Blissful Moments

What we are doing for school - Kindergarten

2011-05-12T10:35:00.000-07:00

I have decided to start Esther with My Fathers World Kindergarten. I decided to start kindergarten because she really just wanted to learn more and more. She knows her alphabet, sounds and is beginning to read. She can already print her alphabet quite well and knows all her colors, shapes and numbers. She is extremely curious and does seems to become quite irritable if we are not doing some sort of constructive learning. I also realized that I needed some type of structure to go by. So in comes My Fathers World.

We are using the curriculum at a much slower pace. Instead of one week per topic, we take two weeks. I also am not using their phonics program, instead we are using "Teach Your Child to Read in One Hundred Lessons". We are on lesson 42 and she really likes it. I like it too because everything I need is written right in the book. I was skeptical at first, but I really do like it alot. We will see how well she is reading at the end of the book.

Overall, I love the program. It gives me just enough structure that I'm not frantically trying to pull lessons together, but enough freedom to add in my own activities. I love how "hands on" it is. I just ordered ants which should arrive soon to fill our ant farm, plus we have been able to do other things like sew, model with clay and cook. For Esther it seems to be a good mix of worksheets (which she loves) and hands-on activities. I also use Kumon books, filefolder games as well as puzzles and board games.

I hope to show bi-weekly updates as we work our way through the curriculum.

Time Flies...

2011-05-12T10:04:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe how fast time can move on me when I'm not looking. Of course we have been quite busy. I had the joy of planning the Easter Egg Hunt at our church this year.

It was lots of fun, especially because my mother came to visit.

It was a last minute trip, and we only had the weekend but it was a lot of fun.

The weekend after the egg hunt I also co directed a childrens puppet show based on the "The Tale of Three Trees" There were a few techinical difficulties, but was entirely enjoyed by the church. (sadly no pictures were taken)
We then celebrated Easter with my husbands family, and had a great time. The following day I collapsed in exhaustion. Ok not really, but I was completely exhausted and took the next week to recuperate.

It was about this time that my husband and I put in our application to get credentials within our church. My husband has always felt called to be a pastor and has had to overcome many obstacles, but now we are able to start the process to become liscenced ministers. Long story short, we started bible college just last Tuesday. Its exciting and overwhelming all at once.

We have been busy with school, I have been in my gardens everyday and I think I may just have a handle on how to feed my soy-allergic son. Whew! Can't wait to see what happens in the next month!

Allergies

2011-04-19T10:21:00.000-07:00

I am not sure if I have ever shared on here about my son's health issues. He is now 2 years and four months old and I cannot think of a day that he has not had some sort of rash on his body.

Right about when he turned a year old it got really bad, and it covered most of his body and it was obviously very uncomfortable and itchy. Our doctor advised us that it was eczema and prescribed a cream. When that did not help, he prescribed an even higher dosage of cream. In fact I think we went through 4 or five different prescribed creams, and nothing helped. At some point I realized that it all seemed to be food related. I started to keep track of what he ate and guessing what it was he was allergic to. Then I heard from an acquaintance that we could have him tested for food allergies, something our doctor previously advised us that we could not do. Long story short, after many doctor visits, stressful nights and me practically begging, we finally were able to go see an allergist, and get the test done. We now know that he is allergic to peanuts, tree nuts and soy.

I have been going through my cupboards and have quickly realized that soy is in EVERYTHING! I have come to the realization, that I will be able to buy very few pre-made food products, which means lots of baking!

I am hoping to share some good soy/nut free snack recipes for others who may be in a similar predicament. I also would love to hear if anyone knows of any good resources for recipes like this.

My first recipe to try...Homemade Fig Newtons....my Father-in-law shared this recipe with us and it was delicious. When I try it I will probably cut back the sugar though.

First Day of School

2011-04-13T15:57:00.000-07:00

We have officially started Kindergarten this year. I am using My Fathers World Kindergarten curriculum, but taking it very slow since she is still young (more on school later). To say that Esther is loving it would be an understatement!

Fulfilling a Promise

2011-04-13T11:34:00.000-07:00

I've been telling my mother now for about a few months that I was going to start up this blog again. I've procrastinated enough and thought I would just get on with it. It feels really good to be back again. I realized how much I enjoyed sharing with others, but also how writing these posts helped me to stay on track with my schooling plans for my children. Now I just have to re learn how to do everything in blogger again :)

Season of Plenty Begins

2010-06-13T16:42:00.000-07:00

Well, it seems that the season of plenty has already happened upon us. As a family we went strawberry picking and came home with 7 pounds of strawberries. These did not last very long as they were eaten quite quickly. I was able to make a double batch of strawberry bread first though. Yum! I am planning on going back tomorrow and hopefully get 20 pounds to make jam with.

I have also been spending a lot of time out at "The Farm" as I have been calling it. Last winter we got hooked up with a local farm and since then we have been receiving our milk and meat from it. This spring they offered the ability to become a part of a CSA (community supported agriculture). Essentially, we paid them a lump sum at the beginning of the summer and for the next 18 weeks we receive a basket full of vegetables from their fields. To say that I was excited would be an understatement. But then... I was asked if I would be wiling to trade my time weeding for food. I gave a definite yes and have been immensely blessed.

I never thought that I would find so much joy in weeding, but I do. I get up early in the morning and make it to the farm by 8. It's not quite hot yet and all the birds are singing in the woods near the fields. It is so peacful and so rewarding. I love the feeling of looking down a long row of vegetables that I just freed from weeds. Plus, Amy (One of the owners) alsmost always sends me home with a basket full of excess vegetables. Last week it was radishes, this week it was mustard greens. Have you ever had radish top soup? It absolutely delicious. Greg had THREE helpings at dinner. We are slightly addicted to radishes in this house right now.

I have already processed strawberries, mustard greens, radishes and now have some baby spinach to blanch and freeze. Also my garden has produced its first peas. We go down every other day and harvest a good handful. There are flowers on my zucchini, tomatoes, green beans and peppers. I can tell my freezer is going to be quite full by the end of the summer and I may have to track down some more canning jars. I'm so excited and am looking forward to it!

Tot School

2010-05-19T10:59:00.000-07:00

Well, I know many of you decided to stay with me because of my tot school posts, and I am finally able to start them again now that the camera has been found. The following pictures are from three weeks ago.

This first one is for you mom,

Its our first official "first day of school picture". Mom I can remember you dragging us outside on the first day of school and then proceeding to take a gazzilion pictures of us all the while our eyes are rolling and comments are dropped under our breathe....ahh, the good old times of childhood.

Now before you all start getting worried about me, I am aware of the fact this it is May and that most people are ending school. I am just starting a new phase of learning with both kids and this seemed like the perfect time. Elijah seems ready to start tot school while Esther is demanding more structured learning. So...hence the first day of school picture.

The rest of the pictures I am going to list with brief descriptions. If any of you would like more info about them, please feel free to ask, I just don't want to bore you with too much details if you aren't interested.

Sorting shells
Making flowers for the book "Plant a Rainbow"
Counting bean game. Pick a popsicle stick numbered 1-5 add that number of beans to your pile. At end count all your beans. The one with the most wins. Surprisingly Esther counted all the way to 22 on her own!
Seeing what happen when celery is put into colored water and drawing pictures in our science notebook
Peeling a carrot

Sadly, the only picture of Elijah is playing with blocks and touch and feel nursery rhyme cards.

Unfortunately this is when the camera went missing so there are no pictures of the next two weeks when we learned all about bears and did project with the books, going on a bear hunt and Jesse Bear What Will you Wear.

Michelle you did a great post about Jesse bear, so if any of you are interested go check hers out and just envision my kids in her pictures!

The next two weeks we are studying ladybugs so there should be lots to share.

The camera has been found!!

2010-05-18T05:10:00.001-07:00

I don't know why but I really have an aversion to posting without pictures. Thankfully our camera has been found with all pictures safe and sound. So now to get updating you all on what has been going on. I think I will start with the cutest pictures.....

This past weekend, Esther had a dance recital. We had decided to take Esther to dance lessons during the winter. The purpose was to give her an outlet for all of her energy. Family, you know what I'm talking about. She can be quite a handful on certain days. Here she is in her costume in our front yard.
While taking pictures she became infatuated with looking for bugs, all while mom, (that's me) is frantically running araound trying to keep her costume clean.
Before the show she was backstage getting ready. She loved watching the older girls in their beautiful costumes.
Then came the time for the show. I would like to say that she stole the show with her beautiful dancing. Well... she did steal the show, by twirling. That's all she did. Twirl. Over and over and over again. The audience was laughing so hard that it encouraged her to do it even more. Sigh...at least she didn't run off the stage crying.

Here she is in mid twirl
Every once and a while she realized everyone else was doing the dance and she would join in for a few moments, then back to twirling she went!

It was a great day and Esther had lot's of fun. She is definitely not afraid of the stage!

Anyone seen a camera?

