Field Trips Galore

Genevieve changed her mind just in time to make it to the fair.  We walked through the livestock stalls and she rode some ponies.  They had a nice little area for the kids to practice farming and paint a flower.

We were flying to see family, so got to explore an airport.  Tobias loved watching all the planes and trucks at work, and Genevieve liked being in the clouds and seeing the world from above.  Tobias had the best laugh whenever a suitcase came up to the baggage claim carousel. Genevieve loved riding in the shuttle too.  We talked about some of the people and science that makes commercial flight possible, and tried to guess what kind of clouds we were flying through.  We enjoyed our Baby Loves Science book about aerospace engineering.

We explored a new library, but missed storytime as they are getting ready for summer reading program.  But there were new books to discover and toys to enjoy.  We also were able to share toys both new and old with family.  We saw great grandma, and aunts and uncles as well as grandma.

We went to the Newport Aquarium.  Jeremiah and I both spent some time working there, so it was nice to see it again.  They've added more touch pools since the last time we visited.  Genevieve liked seeing the seahorses, stingrays, and penguins.  She remembered the penguins from the last time she was here, because she loves to look at those pictures.  She played with the frogs and checked out the paddlefish too.  She was a little sad not to see any octopus or jellyfish right now, but all the turtles, the chuckwalla that tried to climb to us and the 3 large alligators made up for it.  Tobias slept through the beginning but woke up in time to see the great tunnels through the stingray tanks.  He splashed in some of the touch pools, watched a stingray eat and got a up close view of the shark rays.

We played at the Duke Energy Children's Museum, another place I used to work.  A lot has changed but I still love it.  Dr. Mike still DJs for storytime.  Both kids loved the water, the balls and the train table.  The newer dentist area and kids space are nice.  Genevieve made a sculpture out of red clay in the kids space, while Tobias built with blocks.  I miss the idea of Children Just Like Me, but I understand why they replaced it as it wasn't as interactive as the other exhibits.

Some family members are building their own house, so we stopped by to see what's inside our walls.  She really liked how he used glass bottles in the wall to create a colorful effect.

Her Aunt and Uncle let her help them set up a tent for backyard camping.  She quickly got it assembled, with a little guidance from them, then gathered twigs for a fire and grabbed her sleeping gear.  She had fun playing camping and eating s'mores, but wasn't ready for a night outside.  She looked for stars but could only find airplanes before she came inside to sleep.

We explored the Discovery Garden at Glenwood Gardens, which had a butterfly garden, a play tree to climb, and a model train that Tobias loved.  The wobbly bridge and fairy garden are cute additions.  Genevieve liked the scarecrows too.

Genevieve loves art, so really wanted to see an art museum.  We took her to the Contemporary Art Center in Cincinnati because we had heard it was better for kids because of the Unmuseum at the top.  That was more her speed as the current exhibits didn't interest her.  She played with a cube that played musical notes, built skylines, and she made some of her own art.  Her favorite thing though was the swinging lights by the stairs.

We tried out the Cincinnati Zoo but it was too big for her taste.  She wanted to rush to the cheetahs and almost missed her favorite giraffes.  The map didn't always reflect the roads well, so we spent some time backtracking.  Plus we were there on a Friday, which meant we had to fight through the field trips.  We made it to the train, but be warned the carousel and many of the kiosks close at 3:00.  We reached the carousel at 3:05 and suffered great disappointment.  But they enjoyed seeing the polar bear and some of the other animals we don't usually see at the Sacramento Zoo like manatees and elephants.  They had some of her favorites like bats and penguins as well.

Parky's Farm was a fun destination we hadn't tried before.  It's run by the park district and has lots of farm animals to see and touch.  Tobias loved the little pedal tractors while Genevieve rode ponies and ran around the indoor playground.  After the rain stopped, they played on the outdoor playground, watered the garden, and checked out the wetlands where they found a tiny red eared slider and really little brown frog.

Loveland Castle was holding Castle Days, which seemed interesting as it promised a family friendly event with shows and knights.  It sounded like a mini-Renaissance fair, but it was not as advertised.  We went with the hopes of seeing princesses, but didn't find anyone in fancy dress.  There were some belly dancer but they didn't hold Genevieve's interest.  Mostly she was intimidated by the narrow stairs inside the castle.

