The Perils of Preschool

Mommy, can we do 'preschool?'

This 4.5 year old of mine wants special time with me, just as his brothers get during their spelling and math lessons... 

As any of you know who have been around for any length of time, I'm pretty passionate about not pushing academics in the early years.  I've collected articles and resources to share with you on this very subject.  I've explained how their brains are simply wired differently than ours...   And how we should be reading to them A LOT!!!  Cultivating play and experiential learning are great ways to make learning concrete!  Character training, especially in the area of obedience, is so very important in these early years. In my series on Including Little One's, I also talked about the importance of carving out a bit of one-on-one time for your little ones...

All that to say that when they ask for more, I give it to them as long as they keep asking...  Lately, he's been begging to learn how to write.  And so we've started with some gross-motor work.  I love our Cursive First program because of the ideas it's given me to make handwriting a gross-motor activity.  At this age, many kids {boys especially} simply don't have the fine motor skills developed yet to handle a lot of pencil work.  So we focus on the mechanics of correct letter formation in order to ingrain the good habits from the get-go before we move onto pencil work.  This will help not only with the quality of his penmanship down the road, but also his ability to write with less muscle fatigue.  win-win!

With the older boys, we made a nameplate and used glue and sand to make sandpaper letter names. Now I'm hooked on using glitter glue!!!!  No stray sand littering the table {and by extension the floor} anymore.

I'm all about less mess when possible!

We love the glitter glue so much that I even used it when adding 'sandpaper letters' to his memory verse/coloring booklet that I recently made for him.

This unpredictable little adventurer of mine has evened out wonderfully this year.  We've had no more sharpie incidents or lipstick art all over the carpet. 

In fact, I really don't worry about him at all. 

And that, folks, was my undoing. 

Last week, we made a trip to the Office of Vital Statistics to get a copy of Greta's birth certificate.  I was pleased to see that there was only one person in front of us and the boys were excited to see some fun earth science type books in the waiting area.  In no time, I was up at the window handing in my form.  Within a few moments the lady behind the counter had printed off a copy of the certificate and handed it over while I proceeded to pay her $20 for this slip of paper.

Since everything was going so well, I proceeded to ask one more question about a typo on another child's birth certificate.  In that 30 second window when I asked this question, my newest little hand writer discovered a pen on the counter and a fresh piece of paper and began to leave his mark.  FYI, the Office of Vital Statistics will only hit the print button a second time for an additional $20...

 

BEWARE: Gross-motor handwriting skills might lead to fine-motor application.

Ahhh, the perils of the preschool years.

Painting and Pinning Patriotism

With Independence Day right around the corner, the boys asked to repeat both of these activities that we did back in April when studying the American War for Independence.

We love watercoloring.  I like it because the mess is minimal and the boys like it because of the flexibility they have with varying the depth and variety of color.  As we learned about Betsy Ross, I decided that we should paint flags. 

To get our white starts we used our white colored pencil (a white crayon would also work) to draw the thirteen starts.  The boys loved painting that square blue and watching the stars magically appear!  There is something so peaceful about watercoloring.  Watercolors and our Lyra colored pencils are my two favorite art mediums!  Of course the four year old took a good deal of creative license with his flag!

I'm always looking to include fine motor skill work into our days and so we pulled out our pin-punching activity that we utilized when "Pinning Down Africa."  The boys were mesmerized with pricking holes in the star outline and then punching it out.  It kept them occupied for almost an hour while I read to them.  What better way to help them work on that correct pencil grip than with fun 'work' such as this!

What are your plans for the Fourth of July?  I think we're going to go outside (early) and read the Declaration of Independence and pretend that we were there on that momentous day.  It is supposed to rain on Wednesday which means the humidity will be up to around 45%, so the mugginess will only add to the effect.  If we close our eyes and imagine big leafy green trees everywhere I think we'll just about have it!

Of course BBQ pork, homemade coleslaw, watermelon, swimming and fireworks are on the agenda for that evening!

If You Can't Beat It, Utilize It!

It's been hot around here.  As I type this, it is 9pm and still around 108 degrees F outside...

Of course this has meant that outdoor time, aside from being in a pool, is not as compelling as it usually is.  But we've decided to make the best of it and braved the 'heat of the day' to conduct two experiments.

Experiment #1 ~ Making Block Crayons

Over the years I've seen others using bits of broken crayons and muffin molds to make new multi-colored crayons. So we decided to take our baggie of broken crayons and see how long it would take to let the heat outside melt them.  The idea of turning on my oven this time of year is just not appealing...

