5 Senses Week 2

We finished up our last week of senses activities with a bang!  One of our favorite activities of the week was the "smelly watercolors."  These are so easy to make: a little bit of Koolaid powder (no sugar) and a little bit of water.  I also used a large brush because it was easier for my 14-month-old.  She loved these watercolors so much that I'm sure we will be repeating this activity in the near future.  She especially loved the "fruity" smells of the Koolaid and you can "scratch and sniff" the pictures when they dry.  Here are a few tips if you want to try this at home:

1. Use lots and lots of newspaper underneath (even then you'll still have a bit of a mess on your hands).

2. Clean up spills shortly after they happen.  Koolaid can stain if left to dry for too long (but be sure to take lots of pictures first :)

3. Be prepared to take a long soak in the tub afterward...

The good news is: it all came off!  I sure love long soaks in bubble baths.

Another favorite senses activity was the seashells.

What kid doesn't love "hearing the ocean roar?"

I thought we had a very successful 2 weeks of senses and we're excited to move on to farm animals this next week.

What were some of your successes from the week?

A few articles

Since starting this blog, I've had people email me or tell me about different articles that I might be interested in.  Thank you, thank you!  I love seeing what other people think about the same or similar topics I'm writing about.  

Here's another article that you might be interested in.  I especially love the way the author gets across the point that you (the parent) are in charge of your child's education.  She also makes it clear that "schooling" and "education" do not mean the same thing.  I also like that she talks about goal setting with (and for) your children.  So go check it out!

Another article that is completely unrelated and I've found helpful is this one.  It shows ten ideas for helping your toddler learn basic math (and we're not talking multiplication and division).  If you're looking for an easy way to add math into your day, check it out.

What are some more great articles you've read?  Any new sites that you find particularly helpful?

Family Culture Night: Hungary

When my husband and I were newly married, we decided that we wanted our kids to really get to know different cultures and countries.  We both love traveling and wanted to help our children be aware of the world around them.  From this formed a monthly "family culture night." We take one evening a month and choose a country to focus on.  I make dinner using recipes from the country we're focusing on and we play some games, sing songs, learn some facts, etc... about that particular country.

This month we focused on the country, Hungary.  To tell you the truth, I picked it because I really wanted to make the recipe for Hungarian Chicken Paprika.  Despite how it looks, it really was quite tasty.  It reminded me so much of Eastern European cusine...yum.

During dinner we learned a little about the country of Hungary (did you know the man who invented the rubik's cube is from there?) After dinner we headed into our family room and learned a few songs that we sang in English and Hungarian (ok, our Hungarian pronunciation was probably not all that authentic, but we tried).  We also colored in a Hungarian flag.

I'm already getting excited for our next culture night.


Any suggestions on countries we should try?

Book Review: 5 Senses by Aliki

This is the perfect book about the senses...for all ages.  I love how the beginning pages are so simple with big pictures detailing the parts of your body that you use for senses.  As you read more, it goes more in depth with specific senses and things you can do with them.  It's a great one for mom's who have kids of varying ages.  Go check this one out at your local library for the senses unit.  It's a good one!

What are some of your favorite books that teach about senses?

5 Senses Week 1

I was commenting to a friend this week that I can't believe the difference I'm seeing in my daughter...just in 2 weeks of working on our units.  It's really amazing to see how she "sponges" up the information and just enjoys all of the fun things I plan.  Even if they only last 20 minutes (max) until we have to move on to something else, it's sticking with her and she's learning.

We enjoyed reading many books (which we'll read next week too), playing with the rice table (sense of touch), labeling our body parts (overall senses), eating tomatoes from our garden (sense of taste) and probably our favorite activity of the week, our nature walk (overall senses).

The park was a great way to start the walk...seeing lots of other kids and listening to what they were saying.  

Then we made our way to the ducks.  We loved hearing them quack, smelling the grass, trying to touch them, seeing the daddy's "fight" for the bread and tasting the bread (more than sharing with the ducks).

We are excited for next week where we get to go more in depth with some of our five senses.  Already my daughter can "point to her ears, nose, head, eyes and mouth" when asked.  I think that's pretty good progress for week one!


How has your week gone?  Any suggestions for activities with the 5 senses?

Senses so far

Our week so far has been great. We've read lots of books, taken our time and enjoyed learning about the 5 senses. Here's a little preview:

Overall Senses...she loves this thing (even though it really looks nothing like her). We had fun coloring and talking about where different parts of our body are. It's now hung up in a semi-prominent place and she'll go over to it, point and giggle.

Taste, taste, taste. Loving the taste of home-grown cherry tomatoes. Picking vegetables from our garden helps get daddy involved too.

The rice table. Instead of sand, this works well indoors. We spent a good 20 minutes or more just feeling the rice. It was lots of fun, but lots of clean up too. We might be bringing this out again in a few months.

I don't know about you, but I've LOVED having a place to go to just get an idea for something to do that day. It's been great. Thanks for all the comments too. Brainstorming is the best :)

What have you done this week? Any 5 Senses activities?

Home Schooling Helps

My mom called me to tell me about an article she'd just read on Mormon Times.  The article gives some great blogs to check out about homeschooling as well as supplementing your child's education at home.  I know that I've said before that I'm not a huge fan of homeschooling.  Traditional homeschooling is not what this blog is about.  But it is about parents being in charge of and taking responsibility for their/our children's education, whether we choose to outsource part of it to the public schools or not.

So, go check it out.  It has some fun blogs to look through and can help us as parents find things to do with our children at home to supplement their education :)

What are some of your favorite education-type blogs?