When we weren't exploring, we got to play a lot of board games.  Genevieve brought Candy Land because she was anxious to play it with her uncle.  She really enjoyed Strike, which gave her the opportunity to make matches and we discussed more and less.  We laid out some cards from the picture version of Code Names and tried to come up with descriptive words to create matches.  The adults played Spice Road, and she got a cube each turn to try to make a match.  She really enjoyed another game of her uncle's, in which a cat tries to catch toy cars.

A Fair Affair

To celebrate summer and a year of lessons under our belt, this week we've been playing fair and carnival games.  We were going to end the week with a trip to our local fair, but Genevieve fought the very idea.  She was more excited about her dentist appointment.

We started off by lining up a row of Solo cups and tossing balls into them.  It helps if you weigh them down a bit.  We tried different balls to see which was easiest to throw with precision.  In the future, we may number the cups and aim for a total or add letters inside the cups and try to spell a word for prizes.  We also practiced building a pyramid out of cups and trying to hit them with a ball.  We played with balloons and sang "We're Going to the Circus.". Genevieve and I pretended to be popcorn popping.  We held a dice race with our set of different gaming dice, guessing which would move the most spaces each turn.  She decorated the window for summer as well.

Genevieve loves the Miss Bindergarten and Miss Fox books, so we read Miss Bindergarten Plans a Circus with Kindergarten, which follows the alphabet and reviews colors, and Miss Fox's Class Earns a Field Trip, which deals with math.  I enjoyed Lloyd Moss's Zin Zin Zin a Violin, so we tried another of his books about instruments, Our Marching Band.  Genevieve found an interesting book about Alexander Calder and his sculptures, Sandy's Circus.

A Look at What We Have Learned this Year

This week started with a playdate at the zoo.  We met some friends at story time and met a beekeeper who spoke about raising bees.  We pretended to play baseball, counting the bases as we ran.  Speaking of pretend, we performed a number of shows for one another, from song and dance to acting.  We sang about water animals in Music Makers.  We ended the week with a second trip to the zoo and a stop at Fairytale Town with grandparents.  Genevieve practiced soccer and tried to write a recipe as well.

And through all the running around, I have been reflecting on the lessons of the past year.  I have discovered that after being napped on, I feel drained in the afternoon so it is best for me to plan quiet times for the afternoon.

Tobias has learned to walk and say Mom and Dad.  He attempts to say Genevieve and can sign a few words like bubbles, all done, dog, music and nursing.  He has started showing his interests, rolling the cars and making motor noises or choosing blue items and hexagons.  He enjoys the books of Todd Parr and Eric Carle.  He loves music and has a better sense of rhythm than my dad, moving and drumming to the beat.  He also loves to build.  He's started gymnastics but can't wait to play soccer like sister, especially if they play with parachutes.

Genevieve has moved into the Frozen, pink, princess, and My Little Pony stage, but still likes robots, animals and science.  Her fear of bugs that developed this year is odd though, as she's never been afraid of them before.  She's learned to count to 4, and can count 7, 8, 9 but struggles to connect them.  She does know that the last number indicates the number of items though. She's been having fun identifying and trying to write letters like T for Tobias and G for Genevieve and Grandma, while I get to practice working with a lefty.   She knows shapes and colors.  She loves art, and to study family photos and maps.  She likes to draw her own maps, and  has gotten better at staying in the lines while coloring.  She can finish 12 piece puzzles, while last year she would get frustrated with them. I love hearing her tell me about her favorite moons, the ice moons Enceladus and Europa of the gas giants.  She likes to tell me about the food different animals eat, and can identify many animals and dinosaurs.  It's also amazing that she has learned to sit through classes and shows without me there to remind her to behave.  It's harder in active classes like dance and gymnastics, but she knows what to do in music and storytime.

Board Games for Kids

This week, Geek and Sundry celebrated International Tabletop Day, streaming board game play and collecting money for Extra Life.  I love Geek and Sundry and really appreciate the role board games can play in anyone's life, but especially the skills kids can gain.  As such, in addition to our regular reading, painting, performing and coloring, we've been playing a lot of board games.

Jeremiah picked out a new game for Genevieve, and we've really enjoyed it.  Hoot Owl Hoot by Peaceable Kingdom was a great hit.  Peaceable Kingdom tries to be environmentally friendly in their production and they create a lot of cooperative games.  I love cooperative games because instead of pitting players against one another, they encourage teamwork.  Players win or lose together, and frequently they may all lose but they have fun together.  This game involves matching colors and allowed some fun storytelling about the owls flying back to their nest.  Genevieve is learning a bit of strategy, slowly realizing that it's not always best to play your favorite color and that although the suns are pretty, they move the game closer to the end.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Game is based on the Eric Carle book.  The furthest a player can move each turn is 4 spaces, using number recognition from the spinner and one-to-one correspondence as the piece is moved.  There is a moon space, leading to a missed turn which is an interesting lesson for preschoolers.  She practices counting skills as she collects food for the caterpillar at different stops.  She loves helping everyone reach the end so that everyone becomes a butterfly.

