Fables and Folktales

This month with Mother Goose Time we are studying Aesop's Fables.  The first day we read the fable about The Lion and the Mouse.  This is the story about the mouse that runs past the lion and get's caught.  The mouse pleads with the lion to let him go and tells him that he will pay him back some day.  The lion of course laughs at the thought of a mouse helping him, the lion, in any way.  But still agrees to let him go.  Later, the lion, is trapped in a net and roars for help.  The mouse comes to his rescue and chews the rope to free the lion.

The moral of the story "kindness is never wasted."

Mother Goose Time did it again by publishing a book that goes perfectly with this months theme.

They also tried something new this month.  Instead of a music CD they sent an audio story CD.  All the stories from the book are read by none other than Leslie Falconer, CEO of Mother Goose Time.  Peter, specifically, loves to listen to the stories in this way.  This will be a great CD to bring along on car rides.  The best part is that they get to meet Leslie at the end of August.  I bet she will feel familiar to them since they have listened to her voice.

I love how Mother Goose Time will adapt to make every month unique and perfect.  This month is all about story telling, so really, audio stories on the CD are a perfect match!

After we read the story the lesson Listen to the Lion had us find a stuffy and wrap it up with string.  I think we were actually supposed to do this part ahead of time.  But I knew the boys would both love doing it themselves.  As they wrapped their critters we talked about the discussion question, when might an animal need your help?  The boys talked about rescuing honey bees from the pool.  I talked about rescuing a lost dog.  It was a great conversation.  We are all about rescuing animals in this house.  We even usher spiders outside instead of squishing them.  I know, I am a bit extreme.

What I found interesting was the different levels at which the boys were able to wrap up their stuffies.   Lachlan, who is 6, was able to wrap his really tightly and with accuracy.

 You can see how tight Spark is caught in that net.  Wrapped over and over in the same place. 

Poor guy.  He looks so sad.  Not to worry, the "mouse" AKA scissors will free him soon.

Peter chose to tie up Stormy.  You can see his string is loose and a little bit random.  Peter is 4 and is super smart and can do many things brother can do.  But you can see here there is still some difference in their fine motor abilities. 

 Don't worry Stormy, you will be rescued soon. 

Again, here is Peter really attacking with the scissors.  Lachlan on the other hand, was a lot more methodical.  He had a plan and cut Spark free carefully.  Now some of the difference I am seeing is probably also due to personality.  I would say how they freed their critter is a pretty accurate depiction of how they take on life.  But I also know that some of it has to do with where they are at developmentally. 

 They are free!

Next we worked on the craft and made puppets.  This is Peter's lion which he chose to color purple.  When he had his lion and mouse all finished I played the story on the CD and he acted it out with his puppets.  It was cute to see the lion and the mouse talking to each other.



In July we were pretty relaxed about school.  I am trying to work them back into a routine by just doing the Mother Goose Time lessons each morning.  At minimum I want to do all the starred lessons.  This month we got a Baseline Assessment Tool.  Everyday in the Teacher Guide there is at least one starred lesson.  This is a lesson for us to assess and see where our children fall on the Developmental Continuum of Skills.  When we complete all the starred lessons and assessments we will have a comprehensive picture of where are children are at.

 Here you can see the starred lesson and the assess question at the bottom.  For my children, identifying their full name has been something they can do for a very long time.  So I looked inside the Developmental Continuum of Skills quick reference book and turned to the page with the skills 12.1 and 12.2. 

 I found that both of my boys fall in the benchmark F. 

12. 1 Benchmark F: Reads high frequency sight words
12.1 Benchmark F: Identifies all letters and their sounds.  Begins to sound out the letters in two to four letter words.

I was able to do this assessment with out having them write their names on the name tag because I already know what they can do in this area.  We ran out of time on this day so we never did get to the name tags.  But the next day we did.  The next day we were supposed to assess 14.1 which looks at their writing abilities.  I placed both the boys at Benchmark E but noticed the next Benchmark asks if they can print their first and last name.  My poor kids have 11 letters in their last name.  So this isn't something I have worked on much with them.  However, now that I realize it is the next step in learning I had Peter give it a try.

