Tot School Week 7

Alpaca Farm:  We began week 7 with a fun field trip.  Because Isaac and Moriah had just studied Peru, I arranged a visit to a nearby alpaca farm.  They had pygmy goats, rabbits, micro pigs, dogs, chickens, and a duck, as well as over 20 alpacas.  How fun!

Apple Sensory Tub:  Gabriela kept pretending to “feed the pigs” with the peas, so finally I rounded up all the pigs (and a few chickens…and a few border collies) from our farm set and put in the sensory tub for her.  She loves the additions!

Rainbow Aquadraw—Always a favorite!

We began our apple unit this week!

1.  Apple Count & Clip—I found this free printable at 2 Teaching Mommies.  I laminated the cards, cut them apart, and punched a hole in the top of each, because one of these days I’m going to find those rings I have somewhere in the house!  We haven’t really worked on number recognition, so I was surprised that Gabriela knew several of them.  I’m going to do more activities like this!  She liked clipping the clothespins on the cards.

2.  Applesauce Making—She loves cooking with Daddy, and she also loves eating apple peels!

Ballet—Using DVDs.

Field Trip to Woolsthorpe Manor--birthplace and home of Sir Isaac Newton (and really cool discovery centre in one of the outbuildings)

Human Sundial:

Famous apple tree:

Discovery Centre:

I’m linking this post to “Tot School” at 1+1+1=1.

Tot School: Weeks 5-6

Gabriela has reached the point where she wants to play more than “do school.”  This is perfectly okay, in my opinion.  Play time is very important at this age, and I won’t cheat her of it.  As a result, however, we are doing less in Tot School.  The good thing is that if I let her play for awhile, she’ll eventually come and tell me, “I want to do school now.”  Even if I did have perfectly wonderful school plans for Gabriela this year, I’m allowing myself to relax and let her be a little girl.  She’s only 4 (only JUST 4) anyway.  I’m not going to pressure myself into forcing school upon her just so I can blog about it and show how smart she is ; ).  Anyway…enough about that.  I’ll show you what we did week 5.  Week 6 she had a birthday, and I mostly let her play with her new toys.  So…I’ll post her birthday pictures and show you what she got!

Week 5

Letter C Activities:   

Geometric Blocks and Making Pizza:

Playing with conkers:

Field Trip to TechniQuest Science Discovery Centre (one day a month they do a special program just for homeschoolers):

In addition to all the hand-on stuff, we also got to go inside a large inflatable planetarium.  Very cool place!

LAURI stacking pegs:

Apple Sensory Tub:  You can read more about this month’s sensory tub HERE.

Coloring Time (and a cute photo of my princess):

Hi-Q game:  Mostly she just took the pegs in and out.

Mein buntes Turmchen-spiel: Yeah.  I don’t know how this game is supposed to be played…the instructions are not in English.

Week 6

Letter D Activities:

We made letters out of the purplinker, but then she decided it was a crown.  Matching letter D’s (right).

Playing with a magnetic Sudoku set—we lined up numbers from 1-9.

She practiced writing her name:

Play-dough letters: I rolled out the pieces, and she pieced them together to make letters A-D.

Happy 4th Birthday, Gabriela!!!

Wooden Chocolate Cutting Cake (I’m loving wooden toys), Littlest Pet Shop toy, and Princess dress-up set:

Wooden toaster set from ELC.  She also got a Rapunzel doll (her favorite movie is Tangled).

Wooden cake stand with wooden desserts—so cute!  Also, a London bus (with little people) from ELC.

I’m linking this post to “Tot School” at 1+1+1=1.