Summer Solstice

This week we are celebrating the sun.  We started with some outside time, playing in the park Monday morning before it got too hot.  We read The Magic School Bus Lost in the Solar System and Arrow to the Sun.  We talked about how the sun is the closest star to Earth and how we depend on its light and heat.  We used the Magic School Bus book to examine what life might be like on other planets closer to or further from the sun.  We also listened to They Might Be Giants sing about the sun.  There are two songs in particular we listened to - Why Does the Sun Shine and Why Does the Sun Really Shine .

These songs talk about the states of matter, so we began our week with a simple experiment.  We used some ice cube trays to see if we could freeze liquid water.  We watched an ice cube melt.  We also used a kettle to heat some water to create steam.  We mentioned how the molecules in matter move differently depending on the state of matter.  I like letting kids run around to demonstrate this one.  Have them stand close together and wiggle to represent a solid.  Spread out a little more and walk around to represent a liquid.  Then use lots of running space to represent a gas.  This is nice because it lets them get out a little energy when dealing with a topic that can be difficult to grasp.

Since it's Monday, we also did our Animals of the Alphabet book.  This week, we looked at animals starting with J, K, and L.  We wiggled our arms like a jellyfish and added some jaguars to the book too.  We hopped like a kangaroo and added koalas, kiwi birds, and Komodo dragons.  Finally we roared like lions and pinched our claws like a lobster for L.  We also added llamas, since she loves the Llama Llama books and ladybugs because grandma loves them.


Tuesday we invited friends over for a messy art day.  We used the shaving cream paint with liquid water colors.  We used ice cubes and shakers with tempera paint.  (This makes a great visual demonstration of how glaciers moved seeds from one part of the land to another and changed landscapes.)  We added some liquid water color to some water and dish soap and used straws to blow colorful bubbles.  We had some tempera paints and stamps.  And for those that didn't want to get as messy we had some chalk board paper and some chalk.  The girls had fun getting messy for over an hour, then took a break for snacks and other toys while moms straightened up and collected projects.  One of the advantages of our house is that we can do things like this on our tile floor without having to worry like one would with carpet.

Since we had dance class on Wednesday, we came home and talked about different cultures that celebrate the sun and summer solstice with dance.  We danced and drummed.  We re-read Arrow to the Sun and also told the story of Daedalus and Icarus.  We  looked at Stonehenge, but decided not to build today.  Genevieve has also been becoming a YouTube star, hogging the camera on grandma's podcast.

We had fun outside experiments with the sun on Thursday.  UV beads can help remind you to put on sunscreen.  She has a UV bead bracelet, so we can watch the colors change.  We also did a second sun print.  This time we used buttons, so we got some really nice images.  We traced some shadows and noted how they moved throughout the day.  We talked about sun safety, sun screen and how

Since the buttons were out, she wanted to show grandma everything she had learned when we worked with buttons before.  She helped grandma sort them and compared them.  She also is really proud of her burgeoning buttoning skills.

She was playing with an Earth eraser and a light so we decided to model rotation and revolution and how they are responsible for day and night and the seasons.  We read excerpts from discover science Solar System and Sun Moon and Stars.  Then we used clay to make our own clay suns inspired by Mexican clay suns.

Saturday she said she was sleepy so I offered to read her a Pre-calculus textbook and suddenly we were ready to go to soccer.  We spent the afternoon coloring, building and playing with beads.

Fibers and Flags

This week is Flag Day and Grandma, who likes to knit, is visiting so we will be exploring different materials and different things to do with yarn.  We started Monday off with a nature walk where we spent some time watching bees pollinate flowers and found a dead lizard.  Then we created paper bag puppets with yarn hair and had a conversation as puppets.  Since its Monday, we also worked on our Animals of the Alphabet book.  This week was G, H, and I.  For G, we found gorillas, grasshoppers, gharials, gerbils, and giraffes.  We stretched our necks like giraffes and pounded our chests like gorillas.  We explored horses, hippos and hummingbirds for letter H and had a horsey ride. There aren't a lot of I animals, but we included an impala and an iguana.