I also read that writing the upper and lowercase letters appropriately is part of the next benchmark as well.  So I coached Peter using the alphabet cards we got this month that I have yet to cut apart.  He was able to get the first 4 letter of our last name written before he ran out of room on the name tag.

That is the best part about the assessment process.  It's not a test so we can tell the kids where they are failing.  My goodness, that would be awful.  It's for us, the educators, to understand where the child is at and where he is expected to be next. Having this knowledge allows us to bridge the gap between what they know and what they need to know.  For in that gap is where the learning happens. 

Another Amazing MGT Resource - Content Learning Objectives

I love Mother Goose Time, everyone knows that.  But I still can't help but be surprised when there is yet another tool or resource that I discover or rediscover.  I have seen the pages in the Teacher Guide that describe what we are going to learn that week, but I have never paid much attention.  Some of the other Blog Ambassadors had been talking about this page and it made me see it in a new light.

The part that I think is really cool is the Content Learning Objectives.  It states after completing these lessons, the child will be able to:

• Identify and describe animals that climb the trees.
• Describe which parts of the trees can be used for building.
• Identify things that are made of wood.  
• Identify the colors found in trees.
• Identify things that grow on and fall from trees.
• Describe ways to tell the age of a tree.
• Identify which parts of trees can be used for writing.

I love this list!  You could type this up and keep it in your pocket or wallet and use this as you go through life to just talk and discuss these things.  Or give this list to the Grandparents or babysitter after you have completed the week so they can ask them about all the things they have learned.  It's just another great tool and part of Mother Goose Time.

They also have this page at the beginning of each week that has three columns.  What we know, what we wonder and what we learned.  This is a chance for you to sit down with your kids at the beginning of the week and ask them what they know about trees (as an example, this weeks topic).  Quickly jot down what they know.  Then ask what they wonder, or what would they like to know.  At the end of the week you can sit down again and ask them what they learned.

Now, I have to say, I am not sure we could have had this in depth of a conversation with a 2 year old but I am currently using this curriculum for my 6 and 4 year old.  This is another example of how the curriculum can grow right along with you.

The exciting part about this page is that you could not more plainly lay out what learning is all about.  Take something you are interested, think about what you know, what you would like to know and then see your hard work pay off by listing all that you have learned.  I can't wait to put this tool to work with my boys in the coming weeks.

So here is a little peak into what we have learned about trees.

First we made Koala puppets and talked about animals and people that climb trees.

We talked about tree rings and how we can count them to find out how old they are.  

 Then Peter cut out a circle and drew 4 rings on it to be as old as he is.

He held it out nice and steady for me to take the picture.  Notice the blur.  I think he had to go potty and was doing the dance.

Every year when we cut down our Christmas tree we cut off a fresh little inch so that it can get water from the stand, just like re-cutting the flower stem when putting it in water.  Jeff gives the tree cutting to us and we count the rings to find out how old our Christmas tree is that year.  This last years tree was 15 years old.  I still had the tree cutting in our science tray and Peter looked at the rings under the magiscope.

The next day we talked about building with trees.  I actually don't have any pictures, but it was such an amazing discussion.  As we sat for lunch we listed all of the things made of wood.  They listed the table, chairs, cabinets, TV stand and so on.  But then I blew their minds when I told them paper was made out of trees.  I mean really, mind blown.

This lead to a new topic.  I asked them if we keep cutting down trees, what will happen?  We will run out.  So how do we make sure not to run out? They struggled to come up with an answer.  Although we did talk a little bit about not wasting paper. I realized, we have just the book to answer this question for them.

I got out Timber!, which is a Mother Goose Time published book that we got with a theme a while back.  It is about a lumberjack who cuts down trees to build his log cabin.  With each house he cuts down an animal loses it's home.  Finally at the last tree the bear yells STOP! and suddenly the lumberjack sees what he has done.  He goes back and plants a new tree in the place of all of those he chopped down.

