Done!

Well, we've had some visitors and been busy these past few weeks, and now summer is over!

What worked well:

1. The girls LOVED keeping a journal of what they learned and were mad when I forgot to find "journal-time."
2. Watching my girls stop at the zoo, notebooks in hand, alongside their uncle to sketch an elephant.  A mom passed me and said, "Are they sketching?!?!?  What a great idea!!" She was surprisingly stoked.
3. Having a theme each week.  During lunch, we'd just start talking about the theme.  Kids have so many questions, and I have so many answers . . .  and those answers just give them more questions!  Without those topics to guide us, I think they would have spent their entire summer talking about Barbie and Cinderella.  They still talked about Barbie and Cinderella, but it was nice to have a break and think about our ribs go up and down when we breathe, or why bugs don't have skin, or things look smaller the further thay are from you.

What didn't work well:

1. Mommy's energy.  After a while I just didn't care what the Spanish word for "monkey" is.  God bless teachers.

Have a safe school year!

Awesome Animals

105 degrees heat index, husband busy at work, and what did I do today? I went to the zoo. See? That's why you have to give themes to your summer weeks, because it guilts you into doing wonderful things for your children that no sane person would do.

So I reminded the kids that I had no help from dad and they had to be good. They always take pity on me when I am by myself and act ike perfect angels. We rocked that zoo. And the animals were really workin' it today!

What we learned:
*Giraffes can lick inside their nostrils with their tongue.
*Bonobo babies are cute. The adult females Bonobos are even more awesome.
*Otters get out of the water to poop. And the smell of the poop is so bad it permeates the entire exhibit. Otters are also camera-hogs.
*Ants like elephant exhibits. So much so that you have to watch the elephants from the reptile house in order to avoid being bitten.
*The red-legged Sierna (or something like that) likes to lay right next to the walking path and look dead. Seriously, they don't curl up or lay down, they just look like they plopped down all funky-like. (I almost reported the injured and dying bird, until I saw a sign posted saying, "This bird isn't dead or injured, he just lays down like that.")

Okay, the kids slept on the way home and now they are up and full of energy . . . where's my nap?????

Sew Super!

Last week was craft-o-rific!

My two eldest made these little American Girl crafts (40% off at Michaels a while back).  Except for the beginning and ending knots, they sewed them all on their own.  Pretty good for a 5 & 7 year old!

The eldest is so excited to try her hand at other sewing crafts.  We are planning on making capes, scarves, and bandanas for some of her dolls. 

(Confession time)  I find sewing very, um, annoying.  I'm fine until something goes wrong.  In my world, taking apart a seam is like being one of those guys in old Western movies that has to take out a bullet lodged in his own arm.  Yep, it's that torturous for me. I just can't bring myself to do it.  I'd rather walk away a failure, arm swinging lifeless at my side, than have to redo something.  But I do it.  And just when I take out the last stitch, I realize, no, my first attempt was actually the correct way . . . . well, that's like when the old Western guys have to seal the wound by heating up their dagger over an open flame and then FZZZZZZZ, burn the wound close.

I don't sew much.

But, just because I am not naturally inclined towards the activity, doesn't mean it's not a great activity.  I actually find it to be great for developing spatial awareness.  Take a flat piece of fabric and visualize how you have to cut and sew it to make it into a skirt or shirt or whatever.  Pretty amazing.    So I am supporting my daughter's creativity! . . . . until she asks me to undo a seam.  Then I'm hiding the sewing machine until at least next summer.

(P.S.--Daughter #3 got a Hook n' Latch kit.  I thought that would be easier for her.  After hours . . . . she had one row completed.  I decided to help her at night.  After 2 hours . . . I had 6 rows completed.  What a terrible activity. Never . . . . a- . . . . -gain.)

Next week: Gracious God or Awesome Animals, hmmmmmmm, we'll see which strikes my fancy!

Exquisite Earth

Okay, let's pretend Mondays do not count this week. My four-legged child required extra attention today and I fear she may consume more of my time this week, but I shall persevere! I trudge on and offer up this spectacular week--Exquisite Earth!

(A hush falls over the crowd)

Okay, this is kind of a catch-all week. So just pretend it is amazing, 'kay?

Activities:

1. Maps
*Find all relatives' houses
* I have got extra butcher paper from Bodacious Bodies week, so let's make our own maps of our home, neighborhood, state, and country!

