Theme Thursday: Barn

You're probably expecting something like this:

My mother gave me this pack of note cards for Christmas as a big joke because it's hysterical that I live in Iowa. While I could have planned a field trip to take a picture of a barn... I didn't. I did however go outside on the 3 season porch on a very cold day with wet hair and no shoes so I could get this precursor picture for you.

Because, I Madeline, have a tendency to stretch Cari's themes to the limit. So I will not just give you a picture of note cards. Or even the Fisher Price Little People Barn. (Besides I totes used that for animals last May and while I like to stretch Cari's theme I also try to stretch myself.)

Instead I will give you a lesson on the virtues of Noway and their "Children's Gardens" or, in their native tongue "Barnehage." It's basically their preschool and kindergarten over there in the fjords. It's been pretty cold here and I think it's possible a fjord has developed with all the snow drifts we've had lately. So why not have a Barnehage of my very own?

I have hereby named our home school Murray's House of Learnin'. Okay so it's a line stolen directly from Gilmore Girls but still that is the name of my Barnehage and we are off to a great start. All the cool home school families have named their school and I am a copycat. I don't think we'll be homeschooling for all the years but I still wanted a name. At the very least it's nice to have a name for our pre-preschool curriculum.

I have SLOWLY gathered different things into a few smallish plastic bins and keeping them in a cupboard with all of our learning activities. It's where I am keeping the crayons/markers/watercolors, the math manipulatives, the play-doh and the other "learning things." I creatively call it The Learning Cabinet. (See Below.)

It's organized-ish and the things that would be really bad to just have out and about have an extra layer of security in those bins. Read: Play-Doh in my carpet would not make me happy.

Now, I'm not crazy, I realize that toddlers primarily learn by unschooling because when you can count your age in months you're pretty much going to learn something just by being. And I am a HUGE proponent of free play, exploration and helping me with tasks but we do try to spend about 20 minutes in "learning time" daily.

Some days the activity goes well and we will do it for longer and some days it totally flops. This learning activity is of course separate from what I lovingly call "Literacy"  because it sounds more fun than "Reading the same 6 books over and over and over again."

Thank you for peeking into my barnehage and humoring my flimsy theme participation. Link up your own barns with Cari.