I asked the question again, what should we do to make sure we don't run out of trees?  Plant new ones!  It was so fun to see them find the answer in a book!

I will be using Mother Goose Time this coming school year for all three of my boys.  They are 6, 4 and a little over 1.  I look forward to seeing all the ways I can extend the curriculum and the topics for my first grader.  These Content Learning Objectives might be the first place to start.  If he will be learning about which parts of trees can be used for building then maybe a natural extension for a first grader would be for him to learn soft woods versus hard woods or to see a video or read a book on how they turn a tree into lumber.  I think a father son field trip might be in order where they can walk through a lumberyard and Jeff can teach him about building with wood.   

An InLinkz Link-up

Mix and Match Picture Story

I have pictures from a variety of days with this months theme, Alphabet House.

While learning about Houses and Homes with Alphabet House we had a day where we learned all about castles.  The two older boys made crowns with jewels and I had Lachlan make one with out the jewels (aka choke hazards) for Adam.

I also found a documentary about a castle on Netflix and had that running.  It had more information than the boys could take in.  I have to say, I got sucked in.  But there were a few things they took note of and asked me about.

I can't say I would have every put castles into the category of  "places people live".  I am so glad Mother Goose Time thought of such a fun idea.


On Day 8 we were in Week 2 learning all about Rooms in the house and Kitchen was the room of the day.  Alphabet Soup was the recommended book.  This is a great little book where the boy goes on a big adventure by spelling different words using his alphabet soup. 

Mother Goose Time had us set up a bowl of dried pasta combined with the letters cards they provided for us.  There were two cards for each letter, one uppercase and one lowercase.  Each having a picture on the back showing an item that started with that letter.

The boys took turns stirring the soup and grabbing a letter.  Once the letter was chosen we would sing the song you can see in bold in the picture above. 

Here Lachlan got a P and was making the /p/p/p/ sound as part of the song.

I had this bowl of pasta and letters out for quite a while.  It was intriguing to many of the children.  When my friends children came for the day I taught them the song.


Grant is the one singing, he is 4 almost 5.  But Cody, the little guy closest to me was also singing the song with me earlier, I just couldn't get it on video.  Cody is 2 and getting closer to 3.

This was really a great letter review game.  We played with it over and over again.  When my older boys were done with it I put it in a tray on the counter with another plastic bowl and a variety of scooping tools for my youngest Adam (16 months old).  We have a learning tower in our kitchen and he was able to stand there and scoop happily forever.
 

Here is what the learning tower looks like.  If you click on the image it will take you to Amazon (affiliate link).  If you have the space in your kitchen, this has been the best investment ever!  We actually got ours used for $75.  So it wouldn't hurt to check your local kids resale stores or Craigslist.

An InLinkz Link-up

 

A Bunch of Dinosaur Projects

This is not my official Mother Goose Time post for the week.  But I just feel like there has been so many great dinosaur ideas that I want to at least get pictures of them up in a post.  I have posted quite a few on my Facebook page as we have done them.  So here is a review.

This first picture is actually of an Experience God Lesson.  We are studying the story of the Talents.  I buried some letters in the sand that we have been using off and on this month with our Dino Dig theme.  He was supposed to uncover a letter, tell me the letter and come up with something that starts with that letter that is important to him.  First he uncovered P but said his bicycle was special to him.  I did have a B in there so I encouraged him to keep digging.

The question we asked was, what are you afraid to lose?

Scripture reference: Mathew 25:18 But the man who had received on bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money.

Explain: God does not want us to bury the gifts he has given us.  He wants us to use them in ways to bring him glory.

Peter also said his bicycle was important to him and he didn't want to lose it.  I asked him how he was going to keep it safe?  He said he was going to bury it.  I asked him if it was buried, how would he get to ride it and enjoy it? He said he was going to dig it up, ride it and then bury it again.  Of course you are buddy.

