Conservation

With very few classes this week, we've been doing some extra outside activities.  Monday we had a play date with a few friends near where Genevieve used to do sign classes.  We rode the kiddie train but couldn't ride the carousel because it was being worked on.

We had storytime on Tuesday.  Genevieve told me a story that Grandmum has been telling her on the way.  After, we went on a butterfly hunt which transitioned us well for the magnet hunt we did at home.  We used a magnet wand to see what types of things were attracted to magnets.  We talked about how magnets are used to sort out metal trash that can be recycled.  We played with our magnet art board, magnets on the refrigerator and magnet puzzle.

We also sang the magnet song, to the tune of The More We Get Together:
Some magnets pull together,
together, together
Some magnets pull together
and that's called attract

And magnets like magnets
And magnets like metal
Some magnets pull together
and that's called attract.

Some magnets push apart,
apart, apart
Some magnets push apart
and that's called repel

And magnets don't like plastic
And magnets don't like wood
Some magnets push apart
and that's called repel.

Wednesday we went to the zoo.  We looked at all sorts of different animals and watched some of the zoo keepers taking care of some of the animals.  We noted that some animals don't like the heat so have to find ways to keep cool.




Thursday we tore up some paper and put it in a large tub with water.  We added some seeds and played in the paper soup, tearing it up more as we played.


Friday we took the paper soup outside.  We used a screen and a brick to press out new recycled pages.  We also had fun making paper balls and throwing back and forth until they broke.  This way we recycled paper and created a flower bed.

Saturday, we reused our plastic containers for an art day after soccer.

We read some great books this week, dealing with the importance of nature and how to help the planet.  The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein and The Lorax by Dr. Seuss have long been some of my favorites.  The Lorax is how one little action can make a big difference.  Miss Fox's Class Goes Green is a great example of how a class works together to help reduce, reuse and recycle.  Michael Recycle is a superhero who flies into towns and asks them to help the environment.  We also read My Brother, to review some of last week.  This book is told from the perspective of the younger sibling admiring their older brother, unlike most of the books we read last week which were from the perspective of the older sibling.

Raksha Bandan

This week is one of my favorite holidays.  There are Mother's Day and Father's Day to celebrate parents and Grandparents' Day to celebrate grandparents but this is an Indian holiday celebrating the bond between siblings.  Traditionally, sisters create a bracelet for their brothers and small trinkets and sweets are exchanged.

We celebrated by finding India on a map and looking at images of India.  We made bracelets, one for Genevieve and one for Tobias (which he turned into a shaker).  We read some books about siblings like Brothers, which is about Chinese immigrants in 19th century San Francisco.  The youngest brother befriends an Irish boy and they help the older brothers turn the ramshackle store into a successful business able to cater to both the Chinese in China Town and others living in the area.  We read Tikki Tikki Tembo, which has beautiful pictures and is a story about favoritism and how it may backfire.  My Little Brother and Babies Can't Eat Kimchee talk about some of the things little siblings can't do, but how we can still have fun and look forward to the things we can do with them as they get older.

We finished our animal alphabet book, as there are a lot fewer animals towards the end of the alphabet.  X is especially challenging, but we found a picture of a xenops.  We also had friends over for another art day.  This time we played with glitter glue, scratch boards, and rainbow sand with sticky boards.

Esala Perahera, Perseids and Obon

This week I am breaking my rules about screen time so she can see some of the many sports of the Olympics.  She really enjoys watching the gymnastics events, cycling, swimming and diving.  Any sport on a court (including volleyball, handball, basketball and rugby) are all soccer in her mind though, which is funny.  We also reviewed some of last week's lessons, listening to The River of Blood by the Deedle Deedle Dees and The Bloodmobile by They Might Be Giants.

Monday, we had a later activity so we had our lessons in the morning, but first she had to tuck her toothbrushes and combs into bed.  Then I introduced Esala Perahera.  We found Sri Lanka on the map and looked at some images of elephants, people and landscapes in Sri Lanka.  She thought it was really neat to see the people balanced on the bamboo poles.  We saw some temples and some Buddha statuary too.

Esala Perahera is a 10 day celebration in Kandy,  Sri Lanka.  It is in honor of the Buddha's Tooth Relic.  There is a parade with drummers, elephants and different types of dancers.  The acrobatic dancers are the Ves dancers, which are considered the most important.  Others dance with pom poms, tambourines and eve flame.  On the final night, a grandly decorated elephant will carry the Tooth Relic of Buddha.  A white linen cloth is laid on the ground so the elephant does not touch the ground.  The festival climaxes around the full moon, and started this week.

Tobias took place in a psychology study, examining nutrition, the gut microbiome, and brain development in infants.  They used an eye tracker to watch his eyes during three different visual activities.

Tuesday, we went to storytime and heard about stars.  She created her own shooting star, then we listened to What is a Shooting Star.  This was all because the Perseids will be best to watch this week, probably Thursday and Friday night.  This year we are expected to see an extra large number of shooting stars.  The Perseids typically are visible between July 17 and August 24, as Earth passes through the orbital path of the Swift-Tuttle comet.  The viewing is best in early August, but it all depends on the moon.  We aren't quite old enough to stay up to watch them, but it doesn't mean we can't celebrate.  There is a nice Curious George episode about them as well.