2. Transportation
*I have little wooden models of a boat, tractor, etc for the kids to put together. How does this relate to the Earth? Well, how else do you travel across the Earth? See? See how I worked in a craft?

3. Flower Identification
*Remember the flower coloring activity we were supposed to do during Drawing week? Well, we didn't, but now we will!

4. Nature Party
*Everyone pretends to be something in nature--not just animals, but even trees or lakes! Then our party takes a crazy turn--winter hits with snow, or there is a big hurricane coming! How will nature react? What happens to the lake in freezing weather? What will the tree do during severe winds?

5. Duplication (Sharing Nature with Children, pg. 48)
* Gather 5-10 natural items from the yard and place them on a tray. Introduce the tray to the children and have them study the items. Then the children must go out and see if they can find duplicates (shells from the lake, rocks, a maple tree leaf, etc). This helps them with identifying objects in nature and also increases observation and memory.

Happy last week of June to you!

Magnificent Music Wrap Up

The fun:

*The girls did a fine job of learning a composer's style. I particularly enjoyed when I played a song and my eldest guessed correctly that the composer was Wagner. I asked how she knew and she said she knew it was Wagner because, "It sounds like someone is winning a war!" Great! Bwahahah, I am raising mini-geniuses. I am now feeling a bit motivated to continue playing the few select composers throughout the summer to keep quizzing them. I am pondering this even though I cannot believe some of the omissions, but whatev.
*This book (see below) was well worth the purchase. We put the CD in the player and read from the book. I did my best preschool teacher impression--full of uberduber voice inflections. I had the kids listening for the different sounds and walking around imitating the animals. The two oldests' attentions were rapt.
Check it out!

The failures:
*Did not have time to try out all of instruments in the house, but that's not so bad. It means we were busy!!
*The Sound Detective Game?? Yeah, apparently one of my daughters is a cheat! I would tip toe and her head would just turn and follow me. She just could not keep her eyes shut.

Magnificient Music

Music. Many of the topics that we are exploring this summer seem to have a "extra-curricular" feel about them. I, however, do not feel that way about these subjects. Not only do I feel that familiarity with art, poetry, music, etc is important for expanding the mind, but I believe approaching these subjects develops skills that are used in numerous other aspects of our lives.

I love music's history, its hidden cultural codes, the psychological aspects of how music alters our moods, and the math inherent in musical notation. It's just pretty dang interesting. To add to the interest, I have decided to teach music in conjunction with greater listening skills.

Here we go . . . .

1. Meet The Composers. So many choices here, what to do, what to do???
*The story of Muzio Clementi. Mommy plays an excerpt.
*The story of Chopin . . . because I loooove his music.
*The story of Brahms
*The story of Rachmaninoff, because I can't get enough of those dang Russians. I just can't. They are my weakness.

2. The sections of the orchestra. I think we might actually have an instrument from each section for the kids to try.

3. Carnival of the Animals
*Read the book
*listen to the CD
*Imitate the animals we hear. Want to watch our elephant walk?

4. Listening skills: Sound Detectives (Games for Learning, pg. 10). Kids all close eyes/blindfolded. Mommy sneaks around the room and then makes a little sound. Kids have to point to where they think Mommy is. They open their eyes to see who was right (in case of a tie, who was first). Take off shoes to make it harder. tippy-toes gets harder, etc. As the detectives become more skilled, the sounds become quieter and trickier.

5. First Sound, Last Sound (G for L, pg. 66). Kids get a piece of paper with two columns: one labeled "First," one labeled "Last." A bowl of little snacks act as the tokens. Mommy gives a word, "dog." Ask where the 'd' sound is--first or last? If they place their tokens on the right column, they keep the snack. If not, Mommy gets the treat!!

Closing Out the Week

Well, I'm not going to lie; it was harder to manage both Bible School and Flip Flop Scholars at the same time than I thought it would be. I think I will have to reschedule Distinguished Drawings for a later date. We actually did work through most of the objectives, but admittedly, a bit half-heartedly.

The take-aways:
1. Kids under 5 cannot do the tracing activity. I was shocked! Even the five year old struggled a bit. This game is where you draw a shape and the kids keep outlining it until the whole paper is filled in. I was shocked at how hard his was for them.

