Getting Ready for Winter (and the Holidays)

This week we are beginning to decorate for Christmas and learning about what animals and plants do to get ready for winter.

We read The Sparkle Box, which is a great reminder or introduction to kids about giving to others during the holidays.  The back of the book has a sparkle box you can make, so we made ours and have started filling it with good deeds.  The Night of Las Posadas is a Tomie dePaola Christmas story, talking about the tradition of Los Posadas or the reenactment of Mary and Joseph's search for a place to stay the night.  In his story, the people chosen to be Mary and Joseph become snowed in but luckily replacements show up.  Merry Christmas Strega Nona is another in Tomie dePaola's Strega Nona series.  Big Anthony is tired of all the work Strega Nona is tasking him with to get ready for the big Christmas feast she prepares for the town.  But when Big Anthony gets distracted and forgets the shopping, she worries everything is ruined.  Instead, Big Anthony surprises her.  Dream Snow is an Eric Carle classic with counting to 5, farm animals and a farmer that resembles Santa Claus.  Bear Stays Up for Christmas is another book in the bear series.  It has a catchy rhythm, can be a reminder about hibernation, and demonstrates the wonder of giving.  Runaway Dreidel is a cute Hanukkah story set to T'was the Night Before Christmas.  It includes some typical traditions and reminds readers of the letters on the dreidel.  Llama Llama Holiday Drama is a reminder of how difficult it can be to be patient and wait for the holidays when there are so many reminders.  It also reinforces that the important thing is to spend time with family and friends.  The Clown of God is a story by Tomie dePaola that may bring a tear to your eye as a juggler performs his beautiful act as a Christmas present to the statue of Mary and a young Jesus.

We are still working on making Christmas presents and getting ready to send them out this week.  We decorated reusable bags with glitter glue in Christmas shapes like trees, presents, snowmen and more.  We also decorated plastic ornaments in different ways.  We filled them with pom pom or tissue paper and painted some with tempera paints and glitter glue.

The Busy Little Squirrel was a fun book.  All the animals wanted to spend time with squirrel, but he was too busy gathering food for the winter.  Baby Animals in the Snow is a short introduction to some animals that live in cold places like penguins, polar bears, snow leopards and Arctic foxes.  When Will it be Spring is the story of Alfie bear who is too excited about springtime to hibernate through the winter.  Chaucer's First Winter follows Chaucer the bear as he ignores the fact bears are supposed to hibernate and instead discovers some of the fun things to do in the snow.  Bear Snores On is the first of the bear books in Karma Wilson's series.  It follows a predictable word pattern which is great for early readers and examines several animals who stop in bear's cave to warm up while he sleeps.  We also read a National Geographic book about penguins to explore another cold weather animal.

We've been to the zoo and a petting zoo this week and have noted differences in animal behavior as well as thicker winter coats.  For instance, the lion and tiger were sleeping but the snow leopard was really active, which we don't often see.  We also have been talking a lot about the changes we see in plants, and how trees have list their leaves so they can sleep for the winter.  We created a hibernation cave, setting up a comfy place to sleep.  We also demonstrated migration, talking about the butterfly episode of Wild Kratts.  Under Frozen Pond is another great Wild Kratts episode for this topic.

On a side note, Tobias has really been demonstrating his sense of rhythm this week, dancing or bouncing to all sorts of tunes.  Genevieve keeps reminding me that I told her the myth from Ovid's Metamorphosis about Narcissus and Echo as we walk through the tunnel under the train tracks near our house.  She likes to say echo as we walk through the tunnel so I shared the myth and now she likes to remind me "turned to flower.". She's also really been enjoying the holiday specials on Amazon Prime.  Snowy Day has been changed from Keats' original story of a snow day into Peter getting ready for Christmas and meeting friends along the way who share their holiday traditions.  She prefers If You Give a Mouse a Christmas Cookie, based on the Laura Numerous books with mouse, moose, dog, cat and pig all working together to save the holiday play.

Patterns

We started this week exploring simple patterns.  She "read" me a color book and a shape book to prepare.  Then we created patterns using colors, shapes, and size to make simple ab patterns.  We used her birthday cake toy to create simple abc patterns and noticed how this pattern places the same decoration opposite each other on the cake.  We read Bear Snores On, Bear Feels Sick, and Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site and noted how these stanzas ended in rhyming patterns - abcb in the bear books and abab in the construction books.  We pulled out our rhyming fish and fished for some rhyming words as well.  She also pulled out her plastic canvas and practiced stitching, saying up and down as she pulled her needle through.

