Fun with cars, and science on the side!

Yesterday for a quick lesson Zeru and I zoomed through his car road numbers lesson ('zero' thru 'ten' plus 'number').

Today we finally remembered to heat set the crayon with an iron. Every time we play with it he notices the crayon fading slightly because I have been a little slow getting around to finishing it!

(You can color most fabrics with crayon and simply put paper over it and iron with a hot iron to set the crayon/color into the fabric to make it more permanent.)

After hours of fun driving, and hours of entertainment coloring we sat together in the store's class room with the hot iron.

It was a perfect opportunity to discuss Solid, Liquid, and Gas.

Zeru pointed out that "Bama [grandma] puts water in their in the ironing machine."

I reminded him of one of our 'S' words from earlier in the day (Steam) and begun the conversation.

"What is liquid?" and he quickly rambled off all sorts of drinks, and just about anything involving strawberry!

"What is solid?" he figured that one out pretty quickly too.

"What is gas?"
"You know, the stuff we put in the car..." he began!

After a short explanation he understood that water is liquid, but when it gets really cold it becomes solid, and when it gets really hot it becomes a gas. Next will be explaining lava as a liquid rock!

Today I will find...

Today is cold and cloudy. With Amharic review.

Zeru came into work excited and ready to go! Before we barely began he was discussing and examining the weather. It is cold, he observed, and cloudy!

Immediately he ran to his weather station and asked if I were ready to start lessons!

What a change from the previous year!

Here is a sampling from today's lesson plan. keep in mind I aim for about 2 hours of planned lessons/schooling in the day and an hour of reading and reading discussion at night before bed. 9we do that during the weekend as well)

Today's focus was English. Zeru chose the letter "S" for today's adventure. He had to find a car. We drove all trough the store looking for things which started with the letter.

(Learning multiple languages with different alphabets, he is falling a little behind with this. He understands phonics, but when he pronounces words he assumes things like "chair starts with 's'!" or "train!" because of his little accent.)

Zeru wrote on his report sheet for his important job the letter S which we were hunting for. I wrote the words on the back of the paper. When we were finished he counted the words (21) and he put that on the front as well. Also noted is the date.

We practiced the words Today, Find, and Drive.

For our afternoon lesson we usually do about 30 min. of mazes, puzzles, or other thinking activities. Today was Zeru's favorite! he was so excited! We happen to have a Lego dump truck 'kit" with step by step directions. Amazingly enough he followed the instructions (he calls them "constructions") and built the truck perfectly! I stood by for moral support.

Writing, reading, vocabulary, and adventure.

The fly final report and initial tally.
Zeru learned > < and = today!



Zeru in his place! Happy as he finished his lesson.

Today's lessons we worked on reading and writing a simple sentence which includes common sight words kids "should" learn. They are also words we like!

We will be writing and reading about finding a plane! After we get a plane each we will fly them around on a scavenger hunt of sorts to find people, trees, dogs, and cars!

We will keep track of how many we find and then later make a bar graph with them!

*Update:
It was very fun flying around both inside and outside! We took tally of the cars, trees, people, and dogs we found. Apparently Lego people count as well!

Afterwards as we made a "final Report" of our important adventure I decided today would be the day Zeru learned greater-than, lesser-than, and equal-to symbols. You can see it worked out well!

He made his first bar graph and did a great job both doing it and reading it!

Today's schooling was a fun success!




Find a plane and fly lesson!

Tally of what we found on our adventure!

Zeru at work creating a bar graph with his data from the flight.

 

Why it's called "Zeru's Place"

Zeru's work station behind the counter!

The reason I had been planning on homeschooling since before Zeru was born was that I travel a lot and I also really enjoy teaching.

But with all that comes the challenges of work. How do I continue to live my life with a kid in tow? that is exactly how Zeru's Place got started. Everything changed once you include a pint size participant! Whether at home (Zeru needs his own place at home) in social settings/when I am with friends zeru needs a place, and at work, Zeru needs his own place! A place where Zeru can be Zeru and I don't have to worry.

