Today seemed to run much smoother than yesterday, so that was great. It might have been because we spent so much time outside because the weather was beyond beautiful! Babe loves doing class outside so I can't wait until it's in the 70s all day, instead of just from 6am to 9am.
In Math we learned about AB patterns. Without explaining what they were, I handed Babe three pencils and three erasers and asked her if she could put them in an AB pattern for me. She didn't ask what it was, and proceeded with her work. Her first attempt was basically sorting them. She put the erasers in a pile and the pencils in a pile. I thought that was a really good guess! I then explained to her what an AB pattern was. I told her that, in this case, the erasers would be the A, and the pencils would be the B. She totally got it and then finished the pattern for me. Then I gave her three markers and three crayons and asked her to do the same. She did.
I had to explain it to her that patterns don't just come in colors and shapes, they can be made from anything, hence why I was giving her objects to use. After she fully understood what an AB pattern was, I handed her the bucket of tangrams and told her to pick two colors and use all of those two colors to make the biggest AB pattern in the world!
She did.
She finished up Math with her worksheet, in which she noticed that some of the patterns were made from cubes and cylinders (awesome!).
For Reading Comp., I kind of included some of the Science lesson on sense of hearing. I got out "Mice Squeak, We Speak" again, only this time, instead of reading it, I pointed out the animals and asked Babe if they were inside or outside. Then I asked her if they made loud or soft noises, then high or low sounds. We made it funny and asked her what a frog would sound like if it made a high sound, or a lion if it made a high sound, or a mouse if it made a low sound. Bubs and Z were even laughing at us making opposite sounds!
After we went through the book, I then explained to Babe how our ears work - how we have little hairs in our ears that stand straight up and the sound goes through them so we can hear, and that if we hear things that are too loud too much, the hair falls down and we can't hear anything at all. I then explained to her why when we are inside, we can't yell or be loud, because the sound can actually bounce off the wall and make things louder! And if we make it louder, it hurts our ears.
"Can you imagine what a lion would sound like if he roared inside the house!?"
"Whoa that would be really loud. That's why zoo animals are outside!!! Like when we go to a zoo? And we see the animals and they are already outside?"
Wow! What a connection! I didn't even make that connection and she said it like a pro. Wow.
Then we talked about echos and how the garage is really echo-y because it's small and has walls, but when we go outside, we can be ask loud as we want because there's nothing for our voices to bounce off of. So of course, we had to go outside and try it. Luckily we live in the "country" because all three kids were screaming and yelling as much as possible, and I was letting them! Babe noticed that if she stood in the yard and faced the house, her echo would come back really fast.
"My voice is bouncing off the house?"
"Yep!"
"Cool! HELLO HOUSE!"
I laughed so hard.
Since it was so nice outside, we went for a little walk down to the end of the street where we met our neighbor's horses. They came to the fence and made their little sneezing sound.
"Whoa horsey, you make a really low sound."
How cute!
After we got back from our walk, it was still beautiful out, so Bubs and Z played and Babe set up a chair next to mine.
"Look at this beautiful view!"
I asked her what made it beautiful.
"Look, you can see the sky, and look at all the trees. And the birds are in the trees right above our heads! I'm so glad I don't live in the city. I wouldn't be able to see any of this stuff."
Unbeknownst to her, we were having our final discussion before lunch. I talked about how when I go up and visit New York City, it's hard to even see the sky because the buildings are so tall! And I hardly ever see any trees.
"I need trees."
I think that was the line of the day.
After lunch, while Bubs and Z were sleeping, we went back outside to extend the Science lesson and I intertwined it with more country vs. city discussion. I had her close her eyes and tell me five things she heard. Then I had her write them down.
And yes, yes we did actually hear a pine cone. It fell off the tree and landed not ten feet from us. Babe got a big kick out of that. We sat out and enjoyed the breeze a bit longer, then headed in to learn the rest of Yankee Doodle Dandy.
By then it was time for dance.
Day. Done.
