VBS 2014: Camp Kilamanjaro

Bible story time

We spent a wonderful (though exhausting) week at Linworth Baptist Church's Vacation Bible School! This is always a highlight in our summers. The kids love all the fun & activities, and I enjoy a brief revisit to my days in early childhood education.

Playing with the sand table at our 'exploration stations.'

My little trekker!

  This year, Kyrie was with the big kid program, and I led Degen's pre-K group. I was a lead teacher this year with a teen helper and 10 awesome kiddos! My memory gets a bit hazy, but I think that this year was my best group of kids ever: fun, thoughtful and well-behaved. By the end of the week, I was really holding these kids close to my heart. 

Game time!

Assembly! The church always does an amazing job of decorating the sanctuary for VBS.

This year's theme was an African safari at the base of Mount Kilamanjaro with a Bible study about wisdom coming from the Book of Proverbs. Each day, we heard a Bible story, visited "exploration stations," played games, ate snacks, sang & danced, watched a play and did crafts. The church is packed with volunteers who run the different activities and make being a lead teacher a relatively easy task. 

We have what can be a rowdy 30-minute wait while all the kiddos get checked in. I brought in coloring pages and some other activities, and the kids did a great job waiting.

A lesson about listening. This was my teen helper who ROCKED! 

Though this is a week of early days and long mornings for us (in addition to a lot of our regular activities), we all really enjoyed our week of VBS. I am grateful for this opportunity for the kids to have fun with so many other kids surrounded by a large group of caring adults. I am also grateful for the opportunity it provides me to work with the children. We are already looking forward to next year's VBS! 

Snack time and a visit from Twiga the Giraffe.

Assembly!

The kids singing & dancing during assembly.

Degen working on a craft.

Kyrie ready for a fun morning at VBS! 

We made animal noses with the group for our dress-up day!

Degen really took to my teen helper and spent a lot of time sitting on her lap during story times and working with her during crafts.

Part of my group sitting for the BIG group photo.

A peek at the group photo- WOW!

Kyrie in the group photo.

I only got a few photos of Kyrie because I am not her group leader. Here she is showing off a group poster she made and the flamingo mask that she made. Both of these were part of daily contests.

Degen & a friend building a tower together during check-out time.

My awesome group of Monkeys!

Degen working with the other kids to put together a puzzle.

Brownie Backyard Campout

Kyrie's Brownie troop had their first campout... a backyard one to prepare the girls for future camping trips! The girls showed up on a Saturday afternoon, and I had Kyrie (& Degen) all packed and ready to go. They set up the troop tents (& Darren set up the tent he would share with Degen) and prepared the campsite with their camping chairs, food prep tables and clothesline. The girls were very excited and had fun playing in between camping tasks such as filling buckets of wash water, learning fire skills (& safety), preparing food, doing crafts and sharing team-building activities. Degen was the honorary little Brownie brother for the weekend, and the troop's leaders and scouts did a great job including him. 

The girls loved all the 'wildlife' in our backyard, which was mostly our cats, though we also spotted bats and chipmunks and squirrels and this cute, little shrew that Darren caught. We kept it in a little habitat for about an hour before releasing him back into the yard. 

The girls learned about Girl Scout camping traditions and enjoyed good food and fun before heading to their tents late. Their excited chatter and giggles could be heard across the yard as they settled in for the night. Of course, they were up early the next morning for breakfast and more fun as they cleaned and packed up. The troop 'hiked' to a nearby park for more team-building activities before their parents picked them up. This was a wonderful experience for our family and the troop! 

Homeschool: Forests & Mountains

We had fabulous timing on our Forests & Mountains unit this year. This unit also covers bears & camping, and we hosted Kyrie's Girl Scout troop for a backyard campout the weekend after we finished this unit. I will post some pics from that in another post. This is a fun unit and one (of many) that I have been adding to since I first started lessons when Kyrie was just a toddler. In the beginning, this unit was about bears and then about bears & camping. Now it is really a unit about the forest & mountain habitats. We have just a few more units left in our habitat study that we started in the spring. 

Degen increases his vocabulary using flash cards to learn the names of common forest/mountain animals.

Degen using counting bears to practice addition.

Degen's unit folder. 

Kyrie's unit folder.

I always let Kyrie choose her own book for bedtime read-aloud, and during this unit she happened to choose this book, which tied in quite nicely with what we were learning about bears and the forests. Kyrie really enjoys the American Girl doll books for read-aloud, and I enjoy that she is learning about history and positive values. We have tried to collect as many of these books as possible, but this particular book was actually a copy that my grandparents had sent to me as a birthday gift when I was a little girl (back then there were only 3 dolls). My little homemade book label is still inside the front cover- aw! 

Friday Fun Day!

We met some of our friends at one of the malls for a Mommy & Me morning of fun! We weren't too sure how this activity was going to go, but it was awesome (though quite chilly for June- brrr!)! There was face painting, a balloon guy, live music, sidewalk chalk, coloring, play dough, ice cream treats and more all for free! The moms sat and talked while the kids played. Every year it seems to get harder to get out with our old playgroup friends, and we are grateful for their effort to make it possible and every chance we get to see them. 

Father's Day Craft Card 2014

This was the card the kids made for Father's Day this year. I traced the kids hands, and we made faces. On the outside is the crazy hair hand, and on the inside we folded the fingers down to make the combed hair. I am a sucker for a pun, so voila! We added a comb for all the great guys in our lives! Happy Father's Day to all!

In the Garden: Seeds, Plants & Underground

Great timing for our garden unit! Darren is working in the garden every weekend and most evenings. The kids love helping out or just observing and lots of just playing while Daddy does the work. I added a study of underground animals to this unit from last year, which really added some depth. We have a beloved groundhog living under our shed, so the kids were interested in learning more about groundhogs and their burrows. We also reviewed the parts of plants and photosynthesis. There were also a few fun food crafts, too. 

The kids made cinnamon roll snails, which were super-easy and the kids gobbled them right up. I just used a Little Debbie Pecan Spinwheel added a smear of icing (or as Kyrie likes to call it "food glue") and a halved strawberry for a head. Whenever possible, I like to have little treats for the kids that tie in with our thematic units. I just think it make it all a little more fun. 

Degen working on a math mat.

The unit folders were underground garden scenes. Degen's folder is above and includes worms and his favorite garden plant: strawberries! Kyrie's folder is below and includes a fox in an underground den and a new sprout. 

So, we decided that Kyrie needed some more math practice. She is now setting weekly goals for basic math facts and taking timed tests daily (great on correct, and still working on time). I have also started to create math activities using our counters. I had been mostly using the counters with Degen, but wanted something that would keep Kyrie thinking mathematically while maintaining an element of fun. For each unit, I go through our collected counters and select an appropriate grouping. For our garden unit, there were rabbits and squirrels and birds and bats, etcetera. Then I have her group, count, add, subtract, multiply, divide and make fractions. So far it has gone great, and she loves these activities! 

One of Kyrie's journal entries for our garden unit. She loved making the period into a little blueberry.

I did not get any photos of the process, but the kids did help me make a carrot-applesauce cake. They love to help in the kitchen, and I hope to include more cooking opportunities as they get older. They loved grating up the carrots in the food processor and gobbled up the finished cake! Yum!

The kids also made easy dirt cakes using the above ingredients. This was a simple food craft that we did after lunch and before running off to one of our activities (why yes, the kids are still in their PJs!).