Over the weekend, we went to some yard sales and my parents came to visit. Snugglepuppy swung on his swing, shot his new water squirter, and did his outdoor scavenger hunt using this printable. Here are some of the things we found on the scavenger hunt:
Spider Web
Helicopter Seed
Moss
Pine Cone
Natural Letter (I)
Pine Tree
And one that wasn't on the list, but Snugglepuppy thought was cool, a seed.
I got all this for $5 at yard sales and a foldable stepper for $25!
Day 31:
Today, grandma and grandpa ate breakfast with us and then went home. We had to run to Walmart for a few things and both kids were very good on the trip. Snugglepuppy played on his own while I cleaned house and Ladybug slept, then we got into some art. He painted and drew with crayons. He started getting really fussy and so had a very late nap. After that, he only had time to eat dinner before bed. That was it for today, nothing too exciting.
Day 8:
This morning after breakfast, we decided to take a walk. So I loaded Snugglepuppy and Squeaker in the wagon and with a neighbor, we walked to our little park at the end of the road.
Snugglepuppy threw rocks off the bridge into the creek and went down and walked in the creek. We saw some tiny fish and he held a worm. He loved picking up the biggest rocks he could find and throwing them in the water to try and splash me.
When we got home, we ate lunch and had some banana ice cream. Love this recipe I found on Pinterest. You simply peel and freeze some very ripe bananas and then put them in the blender or food processor. It's that easy and healthy. Snugglepuppy ate almost all of it which is saying a lot for him.
Then we built the train tracks and ran the trains around them for a while. Then we went outside and played in the little pool. I was going to let Squeaker get in too, but she was sleeping so well, I just let her be. You can see in the background of this picture the failed water wall I attempted to make. Gonna have to go back to the drawing board on that one!
We also played with a letter puzzle and put together an Elmo floor puzzle. Snugglepuppy video chatted with his aunt after his bath (splashy splashy). He used the foam letters to stick to the wall of the bath. We also grilled out burgers tonight when daddy got home. It was a pretty good day.
Hello Friends! I know I have been away a LOT recently. I feel I have been so busy that I haven't done anything worthy of blogging about. But, I have decided to chronicle all the things we do this Summer and hopefully somewhere in there will be something that is useful to someone or at least you may enjoy following along with our journey. So, here goes. Me trying to entertain the 2 1/2 year old (Snugglepuppy) and the 2 month old (Squeaker) by myself with a little learning along the way.
Day 1:
Today we went to a local metro park. We decided to play on the playground and visit the nature center. Snugglepuppy had lots of fun looking at the animals and playing with the interactive nature board (see photo below). We also worked a floor puzzle of butterflies and insects. We had to leave there pretty fast as Squeaker had a poop-splosion of epic proportions. It leaked out into the car seat and down through the car seat onto the wagon and everything in it including the umbrella and Snugglepuppy's feet! Ughh, it was pretty gross. Needless to say, that ended our trip.
After cleaning all that mess up, we ate lunch and I put Snugglepuppy down for his nap (which he actually took!) Meanwhile, the free iPad arrived in the mail! We are currently searching for awesome free apps for kids. Leave a comment if you know of any. We took a walk later on that evening. Snugglepuppy made another attempt at riding his tricycle, but once he got started pedaling, he forgot to steer and ended up in the grass. Oh well, just needs more practice.
We made it through day 1, thank goodness! Mommy was exhausted after putting the kids to bed and then working on my cake pops and chocolate dipped pretzel sticks. Finally got to bed after 1 am. Hope tomorrow's more relaxing.
Here are the much-anticipated TEACH Awards for September. Haha, actually I haven't done them since June, so I guess most people probably forgot about it. The winners can feel free to grab the featured button from my right sidebar. Congrats!
PS. TO ALL PINTEREST PINNERS:
If you wish to pin anything you find on this post, please click on the link to go to the actual blog that originally posted it and then pin. These are NOT my ideas, so please don't link your pins back to this page. Thanks!
We went to the Metro Gardens a few weeks ago and walked along the boardwalk trail. We happened to pick up this brochure that shows different types of wildflowers and where you can find each of them along the trail between the numbered markers.
While I was not able to take any photos of wildflowers on the trail while pushing a stroller, I do have some from around the neighborhood (Thanks to hubby).
I also found a website where you can put in all the information about wildflowers and it will identify the flower. There is an app that you can download for your phone as well.
Here is the featured link from last week. There were only 3 link-ups last week, guess people are busy with their summer plans and taking a break from blogging. So I am only featuring one this week with the most clicks:
We just wrapped up our plant study that lasted about a month. Some of the topics we covered included:
Where can plants grow?
What are the parts of a plant?
Does a plant need soil to grow?
What do you need to do to plant a garden?
Here is my original post about our garden center. We have done so much since then! Here are 10 of our favorite activities.
1. Tracking the growth of our plants.
The different seeds we planted included pinto beans, sunflowers, marigolds, and forget-me-nots. As you can see, some starting growing much faster than others. Each day the children looked to see if their plant was coming up yet and we made a list.
Here is a closeup of what they looked like toward the end of the study when we sent them home.
2. Writing nature words.
3. Nature walk at our living habitat.
The children pointed out lots of things they saw growing. This was also one of the ways we investigated our study question: Where can plants grow?
They documented what they saw on mini clipboards.
We discussed different environments including wetlands.
4. We used the felt board to sort some laminated photos of plants growing in different types of habitats.
5. We talked about how fruits grow on plants and graphed our favorite one by writing names.
6. We did a chart of different questions relating to our previous experiences such as:
Have you ever made a bouquet of flowers?
Have you ever seen a plant growing in snow?
Have you ever been to a greenhouse?
Then we counted the amount of each answer to see which was the most and which was the least.
7. We filled our sensory table with water beads.
8. We filled our sensory table with sand and soil.
9. Gluing seeds in the center of a sunflower. I can't honestly take credit for this one, it's my nephew's artwork from preschool. But it is a great idea and if I would've seen this sooner, we would have done it as well.
10. We read some great picture books about plants and gardens which you will definitely want to check out if you are doing a plant study.