Tuesday we talked about more complex patterns.  We used our pasta to create rainbow color patterns.  We listened to Roy G. Biv by They Might be Giants and I sang my own rainbow song.  We also made patterns out of the shapes.  We also played with some stamps, noting the combination of colors on the stamps.  She tried to make her own pattern, creating a line of balloons.  We made patterns on her magnet board.  The shape magnets that came with it are great for this.  The cushion on the back is helpful for angling it well or for setting it comfortably on your lap.  The main problem is that the images are light and the erasing bar a bit difficult for her to move.  We explored texture patterns in her beads and in her foam alphabet floor tiles.



Books also have different types of patterns.  Instead of rhyme, Tuesday we looked at books that repeat larger ideas.  We read the Smallest Girl in the Smallest Grade, Two Friends: Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass, and If You Take a Mouse to School.  We talked about how Two Friends had an introduction, then looked at Susan's childhood, had the quote "The right to live free.  The right to vote.  Some people had rights while others had none," then spoke of how she fought for rights.  Then it followed a similar pattern for Frederick Douglass, starting with his childhood, using the same quote and then addressing how he fought for rights.  We looked at how books like We're Going on a Bear Hunt and Let's Go Camping, which came with Violet, repeat chunks of text.  She loves We're Going on a Bear Hunt now, but it took awhile for her to get into the sound book because there is an image of a dog in a snowstorm that makes the sound of a snowstorm instead of a dog.  She used to get upset that it didn't bark.  But she likes the story and sound now, but parents be forewarned, this is a book that is great for kids but can annoy parents with its repetition.  We read I Love Saturdays y domingos, which has a pattern between sets of grandparents.  It's also nice as it includes some Spanish words.  We ended with Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What do You See and Peek-a-Boo Forest, which have sentences that repeat, with the slight change in animals in each page.

Wednesday we went back to dance class, and we realized music and dance are another place to explore patterns.  We listened to some musical patterns and tried to make our own with her various instruments.  We also practiced some movement patterns, with clapping and stomping.  We read one of my favorites, Zin Zin Zin, a Violin, which I love because it counts to ten, introduces different types of instruments, and uses some musical terminology.  We also read Do Re Mi, which was the interesting story of Guido d'Arezzo.  I didn't know a lot of this story, so it was interesting for me and written at a level children can understand.

Later we colored and worked on the Animals of the Alphabet book.  We had lots of R and S animals - raccoons, rabbits, rhinos, red pandas (which have long been an animal she loves, as it was the first animal she really reacted to at the zoo), snakes, sea dragons, sloths, sea horses, sheep, sea urchins, shrimp, sharks, sea stars, skunks, squirrels, scorpions, and seals.  She thought it was amazing how many ocean creatures there were.













Thursday we discussed routines.  We looked at bus and train schedules at the train station, and she built a train.  We looked at her calendar and I introduced some of her new chore options on her calendar.  The felt calendar is great because we can add things as we need them, but it doesn't always stick well.  There are some great options by Melissa and Doug instead, if you don't want to make your own.  There are activity and chore charts, but we combine these in our felt chart.  And yes, Genevieve does have chores at age 2.  She feeds the cat, sweeps, helps with laundry and dishes, waters the plants, and brushes her teeth and hair.  We talked about how her chores repeat and so do the activities.  We talked about how we feed the cat every day, but other things we only do once a week, like soccer and dance class.

Tobias had sign class on Thursday too.  This week was about getting dressed.  This week and the other classes fit this theme of patterns and routines as well.  So we talked about morning and evening routines and how these repeat.  Every night we watch Daniel Tiger while we clean up, then after Daniel we put go potty, put on pajamas, brush our teeth, share goodnight kisses, and then read many bedtime stories.  Daytime and nighttime are another type of pattern we also discussed

Friday we talked about some longer patterns, like how the moon changes, the 4 seasons, and life cycles of caterpillars.  Ready, Jet, Go has interesting episodes about the moon and perspective.  The younger character Mindy believes there are a bunch of different moons, and the older kids discover that this is not the case.  It doesn't necessarily bring up the lunar cycle, but it was a good launching point.  We've been observing the sky a lot in the morning and we've seen a large moon for a couple days last week.  We also saw some hot air balloons and clouds as a side note.

