Homeschooling: Bee Week!

This week was bee week! I was really looking forward to this one. I might say that about all of them though, as I am the one who really picks the themes…

This week we had some great activities, and great books, including our new read aloud of Winnie-the-Pooh! We started Sunday by going in search of bee hives – I thought I knew where one or two were but they turned out to be empty this year.

On Monday we started with the letter H, for honey and hive, played a memory match vocabulary game, talked about the different types of hives, and “created” a hive out of Honeycomb cereal. Oh and snacked on some honeycomb cereal with drips of honey on it, which was as sticky as it sounds.

Tuesday, we continued working on the letter H and vocabulary, did some sorting and pattern work, and started our fun counting book, complete with little wooden bees. In the afternoon we set up a pollination creation garden, where Wyatt created a little garden (inspired by our Monet’s waterlilies art from pond week) and I filled two of the flowers with powdered Tang to “bee” the pollen. Then we dipped a paintbrush in water, and used it to transfer the pollen from flower to flower. It turned out really cute!

Wednesday was such a sticky hot day, and not from honey but from humidity (another H word!) We did some table work, planted some seeds to grow a pollinator garden, then made homemade honey playdough, which was really fun. Wyatt loves to pretend bake and cook (and really help bake) so this activity was a hit.

Thursday I reserved for music and reading and poetry exclusively. It was a fun day! We listened to Flight of the Bumblebee, talked about the waggle dance that bees do to tell the other bees where to find flowers, and read some poems and rhymes. Friday we were going to make honey soap but decided to save it for Saturday when Billy could participate. So look for that update on my Instagram!

Next week we are going to take a little break, but then resume again the following week. Wyatt missed a month of school or so with the COVID shutdown and I didn’t start working with him right away, so we are going to keep working over the summer, with small breaks.

Resource Roundup!

Twig and Moth – Collection of Bees

Fun with Mama – Bumble Bees

Mrs. A’s Room – Bees Mini Unit

Preschool Discoveries – Bees

Books Read:

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This week I went crazy with the book buying. I love love love our copy of Winnie-the-Pooh and I wanted it to be a special one. If you were going to pick just one or two books though, I would go with Why Do We Need Bees? and Follow that Bee. Although Are You a Bee is really good too!

Bee by Britta Teckentrup || Summertime in the Big Woods || Why Do We Need Bees || Follow That Bee || Are You a Bee || Honey || Winnie-the-Pooh

Other Media Consumed:

Scout and the Gumboot Kids – The Case of the Buzzing Sweet Maker (Season 1, Ep 1)

Caitie’s Classroom – Bees

Maddie Moate – Beekeeping with Maddie Moate

And that is about it! It was a really fun week, filled with so many good reads! I feel so much more knowledgeable about bees myself now! If you have any questions about the materials I used or how I adapted them, let me know. You can comment here or send me an email!

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Homeschooling: Interrupted

Last week started off well – we kicked off butterfly week with some great activities and the emerging of our butterflies, which was exciting! Wyatt strung together this great looking banner (I glued them to heavy paper and cut them out first) then we hung it in his window.

Then we were derailed. We had a neurologist appointment for Wyatt on Wednesday (video) and we ended up getting an overnight EEG for him the next day. This kid is something else, he is so strong and brave and undergoes so many things with such a good disposition. He is pretty amazing.

I was a mess honestly. Having to go to a last minute emergency overnight EEG during a pandemic was the last thing I wanted to do obviously. But the EEG did show that Wyatt has seizure activity occurring in his brain, and we were able to start him on medication immediately.

So our week took a different route than we had originally planned, but we are home now and together and have some answers on something that had been worrying us for months. He was originally supposed to get this EEG during the peak here in Michigan and it was obviously postponed, until it couldn’t be.

Anyway! For those interested, I did download many resources for butterfly week.

Resources:

Butterflies – Little Pine Learners

All About Butterflies – Science for Little Learners

Butterfly Math – Linda’s Loft for Little Learners

Painted Lady Butterfly Unit – Stephanie Hathaway

Twig and Moth

Twig and Moth Butterflies and Moths

Books We Read:

Extras:

Wild Republic Butterfly Nature Tube

Insect Lore Life Cycle Toy