Preschool Road Safety Craft

Today our home(pre)school co-op kicked off our safety month with a lesson about road safety.

Our host mom showed a cartoon about road safety, and we talked about holding parents' hands when crossing the street and not running after balls that roll into the road. She also made traffic light cookies (rectangular sugar cookies on popsicle sticks, decorated with green, yellow, and red M&Ms). So cute! (One thing we didn't do is to have the kids play the game Red Light Green Light, but they were having so much fun playing other things that it wasn't missed.)

I wish I could have taken a better photo of the craft, but my phone is currently out of commission, and this is the best I could do with my webcam. Had I been able to take a panoramic shot, you would have seen there are four cars in total.

Our host mom cut black poster board length-wise (so the poster board strips were each 2'4" by 5 1/2"). Then she pre-painted a white dashed line down the middle of each. I think she probably used White-Out for the dashed line.

First, our preschoolers drove toy cars with paint on their wheels down their streets. My daughter chose blue and fluorescent pink paint. They loved doing this. (Fluorescent colors are great choices for this craft.)

Next, they got to glue on cars, and a traffic light (made from construction paper circles and a popsicle stick). Some of the little ones used markers to draw stick people driving the cars.

Finally, they glued on stickers of balls (footballs, soccer balls, and baseballs) as a reminder not to go into the road when their balls roll into the street.

How to Plan a Preschool Field Day

How do you plan a field day for preschoolers?

Well, here's how my husband and I did it...

1. Start with a story.

What better story to read than The Hare and the Tortoise? It's probably the most well-known tale about a race, and it has an important message for preschoolers: Be a good sport. It's not nice to brag and try to make other people feel bad. We're also supposed to feel happy for our friends when they're happy. Lastly, sports are supposed to be fun, plain and simple.

2. Discuss good sportsmanship.

• You can talk about how being a good sport translates to playing board games like Candyland.
• Explain what it means to cheer on your team.
• Give each other high-fives.
• Practice shaking hands and saying, "Good game."

3. Award medals before the events.

You can purchase a dozen award medals at a party supply store for anywhere from $3.99 to $6.99. Pass these out as a reminder to be a good sport.

4. Three events preschoolers love:

• In and Out: Set 6 upside-down pails in a straight line, and time each child as they run "in and out" between the pails. After everyone has had a turn, let each child have a second turn to improve their time. (You can use the stopwatch feature on your phone, and don't forget your clipboard!)
• Standing Long Jump: Put down a tape measure and see how far each child can jump. Let each child have a practice turn and a "real" turn.
• The Throw: Again using the tape measure, give each child a plastic baseball (like the ones from Little Tikes t-ball) and let them see how far they can throw it. (Set up the upside-down pails to create boundaries, three on one side and three on the other, and show children how to aim down the middle.) Let each child have two balls and record their best distance.

5. Have fun - and snacks! 

Preschoolers won't care at all about their scores, but they will love the math lesson of looking at the tape measure and identifying the number their ball is near. Most importantly, have fruit, pretzels, string cheese, and juice boxes. Your little ones will have worked up a big appetite.

Have you ever planned a field day for preschoolers? What events did you do?

Leaf Year: Our Plans for Preschool 2015-2016

I'm calling this year "Leaf Year" in honor of my grandmother who taught kindergarten in Lebanon in the 1940s and 1950s. In Lebanon, kindergarten was four years. The three year olds were Seeds, the four year olds were Sprouts, the five year olds were Leaves, and the six year olds were Flowers. After kindergarten, the students went on to grammar school. Since Daughter will be starting formal instruction in two years, this is her Leaf Year. 

While Charlotte Mason didn't do "preschool," we will continue doing informal lessons in various subjects.

We're also going to be participating in a Classical Conversations community starting in September, so we'll be blending CC into CM.

PHONICS/READING INSTRUCTION:

For phonics instruction, we'll be continuing with The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading by Jessie Wise and Sara Buffington. We're currently on Lesson 147 (of 231), so I anticipate finishing this book by the end of K4.