We watched the episode of Curious George with Hundley Junior, the caterpillar.  We read The Hungry Caterpillar and talked about the cycle a caterpillar goes through.  We looked at pictures of Genevieve when she was younger and compared them to pictures of Tobias.  So even though we don't go through the same changes of the caterpillar, we do go through similar growth patterns and learn skills in a similar order.

While talking about similarities, we also managed to have a few different versions of the Cinderella stories in the house at the moment, so we compared Raisel's Riddle, Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters, and The Talking Eggs to the Disney version, and Rexerella.  We looked for similarities and similar story arcs, and differences.

 Genevieve has been very interested in bones this week, so we also watched an episode of Dinosaur Train with Fossil Fred and read an introduction to the skeletal system.  Wild Kratts has been introducing new episodes with Chinese animals, and Genevieve loves pandas so we also read a little about pandas and monkeys in some National Geographic books.  We were also lucky to find a female duck in our yard and a camouflaged bug in the grass.

Simple Machines and Sick Days

This week we are exploring simple machines.  Monday we played with wheels, pulleys and gears.  Genevieve and Tobias both enjoyed playing with the gear caterpillar and with toys with wheels.  Tobias played with his car while Genevieve practiced using wheels to move items, rolling a bag of grapes across the floor.  We demonstrated how a pulley works by wrapping a string around two bottles.  We used a clothespin to attach some clothing to the string and rolled the upper bottle to see how the clothing moved and the bottom bottle spun.  We read Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site and looked for pulleys and wheels.

Genevieve added penguins, polar bears, pandas, peacocks, porcupines and quetzals to her animal book.  She showed the animals to Tobias and signs for many of the animals.  We also read If Animals Kissed Good Night and reviewed the animal signs in this book as well.

We had lots of free time so we also grabbed our art supplies and had some free art time.  Genevieve experimented with the pattern a fork creates in her glitter glue, played with more colored sand and noted the way it flows, and painted.  We also spent some time dancing.

Genevieve wasn't feeling well on Tuesday so we had some quiet lap times, reading Bear Feels Sick and Llama Llama Home with Mama.  I also let her play ABCmouse and her Eric Carle caterpillar game on the tablet, which we usually limit.

Although she still wasn't 100%, she was feeling a little better Wednesday.  We skipped our outings, but went ahead with our simple machines play.  She used her tools and balance to explore some of the ways we use levels and screws.  She also played with a new magnet drawing board while she recovered.  Although she doesn't mind, it's not the best magnet board I've seen.  She requested that I not take pictures while she's sick so there's no images to accompany our activities.

Thursday, she watched some wedges in action while watching me cut vegetables for dinner.  For being good while I did that, I let her help me measure and pour in ingredients to make some cookies. She experimented with inclined planes, wheels and levels at the park and in gymnastics on Friday.  We also used the walking tunnel under the trains to see how much easier it is to push our tricycle up the ramp than to take it up the stairs.

International Buildings for Bastille Day

Grandma left this week, so we have been spending extra time playing with her.  We started the week just building with blocks, and handing grandma blocks to add to a tower.  We started looking through some children's books of architecture.  There are a lot of them out there.  Some of our favorites were What's Inside and Earth-Friendly Buildings, Bridges and More.  What's Inside explores different styles of buildings, some of them historical.  Earth-Friendly Buildings, Bridges and More had many interesting lessons.  It explored skyscrapers, dams, bridges, domes and many other shapes of buildings.  It introduced some of the many different people involved in building a structure.  It included information about building safety and methods used to help the environment in these structures.  All of this was in a very kid friendly presentation and included some great activities.  We tried some ourselves, and I look forward to Genevieve and Tobias being older so we can try some more of these activities.

We read Tar Beach, which is a great fiction book that looks at buildings from a different angle.  It was one of Faith Ringgold's first books, and was based on her amazing story quilts.  The girl in the story flies over the George Washington Bridge and other buildings.  We also read a take on the Three Little Pigs, called The Pig Who Went Home on Sunday.  Like the Three Little Pigs, this explored different materials that could be used to make houses.

