Cultivating Knowledge in Mommy's Garden

Following the adventures of two little girls and their mommy, as they learn and create together!

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

The Mitten

We really enjoy the story "The Mitten."
The animals were all getting cozy under "blankets" of snow. 



 The mitten with all the animals around in the snow.

All of the animals in the mitten.

Monday, January 28, 2013

Termites

In the Termites vs Tongues episode of Wild Kratts, we learned a lot of interesting facts about termites.
Soldier termites crawl up the tongues of the predator and pinch it.  Other soldier termites spray terpene. 
Queen termite laying eggs

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

School Work

     
Abby’s spelling words and shapes
     
Math work, work book, hundreds chart, and 10 more vs. 1 more
   
Spin art fun

Monday, January 21, 2013

Creaturepedia Pages; Cheetah Cub and Giraffe

We watched a couple Wild Kratts episodes (Mimic and Neck and Neck) and wrote out some creaturepedia pages.

Friday, January 18, 2013

Rose Hips–Wild Rose

Today while watching The Mysteries of Alfred Hedgehog (which is one of the girls favorite shows) we started a new type of school work.  They love watching this show, as well as Wild Kratts and other educational shows. 

In our Creaturepedia and Plantpedia notbeook, Selena wrote out her first research page.  The episode was “The Mysterious Itch” and Milo is itching like crazy, while Alfred and Camille search for the cause. 

It turns out that Milo had made jam from rose hips, and the little hairs on the rose hips cause itching and are also used to make itching powder. 

We looked up rose hips and roses on wikipedia and got to see some interesting pictures of them.  We also learned that rose hips are a great source of vitamins.
File:Rose hip 02 ies.jpg
File:Rosa acicularis 2.JPG File:Rosa arkansana.jpg
After finishing our research, Selena wrote out her information page, and I made rose bush pancakes and we had rose hip and lemongrass tea.

Creature and Plant Studies

The girls love watching shows like Wild Kratts, The Mysteries of Alfred Hedgehog and other educational shows.

Chris, Aviva, and Martin with a group of animals  

I made them a notebook and we are calling it our “Creaturepedia and Plantpedia” to have written descriptions of all the different things we learn about. 

We are starting with sections for Amphibians, Arthropods, Birds, Fish, Mammals, Mollusks, Plants, and Reptiles.

The worksheets I made up have a place for a sketch, fill ins for habitat, region of the world, and powers (or features) and a large writing block beginning with the starters, If I were a….. and All about….

This is just one way that I am able to include school work with what they consider to be a fun extra.  Honestly, I always considered watching these shows as part of our schooling anyways, and now I’m just adding in a writing piece. 

Not School Related

Look at me being all professional!!  Yes, I started a new “job".  I can’t really call it a job, because it is a volunteer position, appointed by the mayor, but it is a job to me. 

Christmas Around the World Day 25: Home

We had a wonderful and exciting day.  We got everything we could have wanted, most of all we had a great day with our family.  (There was even snow!!!)

 

Stockings

Gifts

  

Notes from Santa and Chris.

 

Opening the stockings and our yummy breakfast!

Opening gifts with Grandma, Great Grandma, and Grandpa.

Christmas Eve



On his last day here for the year, Chris the Elf had a tea party with the Princesses.

We baked cookies for Santa.



Sprinkled reindeer oats and sparkles in the snow for the reindeer.


Wrote notes to Santa.


And left a treat on the porch (carrots and hay)

The reindeer made a mess on the porch!