2010-05-11T10:08:00.001-07:00

Well, it seems that our camera has gone missing. I have been taking lots of pictures and I had been waiting for my husband to move the pictures onto the computer for me and when he was able to...the camera is gone. We have been doing some great school work as well as some great outdoor adventures, unfortunatley it would be no fun to share without pictures. So.. unitl we find our camera I have some other pictures to share. Taylor, my sister-in-law who is living with us currently, is a photographer. She just gave us some pictures that she had taken of the kids over the past few moths, so I thought I could at least share those.

Last bits of winter...

Playing with water....

Spring in the Arb (arboretum)....

HAPPY SPRING!!

Gone Private

2010-04-29T05:09:00.000-07:00

Well, I did it. (I think) I am officially private. Please let me know if you are receiving my posts so that I know everything is working right.

Today is the Day

2010-04-28T05:00:00.001-07:00

Is it really Wednesday already!! Wow, time flies by when you're not looking. I will be putting my blog to private this evening. If you e-mailed me I tried to respond back to each one. I will make sure you all are added. After making the switch I will write a post. If you are unable to receive my post for some reason please feel free to e-mail me and I will try to fix it.

To the rest of you, its been fun and I am glad that we have been able to share this little part of our life with you.

Blessings!!!

Tot school Catch up

2010-04-22T17:33:00.000-07:00

As I was going through the pictures on my camera I realized that here were several that I took with intentions on blogging, but it never happened. So here, in no particular order is my catch up post.

Read the Gingerbread man and made one out of a paper bag.

Little man colored his own

Matching lowercase letters to uppercase letters

Putting bottle caps in an empty wipes container
Playing with the new island and lake landforms I made.

Playing with water

I also put together this fun play set using the North American Animal Toob, glass beads and rocks.

Esther has been extremely interested in sewing since I have had my machine out. As I sew, her job is to pull the pins out, which she loves. Sometimes I let her help me guide the fabric.

In honor of her interest in sewing I made her a swing box. It has needles, yarn, needle threader, hoop, and a piece of fabric that I punched holes in.

To say that she was excited would be an understatement!
Well, that's it for catch up. I'm leaving tomorrow for a women's conference. Hopefully I will get one more post before I go private. Have a great weekend!

Hello World!

2010-04-20T16:38:00.000-07:00

Well hey there. It's been a while. Life has been quite full and blessed. I hope the same is for you as well. I have been away for quite a while, I know. I've decided to make a change. I love to blog. I enjoy the creativity of writing my thoughts. I really enjoy the fact that it keeps a record of my time with my kids. I also know that this is the best way for my family to stay connected with us since we live so far away.

The down side has been the pressure i feel to blog every week and to make it a great post. I am fully aware that it is just my own mind putting this pressure on myself. But as those of you who have been with me for a while this has been a struggle I have had for a while and I just can't seem to overcome it. I don't want to give up the blog completely so....

I am going to make my blog private. This way I can still keep a record and share with my family, but there is no pressure.

What I will blog about will not change, although it may not be as frequently as I used to. (I will at least blog every month unlike the past few :) ) I will continue to show the activities I do with my children, as well as our outdoor adventures, which we have re-started. I also will continue to write about our change in lifestyle mostly to remind myself of the changes we have made.

If you are following me now and would like to continue to do so please let me know I will happily add you to my list. If you would like to continue to receive my post though a RSS feed I believe that you need subscribe by e-mail. I just added the button on my sidebar.

I will wait about a week and then I will go private. I have enjoyed my time sharing with you all, and maybe one day in the future when I have a better handle over my own emotions, I will go public again.

Blessings to you all.

Quick Tid BIt

2010-02-26T13:25:00.000-08:00

We've been busy as usual here, but I wanted to poke my head quickly into blog land to share this link with you. I just found the Educators Outlet and I am really excited about some of the things in their catalog. But the most exciting thing is the sale they are having now.

Their clearance is 80% off list price. Plus on top of that they are offering an additional 50% off until tomorrow(you will see this discount when you check out). The prices are unbelievable. You need to go. Even if you are not homeshcooling they have some great games and puzzles perfect for birthday gifts.

Happy shopping!

My First Sewn Outfit

2010-02-10T08:35:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I was inspired by a bit of red, heart shaped lace. I decided to make a valentines day outfit for Esther. Here is how it came out...

I am not the best at sewing, but I think it came out pretty good. I used a pattern from JoAnn Fabrics for the top. And I made the pants out of the sleeves from a shirt of mine that had a hole in it. I just kind of took the sleeves and pinned them on her, then sewed them up and used elastic for the waste-band. I will definitely be making more of these shirts since it was so easy and it turned out really cute.

Tot School - February 7, 2010

2010-02-06T06:26:00.000-08:00

Esther is 39 Months old

Since reading this post almost a year ago I have been wanting to do it, but was waiting until I had a good supply of buttons and I could find the book. I had ordered The Button Box from our library and it finally arrived. After reading the book I presented Esther with her very own box of buttons. To say she was excited would be an understatement.

The buttons I had bought at Michaels. They came all together in a bag and it cost $4.00

She spent time just looking through them, sorting them and playing with them.

Later in the week we used them for counting. I am sure they will be brought out again for many more learning adventures.

We also used our Kumon tracing Book for the first time. She loved it!! In fact I had to stop her after several pages so that she would be excited to do more the next day.

We had a guest with us one day so we all got to paint with kool aid

As well as play dress up for a tea party.
We learned about Daniel and lion's den and made this stuffed lion craft. I tried to take a nice picture but the lion was too busy drinking Esther's milk.
For our science time we learned all about out skin, why we sweat, and our fingerprints.

We also played with poker chips.

It has been a year since I first started Tot School and this blog, (Happy Birthday me!) and I can't believe that not once have I shared how much I LOVE poker chips! We use them for so many learning activities. For some reason my kids love the feel of the chips as well as the sound they make when they clink together.

This week Esther used poker chips to practice her shapes. I would start a shape for her and she would finish it.

She also practiced her patterning.

Little Man Elijah also has started joining us. Here he is with the very first Tot Tool I ever made.

I took a frosting container (any plastic container would work) and I cut a slit in the top. I used duct tape to cover any sharp edges. When you push the poker chip through the slit it makes a great clinking sound. Once they're all in you shake it for good measure, then open it up and start all over again. Both my kids love this toy and it occupies them for quite a while.

That was our week for Tot school to see what other are doing click the button below.

Tot School - January

2010-01-29T10:44:00.000-08:00

Esther is 38 months old

Tot school is back in session after a very long break. We have been doing "school" of and on, but i just haven't been taking pictures or blogging about it. We went away for a vacation for an extended weekend, so our school time was a little short. We are finishing up using our winter themed activities since I am getting ready for valentines day.
Esther loves the Five Little Snow Man song, to see the original, click here.

She matched the letters in her name using clothespins with snowflake letters on them. The penguin alphabet came from here. (it is labeled as penguin letter sequence)

She also did this measuring activity from Walking By the Way

Esther loves to cut, especially using her Kumon Cutting book

I had picked up a textbook of art this past summer at a library book sale. Every week we pick a picture from it and talk about it.

For science time, We learned about our lungs. I have been using the Usborne Science activities books and I love them.

We made a lung using a soda bottle, balloon, plastic bag and tape. As you pull the bag (diaphragm) down it inflated the balloon (lung). It's actually quite cool!

We also tested to see our lung capacity, or how much air we have in our lungs. This was a big hit since it meant she could blow bubbles all she wanted in the water.

That was our week, to see what others did, click the button below.

Where our food comes from - meat and dairy

2010-01-28T10:58:00.000-08:00

Since starting our new adventure in eating whole, organic, local foods, I have learned a lot. One of the thigns I have learned is that what I used to think was "normal" really isn't. Here is what I mean.

Have you ever had an egg from a free-range chicken who has been fed some of the best stuff. The inside of the egg is actually a different color. When I cracked open my first one, I just stared at it. It was orange. I mean bright orange. I actually had to call my mother to make sure it was ok to eat. Can you believe that!!! I was so used to the eggs from the grovery store that when I was faced with one of the healthiest eggs I could possible have I actually doubted if it was ok to eat. Truthfully, the experience kind of shook me up. If this was true with eggs, what else have I been eating that really was an impostor for the real thing. It turns out, a lot of things I have been eating are impostors.

Using the amazing website called Local Harvest and the advice of a friend, I was able to track down a farm 10 miles from my house that raises grass fed cows and pigs and is organically certified. We currently are receiving, milk, eggs, pork and beef from them. From the moment I first tried any and all of these I knew that there was no turning back. It was all so amazingly good that I can't even imagine buying from the grocery store ever again. And that is purely based upon the taste!

As you can imagine, the cost for such delicious delicacies is much higher than I used to pay. Which means, that from now on, mean is a side dish in our home. In fact two to three meals a week are without meat. In all truth I think this is a good thing. I am sure we will be feeling a lot healthier by eating more veggies and less meat.