We played some classic games like Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders.  I love the history of Chutes and Ladders, being a lesson in karma.  Some of the boards have fun illustrations to demonstrate that.  It can be tricky to navigate the board, so preschoolers may need some guidance but there's plenty of counting and one-to-one correspondence.  We somehow finish Chutes and Ladders, but Candy Land's art is too distracting.

I have fond memories of entertaining myself with different challenges in Hi Ho Cherry-o, so I love playing this with Genevieve.  It's great counting, and you can play cooperative or competitive.  The newer version has a puzzle for the cooperative version.

Finally, we played more matching games.  Christmas, animals and habitats, and Jake and the Neverland pirates.  All these games help with concentration and social skills.

Genevieve and Tobias also watched us play some different board games with friends.  She was able to come and go, helping me when she wanted.  She liked helping choose where to stop in Tokaido and building bamboo and rolling​ dice in Takenoko.  She also enjoyed showing off her art to Dad's friends.

Dad Came Home

Other than celebrating Earth Day with gardening and flying kites, we took the week off from formal lessons this week to enjoy Daddy's time off.  We put on performances - dance and storytelling.  We went to the farmers market after our gymnastics and dance class.  We played a lot of games and read some of our favorite books.  We spent a day just having fun building with blocks.  She played some ABC Mouse and PBS Kids games when Daddy was busy.

Easter and the 100th Day

This week we celebrated the 100th day of the year, Passover, and Easter.  We also celebrated dad's return home, made a blueberry pie, and watched a Tall Tales puppet show at the library.

For the 100th day of the year, we built piles of 100 items like pasta, buttons and beads.  We explored different ways we could create 100 cents.  Genevieve made a picture with 100 stickers and we worked together on a book with 100 words as well as patterns with 100 shapes.  We read Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the 100th Day of Kindergarten and created the 100 day hash.  We ended our celebration with a game of Chutes and Ladders, which has 100 spaces.

We read several Passover and Easter books, talking about the traditions and Biblical stories.  Genevieve loves the Matzo Ball Moon and the pictures in A Sweet Passover.  She found The Matzah that Papa Brought Hom havee a little long in it's repetition, but liked the picture hunting for the afikomen.  We compared this tradition to hunting for Easter eggs and talked about the different ways we had read about

She loves Betty Bunny, so we read Betty Bunny Loves Chocolate Cake and Betty Bunny Loves Easter.  We referred to Betty Bunny later when we needed to think about being patient.  We also read a Disney princess board book about Spring and a Snoopy book about the Easter Beagle.  We did lots of egg experiments to go with Easter.  We had great success removing the shells with vinegar and shrinking the inside with corn syrup.  We had less luck pulling the egg into a bottle.  Our matches were extinguished too quickly to heat up the inside.  But Genevieve did have fun using an egg carton and Easter candy to play Mancala.  She also helped decorate for Easter, dye the eggs for her hunt, and did a quick egg hunt in our backyard.

My Princess

Since Genevieve is excited about princesses, I figured we would embrace it this week.  In addition to the numerous Disney princess and Frozen books, we read several books about princesses, both real and pretend.  The Princess Knight, like Brave, reminds girls that they are not merely a hand to be fought for.  We've been reading some chapter books, so finished some of the Wide-awake Princess series and Merida Legend of the Emeralds.  Genevieve loves the pink of Pinkalicious and loves predicting the end.  We read some silly princess stories like Pirate Princess and the Paper Bag Princess.  We read some international princess stories like Shibumi and the Kitemaker, The Princess who Lost Her Hair, and Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters.  We read about Cleopatra and Princess Diana.

We talked about what makes a princess a princess and the skills they might need.  We practiced music, dance, and sewing as princesses of old.  We used hieroglyphics stamps to spell some words.  Genevieve painted some pictures of princesses and queens, and practiced writing with a feather.  We also created an acrostic from the word princess and built castles.

Genevieve has had some great pretend play, creating surprise parties and playing doctor.  She's been telling stories and acting them out, pulling us along with her.  We found some great books about being yourself and using art to forget about war.  Tobias has been showing more interest in art as well.