It has been an amazing few weeks for me. Since I last posted, I had the honor of welcoming my third child into my family. My newest daughter, nicknamed "Kitty Cat" for the sake of this blog, was 7 lbs 2 oz, and arrived October 2 after a much-too-short labor. She's a sweet little one, and 8-year-old Raisin and 3-year-old Strawberry love her. It's good Kitty is a good sport, given the number of hugs and kisses her siblings smother her with!
I'm easing back in to blogging today with a simple fall project we did when Grandma was in town: we searched for favorite leaves and made rubbings! A nearby maple tree shed it's super-sized leaves for us to enjoy, and it was fun to create leaf rubbings, a simple art project for all ages.
Leaf rubbings are simple. We used some butcher paper that I had from wrapping new dishes, old crayons that were missing their wrappers, and the leaves we found in our driveway.
It took Raisin a few tries to learn to rub using the long edge of the crayon. We enjoyed watching the magic of the leaves appear on the paper. Strawberry liked mixing in new crayon colors to better represent the fall colors. We talked about the veins of the leaves, and we delighted in feeling the textures on the leaves after we'd rubbed them on paper.
Fall is a wonderful time for hands-on learning with young children! As the leaves change color and fall from the trees, you have plenty of opportunities to explore nature, create simple crafts, and enjoy autumn together. If you’re looking for fall activities for your preschoolers or young homeschoolers, here are three ideas to try: DIY leaf
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We created our own mail center in our schoolroom and play room because my kids love getting the mail. They love to send letters to friends, teachers, and grandparents. I also created monster postcard templates to help them practice everything from early writing skills to addressing postcards and learning the parts of a letter. Of
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Ah! Fall! The weather is not scheduled up in the 80s and 90s, and we can anticipate the crunch of falling leaves. Fall always reminds me of apple picking. I’m not sure we’re going this year, but it has been a frequent tradition for our family. To keep my little kids busy when I’m busy with
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When I read Recipes for Play (reviewed on Rebecca Reads), I started feeling the urge to try something messy and drastically different. I saved some newsprint and bought paints. To learn about the geography of the United States, we made a three-dimensional paper mache model of the United States. I learned to let mess in, and
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If you’ve been following my blog for any length of time, you’ll know I love incorporating learning moments into familiar parts of our lives, especially reading favorite picture books. Here are some of our favorite preschool picture book lessons. Some of these book-inspired preschool lessons I’ve blogged about. To see the picture book preschool activities
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In the book In the Snow by Huy Voun Lee, Xiao Ming and his mother walk in newly fallen snow and his mother shows him Chinese characters by writing them in the snow. They discuss how the characters look like the items they are describing. Despite our lack of snow in Chicagoland this season,we made our
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