Sunday, January 13, 2013

Before Five in a Row: The Snowy Day

In an attempt to get some routine & normalcy back into our lives, I started a very low-key preschool curriculum with the boys this week.  It's called Before Five in a Row, and it's basically an amplified reading program.  You read the same story five days in a row (hence the name), and there is a corresponding activity each day.  Since Pinterest & I are on the slow track to becoming friends, there isn't a Hobby Lobby within 1,000 miles, and I'm not a crafty person by nature, it should be interesting to see what we end up doing together over the next few months.  But I'm excited to start it and am excited to share our schooling capers on this here ol' blog.

I figured since it is still freezing outside, this book would be quite appropriate:
On Monday, we did a snow experiment.  We trekked outside to collect snow in cups, and then we watched it throughout the rest of the day to see what would happen.  (Spoiler alert: it melted.)


By that point, the snow was over a week old, so it was more like crusty ice.  Not very conducive to digging.  Plus the fact that in the move, the boys' gloves have all disappeared.  


No gloves + sitting in the snow = a rather unhappy Sam, who announced that he was leaving to go see daddy.  Too bad for the little guy that he has no idea which building is ours.  With 20 to choose from, he more than likely would never have found home.


On Tuesday, we made tracks in the snow.  We first practiced walking like Peter did with toes pointed in and toes pointed out.  Then we experimented to see what kinds of tracks other things would leave in the snow.  Only this time we were smart enough to stay put inside the warm house and use a different kind of snow.  


On second thought, a two year old and copious amounts of flour really wasn't smart at all.  



On Wednesday, we went on a circle search.   I cut out a circle, taped it to the end of a chopstick, and made a circle wand for each kiddo.  


We first looked for all the circles in the book.  Sam made sure to point out the triangles as well because that is his favorite shape.  I never knew a two year old could have a favorite shape, but mine certainly does.


We then went on a circle search around the house.  The dryer door, the heater knob, and car wheels were all most excellent discoveries.  My favorite circle in the house is definitely the random moons that adorn our tile in the bathrooms.  


Thursday was craft day.  I had some snowflake and snowman crafts that some college students brought over a few years ago.  When I busted out the construction paper, I gave them two options for the sky color: blue for a day time sky or black for a night time sky.  Micah chose gray.  We've only been back in China for two weeks, and Micah already things the most appropriate sky color is gray.  This is bad.  Very bad.


But there was glue involved, so they were thrilled.


Perhaps overly thrilled...


On Friday, we did a snowball counting activity with cotton balls.  I found out that Micah cannot in fact count to 10.  Shame on my mothering head!  


Sam was even less excited about the counting than Micah.  He instead drew pictures on my number signs.  That's a backhoe, in case you can't tell.


There ya have it.  The end of Week #1.  Hopefully, these projects will carry us through the rest of the dreary winter days.

3 comments:

Susan/mama/g said...

oh so wonderful! I'm just so glad that you didn't do that flour snow when you lived here. Thanks for the update and the chuckles. Keep taking pictures.

Meg said...

Pretty sure I live vicariously through you so much. Just saying.
LOVE IT!!

Unknown said...

What a sweet beautiful family you have! Thanks for sharing!