Lachlan made a dinosaur collage.  He was suppose to make the collage on egg cut out but he opted to color it instead.  I asked him why he didn't make a collage and he said "there is just too many things to choose from I didn't know what to do."  I thought this was pretty profound for my little man.  I was glad he could put it into words.  I gave him a little more guidance and he made this awesome T-Rex with a tail.  It seems Lachlan is a bit like me, he get's overwhelmed when there are too many choices.

Next they hid under a blanket and pretended to be dino eggs.  I set a timer and when the timer went off they would hatch.  But they had to move quickly and run and hide to avoid predetors.

Perfect hiding place.

This was a great tool from Mother Goose Time this month.  They rolled the die and used BINGO markers to keep track of which dino came up on the die most.  They took turns rolling the die We got to talk about which had the most and which had the least.  Great math terms.  It was a big hit.  I would like to laminate this one to use again and again.

We had an awesome day learning all about Dinosaur tails. But I hope to dedicate a whole post to it.  So more about that later.

Now this was fun!  The boys were playing with our instruments and it made me think of our wonderful Jurassic Jam book we got this month from MGT.  Each instrument has a beat written out and easy to grasp.  So I thought I would look to the book for some pointers.

The drum beat is written out as boom, ba, boom, boom, ba.  So I had the boys hit the drum, 1, 2 pause, 1, 2, 3.  It was so much fun watching their minds and body try to keep on rhythm. 

Next the guitar is written, wikka, wikka, wak, wikka, wikka, wak.  I had them strum, strum, tap (just lightly tap the strings) strum, strum, tap.

Music is such an amazing thing for the mind and soul.  But I do not have a musical bone in my body.  So this was a so helpful for me!  It was great to be able to guide them in their use of the instruments rather than the normal "make a lot of noise" method they had been using.

I think we might even use the instruments in a pattern exercise sometime soon!

Mother Goose Time Giveaway Hop

This is so exciting!  Some of the blog ambassadors for Mother Goose Time and I are doing a Giveaway Hop.  We are each reviewing a few books and then giving them away!  We are doing all of this to celebrate the addition of these amazing books to Amazon.  Previously these books were only available in Mother Goose Time curriculum kits.

At the end of this post I will link up to the other blogs so you can hop on over and enter all the giveaways.  That should better your odds of a win.  Yay!

The first book I am giving away is called There Are Bugs by Chris Lensch.  This book came along with our Bugs and Crawly Things curriculum set.  It's perfect for any one studying bugs or just going through a bug faze!

This book not only has great illustrations by Chris Lensch but the part I love the most is that the bugs in the book are actual photos of the real thing.  The mix of the two come together beautifully.  

At the very end there is a glossary of bugs and crawly things.  If you are squeamish you might want to skip this page.  But if your home is anything like mine, full of boys who like bugs, this will be the most visited page of the book.

To see how we used this book to learn more about Bugs and Crawly things with Mother Goose Time click here.

Next is Waiter! Waiter! written by Leslie Falconer and illustrated by Chris Lensch.  This book is not just a book but a song and it's a catchy song at that.  Honestly, I wasn't sure how much my boys were getting out of reading this book.  But soon after reading it we were out to eat and they asked what the guy was called that was taking our order.  I said "waiter" and they started in on the Waiter, Waiter song. 

One of the reoccurring lines in the song is "waiter, waiter, I'd like some food, so I'll try to not be rude."  As the song/book continues it talks about different ways to not be rude - to be polite.

The page above illustrates how not to eat and makes everyone chuckle.  The page that comes next explains that we should chew with our mouths closed. 

When we were at the restaurant and got to the line about not being rude, both my boys asked what that meant and it lead to a really great conversation about manners when out to eat or at home for that matter!

The last page of this book includes the music and the words to this song, so you can hum along too. 

The last book you may win, is Baby Animals Learn And Play .  Who doesn't love baby animals?  This book is a fairly simple book with excellent photos of baby animals and how they play to learn.  But they have added a creative element I and my children found to be quite fun.

They have the words themselves move the same way the baby animal is moving.

They also end each page with a question that gets the kids you are sharing this book with actively participating. 

Sorry about all the pictures, but you really have to see it to fully understand how great this little book is.

