Leaf Day

A few weeks ago, as we wrapped up our summer/early fall term my oldest declared it leaf day.  What is leaf day you ask?  It was a day to celebrate fall and take a break from our regular studies to enjoy art, baking and a bit of science.

ART
Leaf Day was a day of art with different media.  We started by following this idea for painting a fall tree with q-tips.  As you can see, each child is different and put their own spin on their project.

Then we moved on to some fun with markers from Kathy Barbro. Kathy's site is great fun, with projects for all ages, abilities and intensities.

The last project was also from Kathy's site and a bit challenging for even me. It was a complete the leaf, copy its details and colors activity.

Baking

Between art projects we also pulled out our fall cookie cutters for some sugar cookie making.  Have you ever added autumn spices to your dough or glaze, try it, you will probably like it. Think ginger, nutmeg and a dash of cinnamon.  I love the way the sugar sparkles on the icing.

Science/Nature Study
Finally, we collected all of our Fall books for some reading and learning why leaves change colors.

Why Do Leaves Change Color?
Look What I Did with a Leaf
Fall Leaves Fall !
Fall Is Here I Love It!
Leaf Man

I f you still have leaves on your trees take some time to enjoy there beauty and make it a special day with the children.

Playdough in 5 Minutes

Our playdough spontenaity all started with this coupon that the little ladies clipped from the paper

 and ended with this oh so cute cake creation from the Play Doh Cake Makin Station.

If you have been reading here for awhile you know we like play dough.  Some mom's don't because of the teeny tiny bits that are hard to clean up but give a child a hand vac and it is no problem.

We have several Play Doh sets like the one above and the latest set to join the ranks is the Candy Cyclone, seen below.  The children love the Cyclone because it makes Play Doh gumballs.

Well seeing as how the children had a Play Doh coupon and how I was not going to drive 45 minutes to the nearest Target, we made our own.  Our recipe comes from this book:

The Busy Book is a long forgotten gem in our household but when it comes to DIY playdough it is what I reach for every time.  Here is our favorite recipe from the book and it really does take 5 minutes.  The littles love to play with the final product and the older children love to work the stove and mix the ingredients.

Combine in a saucepan and heat until warm:
1 cup water
1 TBS. vegetable oil
1/2 cup salt
1 TBS. cream of tartar
food coloring

Remove from the heat and stir in:
1 cup flour

Dump out the dough and knead until smooth.

See it is a very simple and quick recipe.

Now have fun with one of the sets I mentioned above or strike out on your own and make something like this:

Isn't that a cute face to start the week with?

I'm linking up with Living Montessori Now.

The Pumpkin Farm

Before we completely say good by to fall and usher in Christmas and winter, I wanted to post our trip to the Pumpkin Farm.  Bishop's Pumpkin Farm is about 2 hours from our home and it is one of the highlights of our year.  Our visit is often our last chance to soak  up the warm sun rays before we put on our winter coats.

 The Hayride:

The Perfect Pumpkin:

A Train Ride:

Panning for Marbles:

Digging for Hours:

A Little Treat Before We Go:

Practical Life--Cake Decorating

B recently turned 4 and Birthday cakes are a big part of the celebration here at The Middle of Somewhere. 

It always seems that the birthday child has a fantasy cake in mind that I am to reproduce from their brain to the plate.  I use to make the cake in private and keep it all a secret but over time I have started letting the birthday child take part in the cake making and decorating.  So a few afternoons ago when B was complaining that there was "nofing to do," I suggested that he help me make his cake.  This year his main request was that the cake be chocolate with red frosting.  In 10 years of parenting this was my first ever request for a chocolate cake, I know amazing!  Last year green was the demanded icing color, so I can't wait until next year's color of choice.

 I was so glad B helped because him with frosting all of his face was adorable and we found a new practical life activity.

Do you have a cake decorating set of tips and such hiding in the dark corner of a cabinet?

 Well, pull it out and put it on a tray and watch the fine motor practice happen as your little one removes, explores and puts back the tips or twists and turns the couplers.

 So much fun and interest was right under our noses and I didn't even know it.

Today is Montessori Monday, stop over for a visit to see more Montessori in action.

