Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Our week with the Moon went very well. The girls loved learning about Astronauts and the different phases of the moon. We ate crescent rolls and baked a cake that we then iced to demonstrate the different phases of the moon (and let's face it, was just plain fun to eat!) They loved Space Boy and today while playing astronaut, a game they came up, they pretty much acted out the story: Jordan recited her checklist for her space outfit (space suit, helmet and space boots - check, check, check), floating away tomatoes (from their space snack due to the lack of gravity), bouncing over mountains and falling into craters -- OK, the last part was Magic School Bus, but they knew that the moon had craters so that is pretty cool in my book!

The girls are really enjoying learning about Space and I am doing much better with the whole teaching part, too. It is a weird balance trying to expose them to different things and great books, especially ones that they want to learn about, and really not wanting to overload them with information that is over their level. I think we do a pretty good job at doing this, but it definitely helps when they have age appropriate living picture books with good stories! I have also loved being able to supplement the week with the fun ideas and activities through Preschool Post and Bright Beginnings.

So this week we are studying Stars and the Sun. For this week, I have written units for Twinkle Twinkle Little Star by Iza Trapani and The Sun Is My Favorite Star by Frank Asch. These are our main books for the week, and we are supplementing with I Am a Star by Jean Marzollo (a Hello Reader! Level 1 Science book), and The Magic School Bus Sees Stars, although this one is a little longer and drier than most of the other MSB books we have read. Mommy is also using Find the Constellations by H.A. Rey this week to learn a bit, as we plan on taking the girls out one night to star gaze.

Bright Beginnings had both a Sun and a Star theme week in their Prep Curriculum, so I just combined the two and picked the things we wanted to use. We are adding in fun television programs and online books, games and videos about space and stars.

The other thing we are starting this week is the new alphabet lapbook/notebook from HomeschoolShare. While both girls know the alphabet and all the sounds, I thought this would be a fun activity to do to really concentrate on a letter at a time for reinforcement. I had already pretty much planned out the rest of this year based on the remaining BFIAR books and HSS units we wanted to do before starting FIAR next year (for now, our school year will begin in January and end in December, so next year starts January 2009), so it was somewhat easy to see what letters we should study when. We are not doing them in order, but since this is just review, I thought it would be OK. So this week, although "S" would make sense, I couldn't find a good place to stick the letter "O" so we are studying that this week..... because...... Earth and the planets Orbit around the Sun, and the moon Orbits around the Earth.... get it? They don't seem to mind the stretch! :-) This is also working out nicely and allows me to continue to keep the lapbooking and arts/crafts in, while not having to do too much (during arts and crafts time, they REALLY out number me)!

So.... that is what we are doing this week. I would love to hear what you are learning about in your homeschool this week!