Sea Shell Sorting

I printed out a mat from montessorimaterials.org and put tippy toe to work sorting shells form the basket of shells I bought last week at dollar Tree  for $1.00 and other shells we alread had at home.  He did a good job. He has some shells his grandpa gave him and loves to look at them. I found this book at a garage sale this summer. It is about Florida Sea Shells and identifying them. I also found some 3 part cards on line and printed them to add to the activity. I will post pictures as soon as I can get them off my phone.

Dollar store finds

Today I spent $9.01 at Dollar Daze
I got this neat skeleton window cling I put on the fridge for bone identification ($1.00), hemp necklace kit i bought for the cowrie shells (1.00), leaf and pumkin cut outs 10 per package (0.75 each so $1.50 total),a 3-ring binder (2.50) and a little golden book "Animal Homes" (1.00). not bad I think for staying close to my budget today.

I am working up a "them bones" unit study

On my fridgerator side right now is a window cling skeleton with the major bones about three foot tall. I bought him at Dollar Daze for a $1.00  he will be perfect with a set of sticky notes to label each of the major bones in the body. Tippy-toe loved helping me put his together in order on the fridge. It is a natural progression from our 5 senses lapbook to studying the bones. and Tippy-toe is obcessed with anything pirate and scary right now. We did a pirate lapbook last year that turned out amazing! He also found a deer skeleton while playing with his cousin from California this summer.  I found some skeleton 3 part montessori cards online yesterday (various animal skeletons) and a small plastic human skeleton at the dollar store. I will put links and photos up soon as the unit study developes out.

procrastination

5 senses lapbook

Today Tippy-Toe and I are working on his 5 senses lapbook. The cover is like I be Jamin's with a match up game of see, hear, smell, taste, touch to eyes, nose, hands, mouth, and ear pictures. Inside is a four square graph of sweet,sour, salty,and bitter with magazine pictures to signify each. After our tasting game we will put pictures of each in the correct square. On the other half is two large triangles  one saying loud and the other quiet. On the back cover it is divided in two parts  for soft and rough with sandpaper hands overlaying --I traced and cut to represent  touch. I also made a mystery bag for him to use during studying touch. I cut out many pictures and Tippy-Toe then pasted into a 5 senses mini book.( I would have let him cut for practice but I prepared them since we didn't have alot of time I wanted to keep him on task) We read the  "5 Senses" picture book by Aliki. I just happened to find it this summer at a garage sale.

"..the chief function of a child--his business in the world during the first six or seven years of his life--is to find out all he can, about whatever comes under his notice, by means of his five senses..." Charlotte Mason (volume1, Home Education, Pg.96)

Bread success

The sourdough loaf from the bread machine looks so good and smells wonderful. I found the recipe at allrecipes.com I used my left over whey from our cheese making to feed my starter and in place of the milk and water in the recipe. I have frozen the rest of the whey for more bread making. I just hate to waste anything. The cheese we made yesterday tastes rather bland so we will have to herb it up or use it for baking. Not quite a spread for crackers unless we make a cheese ball again. But we really just made it to go along with Pitty-pat's Little House in the Big Woods pioneer unit study. I plan to put the facts I learned about cheese on the time line I am putting together for our history study. I just don't know how I want to show the timeline. One poster isn't enough space and a wall is too much room to dedicate to this project. I just want to show the time from the pilgrims (last years history lessons)to the pioneers for now with a few things far before and after as we learn them this year

benchmark tasks

Tippy-toe learned to tie his shoes himself today in one easy lesson from Aaron. It was amazing to watch them together. It took all of ten minuets. I was amazed. I remember my dad sitting patiently with my three oldest teaching them to tie over and over again. He had so much patience for children. Aaron is so good with the kids. Today he has taken cam to sight in her gun and shoot her bow. Tippy-toe got to tag along. He called and he got to shoot too and he has acorns in is pocket to grow a tree someday.

Little-man has a bench mark of his own. I have a long weekend so he is sitting on his potty chair. I haven't had any luck catching him tinkle yet. But he is telling us he is wet, so he is ready.

More bread experiments today. Sourdough in the bread machine. I'll let you know how it turns out later. Pitty-pat is amazed by the living yeast. We will be growing our starter like the pioneers for a while so they can watch it. I like this edible science.