Tuesday, at story time, we heard stories to get us ready for Father's Day this weekend all about fun with dad.  There was a great Eric Carle book called Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me.  We came home and talked about flags for Flag Day.  We looked at the American Flag, our state flag, and several flags from other countries.  We talked about how most flags are simple shapes, in part so that if you are ever lost and don't speak the local language, you can draw a picture of your flag and others can help you find your way to your embassy.  It also served as a way for troops to easily identify where they should gather to find companions.  We discussed the bold colors we commonly see in flags.  We talked about how the first American flag was not really made by Betsy Ross, but most likely by a group of women.  Betsy Ross did other work for George Washington though.  We also brought up the cool point that our current flag was designed by a kid.  Genevieve created her own flag.

We had an extra fun afternoon.  The library had a special fun summer activity in association with a local Raptor rescue.  A few of the rescued education raptors came for the kids to see.  We were able to see a kestrel, a great horned owl and a hawk.  Raptors can be identified by their sharp beaks and talons and the fact that they only eat meat.

Wednesday we started dance class.  It was cute seeing the ways the instructors introduced some of the elements of dance like arm positions and different jumps.  The kids danced with ribbons, creating small circles and big circles, then small waves and big waves.  They jumped in and out of hula hoops and over foam blocks.  Then they played a cat and mouse game, where one foot chased the other.  It's a cute little dance class for the 2-3 year old crowd.

In the afternoon, we looked at different knit and crochet items to compare the texture.  We also looked at some of my cross-stitch work.  Genevieve has been practicing stitching with her own plastic canvas and yarn so we looked at that as well.  There are all sorts of things we can make with yarn.

Thursday we made Huichol yarn art.  We used collage boards and stuck yarn to them.  The Huichol are a people native to Mexico.  They have beautiful, bright artwork.  Artwork is a divine practice for them, and often includes the peyote plant which is important to them.  They also often include other aspects of nature, like animals and the sun.  The colors may have meaning as well, often depending on the artist.  The Huichol are known for yarn painting, ojos de dios, and bead work.  Yarn paintings are created by pressing yarn into a base, often resin.  We used collage boards because it allowed us to press the yarn into a base as well.

We went to the park and continued to explore texture.  Genevieve used her magnifying glass to explore bark on different types of trees, a pine cone, and some ants.  (And we managed not to learn about burning them.)  Tobias has been exploring textures too.  He compared grass and his blanket in the park and at home he's been playing with tissue paper, crinkly wrappers, soft cloth, and a hard toy car.  We also read Puppy and Friends, which is a touch and feel book.

Friday, we started a new session of gymnastics.  This coach teaches a skill of the day, so we practiced safety falls.  Baby story time was focused on Father's Day this week.  We also read Mister Seahorse and No Naps for Father's Day.  I appreciate the examples of different fish fathers that take care of their young.  Some moms complain that No Naps sets a bad example but my daughter has been fighting naps anyway.  Its not always a parent's choice when your child decides to give up naps.

We finished our week of fiber activities with some fabric markers and a new purse for her to color.  Yes, this can be a scary activity but we talked before hand about how these special markers could ruin her clothing.  We also only had one marker out at a time and put them away as soon as we were done.

Saturday after soccer, we made our Father's Day presents.  Genevieve helped make brownies and cookies.  She loves helping in the kitchen.

It's a Cloud, It's a Plane!

Monday, we had an exciting surprise outside our door.  We were headed to the grocery when we ran across a lizard.  We followed the lizard for a bit, commenting on how it moved and what it looked like.  It camouflaged itself in the mulch, which was fun too.

We tried to look for clouds too while we were outside, but there weren't a lot of clouds to see.  This week we are concentrating on the things we see in the sky, as we have two different family members flying in this week.  Even though we saw no clouds, we came home and painted cloud pictures.  We talked about the three main different types of clouds: cumulus, which are very fluffy; cirrus, which are wispy and the highest of the clouds; and stratus, which are thick like blankets and sit very low in the sky.  Fog is a type of stratus cloud.  We often comment on the clouds we see and what they look like, so we used clouds from memory.  For cumulus and cirrus clouds, we used cotton balls.  When you stretch the cotton balls out, they make great cirrus clouds.  All the clouds can also easily be painted with a foam paint.  Although you can buy foam paint, we like to make our own by mixing shaving cream (we prefer regular Barbasol) and some glue.

