Pre-K Day 2 is FUN!
I almost gave up. Wrote it all off on day TWO. I got Livi down for her morning nap and was going to do school with Clancy, but he went to work with Nathaniel in the shop. That threw off my thinking of getting it done on her morning nap. My next thought was to do it on her afternoon nap or go on an adventure and do the science part out and about.
Clancy wasn’t into any of it. Too tired, he said. Too passionate about playing ‘camp.’ But suddenly, he was all for it, so despite Livi being awake, I went along!
Today, we did Lesson 12 from The Good and the Beautiful’s Flowers and Leaves Science Curriculum for Pre-K, a story and discussion about the parts of plants and what they do! Livi was mostly obliging. Then we gathered the colors we needed for drawing and labeling a dandelion plant, a notebook we turned into Clancy’s Nature Book, a shovel for digging up a dandelion plant, and binoculars for spotting them (haha).
Along the walk, we worked together to dig up a random piece of rebar out of the earth. Wow, that was hard, but we were determined and persevered. An impromptu life lesson, I suppose. After that mission, Clancy spotted dandelions using the binos backward, and I dug them up, and we observed and recorded them!
Clancy was incredibly focused and did it all himself. I helped by covering up parts of the paper to give him a physical border to place the roots, leaves, and other parts. I was blown away at how well he did! Then, I traced a dandelion leaf; he listed them off while I labeled everything.
After that, he used a knife to cut each plant part away to add to a big pot of dandelion soup!
We ended with 10 minutes of recess, which he did not want to do. I would like him to do this so that I could debrief and quickly write these posts. I think he will get used to it. Livi immediately woke up, and it quickly turned into not the time I wanted it to be—hashtag parenthood.
As I debriefed, I found I only got flustered when trying to read the story, with Livi screeching and clawing at us. Besides that, I loved today and am so proud of us! I am so glad I rolled with it, and we did the science portion of this week’s lesson!
I found it very interesting that when I went to take pictures of our activities, Clancy assumed that I was taking videos. He, unprompted, wanted to describe what he was doing and send it to family and friends. Later on, I asked what he liked and didn’t like, and he said “Anything” in his grumbly mood, which translates to I didn’t like or dislike anything because you are asking me about it too late, haha. Toddlers/little kids/whatever he is, are SO moody and testy—like cats. I never know when I am going to get cuddled or clawed.
I know repetition of tracing Aa would be good, but we only have so much time. He has years to learn these things. He is only 4, after all. Whatever I am doing is better than nothing and will likely not damage him for life.
I envision how I want things to go, and when curveballs inevitably happen, I can have a hard time shifting and going with it, so I am really happy we stuck with it and did day two!
I have enough curriculum planned that I shifted some over to next week, and then we can have a third day on Friday of letter Aa formation, and then water painting our patio and counting balloon bounces—fun stuff he will love!
