FIAR - A New Coat for Anna

We recently rowed A New Coat for Anna.  There are so many wonderful ideas (1) for rowing this book in the FIAR community, unfortunately, this week we had to do what we could and didn't get to do all those wonderful ideas (2).  (See my post about getting discouraged.)


Here's what we did get to:
Day 1 - Language Arts/Math
After reading the first chapter of The Write Start free through Amazon Kindle, I learned that writing is what's missing from teaching Miss 4 to read.  We've tried a few different ways, but Jennifer Hallissy (Author) breaks it all down in the just the first chapter why writing should come first.  So throughout our rows, we've been practicing writing as much as possible.

Writing new vocabulary words (shear, weave, tailor, ripe, twirl)

Today was also about sequencing. A few activities:

Sequencing/Step-by-Step "How to make a peanut butter sandwich."

Playing Simson Free - sequencing and memory game

Sequencing how Anna got to make her coat. What comes first? From Homeschool Share

Day 2: Art
I really wanted to weave paper, but the girls were having a hard time getting interested in school that day, so after reading A New Coat for Anna while they played in the room and listened, I showed them their own Sewing Basket.  It included: pipe cleaners, beads, balls of yarn, fabric, buttons, and sewing cards.  I wanted to add a plastic needle, mesh, and embroidery hoop, but the mesh I got was too small for the large plastic needles and I went to the wrong store for the hoop... nonetheless, the basket was full of fun and it kept them busy while I slaved away on a sewing project of my own for them.

Genius. I didn't even think to put the buttons on the pipe cleaner! Love that concentration face.

A little late taking pictures of the basket. Destruction and mess was eminent. 

It was a couple years ago that my friend made library bags for her kids.  Of course her kids show up with these adorable library bags that hold just the right amount of books and are just the right size for kids and I love them.  Do I make them, no - I add it to the list of things I'll eventually do.  Once again, it took me deciding to homeschool, searching blogs for ideas, finding and choosing FIAR, and finally reading A New Coat for Anna to actually make these library bags for my own children.  I am so thankful I decided to homeschool.  It brings such a purpose to day, week, and yeah, life.

Cute Owl bag for Miss 2. Made from scraps and they picked their own fabric. Love it.

Miss 4 modeling her lovely butterfly library bag.

Miss 4 felt the need to "accessorize" once her bag was done and mom was taking pictures.  Where does she get that?  I certainly don't accessorize...  Haha, Too Cute!

Ironically, we skipped story time at the library to make the bags.  We attend story time at two different libraries every week.  I feel it is a great way to interact with other moms and kids their age while also learning to listen to a teacher and follow directions.  Also, attending the libraries each week teaches self-discipline while in a quiet place and hopefully ignites a love for learning through books.  I love that they pick out their own books and now fill their bags. Sewing the bags also taught the girls a principle from the book. Anna had to wait a year before her coat was ready.  My girls had to wait a day, but it sure felt like a year.  I think they really enjoyed seeing how it all came together - it's no "wool from sheep" process, but seeing how scraps of fabric can be put together to make something useful was definitely a lesson.

Day 3: Science

My girls love animals; what kid doesn't?  They're fantastic.  We got a lot of books from the library about sheep. 

After reading about sheep, which was a lot of fun and I even learn a lot too, we moved onto seasons.  We read some books on seasons - I wasn't thrilled with any of them, so we moved onto dyes.  Now I totally should have followed directions on this.  This book is full of fun dyeing projects.  I just didn't plan ahead and go to the store for the necessary roots and leaves.  We got one thing to turn out though with the supplies we had on-hand.

  

We used raspberries, blueberries, orange peels, and peas (what was I thinking... peas??) Oh well.

Supplies

Boil water, add "dye," add to jar with cloth and some salt- yeah, I know peas... yuck.

Blueberry, raspberry combo - Success!  I should have also separated them, but Miss 4 requested purple. So we did that. She also wasn't feeling well so our time was limited for school and dyeing.

Day 4: Math

We compared a yard stick, measuring tape, and retractable measuring tape.  Measured a few places around the house and ourselves with each and determined which instrument was best for each (sorry no pics).  We made patterns with cardboard shapes - tracing, a very awesome skill to work on, inexpensive too! 

