Jack O' Lantern Fruit Salad: Holiday Fun Food

Today, after our excursion to the library, I made Aidyn a jack o' lantern fruit salad to observe the upcoming holiday in a fun, healthy way.

First, I took a tangelo (only because oranges at the grocery store looked a bit bad), and cut the top piece off similar to how one would take the top off a pumpkin. Using a knife, I loosened the pulp and with a spoon scraped it into a bowl. Carefully, I carved two triangle eyes, a nose, and a one-toothed grin through the skin of the tangelo. Once it had its face on, I filled the cavity with sliced red grapes and strawberries. After drizzling the tangelo juice over the fruit salad, Aidyn capped the creature with the top of the tangelo (which, funny enough, has a somewhat pointed top!). Then, spoon in hand, he scalped it and ate the jack o' lantern's "brains."

Fun, festive activity!

Grape Festival/Horse Ride

As a real-world introductory to our next unit study, the family spent the day at the local Grape Festival and Aidyn, particularly, rode on a horse. Following suit of the first unit where we interacted with firefighters previous to our study, we wanted Aidyn to physically connect with the unit before diving in. However, this experience was not our sole reason for attending, but thought it could serve as quality family time, exposure to new things and events, further enjoyment of “rides and thrills,” and as a break from the day-to-day routine. First off, we visited the Reptile Exhibit, and looked at all sorts of snakes, frogs, lizards, and other creatures. Aidyn pet a tortoise, spied a chameleon, stood three feet from an uncaged alligator, and talked with a red parrot. Then, Aidyn and his daddy rode a turbulent (for the average three-year-old) boat ride which Aidyn loved. Later, we took in a zany circus show by the Swan Bros. Afterward, a clown made Aidyn a dragon-balloon-animal, per his request. Fortuitously, Aidyn wanted nothing more but to ride a horse, so we took him over to the area and watched him ride and pose in a cowboy hat. After some arm painting, music-making, and gallery-viewing, the family called it a day.

This jaunt on the horse will launch our next unit study: horses and horse-drawn carriages.

Ragtime!

During the whole of studying along Main Street, we are listening to turn-of-the-century ragtime music. Aidyn and I just made up our own silly dances and remarked on the quirky sounds of the music. Had we not begun this venture, we probably never would have experimented with ragtime music!

Fire House, Main Street U.S.A.

For the past week and a half, we have been focused on a unit about fire engines and firefighters based off the Fire House attraction along Main Street.

On our first day, we checked out firefighter-related books and media from our local library. Along the route home, we spied a fire engine. Waving, we watched as the bright red engine full of smiling firefighters pulled over to say, "hello." The fire captain waved and spoke with Aidyn and offered him a sticker. Out from the back of the engine, a firefighter dropped down and met with us. He gave Aidyn a fire badge sticker and a hearty handshake. While Aidyn and I walked back home, Aidyn exclaimed, "I wanna be one of them!"

What a way to start a unit! I felt like we struck homeschool gold!

Not surprisingly thereafter, Aidyn was so excited to read all his picture books and watch his video about fire engines and fire safety. He has tugged us all to the couch during the past week to watch his video. Putting on his own pretend firefighter helmet, he imagines that he is "Engineer John" and often requests to water the lawn on jet-setting like a firefighter puts out a fire.

Additionally, I have been in contact with a local fire chief who has offered us the opportunity to further expose Aidyn to life as a firefighter. I will be answering the invitation soon and provide Aidyn with a real world chance to learn about real-life heroes.

New Beginnings, Fresh Start

During the past couple of weeks, I have been introducing a new curriculum that will culminate at one of our favorite destinations: Disneyland. Although we've given Aidyn the opportunity to visit numerous times, we have actually never devoted a homeschool curriculum to the venture. That is our new agenda. I worked diligently on crafting a multi-functional lesson plan that weaved key attractions and concepts from the park in an educational manner. Of course, there is certainly room for pure fun and excitement! Basically, I divided the parks into their distinct lands and then singled out the attractions. For each attraction, I constructed a general to specific lesson plan that suits the average preschooler's zone of proximal development.

Throughout our journey, I will document agendas, accomplished tasks, and random reflections until we see it through to its apex.

Cool Mornings...Cakes...and Colors

Although the morning began with a lazy lull, the family went outside again to enjoy the crisp air. These past few days, I have been trying to revive my yellow-green grass by watering. I take my steamy cup of coffee and Aidyn brings along his Star Wars tumbler of apple juice and we leave the front door ajar. Still in jammies, we turn on the sprinkler, move it about the yard, walk barefoot on the driveway, and play. Today Aidyn "dug" in the dirt, wet his feet and made footprints on the cement, and jumped back and forth between the "cold part" and "warm part" of the driveway. David came out and watched us, compared his wet footprint to Aidyn's, and kicked a ball around with him for a bit.

Later, Aidyn and I (mostly Aidyn) made a nutritionally unhealthy cake (chocolate fudge from Betty Crocker) but enjoyed loads of fun and learning doing it. He poured all the ingredients in the bowl, cracked the eggs, and whipped up the batter himself. Watching me measure and count supplies, he parroted my speech and looked forward to licking the spoon. He was absolutely delighted that he made a cake and bragged to his grandma about his culinary accomplishment. When the cake was ready to be frosted, Aidyn chose a green frosting. Interesting. It looked like some dark Joker-from-The-Dark-Knight-cake. But we were pleased.

After cake-making time, we re-read The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs per Aidyn's request. He also dragged Ten Little Dinosaurs and Snow Happy to be Here onto the bed.

Following reading time, Aidyn and I went on our regular evening bike ride to the park. He's got the routine of dressing, helmet-donning, bike-climbing, and wind-whipped-riding down. We have the sweetest conversations as we're winding through the neighborhood. When we reached the park, Aidyn decided to swing for half an hour then we raced down the slides about twenty times before calling it a day.

During bath time the last two days, we have been adding color to the water. I purchased these neat Crayola bath drops for the tub and they're amazing. Yesterday he desperately wanted a red bath, so he dunked a red tablet in the water. I let him choose another color, and he picked yellow. It was clear that he had dropped the yellow tablet in, but he was amazed to watch the water transform to orange. Mini color lesson! Tonight, he wanted a blue bath which lasted all of ten seconds before he wanted to add the red tablet. Again, to his enjoyment, the water mixed to a deep, beautiful purple. Another mini color lesson!

Creative, beautiful day!

Sports and Games Update

While we have been doing sports-related activities, I feel like now is a great time for delight-led learning. Now that we have completed our set "curriculum" for the year, we need the freedom to pursue anything that interests us day-by-day. Recently, Aidyn has been telling wild versions of the story, The Three Little Pigs, so I checked out more "alternative" versions of the tale to share with him. He loved The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs by A. Wolf!

I feel like letting go of the planned curriculum for awhile and following Aidyn's delights possibly until next year. The unit themes for 2010 cover such a wide variety of topics that I may not specifically plan week by week, month by month, what we will be doing. In contrast, I may mindfully bring in those subjects if they fit with what happens in our world. These are my current thoughts and I may revisit them, but for now, I believe this is best.