We started our phonics instruction with Englemann's Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. When we completed it, I got The Ordinary Parent's Guide. We didn't start back at the beginning. We actually skipped to Lesson 178 and worked on Simple Two Syllable Words. From there, I assessed some of her needs (soft g, -igh words, silent b in words like climb, ou as short u in words like touch, -dge words, etc.) and I skipped around in the book to find lessons to meet those needs. Then we got settled around Lesson 116, and started moving forward from there.

We don't do The Ordinary Parent's Guide daily, but I do have her read to me every day. For example, this morning she read "A Lost Button" from Frog and Toad Are Friends by Arnold Lobel (grade level equivalent 2.4). So, my plans also include continuing to encourage her to read aloud to me and making lots of below-grade-level and at-grade-level books available so she can develop fluency.

WRITING:

No

MATH:

1. We're continuing with Mathematical Reasoning Level B (1st grade), which she's halfway through.
2. We also use Khan Academy sometimes; she's half done with Early Math (K through 2).
3. Using Classical Conversations, we're going to work on skip counting and other math memory work.

COMPOSER STUDY:

We listen to classical music on Pandora or YouTube. Again, this is currently informal.

In Classical Conversations, she will listen to:

• Handel
• Bach
• Mozart

It would be easy for a CMer to blend CC with CM in this area. Just use each of these composers for each of the three terms.

POETRY:

We read from books like The Real Mother Goose and The Random House Book of Poetry for Children on occasion. Currently informal.

FOLK SONGS:

We listen to folk songs on Pandora or YouTube. Currently informal.

BIBLE:

1. We're currently using Grapevine Traceables: Old Testament Part 1. We'll continue with that (there are four more lessons, so I'm assuming that will take us to mid-August). We both like this curriculum, so we'll continue with the next unit.
2. Church Mice weekly (Bible stories, crafts, songs)
3. In Classical Conversations, she'll memorize the 10 Commandments.

HYMNS:

1. Again, Pandora and YouTube
2. Church Mice songs

ART:

In Classical Conversations this year, they learn about:

• Giotto
• Ghiberti
• Angelico
• Durer
• Michaelangelo
• El Greco  

And, because I like museums, I'm sure we'll visit some.

Again, a CMer could blend CC with CM here by choosing three out of the six above artists to focus on for the year, one artist per term.

PIANO:

We're continuing with Alfred Basic. Short lessons, five minutes maximum. It's all about building up finger strength and the discipline of practice right now. At present, Daughter can:

• identify a quarter note (and tell that you count one for a quarter note)
• identify a half note (and tell that you count one-two for a half note)
• find middle C (and show that middle C is the 4th C)

FOREIGN LANGUAGES:

• Spanish: We're continuing with The Complete Book of Spanish Grades 1-3. We're not doing this book in order. We're skipping around, completing one topic at a time. So far, Daughter knows numbers, foods, clothes, colors, etc.
• Latin: We're continuing with Song School Latin Book 1 and DVDs. We got the DVDs before we got the book, and she's watched the DVDs twice. Now we're layering the lessons from the book on top of what she already knows. I think this is a great way to do this program with a pre-writer/pre-reader.

P.E.:

• We've got swim lessons for the next month, and I will probably sign her up for another round of weekly lessons after that. She loves it, and it's inexpensive for Santa Monica residents. (I think it works out to $5.25 per lesson. You can't beat that.)
• We're continuing with weekly ballet/tap for the year!

NATURAL HISTORY/SCIENCE:

• We take lots of walks, and she's started asking me what certain plants are and patiently waiting while I look up information on my phone.
• In Classical Conversations, there is science memory work.
• We also have lots of Magic School Bus books and books from the Let's Read and Find Out Science series that we like to read.
• We always have a science project going on. Presently, we are growing rock candy (for the second time) in our kitchen.

HISTORY:

In Classical Conversations:

• learning the timeline song (world history)
• Ancient Civilizations memory work

GEOGRAPHY:

In Classical Conversations, their focus this year is on the geography related to Ancient Civilizations.