The other really fun part is what we have been able to do with the milk. What we receive is raw milk, which means we get the small delight of having the cream on top. This makes fro some delicious baking. We also have made yogurt, kefir, cheese, butter and buttermilk.

The recipes can be found on this wonderful website. (you should try the ginger-ale, its delicious!)
Here is good instructions on how to make butter.

The yogurt and cheese was delicious. In fact my husband and I did the cheese together and had a great time while making it.

Making butter was fun, but tiring.

I did not like kefir and the buttermilk was easy, but got wasted since I don't use it much.

All in all, I am extremely happy with these changes in our life. the change has been pretty easy, with the hardest part being budgeting, but I'm getting the hang of it.

Still to come, fruit and veggies, grains, and cooking.

2010-01-27T10:41:00.000-08:00

Hi there...

It's been a while....

Guess Where I've been.

No, not completely frazzled out of my mind trying to overhaul the way we eat while caring for two little ones.

Ok maybe a little frazzled. But really we've been somewhere much nicer, here's a hint...

Yep, that's right, Florida!! Those of you living in the northern states must understand why this was so exciting. I don't think the temperature has gone above 35 in over two months. I miss the sun. Plus I think that I am really affected by the lack of sunlight and being trapped indoors for so long. Which is why when we were given an opportunity to go to Florida to see my husbands family, we jumped at it.

Here are the kids with their Great Grandma.

We were able to do some exploring and had a great time. Esther was in love with the beach.

My favorite was seeing manatees.

For my husband, I think it was just being able to spend time with his kids in a place that he loves.

Just before leaving for Florida, we also took a trip to Connecticut to see my family. I will have pictures to show when I am able to get them from my mother.

Well, now that we are home and I have a little more vitamin D in my system I think that I am ready to tackle my plans for tot school, garden, kitchen and home. I am excited to be back on blogger again as well. For a bit there I really was thinking of closing the account, but I am glad I didn't . I guess all I needed was a trip to Florida.

The Story, part 2

2010-01-07T17:50:00.000-08:00

First, we are all on the mend now. Thankfully I did not get hit with the bug, just the kids and hubby. We can't seem to keep illness from this house, I definitely could use some advice on how to keep us healthy. I know our new way of eating will help a little, but there needs to be something else we can do.

But for now, the story continues.....

So my husband and I watched Food Inc., and when it was finished all we could do was look at each other speechless. We were just in shock. I have known that the food that I buy and feed my family probably wasn't the best for us, but truthfully I didn't really want to know where it all came from. It was cheap, it filled us and most of the time it tasted good.

But now...after watching that.....

I could try to explain all that the movie was about, but really I would do no justice. You need to watch it. Be warned, it will affect you.

Click here to go to the official website or watch the trailer below.

That night I couldn't sleep. I am fully aware that Food Inc. is a movie that was made to show one view point and to show the worst of the worst to get their point across. The problem is that even if it is the worst, it is still true. Seeing how the animals were treated, knowing how farmers are being monopolized, how our food is being altered in a way that can never be repaired. I never realized how much corn is in everything we eat. Cows were made to eat grass, not corn. Does everything we eat have to have corn syrup in it?

I fully admit that I buy things on the shelf without even looking at the ingredients. I have no idea what I have been eating, been feeding my family. Since that night I have been reading ALL the labels on food and I have been shocked. What have I been eating things I can't even pronounce. We are just not meant to eat these things. Yet, we do.

The next morning we sat down to have breakfast and I looked at my plate and almost couldn't eat it. We had breakfast sausage from the freezer. It was the really cheep kind. I don't know if there really was any sausage in it. I knew that our pantry and fridge needed an overhaul and fast. The problem was were to start.

It was so overwhelming. I had to keep keep reminding myself that we've been eating this food for a while and a little while longer won't do too much harm. The first thing I had to do was figure out exactly what I was going to look for in the food we would eat. I decided it had to fit into at least one of the following categories:
1. Local (within 100 miles)
2. Organic
3. Whole (unprocessed)

If it fit into more than one category, even better. Essentially, I wanted to know where our food was coming from. What exactly are we putting in our bodies.

Now all I had to do was find the food.

Look for part 3 on how and where we found our food that changed our pantry.

hey....

2010-01-05T05:41:00.000-08:00

Hey all, I really intended to continue the story right away, but then we got hit with an onslaught of sickness. Since writing the last post, we have been to the doctor 6 times and the hospital 4 times. as well as celebrating the holiday and driving to and from CT to see my family. And now, we are all sick, again. sigh..... I'll be back, I promise....just don't know when. I'm thinking we all may just hibernate until spring :)

A long story begins

2009-12-16T14:13:00.000-08:00

Hi there.....it's me, remember me! Yeah I'm still here. I've been trying to figure out how to write this post for the past week. Finally I decided to just sit here and type until all that I have to say has been said. For your sanity I may split this into separate posts. We'll see how long it goes.

To start with, we are all fine. We had a week of being sick, but otherwise things have been good and busy. We celebrated thanksgiving and had a wonderful time. We also celebrated Esther and Elijah's birthday. Yes, they were born within 15 days of each other. Esther is now 3 and Elijah has finally hit the big number one! Although these happenings is enough to keep a mom busy on top of preparing for Christmas, but it really was what happened between these events that has kept me from writing on this blog.

As some of you who have been reading with me for a while know that I have begun a small quest to live a simpler life, meaning going back to basics in many ways. My inspiration started with Michelle at Steadfast at Home. After reading through her blog for a few weeks I started on the task of growing my own garden, canning and preserving, making bread and granola as well as many other activities.

I was just in the process of researching grain mills and starting the process of grinding our own wheat when I just happened to watch a show on TV called the 100 Mile Challenge. The show was based on the book, the 100 mile diet. Basically the authors went to a small town and challenged the people there to eat only food found within 100 miles of where they live and to do it for 100 days. The TV show chronicled what happened during those 100 days. I REALLY enjoyed the show. It showed the many benefits of doing this like supporting your local farmers, being more in touch with where your food comes from, eating whole foods instead of processed foods, etc, etc. What I didn't know is that while I was watching this show, my husband was watching it as well and was becoming inspired by it.

That same week I read this post from Michelle. (Side note...Michelle you have been such an inspiration. Thank you for sharing all that you do. God has used you and your words not only to influence me and my family, but my friends as well. Just keep sharing all that God puts on your heart to share.)

Ok, back to the story....needless to say, my husband and I stated talking about where our food come from and what is really in the food we eat. We were talking about expanding our garden next summer using heirloom seeds and trying to eat more locally. Then came the week of the last episode of the 100 Mile Challenge (it was a six week mini series) and my husband looked up at me during dinner and told me that he really wanted to do the 100 mile challenge for ourselves, at least for a month. I will say that I was shocked that he really was this interested in it, but very happy because I knew it could be good for our family. It would be challenging, but well worth it. I mean could I really live without salt and olive oil. And how many ways can you cook a turnip. (we live in Michigan, right now the only things local is potatoes and turnips)

That evening after the kids went to bed, my husband sat down to record a movie for his sister. It was called "Food Inc." She said that she was told she needs to watch it and that we may be interested as well. We figured why not.....little did we know it would completely overturn the way we eat forever.

Continued soon.....

Mmmm - Bread

2009-11-20T10:40:00.000-08:00

For quite a while now I have been aspiring to make my own bread. I have tried a few recipes and had some failures and some success. I have finally come upon a recipe that I really like for now. I am hoping to soon swap out the sugar for honey, but i haven't played with it yet. I'm not sure if I can do an even swap out or not. If anyone has any experience and can answer that for me I would appreciate it. Here is my recipe.

2 Cups warm water
2 Tbs yeast
1 egg
1/3 cup oil
2 Tbsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
6-7 cups flour

I mix the yeast, warm water and sugar together and let it sit a bit. I then add everything else together. I now make this in my kitchen aid mixer, so I dump everything together and mix with a dough hook until it is a nice dough. I did mix by hand int eh beginning and I had to slowly incorporate the flour. After it was mixed I placed it into a greased bowl and put it in a slightly warmed oven to rise. After it has doubled in size I punch it down and cut it in half to make two loaves. I let it rise again, then bake it at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Here is the finished product.

Last night I made this recipe and I took half of the dough and rolled it into little balls to make dinner rolls. I baked half of them and froze the other half. The baked ones were good. My plan it to let the frozen ones thaw, rise, then bake them as well. We'll have to see if it works.

Tot School - Finally!

2009-11-16T10:18:00.000-08:00

Esther is almost 3 years old!

Oh, it has been way too long since my last tot school post. There has been much going on in teh way of school, but very little picture taking and obviously no sharing going on. Below is a few pictures from the past month or so of a few things we've been doing.

We tossed bean bags into boxes

We played with this great pattern block toy/tool

We finally got to use this Montessori inspired tool I made for learning to order numbers

Esther learned how to operate the mouse on the computer successfully. She now plays on Starfall whenever she wants.

