Bear Week

I thought I'd write a quick summary of our second week of "homeschool preschool." This was the first week with a THEME (the previous week I was totally winging it). The theme of the week was BEARS (real and teddy) -- chosen because I had lots of bear "materials" around the house already, and also because September 9th is National Teddy Bear Day.

Monday is get-to-know-the-theme day. I put most of our storybooks about bears (as many as would fit) out on the big table in the family room for the boos to choose from -- and left them there all week. I had some workbook pages for them to do, and a bear picture to color. I wrote the alphabet on a piece of paper while they chanted it, and put some bear stickers on it. I sang "The Bear Went Over the Mountain" and performed "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear" with all the movements. Since it was a holiday, school didn't last too long, but it was pleasant.

Tuesday is math day. I collected all the teddy bears in the house (nine) and lined them up in the hallway. I asked boos to line them up by size (shown in the photo above), then group them by color, and then rank them by softness (that took some thought). Then I asked them if they could divide them in half, two equal groups. Baby B said "Sure." They came up with one group of five and one of four. I pointed out that that wasn't equal. They switched them around and came up with different groups of five and four, then groups of six and three. It's so fascinating to realize that adults know things that kids don't know (such as the concept of odd and even numbers and the fact that only even numbers can be divided by two). Eventually I showed them that we could do three groups of three, and they were puzzled but pleased.

Wednesday is art day. I woke up feeling kind of low -- I just don't like art. Not my thing at all, never has been. I admire other people's art works, and I can do crafts like sewing, but the whole concept of me doing art makes me uncomfortable. But I'd planned out the day's project (making circle bears) pretty carefully, had all the materials set up already, and it went just fine. Boos impressed me by actually being able to cut on a straight line, and also being able (and willing!) to follow my instructions. After we made our bears and glued them to the paper, Baby A borrowed my marker and drew all around his bear, following the edges very closely. I don't know what skill that is, but it seemed good. I had given each of them three plastic googly eyes, since of course little things like that get dropped and lost a lot, but they decided that their bears would have three eyes. I also sang "The Bear Song" with Baby A doing the responses -- lots of fun.

Thursday is cooking day, and I had found a cute recipe for bear cookies. Of course, when it came right down to it, I made bear cookies (center rack above) and boos made interesting blob cookies. But I thought that was OK. They had their hands in the dough, getting all down and dirty, shaping things the way they wanted to. It didn't seem necessary for them to make perfect, uncreative little bears like mine. And all the cookies tasted the same (not great, but better than last week's). I sang "The Teddy Bears' Picnic" and boos even asked me to sing it again (instead of screaming "Don't SING!" as is their wont).

Friday is supposed to be out-of-doors day, but I woke up with an intestinal complaint that I thought was going to derail us. However, my stomach quieted down long enough for us to go on a walk around the block, while we chanted the words to "We're going on a bear hunt." It would have been better to do it in a park (easier to find the various things you're supposed to go through, like grass and water and mud and a forest), but we just faked it and it was fine. As we neared home, I spotted one of those standalone basketball hoops and I pretended it was the bear. So then we had to RUN home, open the door, remember to CLOSE the door and lock it, and jump under the covers (where we found one of OUR bears lurking, see above). Great fun and much better for everyone than workbook pages.

This weekend we may go on a Teddy Bears' Picnic. Or not. But it could be fun.

So, I have to say I'm psyched. I know all the weeks won't be as fun as this one -- I'll calm down a bit, not put as much time into planning, and we'll probably end up doing workbook pages some of the time. But I think overall "homeschool preschool" is going to be a good experience.