We also worked on our animals of the alphabet book.  This week was D-F.  For D, we included dogs, deer, dragonflies, dolphins, and ducks.  For E, we included elk, eagles, and most especially elephants.  For F, we included frogs, fish, foxes and flamingos.  Then we stood like a dog, walked and trumpeted like an elephant, and balanced on one leg like a flamingo.  She incorporated these movements in our game of "Elbow."  Elbow is her name for Follow the Leader, in which she is the leader.  We start with our elbows up, hence the name.

Then we played some catch, with different types of balls to see which stay in the air the best.

Tuesday was elections here in California so we all walked to the polls.  Genevieve took turns on her tricycle too.  While we walked, she looked for items to add to her nature collection. She added some rocks, flowers and small green oranges off the ground.  We decided to do an experiment to see if any of these oranges could grow without the tree.  We also stopped at the train station in town when we passed by to try to see some trees.  Finally we went to story time at the library.  We arrived late, but heard a story about a little girl learning to swim before it ended.

At home, we talked more about elections, using the Daniel Tiger episode as reference.   And since grandma arrives tomorrow, we read How to Babysit a Grandma and Llama Llama Gram and Grandpa.  She loves the Llama Llama books, and although both of these are about going to grandma's house, they talk about fun things to do with grandma.

Finally, we did some experiments with paper airplanes.  We crumpled a ball of paper and made some standard paper airplanes and a helicopter.  For those that haven't made a helicopter before, if you are using this pattern the solid lines are cut and the dashes are folded.  C and D are folded into the center and held together with a paperclip.  The paperclip will help provide weight to keep that part down.  A and B are folded in opposite directions to create the propeller.  It was fun to see which designs flew best.

Wednesday we had a music/dance party in the morning and read Pete the Cat's Train Trip (another favorite character of hers) and Amelia Bedelia's First Apple Pie.  We also drew a picture for grandma before we went to pick her up from the airport.  After we got back and she played some with grandma, we took a break to look at Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh.  Then we painted pictures with swirls and thick brush strokes like Van Gogh.

Thursday we were getting ready for dad to come back.  We read Nelly Gnu and Her Daddy Too and While You Are Away.  We worked in the garden then painted some pictures in dad's favorite colors - green.  After we finished we used lids to create patterns using both color and size.  We also talked about complimentary colors and the color wheel.

Friday, for the last week of gymnastics for this session, we played with the parachute which was a fun exercise in teamwork and turn-taking.  We played some music and played in the park.  We read books about body parts and sang Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes at storytime.  Despite the exhausting week, we still took the time to do a short activity in the afternoon.  While we were doing some yard work, we created a solar print since the sun is another object up in the sky.  We placed a few interesting shaped objects on the paper and let it sit for a few minutes.  After rinsing we had the finished project, which is pretty neat.  It works best if you use a variety of sized items though.  Genevieve mostly had skinny items on her print, which is harder to see in the end.

Memorial Day Week

Sunday, we went to church.  Genevieve made it through most of the service without problem, although she still doesn't like the nursery so she stayed in the small play room to the side of the sanctuary that the church set up for parents like me.  We rolled brother over and blew bubbles.  Genevieve sat still long enough to hear me read excerpts from Frost and Emerson read during the service.  Unlike other Sundays, we also made it through the whole service without going back and forth to the bathroom.  Last week, we made five trips.  Ah, the joys of potty training.

Monday, we did our chores like watering the garden in the morning.  Then we went for a short walk around the neighborhood.  We did this so that we could hunt for flowers and take pictures along the way.  We used these photos to create our own flowers for Memorial Day.  We painted coffee filters with liquid water colors.  Depending how you paint, this can also be a fun experiment in chromatography but we will talk about that more later.  After they dry, you fold the filters in half and roll them up.  Wrap a green pipe cleaner to hold them in place.  We used our art time to talk about Memorial Day.  We looked at our pictures of flowers and talked about how many people use red poppies to gift to veterans and use in remembrance of those lost.  We talked about how many countries celebrate a Memorial Day, but some celebrate on a different day of the year or use a different name.  We also talked about the first Memorial Day, which occurred in May right after the Civil War.  Recently freed African Americans used this day to remember the soldiers who had died for their freedom.

