School in the Kitchen

(The Little Lady is 30 Months)

I was right, during my lesson planning time, to expect this week to be fun. It was a BLAST!

(oh -- and The Little Lady enjoyed it too!!!)

The big thing this week was our use of Sensory Boxes -- a first for us. For weeks, I had debated using them. To be honest, while they looked fun, I just didn't get them. Fortunately, through the continued reading of blogs who faithfully use Sensory Boxes --and just flat out asking another homeschooling blogger how they worked -- I learned enough to try it out.

It. Was. A. HIT!

The first sensory box was used to introduce the story of Jesus' birth, using our Nativity Set as the prop. Since I had a TON of rice on hand, I used it as the "filler." My one mistake? Not anticipating the MESS that comes from using rice and a short box. Good GRIEF -- there was rice everywhere!

(my apologies for the first few photos in this post -- my camera's setting were messed UP)

In addition to loving the rice, she loved playing with the Nativity set and, by the end of day one, could name the different characters and knew a fact about them (such as that the angel told everyone "Don't be afraid.").

After we played with the nativity sensory box, the Little Lady made her own nativity, using foam shapes I cut for her. Since she was allowed to paint the glue on the pieces, she didn't mind that Mommy was the only one to use scissors.

We practiced coloring in circles using a "Paint a Dot" printable from 1+1+1=1. She doesn't quite yet have the fine motor skills necessary for such detail work, but she's getting better at it.

Our second Sensory Box was the ~~smart-mommy-box~~ more general Christmas box. I pretty much copied this box from one I found on another blog -- white pom poms, mini fir trees, plastic Christmas light bulbs, cinnamon sticks, peppermint candy canes, our Nativity figurines, Christmas bells, and bows.

She preferred playing in rice and kept asking to add it to the new box. (sigh) Eventually, she got used to hearing "No more rice today" and played with her new box.

We made an advent "chain calendar," and each day we've been completing an activity related to the respective verse of the day. One day, we (yes, we -- the Little Lady wanted help) colored alphabet Christmas lights, spelling out Jesus's name.

The Little Lady was in a bit of a contrary mood and didn't enjoy having her picture taken on this particular day!

When we finished assembling the project and, when she finally understood the significance of the letters, she decided she needed to show Baby Jesus his name in lights!

Our last main activity this week was a quick "Mama Needs A Break" activity -- tracing shapes. I was surprised that she enjoyed this and kept trying over and over to get her shapes just right. I need to find some more implement more such activities for her.

While we will have a few "s-thematic" lessons going on, I'm going to take a wee break from our letter focused activities over the course of this month and, instead, focus on Christmas and the story of Jesus's birth.

This month's activities have me really, really, REALLY excited. I found some great ideas at Hubbard's Cupboard and plan to implement many of them.

I haven't decided what books we will be reading this week; we'll be heading to the library tonight to see what we can find.

Here are a few links to specific projects we'll be working on:

Angel Hand/Foot Print Craft

Advent Countdown Chain (listed under the Day One activities)

Candy Cane Cookies (ours will be red and white v. the green and red ones shown)

I also plan to make our first Tot-Pack (the Christmas themed one from 1+1+1=1)for the Little Lady to "play" with during Church and when I'm busy with her baby brother, Mr. Boy.

I'm thinking this month is going to be FUN!!!