In this week’s lesson, Snow and Ice, your child can learn:

When the weather turns cold, rain changes to snow. Sometimes snow is wet and sloppy, sometimes it is dry and powdery. We like to play in snow, making snow angels or snow men. When snow melts, it turns back into water. We wear extra clothing to keep warm in winter. Polar bear and penguins are animals that live in cold areas. No two snowflakes are exactly alike. Water freezes to make ice. Ice melts to make water.

If you live where it snows in the winter, you have a wonderful opportunity to teach your child! Winter can mean being stuck inside for months on end, depressed by the lack of sunlight, chapped hands, cracked lips, miserable, cantankerous children, OR… it can mean hot chocolate, snowball fights, adorable snowmen, ruddy cheeks, rosy lips, sparkling eyes, and cozy fires. It’s your choice. Love where you are, and live life to it’s fullest.

Winter isn’t fun when you’re cold. Our parents and grandparents knew about long underwear. Now, no one wears them. We prefer to crank up the thermostat and complain about high heating bills. Dress warmly. Dress your child warmly. Wear long johns around the house, and slippers or shoes instead of going barefoot. Keep the thermostat between 65 and 68 – you’ll save money and do your bit for the environment, as well.

When you send your child outside, always dress him completely. It doesn’t matter if you’re just running to the store for a gallon of milk. You never know when you might be stuck in traffic, or experience car trouble. A small child can suffer hypothermia very quickly. The American Academy of Pediatrics advices to dress children in one more layer than you as an adult would wear. This may include:

• thermal long johns
• turtlenecks
• one or two shirts
• pants
• sweater
• coat
• warm socks
• boots
• gloves or mittens
• hat

This week, you and your child will make snowmen, stage a snowball fight, go sledding down a small hill, and roast marshmallows over a campfire at the park. Enjoy the season! It will all be over soon enough.

If you’re new to this blog, you may wish to read:
Using the lesson plans
Calendar Activities
Play Areas for Encouraging Creativity

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Snow and Ice Week Lesson Plans

Photo credits:
Top:http://www.flickr.com/photos/andreweick/ / CC BY 2.0
Middle: http://www.flickr.com/photos/edenpictures/ / CC BY 2.0

This week, you and your child will learn about preparing our hearts and home for Christmas, in the season we call Advent. Your child can learn:

• Christmas is Jesus’ birthday!
• Each week we light a new candle on the advent wreathe, as we count down the days until Christmas.
• There are many things we can do to get ready for this special holiday.
• Some people pray and fast.
• Some people decorate their homes with lights, greenery, ribbons, and more.
• Some people are very poor, and cannot afford gifts. We remember them at this time.
• Many people give gifts to each other, just as the Wise Men gave gifts to Baby Jesus.

There may be more that you would like to teach your young child, depending on your religious affiliation. Do you want to include Santa Clause in your family traditions? Would you like to help your child buy a gift to donate to a poor family, or volunteer at a soup kitchen? What about singing carols at a nursing home, or for an elderly church member?

Kids can get so hyped up, that their behavior is atrocious this time of year. Starting in October, they were excited for Halloween. As soon as that ended, there was Thanksgiving, and even before the turkey was done baking, Christmas lights were up and carols playing on the radio. Is it any wonder that our normally sweet-natured little one becomes a greedy little brat every time he sees a man in a Santa suit?

There is much you can do to try to tone this down. Help your child focus on giving, rather than the toys he’s going to get. Help him sort through his toys in preparation for Christmas, cleaning out the ones that he no longer needs. Throw away broken toys, or repair and donate them if possible.

This week you’ll help your child make an “Advent” chain – add as many links in the paper chain as there are days left until Christmas. Then, every morning, tear off one more chain. Help him count the remaining chains (good math activity). When the last chain is torn, it will be Christmas. You could make the last chain a special color – white, perhaps, and all the others alternating red and green.

Many families won’t put the Christ Child in the Nativity set until Christmas Eve. They’ll get the set out, dust it off, and set it up, but have the statues of Mary and Joseph and the shepherds and wise men all looking at an empty manger. This, too, can help the child understand the concept of advent – of waiting for the coming of Our Lord.

