The Creek

This morning I got up and felt the desire to “go away” from our house. We’d settled back in since vacation and now it was time for a little cabin-fever driven play. Today not being a homeschooling day meant we were free until nap time, while I still hoped to spend the lunch time with Matt.

At first the idea was a local park that has farm animals, play equipment and not too much walking. I gave a few friends a call, discovered their full plans, and then rethought about our original plan. If we were not partnering with anyone else, we were free to do whatever. Then the idea popped into my head: muddy water play. The level of grease in Rachael’s hair this morning sealed the deal, clearly bath time was in order for today so why not get the most out of the dirt before returning to the world of clean.

Rachael was all-in, my previous “ew-dirt” toddler now turned into a “dirty can be fun” preschooler. But Abi had her own plans of lying in a pile of play jewelry (can we say uncomfortable?) and wrapping her stuffed duckie in a blanket. VETOED! Abi got over it with a few minutes of consoling and then happily got into a swim diaper and bathing suit. With T-shirts (for extra sun protection), water shoes, a few bath toys, some towels and my camera we were out the door to our adventure.

The girls, having never play in a creek before (dude, they’re small), learned all kinds of things about creeks through hands-on experience. And boy can I tell you, we experienced the creek TO THE FULL. Short of drinking the water intentionally (sorry Abi), we did just about every other little sensory experiment imaginable.

Rachael learned about water currants, floating and sinking objects,

Boat floating down-currant. Then whale’s turn to float in a bucket.

depth of water, mossy rocks being slimy,

and all kinds of other personal experiments like how much water can be splashed by jumping furiously in the water.

Abi enjoyed many dump and fill pleasures with her self-declared recycled cottage cheese container which was a HUGE “no no” in the sharing category. That container was an emotional attachment, a beloved friend not just a selfish moment of “I don’t want you to have it”. No, cottage cheese container was NEEDED (funny how they attach to things randomly). Rachael was content to play with everything but Abi’s cottage cheese container so no wars were waged creekside. Abi also highly enjoyed kicking and splashing – a must for my mud-inspired baby.

Dump and fill. Kick, splash, kick!

Catch the small waterfall.

While the girls were a little hesitant at first about the shiftiness of creek rocks, they soon kicked into their regular selves, sitting in the cold water with squeals and ‘do it again’s. In a few minutes their limbs had gone numb in the creek’s shade-covered arctic waters and their focused turned to exploring the water.

Explore. Discover. Delight.

Joy. Catch and release.

Exploration. Watering her hair. =)

We stayed for 45 minutes of bliss, soon-to-be lunch grumbling encouraging our departure. I wondered what people thought as two young children emerged from the “no swimming” lakeside entrance (we walked a little ways back to the creek) fully wrapped in towels and soaking. We looked like rebels, but there were no signs posted in the creek area regarding swimming (probably since the water was um ankle-deep), but my children very nearly swam in that very ankle-deep currant.

A quick towel-drying, change of clothes for the ride back, peanut butter sandwich lunch, bath time and redressing has produced two wonderfully exhausted children and a quiet napping house.

I’d say our adventure was a success for all. =)

May 24, 2012 2

Colored Play Rice

I was asked by my sister in law, Kat, if I’d share the recipe for the play rice I made with Rachael for homeschool back in November 2011. So I figured I could share it on here too to not only gawk at her cute pictures again, but also help anyone else out who is interested in making similar joy in their household.

Recipe for Colored Play Rice
1 cup regular rice.
1 tsp rubbing alcohol
food dye to your hearts content.

Step 1: Stir rice, rubbing alcohol and food dye in a bowl until the color distributes,

She’s concentrating, not scowling, I promise. 😉

Step 2: Spread rice out flat on wax paper or whatever,

Clearly the spreading was the most fun in the making part. =)

Step 3: Let dry for 1 hour.

Start of drying process. End of drying process.

***No she did not stand there for an hour. ***

Then you’re good to go and ready to play! It’s really that easy!!!

***Warning: you will have fun and will need to vacuum.
***Second Warning: sometimes food dye slightly comes off on hands with prolonged play, but the dye washes off easily with soap/water and the rice still remains colored.

