How to have a bug week

My boys love bugs and being outside so this week we have concentrated on having a bug week. This has involved collecting different insects to observe and draw, reading books about insects and doing worksheets centered around bugs. Their movie night film was bee movie to round it all off!

We spent lots of time looking at different bugs and drawing them. They both enjoyed trying to carefully catch ants and centipedes from the garden to look at through the magnifying box. We counted the legs and looked at antenna and wings. They drew simple pencil drawings of what they saw and the eldest wrote the names of the bugs while we practiced phonics.

They enjoyed reading 'The Hungry Caterpillar' and using the storyboard I made for them. This brought up questions about which bugs eat what and we discussed our favorite fruits and foods and the colours of these foods.

I compiled several worksheets I found online to make a small activity book for each of them. There were mazes, colour by number, word searches and  dot to dot and they really liked that it was a little book for them. All the activities were related to insects and they were keen to work hard in them.

Each week they have movie night as a reward for working hard all week and for us to enjoy snuggly time on the sofa watching something fun. This week I decided on 'Bee Movie'. I was going to go for 'Bugs Life' but the language and scenes are not so great for small children :(

They have had lots of fun with this project and have been interested in the life cycle of butterflies so I am sure it will lead to another collection of activities next week :)

Whatsapp para educação

Como dona de uma empresa pequena, trabalho em horário flexível e posso estar com meus filhos em tempo integral. Adoro fazer com que nossos dias juntos sejam cheios de animação, atividades e jogos educativos. Não assistimos muita televisão e, como sou especialista em educação infantil, busco novas maneiras divertidas de ensinar meus filhos sobre o seu mundo.

Então, imagina minha animação quando um grande amigo me convidou para um grupo de whatsapp com pais que pensam mais ou menos como eu!

Entre no grupo no mês passado, e desde então vi o grupo crescer até os atuais 14 membros. Somos famílias de vários países e falamos línguas diferentes. Todos as crianças falam inglês, mas não necessariamente como a primeira, nem mesmo como a segunda, língua.

Usamos o grupo para a troca de ideias e informações sobre o tema de educação infantil. Trocamos links e sites interessantes e as crianças mandam fotos dos projetos, trabalhos ou jogos que estão fazendo. As crianças também conversam entre si por mensagem de voz, o que foi bem especial para meu filho mais novo, que completou dois anos agora e recebeu várias mensagens de parabéns dos novos amigos internacionais.

Recentemente começamos compartilhando vídeos das crianças fazendo atividades e o resultado foi super inspirador. Pais e filhos se animaram muito em aprender sobre o mundo, novas línguas, geografia e culturas. Esse intercâmbio de ideias e informações se tornou bem presente e ocupa grande parte de nosso ambiente educacional em casa. Depois de uma chamada pelo Skype com uma família da Espanha, meu filho maior queria aprender palavras em espanhol e olhamos a mapa do país para ver onde os novos amigos moram. Fizemos também atividades sobre bandeiras e meus dois filhos curtiram fazer as de seus países (já que têm dupla nacionalidade) e as dos países dos novos amigos.

Para mim, o grupo deu confiança para fazer mais atividades com meus filhos e me sinto muito apoiada pelos outros pais. Há um ambiente muito positivo entre os pais do grupo e isso é verdadeiramente inspirador, não só para mim, mas para toda minha família.

Whatsapp for education

As the owner of a small part time business, which allows me to work flexi hours, I have the privilege of being a full time ‘at home’ mum right now. I love to fill our days with fun, educational games and activities. We watch very little TV and as my background is in early childhood education, I’m always thinking of ways to teach my sons more about the world they live in.

So, you can imagine my delight when a good friend of mine invited me to a whatsapp group with other like-minded parents.

I joined the group last month and I’ve seen it grow to presently include 14 members. We are from all ends of the world and speak an array of languages. All the children speak English but not necessarily as their first or even second language!

We use the group as a way to swap ideas and information around the theme of education for young children. We send links to resources that may help each other and the children send each other pictures of their work, projects or games (with their parents help of course). The children also speak to each other using voice messages and this was very special for my youngest son this week as he turned two and received many birthday greetings from his international friends.

Recently we began sharing videos of the children carrying out activities and the response has been so inspirational. Both parents and children have found a new interest in parts of the world motivating the learning of new languages, geography and cultures. It is a very present exchange of ideas and information, which has become a big part of our learning environment. After a skype call with a family in Spain, my eldest son wanted to learn some Spanish words and we looked at a map of Spain to find where his new friends live. We then went on to have a flag activity where both boys enjoyed making sticker flags of their own countries and of their new friends.

For me, the group has given me confidence to do more and more with my boys and I feel so supported by all the other parents. There is a huge positive vibe from the other parents and it is really inspiring, not just for me, but for my family as a whole.

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