We explored some of the shapes in buildings and other structures.  We took a walk to look at shapes at purposes for local buildings and then looked at pictures of some famous ones.  We experimented with strength, comparing the sturdiness of rectangles, triangles and squares.  We cut some straws and used pipe cleaners to create these shapes, and then pushed in on the sides to see which held their shape best.  We used paper to create columns and demonstrated how thin pieces of paper can hold up heavy books.

We've been building with different kinds of blocks.  She has some simple cubes, some shape blocks, stacking cups, duplo and mega blocks.  She also tried building with some balls, which she learned do not make good towers.  We've tried seeing how high we can build towers and what different shapes we can create.  We've experimented with creating bridges to cover a gap and had fun making a fort with a blanket and the table.  We used toothpicks and mini marshmallows (or you could use gummy bears) to create structures as well.  We used them to create a bridge and tested what our bridge could hold.  It will be fun seeing how she improves with this experiment over time.  We can introduce building challenges like earthquakes and wind soon too.

We looked through a book about France for Bastille Day and mentioned a few of the more famous buildings.  Genevieve appreciated some of the pictures of French soccer players.  Genevieve looked at the flag and noted the colors.  To hear some French, we listened to Deedle Deedle Dees Marie Curie.  Although I didn't mention the recent attacks to her, our thoughts are with those in Nice who had their celebration interrupted.

Genevieve also learned that there are other things that can be built.  She really enjoys the story Help We Need a Title!  She loves the illustrations both in this book and in other Henre Tullet books.  Although they aren't flip books or texture books, they tend to have an interactive element.  This book introduces the idea that books are written by others.  She enjoyed building with her beads as well.

Meanwhile, Tobias had his second session of sign, bedtime signs.  Of course, he doesn't have the fine motor skills to do the signs, but he is fascinated watching the signs.

Celebrate the 4th of July

We started this week with some time outside and playing with playdough.  She's getting really good with her molds.  She likes to line up her creations in a "train" as she finishes.  We read a new favorite, The Cat with Seven Names, and an old favorite Little Goblins Ten.  We talked about community, as the cat brings together a whole neighborhood and since the 4th of July can bring together communities.

After visiting the park Monday morning, we continued talking about neighborhoods and friendship.  We read Ribbit!, a nice book about listening to others and making new friends.  Then we read some books in celebration of American history for the 4th of July.  She really enjoyed Two Friends: Susan B. Anthony and Fredrick Douglass which is a fictional tale of a real friendship between two people fighting for rights and overcoming prejudice.  We read two biographies of Thomas Jefferson written for kids and talked about the Declaration of Independence.  I told my traditional tale in thanks of horseflies, the only time I'm thankful for them.  The story goes that the Declaration of Independence was approved quickly by all the men of the Continental Congress because they met in the heat of July before air conditioning was invented.  They had met to debate and edit the document, but opened the windows to help with the heat.  The horseflies came in at that point, and they decided that it was fine as is and signed it.  Whether it is true or not, I like to think of today's politicians stuck somewhere without air conditioning until they got their work done and wonder if maybe more work would be accomplished.



Anyway, while I was reading, Genevieve was creating art.  We had looked at some pictures of fireworks.  I set her up with some glitter glue and black paper and she created some of her own fireworks.  She also used some scratch boards to create fireworks.  She won't be able to stay up and see them tonight, but she can see the images and learn a bit about them.



We played outside and used powder paint to make more firework paintings.  We used a spray bottle and water to set the powder paint to the paper.  Grandma took her on a sound tour of the yard.  They were using a tool to hit various objects and noticed how the sounds were different.  We compared sounds to each other and to the sounds the fireworks had made.

Genevieve loves Daniel Tiger, and the new episode of Daniel Tiger this week had fireworks, so she enjoyed that.  We read We Came to America which was a perfect compliment to our history and community books we have been reading.  It's another excellent book by Faith Ringgold, this one exploring various reasons people have come to America and some of what they brought to their new home.

We finished the week using collage boards and colored sand to make some images with more of the brilliant colors of fireworks.  Then we started some chemistry experiments, since fireworks are made by chemistry.  We created some red cabbage indicator by pouring boiling over red cabbage and letting it sit for at least 10 minutes.  We had Mentos, soda, the indicator, vinegar, baking soda and baking powder as well as a test tube and a bowl for overflow.  We held the test tube over the overflow bowl and noted the various reactions as she instructed me to add the items.  We noted change in color or bubbles and their frequency as we tried different combinations.  Finally, we read Brother Eagle, Sister Sky which was a great end to the week, with it's beautiful art and its reminder to protect the land.

