The Little Red Hen

I liked how Cami and Kassie have talked about goal setting and mess vs. order, so I decided to have our joy school's lesson topic be about work. It was really nice because Rebekeh joined me and gave me a lot of help. We talked about how in a home, there are chores to be done to keep everything running smoothly. Then each child told us a couple of chores or things that he/she does to help his/her parents. Ideas such as unloading the dishwasher, picking up toys, helping my brother and sister, making dinner, folding laundry, making the bed, putting dirty clothes in the hamper, along with many others all came up. Rebekeh taped these chores to cans of soup, and then each child tried to carry all the chores (soup cans) in a basket across the room. It was doable, but very tiring and difficult. Then we split up the heavy load, and gave each child two cans to carry. I really wanted to emphasize that when a family all works together, rather than mom or dad doing all of the cleaning, then the work is done more quickly and the home is much happier. Hopefully, this object lesson stuck!
Then, we read the book, The Little Red Hen, retold by Heather Forest. I really like this version of the classic old fable. In the book, the little red hen lives with her friends the dog, the cat, and the mouse. Gavyn played the mouse, Ashton played the cat, Calvin played the dog, and Annie and Ava were the little red hens. They would pipe up, "Not I" when I got to their part. At the end of the story, each animal wants to help eat the cake, and the little red hen tells her friends that she loves to share with those who will help with the work. From that point on, the cat, the mouse, and the dog all help with the work and then they all eat together. I liked how the little red hen says, "For after all is said and done, working together makes working fun." Here are some cute pictures that Rebekeh took while I was reading the story:

Next, we put the story of The Little Red Hen in sequential order, and then we made our own little red hens:

But my favorite part was making Monkey Bread! Yum! This is really easy to make. Rebekeh found this recipe which we followed: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/05/monkey-bread/ Just so you know, in my oven, it took almost an hour. If you made the pieces smaller, or used a shallower pan, that might help, but after 35 minutes, it was still doughy, so I cooked it for longer. Here are some cute pictures of the kids shaking the bag to make the monkey dough:

This monkey bread is so delicious! It is definitely not a low calorie snack though! All in all, it was a really fun day. Thanks! And hopefully your kids are all more inclined to help out around at home now. :)