PeeWees: The Shape of Me and Other Stuff (week 2)

Continued from PeeWee mom Julia...

Open Play - We continued our shape theme, starting with stacking circles and building with rectangular blocks and square blocks. This went really well. They took turns with the various toys I'd brought out and actually stacked pretty high a few times. Right before clean up time I actually set up the Jenga blocks to play and they tried a couple of rounds. They don't quite have the cause/effect thing down yet for figuring out which blocks would be good to try to pull. But they each did it successfully a couple times.

 

 

Circle Time - Then we did circle time, singing our welcome song, the alphabet, and counting to 20. I had them each try to count by themselves with the others listening. The teens continue to be a stumbling block! But they have come a long way. We re-read the book, which they all remembered and pointed out various things on the pages. I happened to have gum in my mouth and they thought it was funny when I blew a bubble on the gum page. 

 

Activity 1 - Then we played a shape matching game. I had made cards with shapes on them and cut them in half. I scattered the pieces all over the rug and they had to find the matching halves and put them together again. They caught on quickly and liked this.

 

Snack -  We had round banana slices, crescent apple slices, oval peanuts, and square AND rectangle graham crackers (I showed them how they come in rectangles, but when broken in half they are squares and then in half again they are smaller rectangles). They were hungry! Jackson and Poppy had been asking for snack since arrival and everyone ate a lot. 

 

ART: I then traced everyone's feet and hands and they painted them in. This was an attempt at making a book connection  (their own shapes), but I think that was a little over their heads. But they enjoyed painting anyway.

 

Activity 2 - At this point we needed some wiggle time, so we went into my playroom where I have a rug with shapes on the border. We played a version of "musical shapes" in which I would sing a song. They had to walk around on the shapes (not off the rug or in the middle). When I stopped singing, they had to shout out what shape they were standing on. This was a little tricky because the rug has shapes that weren't quite so common: trapezoids, hexagons, octagons, pentagons. But they did fine.

 

Activity 3 - Then before sitting down we did "shape exercises." When I called out "Triangle!" they had to march in place. When I called out "Circle!" they had to jump up and down. When I called out "Rectangle!" They had to do jumping jacks, and when I called out "Oval!" they had to stop.

 

Activity 4 - After just a couple minutes of this they were tired (both their bodies and their brains) and were ready for our final game of the day: shape bingo. I'd made some shape boards and cut out some shapes to fit into the outlines of the shapes on the boards. I called out a shape, they had to find it on their board AND find a cutout to put on it. These two steps were challenging but not too difficult to master. We were playing this when all the moms arrived and it sort of unraveled from there.

PeeWees: The Shape of Me and Other Stuff (week 1)

From PeeWee mom Julia...

The book today was "The Shape of Me" by Dr. Seuss. It's not much of a story, but rather a couple kids thinking about themselves, their bodies' shapes, and the shapes of other things. After considering all different shapes: "smoke, marshmallows, and fires; mountains, roosters, horses, and tires!" they ultimately conclude, "Of all the shapes we might have been, I say 'Hooray!' for the shapes we're in!"

 

It is not too long and the pictures actually kept the kids fairly engaged through both readings of the book. I was lousy at taking pictures, but we had a really fun day looking at and for shapes all around us.

 

Open Play - We started with shaped lacing cards, foam shape puzzles and shape sorters. There was enough to switch off but not enough for each kid to be doing the same thing all the time. Of the lacing cards, the octagon was the most popular and nearly everyone laced that one. I had two sorters going, one that was much for difficult than the other and they all persevered really well and stuck with them until the end. Their attention spans have improved dramatically!

 

 

 

 

 

Circle Time - We then got down to business at circle time, singing our song and counting out shapes from my "shape bag"-- an assortment of items from around the house I'd pulled together. They took turns pulling out different objects and telling us what shape they had. Squares and rectangles stumped them all at first but by the end they were getting them right 90% of the time. Their counting is also getting so much better. 14 was the stumbling block today but they improved on a second try and made it to 20 (as a group, not necessarily as individuals :).

 

Then we read the book and looked around the room for shapes, playing a quick game of "I spy...." 