Off topic, we found another owl pellet to explore and a dead bird we observed.  We talked about the importance of bugs as nature's cleaning crew as we watched the insects come and go.  We also remembered that we don't touch these finds, only look.  She also found some public art at our favorite train station, a piano, which she did an excellent job playing gently.

Tobias has also found a new favorite book, The Daddy Book, which doesn't fit in our topic but it is adorable to see how much he pays attention to it.  He also started sign class this week.  The first topic was mealtime, and he was so attentive and interested in everything.  We are doing our best to raise a nerd/geek as well, as he loves Grog on Critical Role.

Pretend Play and Animals!

Genevieve has been really into pretend play this week.  We've been dressing up as a cowgirl fairy and played puppets, which also have been fairy farm animals.  We read Eating the Alphabet and have played with our pretend foods.  She's used her dice to help dad and mom play dungeons and dragons.  She also used her building tools and then used her doctor tools to help her brother get ready for his doctor appointment.

We also added our M animals, such as moose, mice, and monkeys, to our animal book and pretended to be a monkey.  Genevieve has been interested in sorting and actually lined up some of her figurines on her own.

Tuesday we had a very busy and exciting day.  We played doctor again in the morning before Tobias's doctor appointment.  We read a lot of books with animals, both in storytime and on our own.  The Tiny Little Fly was an entertaining tale with a few animals bothered by a fly.  Genevieve has been loving The Mixed Up Chameleon so it was great that we heard that in storytime.  We also heard the Seals on the Bus, an animal take on the Wheels on the Bus which is one of Genevieve's favorite songs.  We also read Animalia and The Water Hole, which are beautifully illustrated and written by Graeme Base.  His illustrations often include hidden puzzles and should be enjoyed by both kids and adults.  Animalia was a fun review of animals of the alphabet, which compliments her book well and The Water Hole both covers numbers, animals of different biomes, and suggests the effects of extreme weather on habitats.  Genevieve also picked a nonfiction book about big cats of the world.

After Tobias's doctor appointment, we went to a special event held by the library.  A local animal rescue center brought some animals.  There was an alligator, a great horned owl, a kinkajou, a striped skunk and an African crested porcupine.  The kids heard about the dangers of trying to raise wild animals in your home and watched the different animals walk.

My little scientist was also using her magnifying glass to investigate.  Additionally, Genevieve was playing with the clock puzzle and continued her sorting phase by sorting the pieces by color.  We also talked about the minute hand and hour hand, and she enjoyed discovering that the clock also has a face.

She started Wednesday with grandma playing the "bedtime game."  We continued to pretend while we were at dance, taking a "trip to the beach."  We flew as butterflies, played with beach balls, splashed in the water and hopped as frogs through different dance poses.  We practiced our balance with some flamingo poses too.  Genevieve continued to impress her coach with her gymnastics skills, both on the balance beam and with forward rolls.

She added N and O animals to her book.  There are few N animals so we added a newt, but we had fun with owls, ocelots, orangutans and opossums.  She didn't want to pretend to be them as she was tired but we did talk about the way they move.  We looked at A Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte and created our own dot artwork after a nap.  We also exchanged and sorted our allowance money.

Genevieve wanted to pretend more on Thursday.  She was caring for her baby doll at home and then decided Pete the Cat was her toddler.  She gave him a shoulder ride to the splash park and pushed him in the swings at the park.  When we got home, we read One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish.  I had made some construction paper rhyming fish, so she used her magnetic wand to pretend to fish for them.  We matched them by color and rhyming words, laying them out and then mixing them up again for another round.  We also sorted some colorful caps into our train cars - counting one cap in the first car, 2 in the second and so forth.  She then had some fun sorting them by color and sorting her colorful pasta by shape.

We ended the week with more The Mixed Up Chameleon and a Wild Kratts episode about chameleons.  We used this to discuss camouflage.  We played a searching game with some animals that were camouflaged.  We talked about how we can use this knowledge in hide-and-seek.

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.