We have yet to be involved in a homeschooling co-op locally, but that starts soon & we are so excited! In the meantime, we’ve been learning things at home per our 3 year-old’s request. We let her lead & tell us what she wants to do & when she wants to do it. It works pretty well. There are days when she chooses to sit with a workbook for hours. We can’t believe her attention span sometimes.
One concept we’ve been working is the senses. Each week, I would explain a different sense, & we would pick out a few printables from the internet. (Try this site, this one, or this.) Along with a great book I found (at a great sale price!), “The Ultimate Book Of Homeschooling Ideas” by Linda Robson, we came up with a fun project.
We started with the basics…we use our eyes to see, our ears to hear, our mouths to taste, our noses to smell & our fingers (& toes!) to touch. Then we cut out examples from magazines of these senses being put to use and pasted them onto construction paper. Tavia colored in the words & decorated the pages.
For the sense of taste, we had a blind taste test of all different flavors & textures of food. She used great adjectives to describe the foods…sweet, salty, tangy, sour, spicy, rough, smooth, mushy. One of my favorites used to describe a lick of a popsicle: frigiddy! Another favorite word to describe a bite of a marshmallow: squishyish!
She got the hang of it rather quickly & was sputtering examples throughout each week. At dinner, she would say “Mmm, this tastes yummy! Hey! I just used one of my senses!” Or she would ask me to feel something soft or fuzzy when we were out and about. We knew she was learning. We could see her learning. What a cool observation to be witness to! It gets me every time. 
We hung the display we created in the kids’ learning area so she could teach her brother what she learned about the five senses and recall what she had learned. She loves teaching him new things.
We would love to hear your ideas if you’ve taught the five senses…whether you’re a homeschooler or teacher! I’m sure we’ll always be learning how our senses guide & help us through the day!
You can find me on Pinterest where I have a board of homeschooling ideas. Please follow me there & share your ideas, too! (Look for the “P” in the right hand column of this page.) You can also subscribe to my blog, thewhimsicalsweet, by clicking on “follow” at the top of this page.
Tags: Children, crafting with kids, Creativity, Family, Homeschool, kids activities, natural parenting, stay-at-home mom, things to do