To see how we used this book to explore the topic of Baby Animals with Mother Goose Time click  here.

Now it's time for the raffle!  Thank you for reading and thank you for entering to win.  I hope it's you!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Here is the list of the other Mother Goose Time book giveaways this week. Hop on over, and enter to win at all of the blogs to increase your chances!

The Blue Elephant
Blessed Little Thistle
Hip Homeschooling
Only Passionate Curiosity
Book Wishes
Things to Share and Remember

This giveaway will be open from 1/26/2015- 2/2/2015. Prizes will be fulfilled by Mother Goose Time. Must be 18 years or older to enter to win, and a resident of the USA or Canada. Void where prohibited by law.


If you just can't wait to see if you win, you can purchase these MGT books and more at Amazon (affiliate links).   

Dinosaur Dig - Week 1

Dinosaur Dig is right up our alley.  We have many dinosaur themed items around this house but we have gained some great additions to our collection so far this week.

Day 1 we learned about Paleontologists and received our Field Journal.  I gave Lachlan his journal with no instructions, just to see what he would do.  He loved it and started coloring right away.  Mother Goose Time provided them each with a small pack of crayons along with their journal this month.  Lachlan was quite fond of them. 

After spending some time coloring and enjoying the journals I asked them to make some observations.  I asked them to observe the dinosaurs and write down their observations.

Peter noticed that the Brontosaurus had a long neck and asked how to write it.  So I wrote it out on a paper for him to follow.

Lachlan made some observations about the Mussaurus.  He was drawing arrows up and down and seemed to be documenting their movement. 

On Day 1 we also got our Dino Nametags and MGT had a brilliant idea.  Instead of just writing their names write their dino names.  We added saurus to the end of their name to get their dino name.

 I wrote it in pencil and Peter started tracing over it with a marker. 

On Day 2 we got out our Nametags and worked on putting the letters from our name in order in the lesson called Letter Fossils.  First I made letter "rocks" out of brown paper with all the letters in Petersaurus' name on them.  Then I buried them face down in the sand we had out for the Excavation Dig lesson we had done earlier. (The Excavation Dig lesson had us dig out paper dino bones from the sand and put them together, you can see the remnants of it in the lower right hand corner of the picture.)

Peter used his brush to dig out the letters and then put them in order.  He felt quite accomplished.

Adam did some digging of his own when he discovered the towel drawer.  My towels will never be folded again.  To say he was proud of himself would be an understatement. 

 Day 3 we made Fossil Dough for the Fossil Press lesson.  This is such a cool recipe.  It is made with used coffee grounds and cold coffee!?!?  Of course salt and flour is also included to bind it all together.  Obviously with these ingredients the dough is going to have an aroma but it also has a cool texture.  It's pretty rough.  The color goes great with the fossil/dirt concept. 

 Peter used his small Triceratops to make foot prints in his dough. 

Peter played with this stuff forever.  He made a snake and an egg but he didn't want them to sit out to get hard.  He wanted to keep it soft so he could play with it more later.  I put his creations in a Tupperware container and they kept pretty well.  They got more moist and we had to add more flour.  Since we were adding flour I threw in a little cinnamon.  I wanted to see if it would improve the smell for Lachlan's sake, he didn't play with it long because of the smell. 

Lachlan made a quick "pointy egg" and called it good.  He wanted his baked to make it hard.

I have to say, it made me giggle every time I passed it.  I know he said it was an egg . . . but I don't know.  It certainly did come out of that end.  :)

On Day 4 we got out new book!  This month it is called Jurassic Jam by Maria West.  Just in case you don't recognize that name, she is the amazing dancer and choreographer behind Dance N Beats.  Now she can add author to her list of expertise. 

It's such a cute story, not your typical Dinosaur story.  It's about dancing dinos of course.  It has a fun rhythm that flows through the whole book. 

Just recently Mother Goose Time has began a relationship with Amazon and you can now buy their books.  In the past the only way to get it was through a MGT kit.  So this is exciting stuff!  Here is a link (affiliate link)