We’ve had a lot going on the past couple weeks with my husband needing to have extensive ear surgery to remove a large mass that was growing in his middle ear. (Read an honest post about how mommy dealt with this ordeal HERE) With that in mind, we took a little longer on the letter “C” and have been working on it incrementally the past two weeks. This is why I love homeschooling! When life throws you a curve ball… you can just roll with it.
Using the recommended book list from The Peaceful Preschool, we started plugging away! Because it is the middle of winter here in Michigan, we had to adapt the material presented in the curriculum a bit. Collecting wildflowers was not an option… even if there WERE flowers out there, we definitely couldn’t find them under the foot of snow we’ve gotten the past few days. HAHA! We have had a lot of fun pulling sleds behind the Gator and making trails though. 🙂
For the letter C, we memorized the verse:
“Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding.”
Proverbs 4:1
I love that this verse is a little different than the traditionally memorized verse of “Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.” (Ephesians 6:1) Not only does Proverbs 4:1 talk about the importance of listening, but it teaches children the importance to of listening to gain understanding!
We got a big dumping of snow the first day we started the letter “C,” so what better way to celebrate a new letter than to play in the snow for a long time and come inside to warm up with a big cup of C-ocoa and C-hia tea!?
While we were drinking our cocoa and tea, we read the story of Corduroy Bear. This has been a favorite of both my kids since they were REALLY small, so it was a joy to re-read it… like an old familiar friend. We then took some burlap, a large needle and crochet thread and practiced sewing buttons. You never know when one of your stuffed animal friends might need your help sewing their button back on! My son thoroughly enjoyed getting to sew for the first time… so much so, that he asked if he could do it again!
Moving on, we later read the book Caps for Sale. I can’t believe that I have never read this book before! It’s a cute book that captivated the kids attention. There were so many awesome life lessons to learn from this book as well as a plethora of activities that kept us motivated for several days! We parked on this book so long that I made a post dedicated to the activities we did surrounding it. From sewing “caps” onto a tree, to making a play dough peddler, to practicing phonics with a cute printable, to a science experiment of cleaning pennies… there was so much to do! You read all about it HERE.
Thanks to an idea from fellow Peaceful Preschool mom, we spent an evening C-amping! My husband had already underwent his surgery and desperately needed a few quiet minutes to himself to recuperate, and mommy needed something to help keep the kiddos occupied and preserve her sanity! haha… The kids loved helping me set up our 2 man tent in the basement. My son put together all the poles and helped me erect the tent. We then enjoyed reading our “C” books while snacking on traditional camping foods like marshmallows and chocolate! (Mommy wasn’t feeling up to making actual s’mores, but the kids didn’t even care/notice.) We shut all the lights off and told “scary” stories. I love listening to my son use his imagination! His stories have gotten a little more complex over the past year and are now longer than 2 sentences. 🙂
My son turned 5 this past week, so of course we had to make a C-ake! He was such a good sport because he birthday party ended up getting postponed two weeks due to daddy’s surgery. To be honest, this is probably one of my favorite memories made the past week. It was time spent, just him and me. We had fun decorating the cake and talking. He has always been my “little buddy,” but the older her has gotten and now having a sibling, it makes it harder to get one on one time with him like we used to do. Getting a small glimpse into the how-it-used-to-be’s made this mommy heart of mine melt just a bit.
Because it was my son’s birthday, we allowed him to open a couple presents before his party. His aunt sent him the book The Day the Crayons Quit. What a coincidence!? Another “C” book! 🙂 This prompted a series of artwork that consisted of trying to replicate the simple crayon drawings in the story, as well as hot gluing crayons onto a canvas (I prepped the canvas with a layer of acrylic white paint first… not necessary, but I do not care for an unprepared canvas) and using a blow dryer to melt the wax onto the canvas. Fair warning, this was a very messy project to do indoors, but I am thankful that we have a great place in our basement for working on crafts. I still need to scrape the dried wax off of our craft table, but I love looking at it and reminding myself of the squeals of excitement as the wax began to melt and run across the canvas… and beside that, it looks really cool!
Another homeschool mom suggested that I try to do handprint art for each letter of the alphabet and turn it into an alphabet book for the kids. How fun to watch their hands grow as we go from unit to unit! So this week we did “C” is for Caterpillar 🙂
There was a lot to do surrounding the letter “C,” but we also focused on our math skills, random letter C printables, as well as our Handwriting Without Tears curriculum.
I love watching little minds learn and blossom before my very eyes! When my toddler grabbed all the pillows off the couch, lined them up and began jumping across them shouting “2, 8, 9!” I couldn’t help but smile. We will work on her counting skills later… today she was playing!
