Celebrating the Sun or a Week in the Heat

This week has been difficult because of the heat and Tobias is reaching the age when he thinking about getting rid of one nap, so everyone has been a little cranky.  We also had to hold off on some of the outside activities like shadow tracking.  Still, we have had a lot of fun.

Camp Creativity at Michael's this week was Finding Nemo/Dory themed, which followed up on our discussion of fish the week before.  She practiced using scissors on foam sheets and used her fine motor skills to set out beads to melt together.  They have patterns and I offered to help her follow them, but she likes to do her own thing and I prefer she do it herself.  The final product doesn't matter.  It's all about the experience.

Story times this week focused on water, since it's a great way to keep cool.  We have a little wading pool for them to play in too.  It was also animal week at the library, when an animal rescue group shows off some of the animals they care for and talk about the best ways to protect wild animals.  We saw a kinkajou, a bush baby, a baby raccoon, a lemur and a large Burmese python.  Everyone was invited to pet the snake.  Genevieve also learned this week that cutting up a library book is not the thing to do if you want to keep it.  The library was able to repair it, but we decided she can't check out any more books until July.  And we modeled the proper behavior by adding books she wants to the Amazon wish list we share with our family.

Tobias had a great time on the trampoline this week in gymnastics.  He didn't want to stop running and bouncing.  Genevieve worked on a new skill on the trampoline too, jumping backwards.  She had a lot of fun trying to travel across the bar as well and is getting great practice mounting the balance beam.

Soccer this week had a great obstacle course, where they worked on ball control, jumping, multi-step instructions, and shooting.  They played some running games like Avalanche and Red Light Green Light to work on endurance and listening.  Then there was a passing game for teamwork.  I also love that their fitness activities stress stretching and hydration, even if Tobias doesn't want to sit through the stretches.

We had a friend over for a science play date, where we tried out some of the Magic School Bus Chemistry Kit.  We used baking soda and vinegar to blow up a balloon, made some oobleck and used salt to make ice stick together.  We also played with prisms, used different types of scratch paper to demonstrate opaque and transparent, made kaleidoscopes, and made solar prints.  Our friends were really lucky, because that was the day our caterpillars started forming their chrysalis so they were able to observe that.  It was also nice, because our friends have a girl and a boy close in age to both kids.

We started trying out chore sticks.  I put different chores and activities the kids can do like reading, sweeping, and playing games on some colorful craft sticks.  We draw from there at random to find things to do when we have a break in activities.  She's drawn art, hugs, reading, helping put laundry on the line, and playing a game to name a few.  So we played the Owl Game and Hi Ho Cherry-o.  We also played a lot with puzzles and wooden trains this week.  Tobias has been practicing empathy, and has the cutest "Oh no" face when something sad happens.  He's also making bee noises at the bees pollinating our pumpkins and getting good at signs like please, cookie and fish.  He's trying to say kitty more too.

Father's day and Flags

Gymnastics and soccer started back up this week, so we are in the full swing of things.  Sadly our dance class didn't have enough numbers, so we are dancing at home but everything else is running.  We tried out Camp Creativity at Michael's, where Genevieve created some Minnie Mouse crafts.  After storytime, we enjoyed a performance by Zun Zun, learning about water, music and conservation.  We had some fun with silly dances there as well.  We enjoyed time in gymnastics.  She's getting really good at the bars, and he loves the slides.  We had our second class at the Sacramento Zoo; this one was about camouflage.  We learned about different animals that use camouflage and practiced camouflaging a stick bug.  Genevieve got to pet a snake and a kinkajou.  We had another storytime and ended the week at the zoo again, to celebrate the 90th birthday.  She enjoyed face painting, magic shows and a snow cone as well as the animals.

We've read some great books for Father's Day.  Genevieve enjoys the humor of Daddies Do It Different and How to Surprise a Dad.  Tobias loves The Daddy Book.  They both enjoyed the textures in Are You My Daddy and the illustrations in Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me.  We made daddy a special gift, a plaster heart with mosaic tile.

