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)

Reading milestone!

Today the boy read his first book, front to back, since completing Set 1 of the Bob Books.

He read a Thomas & Friends Step 1 reader, Stuck in the Mud.

Congratulations to him!

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Language Arts: Reading

Splash park!

After being closed for upgrades all summer, the new and improved splash park at our local playground has now been reopened. (And just in time for fall!)

The boys had a great time exploring it today, as well as running around the playground and green space as usual. Two hours later, they were ready for the hike back home. Glad we got to check it out before the fall weather hit!

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Physical Education: Physical activity

Thank you dahlia

The boy recently expressed his love of a friend's dahlias. She was kind enough to give the boy one of his own to take home, a lovely small red one.

After putting it in a jar of water, the boy sat down to draw a thank you picture. He carefully drew a picture of the flower in the jar, even including the "Happy Easter" sticker that was on it from a few months ago. He wrote a short thank you message and put it away for safekeeping until the next time we would see her. He then asked me to write it down somewhere so we wouldn't forget.

Today we were headed her way, so we brought the picture along. He gave it to her and told her what it was for, and she was pleased to receive it.

(Sadly, I forgot to take a picture of this one!)

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Language Arts: Writing
Fine Arts: Visual arts

Farm Day

Today we joined some other families at a local petting farm to celebrate a friend's birthday.

The boys had a great time walking around the farm, learning about the animals, feeding the rabbits, and petting the goats. The boy got to practice milking a cow, which turned out to be harder than it looked! We enjoyed a picnic lunch there afterwards.

We talked about why some animals were accessible to us and others were kept in their own separate areas where the public couldn't touch them. It was interesting to speculate on the various reasons.

Happy birthday to our newly-two-year-old friend!

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Science: Observation
Health: Personal safety
Physical Education: Physical activity

Student Learning Plan

All posts will include a section at the bottom which categorizes the activity according to the following Student Learning Plan. You can also search by category using the Labels to the left, below the Blog Archives.
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Student Learning Plan
Kindergarten
2012/13

Numeracy
Numbers (Life of Fred, addition, skip counting, measuring, math games)
Patterns (as found in surrounding environment)
Shape and Space (Lego, blocks)

Language Arts
Reading and Viewing (daily reading, Bob Books, magnetic letters)
Writing and Representing (printing, copying words)
Speaking and Listening (book discussions: predictions, questions, review)

Health (nutrition, personal safety)

Science (observations, descriptions)

Social Studies (family relationships, mapping)

Fine Arts
Drama (story dramatizations)
Music (singing, rhythm)
Visual arts (drawing, painting)

Physical Education (physical activity, skill building)

The journey begins!

Hello! Welcome to the official beginning of our homeschooling journey.

The Boy, five and a half years old, is now a kindergartner. As residents of British Columbia, we have chosen to enroll in the home learners program of a local school, which allows us the benefit of additional resources.

Our homeschooling philosophy leans toward the life-based unschooling method. This has thus far successfully brought us to the early stages of reading, writing, spelling, math, science, and more with no formal teaching or curriculum. We look forward to seeing where The Boy's interests take us next!

This blog will serve as documentation of our life learning, with occasional special appearances by his brother (The Toddler) and his sister (The Baby). We'd love for you to follow along!