Spring Time Learning for Littles!

Whether you are trying to get a spring themed unit study together for your younger student, or just want a couple of things added to your homeschool day to incorporate spring, hopefully this post inspires you! I am a big believer in hands on learning, and including practical skills, so there aren't a lot of printables or workbooks included here. 

Next week I'll share with you a butterfly unit study you can share with your children. I am coordinating the butterfly and butterfly gardening unit with our local 4-H club, so I thought I would share some of the research and crafts that I found with you as well! This blog post will be about bugs, flowers, weather, and other non-butterfly spring things. 

Great Spring Themes!

Flowers and Gardening: Even if you don't have a large yard, you can get your children involved in watching tiny seeds turn into beautiful flowers or produce. I normally have a pretty low key veggie garden, as well as potted herbs and flowers. If you've never planted anything before, never fear! You can start out with easy to grow herbs (like basil) or flowers (like petunias) in a small container to get started.  

A great way to start your learning journey, is by reading a book on the parts of a flower, or how a seed grows. After that, you can do a craft or art activity displaying what they have learned. This blog post shows a craft on labeling the parts of a flower. We've used seeds, things we've gathered on a nature walk, etc. to create a similar craft. Next let your child pick a quick growing seed and start their own container plant or even garden! My son did sunflowers one year and was mesmerized by how tall and beautiful the little seed became. Workbooks are great, but the memories of growing their own plants will stick with them!
You can also include them in maintaining a garden as well. Let them pick weeds, and water your plants. My son things watering a garden is the best part of gardening-everything gets wet!

Bugs: For us, learning about bugs, worms, and caterpillars is a constant thing. Even a few weeks ago, we dug up itty bitty earthworms and made a habitat for them in a mason jar.
Starting with the Nature Anatomy, it's fun to learn about the different bugs, then research what they eat (My son loves to ask Google what certain insects eat, or if they poop! If you are wanting to add math to the equation, these counters are perfect for numbers, color sorting, bug recognition, sensory bins and more! We  also love getting a cheap dollar store bug catcher and starting an adventure of discovering bugs.

If you have toddlers to young preschoolers, they can learn how to spell their names using bug crafts. For older 'youngsters' breaking out the watercolors and learning the proper colors for certain well know bugs can be great (my son loves to paint/color all things blue. We have been working on observing things and using their proper colors to color them!). If you missed out on my Timberdoodle Dot a Dot review, you can check it out here. In their activity book you can find butterflies, flowers, and bees that make perfect motor skill building and art projects for a bug themed unit study!

Weather: My son's favorite book for weather, is the Magic Schoolbus one. Even when he was too young to pay attention to the whole story, he loved looking at the pictures and asking questions. I will admit, that we haven't personally done much weather themed schooling, but I found some really fun ideas on Simply Learning's Pinterest board. I've used her themes in the past and they've always been a lot of fun. I love the idea of cotton ball counting, and the fun science activity I found on her spring board.

An extra 'theme' is to get your kids to help you with spring cleaning! Dusting, wiping baseboards, and cleaning out their room can double as both motor skills and practical skills. Perfection might not be the result, but it is so good to get them to help with maintaining the home early.

Do you have more spring themed crafts and activities? Let me know in the comments!
I am teaming up with other bloggers at Timberdoodle to help those who find themselves temporarily homeschooling. click this link to find more posts on this subject!

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