We learned about the bones in our bodies using this skeleton I got on clearance. Esther is obsessed with learning about her body.

Every week we are really enjoying being a part of the Nature Explorers Club. Here she is being a squirrel.

Sadly that is all I have pictures of, but there has been lots of play dough, painting and Montessori like activities. Hopefully I remember the camera more in the future. To see what other have been doing, click the button below.

Nature Explorers Club - Forest Layers

2009-11-14T05:33:00.000-08:00

Welcome to The Nature Explorers Club. I am a mom who loves nature and loves to share it with others. Using my experience as an Outdoor Education Instructor and the basic guidelines of the book "Nature For the Very Young", I will be venturing out to explore the great outdoors every week with my kids. Every week I will share what we did, and every week you are welcome to join us. I will post the topic of the week, then two weeks later I will share what we did and give you a chance to share as well. So get your boots ready, because we're going exploring!

This week's topic....

Forest Layers

A forest has three distinct layers to it. The canopy, shrub and forest floor. The canopy is made up of the leaves and branches directly above your head. The shrub layer is made up of the shrubs and other small plants growing under the canopy. Finally the forest floor, also called the leaf litter, is everything found on the ground and into the top layers of the soil. Some forests are missing the shrub layer due to the conditions of the soil and amount of sunlight in the forest.

The best way to learn about these things is to of course go to a forest. To view the canopy, it is best if you can lie on the ground and look up. Ask what they see and what they hear. The canopy has a very special job in the forest. In the summer it provides shade for the rest of the forest. The branches act as homes and perches for a variety of birds as well as squirrels. Also, the trees provide food for these animals either up in the branches, or when it falls to the ground. The canopy provides protection in the winter as well by stopping harsh winds.

The shrub layer is easily overlooked, and even harder for children to see. To them there may be no difference between the shrubs and the trees. They are both "up" above their heads. The shrub layers also functions similarly to the canopy in that it provides food and shelter to animals as well. The difference is the types of animals it helps. Rabbits will hide beneath bushes, while deer will eat the leaves and fruit from the shrubs as well.

The final layer, and my personal favorite, is the forest floor. At a quick glance, all it may seem like is a pile of leaves and twigs, but the forest floor is alive with activity all year round. As you dig down through the leaves you will quickly notice a change. The leaves seem to be broken down into smaller pieces and it may even be wetter or produce a distinct smell. What you are seeing is the products of decomposition. Decomposition is simply a once living organism breaking down into smaller pieces. On the forest floor, these pieces turn into soil. It is in this rich soil that you will find many living things ranging from fungi, to worms, to a myriad of insects. My best suggestion is to get in there and explore. Don't worry about getting dirty. Look under rotting logs, dig under the leaves, pull up rocks and see what you can find. * I always tell my children that whenever they do something like this, they are disturbing an animals home and that it is important to return their home just the way they found it. *

As you explore and find things, you are sure to be peppered with the question "whats that?" and unless you have done your research or gone to school like me, you may not know the answer. The best thing to do is bring a field guide with you. I personally use Peterson's First Guide to Forests for its simplicity as well as its ability to cover a very broad topic for the entire country. (I use their other guides as well) I also like to use the Fun with Nature Take Along G uides because they are prefect for the little ones, but they only cover a limited number of things.
You can check your library to see if they have field guides to be loaned out, or even your local USDA extension office. Also, Here, is a very simple guide that even the little ones may be able to use.

Activities:
Please note that all activities that are italicized are directly from the book, "Nature For the Very Young".

* to cement the idea of what is up (the canopy) and what is down (the forest floor), you can sing this simple song...

You put your finger up, you put your finger down, You put your finger up and you shake it all around Then you do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around And that's what its all about! Continue, with arm, head, leg and finally your whole self.

*choose a small area of the forest floor, maybe a square foot, and examine it in depth making a list of what you find. Taking this further, track how many of each thing you find, and make a simple graph of it.

* if it is too cold to remain outside for a long period of time, bring a bucket and remove a small portion of the forest floor, including the top layer of soil. Bring it home and in the warmth of your house examine the contents laid out on a table or in a large tub.

*collect different items from the forest and make a collage out of them, or recreate what you saw in the forest using the materials.

* make a worm habitat or a rotting log habitat. Click here to learn how to make a worm habitat. To make a rotting log habitat, collect some rotting wood, leaves, soil and different living organisms found on the forest floor. Layer them into an enclosed space. (soda bottle on its side, cleaned out plastic box from produce section or small aquarium) Take a week or two to examine what happens in your created habitat.
Please only attempt this if you know that you will be able to return the contents safely to their home at the end of the week.

*cut yarn into small pieces that look like worms. Glue these into the shape of a W.

* create a picture using hand prints as the canopy of a forest.

Pick and choose which activities best fit with your home. Don't be afraid to try something different if it interests you. Remember to come back in two weeks and share what you did. See you then!

NEC - Habitats Revisited

2009-11-13T11:18:00.000-08:00

Hello all! I hope you had a wonderful two weeks. Ours has been extremely busy and filled to the rim, but we had a great time. The topic this past two weeks has been "habitat". I knew that we had already explored the habitats of the forest, field and pond on other adventures we had taken, so I tried to focus more on some new ones that Esther had never experienced before. Luckily, our backyard is one large wetland which I have been chomping at the bit to explore. We are in the midst of bow hunting season and we don't have any bright orange attire so we didn't explore as much as I wanted, but it was fun.
Examining the mud!

We also visited a river and discussed the difference between a river and a pond. (no picture since camera was left at home) We also took a trip to our local USDA extension office (thanks for the idea Michelle!) And got to talk to a lovely women who explained about the different types of wetlands, and even loaned us some great videos and books.

We played Habitat Bingo and I was surprised at which animals Esther already knew and even which habitat to put them in.

By chance I was in a store in in their clearance aisle I found these great playdogh sets where you create and animal and its surrounding habitat. Esther loved this and it was a lot easier than my plan of using random recycled materials to create our own animals. Here is her rabbit in its forest habitat.

For our final activity I gave Esther some paint and paper, then let her create her own picture. She decided to make a pond with a "big" turtle living in it. (that would be the big purple blob)

By the end of the week, I think she was beginning to grasp the idea that there were different habitats with different animals in them and she is starting to categorize the animals into their different habitats. I had several ideas for other games, but sadly not the time. I may try to work on them still, especially since this topic of Habitat can easily be brought up again on our future explorations.

Thanks for joining us, if you and your little ones did some nature exploration this past week, please feel free to link up below. If you are just joining us, please feel free to try one of the past topics, or our new topic which will be posted in the next 24 hours.

Nature Explorers Club - Habitat

2009-10-30T16:23:00.000-07:00

Habitats

This weeks topic is very simple, yet complicated at the same time. Most children already have a sense of the differences between habitats, they just have never labeled them with the word "habitat". A habitat is quite simply the place where a plant or animal lives. What makes the habitat so special is that it provides things that are needed for the animals and plants to survive like food, water and shelter.

As you begin to talk to your children about habitats it may be easier to use your own home as your first example. Talk about your home and why you live there. It keeps you dry when it rains, it has a refrigerator and running water. You can ask them if they could live in a pond, and maybe why that may not be a good idea. It is ok to interchange the word "home" and "habitat" until your children have a good grasp of what you mean.

After discussing their own "habitat" you can go outdoors and explore other habitats like a forest, pond, swamp, or field. Wherever you go, make sure to first let them explore and see what they can find. Encourage them to look under and around things, to touch with caution (poison ivy is not your friend), but above all to be gentle with nature.

Take some time to sit and use your other senses. What does this particular habitat smell like. Close you eyes, do you hear anything? While you are sitting there, do you feel anything? Is is hot, cold, is there a breeze?

Discuss the different animals that live in the habitat, and why they live there. There are several animals that can live in more than one habitat. An example is snakes. You can find them in a field, the forest, a swamp and on the edge of a pond. Don't forget to mention some of the smallest of creatures including ants, worms, caterpillars and flies. These can be found almost anywhere.

Try to explore more than one habitat so that you children can experience the differences and similarities between different habitats. Have the children collect one thing from each habitat to bring home that most reminds them of what they saw. This can become a very special time where everyone can share why they chose what they chose.

This weeks topic is more about the experience gained than the information retained. Don't be worried if there is lots of exploring and few questions. Children learn so much by looking and touching. If they ask questions, by all means answer, but overall this should be a time of gathering new experiences.

Activities:
Please note that all activities that are italicized are directly from the book, "Nature For the Very Young"

*Draw pictures of the different habitats. For the younger ones, have them tell you what they saw as you draw, or have them draw their own version, how ever sqribbly it is.

*Cut pictures out from magazines, or print some from the internet and using the pictures you drew, place them in the appropriate habitat

*Take the time to explore one of the habitats at night. It is amazing how different things are by the moonlight.

*Play a game of charades, where you name a habitat and everyone takes turns acting out an animal found in that habitat while everyone else tries to guess what it is.