LITERATURE:

I don't have all (or any) of our read alouds for the year picked out. I really enjoyed Milly Molly Mandy last year, so I might choose a sequel. But I am looking forward to our chapter book time. Last year, some books we enjoyed were Paddington, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Milly Molly Mandy, and Brambly Hedge.

Linked up with ihomeschoolnetwork's 7th Annual Not Back To School Blog Hop. :)

Preschool Spider Craft

My three-year-old (whose favorite color is green) made this spider & web craft at the Natural History Museum on Sunday.

All you need are 6 notched popsicle sticks, 2 little pieces of double sided tape (or Mom can hot glue the sticks together) 1 pipe cleaner cut into fourths, and yarn.

Attach the popsicle sticks with the tape (as shown).

Starting from the center, wrap the piece of yarn around a notch, then go to the next stick and wrap around another notch. Continue until you run out of notches. Wrap around last notch a couple of times to secure.

Put the four pipe cleaner pieces together and twist. Bend each of the spider legs once. Put your spider on its web.

Teach Your Preschooler to Read

Here is a video of a reading lesson with my three-year-old (3 years 5 months). We are currently on Lesson 61 in Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. During the lesson, she is eating a popsicle and stops occasionally to take bites of it. Also, when I ask her comprehension questions, or when I can't understand what she's saying, she likes to act out her answers. For example, in the video, when I ask a question to which the answer is "sleep," my daughter pretends to snore. (Sometimes, she'll run out of the room and run back in holding a prop. During this lesson, there was a dog in the story, so my daughter pretended to be a dog.)

Review of "Lollipop Logic"

Lollipop Logic (Book 1) by Bonnie Risby and Robert K. Risby II is designed for use with children in grades K through 2. It features 52 lessons, each a single page, reproducible and easy-to-use.

The book includes activities in seven categories: 1)Sequences, 2)Relationships, 3)Analogies, 4)Deduction, 5)Pattern Decoding, 6)Inference, and 7)Criteria Analysis.

There are 8 "Sequences" activities. These activities ask the child to put a set of pictures in order. (The book is designed for pre-readers.) For example, the third lesson asks student to order 6 pictures of a pear tree and a basket of pears. The correct order for this lesson is 6 pears on the tree and 0 in the basket, 4 pears on the tree and 2 in the basket, 3 pears on the tree and 3 in the basket, and so on. At first, my three-year-old thought the tree with one pear came first, because she has learned to count 1, 2, 3... But then I told her a story about a person who went out with his empty basket to pick pears off his pear tree, and she was able to figure out the correct sequence after the prompt. (I had to remind myself that she wasn't taking an I.Q. test, she was learning to use logic.)

"Relationships" has 8 activities. Four of the activities ask students to find a picture in a set of four pictures that has something in common with an item. The next four activities ask students to find things that do not belong in a group of similar items (sports equipment, musical instruments, tools, round things). Examples: Find something that has something in common with a shoe (eye, foot, tire). Find something that has something in common with a cube (baseball, conical party hat, cube-shaped gift box). Find something that has something in common with a birthday cake (birthday party hat, book, pencil).

In the section on "Analogies," there are 8 activities. Again, because this book is for pre-readers, all analogies use pictures. Examples: Big fish is to little fish as big cat is to (dog, back of cat, kitten). Dog is to bone as bunny is to (carrot, Easter egg, hamburger).

"Deduction" has 7 activities. Each Deduction activity shows 4 characters (2 boys, 2 girls) and 4 items, and asks children to figure out which item belongs with which child, using 3 clues. For example, "Snack Time" asks children to figure out which character brought which food for snack time. (One clue is "Ron and the boy with the apple sat together under a tree to eat their snacks." Based on that information, the child knows that Ron did not bring the apple, but the other boy did.)

There are 8 "Pattern Decoding" activities. Examples: Moon, moon, star, moon, moon (sun, moon, star, raincloud). Plane, boat, boat, plane, boat (train, car, boat, plane).