Since Esala Perahera is a celebration around Buddha's tooth, we were talking about teeth Tuesday afternoon.  Genevieve has been really good about brushing and flossing, both because of the app Chomper Chums and because she managed to get some broccoli out of her teeth when flossing, and that really amazed her.  Since then, she has been listing the food she ate all day, saying how she's getting it all out.  We talked about how we have different types of teeth for eating different types of food.  The incisors for cutting, canines for tearing meat and molars for grinding.  We watched Dinosaur Train and talked about what types of food the animals in the episode eat based on their teeth.  We also looked at another owl pellet, examining the skull of some of the rodents that the owl had eaten.  We read Bill and Pete, which is the story of a crocodile and its toothbrush.  In the store, you see some of the different tools animals use as a toothbrush.  We also read Arthur Tricks the Tooth Fairy, and she was able to guess what type of food the animals in D.W. sees at the museum might eat.

Wednesday, we went to dance class and talked about how a lot of celebration include dance.  After we got home, Genevieve dressed mom up as an elephant and she rode in a "parade."  The we painted pictures of elephants.  I painted some elephants, and she decorated them.  Then she painted a baby elephant of her own.

Tobias learned outside park signs this week like ball, swing, slide, outside, tree, leaf, flower, grass and butterfly.  While playing outside, we explored more owl pellets and found a beautiful blue jay feather.  We found another camouflaged leaf insect.  She also found some butterfly wings and other seeds to add to her nature collection.

We ended the week talking about Obon and Japan.  Obon is an ancestral Buddhist celebration, similar to Dia de Los Muertos.  Families gather at the graves of loved ones and clean them.  Since the spirits are said to be able to visit the graves, the family also leaves food.  The holiday originated with a follower of Buddha named Mokuren.  He found out his departed mother was suffering in the land of hungry ghosts.  He made a sacrifice, and she was released.  He danced with joy then, which was the beginning of the traditional dance with today's celebrations.  The celebrations also typically include carnivals, fireworks, watermelon, and floating lanterns.

We looked at pictures of Japan and found it on the map.  Then we made a made our own floating lantern, using a paper bag to cut out shapes and aluminum foil for the base.  It was a fun experiment to see what shapes floated best.

Genevieve also decided to build a house for her fairies out of balls.  She was super excited to share it.

Countdown to the Olympics

We've been talking a bit about the Olympics as it draws near.  It's always an exciting event in the eyes of a child, who can ignore all the scandal and just see it for the exciting opportunity to watch horses jumping and people playing sports that you also play.  I had been debating whether or not I would watch with all the political, economic and doping scandals on top of the crime and illness rampant in Rio right now.  But how often do you get the opportunity to watch so many athletes in such a large variety of events?  And Genevieve loves and plays many of these sports, so will enjoy seeing what she may be able to do if she keeps working.

We began our week by looking at some of the history.  We read some Greek myth, found Greece on a map and learned about some of the first Olympics.  Many people may know that the first Olympics were held in Olympia in ancient Greece.  Only men were allowed - no women could be athletes, trainers or spectators.  And the athletes competed in the nude.  The trainers were required to be nude as well, after a woman claimed to be a trainer for her son.  Her son was a boxer who had a good chance to win.  She disguised herself to support her son, but when he won, her cheering gave her away.  She could have been killed for her crime, but the court let her go home since she was just showing her family love.  But to keep other women from trying to do the same, all trainers from that day forth had to be naked too.

We started a long term project with our work in ancient Greece.  We looked at many types of Grecian pottery so we started the project by creating some clay pieces with our air dry clay.

Tuesday, we talked about Brazil.  We learned about the rainforest, the rivers, and the different people that live in Brazil.  Genevieve especially loved the capybaras and the monkeys.  We also added our T and U animals to our book,  Turtles, tapirs, tarsiers, turkeys, tigers and toucans represented T while uakari and umbrellabirds were letter U.

Wednesday, we talked about how we stay healthy.  We sang Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes and read The Magic School Bus Inside the Human Body.  We mentioned the importance of exercise, nutrition, safety, and hygiene to maintaining the human body.  We painted our air dry clay with red and yellow to make orange clay like the Grecian pottery.  We also added some extracts to our tempera paint to paint with our sense of smell too.

We continued to talk about health on Thursday, concentrating on systems like the skeletal system, the nervous system, and the cardiovascular-pulmonary system.  She used her stethoscope, and we listened to hearts and lungs.  We talked about how our bones are hard and that her bones are stronger than brother's bones.  We also were brave and used a black permanent marker to draw the patterns on our Greek pottery.

We finished the week talking about and trying some of the sports we might see in the Olympics.  We played some soccer and some basketball.  We practiced gymnastics and rhythmic gymnastics.  We played like we were swimming.

We were talking a lot more this week, rather than doing things as mom, dad and brother were all getting over the cold Genevieve shared with us.