Wired For Noise

Ok, so it looks more like a dog but it’s really a cow. A cow made out several squares glued together by the unsteady hand of a toddler.

This was supposed to be a skills test for E; to see if he could follow simple directions, to see how his fine motor skills are, to see if he could make the cognitive leap that this pile of paper could represent something real. Assessing the situation as it were.

Instead it became a skills test for mommy; testing my patience, my ability to show what I mean, my organizational skills, and how well I can cut in straight lines. LOL I’m not sure if I passed or failed, results won’t be in until after nap time, but it did show me where I need to rethink my assumptions and where I need to learn to breathe a bit deeper.

In a couple hours E will be up. I left it out on the coffee table for him to find on his own. If he doesn’t run screaming I’m going to take that as a good sign.

• a cake pa
• a deep mixing bowl
• a wire wisk
• 1/4 cup plain yogurt
• 1 quart skim milk
• 4 small jars with lids

Yogurt is made from milk soured by good bacteria. With a little “starter” yogurt, you can change milk into yogurt.

1. Combine the yogurt and the skim milk in the bowl. Stir it well with the wire wisk.
2. Pour the mixture into the jars and put on the lids.
3. Set the jars in a pan and put enough warm water in the pan to come almost to the top of the jars.
4. Find a warm place to put the pan where it will not be disturbed for 8 hours.

You will find when you open the jars that the milk has thickened. It is now yogurt. You can sweeten your yogurt with fruit or jam.

We were supposed to be covering the number 1 today, but I had to go to the post office so we threw studies to the wind and headed off to town instead. A strapped to my chest sound asleep while E skipped, danced, ran, and giggled next to me the long walk down. We discussed the color of the grass and the trees, played chase with a butterfly, stopped to smell the flowers, and had quite the conversation about sharing a treat with Papa if we go see him later.

At one point we passed by the cable company’s satellite farm (as I like to call it). E blew me away by recognizing several of the letters on the giant sign they hang out front. Whoa! We’ve just begun letters, how does he know this? I’m going to point my finger at the fact that last year I watched his older cousin during the afternoons after she had her preschool. E was generally napping during that time, but maybe he picked it up in his sleep. I don’t know.

On the way back we swung past the firestation that had the old truck pulled outside for a good cleaning and inspection before the parade this coming Tuesday. E was absolutely in love with the old red beast. Of course I pointed out that it had a large gold 1 painted on the side. There, there’s our number study for the day. LOL

An hour and a half after we marched out the door we were marching back in ready for cold drinks. I made burritos and flipped through a magazine while E raced cars all over. After we ate he begged and pleaded for “the dinosuar movie” so I popped in Walking With Dinosuars then curled up to nurse A and enjoy E’s excitement over the growling beasts on the screen.

it may not seem like much of a day, but I think we did pretty good.

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Day #1 went pretty good.

We looked at a book about cows on a farm. Talked about the calve drinking milk from the mom and compared it to how I nurse A (which I was doing the entire time). I got him a small glass of milk and explained that it came from a cow, which was very exciting apparently bcause he ended up drinking 3 glasses of milk. LOL We crawled around the floor mooing like cows and talked about cows eating grass. Of course there was also our walk to the park, and cartoons, and puzzles, and baseball, and plenty of other things as well.

Today we found squares all over the house - picture frames, pot holders, CD cases, the bathroom scale. And we colored a few square themed pages as well. I tried to show him how to draw a square but he can’t do straight lines yet, just circles. Oh well. When daddy woke up to have lunch with us E was very excited telling him about all the squares in the house. LOL It took a few minutes for him to wake up enough to know what E was talking about.

Theme of the week: Cows!

Books:

• Calves - Kelly Doudna
• Cows - Lynn Stone
• A Dairy Farm - Melissa Gish
• The Cow - Angelina Royston

Letter: A

Number: 1

Shape: Square

Nursery Rhyme: Hey Diddle Diddle

It’s an unschooling kind of day around here.

It rained so our plans to go swimming were cancelled. We made it to the library but E was ready to leave only a few minutes later. *sigh* So we flipped on Animal Planet and played with his animal puzzles for a while. Then I diced tomatoes while E told me about all the people he loves. Maybe after nap we’ll take a walk if the rain has stopped, and if A can stop screaming and thinking he needs to nurse every 5 minutes.

So there’s a new Wiki for homeschooling blogs. Yay! And you know I just had to add myself. LOL

The main page for it is here. Along with directions on how to add your own.