The "Inference" activities are like putting together puzzles. In the first four activities, children are basically asked to put the last piece in a puzzle. These activities are followed by 2 activities in which children look at puzzle pieces and must determine what the pictures are on the puzzles; each puzzle has 5 pieces. The next 2 activities ask children to decide which pictures go together (in one column there is a snowman, rainclouds, a smiling sun and smiling flowers AND in the other column there is an umbrella, a kite, and a sled.) Lastly, there are 2 activities that ask children to guess what each item is by only showing part of it, like a "close-up." (For example, a pig body with a curly tail, but the child can't see the pig's face.)

Lastly, there are 3 Criteria Analysis activities. These puzzles show silly creatures and ask children to determine which creatures fit certain criteria. For example, Oggs all have tails. Creatures that are not Oggs do not have tails. The lesson presents 6 creatures and asks which are Oggs. (The activity does not tell children that all Oggs have tails. Children must look at the Oggs and figure out what they all have in common, and what they have that the non-Oggs do not have.)

My daughter likes all of the lessons. We got the book yesterday, did about a dozen activities, stopping while she was still loving it, and tonight she begged to do more lessons. There are 3 books in this series, and I'm sure I'll be buying the other two.

Lollipop Logic is stamped with a seal that says it "Aligns with the Common Core State Standards."* As a homeschooler, I don't care. I really don't care.

As a fourth grade teacher who must teach lessons aligned with the CCSS, who just so happened to be teaching a lesson on Patterning from our district mandated math curriculum today, I wondered if Bonnie Risby had written Common Core-aligned logic books for 4th graders. She has.

*(This book was "aligned" before there was a Common Core, which is why I bought it. In other words, it didn't start out CC. Nothing changed from its original publication other than a page at the back of the book that lists what standards it meets. In case you're curious - let's pretend you are - it meets kindergarten and 1st grade standards in both math and literacy.)

(This is not a paid review. I just think this book is awesome.) 

Mind Blowing Science: Colorful Jiggly Crystals

What the My First Mind Blowing Science kit includes for making Colorful Jiggly Crystals:
citric acid
baking soda
red cabbage powder
polyacrylamide crystals
3 plastic cups
2 measuring spoons
stir sticks

What Mom needs to get from the kitchen:
a pitcher of water
a plate to catch spills

1)Fill 2 cups 3/4 full with water.

 2)Add baking soda to the first cup and citric acid to the second cup.

 3)Add red cabbage powder to both cups.

4)Pour 1/3 of the red water and a 1/3 of the blue water in the third cup.

5)Add 2 scoops of polyacrylamide crystals to each of the cups.

6)Cry when Mommy tells you that you have to wait for an hour to see what happens.

7)Help Mommy take cake out of oven. 

7)Make a collage cow.

8)Check your crystals.

Mind Blowing Science: Color Changing Liquids

A few months ago, my 3-year-old received a Clifford Science Kit for her birthday. After doing all of the experiments in it, she wanted more. She wanted a box filled with things to mix together, so I did some research and decided on the Poof Slinky product My First Mind Blowing Science kit. I chose this kit because 1)it was a chemistry kit, 2)the reviews said it included the science behind why the reactions occurred, unlike some children's kits which are marketed more as science magic, and 3)because it had most of the ingredients included (many children's science "kits" are colorful cardboard boxes containing next to nothing...and a pipette).

Color Changing Liquids is Activity #2. (Activity #1 was "Dancing Powders," which is essentially the vinegar and baking soda volcano. The majority of children's kits include the vinegar and baking soda volcano because children love it. I am not children. Vinegar and baking soda teach nothing about volcanoes. But I digress...)

The kit came with citric acid, baking soda, red cabbage powder, 3 plastic cups, 2 little spoons (different sizes), and stir sticks. All you need is water and a plate. I like a kit that can be used as soon as you open the box. What if a child receives this on Christmas and wants to play with it immediately? He or she can. With most kits, the list of what is included in the kit is shorter than the list of what Mom needs to get.

