Category: Hands-on Learning

Beginning Bird Study

Tracy

For our nature study, we are now starting our bird study, and it’s already been so much fun. I love how the Lord blesses with unique opportunities to observe His creation up close.

The kids found this abandoned nest fallen from a tree. The little innocents brought me the nest and a branch, asking me to glue the branch to a tree so that the nest would have a place to go.

We examined the nest and talked about what the bird had used to build the nest. Both the kids got a big kick out of the fact that the nest was made mostly from our dog’s hair! Then Middlest put it in her bicycle basket and rode around with it the rest of the day.

Another fun aspect to our bird study has been the Feeder Bird DVD from Your Backyard. I was actually sent the DVD as part of a giveaway that I won and have really enjoyed it. Kid-friendly and informative, the DVD helps the viewer to identify common feeder birds by sight and sound. Each day, we’ve watched a short segment of the DVD on a particular bird then looked and listened for that particular bird. I’m sure we’ll watch this several times until we get our bird IDs down.

It’s been a fun, relaxed introduction to bird-watching. Regardless of the kids, I can’t wait to learn more!

Fishing for Vertebrates

Tracy

My husband went trout fishing recently and brought home a nice catch of fish. The kids were ecstatic about the whole thing, and the oldest couldn’t wait for Daddy to clean them so that he could see a backbone.

(I was relieved that Daddy got to tackle this dissection since the oldest’s last obsession was to see the backbone of a dead frog he found. I got to do the honors with the frog.)

Unfortunately—or fortunately, depending on your stomach for such things—I did not get pictures of the event, but both of the big kids were very involved in the process and had a blast poking around with the fish waiting to be cleaned. So, after this major family affair, it seemed most natural to read about fish as part of our science lesson the next day. We read about fins and gills and swim bladders. Then we read about cartilage vs. bone, sharks, rays, and lampreys. My son absolutely couldn’t wait to notebook a page about sharks. And the kids have been going around ever since wiggling the tips of their noses and giggling about cartilage.

my son's lego fishing pole, in honor of the occasion

Monets and magazines

Tracy3 Comments on Monets and magazines

For our Monet study this summer, I’m morphing two different resources: a free artist study download and the library book Monet and the Impressionists for kids. I loved this book for our Renoir study and could hardly wait to check it out for our Monet study, not just for the great biographical and art era information but also for the fun project ideas.

Though the text is a little above my kids’ attention spans, I love looking through the pictures with them and reading snippets from the longer story. Key facts and events about the artist, anecdotes that I think they will connect with and enjoy, as well as important art information is what I’m looking for. I also love that for each artist there is a box of “what to look for” that shares characteristics of the artist’s paintings. How do you spot a Monet? Look for light, water, gardens and waterlilies, and his wife and son who often show up in his paintings.

One of the project ideas suggested in this book was to choose a magazine picture of a landscape and paint over the picture, emphasizing the different shades of color more than the objects within the picture itself. It sounded like the perfect project for the kiddos, so I searched my old Better Homes and Gardens issues for just the right picture and then made a color copy so that both kids would have the same picture (for my own sanity).

children art project Monet

Next, the kids donned their plastic garbage bag art aprons (I tear holes for the head and arms), and I prepared their paint palettes. We used some acrylic paints and some poster paints—the ones I had on hand (which meant that the flowers were not colored the exact shade of the photo). I did have to mix a few paints to get the right shades of green and yellow, and had I not run out of white paint, we probably could have matched the flower colors more closely.

painting project

 

preschool painting

All in all, I was pleasantly surprised by how well the kids did with the project, including Middlest. We talked through what colors to use where and used one color at a time before moving to the next color. I also had to instruct them to dab the paint onto the picture rather than sweep their brushes back and forth.

my three-year-old’s finished project
my five-year-old’s finished project

The results were impressive Monet-style art pieces!

 

Read-Aloud Raves: Sylvester and Magic Pebble

Tracy

I was first introduced to the author William Steig with Dr. Desoto books (which I’ll probably rave about at some point I’m sure). I like his wit and humor and his sneaky way of teaching valuable lessons. Sylvester and the Magic Pebble is just such a book.

Read-alouds for children

Sylvester the donkey finds a magic pebble that grants his wishes. On the way to tell his parents about his find, he encounters a lion and, frightened and flustered by the encounter, quickly wishes that he were a rock. Only once he became a rock, he realized there was no way to pick up the pebble and wish to be himself again. His mom and dad miss him terribly, and no one can figure out what happened to him. When spring comes around once more, his parents decide to go on a picnic in an attempt to cheer up, but even on the picnic, all they can think about is poor Sylvester—how much he would have liked the picnic, how much he would have liked a particular pebble. His mom sets the pebble on top of the rock they are using for a picnic table. Sylvester, unaware that the pebble is his magic pebble, wishes (as he has many times before) to be himself. Only this time, his wish is granted! As the family joyfully hugs and listens to Sylvester’s tale of his magic pebble, they all realize there is absolutely nothing more they could wish for.

