Weather Chart

This is how we keep track of the weather every day. As posted earlier, someone keeps track of the what day it is, the other person gets to check the weather. We are very technical, we just look out the window and post the appropriate card. I made sun, snow, rain, partly cloudy/sunny, and cloudy. I use the sticky tack to adhere these to the back of our bar. I don't think my husband had this in mind when he built it, but it works out great for us and it is the perfect kid height also. At the end of the month, we have a visual graph of what weather we had the most and least of throughout. As you can see, we had a whole lot of snow, which more is coming as I write this.

calendar

We have been using this system for over 3 years now. The first chart is the months of the year. I have a little pink bear that they move to indicate which month it is. The middle chart is the days of the week. One of them gets a chance to move the arrow to the corresponding day, every morning (or at least when I remember to do it, sometimes right before bed). The next chart is a calendar with large numbers written on it. It too has the month and year at the top, which is changed accordingly every month. They also get to cross of the day. I just created these, printed them off, and then laminated them. I use sticky tack to keep the arrow, bear, and month adhered to the laminated paper, works wonderfully. We use dry erase markers on them, which doesn't always want to come off completely, using a Mr Clean Magic Eraser, works great. Hope this is a helpful idea.

Balloons and Laundry Baskets

Who knew that a few balloons (found earlier this morning) and 2 laundry baskets could be so much FUN?? The girls started off wanting their balloons blown up. They tossed them around and played catch. While I was folding the laundry, hence , why there were "empty" laundry baskets ( a rare almost undocumented occurrence at our house) available, the girls decided to confiscate them. The giggles, laughter, and just pure excitement that ensued almost made me want to jump in on the action. They kept themselves entertained for quite some time. It was nice just to see pure imagination at its best. They pulled the baskets, pushed them, loaded them, and just plain enjoyed them. I love being the mother of three unconventional girls!!

More

Be More
Become More
Do More
Devote More
Encounter More
Encourage More
Feed More
Feel More
Give More
Grow More
Heal More
Heed More
Live More
Love More
Matter More
Mean More
See More
Sow More
Tell More
Trust More
Value More
Virtue More
Yearn More
Yield More
More of You Less of Me

Hhhhmmm, God Sees It Differently--Answer From Above

God is a God of wonder. I had a vision set before me to collect Hati relief kits. This was to be set up for children to do with their parents, as a hands on approach to helping someone in need. For a few weeks the children were read a book, that I created, about the catastophe in Haiti. They colored pictures about Haiti, to familiarize themselves with a people of another culture. The response was slow, but none the less a few kits were collected. I felt very discouraged. I had a vision of enourmous response and enthusiasm, hhhhmmm, God saw it differently. I then was led to pose this idea to another church, once again the response was luke warm. I didn't not want to head the campaign up, but others had duties they already needed to fulfill. Hhhhhhmmmm, God saw it differently. I organized the campaign, in the midst of the other campaign. I am still collecting some kits to date. The response still is not what I thought God had called me to organize. Hhhhhmmmmm, God saw it differently. I just received an email earlier to let me know how my efforts have influenced others. There is a ripple effect going on in the midst of my discouragment that I didn't even know about. As some women's groups are hearing about what I am doing with the Children's Ministry, they are collecting and campaigning on their own. Some are now taking it to larger groups with in their church and possibly into their local communities as well. Hhhhhmmm God sees it differently!!! What a suprise blessing! God is good.

Lave Lamp

Warm water was placed in a clear glass vase first. Then we added oil. The food coloring was added next. I didn't get a picture before we started, so this was the second batch of food coloring added. After you put in the food coloring, you sprinkle salt on top. As the salt sinks to the bottom it pulls the food coloring drops down with it. Causing them to mix with the water. It was a really neat effect. There is about 3 inches of water, 1/3 cup of oil, then food coloring as desired.

Math Blocks

This is another example of how a pattern was created, this one is by my oldest daughter. She then drew the shapes corresponding to her pattern above.

Math Blocks

We got out some blocks this morning. She made a pattern with the blocks first and then she decided to trace the shapes to draw what she had made. This activity worked on shapes, patterns, color correspondence, drawing, tracing and so much more.

Bubble Popper

This doesn't look like much via the picture, but it was fun. We mixed vinegar, water, and baking soda together. The bag was then sealed and placed in the bath tub (I wasn't sure what kind of mess we would encounter). We waited and waited and waited some more. Finally, when we thought we couldn't wait any longer it exploded. The girls loved it--laughed and giggled--who does that in science class and gets a high five!! This was a pretty cool experiment to do. Ours took a little longer, because I used a quart bag instead of a sandwich size bag and didn't adjust the amount of ingredients used. A lesson learned :)

Sorting Beads

We embarked on a sorting activity today. My first daughter did this activity by sorting the beads by shape. Her interest did not stay very long. My second daughter sorted them by color. She worked and worked on this activity, until the bowl was empty. The girls then drew their findings on paper.