Together, we poured water into two cups.

My daughter added a scoop of red cabbage powder to each cup.

Red cabbage is a natural dye.

She put a scoop of baking soda in one. The water changed color to bluish purple (below). She put a scoop of citric acid to the second cup. It changed color too; it got redder.

A is for Acid (citric acid) B is for Base (and Baking soda)

She mixed some red water and some bluish purple water into the third cup and it changed back to purple. It did not fizz or bubble as the instructions said it would.

If the solution is blue, it is basic. Slightly blue = slightly basic. Purple = neutral. Pink = slightly acidic. Red = very acidic. (Green is very basic, but we never had green water.)

Urinary System Lesson for Preschoolers

A mom-friend taught last week's home(pre)school group lesson on the urinary system. She explained that each of us has two kidneys (represented by the kidney beans) that filter blood and produce urine and a bladder (represented by the yellow sticker) that holds the urine until we go potty,  Daddy helped our daughter (age 3 years 4 months) with her picture (note the red high tops). The best part was that Daughter retained the information she learned! The next day, she said her bladder was full and that she needed to hurry to the potty.

Blood

Yesterday, I taught three-year-olds about blood. It was my turn to host our weekly home(pre)school group and the theme this month is The Human Body. Our group has an emergent curriculum, meaning we design the curriculum on what emerges from our children. My blood lesson emerged from my three-year-old wanting to know why I told her not to pick her scabs.

We started the lesson with a song. My husband played guitar and sang a really simple song I wrote and set to the tune of "The Wheels on the Bus." (My husband also figured out that it worked to the tune of '90s one-hit-wonders 4 Non Blondes' "What's Up.") I didn't make up hand motions, but if you want to use it and you come up with some, all the better!

The heart is a muscle for pumping blood
Pumping blood
Pumping blood
The heart is a muscle for pumping blood
All around my body

The red blood cells carry oxygen
Oxygen
Oxygen
The red blood cells carry oxygen
All around my body

The white blood eat the germs
Eat the germs
Eat the germs
The white blood cells eat the germs
All around my body

Platelets help my owies heal
Owies heal
Owies heal
Platelets help my owies heal
All around my body

Then I read the book A Drop of Blood by Paul Showers. The book is a little advanced for three-year-olds, but I stopped after each page to give the kids a task. (I love this book. It stars Dracula and Igor and the illustrations are fantastic.)

After the first page, we stopped to measure how many cups of blood we have in our bodies. The estimates I found varied, so I averaged our number at 1 cup of blood for every 7.5 pounds. This means that a 30 pound preschooler has (approximately) 4 cups of blood. The kids loved helping pour water into the measuring cup, pouring water from the cup into a bowl, and then passing the bowl around to feel how heavy their "blood" was.

After the second page, we started our blood model...

Blood Model Recipe

Corn syrup - plasma

Red Hots - red blood cells

Mini-marshmallows - white blood cells

Rainbow sprinkles - platelets

I had every child pour in a bit of each ingredient. For red blood cells and platelets, I gave each child a small handful of Red Hots and sprinkles, but for white blood cells, each child only got one mini-marshmallow to put into our "blood."

I wasn't going for accuracy, but if you're curious...
According to Hematology.org, blood is 55% plasma, 40% to 45% red blood cells, 1% white blood cells, and platelets (fragments of cells).

After the book, we painted people cookies with icing veins and arteries. (Veins are not really blue. This is just the color that diagrams use to show the difference between deoxygenated venous blood and oxygenated arterial blood. Arteries and away start with the same letter; this is how I was taught in high school to remember that blood flows away from the heart in arteries. For an explanation on why veins look blue when you look at your wrist, check out this.) We did use blue and red icing, but we talked about how blood is really just red.

Finally, we painted circulatory system paper bag vests. (Thank you Mom for creating the circulatory system graphic. It's under all that paint somewhere.)...

Who knew blood could be so fun?