 

Snack -  square saltines, rectangle mini wheats, oval jelly beans, and circle cucumber slices. Everyone ate everything and liked pointing out the shapes.

 

 

Art: While I traced each kid's "shape" (the outline of their body on poster paper), they practiced tracing shapes. Although most of them did not finish the whole paper, I was impressed by how hard they tried for at least one or two of the shapes. This was not easy for them but they made a decent effort.

 

Activity 1 - While they did this I showed them "the many shapes of chewing gum" (a page of the book)-- as it comes out of the wrapper, as it is chewed, as I blew bubbles, etc. They were highly amused. I asked them before I put it in my mouth if it would stay like a rectangle in my mouth and they were all stumped!

 

Activity 2 - Then we played a shape game with some shape cards I have. A little shape sorter spits out a shape when you pull a lever and a shape comes out. If you have that shape on your card (there are more shapes than spaces on each card), then you keep it and cover it. If not, you put it back. They all filled their cards successfully and liked this game.

 

Activity 3 - Because it was such warm weather I decided we needed to go outside for the last 20 minutes rather than play our second game, which I'll save for next week. Before spending the last 15 minutes on the trampoline and in the sandbox, we went on a shape hunt on my street. We saw lots of rectangles on the houses and bricks, circle pipes and tires, a diamond-shaped street sign and an octagon stop sign at the end of the street, and square concrete blocks. They liked shouting out the shape names and got them right almost every time. They did such a good job holding hands and listening in the street; I was so impressed.

 

Closing - We finished on the trampoline (which is a big circle) and sang our good-bye chant there. It was a good, fun day.

PeeWee Field Trip: Monuments

 Just catching up on back PeeWee posts so I don't have them hanging out there while I try to muster up the time and energy to blog this year's homeschool experiment...


Accidentally knocked the camera into manual focus mode...and failed to focus.

This field trip happened back in March so I'm a big fuzzy on the details, but it went with the book Clifford Goes to Washington.  Ironically, my kindergartener had a monuments field trip planned for the same day, but we got an early morning phone call telling us it was postponed because of the rain.  She was devastated so I called her in absent, and brought her along on our field trip.  PeeWees aren't afraid of a little rain!

We parked near the Lincoln Memorial and walked over, and up those many slippery steps.

Checked out the reflecting pool and Washington Monument from the top.

Lisa was always so good about bringing the book and connecting it to our field trips. 

After Lincoln, we wandered over to the Korean War Memorial, which is close by.  It was raining harder so I'd put my camera away for that part.  Aah, cherry blossoms were out!

On the way back to the cars, we visited this much-climbed upon Einstein sculpture at the Academy of Sciences.

Slow-Cooker Asian Pork Tacos with Red Cabbage Slaw

Yay, I finally have a new good slow cooker recipe to share!  We tried this on Sunday, and it was a hit!  Which is saying something because my kids love "regular" tacos and are not always keen on something new in their tortilla. 

The problem with getting good flavored meat out of the slow cooker, is that you usually can't.  The strong flavors you start with dilute into blandness as moisture escapes the food and collects in the crock.  One way I see this sidestepped in recipes, is to add something bold and fresh at the end, like vinegar or fresh herbs.  Another way is what I did for this one: skim the fat, and reduce the liquid until it's flavorful again.  Yummmm!  (Too bad I couldn't eat it on my diet, but I did taste the meat, delish, and helped myself to the slaw.)

One more slow-cooker tip: I have come to avoid shredded meat recipes, because shredding the meat is so time-consuming, I hate it!  But I found a genius solution.  Throw that meat in your electric mixer bowl, and "mix" for a few seconds using the paddle attachment.  Voila, shredded meat in the blink of an eye.

