Day one of Plants week!
How exciting! We love plants in this family! We garden whether that’s herbs for the Apothecary, flowers for the bees and butterflies, or food for our bellies, we are a family of plant lovers!
We try to instill the importance of plants to our little Sprout and why it’s important to plant plants bees and butterflies enjoy, why we shouldn’t use poisons on our plants and why it’s important to keep the environment safe.
Because I am an herbalist I also teach kiddo all about medicinal plants, even at her young age. She has such an interest in plants I enjoy having her help me at the Apothecary making blends for us (never for customers, don’t worry).
Being Pagan I also like to add a bit of magic into her life. Even non Pagans do this every day, ie: the “tooth fairy,” the “Easter Bunny,” “Santa Clause,” “the Boogey Man,” whatever you can come up with! It adds mystery and magic (and sometimes fear if you decide to introduce the Boogey Man!).
School for Sprouts never looks how you expect it to and is never consistent and that’s okay! Exposure is our main goal with our little Sprouts!
Day 1 went how I expected, but I’ve been doing this for a while so I know not to set my expectations too high and to just go with the flow!
When there are tasks like today’s “Plants” worksheet, it can be intimidating wondering how do you tell kiddo all of this info, have them sit still to absorb it and retain it, and then to colour in the lines.
Guess what? You don’t! Not really. It will probably never look like that. Even with us it doesn’t. Here’s an honest description of how today’s art worksheet went.
“Hey let’s do this art sheet! It has a lot of plants on it!”
Kiddo immediately wants to scribble all over it
“Just a sec, let’s look at them and name them.” I attempt to name them and read their medicinal and magical properties and it sort of works, but I know she’s not going to retain it, and that’s okay! It’s exposure.
One thing I do recommend doing is when you’re reading it and it says things like “it’s good for your liver” point to their liver, maybe give a little tickle if they like tickles. “It’s good for your respiratory system,” explain to them that means lungs and point to where their lungs are. This is once again exposure to things that aren’t even on topic and it opens discussion! “We breathe with our lungs don’t we!” Don’t be afraid to have a conversation about anatomy and biology at 2 years old! Kids are sponges, they will absorb everything.
If I did this again I might do one at a time. Show the plant, read it, let her colour it and move on to the next one. Just to see how that works. And that’s what you have to do. Find out which method works best.
We got thru them all and she went crazy with the markers and as you can see at the bottom, decided to start working on cutting skills.
Another thing you could do would be to laminate this sheet after they’re done colouring it, cut it out and make a little book with the plants from today’s art work and the rest of the week’s.
Music and Movement devolved quickly, again, that’s okay. Let them lead and if they want to do yoga, or stretch let them and do it with them. Model the behaviour you’re looking for. Kiddo decided she did not want to do it for more than 1 minute, and so she went to play with her dinosaurs. I told her that was fine, but she needed to do it quietly since yoga was a quiet activity. These slower, quieter activities can be harder for kiddos to do since it doesn’t keep their attention as long and they want to zoom right through things. Slow music and movement might work better for you guys before or after a nap or before bed/just after waking. Find what works best!
Though it did give me some time to do some yoga and stretches, that was a plus!
The Three Sister’s Puzzle might be challenging for your kiddo and you might have to do it for them and help them through it a few times. Please do so! This is absolutely perfect and modeling is, once again, a great way for kids to learn.
What I did was lay out the pieces and I gave her clues.
“Hmm.. these pumpkins look like they go at the bottom, let’s try that…..Oh look there’s a yellow flower here, maybe a yellow flower should go on the other side too! …. Oh look, that’s corn. Corn is tall so maybe this goes at the top.”
Work through it like that as many times as you need and if kiddo gets it great! If not, that’s totally fine! Let them work through it!
After modeling it once, my little Sprout was ready to go. She moved them away (not mixing them) and moved them back.
Math was so much fun for kiddo. She loves going outside (we always try to go outside every day. Even if it’s raining). Outside play is SO important to kid’s learning and development so make sure you get outside. “1000 Hours Outside” on Instagram has a tracker you can buy to keep track, which we love doing. I personally am a visual person! Seeing things being completed visually is super helpful and encouraging!
Back to what I was saying. She loves picking flowers and greenery, so now that our clover flowers have died away and we’re just left with beautiful clover leaves, she thoroughly enjoyed picking 14 clovers! We counted them out loud as she picked them, then came inside and counted them again. Once again, it devolved into her wanting to cut them. Which I allowed!
Day Two of Plant week! Just as much fun!
The Plant’s Life Cycle was another fun one where kiddo had an idea in her mind about how she wanted it done (drawing circles in the squares. To be fair we did something like this last week, so I think she thinks that’s what we do with empty squares). A simple redirecting got us back on track.
“Do you think you’d like to colour this seed?” Then not only are you redirecting them back to the task at hand in a gentle non aggressive way, you’re also explaining what the item is.
She loves gluing things, as long as the glue doesn’t get on her, so that part was a breeze. Don’t worry, she didn’t instinctively know where the stages went. I would put some glue on the back and say something like “Can you put the seed in the number 1 box?” Again this not only names the item but the number and helps them ID both!