Guitar Birthday Cake

Guitar Cake
This was a cake I made back in December for my daughter's five year birthday. It was my first super challenging cake. She was very happy with the outcome, so I was pleased!!

rainbow cake

Rainbow Cake
I got this idea, once again, from almostunschoolers.blogspot. They used it as a science project. I thought the idea was great and used it with the Hannah Montanna birthday cake. The kids (and adults) loved seeing all the colors when I cut into the cake, it was like a hidden suprise under all that icing. I didn't take a picture of the process. It is really quite simple. Divide the pre made cake batter into bowls, you will need a seperate bowl for each color that you want to use. Add food coloring to the batter, then plop it into the cake pan, one color on top of the next. Mine seemed to want to go off center in the pan, I would just shake it gently back into place and it worked just fine.

Hannah Montanna Cake

Hannah Montanna Birthday Cake
Here is the infamous cake. I really didn't want to do Hannah Montanna, but my 4 year old kept on insisting that is what she wanted, so I did the least version of it as possible, yet in her eyes still pass for a Hannah Montanna cake. She really liked it so I guess it was a success. The cake part was actually a rainbow effect, I forgot to take a picture when we cut through it. The kids and adults loved it.

Care Bear Cake

It's hard for me to believe, but this was from one year ago. Tonight I will be presenting her with a Hannah Montanna cake (not that I like her very much or that my daughter knows much about her). It's always nerve racking for me. Will they like it, is it what they imagined...etc? She loved this cake at her 3rd birthday. It was from a mold, which I will never do again. I like the freedom of forming my own creations. I am not a cake artist for sure, but my mom always made homemade cakes for us growing up and I want to carry on the legacy.

Snow Pictures

This was another snow bound activity that we did. I gave the girls each a blue, white, green, brown
sheet of paper. Instead of using scissors, which it seems we do alot of these days, we tore
the paperand glued it to create unique snow scences. They wanted me to work with them, but I waited
a little while after they had begun, to start. Otherwise, my 5 year old, would want to do
exactly what I was doing. I wanted them each to capture their fun experiences that they were
having in the snow on paper. They each incorporated something about sledding down the big hill.
By the way, the green is the top of trees and the brown is their trunks.

Painting The Snow

Painting The Snow

The girls had so much fun doing this. This was another spur of the moment type activity. We had been snow bound for many days during our 2 back to back blizzards that left mountains of snow all around. I gathered up 2 spray bottles (all I could find at the time), filled each one about half way with water (filled would have been to heavy for them to manage), and added food coloring to dye the water--I used blue and red. They loved making designs in the snow and we also did their names. Just be careful not to get it on clothing. I didn't add too much food coloring to ours, so it wasn't a problem. We had to hold the spray bottles closer to the snow to get the color to show up better, but it worked great and we had so much FUN!!

Milk Magic

Milk Magic
I found this idea on almostunschoolers.blogspot.com. I thought it sounded interesting, so we gave it a go. All you do is pour some milk in a shallow bowl or dish (we used a salad dish). Add a few drops of food coloring--I think we used red, green, blue, and yellow. Place a q-tip in liquid dish detergent and gently touch it to the milk and food coloring--be AMAZED!! The colors danced around the plate like magic (hence the name of the project). My oldest, who is only 5, was too busy doing other things to come join us. As soon as she heard the ooohhhsss and aaaahhhss, she quickly came over to inspect our discovery. She ended up loving the experiment too.

My Food Pyramid

My Food Pyramid
This was one of those activities that took on a mind of its own. We were discussing the food pyramid and the girls were coloring the different food categories on another sheet of paper. As they were doing this, I started forming a book idea in my mind. So they created their own food pyramid books. They each labeled the corresponding colored book page to the colored food pyramid category. The girls then took (whatever I could find) newspaper ads and started cutting away. They glued their findings to the labeled pages and ENJOYED every minute of this semi-spontaneous activity. We implement this new found knowledge at dinner and other eating times. They have fun trying to figure out what food categories they are eating from.

There Was An Old Lady Who.....

I had a set of homemade felt board figures for the story There Was An Old Lady Who, from my teaching days. I pulled them out for the first time with my girls the other day. I went through the story with them and they listened so intently. They enjoyed the parts as I added each animal figure to the ever increasing visual list on the board. To take this story to the next level. I had the H and B draw their favorite part about the story and then tell me the story in their own words (very amusing). We had great fun with this. B told her dad about the story today and remembered the whole list of animals--we did this story over 6 days ago. I was impressed with her memory of the story and her excitement for it.

Numeral Forms

H laid out the number cards in order from zero through nine. Then she laid the corresponding # of cheerios to the number card, which she loved. Then to change the pace of things for her. I suggested she make the numbers using the cheerios. She is not a very abstract thinker, so this was a bit of a challenge, especially when we got to the curvature on some of the #'s. She wanted to give up early on, but I stayed with her through the difficult parts. By the end of the series of #'s, she had gained such a self confidence about her abilities. I wanted her to experience numerals in an out of the box kind of way, and she surprised me by learning some valuable life lessons along the way--an attititude of perseverance can build a stronger self image.

On The Eve

Normalcy is finding it's way back
Do I want it to come?
Unforgettable lessons were learned
Treasured memories were made.
Tomorrow is another day
I hold the map in my hand
The directions are many
Roads are vast
You are my vehicle were will You lead?