If you are new to Read to Me & ABC, please start here.
Read to Me
Our book of the week was Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert.
Alphabet Art- Valentine V
Supplies
V Pattern
cut up valentine cards
glue
Glue the card pieces to the V and you'll have your Valentine V!
Lessons & Lapbook
I used the lessons and lapbook from Homeschool Share. We also colored and glued some of the V printables from the Alphabet Notebook to the back of the lapbook (not pictured).
Simon's garden journal was cute. He told me what to write:
I planted little seeds. Then it sprouted. Then it became a plant. It is going to have very huge squash on it. I am going to share it and eat it.
Here is a little greenhouse I found at a book sale (yes, I find the strangest things at book sales!).
You can recreate this idea with a plastic bag. You could even use some cardboard to make a frame for the greenhouse. You simply tuck a wet paper towel and a few seeds inside the house. Radish seeds are great because they sprout so fast. We've actually use this multiple times with different seeds.
Let's Make a Memory ~ Cooking Vegetable Soup
First, we headed out to the garden to grab some of our home grown vegetables. Then I peeled and chopped and sliced and diced until we had tons of veggies. We started with garlic, onion, and olive oil. After it cooked Simon added the broth. And lots of veggies (celery, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, green beans, and cabbage)!
Book Basket
Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert
The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss
Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens
Muncha, Muncha, Muncha by Candace Fleming
Stone Soup (any version)
Shopping List
- ingredients for vegetable soup
- seeds
- plastic bag & paper towel (to create your own green house)
Hi Ami,
I am very appreciative and excited to have
found this site! I have an almost 3, and almost
5 year old (boys-too), and was feeling so overwhelmed about homeschooling. I knew it was not supposed to be that way. It is hard to express through a computer how excited I am after extensively reading (and re-reading :)) all your posts. You have great ideas, great pictures, and excellent details. This is just an answered prayer, and then some!
I do have more questions, I hope you do not mind. Please let me know if there is another place to ask them.
Do you have a laminator at home? I would love to know more about your supplies. How did you get started? What were Elijah’s and Simon’s ages? Did you know that this would minister to other moms?
Is this part of FIAR? Are you pulling some lessons from BFIAR? That part confuses me a little bit. Do you use/plan to use a curriculum? How did you pick your books for the alphabet books, and lapbooks? How did you find a co-op? I know they have them listed online, but how did you know what would work with your family’s values, etc.?
I will eagerly, and patiently await your responses and future posts.
Many, many blessings,
Michele
PS We started our first alphabet book today-so much fun! š
Michele,
Your words are a blessing to me. Thanks for sharing. š
I highly recommend that you read Educating the Whole Hearted Child by Clay and Sally Clarkson. It is very good. I also recommend listening to Oliver DeMille’s Seven Keys of Great Teaching, to Andrew Pudewa’s Nurturing Competent Communicators, and to Andrew Pudewa’s Teaching Boys and Other Children Who Would Rather Make Forts All Day. These four things have shaped my philosophy of education along with a few of Charlotte Mason’s ideas. I think you will understand why I do what I do (and how I do some of it) if you can get your hands on those four things. š
Let’s see . . .
~I do have a laminator. My sister purchased it for me at Wal-mart. It’s a Scotch Thermal, and I think they sell for pretty cheap. It’s worth every penny! š
~I started researching homeschooling before Elijah was 2. I went to a convention, and perused the vendor hall and put my hands all over curriculum. Somehow I found Before Five in a Row, and I knew it was exactly what I wanted! š I am so glad I found it. It was perfect for Elijah. I also used Handwriting Without Tears for him, and we did various Montessori math activities when he was a preschooler.
~I hoped this blog would be a blessing to someone. š That was also my hope for Homeschool Share. I, in turn, have been so blessed. š I give all the glory to God. š
~I did pull some lessons for Read to Me and ABC from Before Five in a Row. All those books will indicate that.
~I do use some curriculum. You can read all about what I use for Simon (my 4 year old) here. I try to choose things that are tools for me to use as I can instead of weighty things with large schedules! I used all volumes of Five in a Row with Elijah before he started on the delight-directed path. I do not regret one moment of that. I will use FIAR with Simon also. Elijah uses a few things now. I feel that math and language arts need some attention. I might do an entire post about why I chose what I chose for language arts. We use Rightstart for math, and I am so glad that it was the first thing I chose. We haven’t switched math programs yet, and I have no plans on changing until he’s completed RS.
~I love children’s literature. I mean I LOVE it! I chose the books based on books I was already familiar with. I tried to choose books I LOVE to read. I also kept Simon in mind as I chose the books . . . making sure they were books he’d want me to read. I wanted living books too (if you read Educating the Whole Hearted Child, you will understand what I am talking about). š
~I started my own co-op. We can talk more about that later if you want.
~I added a post for you about our daily routine. š
Have fun with your boys! Those ages are so much fun!
Grace & Peace,
Ami š
Hi Ami, š
Wow! This is great information. I will get busy adding your books to my reading list. We are using HWT, as I kind of stumbled across it. It is affirming to hear you are using it with Simon. I looked up RightStart for math. I appreciated the information RS gave about how children are taught math in Japan, compared to the United States. It makes a lot of sense. How much do you need to purchase to have a good base? (It seems pricey!) Would you ever consider blogging about other subjects, like math? I would enjoy seeing what you do for that. Thank you for the post about your daily routine, and thank you for answering my questions!
Smiles,
Michele š
I am waiting for U, too, please.
Hi š Glad to find your blog with all the neat B4FIAR/FIAR resources.
We are starting to row again! I’m doing prep work this week…busy, busy, printing. I tried signing up for the Forum but kept getting the 0,O, in the verification codes and obviously missed them too many times š
Anyways, I was going to share that I made a printable for The Carrot Seed and would love to “donate” it to Homeschool Share. It’s a plant stake craft to match similarly to the book.
It can be seen here:
http://blog.homemakersheart.com/2011/01/b4fiar-carrot-seed.html
Thanks for sharing all that you do š