2. The simple drawing book I mentioned? Great. I will definitely save that one for future use!

Distinguished Drawings

Plan for the week of June 13th:

This week is Vacation Bible School.  This means the kids will be gone every morning (and I just got a call for a playdate for tomorrow afternoon), plus they will be tired from all the VBS fun.  So I decided on a topic that is nothing but fun! Distinguished Drawings!  Here is our list of activities:

• "I Can Draw"  The brilliance of this book is its simplicity.  They break down the look of an animal into basic shapes . . . and they don't add too much detail.  A great beginer's guide to drawing animals.  I think we will tackle an animal or two per day.
• "Sing, Sign, & Learn" This book has song to teach you sign language--all set to familiar nursery rhyme/songs.  We will do, "Who is Wearing?" (teaches colors) set to The Muffin Man.  We may also tackle "Rainbow Colors" set to Working on the Railroad.
• "Wildflowers"  This book is a field guide to wildflowers, but the main part of the book only has outlines of the flowers, you have to go to the back and see what colors need to be filled in.  You actually color your own field guide.  I think this will help the girls pay attention to the color of the world around them . . . and maybe learn the name of a flower or two.
• "Games for Learning"--Drawn to Order, pg. 4.  This activity teaches small motor control and pencil-holding skills (perfect for the 3 year old).  Mommy will draw a simple, small, squiggly shape for each girl.  The  girl then chooses a color and outlines the shape.  They choose another color and outline the outline.  They keep doing this until the whole paper is covered in repeating, ever-increasing rainbow colored shape.
• "Games for Learning"--Flash Looks, pg. 14.  This game is supposed to help kids distinguish between subtle visual differences.  Take strips of paper and draw a line down the middle.  On one side draw a simple picture, on the other side either draw the same simple picture, or one that is slightly different.  The child look at the strip of paper for only a few seconds and has to declare if it is the same or different.  Obviously the more subtle the difference, the more difficult the task is.  What a great way to make them more observant.
• Art History lesson!  I thought the children might enjoy a very basic introduction to some art movements.  I'm thinking we'll look at:
• The colors of Fauvism
• The subject matter of Pop Art
• The look of Cubism
• The subject matter of Surrealism
• The emotion of Expressionism
• More drawing fun. Very basic lessons on:
• Perspective
• Trying to imitate one (or more) of the above art movements

I think this week's plan has a nice mixture of activities that will help develop their visual observation skills and their drawing abilities.

DD1 Report on Bodacious Bodies

And to practice her typing and spelling skills, here is DD1 . . .

Bodies are important. They have bones and muscles. They make us strong.
Did you know that your heart is always pumping like a little steam engine? your blood vessels are always
moving around your body.

Closing out The Week

All in all a great week--our summer school only lasts about 1 hour a day, but it gives our summer momentum and that feels productive and satisfying.  We reviewed Spanish words for parts of the body, read the body books over and over again, and it seemed to hold the kids' interest.  I think the best part of this little summer plan is that the information is presented in a concentrated way over the week.  I think it was beneficial to read "Me and My Amazing Body" three times in 5 days.  They did not mind the repetition and it helped their retention of the information and allowed them to develop questions.

Our little joint experiment was interesting.  I wrapped the kids arms up in magazines.  The 1 yr old was so excited to get her magazines--she wants to be like the big girls.  Then she panicked when I put Cheerios in front of her and she couldn't eat them!  I was quite proud of daughter #2 for coming up with a creative way to solve the "feed yourself without elbow joints" problem.  Look:

Good aim!

I ignored their learning jounrals all week until on Friday they remembered and requested to write in them.  They very eagerly drew pictures of skulls and brains and such.  Each one came to me and carefully explained what was in each picture.  They know the brain is the boss of the body, the lungs are like the balloons, the heart pumps the blood, and bones are like tent poles holding themselves up.  I am glad they remembered the journals--they turned out precious.

My eldest's journal was obviously more detailed and even included interesting factoids. In order to keep her thinking skills up to school standards she has been completing science worksheets, while I have been holding reading lessons with #2 and #3.  Maybe I should have her report her findings . . .

Bodacious Bodies: The Workshop

We did our body outlines.  Although the paper wasn't cheap, it was a success nonetheless.  The girls thought the size of their coloring surface was amazing!  It was thrilling to be handed a crayon and told: go for it!  The baby loved getting traced, but was more interested in stepping on everyone else's creations than coloring her own.

The pros: they enjoyed it and loved showing off the results to grandparents and daddy.

The cons: once the kids saw me draw flowers on the baby's shirt, I was commissioned to draw a million different designs on everybody else's paper. Not exactly a "you keep busy while I do other work" type of activity.

