St. Patrick's Day Studies

I planned the beginning of our Ireland studies to begin the week of St. Patrick's Day. We'll continue doing more St. Patrick's Day and Irish activities over the next couple of weeks. We really like this holiday around our house, especially because both of our sons have very Irish names. (They think it's fun to spot their names in Irish books.) And probably because we're so happy to be surrounded in green by this time of year. And we like to put on our pretend Irish accents. Well, I do, at least. (It actually might be a mix of Australian, British, and Irish.) They squeal for me to stop.

I was so excited when I found this old bulletin board set in an old bunch of posters I hadn't looked through in years. I like that it has the flag...

and the map for them to become familiar with.

The Books

Some of the St. Patrick's Day and Irish-related books we've checked out so far: Leprechaun Gold, Mrs. McCool and the Giant Cuhullin, St. Patrick's Day, The Luckiest Leprechaun, Jamie O'Rourke and the Pooka, St. Patrick's Day...

...Cultures of the World: Ireland, Crafts for St. Patrick's Day, St. Patrick's Day in the Morning, The Leprechaun's Gold, Lucky O' Leprechaun, and Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato.

*The kids especially like The Luckiest Leprechaun: A Tail-Wagging Tale of Friendship by Justine Korman and Mrs. McCool and the Giant Cuhullin, an Irish tall-tale about the giants, Cuhullin and Finn McCool by Jessica Souhami.

Shamrock Hunt

This afternoon, we walked around our neighborhood, looking for clovers. Even though we looked high and low, we couldn't find any! We live in a very wooded neighborhood; we don't even really have grass at our house. (And, yup, that's an inside-out Spiderman costume he's wearing.)

I remembered there were plenty of clovers growing outside our homeschool co-op, which is only a couple of minutes from our house so we drove over there and picked some.

I used to be obsessed with finding 4 leaf clovers when I was young. I could always find them quicker than the rest of my family, and I had a book full of pressed ones. When we were getting ready to get back in the car, I thought to myself, "If I find a 4-leaf clover first, then good luck is coming my way," which I wanted to feel after having received some bad news yesterday. (I don't want you to think I believe in "luck" - it's just a fun idea. And I think of it as a synonym for blessing.) When I spotted this 4 leaf clover, it put a big smile on my face.

The Art Project

They glued some of their clovers to the card stock.

I made copies of a "dancing leprechaun" reproducible that is a part of that Carson-Dellosa Bulletin Board set, and the kids colored them, cut them out, and glued them onto their paper. The legs aren't glued, though; they are attached with brads so they can "dance."

They decorated their pictures with rainbows, etc.

Sensory Tub

The kids have been playing with this for a couple of weeks. I bought a few bags of Great Value split peas to use instead of rice this time. I added measuring spoons, black paper cups as "pots" for the gold, shamrock cookie cutters, and even a cute little leprechaun.

I also put in tiny craft shamrocks and larger soft shamrocks, gold jewels, clear stones, jingle bells because they seemed "leprechaun"ish, and a few Irish Blessing coins for the kids to dig out. And since leprechauns make shoes for the elves and fairies, I added a pair of shoes from one of Sissy's dolls.

They love it!

Link-Ups:

Geography/History: Children Grow, Children Explore, Children Learn

stART (story + art): A Mommy's Adventures

Homeschool Creations: Preschool Corner

Red Ted Art: Kids Get Crafty

JDaniel4's Mom: Read, Explore, Learn

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

the kids this morning, wishing you a happy holiday

Last year, this is how we celebrated St. Patrick's Day. This year, we are going to have zucchini cupcakes and green smoothies for tonight's dessert. And we're going to sing songs like:

Have You Seen a Leprechaun?

(sung to the tune of Do You Know the Muffin Man?)

Have you seen a leprechaun?

A leprechaun, a leprechaun?

Have you seen a leprechaun

From Ireland far away?

Yes, I've seen a leprechaun,

A leprechaun, a leprechaun.

Yes, I've seen a leprechaun;

I invited him to play.

And did he stay and play with you?

Play with you, play with you?

Did he stay and play with you?

Or did he run away?

He didn't stay and play with me,

Play with me, play with me.

He didn't stay and play with me -

He hid and ran away!

last year's St. Pat's meal

Hope you have fun today, whatever YOU do.

the leprechaun footprints that are on our dining room window

Don't Pinch Us

We especially like to celebrate St. Patrick's Day because both of the boys have Irish names. We didn't do that on purpose. Apparently, that is just what we are attracted to. I actually thought Sissy's real name was Irish, too, but I guess it is English. I think it sounds Irish, though, which is close enough. Speaking of names, yes, it is getting old using their pseudo names, and I'm sure I'll crack one of these days and start using their real names.

Green food for our night meal...steamed broccoli, pickles, celery with peanut butter, navy beans with parsley, spinach/lettuce salad, zucchini strips, grapes, roasted edamame, avocado, green beans, pistachios, apple slices, and bell pepper...oh, poo, I just realized I forgot to set out the kiwi last night. We even had green juice - Boathouse Farms Green Goodness fruit smoothie drink, which includes things like spirulina, spinach, and blue green algae. I had green apple juice boxes on hand in case the green drink didn't go over well (as I suspected it would not), but they all loved it and enjoyed several refills.

We decorated shamrock cookies after supper...Papaw and Googie came over last night, and we gave him a plate of cookies we had decorated. He ate all three of them. That's one of the great things about Papaw...he'll try and appreciate whatever we make for him. Googie, on the other hand...well, she's always mysteriously "full" when vegan food appears. ;)

We used India Tree Nature's Colors Decorating Sugar in green. India Tree also has all-natural food coloring. (In case you were wondering, Nature's Flavors and Seelect also have natural food coloring and many other fun, organic products.)