Day 5: Social Studies

Honestly, we skipped this day. I had planned to get out the map and point out Europe, WWII places, talk about WWII (war in general) emotions, effects, reactions, and pull other elements from the story, but these subjects are difficult.  I was really going to scale it down to talking about emotions, looking a pictures of emotions, etc. (EQ is all the rage, right?), but Miss 4 requested no school that day.  I figure, we had a good week - I'm okay not doing day 5 too.  At the end of the day though, she reported to Dad that we didn't do school and was sad.  Emotions... check!

FIAR Thoughts

I love Five in a Row, I really do, but after rowing a few books and reading ahead for books that I could choose from I'm realizing this is probably a program for an older student.  The suggested age is 4 to 8, so my children are definitely at the bottom of that scale, Miss 2 is below (she's along for the ride really).  There is a Before Five in a Row manual and I'm wondering if I should have started with that one first...

I really only have one obstacle: the books are too long for Miss 4 & 2.  Reading them each day before our lesson has proved to be a challenge.  I've resorted to letting the girls just be in the room while I read.  Hopefully they'll still retain a bit of the majesty, life-lessons, and beauty of story as they listen to it. After discussing this issue with my husband, considering their ages (but modifying the program a little), he suggested reading the book all the way through on Monday and Friday while only reading the parts that are important to our lesson during the other days.  I'm going to try it.  Next week we're rowing Ferdinand and if they struggle getting through it or complain about reading the book for a second, or third, or fourth time, we'll try that tactic to just read what's important for the lesson of the day.  Thanks hubby, I was starting to get discouraged.

What's important to me as a homeschooling mother at this point is literature.  I want my kids to love it.  I want them to know the value of reading from good books. They should know how much can be learned from reading.  That is my goal of homeschool for now: instill a love of learning through reading books.

Even though I felt a bit discouraged and thought that maybe my children are too young to be starting any sort of program or curriculum, I know that what they learn and experience, however small, means something.  It means something to me as a mother to be teaching them.  It means something to them as they have "school" each day with me.  It means something to our day.  It means something to our week.  It means everything to our family.  So onward we will go - Merrily Learning Along.

Finishing up- Owl Moon

To finish our row of Owl Moon, we went for a hike. We found:
a lot of gopher holes and mounds,

fun places animals could live,

tall beautiful Oregon trees,

treasures for our buckets,

tree fungus,

what I thought was a seed, was actually a gall,

animal homes and holes, plus awesome sticks,

huge leaves,

moss,

beautiful winter scene,

and tracks.

We also listened for birds and other animal noises. We haven't been hiking there in almost 2 years. I was thinking about how much I've wanted to go back these 2 years and it took me deciding to homeschool, picking Five in a Row (FIAR), and reading Owl Moon to finally go back. Wow. I'm realizing homeschool, even the small stuff we do, gives us purpose to our day. I love it.

The day we focused on language arts was a little discouraging. My children are so young and it's difficult to teach about metaphors, similes, and even adjectives. I tried and pointed out a few examples in the book - boy, was that boring for them... That is the reason I'm going to continue FIAR for many years. Each year we row a story it will be a new experience and a new lesson.
A suggestion from the manual was to have the child write or dictate a story using metaphors or similes, I changed it to videoing a story of their own.

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.

Katy and the Big Snow - Day 5

Today was our last day of Katy and the Big Snow. I can't believe we made it through a whole week. We had a little too much fun.

Today we learned about personification. Katy is a tractor, but has human characteristics and comments. First we looked a little closer at Katy and the words the author uses to describe her. Then I had the girls pick something that was not an animal in the house. We have lots of stuffed animals and I knew those would come out first thing! They ended up picking purses. First I had them draw the purses.

Miss 2 shocked me with her drawing of the pink purse!

Then we added human qualities: eyes, mouth, hair, legs, arms, etc.
Miss 4's turned into how I imagined the "Purple People Eater" in that old song...

To finish the short day we "personified" our snack. Definitely, more creative ways to go on this, but what we did works too :o)

Thanks for following along! I hope you got some ideas for "Katy and the Big Snow" when you do your Five in a Row.