Have fun this week! Your child will make some pretty decorations for the house. Together, you’ll bake Christmas cookies, and maybe you’ll even put up your tree, if you haven’t already. Send in a picture to share! We’d all love to see the pretty things your child has made.

Advent Lesson Plans

All of the books recommended in this week’s lesson plans can be found at your local library, or in my store.

For further reading:
Building Family through Tradition
Children in Church
Working with the Lesson Plans

Photo Credits:
Top:http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike_benedetti/ / CC BY 2.0
Middle: http://www.flickr.com/photos/way2go/ / CC BY 2.0

This week you and your child will celebrate Thanksgiving!

Your child can learn: Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful. Today many people celebrate it by eating a big dinner with friends and family. Many families eat turkey, vegetables, and pumpkin pie. Many years ago, the Pilgrims at Plymouth and the Wampanoag Indians celebrated a thanksgiving feast together. The pilgrims were thankful for the help of the Wampanoag, and their good friend Squanto, a Patuxet Indian, who gave them seeds and taught them how to plant them.

There were 51 colonists and 91 American Indians at that first feast, and it lasted three days.

The American Indians lived in America before the Pilgrims came.

The Pilgrims came across the ocean to have a better life

The Pilgrims and the Indians both dressed and lived differently from the way we do today.

The Wampanoag taught the Pilgrims how to grow and use many foods that were new to them – corn, berries, squash, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, beans, and maple syrup.

If you are traveling, you may not be able to do all the activities, but print them off and bring them with you, along with some materials for the craft projects. Your child, and any nieces and nephews at the family gathering, may enjoy the activities. Be flexible, but at the same time, try to stick as closely to your child’s routine as possible. If you don’t, temper tantrums and tears may be the only thing anyone remembers.

Be careful not to perpetuate misleading stereotypes. Not all Indians lived in wigwams, wore buckskin, or carried their babies in cradleboards. If you wish to teach your child about American Indians, it is better to teach about several different tribes and how their customs varied, than to teach “All American Indians are “this”.

One thing I discovered during my research before writing this lesson or this blog, is that the term “Native American” is no longer considered politically correct. It isn’t exactly “wrong” but it is considered insulting by many of the American Indian peoples. Native American is a generic term that encompasses not only all of the North American tribes, but also the people of the American Samoas, the original Hawaiians, the Inuits, the Aleuts, and those incorrectly labeled “Eskimos” -the Upiks and Inupiats. I read that the North American Indians prefer to be called “American Indian”.

I also learned that Columbus did not label them “Indian” because he thought he’d reached India! That was a myth perpetuated by our public schools. Europe didn’t call India “India” until several hundred years AFTER Columbus sailed the ocean blue. Columbus would have called India “Hindustan”. He knew he was in a new land, and he called the native peoples he met “En Dios” – which translates as “In with God”.

For more information, visit
American Indian Culture
Teaching young children about Native Americans

If you are new to this website, you may wish to read:
Working with the Lesson Plans
Play Areas for Encouraging Creativity
Calendar Activities

Thanks for visiting, and I wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving!

Lesson Plans: Thanksgiving!

All of the books recomended in this week’s lessons can be found at your library, or in my store.

Photo Credits:
Top: http://www.flickr.com/photos/clairity/ / CC BY 2.0
Bottom:http://www.flickr.com/photos/seattlemunicipalarchives/ / CC BY 2.0

This week, Squirrels and Woodland Animals, your child may learn:

• A woods or forest is an area with lots of trees and bushes. It often has small rivers of water or a pond.
• Animals who live in the woods are called woodland animals.
• The most common woodland animals are rabbits, skunks, squirrels, deer, foxes, raccoons, opossums, chipmunks, turtles, bears, and birds.
• Small forest animals are frightened by loud noises and people.
• We should not pollute ponds and streams, as this hurts the animals who live there.
• We can sometimes see woodland animals if we are very quiet when we walk in the woods.

