A Donkey, A Goat and Some Hens

We live for field trips. 

Seriously. Field trips = good, good living. 

 One of the main reasons for schooling home style is to get out in the world and do some learning through living. 

Last week, our BFIAR book was Ask Mr. Bear, which was filled with farm animals.

We had a fun excuse to get up close and personal with some pigs and ponies.

What could be closer to perfection than a farm day in the fall? 

Answer: A farm with an art barn for rustic water coloring.

All play and no work, makes for lazy farmhands, so Farmer Sue put the girls on feed detail. 

Having earned their keep on the farm, our next treat was chick holding. 

With little furry creatures in hand, the looks on these little faces were priceless. 

Two ponies were kind enough to offer rides,

and some hens kind enough to leave treasures for finding. 

Claire makes fast friends wherever she goes. 

I'm thinking that we were made for farm life.  Nature and simple living are settling, don't you think?

Hay beneath your feet and a still warm egg in your hands, and the cares of the world melt away. 

This field trip gets an A+.

Fresh eggs to take home equal major bonus points.  

We're Going on a Bear Hunt: BFIAR Pre K

We had so much fun reading We're Going on a Bear Hunt!

We read the book every day, did the Homeschool Creations lap book, went on a little nature walk bear hunt, talked about different types of bears and learned about cubs, paws and claws. 


Chocolate pudding made the perfect yummy "mud" to snack on. 

Little hands drew big eyes on bear faces.

Most fun of all was painting the different settings from the book


and then using them as the backdrop for one crazy puppet show for Mamaw and Papaw!

This former teacher momma LOVES curriculum, and it is so fun to read a classic book and then roll with the learning.  Truly, it is a creative outlet for me.  As much as I enjoy it though, I must control my Pinteresting and keep it simple.  It is so, so easy to spin my wheels and overthink things.  What I find most of all is that the most learning happens with a really good book, two little listeners and a blanket to curl up under.  Simple, simple, simple.  Remind me of that when I see you, K? 

Blueberries for SAL, BFIAR Pre K



We've been "rowing" (Before Five in Row) through Pre-K for a few weeks now and are settling into a routine.  Trying hard to balance simple with stretching and creativity. 

A shelf has been designated for our book/theme. 

It was fun to see the girls play with the bears and read through the books all week. 

It was a "this might actually be working" gut check for my doubting self. 



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Our next classic book was Blueberries for Sal, which is a favorite, and continued our bear theme.  

 

All of Claire's "work" goes in our wanna-be Montessori baskets. 

After reading the book every day, I show her all of her work baskets.  She then can pick the order that she does them. 

 

We scored with a library find of the book CD for one of her tasks.  

A fun task we started, but never finished, was painting blueberry hill.  Reality, peeps. 

Ain't no perfection 'round these parts. 

A wee bit of word work,

 

and some math with "blueberries" for Sophia.  Sometimes learning is easy and fuss-free. 

a counting book for our bear. 

 

 I also left out "berries" in tin buckets and canning jars for acting out the story. 

I had a Sal and a bear cub kirplanking and kurplunking berries all week. 

 

My brain was rolling with all kinds of "I could do x,y,z" ideas,

 but simple proved to be enough. 

Jesse Bear PreK (BFIAR)

PreK is all kinds of fun.  Our plan?  To read our way through the classic children's books in the

Before Five in a Row book, expanding on themes and ideas. 

First up was, Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?, and Claire was instantly mesmerized by it. 

For science, we started a study of bears.

She learned the words hibernation and den under our dining room table. 

 

She did a lapbook from Homeschool Creations, sorted and counted gummy bears, learned to draw a bear and did some bear math.

My girls love a good "book party" so they planned a teddy bear picnic, complete with bear decorations and bear pancakes!

BFAIR is perfect for Claire, who loves books, and needs repetition. It's perfect for me because it is low key and a I love more classic children's lit. 

By the end of the week, our girl had Jesse Bear memorized and wanted to read aloud over and over. 

It was high on cuteness factor, and needed to be recorded to preserve her sweet four year old self.