*Read book s from the "One Small Square " series of books.

*Make scavenger hunt lists for your local habitats.

*Play "Habitat Bingo" - this is my own version of bingo using different habitats. I attempted all night to attach the files, but was not successful. If you click here, it should take you to a place where you can access the files. If this doesn't work, just e-mail me and I will give them to you. It uses full color images of different animals and plants that can be found in five different habitats, field, forest, swamp, pond and ocean.
To play: each person gets one game board. Place the cut out game tiles in a pile or in a bag. Take one out one at a time. If the plant or animal is found on your game board, cover it up. (you can use anything like beans or pennies to do this) The first person to get five in a row wins.

*Compare two habitats and what was the same and what was different between them.

*Have them create their own animal and make a habitat for it. You can use crayons and paper, magazines and glue or you go 3-dimensional and use clay or things from your recycle bin.

Pick and choose which activities best fit with your home. Don't be afraid to try something different if it interests you. Remeber to come back in two weeks and share what you did. See you then!

Nature Explorers Club - Week Update

2009-10-29T06:46:00.000-07:00

This past two weeks we focused on the topic of Squirrels. We had a lot of fun, especially since most of the time we were visiting my family in Connecticut. There is something special about the New England woods.

Isn't it pretty! Here is what we did as we learned about squirrels...

We put out peanuts for the squirrels. Sadly our peanuts disappeared without us ever seeing the squirrels. We are going to continue to try in our own front yard.

We went on a squirrel hunt in the woods.

Elijah wanted to focuss more on looking for leaves.

After our exploring we had a snack of juice and peanuts. This was a great fine motor skill for Esther. She really focussed on opening every single peanut.
Back home, we painted some trees and added some squirrels

Esther dressed like a squirrel and I had hid peanuts around her room that she got to go and collect. She really enjoyed this.

We counted our peanuts

The we ate them. Since we were home, we were able to use this really cool nut cracker I had picked up this summer at a yard sale.

That was what we did. If you and your children also participated this week in the Nature Explorers Club, please feel free to link below. As always you are welcome to link up, even if you didn't focus on squirrels.

The next topic will be posted by the end of the day tomorrow, see you then!

Nature Explorers Club - Squirrels

2009-10-15T11:26:00.000-07:00

Calling all Nature Explorers.....we're back!! It has been too long since my children and I have been into the great outdoors and done some good exploring. I thank all of you who have been patiently waiting for me to return, and again I apologize for being away for so long, but it was needed. During my break, I did some thinking, and thanks to many of your suggestions I am going to make a slight change in the schedule. Following this post, I will wait 2 weeks before writing my update where you will be able to link up with your own posts if you would like. This will give both you and me more time to really enjoy the topics with our children and not feel rushed. At the same time I will post the information for the next topic.

If you are new to the Nature Explorers Club, then read this .

This weeks topic:

Squirrels

Yep, those little furry creatures frantically scurrying everywhere in preparation for winter, or in the southern states, just having lots of squirrel fun. Kids and adults alike seems to be fascinated with squirrels. It could be the effortless way they bound from tree branch to tree branch, or just how intriguing they look as they chew through an acorn. Either way, I like squirrels.

The squirrel is part of the mammal family. A mammal is any animal that feeds its young milk. Many mammals also have hair/fur and have live babies (they do not lay eggs). You may want to discuss other examples of mammals that your child is familiar with. Around the world, there are 365 different species of squirrel. Using a field guide or the internet see what types of squirrels you may have in your area. Where we live in Michigan, there are 4 species of squirrel.

The main characteristics of a squirrel are that they have four legs and a tail, although their front paws have the ability to hold objects like acorns so you may want to say they have two legs and two arms. They also have two ears, fur and whiskers on their nose. Their tail is a very important part of their body. It helps them to keep balance while climbing in trees and jumping from branches. They use it to communicate with others. They wrap it around their bodies to keep them warm and raise it above their head like an umbrella when it rains or snows. They can swim in water and will use their tail like a rudder to direct themselves. And if they happen to fall, they puff their tail up, using it like a parachute to help slow their fall. All together it makes me want a tail too!

The squirrel is considered an omnivore (eating both plants and animals). While their diet mostly consists of berries, seeds and nuts, they will also eat beetles, salamanders, bird eggs and nestlings. As winter approaches in the northern states you can see squirrels frantically collecting and hiding food. This is their "cache" or secret storage of food. The reason they do this is because they do not fully hibernate in the winter. They slow down significantly and only leave their nests when needed, but do not go into hibernation (deep sleep). They return to their cache through out the winter and mostly utilize it in the spring when they are active but the food sources are scarce. (I only say northern, because that is where my experience is, I'm not sure if squirrels act the same in the southern states)

One other misconception about squirrels is that there are black squirrels. There is no such thing as a black squirrel. If you see a black squirrel, it is another type of squirrel in a melanistic phase. This simply means that there is an abundance of pigmentation (black coloration) in their fur. Pigment is what creates freckles on our skin.

If you can, go on a squirrel hunt. Bring pictures of the different species from your area and see how many of them you can find. If you have a good viewing spot, sit for a while and watch the squirrels in their activity. Watch the different ways they move. They leap, hop, walk, climb, stand on two legs, stretch and many times can seemingly defy gravity.

If you are unable to venture outdoors, check out Youtube. They have several videos of squirrels doing many different things. You can try here and here.

Activities:
Please note that all activities that are italicized are directly from the book, "Nature For the Very Young"

*Pretend to be a squirrel. Hop, gallop, leap or even try walking on a straight line. (pretend its a branch) Add more depth to this activity by dressing as squirrels. Wrap a scarf around your waist, leaving a "tail" and add construction paper ears to a hat.

*Make acorn beanbags using brown felt and beans or rice as stuffing. You can play toss with them, or squirrel hide and seek. One person is the squirrel and hides the acorn, while the others try to find it. This can be done indoors or out.

*Do an experiment to find out what squirrels will eat. Lay out different foods like nuts, fruit vegetables, etc. in a place where you can observe. See which foods are eaten first.

*Make your own identification cards by looking up pictures of the squirrels from your area and printing them out with interesting facts about them. You can take these when you go out to look for squirrels.

*Do a peanut hunt. This is just like an Easter egg hunt, except you use peanuts in the shell or any other kind of nut in the shell. This is just like the squirrels looking for their food in the winter.

*Make a hand and finger squirrel tree. Here is a great post explaining how to paint a tree with your hand. You can then add in squirrels by using 2 fingerprints as the body and head and several more as a tail. Use a pen or marker to add the finishing touches of eyes nose and mouth.

* Write a poem or story about squirrels. It doesn't have to be long, or rhyme, just let your child describe something they saw.

* This last activity is straight from the book, but too complicated to share, so I thought I would do a quick video. It's not a perfect video, but it gets the point across.

I hope there is something here that you and your children will enjoy. If you have any other ideas, please feel free to share. Two weeks from now I will post an update with pictures of what me and my children did and you will have a chance to link up with that post if you would like to share how you and you kids explored nature.

Remember whether its squirrels or some other topic, it doesn't matter, as long as you are exploring and enjoying nature. See you in two weeks!

I'm Back!, again...

2009-10-15T06:35:00.000-07:00

It seems this is not the first time I have used this title for a blog post. It's interesting how we seem to go through different seasons of life in such a short period of time. Things have changed dramatically here in our home. My sister-in-law has moved in with us and we've been busy changing our living room into a bedroom. She is a blessing to have in our home. The kids love her and I get the added benefit of having more alone time since she is willing to watch the kids for me.

Our house is turning into one large family and I love it. (Little know fact, my husband and I share the house with my father who lives downstairs) Since things seem to be settling down a bit, I feel free enough to come back to the blogging world again. Oh how I have missed you all!! For you Nature Explorers out there, I apologise for the long break, but I have my next post started and should be posting by the end of the night (as long as the kids nap that is (: ) The topic is Squirrels!!

I have also been doing lots of new thigns with Tot School and look forward to sharing them with you all as well.

Update

2009-09-22T19:53:00.000-07:00

Well, my family is finally on the mend and I think I have banished all the nasty germs from our home. Unfortunately a small family crisis has occurred and I hate to do it, but I have to postpone Nature Explorers Club for the next week. I really need to focus on family right now as we try to get through the next few days. Please keep us in your prayers as there are a lot of unknowns that we are going to face in the next few days. I hope to be back next week, I have some great things planned to share with you all, but it will have to wait. If you can, explore someplace new this week instead. Find a park, a field or a bit of forest you have never seen before and go exploring. You never know what you will find. Blessings to you all.

Nature Explorers Club - Week Update

2009-09-18T17:20:00.000-07:00

Sorry for posting so late, but a nasty virus has hit our house, and only now am I able to put my thoughts together.

This past week we learned all about Oak Trees. I personally am in love with Oak trees (did I mention that I have BA in Foresty?) There is something about the silent beauty of a strong, massive oak with it branches twisting and winding out and upward. They almost have a certain grace about them. But I digress...