Recycled medicine cups, funnels, old teaspoons, large straws, whatever make wonderful play tools. And I must say, playing with rice has such a calming and soothing affect while encouraging great creativity and manipulation of the rice. We enjoyed burying each others hands in the rice and also just letting her go to town making up communities and storylines in her rice play. We haven’t tried it yet, but another way to play in the rice could be to use toy buildings, people, animals or cars to add in more story play and less sheer manipulation of the rice. But Rachael has enjoyed sitting and playing with the rice for 45 minutes, in which I had to put an end to the play because it was lunch time. I’d suggest a plastic tub with high sides that are high enough to keep most rice in, but low enough to allow the child to play without having to stand or bend their arms awkwardly. Also, the larger the tub, the more the mess – so you’d be surprised what a medium sized (for the preschooler) tub of rice would do for creating clear boundaries and also allowing all play to be in view without requiring the child to turn their head (permitting more distraction opportunities). [Recalling how we used rice for play therapy in attending to one task.] Rachael has never complained about the size of the tub of not having enough room to play. We do use the lid to put extra play items on though, when she is not currently using them. The tub we use is about the size of a show box.

May 23, 2012 0

Our "Mat Man"

For homeschooling today we continued our focus on anatomy. We’ve been randomly talking about body features (rated G) throughout our routine. Cat anatomy is fun as we catch a run-by “volunteer” (who forgives easily with a few treats).

After completing our lessons on M (we took Friday off), we jumped into our “Mat Man” activity. Now I totally robbed this idea from Handwriting Without Tears so don’t give me any of the credit for the idea. I didn’t think they’d mind since I already bought something from them and they post their lessons online for the taking. But instead of buying their “Mat Man” parts and books, I used two bottle caps (different sizes for distinguishing two different parts), cut outs of Rachael’s hands and feet (better than this, especially since they don’t include feet and we had fun tracing), and “hair” made from the scraps of cloth diaper fleece – Holler! It took me about 5 minutes on the sewing machine to make up my “hair” so that it’ll survive at least two more kids and now belong in the “Mat Man” bag of body parts. hehe. I also used my own $.29 (from Hobby Lobby) rubber foam rectangle (better than this price) for the body and used my previously cut out letter pieces for the outlines. I also made eyes from leftover pieces of poster board foam after making the traced and cut out letter pieces that we use in our introduction to letters. (A cheaper version of this while still purchasing this from the company.)

Here’s our “Mat Man”:

I first started out by putting him together myself, as Rachael and I referenced to features that belong on a body. Then we took our magnifying glass and used it as a pointer/inspector of specific body parts, labeling them on ourselves as we labeled them on “Mat Man”.

“the nose”

“the neck”

We also labeled them on Abi of course! And did you catch that from the above picture that Abi took the initiative of labeling herself amidst our lesson [byproduct of an engaged listener =) ].

Then I took “Matt Man” apart and had Rachael rebuild him, identifying all of his parts.

She had also traced/cut out her own hands and Abi’s feet (hard to keep your own feet flat while tracing, plus we like to include Abi wherever we can) on black paper and used them on her version of “Mat Man” before we pasted them to a paper and decorated them with leftover Easter stickers. =)

Abi made herself ready to join Rachael “at” school this morning. –>

Tongue helps for concentration. 😉

I chose, for the sake of Rachael’s previous anatomy knowledge, to divide the arm into two sections, highlighting the elbow (an open space on “Mat Man”) in between and showing how our arms could bend either direction due to the elbow. I did likewise with the legs and then had Rachael identify upper and lower arms and legs. She was just a bit ready for a slightly more detailed look at anatomy than a single representation of the arm or leg as one piece. To expand upon this lesson in the future, we will bring “Mat Man” back out and enjoy positioning “Mat Man” in various positions due to his elbows and knees providing motion. This way we can also talk about needing energy for motion (beginning science) and how food processed through the digestive track allows for the making of energy – thus enabling us to run and jump and move, etc. We’ve just barely introduced this topic at current, only emphasizing that many things inside help us to sleep, eat, drink, breathe and move.