Slow-Cooker Asian Pork Tacos with Red Cabbage Slaw 
Makes 4 servings

1 large navel orange
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 T low-sodium soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 T grated fresh ginger (or more)
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 (2.5 lb) pork shoulder, cut into 2-inch pieces
2 T olive oil
Kosher salt
Pepper
1/2 small head red cabbage
1 medium carrot
8 small flour tortillas 
Chopped peanuts, fresh cilantro, and fresh mint, optional, for garnish

1. Using a vegetable peeler, remove 4 strips of zest from the orange (reserve the orange). In a 5- to 6-quart slow cooker, whisk together the vinegar, sugar, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, red pepper, and orange zest.
2. Add the pork and toss to coat. Cook, covered, until the pork is tender and shreds easily, 7 to 8 hours on LOW or 4 to 5 hours on HIGH.
3. Thirty minutes before serving, make the slaw. Squeeze the juice from the orange into a large bowl (you should have about 1/2 cup). Whisk in the oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Core and thinly slice the cabbage. Cut the carrot into matchsticks. Add the vegetables to the vinaigrette and toss to combine.
4. Warm the tortillas according to package directions. Using two forks, shred the pork into large pieces (or use the mixer, see note above).  Pour the cooking liquid into a small saucepan.  Allow to settle, and skim the fat with a spoon.  Cook on medium-high until boiling; allow to boil for 5-10 minutes or until reduced by about 1/3 to 1/2, and flavorful.  Gently toss the meat with the reduced liquid.  Fill the tortillas with the pork mixture and top with the slaw.  Garnish with peanuts, mint, and/or cilantro, if desired.

SFC #6 Hand Knitting

 When I attended the VA Homeschoolers Convention in March, it was my first face-to-face introduction to the varied world of homeschooling.  I attended as many sessions as I could that told about different methods and styles, to get a feel for what's out there.  One of my favorite sessions was an introduction to the Waldorf method.  I walked away wishing I was sending my kids to a Waldorf school instead of homeschooling.  One of the things that especially caught my interest is the emphasis on art - drawing, painting, metal works, sculpture, pottery, and handwork, or fiber arts.  As part of the curriculum, all first graders learn to knit.

I just about died from swooning.  I learned to knit when I was about 10; I never got very good but I can follow a basic pattern, and I loved it (when I had time.)  The thought of teaching children very young how to do this sounded so right to me, I didn't need the justifications that often must accompany alternative education choices.  Here is a nice article about handwork in the Waldorf curriculum.

So I came home knowing I don't know enough about any homeschool approach to do it properly, but I know a little about a lot of things, so that's how we'll roll.  I definitely put knitting on my list of things to include. 

Then I remembered I'm an awkward knitter.  Somewhere along the way I adapted what I'd learned into a strange and inefficient style, and never knew it until my speed-Euro-knitter friend Kat pointed it out about 12 years ago.  I don't want to teach my kids a stupid way to knit!

So I did a quickie internet search on teaching knitting, and what I came across was even better - knitting progression!  Maggie's Rags suggested, first teach hand knitting, then loom/toddy knitting, then needles.  (Waldorf even has kids make their own needles!  Love that.)  Never heard of hand knitting, but nothing a quick YouTube search can't fix.  I made this green sample in a few minutes on Sunday:

Then Monday, for Summer Fun Club, we were off to the races.  A few minutes of instruction, a few more minutes of getting the hang, and voila, independent hand knitters.  

They each made a short scarf length, then we tied them off, and they played with them the rest of the afternoon.  Then today we went to Michael's and picked out a few more skeins of thick yarn so they can hand knit their hearts out on our drive to Massachusetts Friday (visiting my sister's family.)  Talk about a handy little skill, and they love it!

SFC #5 DOUBLE FUN (2013)

We had back-to-back fun planned today - a yard water play party in the morning our PeeWee friends had invited us to, followed by going to the pool in our friend Kate's neighborhood.

Unfortunately, we woke up this morning to 72 degrees and rain.  But we've got friends that roll with it.  Double water fun turned into double other fun. 

The morning party turned into an awesome creek walk, complete with popcorn, throwing rocks, and a hot dog lunch.  Awesome!

The afternoon pool party turned into bowling, what could be better?

As we rolled home at 4pm, happy but exhausted, I let the girls know Saturday would be a chore day.  It's sad, but amazingly the house doesn't clean itself in the same way it seems to dirty itself.  Bills, cleaning, and laundry must get done so we can rock another week of Summer Fun Club!