We see squirrels a lot in the fall, and are amused by their industry, as they scurry around gathering nuts. Take a walk with your child to look for squirrels and acorns. Watch one for a while, and see if he eats the acorn, or carries it away to a tree. Tell your child how when winter comes, the squirrel will know where he buried his nuts (some of them, anyway!) and he’ll be able to eat them.

This would be a great week to get a pet hamster or gerbil. Visit the pet store and select the cage and supplies necessary. These furry little animals are fun to watch and easy to care for.

I’ve included a few paper worksheets this week. These are pages I found elsewhere on the web, that are free to use. One is a squirrel with an acorn and the letter A to trace. Some children may be ready for these types of “school” worksheets. I’m not a big fan of worksheets, and consider them “busy sheets”. But used in moderation, they can serve a purpose. If your child is not ready for pencil and paper activities, just ignore them.

One day this week your child will make a simple bird feeder. If you do start to feed the wild birds this fall, then you should feel obligated to feed them throughout the winter, or they may starve. Most birds will fly south for the winter where food is more plentiful, but if you feed them, then you may encourage more of them to stick around. I have heard that providing fresh water through the winter is just as important, but I’ve often wondered if this is a marketing trick. After all, wild birds survived on their own long before commercial de-icers were available.

Finally, you’ll end the week with reading Laura Numeroff’s popular book, “If you give a mouse a cookie”. That day you and your child can make a batch of your favorite cookies, and eat them with a glass of milk. Maybe you’ll even add a straw.

I hope you have fun with this! Post your comments, with a picture of your child’s art work. I’d love to see them.

Squirrels and Woodland Animals Lesson Plans

All of the books recommended in this week’s lessons can be found at your local library, or in my store.

If you are new to this site, you may want to read:
Working with the Lesson Plans
Play Areas for Encouraging Creativity
Calendar Activities

Photo Credits:
Top: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gillesgonthier/ / CC BY 2.0
Bottom: http://www.flickr.com/photos/barefoot-mama/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Downloadable pages:
Squirrel dot-to-dot picture
Squirrel coloring page
Squirrel pattern

This week F is for Fall, you and your child may enjoy the changing of the seasons. Your child can learn:

• fall is the season after summer. Autumn is another word for fall.
• Daylight hours become shorter. Nighttime hours become longer.
• The weather becomes cooler. It may be time to put away shorts and sandals, and wear long pants, and sweaters.
• Frost may appear at night or early morning.
• Leaves begin to change colors.
• Leaves and nuts begin to fall to the ground.
• Grass turns brown and dies out.
• Some birds and butterflies fly south for the winter.
• Some animals get ready for winter, by gathering nuts or storing food in their homes.
• Some animals grow thicker coats to help them stay warm
• Farmers harvest many foods and sow winter crops

Repeated in this lesson are directions for making a simple lotto game. Lotto is very similar to bingo, but uses pictures in place of numbers. Children learn to match pictures, making a one-to-one correspondence. It is a great game for the young child, the rules are simple. You can keep the child interested by making multiple lotto games. Use fall stickers to make an autumn lotto. Make a Christmas lotto with Santa, reindeer, holly, and wreath stickers. Make a baby animals lotto, or favorite Disney characters lotto. If you can find it pictured in stickers, you can make a game from it. For the older child, you could use alphabet letters or musical notes for the lotto. There is a lovely animal lotto game for sale in the store.

The week activities will start with a nature walk. Stroll around your neighborhood or take a trip to a nearby park. Gather colored leaves, nuts, acorns, seeds, milkweed, or other signs of autumn. You’ll need the leaves, seeds, and twigs for some of the craft projects. Take a bag with you on the hike to carry home your child’s treasures. If you feed the ducks at the park, remember that white bread is NOT nutritious and can harm the ducks. You can buy whole corn or grain for them from a feed mill for probably less than a loaf of bread. Check with your local ordinances though. In some areas, it may be illegal to feed the ducks.

The week ends then with a return trip to the apple orchard. If you did “A is for Apple” earlier, then your child visited the apple orchard this summer. Now you can point out that the apples have turned red (or yellow), although a few green ones might remain. Some apples have fallen to the ground already. Some leaves fall, too. Don’t forget to return to the apple orchard in the winter, to see the bare branches.

