Weekend Activities

Prior to our move to Europe, we were avid campers and backpackers. Backpacking is illegal in most places in Germany, and camping is an event that includes you and 100 of your closest friends "sleeping" on a field. Camping was always our go-to weekend activity in the States, and in Europe, we generally try to get a day trip going, at the least. Some weekends, however, we're left recovering from the aftermath (laundry and messy house) or reeling from the cost of last week's excursion. This was one of those weekends!

So, what to do? No lazy Saturday would be complete without a needless trip to Globus, Germany's version of Target. For afterschooling, I was able to pick up some red, green and blue felt to create a Montessori place-value work. JillyBoo had actually gotten quite good at adding large numbers in the thousands prior to our move overseas, and I wanted to help her get back to her "gooder" math (see previous post!). We also picked up a fab find-a German, illuminated globe for 11 euro! It was a find.

This summer, I read a great article on the National Council for the Teachers of Mathematics site, "Building Blocks of Early Childhood Mathematics." (I'm pretty sure that you have to be a member to read this article). I was working on my capstone course for my graduate class, and kept stumbling upon articles that had meaning in my afterschooling life. The authors of this article state that the play and conversation that accompany block-play builds early mathematical thinking and reasoning skills.  JillyBoo, Therefore, received Legos and K'nex from Santa this year!

This weekend, she was working on Lego cars, and her frustration level increased the more that the little man was knocked out of her car. Adding, moving and removing some side rails on her car made her mad! We helped her to move through her frustration without fixing the problem for her entirely. I have a chronic problem with breaking my Lego creations as I work, so I was able to model a little patient building, as well.

JillyBoo builds (and rebuilds) and awesome Lego auto, Jan 2011

Next up was baking! This was my second attempt at making banana bread over the last two weeks, with some prior bananas making it to the trash bin before we could bake them. For a myriad of reasons, baking was a tense and irritation-filled event, which just goes to show that sticking around the house excessively can make for a rough weekend.




Mashing up the banana

Despite our baking drama, the bread was delicious and was perfect for late-night kitchen raids! JillyBoo also played some new stuff on violin on Sunday, but I'll share about that in an upcoming blog.