Math didn’t go according to plan, and that’s okay. Like I said in my Mama Note, you don’t have to do every task, you don’t even have to do lessons every day! Some days things go perfectly, other times they don’t. Go with the punches!
Instead of going outside and finding 14 leaves, my little Sprout and Papa played “Connect Four.” This can also double as small motor!
This kid LOVES growing things, as you can see from our corn plants growing in one of our house plants. That was a big surprise for me to see corn growing from a house plant.
She was so excited to start the bean plant. I explained every step to her.
“Here’s the bean and it’s going to go in the wet paper towel, then we’ll put it in the window so the sun can get to it and help it grow.” This is a quick activity, but being able to watch the bean sprout is exciting for kiddos!
Day three and moving through plant week!
Kitchen Herbs colouring sheet, I did slightly different from Monday. I did one plant at a time, let her colour it, then did the next one…Which worked out well, until we got to fennel and she had already started colouring it. I say that because when I said “this one is fennel” she got just the slightest bit upset that she had coloured the flowers red. She knows fennel flowers are yellow (we have fennel plants in the garden). I just told her, her fennel could be any colour she wanted, but she insisted on still using the yellow to add some of the correct colour in! How perceptive is that!
She also decided to colour the “O’s” yellow, I guess to make up for the fennel flowers!
I wanted to make sure I showed how we use glue for projects. Some families are content with their kiddos using the glue on their own, and that is perfectly fine! I commend you!
I’m one of those “choose your battles,” / “There won’t be a battle if you don’t even set the stage for one” types of parents. I don’t want to clean up piles of glue or waste it and also my Sprout doesn’t like glue touching her hands so this is what works for us.
I put a thin coat of glue on the letter or number if that’s what we’re doing. If we’re doing and art project where things need to be glued to make an image then I will put a small amount of glue on the back of the item and let her place it. I never place things for her. It’s not my art work.
So, spread a small amount of glue out on the letter and I let her pick up the pieces of paper and place them however she wanted.
This week Movement hasn’t been at the top of the list of priority or desire for her. Though, I would prefer if she did do some movements to get all of this excess Sprout energy out! Mama is tired!
Because our Sprout does have food allergies it is a little harder for us to do the Science activity for today (tasting herbs). Instead I let her smell what we have, and later in the week when we make the team I will just use safe herbs from the Apothecary to let her make her tea.
Ten frames for her are easy enough, we just used extra yellow paper we had laying around from cutting and gluing. I asked her to count out loud as she went. We’ve been focusing on numbers after 10 because we get stuck on 13-15. It typically goes, 10, 11, 12, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20. At no fault of her own! Those teens sound super similar, it’d be hard for anyone learning them! She did perfect today counting her numbers to 14!
Day Four and we’re on a roll!
Plant energies are one of my favourite things to read about, talk about, learn about, think about, what ever, I love it! I think every living thing has an energy and I love to notice and honour that energy.
Today was a day though, that kiddo was not having it! And that’s okay, because maybe today I also wasn’t having it. If we’re going to notice and honour plant energies, we need to notice and honour our own when we realize our vibe is off.
Read the room, read yourself.
With that said, instead of saying “we have to read these descriptions, sit down and listen to this very unimportant piece of material I need to read you.” I just said, “Hey, do you want to colour these plants? Look here’s lavender, we have lavender in the garden.”
That’s it. And she happily coloured them! Does she know about those plant energies? Nope. Does that matter? Nope. Can she learn later? Yep. Did she have fun colouring them and talking about the names and colours she was colouring them? Yep.
If I would have been rigid about “we need to do it exactly like this, right now. Sit down and listen. No its not that colour. Stop moving. Blah blah blah” we both would have been miserable.
If I offered her the chance to colour and she said “no…” Okay, you don’t have to colour. Again I’m a “pick your battles, don’t set the stage for a war” type of parent as best as I can be.
Thankfully, she did want to colour. I think just like me, she’s a creator at heart. And as long as our vibes sync up, she can glue and cut and colour and paint as much as she wants! Though there are days where I’m like “can we just build blocks? I don’t want to deal with the mess.”
And thats okay too.
And choosing to keep with the energy theme of the day, of just doing her own thing. Colouring the number 14 didn’t go as planned, again, totally fine because I ended up with some of the most beautiful original artwork.
She recently discovered she could draw people. And I, and her papa, recently discovered that she’s actually really good at drawing people, at least for a 2.5 year old. Because of that, when she wants to draw herself, or me or papa (or whomever. She also likes drawing Simba, our dog, and our two cats) I let her!
So parents, some days don’t go as planned. Some days we as adults are in a crappy off mood, and some days our kiddos have crappy off moods. We’re allowed to have bad days and I think it’s important to allow our kiddos to have off days too.
This is also a great example of what I said in my Mama Note. Not every day is going to be perfect. You’re not going to get to every subject and every activity. Not every activity is going to be perfect. That’s okay. Roll with it. Your mood and your kiddos mood isn’t worth the struggle of “we need to get all of this done perfectly!”