Have a great time with your child. And don’t forget to take lots of pictures for your memory album.

F is for Fall lesson plans

All of the books recommended in this week’s lessons can be found at your local library, or in my store.

If you are new to this site, you may want to read:
Working with the Lesson Plans
Play Areas for Encouraging Creativity
Calendar Activities

Don’t forget to subscribe using RSS or email! Have new updates delivered right to your inbox, and you’ll never miss one again!

Photo credits:
Top: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahnev/ / CC BY 2.0
Middle:http://www.flickr.com/photos/abbybatchelder/ / CC BY 2.0
Bottom:http://www.flickr.com/photos/dawnzy/ / CC BY 2.0

If you’re following the Lesson Plans, then you have some idea just how many art and craft supplies your child will go through in a week. If you have to buy all that stuff new, it might actually be cheaper to send your child to preschool than teach him yourself at home! The trick, then, is to find ways to gather as many materials as you can, for less, and not spend a lot of time doing it. Starting a craft box and maintaining it will certainly help.

Here is a partial list of items you might gather to put in your child’s craft box:

* Construction paper * Glue * paste * markers * Scissors * Tissue paper * Water colors * Paintbrushes * stickers

* Empty plastic or tin cup * Beans * Noodles * Buttons * Ribbons * Rickrack * Small amount of sand *fabric scraps

* Glitter * Wiggle eyes * Washers * Screws * Pipe cleaners * Felt * Sequins * old greeting cards

* Snips of paper * Felt * Foam * old newspapers * Medium box with a lid *crayons * old wrapping paper * Imagination and fun

Even if each item only cost around $2.00, you’ve still got over $60 invested in something consumable! But art and craft projects are so important for your child, not only in encouraging creativity, but for self-expression, releasing strong emotions, developing coordination, and fine motor control. Art packs a lot of “bang” for your buck. Still, if you can save a few bucks, your child’s art can have a lot more bang.

The Craft box is really more a state of mind, than an actual “box”. As you shop, as you work, as you travel, keep an eye out for freebies. When you go to a wedding shower, baby shower, birthday party, etc, ask if you can have all the wrapping papers and bows when it’s over. The slightly wrinkled pink and blue tissue paper from the baby gift bags might not be nice enough to reuse for another gift, but it will be perfect for cutting and gluing on a picture. Even ugly wrapping paper can be turned upside down, and used in place of expensive fingerpaint paper.

Butcher paper can sometimes be bought in bulk, and works as well as fingerpaint paper.

Cut buttons off of old clothes, store in a jar or zip-bag in your craft area. Cut up old clothes into fabric scraps for the scrap box.

You can remelt broken bits of crayons into new crayons. Only let a child help with CAREFUL supervision. Hot wax can be dangerous! Use an old muffin tin. Put all the red bits into one cup, all the blue bits into another cup, etc. Put the pan in a warm oven until melted. (about 300 degrees for 5 minutes). Let them cool and harden, then pop them out of the pan. You can put the hot crayon pan in the freezer, as this may help them pop out better. (Save the muffin pan for future crayon melting craft projects.) You can also make multi-colored “scribble” crayons, by NOT sorting the colors. Just put a variety of colors in each cup, but be extra careful NOT to over-melt them. You want the crayon bits to soften and stick together, but not for the colors to swirl into a big muddy mess. Try using cone-shaped paper cups for a unique mold.

You can make your own paste! Here are two recipes:

Sugar-Flour Paste 1 cup flour 1 cup sugar 1 qt water 1 T. powdered alum 3 drops oil of cloves Mix flour, alum and sugar together. Slowly stir in 1 cup of the water. Bring remainder of water to boil and add the mixture to it, stirring constantly. Continue to cook and stir until fairly clear. Remove from heat and add oil of cloves. Makes 1 quart of paste. Keeps a long time! Keep moist by adding a small piece of wet sponge to the top of a small jar of paste.

