Creation Unit (Day 3)

As we continued our Creation Unit, Day 3 was another spur of the moment day. I LOVE how easy it has been to make an ordinary day a little extra special by doing something fun to learn more about our Creator. I've done little to no prep for most of our learning moments and it's been just as much fun as the ones I've spent a lot of time getting ready for. We read in our kids' Bibles and Mommy's Bible about how God made land and then filled it with vegetation. I had gotten a little "plant kit" in the $1 section at Target at Valentine's Day and decided this was the perfect time to whip it out! (They have some out again in with the Spring/Easter $1 stuff). I actually had no idea what was in the little pot, but I assumed seeds and for $1, I wasn't expecting much else. I got the Mini Rose package and there was a package of seeds and a dirt pellet inside. It said to add 2 tbsp. of water to the pellet in a bowl. I assumed it would absorb it, but apparently it did it rather quickly because I turned my back and heard Isaac yelling, "Mommy! It's GROWING!" :) It looked disgusting, but we put it in the pot and it was time to add seeds.

The package doesn't lie when it says "Mini-Roses." The seeds were minuscule and I was a little bummed because there was NO WAY that Isaac could plant them. You were supposed to put no more than 6 of those little suckers down in the dirt. I have no idea how you are supposed to even pick them up, let alone count them, so I just dropped a few in (definitely more than 6) and hoped for the best! If I had it to do over, I would have chosen a different kind of plant at the store in hopes that the seeds would be a little bigger.

I LOVE this picture of Isaac. He's finally starting to occasionally comply when I ask him to smile for the camera. As you can see, it's a very genuine smile. Hehehe! :) He was excited about the plant though and checked it quite a few times throughout the day to see if it had started growing yet.

I decided it would be a good time to go through some of my old preschool stuff and see if I had anything on plants. (Ahem) It took me a while to find something in this mess, but eventually I came up with something. (I have since organized this tub a little. I have a lot of great stuff that's not getting used simply because I don't even know what I have!)

This is what I found. So I got to cutting and Isaac got to coloring.

Here's his finished product. We talked about all that plants need to grow and he can still tell me if I ask him. He liked doing this a lot.

I got him some dot markers for Christmas and he's finally starting to have the patience to actually place the marker on the circles and not just slam it down randomly all over the page. I was so proud of his work here! (I get a lot of dot marker patterns from the DLTK website.)

I also had some number dot marker pages in with my random preschool stuff, so we started doing a number for each day of Creation. I haven't really tackled the tracing part at the bottom much yet, unless he really insists, but he LOVES doing the top part and has done several sets of each number. One trick they taught us in preschool with these sheets is to fill the first dot (where they should start to correctly write a number or letter) and then instruct them to continue by following the dots consecutively in the correct pattern. This way they're not filling the dots randomly and are actually learning the proper motion for making the number or letter when the time comes to use a pencil to write it. He's doing great with it, though occasionally he still goes crazy with it and daubs all over. :)

It took about a week for the mini-rose seeds to finally start growing. Guess what mini seeds make? Mini plants. :/ Can you see that small speck of green on the upper right side? I promise it's there. Yeah. So... hopefully we can try this one again with a little bit bigger of seeds next time. :) All in all, he still enjoyed it and he does like checking on it from time to time. He's long since lost interest in watering it, but I'm hoping that when the tiny roses appear he'll change his mind. (By the way, I Can Teach My Child had some great ideas for planting as well and suggested using a medicine dropper or syringe to help your little one water the plant... it worked great!)

Here's Isaac singing the Day 3 song. I did change one word from the I Can Teach My Child version. (Mostly because I got antsy and guessed what she was going to say and had already taught it to Isaac this way when she posted her ideas and decided not to change it. They're really not that different... I changed "flowers" to "land.")

Day 3, Day 3

God made land and plants and trees.

Day 3, Day 3

God made land and plants and trees.