Teach Your Preschooler to Read #2

My three-year-old just finished Lesson 48 (in Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons by Engelmann). Each lesson includes picture comprehension. After the child reads the story (three or four sentences by this point), the child looks at a picture related to the story and answers a handful of easy questions. This story was about a cold man who got a goat with lots of hats and coats and socks, and gave the cold man a hat and coat and socks - so he wouldn't be cold anymore. One of the questions the book asks is "What would you do if you were that goat?" The child is supposed to respond, "I would give the cold man a coat so he wouldn't be cold." Here is how my three-year-old answered:

"I would put on my clothes and go outside and do gymnastics with my goat family. I always wanted to be a goat."

To hear my my three-year-old reading earlier this week, click here, and to read more about how and why I teach my three-year old to read, click here.

Teach Your Preschooler To Read?

"Reading presents itself first amongst the lessons to be used as instruments of education, although it is open to discussion whether the child should acquire the art unconsciously, from his infancy upwards, or whether the effort should be deferred until he is, say, six or seven, and then made with vigour." (Charlotte Mason, Vol. 1, page 199)

"In this time of extraordinary pressure, educational and social, perhaps a mother's first duty to her children is to secure for them a quiet growing time, a full six years of passive receptive life, the waking part of it spent for the most part out in the fresh air."   (Vol. 1, page 43)

"In the first place, it is not her business to entertain the little people: there should be no story-books, no telling of tales, as little talk as possible, and that to some purpose." (Vol. 1, page 45)

Charlotte Mason believed that reading lessons (and other formal schooling) should wait until a child was age six. This is one of the areas with which I disagree with Mason.

While I agree that a child should not be made to sit down at a desk in the early years, I do believe young children should be taught (gently) how to read. I disagree that some children learn "unconsciously," and I can say that having been an early reader and as the mother of an early reader.

When I entered kindergarten, I was four years old. This was in the early 1980s. (A few years ago, in the district where I teach, parents could not send a four-year-old to school. Recently, this was changed so parents can enroll their four-year-olds in something called "Transitional Kindergarten" or T.K. Kindergarten itself is no longer seen as transitional. I digress. T.K. is not a separate class. T.K. students are placed in regular kindergarten classes. If a child successfully completes T.K., the child can move on to first grade. If a child does not successfully complete T.K., the child repeats kindergarten as a kindergartener.) Within the first week of school, my kindergarten teacher told my mother there was nothing she could teach me and that I should be moved into the first grade. For legal reasons, I could not be placed in first grade until I was five years old, so on my fifth birthday - November 7th - two months into school - I moved into Miss Casey's first grade class.

This didn't happen by accident. I didn't just "unconsciously" learn to read. My mother taught me using flashcards and storybooks.

A very little child is capable of seeing the Golden Arches and making the connection that those Golden Arches symbolize McDonald's. If a child can do this, a child can read. (The image at the top of this post is an environmental print alphabet. Preschoolers learn to associate these symbols with what they represent through repeated exposure. This means, even if you aren't doing flashcards with your children, companies like Lego are.)

I did not, as my mother had done with me, start using flashcards with my daughter when she was an infant. However, we did do baby sign language (symbol = meaning) and my daughter was able to understand and use about 20 signs.

When my daughter turned a year old, her Tia Estela gave her a toy that stuck to the refrigerator (Fridge Phonics by LeapFrog) and played each letter's sound in a song. My initial reactions were:

• Isn't it a little early for phonics?
• What's the rush?
• Ugh, it's battery operated. My child's creative growth will be stunted.
• Maybe I can keep it hidden away until she turns two.

I was also grateful to Estela for the present. She's also an elementary school teacher, and an amazing one at that. I fell in love with Fridge Phonics.

So, through play, we started learning letter sounds. My aunt Barbara - a homeschooler - gave me a LeapFrog's Letter Factory DVD. (Battery operated toys AND T.V.?! What kind of parent was I?!)

I love that DVD. It's fabulous. A must-have.

Shortly after my daughter turned two, after my daughter knew all of the letter sounds, I started Consonant-Vowel-Consonant (CVC) words (cat, can, dog, dot...). And when she was 2 1/2, I bought Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons by Engelmann.

