These 2 weeks have been hectic! We said bye to grandparents and uncles and aunts visiting and prepared our home to welcome our friend and her daughter to stay with us. One of the things I love about a CM education is that even on days without structured learning opportunities curated by the parents, learning continues to happen through the environment. These weeks were a reflection of that.
Nature/Science-
My little girls are both getting very comfortable in nature. Not only is Ahna always excited to see the the same wildflowers over and over, but she remarks with squeaky excitement, and draws our attention to every moving and often non moving object in nature; birds in the sky, spider webs, grasshoppers, bugs, roots of a tree, leaves falling, flowers, everything amazes her and we share in her amazement of Gods creation. We read about caterpillars and butterflies, watched a video about moths and got to observe a butterfly and a moth outside in our own balcony. We go to talking about their differences and similarities. Ahna is growing in her experience of nocturnal creatures and it has entered her role plays. I encourage a lot of nature role plays with her as a tool to educate. We are always playing ‘bird bird’ or ‘lion lion’ or something else.
Art/Reading-
Since Hope has had a few needy/clingy days, Ahna has had to compromise on her being read to. She was getting the usual couple books but not a designated reading/cuddling time. So a couple days a week these past 2 weeks, we did just that. Cuddled up and read through a stack of books. It is not the advised method of reading by CM, but the purpose it served for us these past weeks was very different so I enjoyed the liberty that came with home education. Painting with her has been something that requires a lot of planning for me. There are days I set it up for her and go about doing chores while Hope naps and other days when I grab some paints and a book myself and join her.
Gardening/Social skills-
Ahna got to harvest her first radish this week. She watched me harvest the first 2 and then tried the next one herself. We have been enjoying harvesting from the terrace garden and using the produce in our kitchen. Since we have been learning about flowers in the garden, we are exploring a lot of uses there too. We have started our home made cleaners and have been drying flowers for decor and teas. We did some math this week by introducing the concept of half through egg shells which we later crushed for the soil. It is a concept so it will continue to grow and take form.
Next couple of weeks, we plan to explore new things in the kitchen and the garden. Stay tuned.