Pumpkin Soup

My mom recently sent Isaiah Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper, and Isaiah loved it!

He wanted to read it over and over, and he asked if we could make pumpkin soup.  So, we bought a pumpkin (two actually) and undertook the project!  I decided it would be fun to make our own book about making our pumpkin soup, so I took some photos of our process.  It was no small project with two boys, but they seemed to thoroughly enjoy it!
Once we were finished scooping, cooking, pureeing, and cooking, I gave Isaiah the pictures.  He put them in order surprisingly quickly (with only one small mistake).  We glued them onto colored paper, and I had him dictate the words for me to write for our book.
So, here is Isaiah's first book, Pumpkin Soup!

Fall--A New Season

We landed in Kathmandu, Nepal just a couple months ago.  And along with a new home on the other side of the world, we started a new season of education for my kids.  They are both small, so it feels strange to even use the term "homeschool," and I never expected to be homeschooling, so maybe we'll think of another word to use, but the reality is that we are doing preschool at home...and loving it!  I don't know how long we'll do this, but it is a good fit for us for now.
I've decided to start this blog to post our highlights of our school at home here.  I don't consider myself terribly creative.  I enjoy researching and finding brilliant ideas from truly creative people and sometimes adapting them to make them fit for us.  So, much of what we do comes from other people's great ideas, but there are some unique twists to schooling here in a place that is much different than the home we have known.
So, while our activities might not be that unique, we are enjoying the journey and will share here what school at home looks like for us in this place.
Here are a few highlights of the past couple of weeks while we've been doing our fall theme:

There are some moms here who have started a group to try to connect those who are homeschooling here in Nepal.  We had a fall story and craft project time at Psalm Field, a local restaurant.  The boys had a great time, and Isaiah made this pumpkin art with lentils, which are plentiful here!

Isaiah coloring his color by word pumpkins for sight words from 1+1+1=1 

We are doing Raising Rock Stars from 1+1+1=1, so we focus on a letter of the week, and with great timing, "F" hit during our fall theme.  Here is Isaiah's "F" art.  We traced his foot for the base of the "F" and then filled in (and as you can see around as well) with fingerprints.

Here is a letter "F" bin of things we have around the house here.  Most were brought along with us from the States, but we did find the letter construction piece set here at a department store!

 These are Isaiah's leaf prints.  We gathered leaves from our yard (not a huge variety of shapes) and used paints to make prints of them.

My mom sent us some fabric fall leaves from the States, and one day we used them and tried to do some leaf blowing.  I got out various items from around the house to use to see what would blow the leaves the best.  As it turns out, these fabric leaves are quite a lot heavier than regular leaves and nearly impossible to blow around.  So, we gathered some regular green leaves from our yard to try instead.

Isaiah came up with this idea on his own to put the drinking straw on the end of the air pump.

This is the fall sensory bin we made.  I used popcorn kernels, kidney beans, and lentils, all of which are readily available here and made a great blend of fall colors.  The foam pumpkin shapes and acorns are from a care package from our dear friend Sara.  He loved it and could have scooped and poured and played in it for hours!

We did a pumpkin patch roll and cover that was a hit with both boys.  Isaiah loved the game, and Zeke just liked playing with the pom poms.