Me on the Map

To help the boy get a better sense of how cities, provinces, countries, and continents fit together, we did a "Me on the Map" project.



Our project included the following categories:

1. Me - draw self-portrait
2. My house - draw house and write house number
3. My street - cut and glue paper road and houses and write street name
4. My city - use Internet to find city logo, print, paste, and write city name
5. My province - colour and paste printed province, add flag, and write province name
6. My country - colour and paste printed country, add flag, and write country name
7. My continent - colour, label, and paste printed continent and write continent name
8. My planet - colour printed globe green/blue and write Earth

We fastened the circles together using a one-inch fastener, which worked perfectly to let the circles rotate to see the layer beneath.

(With thanks to Finally in First via Pinterest!)

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Social Studies: Mapping

Endangered

Today the boys were organizing their Schleich animal figurines into habitats. They had forest, grassland, desert, and Arctic regions.

They weren't sure where their snowy owl would fit - Arctic or forest - so we looked it up in our Animals Visual Encyclopedia. Unfortunately, this not-so-complete encyclopedia didn't include the snowy owl, so we found some information online at Canadian Geographic Kids instead.

Once the snowy owl was placed in the correct area, we continued to browse through the animal encyclopedia. We noticed that each animal description included its status regarding whether or not it was endangered. This lead us to the IUCN Red List categories and criteria. We also explored both types of threats that cause species decline and possible conservation actions that can be taken.

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Science: Observation and description
Social Studies: Caring for the environment

Fun with accents

The subject of accents came up this weekend following an interesting discussion on world languages. The boy was interested in the idea that people could speak English in different ways (distinct pronunciations) and wanted to hear examples of this. YouTube was the ideal way to quickly explore a variety of regional accents, including Irish, Scottish, and Australian.

Since then, he can occasionally be overheard muttering phrases to himself in different accents as well as incorporating it into his play.

The British Library has an excellent resource for listening to UK-specific accents and dialects: Accents and Dialects of the UK.

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Social Studies: Characteristics of different environments

Around the house

In addition to developing his kitchen skills, we've been offering the boy greater responsibilities around the house as well.

His laundry responsibilities, in addition to putting his own dirty clothes into the hamper, had previously included bringing the dry clothes from the dryer in the garage into our house, as well as basic washcloth folding. Bringing in the dry clothes has now been passed on to his younger brother, while the boys' new responsibilities include putting away the clothes for the three kids (I had initially asked him to put away the clothes for him and his brother, but he insisted he could do his baby sister's clothes as well) and sorting the laundry. Next up, advanced folding!

Other current household responsibilities include assisting in unloading the dishwasher, vacuuming the living room, setting the table for the kids, clearing away his dishes after a meal, cleaning up his toys before bedtime, keeping his room tidy, and general assistance when requested. He also enjoys window washing, but that remains a skill-in-progress.

It has been interesting to observe the link between meaningful work and personal initiative/responsibility. The more (age-appropriate and reasonable) meaningful work we give him, the more he demonstrates awareness of household needs and a willingness to take them on himself. He has, for example, taken on the responsibility of undoing both of his little sibling's carseats when we arrive at our destination, in addition to other self-initiated responsibilities.

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Social Studies: Responsibility

In the kitchen

The boy has been taking care of his own breakfast for a while now, often helping his little brother with his as well. He also washes fruit, peels vegetables, and makes toast with peanut butter.

Recently we've been working with him to increase his kitchen skills. Earlier this month he made us a delicious meal of fried egg & cheese sandwiches with a side salad. I sliced the cheese while he made the toast and fried the eggs (turning on the correct burner, buttering the pan, cracking the eggs into the pan, flipping the eggs, moving the cooked eggs onto the toast). We worked together on the salad and then everything was brought to the table for our meal. Delicious!

The next day, he saw me making fried mushrooms with toast for my own lunch. He doesn't usually eat mushrooms, but he thought my lunch smelled and looked yummy, so I told him there were more mushrooms in the fridge if he wanted to make his own. He turned on the correct burner, buttered the pan, sliced the mushrooms, stirred them around as they fried, made toast, then put it all on a plate when it was done.

Our next dinner was a simple spaghetti and pasta sauce meal, so I let him have at it again. He learned not to put an empty pot on a hot burner, but to put the water in first. He boiled the water, added the spaghetti, and warmed up the pre-made frozen pasta sauce in another pot. I began to set the table, but he promptly stopped me, insisting that he would take care of everything. He set the table for all of us, brought the jug of water over, and put the Parmesan cheese on the table. Simple skills, but a complete meal!

Next up: Pancakes from start to finish!

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Health: Nutrition
Social Studies: Responsibility

Fall leaf sugar cookies

Part of our journey towards a more intentional life has included incorporating rhythm into our days, weeks, and years, ensuring that the things we value are not forgotten as our time idly slips away from us.

One aspect of this rhythm has been the deliberate observance of the passing of the seasons. As such, we chose to celebrate the first day of fall this year by making leaf sugar cookies. Simple, fun, and memorable, the boys declared it the best day ever.

(Thank you, Pinterest, for the inspiration!)

We began by whipping up a batch of sugar cookie dough (I used this recipe based purely on ratings). Before chilling the dough, we separated it into batches and added food dye.

Once it was chilled (and dinner was finished), we moved on to the fun part!

Pull off pieces of dough and arrange them in a patchwork on your floured (or, in our case, "parchmented") surface.

Roll the dough into a smooth surface, 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick.

Beginning cutting out your cookies! We made leaves, turkeys, and pumpkins. The boy and I each used a toothpick to draw designs on the cookies. The toddler ate the dough.

The re-rolled dough had more of a marbled effect. (By the third re-roll, the mixed colours were looking pretty dingy.)

The rest is self-explanatory! Bake 6 to 8 minutes at 400F (or as per your recipe) and cool on a wire rack. Enjoy!

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Mathematics: Numbers, patterns, spatial relations
Social Studies: Co-operative participation in groups
Fine Arts: Visual arts (creativity, artistic design)