Worlds of Learning - September

We finished our first month of preschool! Now, I intentionally made September to be slow and easy because I knew it was already crazy and we still didn't quite get everything I had planned done but that was more due to weather than business - but I'm getting ahead of myself.

We started with Autumn Story by Jill Barklam.

I actually got the whole series. They are a bit longer than most picture books, similar in length to one of the longer Beatrix Potter books, which makes it tricky to read with Jonah around but if he's occupied, Lucy enjoyes them.

So our first day of preschool I took pictures and read the story. Then we talked about fall and harvesting and what signs to be looking for outside that mean Autumn is close and then I said it was time to go and play. Screech, end of fun times. Lucy got really upset because apparently that wasn't enough work for preschool. So I had to think quick and said "No, no, see, Primrose went on an Autumn adventure and we are too, out in the back, let's go see if we can find some fun things in nature". She gave me a suspicious look and said "What do we have to do? Find stuff? How much stuff? And we have to do this, right?"

Sufficiently appeased with my "requirement" of three items, we proceeded to play and explore outside. We ended up going up the hill to Neighbor J's house to look at some nuts we had seen before when playing. Neither I nor Neighbor J had known exactly what they were that time so we got a leaf and a nut (and later another random flower to complete the trio for "our assignment") and took them back inside to draw. I've been wanting to start nature journaling for myself so I got out our art caddy. I thought Lucy would just draw whatever she wanted to but she saw me and decided she needed to draw "our nature things" as well.

Now, promise not to laugh, but here is my nature journal sheet. I never claimed to be an artist but I'm trying.

Here is hers. I think she did a great job. She drew the inside nut, the outside part and the leaf - complete with the lines she saw on the leaf. I could really see her studying it and trying to notice little details to include.

 We found the nuts and leaf on our MO tree poster and it turns out to be Shag Bark Hickory tree! We noticed the poster Shag Bark Hickory tree leaves turn yellow in the fall so we'll be watching to see if that's true for Neighbor J's trees as well.

After that, she did end up moving on to cats and rainbows and family portraits and all the usual drawing subjects around here and thus ends our first day of preschool. It was intense, emotionally speaking. But the rest of the month went smoothly. Don't worry, I won't be this detailed about every day :-)

We continued with bramble hedge activity the rest of the week including sewing a felt leaf banner. I precut the leaves, snipped holes in them and taped the end of a piece of yarn to make it easier to thread. She did the rest and was quite particular about making her "pattern" and arranging them just so. I think it turned out well.

We also toured a local organic farm as a family. I didn't take along a camera but we learned a lot about harvesting. It ended up being the perfect week to talk about because our "not cucumbers" were ready and we harvested a whole bunch of tiny decorative pumpkins. Oh yah (note sarcasm). But Lucy enjoyed painting them and they added a nice elective preschool vibe to our kitchen table decor.

How to make an Apple Pie and See the World was a big hit too, you can see our apple picking/applesauce making adventure here.

We also made a pie using the book's recipe and I'm now a believer in the all butter crust. It's difficult to work with but oh so tasty and I'm already pretty familiar with the ugly but yummy pie. It's my specialty.

Apple print making was next and not as big of a success. She was in a bad mood to start with and then was getting upset about each little step - the paint was too thick, the apple was too slippery. Every parent of a small child knows what I'm talking about. After a little attitude adjusting, we started up again but she stamped a few then turned to me and said "You know mommy, this just isn't very interesting" and handed her apple stamp back to me. Okay, then. Moving on.

Another day she really wanted to "do school" and I didn't have anything prepared and really needed to be working on other things, mainly dinner. But she had her heart set on a "cutting and gluing school" with apples. She on a bit of a scissors kick lately and who am I to deny her so I quickly cut a circle from a paper plate, gave her a sheet of red construction paper and her art caddy and let her get to work. This is what she came up with. It took about 3 days to dry completely because she was very thorough in her gluing but it was fun and all her from the design to the cutting to the little stick she added for the stem.

We've been enjoying our Degas prints for about two months now so she loved Degas and the Little Dancer and was able to spot a couple things she recognized.

We also tried pastels but I had a brain cramp and bought oil pastels even though I knew I wanted soft/chalk pastels. Oil pastels aren't really that different from crayons so that was a bit of a disappointment. But coloring paper doll dancers was fun. The end results was pretty ugly because Lucy spent most of her time telling me how to draw mine (no, that one needs a green dress and blue eyes) while thinking of names for hers and "writing" them on their bellies. I wish I could read her scribbles to remember some of the names but they were quite elaborate. And she loved adding the muffin paper tutus. It was definitely a "process over product" activity so no cute picture here but fun was had by all.

Children of the Forest was the last book of the month and not only was that right during the last stretch of conference planning, but the weather had gotten warmer instead of colder and none of the leaves had turned colors yet. So we read the book but are still waiting to collect some leaves and finish up our fall crafts but I'm sure we'll have time sometime next month.

Those are the big activities. We also added the hymn, poem and story to our table time and that was probably her favorite part. We didn't do it every day but most days we did and she was really excited when it was October and time to get new ones. I'm loving table time more and more. I'm really hoping this continues to be a part of our homeschool experience, especially as I've been reading Ordo Amoris's 31 days of Morning Time and seeing how it really can grow with our family.

Note - none of these links are affiliate links because I live in Missouri and due to our silly new tax laws, Amazon has dropped our state from the program. Boo!