They asked if they could do it again and I told them that on Friday we would do outlines again but this time they had to draw their insides!  They are excited about drawing their skeletons.

Don't you love the 1980s-looking rainbow leg-warmers on the second from the right girl?

Bodacious Bodies

This will be the first topic we tackle this summer (week of June 6-10).  It seems appropriate to address some of these topics before summer camps start. We're striving for: informative, science-infused, serious, and fun. 

Diagram by Madhero88

• Read the books listed under the "Themes for Summer 2011" tab throughout the week.  We will start with "Amazing Me!" progress to the "Difference" book, and end with "Those are MY . . ."  Sounds empowering, doesn't it!  The extra book listed will be a back-up if needed--I'm fine with saving that for next year!
• Activites:
• Butcher paper outlines of everyone's body.  They will then get to color in outfits or hair or whatever to make their outlines look like themselves.  We will display these somewhere around the house this week. (Alternative if the paper is too expensive--chalk outlines on the driveway. Hopefully that's not too crime-scene-esque!)
• Pass down/pass up.  We'll have the girls sit down in birth order, blindfolded.  They will each receive a sock that is too big or too small--which way should they pass it?  (This will obviously be waaaay too easy for my oldest, but the three year old will get a kick out of it. Objective: show how bodies grow bigger as kids get older.
• Useful joints! First, we will look at how our joints look at the bone level.  This site seems to have a pretty uncomplicated picture.  We will concentrate on just the "hinge" and "ball and socket" joints.  I will ask the girls if they can find similar "joints" around the house. 
• Useful joints continued! (This next part is totally stolen from my in-laws.  I have pictures of my hubby & his brother doing this)  Wrap the kids' arms inside of a rolled up magazine. (Obviously, do not leave your kid like this.  This is meant to be a 3 minute, supervised activity, not an all-day event).  Then ask the kids to try to feed themselves some snacks placed on a table in front of them (no cheating by eating like the "Piggy" on "A Christmas Story").  Without the use of their elbow joints, they can't . . . unless they feed each other.  Awwww, a lesson on useful joints and teamwork all wrapped into one!
• Butcher Paper "In"lines.  Do a second outline but this time, instead of drawing how we look on the outside, they can draw what they look like on the inside.  (This is well covered in the "Amazing Me" book which we will have read a few times by now.)  Will they draw bones?  Joints?  The eggs they ate for breakfast?
• Make a Bone-Strengthening Smoothie! What do we need?  Calcium, of course.  Where do we find calcium?  Ummmmm, ice cream!  Don't worry, I'll throw in a banana, a bunch of strawberries, and probably my smoothie-standby spinach to "up" the health factor.  What a fun way to end the week.
• Objectives: Learn that our bodies are amazing and complicated systems.  We have to eat good foods to keep them healthy.  We also need to protect our bodies from sickness, injury, and, unfortunately, not-so-nice people.  Most importantly, we need to be THANKFUL for our amazing bodies.

That's all I got for now!  Additional ideas are always appreciated.

What's the Point of It All

Welcome to the blog.  There are basically 4 reasons for its existence:

1. To keep my sanity: I am a wee bit scared of a whole summer with my children.  Yes, I just admitted that.  My kids are angels: well-behaved and all that.  But the cabin-fever that people in snow-laden areas experience in the winter, we experience here in the south during the summer.  I find the weather intolerable and to make things even "better," I get to experience it crammed in a house with 4, sometimes 5, right now up to 7 other people.  So I have created some activities, dare I say, "divertissements" (go back and read that with a French accent, it's cooler that way) to keep us occupied and mentally stimulated.
2. I need the universe to keep me accountable.  If I have to answer to the Blogger-Boss every week, I'll be forced to actually stay on task.  This is especially important if the devil tempts me with a week-long marathon of "Say Yes to the Dress."
3. To record activities that worked and those that failed miserably.  One week you can be awed by my creative mothering/teaching skills and the next you can laugh as I scrape homemade play-doh from the crevices of the kitchen exhaust fan.
4. To keep in touch with family members.  Although I know you would like me to fill your email inboxes with lengthy written accounts of how my 3 year-old was finally able to distinguish the difference between a 'b' and a 'd,' I thought I'd make you work for that type of thrilling entertainment and force you to come here & read all about our summer.

What this blog is NOT for?  Making money, building social networks or whatever.