Some Fun for Little Ones From Sunflower Schoolhouse!

A while back, I happened to come across a neat blog called Sunflower Schoolhouse.

Honey Brown, the mommy blogger behind Sunflower Schoolhouse, had come up with an awesome unit all about Canada. Then, I was blessed to win some neat penguin games that she had made!

We used them this past winter and they were a hit in our homeschool!

Well, while trying to get things ready for this coming school year, I came across some neat freebies on Honey's website and made up two of them.

The first one is called The Army Alphabet Game - The Phonics version.

For this game, you print out and laminate the game board and cards made by Honey and then, head to a dollar section of your choice and buy some green plastic "Army guys"...we found our Plastic Soldier Playset in the dollar spot at Target.
There are extra cards for you to add additional cards. We added some so that both boys can play together. The cars Honey has provided in her freebie print out of the game go over the letter sounds and some rhyming word activities as well.
With the blank cards, I added in some activity cards for Big Bro:
Alphabetical order, parts of speech, synonyms and antonyms, and analogies.
Adding in these extra cards works for our family as then, both boys can play and have fun together while practicing some skills.
Little Bro seems to need a little extra time working on sounds.
He is progressing in his reading, but he struggles with "hearing the sounds" so this game is great in that it has him practice without it feeling like he is practicing.

The second game that I downloaded was for Brick Building Activities.
These are idea cards that can be used with any sort of brick type toy, in our home, that means Lego!
The boys love to build Lego structures!
For this, I added some additional cards to go with particular Lego themes that we have been doing here in our home: Pirates, City, Hero, Kingdom, and Star Wars.
Added in some challenging cards that went with these themes.
Then had Dear Hubby create a little Lego box with a hinged lid to store the cards.
If you want to make a similar box, you can usually find and then order the hinges from Brick Link.
They make it easy to build a structure with a hinged lid or door.

Had Dear Hubby glue the pieces together so that the box will stay in tact.
He used Krazy Glue and it worked very well...
The idea is that the cards can then stay in the box on the table and the boys can open the box and choose a card for themselves when they finish their school work or else just for fun when they feel like building something.

It is so nice that there are so many wonderful mommy bloggers who share their wonderful handmade homeschooling materials with fellow mommies.

Thanks so much to Honey Brown!

Please be sure to check out her Sunflower Schoolhouse blog and see the neat things she creates.
She also sells on Etsy  as well as Pinterest and Twitter.

Family Fun Photos!

What have we been up to during the dog days of summer? Well, all kinds of things!!!
The boys have been at summer camp this whole week. The camp is in the afternoons every day from 12-3:30 so we still have plenty of time to do things in our home and out and about at the parks and pools.

We have taken a few video clips at summer camp, but since there are so many children there, it would be a challenge to try to contact each family individually to see if they are okay with being on my blog, so have decided to not post the video clips at this time...the boys are having a great time though!
And I have been having fun too. Have been going to Starbucks to get my new favorite summer drink, a Mocha Coconut Frappaccino! These are so delicious! You can order it without the whipped cream and you can cut back on the pumps of the coconut syrup too if you are trying to watch your caloric intake. Totally delicious this way too! Yum!!!
Now, alternating between those and my other stand-by favorite, iced lattes! Works out great though, as the boys go to camp and I can get some things done either right at Starbucks with their free Wi-Fi or else out and about doing errands. Really has worked out great to have them do half day camps this summer! Fun for all!!!

So instead, here are some fun photos of the boys having fun, some are from a week or two ago, some show fun both before and after camp, and some are a few shots that reveal the heat wave we have had here in Florida...

Warming up at 98 degrees F...not including the humidity index...

Little Bro keeping cool in the shade of the cabana at our pool.

Big Bro doing what he loves to do: climbing trees.

Boys playing in the shade underneath the pier at Clearwater Beach

Big Bro playing in the sand and water underneath the pier.
Water toys courtesy Melissa & Doug and Target.

Big Bro and Little Bro are joined by two friends. We gave them a bin filled with coins and they took turns paying and pouring for each other...way too hot to actually stay outside to wait for real customers. Everyone was happy though, as they all got to try a little treat of Kool-Aid, plus they each got  4 quarters to keep! Yay!

Little Bro is now starting to take after Big Bro with a love for climbing.

Crazy hot! 100 degrees F but then with the humidity index, really felt like a furnace!

Little Bro made this for me. "Mom, it's you and daddy"...Ahh...Love, Lego style!
We love all things Lego and are super excited that it is getting closer and closer to Legoland Florida opening, as the park is close to where we live. Can't wait! 