The boys enjoyed taking the paper off of the crayons.  I found this to be a great fine-motor activity for my preschooler!  He's quite a busy fellow and this kept him mesmerized for quite a while!  Then they had fun placing colored bits in our silicone muffin forms.

Next up, we took our molds outside and started forming hypotheses on how long they would take to melt.  I had no idea since many of the 'recipes' found online obviously utilized temperatures far warmer than ours.  Oldest guessed an hour, Second born guessed two and my crazy four year old guessed 9 hours!

The older boys were bummed that there was no clear winner.  When we thought to go back outside an hour and a half later, they were mostly melted so I called it a tie!  I can't imagine how quickly these would have melted if we had tried this in the afternoon instead of mid-morning!

Because we had some dirt cheap crayons in there, the colors weren't that great when we went to color with them, but the boys were thrilled anyways because they made them - with the sun's help!

Experiment #2 ~ Baking an Egg on the Sidewalk!

Over 30 years living here in the hot, hot desert and I've never tried this...  until now.  Every summer, you'll hear about the toddler that fell on the sidewalk and severely burning his skin.  And of course, there will be talk about it being so hot you can cook an egg on the sidewalk.

We decided to give it a try!  Again we made guesses on whether it would actually work or not and how long it would take to cook an egg on the sidewalk.  See, I even took out some cooking spray for easy clean-up afterwards.

An hour and a half in to our experiment the yolk was all bulgy, but the whites hadn't cooked at all.   I would love to be able to report further on our little experiment, but we simply don't know as a certain four year old found it and decided to kick that irresistible little golden 'ball'.  I'm skeptical on if this even works...  But I think we'll go ahead and try it again on a warmer day since it was merely 109 that day.  We'll also  shoot for the middle of the day when the sun is directly overhead.

Has anyone else tried to 'cook' foot on the sidewalk before?  I'm thinking that this will not be the end of our summer heat experiments!

As for the rest of the days, we've been focusing on swimming and water play.  My middle guy still doesn't know how to swim.  Yes, we live in Arizona, he's almost 6 and STILL doesn't know how to swim.   He had a pretty traumatic experience 2 years ago when a man he didn't know threw him into a pool at a party and has resisted learning how to swim ever since.  I'm working on trying to get him comfortable this year so that we can proceed with actually learning how to swim.  Anyone have any ideas???

What have you all been up to outside?  I'd love to hear of your adventures in being intentional to spend time outdoors WITH your children.

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Of Pediatricians and Patriots

We are knee deep in the middle of our nations fight for independence and the boys couldn't be happier.  Last fall I picked up two pirate costumes at our PE groups clothing swap.  The red velvet jackets with gold braid are a favorite item being worn these days despite the temperatures approaching 100.  Our only two patriot 'coats' are a blue police jacket and my grandmother's cardigan that has really cool engraved pewter buttons.  Buttons aside, the boys think it is a pretty boring stand-in.  But it has provided an opportunity for the them to realize the benefits of being a soldier of the king verses a patriot in a poor fledgling nation.

As we read about these men that made so many valiant sacrifices, they have also been drawn to the beautiful rhetoric.  Their ability to memorize, when motivated, never ceases to amaze me.

Recently, I took Treyton in for his 4 year old well-check.  This new pediatrician is especially thorough and started asking me all kinds of questions about his development.  As she started to ask about his knowledge of the 1,2,3's and A,B,C's I realized that I had come to the point, where I hadn't really thought about it.  I nodded, indicating that he knew most of what she was asking about, but than explained a bit of my philosophy.

Skills like this come surprisingly easily in a home where there is a lot of interaction.  As I dole out a snack, he learned pretty quick how important it was to count.  Counting wasn't merely something he memorized to please someone.  There was a lot riding on his understanding of 1-to-1 correspondence.  He could immediately spot that he only received 10 blueberries while his brothers had each snagged 20.

And don't get me started on the ABC's.  I mean really, what academic advantage does a child have if he can sing the ABC song?  Until he is ready to start alphabetizing, not much.  Now phonemic SOUNDS...  That is a whole different story.

As I sat there in my pediatricians office, I started to share with her the value in learning ABOUT things instead of merely memorizing and acquiring skills.  One of my goals in the early years is to nurture that natural curiosity and insatiable desire to explore the world around them.  Stoking the fire of inborn curiosity and protecting that natural love of learning is so crucial at this age.

