FARM WEEK: PK-3

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Ana's Week

Have you ever had a homeschool week that just seemed like a bit of a wash? If not, that week is probably coming. I don’t say this to discourage, but to encourage you that when that week happens, it’s okay. This is not proof that you are doing badly or that you failed your child but is instead perfectly normal. Give yourself time to reset and move forward! All of this to say, I had one of those weeks this week. As I write, half of my family is sick with a cold (something I am hoping to avoid), we found out the job my husband applied for isn’t happening, and Aria is struggling with being a three -nager. While that made for a hard week, all of that was not what made this unit a wash. What made the unit a wash was that it is CHRISTMAS! I spent the whole week ready for my Christmas unit, working on Christmas projects (check out Advent calendar picture, more on that later), and wrapping/buying gifts. I didn’t want to study the farm! I wanted to get into the holiday spirit! So, I learned a lesson for next year. December is for celebrating, not for cracking down.

Despite all of that, we did actually do a unit this week, and it was pretty fun. We took a more laid back approach, taking one of the days to go to the library and two My Gym classes, but I consider that simply musical, literary, and physical enhancement to the week, so I’ll still consider it school. The weekend before the unit began, we visited a friend who lives on a farm right outside of town. We saw chickens and a chicken coop, got fresh eggs, fed some goats, played in the dirt in their garden, and even saw the monkey they have! Yes, they have a monkey, which will probably forever confuse Aria when it comes to which animals live in the zoo and which don’t. This was the perfect way to begin the week and get Aria excited about farm life.

We started the week reading a book called Farm Animals by DK publishing. It is amazing, not only for how many farm animals it covers and the depth of information, but because they provide you with activities to try. We made our own sheep, and though we did put a sheep together that Aria identified as a sheep, using cotton balls and toilet paper rolls, it was so embarrassingly bad that I didn’t take a picture. I didn’t have enough balls, so it looked like a sheep with alopecia. Also out of the book, we made a milk shake and talked about how cows make milk. We made ours using milk, ice, strawberries, and agave nectar, but it is certainly adaptable. The book also recommended making animal cookies, though since we didn’t have animal cookie cutters, that turned into making Christmas cookies with daddy. Still just as fun!

We own an old Playskool farm, so we played with that play set, along with a bag of animals I found at the dollar store. We sorted her animals into zoo and farm animals. We had a farm snow storm and had to clean her animals (aka we covered the animals with shaving cream and gave them a bath). I recommend doing that activity in the bathtub, unless you do the unit when it is warm outside. We played with farm puzzles we own. Aria already knew her farm animals because of Old McDonald, a song we sang a lot during the week, so in many ways, the week was just a reviews of animal terms and finding out more about what the animals actually do and what the farmer actually does. We also read Old Makana Had a Farm, a book from Hawaii that my stepmom gave us. It gave us a fun twist to the usual song and gave a lot more information about the planting process. After reading that book, we planted our own Christmas basil.

Our fun projects of the week included reading and playing with our Funny Farm book by Magnetic Marbles. This was a book I found at a local consignment store, and it was a good way to practice identifying front and back of animals. Totally recommend checking it out! We read Stanley the Farmer and Aria made her own tractor using a box. We colored a Farm Counting book together as a gift for Daddy and read/counted a few times. We tried Farm yoga, which is a really great in theory but Aria was far too lacking in calm to do. We also did movement cards, mimicking the actions of items on the farm. Aria always loves those and we did them several times.

My proud mama moment of the week was watching Aria successfully follow instructions on a farm coloring sheet. This seems simple, but for me, the fact she picked the right colors, animals, and tried to stay in the lines was such a happy moment. She also wrote her name for the first time with me simply telling her the letters to use. Made my day!
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So, the week was definitely one I would repeat again at a later, non-Christmasy date. I am absolutely ready for Christmas to begin, so the next few weeks should be a blast! This week I made a homemade advent calendar, and I’ll explain the process further next week. I’ve never been more proud of a project. I also made homemade Skylar ornaments I’ll talk about. I feel like I’m finally getting the creative bug! Both Jess and I are also doing Elf on the Shelf, but this is my first year and she’s done this before. I will shoot out some ideas coming up, but I can’t wait to see what the uber creative Jessica comes up with! Hooray for the most wonderful time of the year!

Jessica's Week

YeeHaww Taegan is almost three year’s old and our homeschool adventure has finally begun! It’s technically still august and I wanted to introduce a “tot school” in a fun and light hearted way so we didn’t “hit the books” this week but we did learn a LOT about farms, animals, and more. Field trips were always my personal favorite way to learn as a kid so we took several in celebration of our theme. The first was a summer trip to Moomer’s Ice Cream store/dairy farm. We toured a working dairy farm, fed a baby calf, learned how milk and ice cream are made, and did a little tasting too! T loved feeding the baby cow until it almost pulled her off her feet. Note to self, calf’s can suck harder than a 2.5yr old can hold on. 

We also hit the Indiana PA county fair. Wow!! I’m going out on a limb to say this was the best fair I’ve ever been to. One nominal price included everything (as well as unlimited rides) and their 4-H exhibits were stellar. My favorite (which was slightly off topic but whatever) was where T got to pick apples, carrots, and potatoes as a farmer than “sell” them at a market to earn play money which she could use to buy a prize from the “store”. Understanding how food is grown and sold to make a profit was a new concept for her but after this she tried to open her own play food farm stand at home….couldnt understand why I didn’t give her a prize every time I made a purchase but at least I know she’s an entrepreneur haha. 

Finally, we went down to Round Hill park on the south side of Pittsburgh. It’s kind of an exhibit farm with a themed splashpad and playground. We visited all the traditional barnyard animals and saw a few unique ones. They have a pond teaming with ducks….like so many ducks you can’t drive down the road and a great beekeeper display. Unfortunately, there were a few too many bees around and T experienced her first sting while playing on the splashpad. Luckily we found out she’s not allergic and after numbing the injury with a bag of frozen peas from a local store we fed them to the gaggles of ducks. Side note: Bread is not healthy for ducks and uneaten crumbs mold and can harm a pond ecosystem. This was a nice teaching opportunity to learn frozen peas are the preferred snack of pond ducks. 
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We sure didn’t sit inside for school this week but we did have a ton of fun and Taegan seems very excited to be learning like a big girl! Can’t wait to see how she continues to grow through our tot school adventure.