Bookbinder’s Paste 2 tsp flour 4 tsp conrstarch 1/2 tsp powdered alum 2/3 cup water Mix dry ingredients. Add water slowly, stirring out the lumps. Cook in a double boiler over low heat, stirring constantly. Remove from heat when paste begins to thicken. It will thicken more as it cools. Keep covered. Thin with a bit of water when necessary.

Buy glue in a gallon container, and buy one smaller glue bottle which you’ll refill often. If you teach your child to close the glue bottle every time, you won’t have to keep trying to unstick it with a pin or nail.

Buy powdered tempra paint, instead of the premixed stuff. It is more versatile, and a lot cheaper. You can make a thin cornstarch and water base to thicken the paint.

A printing shop may be an excellent source for small scraps of colored paper and cardboard.

Where does your spouse work, or your friends? What gets “thrown out” there? You can collect cardboard boxes, used paper, tissue paper, and more. My daughter’s office once printed off 700 pages of a report when it only needed 7 pages. Since it was only printed on one side, she had a stack of nearly 700 papers just waiting to be colored on by an eager 2 year old.

Were you ever given a really ugly sweater? You can pull the yarn apart and add it to the craft box.

Visit your senior center or frequent garage sales for yarn scraps, fabric scraps, buttons, more.

Whenever you are ready to throw something out, ask yourself if it can be reborn in a child’s imagination. Empty egg cartons can be made into caterpillars. Empty salt or oatmeal canisters can be made into doll cradles. Old salt and pepper shakers can hold colored sand for sand art. Old tee shirts can be smocks for youngsters, to protect their clothing. Even the annoying little dots inside a three-hole punch can be put into the craft box!

Save old calendars (with nice pictures, please!), old magazines, old greeting cards, to be cut up and pasted into something new.

Pull the petals and leaves off old fake flowers for collages.

Save a few paper towel tubes, popsicle sticks, shoe boxes.

How you chose to store this may depend on the space available, and the age of your child. Some very organized moms may prefer clear plastic storage bins or drawers. Some moms may prefer a big steamer truck with everything tossed in together. However you chose to organize it, just remember to keep adding to it, a few things at a time. While ten old Christmas cards may spark an imaginative moment, a thousand old Christmas cards will just be overwhelming.

For preschoolers, don’t leave the craft box where they can get at it. Crafts is something they will do at the kitchen table, and only when you can supervise. Perhaps by the time your child is six or seven, he will be mature enough to have free access to the craft box. He may even help you gather materials for it! But watch out – you want to encourage their creativity, not create a pack rat!

Happy crafting!

For Further reading, check out:]
Growing with Crayons
Play Areas for Encouraging Creativity
Ten Steps to Boost Your Child’s Creativity

Photo Credits:
Top:http://www.flickr.com/photos/barretthall/ / CC BY 2.0
Middle:http://www.flickr.com/photos/naturalmom/ / CC BY 2.0
Bottom:http://www.flickr.com/photos/evelynishere/ / CC BY 2.0

This week you and your child will explore the sense of Touch. Your child may learn: we feel with our skin We usually feel things with our fingers some things feel soft, hard, rough, smooth, bumpy, slimy, scratchy, etc. we can feel happy or sad we feel pain when people say hello or good-bye, they may touch, shake hands, kiss or hug.

Holding a shell in the touch tank at the Boston Aquarium

Included in the lessons are directions for making a “touch box”. This is a neat, home-made toy that can help your child explore his sense of touch, develop his vocabulary, and sharpen his reasoning skills. You will hide various small toys in the box, that he cannot see. As he puts his hand in the box, ask him to touch something. What does it feel like? Can he describe it? Is it scratchy? Is it smooth? Does it have corners or rounded parts? What does he think it is? Then let him pull it out of the box to see if he is right. This simple game requires only an empty oatmeal carton, a mis-matched sock, and some odds and ends of items gathered around the house, yet it can amuse your child for many hours. When the game has lost it’s interest, go ahead and throw it away! Or better yet, donate it to a babysitter in your neighborhood.

