Our Awesome Chinese Lesson!

Yesterday we had an amazing Chinese lesson. Other than listening to Chinese music in the car Mr. B has not requested a Chinese lesson for quite some time. I can't make this kid do anything that he doesn't want to so I either have to present lessons that appeal to him or he has to request them. Lately I've been focused on putting together lessons for other subjects so foreign languages aren't very organized.

We have been listening to Little Dragon Tales in the car during the last few weeks (a gift from Mr. B's auntie) and are learning several of the songs. Specifically, we are focusing on the first three songs: (1) Making Friends (Zhǎo péngyǒu) (2) Where is Spring? (Chūntiān zài nǎlǐ) and (3) Clay Doll (Ní wáwá). Here is an awesome preview. 

After breakfast I found the lyrics insert from this CD and we sang the three songs together. Afterwards we spent about half an hour reviewing the vocabulary from these songs. I thought that we were done for the day but Mr. B had other plans. 

After lunch Mr. B requested that we study more Chinese from Usborne's First hundred words in Chinese. We spent about 45 minutes completely engaged in reviewing this book until we came across the section where one of the children was having a birthday party. So we decided to sing happy birthday to the baby! We looked up "Happy Birthday in Chinese" on YouTube and found this instructional video. 

This was probably one of our most productive lessons ever. I don't remember Mr. B ever staying so focused and engaged on anything! I'm so proud of him. It's hard teaching him a language that I'm not fluent in but I'm glad that he loves it and pushes me to teach it to him. 

Thursday Haul

I found some great books on Thursday! I am extremely excited to find This is London by Miroslave Sasek. I found a few of these at a consignment sale last year but they were priced higher than I was willing to pay. I've been drooling over this series of books ever since. I'm sure we'll travel to London at some point to visit family. 

I also love Poetry Speaks to Children. This compilation comes with a CD on which many of the poems are read by their original authors. Mr. B and I already listened to this CD several times in the car and we LOVE it. Looks like we're done with Mother Goose. 

Honorable mentions include beginners piano sheet music by Disney (I hope that at least one of my kids will play the piano) and (surprisingly) a new Abe Lincoln book (I thought that I already owned them all). 

 Here are a few for Baby G! The Color ABC Numbers book (bright baby) is an early birthday gift I bought from Amazon. Happy baby ABCs replaces the copy that Mr. B destroyed when he was a baby.

Finally, here is my 70% of school supplies haul from Target. Some temporary shelves, Avengers pencils and notebooks, a Darth Vader pencil pouch, glue sticks and a Barbie lunch box for Baby G. I don't know if she will like Barbie but it was cute and $2. She'll be needing a lunch box in a few months. Mr. B has already started filing up one of the Avengers notebooks with "letters."

Surprise Tuesday Haul

On Tuesday I scored a surprise book haul from a thrift store that normally doesn't carry children's books. This was a huge donation from a teacher last week and most of the books were gone by the time I got there. I still scored some great finds from the leftovers!

• Two new Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science books: Who Eats What? Food Chains and Food Webs and What is the World Made Of?
• Meet Molly for my America Girl Book Collection!
• Classical Baby Art is a DVD that I really wanted to buy while I was pregnant with Mr. B. I forgot about it until I saw it for sale. This DVD introduces babies to famous paintings by making them come alive to classical music. I watched these with the kids on Thursday and Mr. B absolutely loved it! He was extremely excited to see many of the paintings we've come across in books come to life. 
• A Picture Book of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. I checked these books out from the library months ago but felt that the drawings were too mature for Mr. B. 
• What is the Big Idea, Ben Franklin? by Jean Fritz. I am collecting all the Jean Fritz books and I'm close to having them all! 
• Rome in Spectacular Cross-Section by Andrew Solway and Stephen Biesty. I've been wanting this book for some time now so this was a lucky find!
• Many Luscious Lollipops, A Book About Adjectives by Ruth Heller. I am a collector of Ruth Heller books. Her art is beautiful and she creates amazing poetry about really boring subjects (like grammar). I read one of her books about nouns to Mr. B when he turned two and was briefly obsessed with it. We also loved Animals Born Alive and Well when Mr. B was younger. 

• Who is Barack Obama? by Roberta Edwards. I am trying to collect all these "Who" books but there are millions of these. 

Montessori Continent Boxes: Australia

I finally finished the Australia box for Mr. B. We spent about a month on the Antarctica box. In hindsight, I spent way to much time putting Antarctica together, adding resources that Mr. B was not ready to discuss. His favorites were the penguin mask, the Arctic Toob and the Earth ball. He didn't want to watch the DVDs which I included but we ended up watching The Penguins of Madagascar several times on Netflix.

This time with Australia, I kept it simple and only added resources that I'm sure Mr. B will enjoy and learn from. 

Printables 

• Australia from Wikipedia
• Australian flag 
• Australian currency 
• World Map (for Mr. B to practice finding and coloring in Australia)
• Photos of wildlife from Imagine Our Life 
• Landmarks 

 Books and Toys

• Kippy Koala by A.J. Wood and Maurice Pledger (Mr. B loves Maurice Pledger's other books): this is a lift the flap and pop-up book. 
• Australia (Rookie Read-About Geography) by Allan Fowler: borrowed from the library 
• Earth Ball (found at Michaels for $2): reused from the Antarctica box 
• The Land Down Under TOOB (found at Michaels for $6 after 40% off coupon). 
• Baby Kangaroo at Home in the Outback by Jennifer Boudart 
• The Australia pieces from the Melissa and Doug World Map puzzle. 