Rachael has also begun to have casual conversation identifying what things are and are not “alive” and why/how we know that. We have identified eating, breathing, drinking, and sleeping as indicators of life at this point (we’re not into photosynthesis or bacterial life yet – wink,wink). It has been a fun game which also spurred on the unexpected thought from the three year old that “sometimes I pretend my dolls are alive, but they’re not really,” and how drawn objects and created things, like “Mat Man” are a symbol of being alive, but are not actually alive. She really kinda floored me with that line of analytical thought. So “Mat Man” has also been tied to using our imaginations and the distinction between real and pretend.

Rachael was very proud of her ability to create “Mat Man” (hense the initiative to “ta da!” in the picture) and clearly the wheels are turning about “alive” and “not alive” and how that relates to our daily life.

– Fun lesson indeed!

April 30, 2012 0

Bargains Arise!

I went to a local kid sale today at a nearby church. I had been thinking over our baby stash, cloth diaper stash and what things we truly wanted to get prior to Hannah’s arrival. (Hannah – so nice to name her kicks and soon-to-be snuggles.) Having two girls 17 months apart can put some serious wear and tear on your baby items and has left some birth to potty training items in need of replacing.

I have found the easiest “large sale” shopping to be done for a newbie who has yet arrived due to every size being a viable option. This allows for me to pass over items that are “too high” in my personal price without the pushing need to go home with something for the child to wear/use “today.”

So I have acquired the following things for a total of $28.

[Vibrating bouncer ($8 and CUTE), toddler shirt-bib, plastic toddler bib, plastic paint-smock bib, 2 receiving blankets (I see cloth wipes in the future), plastic-backed spit-up rag, 1 large namebrand cloth prefold diaper cover (Abi can wear now) [got it for $1 – resale price = $9], 1 medium cloth prefold diaper cover (got it for $1), 3 small namebrand cloth prefold diaper covers (visions of newborn to 4 month old Hannah in cloth) [avg. resale price per cover = $5-9. I got each one for $1-1.50], 5 plastic-backed bibs, 9 newborn-3 month bibs, 3 changing pad cloths (easy blow-out clean-up), and two 2T cloth pull-ups (for when Abi’s ready to start learning).]

All for TWENTY-EIGHT DOLLARS, people. And this wipes out half of our “we’d like to get before we bring Hannah home” list.

– Enough to bring a smile to anyone’s face on a rainy-thunderstorm day. =D

April 28, 2012 0

For Newbee

I made two newborn prefold diapers today thanks to some old towel pieces and flannel sheets (thanks again, Rachel). It’s nice to use things here, donating about an hour to figuring out what I was doing (woot!) and about a half hour to forty minutes (if I had to change to bobbin) a piece to each diaper following. Planning on just adding about 6-12 newbee diapers to the stash with maybe only the cost of thread (if I run out). From what I’ve researched it’s helpful to have a few tiny diapers for the freshie stage up until about 2-3 months when they can go into more “normal” sizes. Abi was gracious to play nicely on the floor to the hum of the sewing machine (after waking up early from nap).

One is layered 2x4x2 (I) and the other is 4x6x4 (II).

My old doll from childhood modeling.

With the assistance of Abi. =)

I’ll probably make more of the 4x6x4 or a 2x6x2 combo since the middle thickness is the real hero in the pottying story.

– Kind of exciting to slowly start the “get ready for baby” preparations.

– If we find out on Friday that we’re having a boy, he’ll be relieving himself in flower-print prefolds. hehe. I don’t think he’ll care and it’s what I have to work with. Eh! Baby’ll just be sleeping through newbee life anyway. And we could find some cute neutral covers to help him out if he’s a he. 😉

April 24, 2012 0

39 Months

We took an opportunity to do homeschooling today. We don’t usually do it on a Saturday, but the Littlest was sick Monday and we were all seeking a day of rest. Since I like to try to do three days of homeschooling per week, we did not do homeschooling on Friday, and Daddy is away on a youth trip this weekend, I figured Saturday was as good as any.