Little Bro having a silly fun time!

Big Bro having fun doing a one person puppet show!

Big Bro relaxing after putting a pirate puzzle together. Pirate puzzle courtesy of Melissa & Doug.

Both boys working on a cool water vehicle kit. Can be made into several different types of vehicles and simple machines. Really neat kit, but very tiny photos and directions. Tricky to see / read the directions, especially since Big Bro wears glasses. The boys tried to use the directions as much as they could see, but improvised with some of the steps.

Neat Community Workers lessons to go with Safari Ltd Community Workers Set. The lessons are designed for 5th and 6th grade students, but work fabulously with gifted primary aged students as well. The boys have had a fun time doing these lessons before and after their afternoon camp time. Lesson plan book and Community Workers Set Courtesy Safari Ltd. 

Here are the boys with their town that they built to go along with their Safari Ltd Community Workers Set. Thanks Safari Ltd for this wonderful set of Community Workers & lessons

Little Bro is proud to have built such a tall structure! We were so lucky to find these blocks at a consignment store! Both boys love playing with these very sturdy blocks!

Brotherly love...

More fun at our water park to keep cool on hot days...

Fun in the sun and in the water with Daddy!

Have you posted photos of where you live? 

If you have, you should link up with Show Us Your Town tomorrow over at Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas! 
Linky opens every Friday and Saturday for the summer. It is a fun blog hop, so pop by and Link up if you get the chance.
I plan to link up tomorrow!




 Hope that you are having fun in the sun where you live!  

Making Memories and Malaguzzi Monday: Gramma Mickey's Chair Pockets

This week, my post is about some wonderful memories of my grandmother and some handmade items she helped me to design and make for my classroom way back when I was a first year teacher.
Sorry, no true Montessori tie-ins for this week, although if you use Montessori in your homeschools or small in-home programs and you are looking for an idea to help you to store materials in a small space, hopefully, you will enjoy this post.
There is a Malaguzzi tie-in, though, so if you are wondering more about Reggio Emilia and Malaguzzi, please continue reading...
If you like to sew, then this could be the perfect project for you, as I never got a patent for these...but if you would ever make some like what I made with my grandmother, I would love to see how yours turn out and if you would be so kind as to give a nice shout out to Gramma Mickey and to me, that would be all that I would want.


My maternal grandmother, affectionately referred to by all of her grandchildren as "Gramma Mickey", was a wonderful knitter, seamstress (way, way back before those who like to sew became known as sewists...since she was old school, I will say seamstress), and all around artsy-crafts-y sort of grandma.
Over the years, she made many wonderful things...from mittens attached with strings so we wouldn't lose them in the snow to purses that converted into doll beds made out of Ivory dish soap bottles...from cool ceramic roosters to water color paintings of the different seasons.
She was a very versatile artisan and generally, a fun grandma.

Am pretty sure that if Gramma Mickey and Loris Malaguzzi would have ever been in the same room, they would have had many ideas to discuss and share, as two of the metaphors commonly associated with Malaguzzi and his philosophy of early childhood would have resonated to a degree with my grandmother, namely:
 ...the educative process as the tossing of a ball back and forth between child and teacher, an exchange in which both players are equal and in which they cooperate equally in the play and development of ideas. *
and
...teacher and child embarking together on a journey downriver, rather than standing on opposite banks watching the river flow.*
 * To read more about Loris Malaguzzi, please visit this link where I found these Malaguzzi metaphors...


During my first school year, I came home for Christmas from where I was teaching in Virginia to my family's home in Pennsylvania. 
My grandmother lived in the same hometown as my family, so we spent much of our time together over my break.
Told my grandmother how I wanted to have some pockets to go over the backs of my classroom chairs like the teacher next to me had, only instead of just having cute pockets that would be for decorative purposes to make the room look more neat with matching colored seats, I wanted mine to be functional.
Wanted to somehow integrate the idea of a pencil pouch into the chair pocket.
So, Gramma Mickey asked me what sorts of materials I was envisioning that could go in these pockets and said that ideally, would like a space for glue, child sized scissors, markers, colored pencils, crayons, and a journal. 

Also said that it would be nice to be able to have a little space to place a tiny mouse, as I used little mice as gentle reminders to the children that they needed to work quietly "like a little mouse".