The Rescuers Down Under movie is available on Netflix so we will watch that when Mr. B allows. Later, I will add a koala mask and a cool map of Australia. We will also pick up a stack of Australia books at the library tomorrow. 

The Reveal: 

This box was a great success! This time, I presented the box to Mr. B after explaining that we were done with Antarctica and will be studying a new contient. He was really excited and wanted to do all the activities inside. We worked on identifying Australia on the map (coloring it in) and on the globe. We discussed and matched up all the animals and read all three books (Mr. B re-enacted the stories with the toy animals). 

Another perfect homeschooling day today!!!

Update: We also added a unit on the Great Barrier Reef to the Australia box. 

The Endeavour at the California Science Center

This week we visited the California Science Center and had the incredible opportunity to see the Endeavour. This trip was on our space study wish list and Mr. B was excited to view and experience what we have been discussing and reading about during the last month! 

Mr. B waiting to get on the Endeavour simulator. This was the highlight of his visit.  

Mr. B and Mr. Husband checking out the Apollo Spacesuit. This suit was worn by Thomas K. Mattingly II, who was the command module pilot on the Apollo 16 mission in April 1972. 

This space shuttle main engine (SSME) is built from components that were used in several different engines. Find out more here.  

A life-size model of the Mars Rover. 

The glorious Endeavor! 

The "B" Box

Here is the "B" box for Mr. B to explore tomorrow morning. Have fun Mr. B! 

Introduction to Chess: Thank You No Stress Chess!

Mr. B recently watched a You Tube video where Darth Vader plays chess and has been asking to play chess too. So how do you teach a not-yet-three-year-old to play chess?

I found No Stress Chess at Goodwill several months ago. The board shows Mr. B where to place each piece. For now, Mr. B enjoys learning the names of all the pieces and putting them on the chess board. He is not ready to learn the rules yet but this activity keeps him occupied and satisfied.

When Mr. B is ready, the game comes with a deck of cards showing how each piece moves. Maybe next year...

Berenstain Bears: Teaching Morals, Life Skills and Conflict Resolution

I LOVED The Berenstain Bears Books when I was a child so of course I'm trying to collect them all for my kids. I am very close (I have 34 and only have about 15 left to find). These books are so amazing. I was worried that I wouldn't enjoy them as much as I did when I was a child but they have held up well. I have re-read each one (as I find them). Each book presents a moral or social dilemma and the Bears family has to resolve it. Looking back, I learned so much about life and conflict resolution from these books. They made a huge impact on my life and who I am today.

We started Mr. B on the Bright and Early and Beginner Books when he was a baby/toddler and they were some of his favorites.

In the meantime, I have been steadily building up our collection of the First Time Books for when he's ready. Well, he found the stack and he is VERY excited and ready!

We started with No Girls Allowed.

Mr. B really enjoyed No Girls Allowed. Mr. Husband and our friend Zach are currently building Mr. B (and Baby G) a playhouse so this book hits very close to home. In this book Sister Bear is excluded from Brother Bear's new club house. She ends up getting her own club house (with Father Bear's help) and instead of excluding her brother, invites him in for snacks. Great message!

I am so excited that Mr. B is finally ready for these amazing books! 

Our Perfect Home-school Day

Mr. B and I had a PERFECT homeschooling day on Thursday. This is a very rare occurrence with us.

After breakfast we had an importune Russian lesson. Generally, teaching Mr. B Russian has been very difficult. He loves Chinese but rarely wants to work on Russian (even though I spoke, sang and read Russian to him every day for the first year of his life...until he told me to stop). 

I have to be VERY creative with Russian. We learn through songs. Mr. B loves all the old childrens' songs that I sang to him when he was a baby and his favorite is Antoshka. Luckily, Baby G loves Antoshka too and I sing it to her when she gets cranky. She got cranky after breakfast, I started singing, Mr. B's ears perked up and we started our Russian Lesson. 

We focused on two simple songs. Antoshka and Two Merry Geese (from the same cartoon series). First I sang both songs, stopping several times to discuss vocabulary. Then we watched the videos for the songs on YouTube. 

Two Merry Geese

This was a very successful lesson. By the end Mr. B was singing Antoshka with me so at least he knows the words! At this rate I don't think that either of my kids will be fluent in Russian but at least they are being exposed to the language and culture. 

Next we worked on phonics and printing the letter A while Baby G worked on scooting around the room. 

After Baby G went down for her nap, Mr. B and I built and played with Princess Repunzel's Creativity Tower. 

Afterwords we had a great space lesson. We read Astronaut: Living in Space by Deborah Lock. This is an amazing book about an Astronaut who travels into space to repair a telescope. While reading this book we had a discussion about gravity and how Astronauts eat, sleep, go to the bathroom and get clean in space. The book also has an amazing description of what it takes for a space shuttle to re-enter the atmosphere. We highly recommend this book!!! We also read Fly Guy Presents Space by Tedd Arnold. This is a new book and this is our first time reading it. In this book, Fly Guy goes to the museum to learn all about space. This was a good review and a lot of new information. 

Next Mr. B wanted to go outside to play but it was about 100 degrees outside. To divert his attention I offered him a dinosaur digging kit. We opened a similar kit the week before so Mr. B was very excited. 

This time Mr. B did most of the digging and found a triceratops nest!!! I really need to find more of these!

Finally, we put together a life-size foam skeleton puzzle (from Learning Resources) and discussed the names of the bones and their location in our bodies. 

Just as Baby G's nap was coming to an end, Mr. B fell asleep on the couch.

If only every day was this great!