumbnails

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

Share
Filed Under: Country Day Homeschool Tagged With: ,
Newer Posts »