Raising Fruitful Tots: January 2013

Week 9: Tea with Lady Sapphire by Carl R. Sams & Jean Stoik

This book has the most gorgeous photographs of birds and nature. We had the opportunity to have a school lesson one day when our friends were over. The kids received this book from their Grammy for their 3rd birthday and so we used it for school. The authors take the reader into their backyard creating a very sweet little story about a Grandma and her Grandkids. They spend a cold snowy day watching and waiting near the window for Lady Sapphire. Deer, squirrels, snowmen, turkeys, and many species of birds pass by the window while they are waiting for Lady Sapphire. Finally at the end of the story Lady Sapphire appears and we find out she is really a Pileated Woodpecker.

I was able to find a picture for the kids to color of a pileated woodpecker from www.education.com. We used our fingers and some red paint to put the red crown on the woodpeckers head.

A few months ago I found a neat little bird feeder on Pinterest that I wanted to try to use in a school lesson. Basically you take a toilet paper roll, spread peanut butter on it, roll in birdseed, punch holes in the end and you are done! This is a quick little craft any 3 year old can participate in.

Completed bird feeder! Ready to go out on a tree branch...

Happy New Year!!! It has been a few weeks since I have posted due to some changes in our schedule. December was spent on Christmas themed school projects, mostly coloring pages and a few decorations. Personally I find that this time of year will be a bit slower for us simply because Daddy is off! I love that homeschooling your children allows for so much flexibility. If one day we want to pack up and go on a trip we can, and we did! Our family spent a week in sunny Florida at the beginning of the month, and have plans to go to Virginia sometime soon.

This next coming week we are going ice skating with our co-op. Thankfully I am very pregnant and will not be participating in the skating. I'm sure the kids will love it though! They are into hockey (Go Buffalo Sabres) big time and now want to ice skate like the hockey players. I am hoping they enjoy themselves and don't break anything!

Ok back to school posts, here they are from the last month or so.

In week 7 we read Katy No Pocket by Emmy Payne. In a short summary, Katy is a momma kangaroo who does not have a pocket to carry her little boy Freddy. She is very upset and decides to find out how other animals carry their babies around. After talking with Catherine Crocodile, Mrs. Monkey, the lion and birds she goes to the wise owl. The owl tells her to just go get a pocket! Brilliant! Katy goes to the city and finds a man with an apron that has tons of pockets. Katy gets an apron herself and her problems are solved! At the end of the book, Katy is a happy kangaroo able to carry around not only Freddy, but many other little animal friends as well.

Our first experience with this book was with our co-op group. Though we had a few attention problems on this day, all of the kids really seemed to enjoy the book. The book itself was pretty long, and the kids were a bit distracted while we were reading it to them.

We talked about Katy being sad and how she felt about not being able to carry around Freddy. Then we made the kids think about how Katy felt at the end of the book when she was able to carry Freddy around in her apron. Happy! Of course we had to sing few rounds of "If you're happy and you know it".

Just eating a snack of animal crackers, peanut butter and banana!

I did read the book a few more times with my kids but Christmas decorating took first priority on our list this week.

Week 8: God Gave Us Christmas by Lisa Tawn Bergren
Loved this book! Little polar bear Cub asks her Mamma about Santa. Mama turns the conversation around saying that, "Santa is hard to find, but we can go find God. God is everywhere" The two leave the rest of the family behind to go on an adventure to go find God. Mama and Little Cub climb mountains, see the Northern Lights and watch a large chunk of ice fall into the sea. Along their journey Mama shows Little Cub that God is everywhere. As they head towards home they pass a church with a Nativity scene outside. They hear people singing inside the church and Mama explains that they are singing about when King Jesus was born. Little Cub goes to bed that night after arriving home and awakens to thoughts of King Jesus on Christmas Day.

After reading the book the kids received a lesson on stars. Our teacher this week brought a whole bunch of fun star shaped things for the kids to touch and eat. I learned how to cut and eat start fruit!