October Fun!

Happy October, everybody!

Boy, this is one of our favorite times of year around here. It's just like one big celebration all the way till Christmas!

We made an October calendar using magazine cutouts to collage a paper bag rectangle.  Rowan gets to put up an orange pumpkin number every day!

We played "Bobbing for Apples" using ladles to scoop up ball "apples" and place them in a bucket!

We made a cool spider web to hang on our wall while watching The Magic School Bus: Spins a Web!

We've been eating popcorn for our show-time snack each day!

We did a laser light show using plastic jack-o-lanterns!

The kids have been "belly swinging" everyday, guesstimating how many mph they're swinging!

Rowan and I made cars characters out of play-dough! (Frank is eating his corn.)

Rowan lined up the pumpkin family: Rowan Pumpkin, Fynn Pumpkin, Mama Pumpkin, Papa Pumpkin, and Grandpa Pumpkin!

 Fynn made a giant clock on the kitchen floor!

We also posted a YouTube video about how to make licorice play-dough and spooky spiders!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHpkOC9M4jU

What projects are your family working on this month?
We'd love to hear from you! 
Happy learning!
~Beth

Mixing Colors ~An Art Experiment

 Usually when Rowan says he wants to "paint", what he really means is he wants to mix paint and water in yogurt cups. So on this particular day we skipped all the fussing and misunderstanding and dedicated the entire morning to "mixing colors". Fynn joined us as well.

We just got out a bunch of yogurt cups, filled them halfway with water, and began mixing together different colors of tempera paint.

 What happens when we mix pink and purple?

 What happens when we mix yellow and orange?

 It's art! It's science! It's both!

 And the possibilities are endless...

 A lot of our school time is spent doing this kind of play. It's so good for the kids, because, not only are they inspired by the vibrant colors, but they are making their own discoveries and soaking them up like a sponge. I'm just there to help them along; to help them accomplish what they want to accomplish.

 It's not like I put on my low teacher voice and say, Okay, kids. Today we are going to learn about The Scientific Method.  Instead, they say, "What happens if I mix this color and that color?"  and I say, "What color do you think it will make?" and they guess what they think it will be. And then we find out what it really is. We have so much fun learning and discovering together!

Happy learning,
~Beth

Making Cars! (Impromptu STEM Lesson)

 Rowan and I spent an afternoon building marble slides with the Marble Mania set that Fynn got a few Christmases ago.

 He was getting really good at arranging & building slides on his own, except for needing my help sticking them together. (There are tiny pieces and they are tricky to take apart & put together.)

 After building a few different playgrounds I suggested maybe we could build some cars.  Rowan loved that idea. He quickly got busy picking out cogs for wheels, and other parts.

 Soon after, we had built this carriage-looking car, and a 6 wheeled bus!

 Fynn came along and made himself a bicycle.

 We sure had a lot of fun!

Happy learning!
~Beth

Sunflower and Apple Crafts for September!

 Rowan can't wait for pumpkins this fall, so I had to tell him that September is all about sunflowers and apples. After that, October will be all about the pumpkins; and November too, so we're almost there, buddy!

 I made him a September calendar so he can count down the days. He loves it! 

 As you can see, I made a collage at the top of sunflowers, apples, golden wheat, and some other things you might find this late-summer-early-fall season. I used apple cutouts that were leftover from a name game we did last year. Rowan (and sometimes Fynn) gets to put up an apple each day.

 I had Rowan help me make hanging golden sunflowers from cardboard and paper bags. He helped wrap strings around them and painted some of them.

 We cut circles out of cardboard, then glued them to slightly larger paper bag circles. We cut the larger circles into petals. We made little cuts all around the cardboard circles, in between the petals, to wrap the string around. The string gives it a texture that looks like the seeds.We then painted the small circles with brown and gold paint, then the petals with yellow and gold paint. We cut a smaller flower shape out of brown paper and painted it gold/ green, then glued it to the back of the flower with green yarn in between. It was more tedious than I would have liked; next time I think it would be more worth while if they were larger. But they are pretty all the same.

Painted by Rowan

 Rowan and I then made some Sunflower Play-dough.

Rowan's & My Sunflower

Fynn's Cheetah

 ...And also... some Apple Play-dough! Red and green.

 

Rowan's "Uranus Cookie"

 

 Oh yeah, one more thing. We've just started Lighthouse Family Schoolin' videos on YouTube! For recipes to our sunflower and apple play-dough, check it out!

Happy learning!

~Beth