Some of Our "Work Quietly as a Little Mouse" Mice

So, we began to come up with a design for my chair pockets. 
Mind you, we did not have much time, as I was only home for a couple of weeks over break...
Plus, my grandmother was in her eighties, had advanced rheumatoid arthritis, and had cataracts...
In addition, I wasn't 100% certain as to the measurements of the child sized chairs in my classroom...It was all by what I could tell my grandmother by comparison...
Went something like "Well, the chairs are wide enough for a small child, but not wide enough for an adult to sit on them comfortably, maybe as wide as a book bag, as I have seen kids rest their book bags on the chairs."
Despite these challenges, we plodded through and within a few days, I had some fabulous chair pockets to take back to Virginia with me at the end of my break.
First, she asked me about the material that the teacher next to me had used for her chair pockets. Jenny, the teacher next to me, had used lightweight, bright cotton and although they really made her room look cute and inviting, they were not holding up all that well and she had to make replacements often. 
My grandmother suggested that we use something that would be both durable and stain resistant, plus that would feel soft against a child's hands and backs, as they were to make the seats more comfortable for the children, too.
We came up with the idea of using heavy denim. 
Together, we went out and got the heaviest, most durable bolts of denim we could find.
Then, my grandmother asked me to get the approximate dimensions of each type of box that would need to fit in the chair pockets. She did not need the actual measurement in inches, but rather, we went and got the actual boxes and then, just eyeballed each one to make sure that everything would fit.
Gramma Mickey whipped up a paper template for the chair pockets using pages of her Sunday newspaper. 
Then, we got right to work. 
Her design was awesome and efficient, as part of the beauty of the chair pocket design was its simplicity...
We folded out big pieces of denim, then, flipped part of the denim piece back on itself.
The piece that flipped back on itself created a nice, big pocket that was perfect to hold a folder and journal. There was even ample room in this pocket to hold a show and tell item, which was a bonus...
Onto the one pocket piece, she then affixed the pouch piece that held the smaller supplies on the outside. 
And voila! 
Nice looking, but also very practical and durable chair pockets!

How long have these lasted? 
Well, let's just say a very long time...nearly twenty years and counting!!!
They have been used by a countless number of my students, as well as my sons and their friends when they come to our home. 
The little "please work quietly" mice have also held up equally as well...


This week, I am starting to do a Reggio Emilia inspired book study where we will read a lovely book called The Language of Art: Inquiry-Based Studio Practices in Early Childhood Settings by Ann Pelo. 

Here is a link to this wonderful book.
This is such a cool book. It goes over how to set up a studio, as well as how to explore texture, color, and 3D media with children. It also highlights how to do representational drawing and painting with children. Having a child do a self portrait is a powerful learning tool, as it gets them to examine themselves and to share how they view themselves.
The book also discusses how a "Culture of Inquiry" grows through art, as well as how to use art media to "grow long-term investigations."
Just love when art is used as a tool for higher order thinking in young children, so this book and its concepts are right up my alley, as it is something we already strive for here at Sunrise Learning Lab.



Different people from our book study group have been toying with the idea of how to set up a studio in a small space and that is what made me reflect upon my chair pockets. 
Ideally, in a very large space where you have ample space to store art materials or school supplies communally, it could work well to store them together in bins or baskets like you do either in a traditional art class or a Montessori classroom. 
In an art room, typically you would have the room to have big bins filled with paint brushes, watercolors, pastels, crayons, and glue.  
In a Montessori 3-6 room, typically you would have a shelf dedicated to nice little pencil holders for all of your colored pencils, as well as your metal insets and paper.
However, when you are in a smaller setting where you only have a few students and maybe your work space has to also double for your dinner table, or your play room seating, then these chair pockets can really be a wonderful solution for you and your family. If you have a small in-home educational program of some sort, or if you do art camps or Scouts out of your home, these would be great for you as well...

This week, we are going to do a Lego Summer Camp.

Little Bro's Lego Doggie, Made with a Little Help from Dear Daddy

Big Bro's Lego Star Wars Ship

Little Bro's Lego Ostrich and Trainer

The chair pockets are once again proving to be invaluable, as all of their little Lego creations fit nicely into the chair pockets, too. The pockets have proven to be versatile over the years, as I have used them when doing writers' workshops, art camps, as well as for their originally intended use in the classroom.
Although the rest of our neighbors who attend public school started back to school today, we are not officially starting until after Labor Day weekend. 
We are having a much later start because of a few different reasons, namely:

• Want to have more time to get into The Language of Art and really have time to reflect upon how doing more of a studio approach this year is going to impact our day-to-day...

• Want to have time to have Big Bro and Little Bro transition from our current routine into our new one...we are still going to do the Montessori inspired work period in the morning, but this year, the day will extend much longer into the afternoon. Our afternoons will be more of a mix than last year, as we are doing co-op classes with a couple different co-ops, plus, we are adding in studio days and lab days, so it is more varied and longer in length than last year's schedule. 

