National Pick Strawberries Day

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I love learning of random “national holidays” like this one and tailoring the kids’ activities to them. This year, unfortunately, we couldn’t pick our own strawberries to mark May 20. Still, even amending our outing for social distancing made the afternoon special and exciting.

First we headed to a local farm stand that is selling “curbside” with an honor system from their porch!

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This was a fantastic opportunity just for the kids to view the fields, smell fresh herbs in pots, and have an understanding of where food comes from.

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Could we actually pick our own strawberries? Not today, but I picked up a case of strawberries from the market, and it tricked Travis! “Someone picked these today!” he said proudly.

When we got home, Travis so carefully helped rinse the strawberries (and fresh basil we bought to go with them!)

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The snack that followed was a strawberry love fest. Ok, so we didn’t actually pick them, but we sure celebrated them today.

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Under the Sea Lunch

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Travis has been learning a lot about the ocean recently, both the creatures that live deep down, and the ways that humans can explore under the water. So it felt only appropriate to continue the fun with our food!

For a “fish” sandwich, trim a pita or similar flatbread by making two triangle cut-outs on one side. Now your fish has a tail.

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You can use just about anything for the filling! We filled one “fish” with tofu salad and another with cheese slices.

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Add raisins for eyes.

On the side, I served a little ocean floor scene. Almond butter (or peanut butter) was the sand, lightly-steamed celery sticks become waving seaweed, and we added a few vegan Swedish fish to populate our ocean.

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You could even add homemade goldfish crackers for the fish! I’m happy to report that lunch went swimmingly.

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Chocolate-Banana-Nut Popsicles

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Roast the bananas for these novel frozen treats in the morning, and you’ll have Popsicles ready for a mid-day snack!

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Ingredients:

  • 4 bananas, unpeeled
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • 2 cups almond milk
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
  • 1 tablespoon maple syrup
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  1. Wrap the bananas individually in foil and bake at 400 degrees F for 25 minutes. Let cool slightly, then peel and mash. Combine in a bowl with the brown sugar.
  2. Transfer the banana mixture to a blender, along with the remaining ingredients. Process until smooth.
  3. Divide among Popsicle molds and freeze at least 4 hours, or until solid.

Foam Blocks in Water

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Veronika has a versatile set of foam building blocks that we play with all the time, whether purely for building or more for learning. But never before have we put them in water!

As soon as I spotted this idea online, I realized what a no-brainer it was. Of course the foam floats! I filled a plastic storage bin with just enough water for the blocks to float and placed it on the floor over a towel to catch any splashing. (Note: You could just do this outside on a water table on a hot day!).

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Veronika was thrilled to see something old look new and different. She began reaching in immediately, delighted both to fetch out the blocks (“Triangle!” she said) and to feel the splashy water all around them.

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Mostly I just let her play, but we also sorted the blocks by color at one point.

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There was lots of splashing and lots of excitement as the blocks floated around almost like little boats. The water also makes the blocks stick to each other, which makes it perfect for building up little towers and castles.

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We definitely ended with water all over the floor, making this messy but worth it.

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Row, Row, Row Your Boat

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Row Your Boat is currently one of Veronika’s favorite songs, and I’ve always been partial to it myself. Part nursery rhyme and part song, it extends itself easily to movement play and more.

To start, I simply sang the song. If you need a reminder, here are the simple lyrics:

Row, row, row your boat,

Gently down the stream.

Merrily merrily merrily merrily.

Life is but a dream.

After singing, we added actions!

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I sat so that Veronika and I were facing each other and took her hands. As we sang, first I pulled her forward, then I leaned toward her so she leaned back. It was magical to watch the siblings giggle and row together!

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To reinforce the concept of a “boat” (which is not something we see daily around here!) I pulled out a few floating toys. Veronika loved playing with them in a shallow basin.

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You can always check out animated versions of the song online, too. You’ll likely encounter silly verses. An elephant wearing jeans? A lion eating green beans? Then see if you can make up your own, which is guaranteed to make your toddler laugh!

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Sidewalk Chalk Mark Making

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While big brother was busy using chalk for a school assignment, Veronika made chalk marks of her own today! Originally, I thought it might just be fun for her to use chalk on a bench, as opposed to pavement, for the novelty of the drawing surface. But this also turned out to be the first time that she announced she had drawn a specific thing!

First, we simply started chalking side by side. I made a few recognizable objects for her like a star and heart, and pointed them out.

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Moments later, she told me this red mark was a bird! “Tweet tweet!” she said. “Red bird!”

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I knew she was being deliberate, because she picked up blue next and said, “Blue bird!” as she scribbled.

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From there she was off and running. She told me she was drawing Daniel Tiger, rainbows, and more.

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Of course none of her marks would be recognizable as such, but it was the intent that amazed me coming from an eighteen month old.

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She looked so proud of her work. We’ll have to chalk on non-traditional surfaces more often!

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Kindergarten Home School Week 10: Tuesday

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The word of the day, my friends, is beleaguered. If I wasn’t wrangling a reluctant Travis into doing his lessons, I was calming toddler tantrums (the classic kind, like throwing all the crayons because she wanted a marker instead). But we made it through and carved out pockets of fun! Here’s how:

9-9.15: Social Studies. Travis did a quick workbook page on living versus nonliving resources, drawing examples of each on a farm. I didn’t extend the play, but was proud to see him think carefully before drawing.

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9.15-9.30: STEAM. After reading about submarines in his encyclopedia, we made one! It was so complicated it merited its own blog post.

9.30-10: ELA. Travis preferred to practice handwriting in his Star Wars workbook instead of a school assignment about persuasive writing and ice cream. I did have him talk me through how he would persuade someone that lemon ice cream is the best flavor, and hit on the main points of persuasive writing (tell your opinion, tell a story, etc.). He finished with 10 minutes on Lexia.

