M Is For Moose

This week in "Mommy School" we learned about the Letter M and the number 13. We studied about two states that start with M, Maine and Maryland. Our President was Millard Fillmore, the 13th US President. We also started talking about money. Princess Big got a bag of play money, both bills and coins, for her birthday. I didn't realize how difficult that was going to be to teach but we're very slowly getting the hang of it. Soon we are going to start playing store and I hope that will get us up to speed. I really can't wait :)

On the first day of the week I give the princesses a worksheet printed from here for the letter and a similar worksheet for the number (I've gotten them in several different places).

The rest of the week we continue to practice our handwriting. Here are the princesses writing "M", "m", and "13". In August I picked up maybe my best school supply purchase ever! I found these dry erase boards in the dollar bin at Target. One side is just blank dry erase board and the other is printed with the writing lines you find on elementary writing paper.

Queen Mommy is still a little crafted out from the holidays so we didn't really do much in the way of crafts this week. It all worked out though because the princesses received some makers and a giant coloring book from their aunt and uncle for Christmas. They have been so busy coloring with them I don't think they've noticed.

I did, however, come up with one activity (more so than a craft) for us to do. Since we were learning about moose I posed the question "What do you think it's like to walk around with 6 feet wide 85 pound antlers?" Here's how we explored that question:

I dug into our near limitless supply of cardboard and found these flaps from a box. The tube came from some wrapping paper that I finished off this Christmas. Next, I drew moose antler shapes on the flaps and cut them out with an X-acto knife.

Then, I taped them to the tube using clear packing tape. 

Of course we had to try it out! I tried to attach the "antlers" to the princesses heads with a scarf wrapped around the tube and tied under their chins. I couldn't get it to stay, though, so we just ended up holding them in place. 

I encouraged them to walk around the house holding the antlers. You can't really tell from this picture but this is Princess Big walking into a short hallway. Naturally she caught one side of the antlers on the wall and had to readjust. When she came out into the dining room she said "Wow, it's hard to be a moose!"