I created the lesson plans and we still don’t get it done every day. Every project isn’t going to be perfect.
Look at it like this, some days are rainy and blah, but plants need that rain to be able to grow. Our Sprouts need rainy blah days also to be able to grow.
Go easy on yourself and your kiddo!
Friday-FriYAY
Keeping with Thursday’s theme of “do my own thing” our little Sprout did just that.
Art today was, again not to plan. And again, we rolled with it.
I was actually surprised it didn’t go as planned, usually if kiddo has the chance to use scissors and glue she’s all about it! Not today! Parents, let your kiddos lead. Don’t worry about it!
Instead she drew a family portrait, including our dog, Simba.
Reading time, is always, well typically a good time. I’m maybe lucky that our kiddo likes books and reading. I think it’s important for kiddos to be read to and to have access to books. Also, it’s important for kiddos to see us, their parents reading.
Kid’s learn by doing. The behaviours we model are the behaviours our kiddos will do. If you want your kiddo to enjoy reading, then read to them, and read to yourself!
We actually weren’t able to get today’s suggested book. Our libraries are closed and it’s unfortunately not a good time for home schoolers who rely on local libraries (in my area at least).
Instead we just read one of the books from earlier in the week: The Tiny Seed. It is a longer book, especially for this age group and it can be difficult to get kiddos to sit for that long, however I often will shorten books by only reading the “important” parts that will get the point across. Especially, if I know my Sprout is in a mood to where she will not sit still long enough for the full story.
One of the safe herbs for our Sprout, she has food allergies, is fennel. It is a strong flavour, but kiddo seems to not hate it. I actually don’t hate it either.
She’s used to helping me make blends at the Apothecary (for us, never for customers/clients), so this was nothing new to her. We made a simple fennel decoction (fun fact, when using harder materials like seeds, roots, and bark, it’s called a decoction and is prepared differently than when you make an infusion/tea).
Its super dark and maybe doesn’t look the most appetizing, but there it is. Make sure when and if you do give your Sprout a tea it is not only a safe herb for children, but also that the tea isn’t hot!
And I said it in the lesson plan but never ever ever add essential oils to teas–ever. I know you are all here for the Oakborn Academy, but I am a Master Herbalist and Clinical Aromatherapist. Please heed my warning.
Next up is our pattern making! This is a good chance to practice modeling.
What is modeling? Modeling is when you suggest what the child should do by either doing it and showing them, helping them physically (hand over hand. This is a technique I’ve only used when I was and ABA therapist and worked with Autistic kiddos. I don’t necessarily recommend using it for “neurotypical” kiddos), or in this case by placing the object in the order you’d like them to go.
This gives the kiddo the highest chance of success which promotes learning!
I started out verbally saying, “we’re going to make a pattern. Look, yellow, green, yellow, green. I want you to make this too! Lets start with this colour *points to yellow*, and then we’ll do this one *points to green*.”
Another thing I did was to place the yellow block and the green block next to each other, let her join them and then let her add them to the two blocks she just did.
Once we got to this point I switched up gears. I stopped modeling it for her and instead placed our two patterns next to each other. I used my finger to cover both patterns as I went, “Yellow, green, yellow, green” to show her so far they matched up! Once I got to the end I’d say “…Yellow, green, hmmm what comes next?”
And let her choose. If she got it wrong I’d let her place it and say, “Okay lets see if that works. Yellow, green, green…hmm that doesn’t seem to match our pattern. Let’s try again!” And that’s exactly what we did.
We also did the “Bonus Activity” included in this week’s lesson plan. I wasn’t going to, if I’m being completely honest. We decided to do it because, to be honest, kiddo wanted to do something that was honestly going to be too much effort and work and by this point it was night time and I wasn’t going to pull out something that would make a huge mess. I also didn’t want to start a fight (again that “choose your battles” mentality). Instead I redirected.
“Hey Monk (a nickname we use), would you like to go to mommy’s room and make a witch bag?” Make this sound so exciting! Especially if they’re wanting to do something else and you’re redirecting.
She loves “my room” and calls it “the make up room” because that’s where all of my make up is. Any opportunity she gets to go in there, she takes so I knew this would be a win. Though it did mean I’d have to pull stuff out, it would have been less of a mess and more enjoyable/easier for me, a 1000% drained mama, to make the herbal sachet.
She’s young so I suggested the herbs and let her smell them all and let her say yes or no to those herbs. I told her what they were for.
“Lavender is for calming, and this pine is for protection.” etc
I let her help me pull out the herbs, scoop them out, and then place them in. She also got to pick what bag she wanted (I have a few different colour bags thanks to my business(es)). She chose a simple white linen bag, and I actually love how simple that is.
I also want to add that if you are Pagan, it’s super important to write down your processes so you can check them later and see what you did and used. If you’re not Pagan, it is also super important to write down what you put into the bag in case there is an allergic reaction, you’ll know what to look at!
I hope all of our Sprout families enjoyed this week’s lesson plan! Excited for what all is to come!
Happy Schooling!
-Kaylan