A friend got Pickle a lovely See and Spell set for her birthday, and it's been put to great use in lots of ways. She's also enjoyed drawing round the letters to make her own words (or more often non words. She loves making me sound out weird collections of letters to her!). We made some more cards by drawing an object, then drawing round the letters.
To take this one stage further, I made some cards with different words, where only the initial sound was changed (hat, cat, mat, rat were the ones I started with,) then drew a picture of each on four separate cards. She then found the letters for each word, spelling out as she went, and tried to match the picture to the word. It's been a helpful way to focus on initial sounds, and early step towards reading.
I didn't laminate them, as they were a bit of a rush job, but I noticed she's been writing over the letters. I think I will make more and laminate them so she can use pen to draw over the letters, then wipe clean.
On the literacy theme, he's been very taken with the Reading Eggs programme. I was very sceptical about this, as I felt uncomfortable about using a screen as teacher, especially at such a young age, but her enthusiasm has bubbled over into real life activities. She's been happily forming words that she has learnt on-line using her wooden letters, and thoroughly enjoying herself!
Like most small children, Pickle is a big fan of
bubbles. She was recently given a large bubble wand which makes lots of
bubbles, but uses the liquid very quickly. When it ran out she asked
to make some, so after a bit of recipe searching, we decided to
experiment.
We used the recipe from Activity Village (lots of bubble related activities here) as a starting point.
1/2 cup of washing up liquid
5 cups water
2 tablespoons glycerine
We mixed it slowly - well as slowly as a toddler can, then as the instructions suggested, patiently left it overnight.
...
Just
kidding! Of course we tried it out straight away! We did leave some
for the next day, and it definitely improved with keeping, but it still
worked first time.
We
found lots of bubble wands. slotted spoons and spatulas worked well.
We tried a plastic coat hanger, and an old colander that has been demoted
to being played with in the garden. we also made the 'ok' sign with
our fingers, and blew through that. We (well, I!) made some quite big
bubbles that way.
Pickle
had great fun measuring, mixing and experimenting with wands and Baby
Ben enjoyed the show too. Blowing bubbles directly into the mixture
with a straw was a big hit. I'm going to keep tweaking the recipe,
maybe trying different washing up liquid brands, or perhaps shampoo. If
anyone finds their magic mix, please let me know! One word of warning -
both children needed a good bath as they were covered in sticky mixture
by the end!
A few weeks ago, I discovered a cluster of vivid green insect eggs on one of our net curtains. Through an innate sense of wonder at nature's miracles (or more accurately, an innate laziness and tendency to put off tidying as long as possible,) I left the eggs to see what would happen. Sure enough, a few days later, they hatched into minute green caterpillars. Pickle was very interested in inspecting them with her new magnifying glass, and I thought it would be fun to keep some.
We made a home out of a transparent tupperware box, added some sheets of kitchen roll to the floor, and then we had a quandary. All the information I could find about caterpillars made it clear that they are fussy creatures, often only eating one particular plant, and that was usually the species the eggs were laid on. I wasn't keen on the idea of donating my net curtain, so we collected a few leaves from plants outside the front door. We put them in the box, then covered it with a muslin cloth and and elastic band. After an hour, the results were pretty conclusive. There was barely anything left of the dandelion leaf, while the others remained untouched. This was a relief as my shoddy weeding skills ensured we had a rich supply of food. Boy, can caterpillars eat. And poo. Lots and lots of poo. Or frass as it's apparently called.
The caterpillars got big, and even my weedy garden was struggling to keep up with demand for leaves, so we set six of our twelve captives free. Not long afterwards, the remaining inhabitants began to become brown, and seemed quite lethargic. Their insatiable appetites eased off a little. I had no idea what species they were, but due to where they were laid, I guessed they might be some sort of moth. The Internet informed me some species of moths form cocoons underground, so I added some soil. One caterpillar instantly burrowed out of sight. When we next checked, another three had followed, and two perfectly formed cocoons lay on the surface.
The visible cocoons. I should probably have photographed them at the other, frankly more interesting stages. But I was too busy feeding them and clearing out improbable quantities of poo.
They are now in a bigger container, and we're awaiting the transformation, although whether that will be in the next couple of weeks, or next Spring remains to be seen.
It's been our first attempt at keeping insects, and has sparked lots of related activities. More on those in another post!
Welcome to my new blog!
I'm mum to a three year old girl and a three month old boy who I'll refer to as Pickle and Baby Ben. I'm a stay at home mum, who doesn't stay at home that often! Although Pickle is still only 3, I consider that we're a home educating family, and I'm excited to be setting out on that journey.
I believe 'teach me to do it myself' is a phrase used in Montessori education. I've always liked it as a model for how I want to raise my children, so it seemed fitting to use it as the base for my blog title. As Pickle is getting older, I'm constantly challenged to find new ways to encourage and develop her interest in learning. I'm hoping to record some of the things we get up to. That and other odds and ends that I'm interested in like full term breastfeeding, unconditional parenting and babywearing.
If you stop by, do leave a comment. This blog will be a good personal record, but it's always lovely to hear from others!
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