Man, I can’t believe we’re already headed into the middle of March and that’s it’s already daylight savings time. Yay for Spring and longer days! I decided last month that I was ready to do a trial run of preschool at home (“fun school” as we’re calling it) for Emily, starting in March. So, I spent the last couple weeks of February prepping for that. Yeah, it’s not the traditional start of a school year but I thought going into Spring would be great for new beginnings (for both of us)! To kick things off at Fun School I chose an On the Farm theme and it was a total blast!
Three years ago, if you had asked me where I thought I would be in three years, this wouldn’t have even come to mind. Funny how life changes. Before I quit my job last year, we had been looking into preschool options in our area and turns out there aren’t a ton that we really feel good about, and the ones that we like, have a long, long wait list (and are pretty expensive).
When I quit my job, I started researching ways to home school preschool; I figured we could get some structured learning started before actually enrolling her in a public preschool and save some money too, or if it goes really well, I may just keep doing it at home until she starts Kindergarten (or beyond); who knows.
I was a little overwhelmed by lesson plans and what other people’s kids were doing or not doing at her age, or when would be the right time to “start” since Emily’s high energy and 6-minute attention span would require a LOT of activities. But the more I researched, the more I was sure I wanted to give it a try and I needed to just get to it. I’m happy to say the first week was super successful! We had so much fun and Emily learned and retained the majority of it so I think we are off to a good start!
Here’s the activities and crafts we did On the Farm:
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Old MacDonald Had A Farm (with puppets)
To start each day, we sang Old MacDonald Had a Farm. To make it more interactive, we used farm animal puppets I made from animal face clip art that I glued to Popsicle sticks.
Chickens and Eggs Sensory Play
We learned about chickens and eggs (and no eggs were dropped or cracked in the process). It appears I was the one learning about the chickens or the eggs in this picture.
Farm Animal Crafts
We did a few farm animal crafts including a cotton ball sheep, hand-print chickens, and a painted rock pig. We also worked on our scissor skills by making a baby letter “e” hatching from an egg to work on our letter of the week (“E”).
Baby and Mama Animal Matching Puzzle
We matched baby farm animals to their mama with this really cute printable puzzle I found through my friend, Pinterest. Emily is still playing with these too and she now does make believe with them. She picks them up like they are walking and makes them talk to each other; it’s pretty cute.
To keep them sturdy, try these lamination sheets. I use them for just about everything. They are easy to use and cheaper (and more compact) than a lamination machine.
Feed the Animals Sensory Bin
We fed corn kernels to barn animals using this great sensory bin idea I fell in love with. Aside from being adorable, it’s great for counting and just overall fun. We actually spent about an hour doing this, but I definitely recommend using these lamination sheets to keep the animal faces and cards protected and sturdy.
Once Emily was over the animal feeding part, I gave her these neat fine motor tools to play with that I purchased on Amazon. Ironically, corn kernels are very soothing to run your hands through…I myself enjoyed having my hands buried in this one. Emily enjoyed it barefoot too.
Farm Theme Books
We read a few books about life on the farm but these two Emily especially enjoyed:
The book Cock-a-doodle-Poo is a hilarious book about a very talented rooster.
The book On the Farm Shine-A-Light is very interactive for kids. They use a flashlight to shine behind the pages of the book to see what really goes on, on the farm.
Milk the Cow
Emily spent hours Milking “Betsy” the Cow (another awesome idea I found on Pinterest – thank you whoever thought of it)! And I spent the time laughing hysterically, taking pictures and trying to stay out of her way!
Note: This is a fun but MESSY activity, so best to do it somewhere that’s easy to clean up.
Here’s how I made our milk cow:
I took a medium sized rectangular cardboard box and sealed all of the sides with packing tape, then cut out a large window on one long side of the box, about an inch in from the edges. I covered the outside of the box with some cow print fabric I had (just to give it that authentic feel, LOL).
I printed clipart of a cow online, cut it out and attached to a large Popsicle stick.
Next, I took two more large Popsicle sticks and glued them to each other in a capital “T” pattern using a lot of hot glue (this is what I used to hang the rubber glove “udder”).
I filled a latex free, rubber glove with about 1 1/2 cups part milk / part water mixture and used a rubber band to secure the top of the glove. Note: the liquid did leak out when I laid the glove down so instead I placed it in a small metal bucket with the top upright to prevent leaking.
Next, I cut a small 1 inch slit in one short side of the box (this will be the top). I inserted the body of the “T” Popsicle stick down into the slit, so that the cross top of the T stayed outside of the box.
The next steps get a little messy. I laid the box on it’s back with the open side facing up, then took the rubber glove and tied the top (rubber band part) of it to the Popsicle stick using thick string (I tied it as tight as I could. Thinking back, small zip ties would work great too). Next I tied two bread ties together, then wrapped the middle of that around where I attached the rubber glove. Then pushed the ends of the bread tie up through the slit in the box and tied them together around each side of the cross part of the “T” Popsicle stick.
Next, I stood the box upright, then using a sharp needle, I poked a few small holes in each of the fingers of the glove (until a little of the liquid started to drip out). I laid a small towel down inside the bottom of the box and put our small pail on top of the towel (to catch the “milk”).
Last, I inserted the other popsicle stick with our cow (Betsy) on it about an inch into the slit on top of the box and secured it to the other popsicle stick with a little bit of tape. We were then ready to milk Betsy!
I had to show Emily how to squeeze each udder at first but once she figured out how to do it she thought it was great. Of course she ended up barefoot for this one too. She had so much fun squirting milk into the pail, but also onto her feet, onto her apron, into her mouth, and at the cat and the dog.