This week we were joined by two of Esthers friends for our adventures and we had a great time. We are blessed by having an arboreatum for a back yard (literally). The woods are quite nice and they had a great selection of old oak trees.

We took time to explore them,

feeling their bark and looking into their branches

some a little more into it than others...

We did bark rubbings

And collected as many acorns as we could. Sadly most were gone having already been collected by the squirrels, but we found enough to satisfy all.
We made the letter O (for Oak) using acorn caps

And pretended to be trees in light breezes, strong storms, and even with squirrels tickling our sides

We used leaves collected to make a window hanging by ironing them between two pieces of wax paper.
*picture to arrive soon*

Sadly this is when our sickness struck and the rest of the plans have been on hold until better days. We still had fun, and Esther is still talking about the Oak trees, making me one proud mom.

If you and your children ventured out into nature and did some exploring on your own, please feel free to link up below. I will be posting the next topic later this weekend, when I am feeling better.

A question for you

2009-09-18T07:55:00.000-07:00

I just had a quick question for those of you participating in the Nature Explorers Club...

Would it be easier/better if there were two weeks between topics. I want you all to have an enjoyable experience with your kiddos and not be rushed. Also I want you to have enough time to prepare.So what do you think, one week or two?

Nature Explorers Club - Oak Trees

2009-09-11T11:40:00.000-07:00

Welcome to The Nature Explorers Club. I am a mom who loves nature and loves to share it with others. Using my experience as an Outdoor Education Instructor and the basic guidelines of the book "Nature For the Very Young", I will be venturing out to explore the great outdoors every week with my kids. Every week I will share what we did, and every week you are welcome to join us. I will post the topic of the week, then one week later I will share what we did and give you a chance to share as well. So get your boots ready, because we're going exploring!

*Note: you are not required to have the book, "Nature For the Very Young" to participate.

This weeks topic is:

Picture courtesy of Wikkipedia

Oak Trees

The Oak tree is fairly widespread species of tree, with many different kinds being found all over the United States. If you do not have any Oak trees near you, you can easily use the following lesson with any tree, though I would suggest maple as being the best substitute. If you are not sure what an Oak tree looks like, Here is a short video that explains the characteristics of an oak tree

There are two main families of Oak trees. The Red Oak, with its pointed leaves,

Photo courtesy of Yahoo Directory

And the White Oak, with rounded leaves.

Picture courtesy of Wikkipedia

Find out which species of tree can be found in your area. You can use the web, a field guide, or if possible take a field trip to visit a local forester. You can try your city hall, the local agricultural extension office, or the yellow pages.

Once you have found yourself an oak tree, describe what you see. Most oaks are rather large with sprawling branches that seem to reach to all corners of the sky. Touch the bark, how does it feel. Try to wrap your arms around the tree, can you make it all the way around?

Picture courtesy of wikipedia

A tree is very similar to us. Take your arms, and stretch them as high as you can go. Now look at the tree, it also has "arms", these are called branches. They stretch high into the sky so that the leaves can get sunlight. Feel your skin. It is there to protect you body. It keeps harmful germs and disease from entering your body. The bark does the same thing for the tree. It protect it from insects and disease.

Stand up, straight and tall. Do you fall over? What keeps you from falling over? Your feet! Trees have feet also, but they look a little different. Way down underground, the tree has roots. The roots keep the tree from falling over. They also take water out of the soil for the tree to drink.

Picture courtesy of wikipedia

While Oak trees are beautiful, they have a very important job in the forest. They provide food for many animals. What do you think animals eat from the Oak tree? Acorns!! An acorn is actually the seed for a new oak tree, but many will never become trees because they will be eaten. But don't be sad, because many animals need the acorns to survive the winter, making the oak tree a very special tree. Find an acorn and crack it open to see what is inside.

Spend some time exploring and enjoying the surroundings.

Activities:

*Role Play using the suggestions below,
"Lets pretend to be trees. Stand tall and strong, without moving your feet. Stretch your branches way up high. Now, there's a small wind coming, move your branches in teh wind. Now its getting stronger"...continue giving directions in this way.

* using paper and crayons, do some bark or leaf rubbings
* make a leaf collage by arranging leaves between two pieces of wax paper and then ironing them together
*collect two of several different leaves from the forest and play a matching game
* create a feely box using a shoe box or small box. Cut a hole in the top and take turns placing different items in the box and trying to guess what it is using our hands only.
*collect acorns and count how many you have. Use them as counters in math games
*use several acorns to form the letter O

Have a great week and don't forget to check back in one week to see what we did and to share as well.

Nature Explorers Club - Week Update

2009-09-11T11:17:00.000-07:00

This past weeks topic was Flower to seed. Unfortuantely our week was filled with rain, making the exploration of flowers and seeds very difficult. Luckily we had one nice afternoon and took advantage of it.

While indoors, we played with flower parts made out of felt,

And we made flowers out of pipe cleaners.

Once outside we dissected one of my daylillies

Esther REALLY enjoyed this. I no longer have any daylilies and my snapdragons are starting to disappear. Sigh...all in the name of science

We searched the whole yard finding as many flowers, and seed heads that we could find. Sadly they were all soaking wet and not usable for an art project. But she saw how the pistil would eventually be filled with seeds.

Finally, we went to the garden and found some flowers on the tomato plant and I explained how sometimes the pistil gets so big it turns into something that we can eat.

To show that the tomato was a pistil we opened it up and looked at the seeds inside. This lesson really stuck with her, because later when we were eating some dried figs, she excitedly exclaimed, "look mommy, there's seeds in here too!"

Even though our time outside was limited, this week was a success. We had fun, saw something never seen before and learned something new. I hope you had a fun week as well. I would love for you to share. Please feel free to leave a comment if you tried a different activity, or link up below if you wrote a post. The next topic will be posted shortly, see you next week!

Tot School - September

2009-09-05T16:03:00.000-07:00

This week was filled with many familiar activities, cutting, gluing, pouring, etc. Here were some of the new activities.

We played with our new Counting Cheerios book. Very Fun.

We matched number cards using our pocket chart.

We practiced our pencil grip. I placed several cards throughout the house with pencils next to them. Esther had to draw what was on the cards, which ended up making a simple picture.

As part of our Nature Explorers Club we learned all about Queen Anne's Lace. To see more of our activities, click here.
Esther helped me grind some tomatoes for tomato sauce.

Mommy quickly realized an immersion food processor would be much easier to use. At least we practiced some motor skills for a little bit.

That was our week. To see what others have been up to, click the button below.

Nature Explorers Club - Weeks End Update

2009-09-03T18:24:00.000-07:00

This week we learned all about Queen Anne's Lace. To read the original post, click here.

Nearby there was a large field filled with Queen Anne's Lace. Sadly, upon arrival I learned that my camera batteries were dead. We continued on with our exploration, and I took several specimens home with me to take pictures to share.

We learned the different stages of Queen Anne's Lace

We especially enjoyed tossing the "birds nest" around

We found several colors including these deep purple colored centers.
*I just tried to upload the picture and it was so blurry it wasn't worth putting up, sorry*

We compared it to a carrot from our garden and found that while they look similar, Queen Anne's Lace does not taste as good as a carrot.

We painted using the flower heads

And finally, I realized I forgot to include this activity. We placed several stems in colored water and watched them change color. This was a great way to show how flowers drink water.
Overall, we had a lot of fun. While in the field we saw a baby praying mantis, some wild sweet peas and had fun trying to catch crickets.

This week, my blogger friend Michelle was busy and created a beautiful button which you can add to your blog if you would like to. You can find it on my side bar. Thanks Michelle!!

If you used one or all of the suggestions and blogged about it, please add your link below because I would love to see it. To see what the topic is for next week, just read the post after this one.

Nature Explorers Club - Flower to Seed

2009-09-03T11:18:00.000-07:00

Welcome to The Nature Explorers Club. I am a mom who loves nature and loves to share it with others. Using my experience as an Outdoor Education Instructor and the basic guidelines of the book "Nature For the Very Young", I will be venturing out to explore the great outdoors every week with my kids. Every week I will share what we did, and every week you are welcome to join us. I will post the topic of the week, then one week later I will share what we did and give you a chance to share as well. So get your boots ready, because we're going exploring!

This weeks topic is:

Flower to Seed

As we transition from Summer to Fall, this is the perfect time to learn about the purpose of flowers, since you can typically find one in all of its different stages in one single plant. The main purpose of a flower is to produce more of that same flower, this is called reproduction.

Search around for some flowers. Take a close look at them and see if you can find the major parts to the flower, the stem, leaf, petal, stamen, and pistil. If you can, pull a flower apart to take a closer look at each part.

Picture courtesy of Encarta

The colorful petals attract insects like bees who are looking for pollen. Smell the petals. Is there a different smell? This also helps attract insects.