For some reason our culture seems fixated on skill acquisition as if memorizing numbers from 1 to 20 (or 50 or 100) somehow indicates 'giftedness'.  So much time is spent on trying to get kids reading or counting that could be utilized in far more effective and enjoyable ways.

I'm not sure how convinced she was, until I mentioned our current study of the Revolutionary War and how fascinated he is by it all.  He may or may not be able to recite his ABC's in the correct order {I've never communicated that learning that was important}, but this kid of mine is soaking up so much. 

I relayed how I was dialoging with my bigger boys, asking them which famous statesman from Virginia spoke these famous words,

"Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?

Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take,

but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!"  

Treyton was trotting by {in costume, of course} and before the boys had a chance to respond, he glibly responded, "Patrick Henwy".

The pediatrician just sat staring.

Then I told her that he was currently really into the life of Paul Revere and the events surrounding the battle of Lexington/Concord.  At this point, Treyton piped up and told her about Captain John Parker and his courageous words to the militia on the Lexington Green that day.

Rest assured, while she might think us a bit odd {and I'm totally ok with that}, I don't think she is worried about his academic development.

Skills will come.  In fact, he's acquiring them without even realizing it.  More important is that his love of learning -that God has placed in each young child, is alive and well.

After re-enacting the battle at Lexington and the 'shot heard round the world,' Treyton wanted me to record the battle for his cousins and grandparents. He is incredibly proud of his make-shift bayonet (a bamboo skewer) and the boys are loving their 'gun smoke' that they've created by filling their popguns with dirt. After reviewing this clip however, I've realized that we need to work on explaining the reality of guns that fire only one shot before needing to be carefully reloaded...

Dull to Shiny - A Lesson in Opposites

My energy levels have been abysmally low.  But then that is to be expected, I guess when you are just days away from that magical "due date".  But we did manage to do this fun Montessori inspired activity that correlated with our discussion of opposites.

I've had fun revisiting a preschool curriculum that I wrote for Xander.  And it is so nice to do something specially geared for my 3.5 year old every once in a while.  Since we were discussing opposites and Xander has been doing a lot with money in his math lately it seemed fitting to have a science day and learn about oxidation and clean up some of our oxidized pennies.  It is also a great activity that encourages the pincer grasp when picking up pennies as well as work on fine motor skills in general for the two younger ones.

With just a few simple directions, they were set loose to explore and discover.  It was beautiful to watch their eyes light up as they witnessed the transformation from dull to shiny and play around...

Here's what you'll need if you want to do the same.

• Lemon juice (vinegar should work too)
• Salt
• Towel to rub them down after they've soaked.  A want to try a toothbrush next time for this step.
• A handful of dull pennies!

We started by squeezing lemons into our bowls. 

 Then add a scoop of salt!

 We used our pennies to mix the salt into the lemon juice.

 Wait...

...and watch.

And then scrub with our paper towels...

  

Art vs. Crafts

photo credit: my sister.

Since we just finished up a series on Open-Ended Play, I wanted to share some thoughts my sister had on "Art vs. Craft".  In the early years especially, I've traditionally been a huge fan of open-ended art.  And I still am.  But as she points out 'craft' has its place too in the life of a young child.  She is guest blogging today and sharing her thoughts on the topic.  Enjoy the read.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I read a fascinating article discussing the difference between art and crafts last week, and the importance of art in child development. The article defines art as activity that “encourages a child’s originality and unique expression with an unknown outcome.” By contrast, crafts “involve the child’s reproducing an adult’s idea, while following directions to make a specific ‘thing’ – a known outcome.” Think of a rabbit of cotton balls on construction paper, modeled exactly off of a teacher’s version, verses a free-form collage of cotton balls.

Did you know there was a difference between art and crafts? The distinction is new to me, but it makes sense.

The author elevates art over crafts. She asserts that crafts do not require “original thinking” and “are meant to be useful or practical, or to reinforce a fact or learning theme” while “art is a unique form of creativity that inspires each individual child to be original and inventive and to think for himself.” That’s true to a great degree. And the culture tends to favors product over process. So most children think art is coloring books and crayola crayons, and languish for lack of freedom to paint abstractions with giant brushes and sidewalk paint in the driveway or erect cities of great splendor from toothpicks and marshmallows.