So here we are- at work- and here is Zeru, taking over! This is Zeru's place!



 

Integrating lesson plans

Making lessons practical, memorable, and doable!

So, as mentioned, we are doing YEAR-ROUND 7 day a week school. This means 340 days with 2 to 2.5 hours of learning on average each day!

We break it up into 30 min. or 1 hour blocks. By doing this I hope to integrate what we are learning into what we are doing, making it both practical and doable! To get my five year old to sit still and focus on "lessons" for more than 15 or 20 minutes is nearly impossible! Yet he is a smart whipper snapper! He works best when his hands are moving and he can do or see what he is hearing about.

At his level, lessons include time, days, beginning reading, adding and subtracting, etc. Nothing too intense, so at this point it is very simple to integrate lessons into every day!

Day one of school I had him use his fine motor skills by cutting out 62 little squares containing the numbers 1-31 (twice, in two colors)

His number recognition up to 30 and counting went into play as I had him put the numbers in order and glue them properly onto his June calendar.

We discussed seasons, months, the year, and days of the week as we put the calendar together and admired its awesomeness.

We talked phonics as we tried to sound out the days of the week.

All of this took about an hour from start to finish. And now we have a calendar to work with for the whole month!

We will do more integrating with all the lessons, and I hope with daily USE (not just "practice and memorization") these things will be more than taught, but actually put to use!

More to come!

*we used the FREE printable calendar from mrprintables.com
I highly recommend this site for a variety of fun idea to get started!

And we're OFF!

Let the race begin!
Yesterday, after hours of research, we finally OFFICIALLY began our FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN! (home school)

Zeru created this calendar almost entirely on his own!

This is SO exciting! Not only for me (I love teaching and coming up with new entertaining ways to learn) but also for Zeru who is getting some much needed undivided attention and momma time! But also for Zeru's Place because I've never been more motivated to coming up with fun learning than when I am forced to do it!

SO, keep posted for some fun new learning tools, ideas, games, printables, etc. in the weeks and months to come! Perfect timing for those kiddos preparing to go into kindergarten next August, or those on break between school!

(We are doing a year round school year with fewer hours per day, 7 days a week. I hope this will keep Zeru more engaged, help him forget less, and make learning FUN not BORING).
Besides that, I take Zeru to work with me, so this helps us to get school and work done!

Some subject we will be exploring this summer: Bar graphs, Dolch words (common sight words), Time & Dates, Phonics, Amharic (2nd language), Earth science (plants, biology, etc.), geography and culture, directions and maps, and so much more!

Can't wait to share the adventure with you!

Road to reading buy and build!

Zeru's Road to reading is now for sale! Get the kids in on the action! Decorate and color yourself and add your own shortcuts, bridges, buildings, and landscapes! (Directions, stencils and ideas included)

Comes with directions, one set of cards with removable road signs and the fabric road!

The fun thing about this particular car road (besides that the kids get to decorate it themselves) is that it is SOFT and DURABLE made from a white denim on the front.

It is difficult to ruin them, they can be washed, rolled, crinkled into a ball, shoved under the bed... they can be easily stored small and won't bend, break, crack, tear like paper, board, or other materials.

As always we will have FREE printable downloads of the cards and signs or you can purchase finished laminated sets. Road to reading. On our way to fun!

 

Zeru has decorated his with some "bridge shortcuts" houses, trees, and other fun things. It is one of his favorite activities to do during the busy day- and what makes me happy is he is actually learning!

 

The concept is very simple. This "game board" has slots for 12 road signs (included- additional sets can be downloaded and printed for free, or purchased finished) with corresponding flash cards.

 

Flip the top card over. Have your child identify the word (by picture or reading) then search for the matching road sign. The fun is finding a route to get to the location!

 

This forces the recognition of letters and combined letters in association with a word. It is a very useful tool for beginner readers. Not to mention it is fun!

Beginning math sets coming soon also!

 

Road fits hot wheels/matchbox size cars- two lanes. Cars not included- but I am sure any house interested in this product has cars lying around!