Kindergarten at Home - Day 4 - Neeeear, Faaaaar! + Making the Three Pigs' Houses

Day 4, I found out about two group Connections Academy field trips coming up in a couple weeks!  One will be at a park - just a fun outing to meet and play with some new buddies locally - and the other will be at the Flock and Fiber Festival where they'll get to find out about how yarn is spun.  In addition to meeting some of the other students, she'll get to also meet some furry friends: Alpacas and Sheep, Angora Goats and Pygora Goats (a cross between Pygmy and Angora - a mini goat!)... can't wait!

Lesson 1 - Social Studies: Sun Safety.  We talked about how much fun it is to bask in the sunshine, but if we want to play outside, then we need to wear sunglasses or hat, sunscreen, drink water, and to seek shade sometimes.  I drew pictures of the items and wrote the word, then had her try to sound out the words and draw and arrow to the sun safety item (she did need help on a couple of the big words).  Then, we practiced these rules for the Math lesson (next) that we took outside...

Lesson 2 - Math Concepts - Near.... Far!  First, the all-important staple, the workbook exercise. Then, we took the kiddie train outside where I had her get involved.  I first asked her to demonstrate "near" to my camera, and then "far".  I decided to elaborate on the concept by showing her that sometimes things appear small when they are far away, but when you get nearer, you realize it is actually much larger than it seemed!  Then, we closed one eye and pretended "crush" the tiny tree between thumb and forefinger as if we were giants.

Objects that are larger than they appear - I will CRUSH you!

 Neeeeeeeaar...                    ...Faaaaaaaar!

Lesson 3 - Science: Physical Characteristics - We first pointed out our own Physical Characteristics, then I had her try to remember some of her friend's and how they are the same or different than hers.  Then, I had her draw herself one one side of a paper, and a friend who has different attributes on the other side.  This lead into talking about how everyone looks and grows differently, and some people are born with different attributes.  Some people are born with attributes that makes living life the same way you do more challenging.  This was on her radar recently because we saw a few episodes of Little People, Big World, and the show about the conjoined twins, Abby and Brittany on TLC, and I told her about how they are just like everyone else and they like to have fun with their friends and family, just like you do!  She thinks Abby and Brittany are pretty cool.

Lesson 4 - Language Arts: Making Predictions.  After the sun went behind the trees, we went back outside to read the Three Little Pigs, pausing after each major event in the story to make predictions about what would happen next.  Then, at the end, asked to predict what she thought the Wolf was doing now.  She said that she thinks he is sad that he hurt his friends and he might be too afraid to come back through the scary woods to say sorry.
After the story, she got to try to build her own houses out of straw, sticks and 'bricks' to see for herself which one was the most sturdy.

Then, on to Cautiously Create Cc's, Clutching Crayons...

Lesson 5 - Movement: A Balancing Act  - Experimenting with balancing her body on a string (eyes open, and eyes closed), and balancing objects!  Then, to attempt the main acrobatic act: The Amazing Head Stand!  Tripod, check!  We saved this one for after her bath in the evening, right after Daddy got home from work - one of the other reasons home school works for us is that Daddy works long hours.  If the kids went to a traditional school, they would probably already be getting ready for bed (or already fast asleep) before Daddy even got home!  So, the flexible schedule allows us to stay up late and sleep in a little longer to ensure the kids get some Daddy time in each day!