Shaping Up

TODAY'S ACTIVITIES:

• Geometric Insets
• Matching Two-Dimensional Shapes
• Basic Land Forms
• Basic Weather Phenomena
• Ocean Animals and Their Habitat

We started today's homeschool session by tracing some shapes, which allows Parker to practice using a pencil (thereby helping prepare him for writing). I made the geometric insets out of some brightly colored foam sheets my mom sent us. Parker loved the way they looked and felt; he spent a few minutes taking the shapes out of their frames, feeling their edges, stacking them and lining them up. They ended up being all form, no function, though: the supercool foam just wasn't sturdy enough to trace around. I quickly grabbed the plastic template I'd used to make the insets--which I'd deemed not preferable as a learning tool due to its jumbled appearance--and let Parker use that instead. It worked fine, and Parker had a grand time tracing shapes. After he completed each shape, I had him draw horizontal lines, from left to right, within it (more pencil practice). (The plastic template is from a Learning Resources Attribute Block Set, a very neat and versatile product I look forward to doing more with soon.)

Oops, too flimsy. (The pencil kept slipping under the foam.)

Ah, much better.

After tracing, we moved on to matching two-dimensional shapes. In this activity, the child matches gradated circles (or triangles or squares) to corresponding holes/outlines. I painstakingly prepared the materials for this activity yesterday morning, and I have to reveal that my husband laughed when saw the raggedy, misshapen result. In my defense, I could locate only one compass here on island--a cheap, plastic, ineffectual one. I did my best, but even I had to admit that my efforts didn't amount to much. I needn't have worried, for two reasons: Parker didn't seem to notice any of the apparent defects and he took all of thirty seconds to complete the "white puzzle" (as he called it). This activity must not pose much of a challenge to Parker, so its (imperfect) materials will most likely be retired fairly quickly. Since he did complete the purported activity with such ease this morning, I had to brainstorm up some alternative things to do with the gradated circles. We stacked them from biggest to smallest, then smallest to biggest, then lined them up from biggest to smallest. And then we put them away, because after awhile it's hard for a little boy to resist the urge to turn circular objects into wheels. Or frisbees.

Hmm, I don't think this is quite right.

All done.

While we were in California last October, I spent a couple hours perusing the aisles of Morrison School Supplies. I, of course, wanted to buy at least half of what I found there; if only homeschool supplies were government-subsidized! I allowed myself a (crammed) basketful of educational materials, which I'm slowly but surely presenting to Parker. The Learning Resources Attribute Block Set was in that basket, and so were two sets of Creative Teaching Press photo cards (Our Earth and Understanding Weather). We studied the photo card sets for the first time today. Though (or because?) our own weather can get to be pretty boring (85 and sunny, day after day, for days on end, ho hum), Parker loves talking about snow and rain, wind and fog. He'll announce that it's "freezing cold" outside, and tell me it's time to (pretend to) put on our hats, coats and mittens. So he definitely liked looking at the weather photo set. And we've also been talking about different ecosystems; of course the one in which we live, but also forests, deserts, and the like. The earth forms photo set helped further our previous discussions.

The Ohio inspiration.

In anticipation of our arrival in Ohio last September, my mother-in-law had put the materials for various Montessori activities out on her pink shelves for Parker to work with throughout our stay. He particularly liked the farm animal habitat activity. Using some pieces of felt, miniature farm animals and popsicle sticks, he made a farm, complete with pens for the animals. He had a ball opening the pens to let the animals out so they could drink from the pond and taking the animals out to pasture. Watching him work, I made a mental note to pick up some felt before we returned home. In addition to the farm habitat, I've made a forest animal habitat and an ocean animal habitat. The ocean animal habitat consists of sand, shallow water, coral reefs and deep water. While Parker plays with the assorted sea animals, we talk about who lives where, what they eat and how they defend themselves. Sometimes the ocean animals decide they need to go swim in some real water (read: the bathtub).

Ocean animals at play.