The pollen is located on the stamen. Try brushing a stamen on your finger. Does it leave a mark of pollen? While the bees are in the flower collecting pollen (to later make into honey), parts of pollen from other flowers will stick to the pistil. For a flower to make seeds, it needs pollen from another flower.

Picture by Peter Kratochvil

At the base of the pistil, is the ovary. This is where the seeds will be made. Allow the child to break open an ovary and explore.

Now try to find a flower that has finished blooming and is in the process of making seeds. Again open the ovary and look inside. Does it look any different?

Finally, see if you can find a flower that has completed the process of making seeds. It will most likely be brown, hard and dead. Break it open and look for the seeds. These seeds will eventually fall to the ground and nest spring could sprout into new plants.

Don't be concerned with going too deep with terminology, or explaining the entire process. The purpose of this activity is to take something familiar and explore it further with the hope of stirring a desire to explore and learn more. If your child asks questions, then seek the answers. If they are content to sniff the pretty flowers, then enjoy the sweet smells.

Activities
* try to collect flowers to represent every color of the rainbow.
* collect as many different flowers as possible then make a simple graph showing how many of each color you have
*create your own flower parts out of felt, cardboard, or laminated paper and let your child try to piece the "puzzle" together to form a whole flower.
*collect as many seeds as you can and create a collage using contact paper or a piece of paper thinly coated with glue
* play "pin the pistil on the flower" using large flower parts.
*read the book "The Reason for a Flower" by Ruth Heller
*you can role play, a flower growing, a flower dropping its seeds, or a bee visiting a flower.

Check back in one week to see what we did, and to share what you did as well.

Nature Explorers Club - Queen Anne's Lace

2009-08-29T13:02:00.000-07:00

Welcome to The Nature Explorers Club. I am a mom who loves nature and loves to share it with others. Using my experience as an Outdoor Education Instructor and the basic guidelines of the book "Nature For the Very Young", I will be venturing out to explore the great outdoors every week with my kids. Every week I will share what we did, and every week you are welcome to join us. I will post the topic of the week, the none week later I will share what we did and give you a chance to share as well. So get your boots ready, because we're going exploring!

This week we are looking for:

Queen Anne's Lace
Photo courtesy of wikipedia.org

Queen Anne's Lace, also known as Wild Carrot, is a very common flower that can be found in most open fields or abandoned lots. To many, it is considered a weed. A weed is simply a plant that is not desired. It is up to you wether or not you want to deem this beautiful flower a weed. It derives its name Queen Anne's Lace because of how the flower head (called an umbel) looks like lace. If you have it, bring apiece of lace with you to compare, especially since many children have no idea what lace is.

Queen Anne's Lace is a biennial plant, meaning that it takes two years for it to grow to maturity. The first year there is a mound of leaves, the second year it grows flowers and stems. The large umbel is actually a gathering of several smaller flowers. Some young flowers can be found bearing a deep purple color, which will fade as the flower matures.

Photo courtesy of wikipedia.org

Attempt to pull one from the ground, keeping the root intact. It should look just like a carrot, but with a different color. If possible, have a carrot with you to compare. Let your child explore the plant using all of their senses. Bring some water to wash the root off and take a taste. Does it taste like a carrot? Smell like one? Feel like one?

Point out the basic parts of the plant, root, stem, leaf and flower. You may notice that some of the flowers look different, like they have closed up on themselves. This is often called a "bird's nest". This happens when the flower starts to develop seeds. It closes in on itself to catch the seeds. Shake one, do any seeds come out? When the plant is all dried up, the birds nest drops off and acts like a tumbleweed, blowing in the wind distributing seeds.

Photo courtesy of CT Botanical Society

Explore the habitat (the place where things live) to see what else you find around the plant. If you are in an open field, don't be afraid to let you children go and romp, skip and jump. There is plenty of time to learn plant parts and scientific names.

Activities
Following are some possible activities that can be done that pertain to Queen Anne's Lace. Pick which ones best suit you and your kids, or feel free to add some of your own.

*Look closely at the plant, how many different colors can you see. Use those colors to create a picture using crayons, paint, or anything else.

*Make a crown out of flowers and pretend to be Kings and Queens

*Draw or print a large Q on a piece of paper and use the flower head as a paint brush to cover it with paint.

*Just as the "birdsnest" is used to catch the seeds, use one to play catch (great for hand-eye coordination)

*Discuss how to some this may be a weed (unwanted), but that it is very useful to others. (bees for pollen, insects for shelter, etc.)

*Using a carrot, with a full top, and a fully dug up Queen Anne's Lace, list what is different and what is the same between the two plants.

Check back next week and share how you and your children explored the great outdoors.

The Nature Explorers Club- White Pine -Take Two!

2009-08-28T11:24:00.000-07:00

After being given some suggestions from a friend, (Thanks Michelle!) I decided to make some little changes to the way I am going to present The Nature Explorers Club. To make it easier for others to follow along with me, I will write a post with all the information about the weeks topic along with possible activities.

Then ONE WEEK later, I will post what we as a family did along with pictures. I will add a link at the bottom of the post so that others can post what they did for the week as well. On that SAME DAY, I will post the information for the following week.

I will plan on having both posts up by Friday so that there is time for you to prepare for the next week. I hope this makes it easier for others to participate. I am very open to other suggestion for improvement if the need arises.

I have re-posted what we did last week with McLinky at the bottom to start the process.

Welcome to Week 1 of the Nature Explorers Club!

If you are wondering what the Nature Explorers Club is, please read this post.

I had planned on using squirrels as the first topic. But as I was preparing the different activities and trying them with my daughter, it became very apparent that this topic would be much better suited for later in the Fall. Since I was not entirely ready with the next topic and I didn't want to wait any longer, I am going to use the topic I did with my kids last week. I talked about it in my Tot School post, but it wasn't everything we did, so this week we explored....

The White Pine Tree

**If you do not have a white pine tree near you, you can use any other pine tree, and change the activities to fit your tree type. (For instance, if yours has two needles to a bundle, then do a collage with the number 2)**

Information
The white pine tree is an evergreen. This means that it keeps its needles all year round, making it look green all the time. (Note for Adult: a needle is actually a leaf, it is just modified in its shape and appearance from what we would call the typical leaf. For the purposes of teaching young children, I just call them needles, but if you want to be botanically correct, you can call them needle-like leaves)

Picture Source: Wikipedia.org

Take a moment to feel the needles of a White Pine. You will notice they are soft. This is one thing that makes a White Pine special. Look closer at the needles and you will see that that are grouped together in bundles. The White Pine tree has five needles in each bundle. This is the only tree like this in the whole world. That makes this a very special tree.

Ask the children what else they notice about the tree, allowing them to touch, smell, and if you dare, even taste. (the needles are edible)

Here are a few things they may notice:
The trunk can be very sticky with sap
There is a very strong smell, especially if you break open a bunch of needles
There are pine cones. (Break one open, are there any seeds inside?)
The tree can be very big
There may be broken branches (White Pine trees are known to break very easily)

Activities

Collect different pieces of the white pine tree and you can make a number five collage to remember that there are five needles on the White pine

You can also let them make an open ended art project with pine pieces

Using crayons and paper, you can make bark rubbings

Other possibilities include:
*Making a bird feeder by covering a pine cone with peanut butter and bird seed
*Painting using a White Pine tassel as a paint brush
*Dramatic play by closing eyes with arms outstretched and swaying with the breeze just like the Pine Tree
*Lay under the pine (watch out for sap!) and take a moment to be quiet and listen, or take this moment just to quietly chat together about your day. Laying under a tree can be quite peaceful and quieting.

Tot School - Aug 16-23

2009-08-24T10:43:00.001-07:00

Esther is 33 Months Old

We had another great week of Tot School.

For Fine Motor Control we used tweezers to sort big and little pom poms

As well as some scissor practice. (Thanks to Tater Tot School for the suggestion for worksheets to use)

For Gross M0tor Skills I taught Esther how to do some tumbling. I used a napping pad as a cushion. (purchased at Target for $6)

For Math Readiness we focused on the number 8, so we played crazy eights

and made spiders, which have eight legs. (This was also our Structured Art Project for the week)

For our Unstructured Art Project, we simply "painted" with glue on some construction paper....

then left it out in the sun to fade out...

Wherever the glue was, it stays the original color while the rest bleaches out. Unfortunately it started to rain so ours only got 4 hours of sun. The longer you leave it out, the more faded it will be.

We also did a little Science time to find out why we should use soap when washing our hands.
You take a bowl of water, sprinkle pepper on top, covering the surface. You then drop a small bit of hand soap in the middle and watch what happens.

I explained that the soap pushes the dirt away, making it clean. **If you plan on doing this, you should have several bowls ready, because once you drop the soap in the water, you cannot re-create the experiment without fully washing out the bowl. I had 9 of these bowls on hand and Esther used every single one and wanted to do more!

Finally, as part of preparing for The Nature Explorers Club, we went on a hike with our neighbor to find some squirrels...

which we didn't find, but did find a really cool burrow in the base of a tree. I think it was a groundhog, Esther is convinced it was a raccoon.