It was slow going at first because my daughter's attention span was short and I only wanted reading to be a pleasurable experience. Each lesson is broken up into about a dozen minilessons ("tasks") but the title Teach Your Child to Read in 1,200 Lessons probably wouldn't sell as well. We'd do three tasks and that would be that.

Now, my daughter is 3 years 3 months and recently, things just clicked. She completed a whole lesson and wanted to start another one (Mommy was the one who was tired and needed to stop). This is how it's been going for the past week.

So, my 3 year old is on lesson 41, having just read:

The cow sat on a little gate. The cow said, "The gate is hot." She said, "I hate hot gates." She said, "I will run now."

I like Teach Your Child To Read for the most part. But there are problems with it.

For example, when teaching the child sight words such as "said," the script has the parent telling the child to sound it out (lesson after lesson) and "That's how we sound out the word. This is how we say the word." The book does say to say, "It's a funny word." But I think the word should be introduced as a "funny word" (or, as my daughter says, a silly word). All that said, it's not a huge problem.

Another problem I have come across is that children are supposed to sound out "ow" words instead of learning that "ow" says "OW!" - the sound you make when you get pinched.

Teach your young child to read, if the child enjoys it. If not, go ahead and wait. Or, ask yourself if you're having enough fun with the lesson. Think of Mary Poppins:

In every job that must be done,

there is an element of fun.

You find the fun and

SNAP!

The job's a game.

(The above image was found on Pinterest in a Google search for "environmental print.")

Ziploc Baggie Ice Cream

Today was my day to host our home(pre)school group. My intention was for the kids to play in the park's splash pad, make our own ice cream, and read "Summer" from Arnold Lobel's Frog and Toad All Year (in which Toad buys Frog and himself chocolate ice cream cones but winds up with the ice cream - and sticks and leaves - all over him).

Toad as an ice cream "thing"

We did not get around to the story, but the ice cream was a success!

If you haven't done this, DO. Here's how:
1)Get two sandwich sized Ziploc baggies and put one inside the other. (I recommend double-bagging so salt doesn't get on the baggie with the ice cream in it, or so as little salt as possible gets on the ice cream baggie.)
2)Put 1/2 cup of milk in the inner baggie. (I've done this with both 1 percent and whole milk. You can also do this with heavy cream or half and half, and I'm guessing nonfat would work too. It just depends how rich you want to make your ice cream.)
3)Add 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract.
4)Put the sandwich sized baggies inside a gallon Ziploc.
5)Put 6 tablespoons of salt in the bag and cover the "ice cream" with ice cubes. (One recipe said 4 cups, but the important thing is to cover the "ice cream." Also, I've done this with both sea salt and rock salt, and both work. Any salt will work, but recipes recommend larger crystals.)
6)Put on your oven mitts (or mittens, or socks on your hands - it gets REALLY cold) and shake until the ice cream solidifies. Some recipes say five minutes. One try, I shook for exactly 6 1/2 minutes and that worked (I watched the stopwatch on my phone). The important thing is to shake until the ice cream feels really hard. (The salt will turn the ice into brine and saltwater will drip out of the bag, so doing this outside is a really good idea.)
7)Take the sandwich-sized baggies out. If you have ice water nearby to rinse the outer baggie, do. If not, it's okay. Carefully take out the inner baggie. You'll taste a tiny bit of salt, but the ice cream will still be good; one mom suggested adding a tiny bit of caramel sauce to the inner baggie for a "salted caramel" treat -Yum.
8)You can add a small amount of chocolate sauce or strawberry topping (or caramel sauce), or any other mix-in to the baggie, seal, and give it an extra couple of squishes.
9)Squeeze the ice cream into a waffle cone. Top with sprinkles (or your favorite topping). Enjoy.

(This makes one serving.)