While talking about daddy, we also talked airplanes and clouds.  Tobias likes to point out airplanes and trains, so we watched for planes and did some cloud watching.  We both like to imagine what the clouds look like and talk about what type they are.  Genevieve put on a cloud show and made cloud art.

In enjoying daddy stories, we also read Mister Seahorse and talked about fish.  We've read several books about fish, created a Nemo and Dory banner and looked at fish in the pet store.  We've also worked on our vacation book, painted a flag for her kingdom, and found a dragonfly.

Butterfly in the Sky

This week we've been trying to get back to our routine, with soccer and storytimes.  We started the summer reading program and stopped by the UC Davis Language Learning Lab so Tobias could help with a study.  We also started the summer zoo classes at the Sacramento Zoo.  This week was on the eye.  We talked about how hawks can "zoom" in their vision, cats and dogs see limited colors, slugs have blurry vision, and bees see a target in the center of flowers.  Birds can see in the ultraviolet range while other animals see in infrared.  They made their own binoculars, played with kaleidoscopes, and created an eye spy shaker.  Genevieve also created a slug.  We did some painting as well.

When we weren't in classes, we've been studying butterflies and caterpillars.  We read Butterflies in the Garden, which talked about the types of flowers to grow in order to attract butterflies.  A Butterfly is Patient includes many types of butterflies and their caterpillar.  For metamorphosis, we enjoyed From Caterpillar to Butterfly and How a Caterpillar Grows into a Butterfly.  The Magic School Bus taught us about different methods butterflies and caterpillars use to protect themselves while Tanya Kant gave us extra information on the monarchs migration.

We talked about how butterflies start with B so painted B butterflies and used symmetry to create other butterflies.  We used the edge of a paper plate to create a curved caterpillar, which was great for talking about stripe patterns, and played with our gear caterpillar.  We also got a butterfly kit to start raising our own butterflies.

More Exploring with Family

We took a few days to recover, then jumped right back in to visiting with family and exploring Ohio.  Our down time caught us spinning and dyeing wool with Grandmum, throwing a birthday party for Grandy, and another backyard camp out.  This time Uncle Ian and Rachel stopped by.  We also headed out to see Great-Grandpa Napier and his sheep.

Our first stop was the Neil Armstrong Museum.  It's a smaller museum and not very hands-on, but Genevieve knows about Neil Armstrong from Ready Jet Go.  So she was excited to see some of his astronaut uniforms.  She was disappointed there wasn't more on stars, the planets or her favorite moons of the solar system, Enceladus and Europa.  But she enjoyed showing Grandy around.

Next up, we left Ohio for a zoo from my childhood.  I spent many a day at the Fort Wayne Zoo and have many fond memories.  Of course, I also remember when I got separated from my parents and tried to get sympathy ice cream from the employees while waiting to find them, but that's beside the point.  Genevieve liked feeding the giraffes, riding ponies and riding the carousel.  Tobias liked playing on the train structure and riding the water adventure.  And we all enjoyed the antics of the young orangutan.  Despite being a Friday, the crowds weren't overwhelming and it's fairly easy to navigate as it is set up in 3 main loops.  There's not a lot of backtracking.  And they still have the lion's mouth water fountain which is great for pictures.

We had to stop at Wright Patterson Air Force Base to enjoy the "airplane museum" with daddy.  Tobias loved the Presidential planes because we got to go up and down stairs and they both enjoyed exploring all the buttons in the cockpits.

Genevieve took a final trip to the park with Aunt Jessica and Uncle Nathan to try out a different park.  Smale park has water features and a carousel but is also great for climbing.  And since she's fallen in love with the Great British Baking Show, they stopped at a nearby bakery before heading back.

Soon we were back on the plane and trying to get back to our routine.  Tobias has picked up some new words like Nathan, Grandy, crash and go.  He's more interested in learning about what animals are called too.  Genevieve enjoyed trying out new games and all the opportunities to explore new places with family.