It’s a lesson I am continually working on with my children: to be happy with what they have, to not continually wish for what they do not have.

What books have you used to reinforce your character lessons?

Read-Aloud Raves: The Flea’s Sneeze

Tracy

Talk about a fun book to read aloud to your kids! The Flea’s Sneeze has everything I love in a read-aloud: rhythm and rhyme, humor, and a good storyline.

I could tell from the very first page that this book was a favorite. We read it three times in a row in the first sitting, and I woke up the next morning to the sound of my son reading it to his sister, complete with the nasally last line: “I dink I godda sdeeze!” I giggled even after reading it 20 jillion times. To see my kids so tickled with certain lines in the book, to hear them quoting it through the house—it made my book-loving heart flutter every time. This book was a treasure, so much so that we renewed it just so we could read and giggle a few trillion times more.

What book has had you giggling with your kids lately?

First Summer Science Lesson

Tracy

While working for A Beka Book, I met a science teacher who was helping us with some science texts: she wrote, and I edited. And, of course, being women and mothers and all, we chatted. A comment she made during one of our chats stuck with me for years. It was an insignificant remark really, one of those comments that slips into a conversation virtually unnoticed but then never leaves you. She just happened to mention that she taught her five year old son the correct animal classifications. He knew, for instance, that a whale was a mammal, not a fish.

“How much harder is it to teach him the right information?” she stated very simply.

My son was barely two at the time, but I was left in awe at the fact that a five year old could learn about mammals vs. fish. I put her theory to the test this last year, and both my kids learned about mammals, fish, reptiles, birds, amphibians, and arthropods as we ventured through our geography study and learned of animals from other countries.

This summer, I wanted to extend those lessons to our backyard and expand on our information just a bit. Nothing too intense—a read-aloud and nature study format rather than a formal study. A friend loaned me her copy of Answers in Genesis’ World of Animals textbook, which we are using as a read-aloud. And I tried it out the other day on our first day of summer science.

Lesson 1: vertebrates and invertebrates.

I read the page and a half of text while waiting for my breakfast to finish toasting (the kids had eaten earlier while I was feeding the baby). As I slathered home-made apple butter on my toast, we discussed vertebrates and invertebrates. I had them feel each other’s backbones, and we talked about which creatures had backbones and which didn’t. Then, I named different creatures while they shouted out either vertebrate or invertebrate. We did this a number of times; then, I called out vertebrate or invertebrate, and they shouted out a creature.

Finally, I sent them on their assignment: go outside and find one vertebrate and one invertebrate, then come back in and tell me about it. I ate my breakfast in silence while they roamed the yard. A few minutes later, they burst into the house with their answers—a squirrel and a bee.

The nature study books were thrown open and the coloring pencils busily sketched their lesson. I even pulled out my Usborne I Can Draw Animals for a quick lesson on how to draw a bee.

 

A fun first summer science lesson, and all before I’d eaten breakfast!

 

Disclaimer: I am a consultant for Usborne books because they are a mainstay for our homeschool. Find out how you can get free/discounted Usborne books for your home library.

Read-Aloud Raves: Leo the Lightning Bug

Tracy

Remember the old audio books we grew up with? You plugged in your cassette tape and heard the chimes to turn the page in your storybook? I loved those books! And my kids have eagerly taken on the addiction.

To be honest, though, I didn’t realize this was an audio book until I got it home. I noticed it had an award sticker on it (always a heads-up that it’s probably a really good book), and I quickly read the jacket flap to get the gist of the story. Then, I threw it in my library bag and moved along.

Leo the Lightning Bug is perhaps the cutest audio story I’ve heard in awhile, performed by several voice talents. A particularly adorable lightning bug is discouraged that he is the only one among his friends whose light won’t light up. His mother gives him the age-old advice of “time and practice,” which little Leo takes to heart. He tries and tries and tries, even through a thunder storm. Then, after crack of thunder, a brilliant flash of light streaks across the sky and Leo thinks he’s done it! That boost of confidence is just what he needs to really do it the next time. Time and practice, and little Leo doesn’t feel so little anymore.

It’s a story I didn’t mind hearing over and over again. Because, as with any good library book, we did hear it over and over and over again.

What story did you hear repeated this week?