• Want to have time so that if we feel like adding an end of summer road trip into the mix, we will be able to do that as well, whether it ends up being a day trip or a few days...

So, not much to share related to Montessori this week, as it is more of a summer camp week.
But, if your family likes all things Lego, please pop by later in the week, as I will have some nice Lego pdfs to share.
Happy Monday!
 This post is linked to Making Memories Monday Links at Adventures in McQuill-land.

 

Family Fun With Lego

For those of you who are thinking of neat, unplugged ideas for family fun, you might enjoy building with Lego. Both Big Bro and Little Bro love building with their Daddy, aka my Dear Hubby (and truth be told, he loves it too).

For starters, if you can find either of these board games, they are well worth purchasing:
My First Builder and Lego Creator  - the Race to Build It Board Game. Both games are made by Rose Art. They are fairly hard to find, but you may have luck finding them at consignment stores.
The Lego Creator board game now brings has collector status, so if you do manage to find one at a consignment store, be sure to have your family take good care of it, as it is worth money as a collector's item if you can keep it in great condition.

My family loves these games!
Little Bro likes to work with My First Builder, which is geared for ages 3+.
It uses Duplo pieces to build.
Lego Creator - The Race to Build It board Game uses regular sized Lego. It comes with all of the Lego bricks you need for the game. Up to four players can play this game.
Very cool and fun for children and adults.

Here is the link to make the Family Fun Lego Projects.

Here is a the link to the Family Time with Lego Activity Guide 

Lego also invites families to share their creations, as well as to share their unplugged stories...
To share your stories or creations, email LEGOfamilytime@LEGO.com

 MaryLea over at Pink and Green Mama came up wth an awesome idea: she makes up the Lego activity guides, personalizes them,  and gives them as a homemade gift when her son gets invited to a birthday party. How cool is that? What fun for a kid to get a personalzed Lego gift for their birthday!

People love homemade items and kids love Lego, so this is the best of both!

Not to mention the cost savings.

Well, would love to hear how many of your families like to build with Lego and Duplo.

April Update:
We just linked up with Childhood 101. 



Come over and play at the Childhood 101 We Play link up and see all kinds of families having fun playing together.

Random Photo Friday - Big Bro

Big Bro - Lego Creator Mosaic Work
Coin Polishing Work (With a little toy lizard watching his progress!)
Coin matching work
Pixter handwriting practice
Texture Match work

Coins, Lemons, and Jellyfish...Oh My!

Big Bro woke up and got into his first work of the day, involving polishing coins.
Had read somewhere that you can polish pennies using lemons and salt paste, so we decided to give that a try for all of the coins...seemed to work well. First, Big Bro had to carefully slice a lemon into two halves. Then, he had to pour salt into a glass bowl. then, he added water and had to make a paste...it was more like a slurry, but it was the best consistency we could get...
then, he had to have a bowl for rinsing the coins and towels for drying and polishing.
I explained the process to him, but did not really do a presentation, because I have actually never done this before either, so it was a kind of trial and error thing...but it was a good experience.
Big Bro seemed to enjoy it, although he got tired after doing several cups of change. Out of curiosity, if anyone else uses this method, about how many coins do you suggest laying out for children?
We just had a huge barrel of coins, so the supply was never ending...but I think maybe it was a little bit overwhelming for him. He enjoyed it, but next time he chooses this work, I think I will lay out a small basket with a pre-determined number of coins for him.
After the coin polishing, he then did a coin matching and a coin identification work. We then did some sample money math problems together, with me reviewing the coins as he was working.

Little Bro chose to do some block play work with open, stackable blocks. These are cool, as if turned onto their sides, they stack up just like the pink tower. If you hold them upright, a child can choose to link them in a variety of ways to make all kinds of neat designs. Little Bro made (as he called them) "a castle, a cat with a bowl of milk, and a colorful pink tower with holes in it"...

Little Bro then wanted to paint. He painted some pictures and then, wanted to make a jellyfish. So, i helped him to round up some scraps that could work for a jellyfish...plastic freezer wrap, some string scraps, some paint, and some clear Tacky Glue.

Will post some photos tomorrow when everything is dried.

Paint and clear Tacky Glue are getting lots of use in our home. I may have to order a bulk amount of clear Tacky Glue.

Little Bro enjoyed making his paintings.
He then listened while Big Bro read to me.

Then, we cleaned up and were off to meet a new friend for a play date of sorts.

We had lunch with our new friend and his mom and then, we came home and the boys played with their wooden train set.

The last day of summer for us...tomorrow starts our official first day of school!