Category: Everyday Learning

Helping with the grocery list

We’re gearing up for officially starting homeschooling kindergarten this August and so I have lesson plans and activities on the brain.

(Although all learning around here is initiated and led by our daughter. We do not believe in pushing her academically. After all, she’s only five years old. And she’s plenty precocious and self motivated on her own.)

Our daughter is particularly interested in geography (i.e. planning trips), reading historical fiction, playing math games, bird species identification, and writing lists.

And so we do just that.

Planning a menu from 1854 pioneer America

Drawing birds we’ve spotted at our house (with the help of photos from the Stokes Beginner’s Guide to Birds Western Region — thank you, Grandma!)

Playing math games with Cuisenaire Rods

Sketching a bouquet of flowers gathered from our morning walk makes for simple homeschooling fun.

After carefully sketching one flower (the purple one), she decided she wanted to use her imagination for the rest of the picture. I think the level of detail between those sections is rather striking.

I had fun drawing too.

We need to do more tandum art projects. All too often I set her up with a fun project and then merely keep her company. I want more art in my life!

When was the last time you drew just for fun? I’m ashamed to say that for me it had been a long, long time.

Last week we talked about making a magnetic puzzle map of the United States. Here are some other geography activities our family enjoys that you may want to try at home.

We collect map puzzles (many of which we scored at the thrift store) such as this floor puzzle of the United States:

We love Puzzleballs of the globe, continents, and world map. With them you can have both a geography and math lesson if you put the pieces together in numerical order which are on the flip side of the map picture:

We pour over atlases such as the National Geographic World Atlas for Young Explorers, which we took out of the library, answering questions such as “which country on this map grows bananas?” or “where does our friend Natalia live in New Zealand?” Our five year old soaks it up!

We also collect local maps of the area and practice driving with our finger from one destination to another, marking out how Daddy drives to work or where our favorite playground is located in relation to our house.

Music is a fantastic teaching tool too. We love to belt out the “Continents Song” that I learned when I was a little girl. Other songs such as “Mississippi Cats” and “Bells of Westminster” (from our Music Together classes) can be jumping off points for discussing a particular state or place. Sing the song, then go find that spot on a map!

With relatives living throughout the United States, our daughter has always had a strong interest in knowing where Aunt Laura or Pop-Pop or Gramma lives. To her, New York, New Jersey, Colorado, and New Mexico are the ultimate vacation destinations because the people she loves most live there (rightly so!).

In addition to an interest in geography, our daughter loves puzzles. Better yet if we put both obsessions together. Here is an inexpensive, fun geography activity that we put together in a matter of minutes.

We printed off an illustrated printable map of the United States from Mr. Printables onto magnetic paper to make a “magnetic puzzle” of the US states for the magnetic board we bought from IKEA. The states aren’t drawn exactly, but their approximation is certainly good enough for a five year old. (Want a more realistic magnetic map puzzle? Make magnets out of actual maps.)

Our kid had such a good time putting this map together. Geography can be fun!