Little Ladies in the Kitchen

The kitchen is the most used space in our home.   Our garage, mudroom and outside doors are all in this space.  I spend many hours in this room making meals, cleaning, planning, baking, listening to music, reading and blogging. I at times have actually wished the kitchen was carpeted because I am on my feet so much in this space. We are self procalaimed foodies, wanting our food to look good, taste good and be nutritionally valuable.  I just recently told hubs that if we ever build a house again I want 2 pantries; one for the food and one for the countertop appliances, dishes and decorative seasonal items.  I can dream, right?  Summer has not slowed us down in our baking and cooking endevors.  Here is a look at what the children or shall I say little ladies have been cooking up:

E made this Wizard of Oz inspired cake for her Keeper's club. I was so happy how it turned out, especially the yellow brick road.  We didn't agree on how the road should be iced ( I had to let go) and her idea worked wonderfully.  The road looked like individual pavers.

The little ladies and I made our version of Antipasto Kabobs inspired by our Pinterest Good Eats Board

K skewering cheese.

E rolling and skewering meat.

.E made these cookies for her birthday party.  I again had to let go because we disagreed on the decorating but they turned out cute.  E has a style all her own and it is personal growth for me to allow her to express it.

The cookies are cute but isn't she beautiful?

And finally, we made these pretzels for lunch.  This recipe and several other pretzel recipes are on our Good Eats Board.

My current interest in finding more plant-based/meatless meals.  I started a new No Meat Board last week.  there is not much pinned yet so let me know if you have any great recipe sites that fit this catagory.

What have you been cooking up?

Today is Montessori Monday and I'm linking up!

Elementary Wrap Up--Sort Of

Here is a look at what E and A worked on to complete their 4th and 2nd grade years.

Language Arts:We made it through all eight parts of speech and still love our grammar symbols.  The symbols are such a wonderful hands on way to teach such an inherently dry topic.  Now this is a bit backward in the Montessori method, but we tend to follow our own course of study, we will be working with the grammar farm throughout the summer to keep what we have learned fresh.  So call us remedial, backward or slow if you want but it is what works for us.

E using our movable alphabet to spell and copy her weekly words.

We have also pulled out our phonics stamps from Lakeshore Learning.

A working with abbreviation cards

A doing a bit of prefix review.

Geography:  We finished our geography studies with a look at North America. We really focused in on Canada. Next year E will be doing a state by state study of the U.S. and creating a notebook as she works. For our study of Canada we read the book Lost in the Barrens and used a study guide from Queen Homeschool Supply( I tried to find the guide on line but couldn't).  We have really enjoyed all of the Queen studies.  The studies are very simple in presentation but a treasure trove of ideas.  The children actually stated to me that they really have liked our studies based on living books.  They compared this Canada study with our notebook study of the human body.  They said they liked the anatomy study but really, really enjoy these Queen studies.  During this study I read Lost in the Barrens aloud while they made books of Canada's wildlife.  They also completed a few notebook drawings to illustrate the different types of river terms found in the story.

A cutting out pictures of wildlife for his book.

A and E working together on a puzzle of North America.

Math:We are leaving off in math with A needing to work on his multiplication facts and E needing to work on her division facts.  Both E and A will be using copywork over the summer to continue the memorization of their facts.  I am excited about next years study of geometry and fractions.

A working on our equation and product cards.  He has completed the whole set, so now it is time to combine families for  more of a challenge.

Life Skills: E has been working in the kitchen to prepare lunch for her siblings.  It is always my intention to include the children in as much food preparation as possible but a lot of times they are busy playing and I don't want to disturb the peace of it all or I am to burnt out and just want to get the meal made and not instruct.  Either way I would like to assign E a weekly meal to fix with as little help from me as possible.  Here is a look at what she has done so far.  Strange how both meals included cheese.

E put together this lovely plate of Macaroni and Cheese.  This is our quick mac made with macaroni pasta, fresh cheddar cheese, salt and butter--no boxes here.

E making grilled cheese, she even added some leftover ham to the sandwiches.

I feel like this post is a bit choppie but the fact is it is hard to blog when children are running around and wanting my attention.  So thanks for visiting and leave us a comment to let us know you were here.  I am off to clean up breakfast and sew a skirt for our 5 year old (no I don't sew but we got a different machine and I said I would give it a crack once again).

Enjoy your week--hubs and I are off to the Beach Body Coaches Summit this week and Grandma is coming to stay with the children.  I bit of a break for us and some date time.

I linking up with Montessori Monday. Deb is talking about music appreciation, check it out.