FIAR- Owl Moon

This week has been a bit more challenging for school because of schedule changes. I've read from other blogging moms that homeschooling is not any fun or effective if you force your kids into it or you force yourself into it. It has to be a good time and a good day. This is especially true because of my young children (4 and 2). I never want to force them to do school that day if they just aren't in the right mood. I feel that as school becomes a habit for all of us, it will get easier. So we missed a couple days because of some "moods," but now we're back on track and hopefully can continue our row through the weekend.

This week we started Owl Moon. It is a vivid story of a young girl who goes owling with her dad.

DAY 1 - Daddy Day

For this book I felt the most important thing I could pull out of it is the special time with dad. So the girls made a list of things they like about Dad. From that list I made up some quick activities we could do and give to Dad at the end of the day.
Tickle Time! (traced hands)

Dad rides his bike to work each day, so we made a bike of shapes only. I like how Miss 4 added a chain and safety lights; very important. (shown at end)

A tie for when Dad goes to church.

I also talked about the role of a dad - to provide and to protect; why he goes to work, how much he loves us, and how important it is that we love Dad too. I also cleared special "Daddy Date" times for the girls each to spend time with Dad.
I feel so blessed to have a family with a father around who loves his children in this changing society.

DAY 2- Owls
In Owl Moon, the father calls for an owl. The girls having been making owl calls from the book all week. It's very enchanting for them. They are especially into birds because of "Rio."
We made a shapes owl,

read informative books about owls (both of which I highly recommend),

and looked and listened to different bird sounds on the iPad. iBird Explorer Lite was their favorite.

Day 3- Art and Moon
In Owl Moon, there are hidden animals or objects on each page, so they found them.
We examined the aerial viewpoint the artist chose and practiced it.

Since the girls need some additional drawing skills, FIAR suggested drawing small objects. This proved to be quite challenging, but I liked how Miss 4 was really trying and didn't get frustrated (that can happen in school on art days...)

We used their building for examining shadows. We should have had a bigger light or less surrounding light. It worked, but could have been better.

For the moon portion of the day, we started with a book. This is a complicated subject for a 4 year old, but the book was fun and informative. It'll be fun to dive deeper into this subject as they grow. We had a "half-moon" snack (bagel with cream cheese), and a moon-themed lunch. (I can't believe I've been a mom for 4 years and this was my first time making pancakes into shapes. It was actually hard!)

I always look for ways to use the iPad for school, otherwise, why have it (in my opinion)? And of course free is the only way to go especially since the iPad is new to us and I'm still learning exactly what I want from the apps. A fun little free app that shows the past, current, and future moon phases along with fun moon facts. Moon.

Fun day planned for tomorrow! We've had fun so far even though the week has seemed a bit scrambled.