My first touch-and-feel picture cards are for sale in the book store, but I have not seen these personally. They have five-star recommendations from other parents, so I decided to include them. However, they might be a bit juvenile for children over two. You’ll have to decide for yourself. Other items include Touch My World, from Braincandy, and Curious George at the Zoo, a touch and feel book. I tried to find any touch-and-feel books at my library, but there were none. I was able to find my Five Senses by Aliki. This is a good book, and since it’s been around for awhile, most libraries should have it.

I didn’t actually schedule a time to dig in the mud this week – although I’ve done that in previous lessons. But if you get a chance to, go ahead and dig a little. Can your child dig up an earthworm? What does it feel like? Does it tickle a little as the worm wiggles in your hand? Keep a close eye, or your youngster may decide to see how the worm tastes! You can review the sense of sight, if you place the worm on the ground and watch him burrow back underneath the soil. Or dip him in water, and place him on dry pavement and watch him make tracks. But don’t leave him vulnerable. When you are done playing with him, put him where he can get to safety.

There are many opportunities to discuss touch. Make a new batch of playdough – let your child play with it while it is still warm. If you add a bit too much vegetable oil, it will feel softer, more squishy than normal. If your playdough is getting old and about time to throw out, add some dried rice or coffee grounds to it. Now squish it and mold it. How does it feel? Every meal can be a lesson in touch, especially for toddlers who eat mostly with their fingers anyway. How does Jello feel? Pudding? Cornmeal? Walnuts?

I hope you enjoy this week’s activities! And while you’re here – take a moment to subscribe either by RSS or email. If you subscribe, you won’t miss a single post! RSS stands for “really simple syndication”. It’s becoming the fastest, easiest way to keep up with all your favorite sites on the web.

Thanks for reading! I hope you and your youngster have a great time this week!

For more great activities, check out:
Sight
Sound
Taste

Photo Credits:
Top:http://www.flickr.com/photos/abbybatchelder/ / CC BY 2.0
Middle:http://www.flickr.com/photos/abbybatchelder/ / CC BY 2.0
Bottom:http://www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks/ / CC BY 2.0

This week you and your child will explore the sense of taste. Your young child can learn:

We have taste buds on our tongues that tell us how things taste Each food has a particular taste Some foods taste sweet, or salty, or sour, or bitter. Some foods combine these tastes. We may add spices and seasonings to the food we prepare to alter the way it tastes. We like the way some foods taste. We don’t like the way some other foods taste. Sometimes we have to get used to the way a food tastes before we learn to like it.

This can be a fun week for you and your child, as you both discover some new tasty treats. Shake a bit of salt on a clean hand and lick. Shake a bit of sugar and lick. How do they taste? Teach the words “salty” and “sweet”. Are pretzels more like salt or sugar? They are said to be salty. What about cookies? They are sweet. Make lemon-aide together, and teach the word sour. Melt some unsweetened baking chocolate and teach the word bitter. From now on, when you serve a meal, ask your child if something tastes sweet or salty, bitter or sour. Make mealtimes pleasant conversations, and you may find your food battles melt away entirely.

For a really unique art experience, buy some Stick-a-Licks. This is a package of pre-cut geometric shapes, already gummed. The child just licks, and sticks – simple, fun, and relatively mess-free. A great project to save for rainy days, too. A package of 200 shapes is under $2.00, but you’ll pay $5.00 in shipping unless you order enough to total $50.00. You could call your local teacher-supply store, and see if they have some in stock or would be willing to order them for you. They do carry a warning label “not for children under 3″ but no child under five should be doing art projects unattended anyway. Use at your own discretion.

On Friday, you could schedule your young child to visit his or her dentist. If this is not possible, then you can can check out the dental health program offered by the American Dental Association. There are lesson plans, worksheets, and activities for you and your child.

Most of all, don’t forget to have fun! Take come pictures of your child doing this week’s activities and send them to me. I’d love to add them to the end of this post.

If you’re new to the lesson plans, you’ll want to read:
Working with the Lesson Plans: Scheduling
The Family Meal
Calendar Activities
Play Areas for Encouraging Creativity

Taste Lesson Plans