On the flip side, art without crafts is nothing. Crafts provides the opportunities to develop specific skills that can be bent and used during artistic endeavors. Indeed, much of art instruction is skill development through crafts. In grade school, my mom taught me the concept of perspective and how to draw a cube and a cylinder by copying her sketches while my aunt taught me the mathematical proportions of the human face for purposes of portraiture. Both my art teacher in junior high and my instructor at college spent most of their classes having us replicate other artwork or still-life arrangements. Public galleries are often scattered with art students bent over easels, copying the work of the masters. The point is not to be another Rembrandt; rather, a close study of Rembrandt can lend something to the quality and character of the student’s original work.

The conflict, then, is not between art and crafts, but the distortions that come from emphasizing one over the other. Art and crafts are equal partners in the creative process. For my own part, I’m now more conscious of the projects I give Evangeline. The majority of her creative work requires only her imagination plus art supplies. But I try to sneak in a couple projects a week where I’m drawing or painting or building something and allowing her to observe and copy if she likes, or even providing her printable coloring sheets where she gets to follow the lines of a third-party artist.

(Photo: The other day Evangeline asked for scissors and construction paper. Then a glue stick. A while later she brought her “boat” over to show me.)

Bethany:

attorney turned stay-at-home mom of two kiddos (3.5 years and 2years old), loving wife, crafter/artist extraordinaire, fashion consultant (to me, anyways), best-friend sister to two of us!

Free to Play!

After writing that post on play, last week, I was reminded of a series I had written almost 3 years ago on open-ended play.  Since that blog no longer exists, I thought I would take some time to repost it here.  It is a ten part series that unpacks exactly what open-ended play is, the benefits and how to cultivate this kind of critical play in our children's lives.  Play is so essential to a child's development and will be a primary topic in one of our upcoming talks at the Arizona Homeschool Convention!

So enjoy!

 Free to Play 

Have you ever peeked in on your child when he or she is totally engrossed in their own little world? It is truly a beautiful thing to behold. Not only are they having fun, but child’s play is actually serious work.

In our fast-paced culture, we seem to be “scheduling” everything. Our kids go from one activity to the next with nary a break in-between. But research has shown that slowing the pace down and giving children the chance to explore is not only more engaging, but critical for optimum development. Children need the freedom to invent and discover. It is so important that we provide play-time where there are no expectations, no specific problems to solve, no rules to follow and no pressure to produce a finished product. Open-ended play helps children build knowledge, skills and creativity at their own pace! It fosters critical thinking instead of merely imitating. In the long-run, instead of merely programming our children to repeat rote facts, our goal should be to raise children who can think for themselves and exhibit creativity. We can begin building the foundation for this now by letting them play!

I'll expand more on this next time...

[Open-Ended Play Series]

PART 1  ~ Free to Play
    PART 2 ~ Sounds Easy Enough
     PART 3 ~ Micro-Managing No More
    PART 4 ~ Keep It Simple
    PART 5 ~ Block Play: Building a Child’s Mind

   PART  6 ~ Playsilks: Inspiring Creativity
 PART 7 ~ Open-Ended Costumes
PART 8 ~ Kitchen Play
PART 9 ~ From Trash to Treasure
PART 10 ~ Making It Work

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Becoming Butterflies...

We've been quite busy over here working on 'becoming butterflies'.  As we learn about patience, our explorations have led us to explore the phenomena of metamorphosis.  In addition to reading some great books like, It's a Butterfly's Life, Houdini the Amazing Caterpillar and The Prince of Butterflies, we had some friends over for some hands-on fun! 

I'm a big fan of making things hands-on and interactive.  This is just ever so much more fun than simply printing off a life cycle printable and gluing pre-designed pictures in order on a piece of paper or labeling some worksheet.  Not only is hands-on learning more fun, it is also a better way to boost long-term retention rates!  They simply learn better this way!

We started out by putting together the stages of a butterflies life to show the dad's later that day and anyone else who would listen to them share over the following week! 

 Nothing quite like the thrill of paint and googly eyes!  The kids enjoyed designing their own caterpillars!

After reviewing how caterpillars simple eyes (hence the googly eyes) then change to compound eyes during metamorphosis, the boys had fun adding left over jewels from our medieval celebrations onto their butterflies!

 But the highlight of the morning was when the boys dramatized the life-cycle of a butterfly.

First, there were five little eggs...

 That hatched and ate everything in sight.  They ate and molted and ate and molted. 

Before forming a chrysalis (or sliding feet first into a sleeping bag).

 
Wriggling, shaking, changing...

Before finally emerging with wings...

Discovering that this whole metamorphosis stuff is exhausting!!!

But worth it for these wriggly little boys! :)

I hope you enjoy a bit of hands-on adventures this week!

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