Thursday: Science Day

10 Seeds in Each Apple

Every Apple has 5 Carpels in it’s core and each Carpel has 10 Seeds. I cut open an apple and we bother counted the carpels (arms of the star) and seeds. Zane was very good at counting but he liked eating the apple the best. Apples are his favorite.

Arbor Day

In the morning during our outside time we went for a walk and collected leaves from the trees we found. Then we were doing our activity time we stuck the leaves down on a paper with pre-drawn trunks. Then we made hand print trees on another paper with Zarek’s Hand, Zane’s Hand and Mommy Hand. We got to learn that there are many different kinds of trees.

Ants have 6 Legs

We made fingerprint ants learning that ants have three parts to there bodies. Zaney liked to make smeary ants the best. Then we used crayons to create six legs for each ant. Zane wanted to use the orange crayon for this since orange is his favorite color. Daddy called his ants Halloween ants.

Airplanes can Fly

Mommy showed Zane how to fold an airplane. He watched me very closely and tried to fold his own plane with his paper but it didn’t work. He loved watching the plane fly. Daddy laughed at Mommy’s plane though because it liked to make nose dives. So Daddy helped Zane redo his airplane so it flew really well.

We have also been reading books with A’s in them and listening to A songs like Father Abraham, the Abcs, and The Ants go Marching. Daddy gave Zaney A related cookie cutters with his play dough on Science Day when Zane asked to play with the Play Dough.

We are still hoping that we will be able to do Craft Day. Since Mommy isn’t back to work yet we will probably get to add it in next week. Maybe she will keep looking for a few ideas for A crafts though.

Here is what I have been working on. Making a Zaney schedule, which wasn’t hard because he has made up a schedule of his own since he was teeny. We don’t live by the schedule and we are very flexible with the schedule but once I wrote it down I realized it was amazing how set it was.

Zane’s Schedule

9:00 Breakfast N’ Cartoons
10:00 Errands or Outside Time
12:00 Lunch
1:00 Lesson or Prep Time
2:00 Say Bye Bye to Daddy
2:30 Activity Time and Snack
4:00 Nap
6:00 Dinner
7:00 Playtime
9:00 Bedtime

Of course we never set our Errand Time up at a certain time but we ussually head out the door about this time. Also now if we don’t have errands I will make a point of getting him some outside time or let him play in the garage. (We have a power wheels and trampoline in the garage for rainy days.)

Lesson Time, Prep Time and Activity Time will be new. Before we just let him have free play but he is starting to enjoy playdoh and coloring so much I think he is ready to try Lesson and Activity Time out with me.

I have created a weekly schedule also which is so much easier now with my part-time schedule. Here is the weekly schedule I have created for us:

Week 1
Mondays: Work/Prep/Errand Day
Tuesday: Science Day
Wednesday: Craft Day
Thursday: Work Day
Friday: Work/Errand Day

Week 2
Mondays: Work/Prep/Errand Day
Tuesday: Bible Day
Wednesday: Kitchen Day
Thursday: Work Day
Friday: Work/Errand Day

I will probably never work on Tuesdays (which are a half day) and Wednesdays (because it’s Dr. Y and his schedule is lighter). It looks like they will always have me on Thursdays. I will still have some fluctuation on Mondays and Fridays but that is easy to work around. Zane usually goes and sees Granny those days anyways and I suspect she will want to keep her Zaney Days even if I am off. I will probably get my grocery shopping and house work done on Granny Days.

Tuesdays and Wednesdays will become our fun lesson/activity days. Now I want to mention that this is all about being flexible my schedule may change or just disappear if Zaney doesn’t love it, but I think he will love it.

ABC Learning

I have watched on Esme’s blog all the fun things she does with her mom with ABC Learning and I have decided to try and do a smaller adaptation of the same thing. (I think Esme’s Mommy should start a club of ABC Mommies.) I can’t do as many of the fun things they do but I can adapt it so we can do some.

If you would like to learn more about the Alphabet Approach Esme is doing you can find it here.

For me I always like things to have a theme it makes it easier for me to get things done. The alphabet seems to work so well (26 letters and 52 weeks in a year = 2 weeks on each letter) and we can do so much with it. I have already started creating an idea list that I will slowly build. Tomorrow we will be trying out our first lesson day.

Organization

I have created a Google Document to start creating an idea list/lesson plan. I have created a simple template for each day that as ideas and words come to me I start adding them.

LETTER X

Songs:

Week 1

Tuesday: Science Day
Word – Lesson (Craft/Link)

Wednesday: Craft Day
Word – Lesson (Craft/Link)

Week 2

Tuesday: Bible Day
Word – Lesson (Craft/Link)

Wednesday: Kitchen Day
Word – Lesson (Craft/Link)

Since we always read before bed I am also going through his books to pull out books that are associated with that weeks letter. I also found this really cute letter caterpillar that I am going to try and have him color before each new letter and then put them together as we go. I remember doing something similar to this with my mother when I was little. I got a paper link with a word written on it everytime I learned a new letter and then we made the chain go all the way across the livingroom I got a treat. Even now that is a vivid enjoyable memory for me.

So tomorrow we will be trying this out and we may even try videoing the experience to see how that works. I will tell you more about the letter A but it’s late I’m off to bed.