The average freezing point (also called the melting point) of milk is -.54 degrees Celsius (which is 31.028 degrees Fahrenheit). The freezing point of milk is just a tiny bit lower than the freezing point of water (0 degrees Celsius/32 degrees Fahrenheit), so you need salt's help. Salt lowers the temperature. For a chemistry lesson on why salt lowers the freezing point of water (including an animation) click here.

Teaching Herself to Write

Bathtub Crayon

My still-two-years-old-for-another-month daughter is teaching herself to write.  I can't stop her.  I didn't think I'd be thinking about this for at least another year or two.  I know the Orthodox Masonite would say not to start teaching her how to write, but I had thought that when we did start - in first grade - that we would do cursive first.

My plans may need adjusting.

The Duty of Cooking

My not-quite-three-year-old sauteing shrimp.  She ate all of those, by the way, just like that, for dinner.

From Charlotte Mason's Formation of Character, pages 258 - 259:
Every woman should understand, and know how to perform, every duty of cooking or cleaning, mending or making, proper to a house; and a regular, practical course of training under her mother's eye might well occupy an hour or two of the girl's morning. May I suggest the great use and value of a household book, in which the young housekeeper notes down exactly how to do everything, from the scouring of a floor to the making of an omelet, either as she has done it herself, or has watched it being done, with the little special wrinkles that every household gathers. 

Now, Mason's reason for this was not so the woman would be able to cook her own dinner, but so she could instruct the help as to how things should be done.  I think it is of even more importance now for children to learn to cook because it is highly unlikely they will, in their adult lives, be employing their own Mrs. Patmores.

Though my daughter is too young to keep a household book, I've been letting her cook since she could stand on a chair.  She chops vegetables with a crinkle cutter and scrambles eggs.  While baking sugar cookies, she once cracked an egg one-handed without getting any eggshell into the mixing bowl!

I supervise her very closely.

Mason went on to say that girls should not just be taught how to be homemakers.  From page 266: 
[...]What is to be done with a family of grown-up daughters? It is not enough that they learn a little cooking, a little dressmaking, a little clear-starching. Every one of them should have a thorough recognised training for some art or profession whereby she may earn her living, doing work useful to the world, and interesting and delightful to herself, as is all skilled labour of head or hands.

Early Education

In this time of extraordinary pressure, educational and social, perhaps a mothers first duty to her children is to secure for them a quiet growing time, a full six years of passive receptive life, the waking part of it spent for the most part out in the fresh air. - Charlotte Mason, Home Education, Volume 1, page 42

Mason believed children ages 0-5 should not receive a formal education.  To understand this more, I think it's important to look at the time in which Mason lived, and to what she was reacting.

By 1880, British law required all children between the ages of 5 and 10 to go to primary school.  This was to ensure that all children had, at minimum, a basic education.  Mason disagreed with this mandate.

If Mason were here today, sitting in my living room, what would she have to say about subjects such as preschool, transitional kindergarten, and 21st century kindergarten?  (She had a lot to say against Victorian-era kindergarten, so my guess is that she would have more than a little to say against public kindergarten of the present.)

Mason wrote that children ages 0 through 5 should spend between four and six hours outside every day, from April through October.  Her words (from Volume 3, page 44) are in bold:


Impossible! Says an overwrought mother who sees her way to no more for her children than a daily hour or so on the pavements of the neighbouring London squares. Let me repeat, that I venture to suggest, not what is practicable in any household, but what seems to me absolutely best for the children; and that, in the faith that mothers work wonders once they are convinced that wonders are demanded of them. A journey of twenty minutes by rail or omnibus, and a luncheon basket, will make a day in the country possible to most town dwellers; and if one day, why not many, even every suitable day?

The phrase "the neighbouring London squares" could be replaced with "her urban Santa Monica neighborhood."  Six hours a day?  Impossible!

The mothers to whom Mason was writing had servants.  They were not grocery shopping, washing dishes, or vacuuming.  They had the time to take a train to the country every suitable day.  For the stay-at-home parents of today, sitting on a picnic blanket in the shade of a large tree, all day, every day, just isn't an option.

The next best thing?  A safe space for independent play, be it inside or out.