We took the opportunity to do some review. We have been going through an alphabet series of one letter, upper and lower case, per week. Since Rachael is 39 months, I am not expecting her to be able to freehand lower case letters yet (that is a more advanced skill since a lot of those letters have less defined lines [approximately Kindergarten aged]). But in our series (that I’m making up with the help for a few preschool/pre-Kindergarten workbooks I got at the dollar store and a teacher supply store [whoppin’ dollar fifty] and the rest I improv based on state standards for what a child should know to enter Kindergarten), she is expected to trace and attempt to freehand all the capital letters in the alphabet, as well as identify the lower case letters. We have gone from A to L thus far and are in week eleven of the series. I anticipate another 12 weeks of letter introductions to occur (we’ll combine some familiar letters in one week) and then have a review week or two before starting our “formal” Pre-K curriculum. I have been using the resources through the Answers In Genesis curriculum packet to introduce various topics to Rachael so the curriculum will not be completely foreign when we start doing a more structured preschooling. And the alphabet flashcards and 8’11” display resources along with tracing marks have proven helpful for the past series.

I’ve also been using what we refer to as “word pieces” to introduce the letters to Rachael as she has developed her fine motor skills in tracing and, ultimately, writing. These “word pieces” help to introduce the letters in segments, or strokes, and better help her organize the concept of writing the letter. She has really enjoyed the puzzle-like quality and handful of activities on the backs of the mats to aid in the letter’s introduction. While I did not pay for the wooden pieces (they were a bit pricey), but simply traced my sister in law’s pieces and cut them out of foam board, I did purchase the laminated alphabet pages and have used them for an introduction and reintroduction (should it be needed) of the letters at the start of each week. I just couldn’t justify spending $53+ for an introduction material, even if I am planning on using it for all the kids in our household. The upfront cost when on a budget was a bit extreme. But not wanting to break copyright codes, I planned on just purchasing the sheets and then measuring the size of the “wood pieces” until my sister in law decided to purchase the wooden pieces and therefore I could measure the size from the wooden pieces themselves. So between the two of us, she really helped me out to make that product fit our budget and homeschooling needs. We’re just careful not to beat up our “word pieces” as we should be respectful and kind to all our supplies. I may very well actually buy the wood pieces here down the line, but not this year with our tight budget.

I have also used various storybooks, Rachael’s tag (not tag Jr.) reader system (A Christmas gift secondhand for $8.50 plus two books and then added other books via Christmas wish lists and sales racks), library books, and written sentences/words for the purpose of letter identification to begin to introduce the concept of decoding words. I’ve checked out “Teach Your Child to Read in 110 Easy Lessons” from the library and am hoping to start that with Rachael as well when we begin her “formal” pre-K curriculum. Since I have modeled my created lesson plans from the curriculum we are going to use for Rachael’s “formal” pre-K, it should be a more natural transition into increased listening/interaction time. We have been averaging an hour to an hour and a half of preschool three times a week. The curriculum we will begin is a 1.5 to 2 hour 4-5 day a week curriculum that is more holistic in skill and themed. Since Rachael has been exposed to many of the resources, saving the more advanced ones of course to use in the actual curriculum, the compilation of the resources should not overwhelm her. The curriculum in itself is for 180 days and since we are schooling year-round (at least for now) we are in no rush to take any quick pace. Rachael will begin her pre-K curriculum at the ripe age of 3.5. And if you’ve met her or held a conversation with her, I think you’ll understand why so “soon.”

So back to my original point of this post (though the previous explanations are quite beneficial in understanding how we came about this fruit). I had Rachael do some review today and I wanted to share her work with you all. Much of this work she completed independently while I fixed lunch, did house chores and put Abi down for a nap. I popped in for occasional instruction and to see how she was fairing. But without further delay, I give you Rachael’s A-L work.

[My writing: circle of third C and notation where Rachael corrected her own form. Penned third D during explanation to Rachael of the side that the curved part of the D was supposed to be on – she wrote it backward (not a big deal, but still wanting her to see the difference).]

[My writing: Rachael’s self-correction of the second F after drawing the first circled line, she explained that she adjusted the line over to fit the F better.]

I’d say it’s going well.

I’m VERY proud of her. She really worked HARD on this review and applied herself with great concentration, asking questions about letter formation where she had forgotten.

Once again, the child is only 39 months. =)

– Go Rachael!!!

April 21, 2012 0