Later, we started our big project for the summer.  Genevieve is making her own book, an alphabet book.  We are starting by exploring animals of the alphabet.  We went to the zoo on Saturday, which was a great start.  Today we talked about the zoo and then started gluing letters and animals in the book for the letters A, B and C.  We will talk about more letters in coming weeks.  For A, we talked about armadillos, ants, anteaters, and alligators.  We had seen some anteaters at the zoo.  For B, we talked about bats, bears, badgers, bees, butterflies, birds, and bison.  We noticed that some of the animals also were colors that start with b - black bears, brown bats, and a blue footed booby.  For C, we talked about cats, cheetahs, camels, caterpillars, coral, chickens, cows and chipmunks.  We finished by doing some animal movements.  We wiggled our hips like an alligator, lumbered across the floor like a black bear and stretched our backs like a cat.

On Tuesday, we went to the local library for story time.  We heard stories about trees.  After story time is always puzzles and coloring.  We chose a really appropriate puzzle today, as the clock puzzle by Melissa and Doug has different shapes for each number.  This was appropriate as after lunch we talked about shapes.  We read Mouse Shapes and A Triangle for Adaora.  Then we pulled down the train cars I used using Thomas Pictures and tissue boxes.  We sorted some pre-cut shapes into the train cars.

Wednesday we read Go Shapes Go and 10 Times 10.  We looked at pictures by Wassily Kandinsky. With these sources of inspiration, we used the precut shapes we had sorted yesterday and shape foam stickers to create our own shape art.

Wednesday evening we had an exciting experiment.  When we were out doing our evening chores, we found an owl pellet.  Owl pellets are amazing.  The first amazing thing about an owl pellet is thinking about the owl's digestive system.  Owls swallow their food whole, then the things they cannot digest, is formed into the owl pellet, which they throw up.  So, yes, some people may find it gross but it's exciting to see what you can find inside.  Using tools like tweezers and sticks, you can slowly open up the hair and feathers that hold the pellet together.  The bones inside are interesting because you can use them to learn about the animals in your area and compare them to your own skeleton.  We found tiny hip bones and jaws in our owl pellet.  If you aren't lucky enough to have an owl near you and want to dissect an owl pellet, you can find kits that will also help you identify the bones.
 Thursday we took a break from shapes.  We went to soccer in the morning and made it though the whole session which is impressive considering the heat.  We took plenty of water breaks though.  We are getting better at only using our feet for soccer.  After soccer, we needed to plant some more seeds for our garden.  We read The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle and The Little Flower Seed, which is a Little Clifford Book.  We acted out being seeds - we curled up on the floor as seeds; the sun and rain feel on us so then our roots emerged as we stood; we spread our arms out to be the leaves and then blew in the wind so our seeds could blow away and we could start over.  After that we planted the seeds and will now watch them grow.

Friday we went to gymnastics.  Genevieve is getting really good at pulling her feet up to the bar and walk the balance beam.  She's also been practicing her forward rolls and loves playing tag with friends on the trampoline track.  After gymnastics, we played a little in the park although it was rather warm for that.  We went to baby bounce story time for her brother.  We also signed up for the summer reading program for pre-readers.  When brother went down for his afternoon nap, Genevieve and I read Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons.  This book is nice because it introduces subtraction.  However, we used the buttons theme from this book to practice buttoning our clothing.  We also pulled out our button collection.  We sorted by size, shape, color, and the number of holes in the button.

We ended our week with a special baby signs class.  This was designed for older siblings and their new babies.  We reviewed signs for mom, dad, sister, brother, love, play, baby and gentle.  We talked about ways for older siblings to play with the baby and ways for parents to help with the transition.  Then we walked down to the train station to hang out for a bit and watch the trains go by.