10-10.30: Snack/recess.

10.30-11: Math. After a page skip-counting droids by 10 and filling out a chart that counted by 10s to 100 we extended the play by making droids out of play dough.

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11-1: Lunch/free play.

1-2: Social/emotional learning. Travis watched a read-aloud of Kindness is Cooler, Mrs. Ruler and then we headed off on a walk to leave kind notes on a bench! Here Travis has spelled out “Be brave.”

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Tuesday is his short day, so we ended there.

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His story tonight was The Napping House, a silly favorite.

 

Big or Little Sorting Game

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This is one of those activities that you shouldn’t expect your toddler to get ” right” on the first try. Rather, it’s about introducing concepts. Today, I set out a variety of items that come in two sizes: big, and little! It was up to Veronika to determine which was which.

You can play with just about anything, and I included: big book and small book, big car and small car, big ball and small ball, big dinosaur and small dinosaur, big sock and small sock, and more!

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“This is the big ball,” I told her, emphasizing the word big with my hands apart and using a big voice, too.

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“This is the small ball,” I told her next, and used a tiny high voice and put my hands close together. Then I asked her, “Can you hand me the big ball?” or, “Which is the small ball?” Repeat with all of the sets!

Don’t worry if your toddler pauses to play along the way. Veronika wanted to leaf through the books at one point, or drive the cars around. It’s fine if your child just wants to arrange items!

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You can also add the interim step of “medium”. With nesting boxes, we lined them up in size order. At 18 months old, I had to do this for Veronika, but older toddlers can proudly solve the challenge themselves.

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Then we got sillier and decided to make big feet and little feet. Big brother helped with the tracing on a long sheet of craft paper, and we labeled our prints big and small.

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How have you taught the concepts of big and little? Please share in the comments!

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Submarine

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This project is slightly tricky, but if done correctly the propeller will really spin and push your bottle “submarine” forward around a bath or basin of water. Full disclosure: ours didn’t quite work, but the principle was there! Meanwhile Travis learned a bit about how submarines really float or sink.

To make the submarine, start with a small empty water bottle. Poke a hole in the bottom with a push pin. Straighten a paper clip and insert in the hole, but then you’ll need to re-bend the tip of the paper clip from the inside. This was tricky, and I managed to push it down with a pencil.

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Now draw a propeller shape with 4 blades on the top of a yogurt container (or similar container). Cut out, then poke a hole in the center with the push pin. Poke a hole in the center of the bottle’s cap, too.

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Insert a second paper clip into the cap so that the loop will be inside the bottle once the cap is screwed on. Loop an elastic around this hook and the paper clip on the bottom of the bottle. Poke the cap’s paper clip through the propeller as well, and then bend the end of it to hold everything in place.

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To weight the bottle properly on top, glue two pennies to the ends of a craft stick. Secure this to the bottle with a rubber band.

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We were ready to give it a try! Wind up the rubber band by spinning the propeller around; ideally it will unspin once you let go in a basin of water. Unfortunately, ours didn’t behave quite as we hoped!

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What we were able to experiment with, however, was the real way that submarines dive and emerge. Tanks fill with water to make the submarine heavier and it sinks; when those tanks are pumped out, the submarine rises again. Travis experimented with filling our bottle and then dumping the water out, to see these differences.

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And then of course it just becomes a fun water toy! In sum, a great little STEM experiment.

Kindergarten Home School Week 10: Monday

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Week Ten? I had to do a double-take typing in that title, but I’m happy to report that things feel… good. We’ve settled into a nice rhythm and I dare say we’re all getting the hang of it. There even was a magical moment for about 5 minutes today, with both kids learning from screens, when nobody needed me for (gasp!) just a moment.

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9-9.30: STEM. After a summer workbook page about drawing and labeling the parts of a plant, Travis and I turned it into reality; a ripe avocado was all we needed. Pit the avocado, then pierce it with three toothpicks (they’ll poke in more easily than you think).

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Fill a glass jar with water nearly to the top. Position the pit, broad side down, so it just touches the water, then place on a sunny windowsill and wait! We hope to see the roots growing within a couple of weeks. (Meanwhile, little sister was planting seeds of her own!).

9.30-10: Math. Travis did workbook pages counting the number of animals (or Star Wars creatures!) in a group. This involved topics like greater than/less than, as well as skip counting by 5’s. Then we made a “Star Wars space train”. We pretended our train was arriving at a new planet and made up a math problems for each stop. “Two people got off, so 20 minus 18 equals…”) and so on. Needless to say, then it was time for…

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10-10.30: Recess/snack. Travis needed time to play with all those Star Wars toys (and little sister’s birds!).

10.30-11: ELA. He did a page in his writing workbook, then drew a picture to go with it using 5 colors for his age, 5!

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11-11.30: I tried to interest Travis in his Spanish teacher’s video about big and small (grande and pequeno). But after pointing out to me drums that were big and small, Travis told me the kids were having “brother/sister time” and they were having so much fun I let them be and made muffins!

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11.30-1.30: Lunch/free play.

1.30-2: Zoom. The time with his class did not go well today. Travis was rudely making faces the entire time. I’m reminded that our kids learn a lot more than “learning” in a classroom, and there will be a bumpy ride getting back into a routine in 1st grade.

2-3: Outside. This portion of the day, on the other hand, was glorious. Nixing any lesson plans, I just watched the kids run around in a meadow filled with butterflies and dandelions.

3-3.30: P.E. To get moving for his Monday special, we danced to a favorite song (the Imperial March of course) and then Travis did Star Wars-themed yoga.

We finished with a bedtime read of This is Me: A Story of Who We Are & Where We Came From.

See you tomorrow!