That was our week. To see what other did click below, otherwise have a great week!

The Nature Explorers Club

2009-08-22T10:04:00.000-07:00

Pictures Courtesy of ForestWander.com

After writing my last post, and doing some thinking, I have decided that I would call our nature time "The Nature Explorers Club". Whenever I go out into nature with my kids, I tell them that we are going exploring. This is my desire for our weekly nature outings. I may gently lead us to learn specific things, but at the same time if my daughter sees something new and wants to explore it, then we do. Since we will now be sharing our adventure with friends far and near, you all can be a part of our club.

Each week I will post a short, toddler minded blurb about a specific nature topic. I will then include activities that relate. It is my desire to use nature as a means to teach other skills like math readiness, reading readiness as well as gross motor and fine motor skills.

While I will be following the framework from the book "Nature For the Very Young" by Marcia Bowden, I will also be adding in from my own experience as an Outdoor Education Instructor. You are welcome to follow in our footsteps (and learn from our mistakes) by using what I share here with your own children. I have a passion for teaching children about the wonders of nature and I just can't help myself from sharing it with others.

I have never done anything like this before, so please let me know if I could do things differently, making it easier for all of you on "the other side".

Would You Join Me

2009-08-19T17:31:00.000-07:00

This past few weeks I have been testing out a book that I bought at a library book sale. The book is called "Nature For the Very Young", by Marcia Bowden. I LOVE this book.

I was once an Outdoor Education Instructor who spent my days playing in the field, forest or pond teaching children all about the wonders of nature. Once I had my children, I left that job to be a full time mom. I have always known that nature exploration would always be big between me and my kids. I have a lot of experience and a lot of knowledge, but it is nice to have a basic framework to follow when it comes to my children's education. This is why I think this book is the best out there. Marcia lays out a basic framework of topics for throughout the season. She gives you background information, some suggested activities (indoors and out), but always stresses that open investigation always leads to the best learning atmosphere.

So, my plan....Every week I will be doing a planned nature activity with my daughter. Most of the time I will be using the suggestions from "Nature For the Very Young", plus I will add a few things from my own experience. I may sometimes add in my own topic, especially if one from the book doesn't fit with our habitat here. I will post about the topic, giving facts, songs, activities, and or crafts that can go along with it. But, in general, I will plan on trying to find a way to have my daughter come in direct contact with the topic of the week.

If you, dear reader, are interested and want to follow the activities as well, then you are more than welcome to join us. I'm not planning on using mr linky nor are you required to tell me if you are using the ideas.(but it would be nice :) ) My whole purpose in sharing is to try and make it easier for moms to share nature with their kids.

If you are going to join us, I would try to get your own copy of the book. There are many things in the book itself that I just will not be able to share with you, like sketches to be used for an activity. I would try your library first.

Here are the planned topics for the next five weeks:
Squirrels
Queen Anne's Lace
Flowers
Turtles
Oak Trees

So get your boots and magnifying glasses ready, beacsue we're going exploring!!

He Bear, She Bear

2009-08-18T18:49:00.000-07:00

I am blessed by the fact that my parents kept several books from my childhood. Many of them currently sit on my bookshelves and Esther loves reading them. This week, she is infatuated with "He bear, She Bear" by Stan and Jan Berenstein.

I love the Berenstein Bears, but this book is perfect for right now. Esther sometimes mixes up her he's and she's. In a typical Berenstein Bears easy to read sing song rhyme formation, brother and sister bear help to explain what it means to be a "he" and a "she". It goes on to show all the different jobs a He Bear and a She bear could do.

Overall, its a book I don't mind reading ten times a day (which I do), and it definitely has helped Esther with her he's, she's, we's and I's.

Tot School - Aug 8-15

2009-08-15T16:04:00.000-07:00

Esther is 33 Months Old

We finally had a week of tot school that was a little more planned and that I was able to take pictures of.

For Fine Motor Control we practiced folding using pages from a Kumon "Let's Fold" book.

Nature
We learned about White Pine trees and what makes them special. The needles are soft to the touch,

and sometimes can be sticky.

There are five needles to a bundle.

And they grow to be very big.

We used different parts of the White Pine tree to make a collage of the number five which was our project for Math Readiness.
Edit: I just realized I did not add that I got the idea for the five from the book "Nature for the Very Young". I took her idea and tweaked it a bit for us, but it was not my own inspiration.

After this directed art project, I let her use the left over materials to make a collage of her choosing.
You may not see it, but there is a rock covered in glue in there. This is definitely a project for outside.

The White Pines we were looking at were on the edge of a parking lot. Esther Loved walking on the curb, which made me happy, providing a Gross Motor Skill for the week.
Reading Readiness
We mainly just do a lot of reading, but recently I started something new. After we have read a book several (hundred) times, I encourage Esther to then read the book to one of her dolls.

This way she is practicing re-telling the story and playing at the same time.

Life Skills

We worked on our sewing and I also let her cut a banana with a butter knife for the first time (no picture to show since both hands had to be ready just in case)

Art
After reading some of Charlotte Mason's writings, I decided to add a little art appreciation to our house. I purchased some used books that had colored pictures of paintings. I then cut out a picture, framed it and placed it on our dining room table.

It will stay here for the entire month of August. Periodically I may point it out to Esther, or she may ask about it. There are days when there is no interaction with it, but it is always on display.

Esther is TOTALLY into glue right now. So I gave her a bottle of glue, paper and four different shakers with colored salt and let her go.
She had so much fun, that she sat there for 20 minutes!! This kid never sits still for that long. I am definitely stocking up on glue.

That was our week for Tot School. To see what others are doing, click the button below.

Thoughts of a Child

2009-08-12T18:26:00.000-07:00

This past week, we were blessed to have a band camp practicing across the street from us. This year they weren't that bad. I don't mind hearing the same two lines of music over and over again as long as it is a nice tune. I decided to take the kids over one morning to watch as they practiced. I laid out a blanket and we all sat down to watch and listen. It didn't take long before Esther was off the blanket and exploring all around us. I asked her to return to the blanket so that we could listen to the band, so she sat down. Two minutes later, she was up again. I explained to her that if she didn't want to listen to the band, then we could just go home. She could easily play in the grass in our own front yard and I would have to worry about keeping Elijah quiet. (he likes to scream and I didn't think it would fit into their music well)

She quickly and emphatically said that she wanted to listen to the music, so I told that she should sit down. Now I'm frustrated and she's frustrated and I'm thinking we should just pack the whole thing up, when she gets up looks at me and says...

"I'm listening in my ears Mommy. (she points to her ears) In here, I'm listening to the music."

She then went and played in the grass. We remained there for a little while, and I did some serious thinking. So often I am trying to fit my child to a certain mold. In this case, to sit quietly and watch the band without distraction. In my mind, this is the best way to enjoy the music. But for my sweet little one, it is quite different. While her ears were listening to the music, her eyes and hands were busy elsewhere. She was enjoying the benefit of two things, music and nature, in her own way.

I am quickly learning that there is a difference to "molding" our children and trying to fit them into a specific mold.

Ahhh, the joys of parenthood. Thank God our children are as forgiving as they are.

Re-Organization and Makeovers

2009-08-11T10:34:00.000-07:00

While on my two week vacation from home, it became very apparent that there were several parts to my life that needed to be re-organized, re-vamped or overhauled. Everything seemed to come down to time and what I did with it. My husband and I sat down and I shared with him my thoughts and ideas and he agreed with the changes.

The largest change, is that we have designated two nights during the week for computer or TV, Tuesday and Friday. The other three days we are going to read, work on projects and overall, spend more time together. We have also added some family walking time together every evening (weather permitting) after dinner. So far we have had one successful week and I am really going to enjoy the new schedule.

Speaking of schedule....I have scheduled my days during the week. The only time constraint I have put in the schedule is nap time, which is a priority, otherwise it is just a list of things in order. For instance our morning routine looks like this:
Eat Breakfast
Brush Teeth
Get dressed
Make beds, Open Curtains
Mom cleanup breakfast, kids play quietly
Read Bible
Tot School
Play
Lunch

I have always had a bit of order in my routine, but having it on paper and posted in eye sight makes a big difference in making sure nothing is missed or forgotten. I can't tell you how many times I have left the house without brushing my teeth. (ahh! did I just share that!!)

I've also decided that my husband and I need a place that we can go on a date, while not leaving our home. Basically a special spot on our property that we can sit and talk and it is nice, calming and maybe a little romantic. I've decided to use our very neglected back porch and give it a makeover.

Since money is tight, I have given myself a budget of ten dollars. Basically I am going to try to use what we already have around the house. We'll see if I can do it.

With all of this going on, it has been hard to find a place for blogging in my life, but it is important to me, so I will work it in. I would be really interested to know how all you other moms out there find the time to stay updated, or if you have a tips or tricks.

I'm Back!!!!!!

2009-08-04T05:31:00.000-07:00

Yay, we're finally home! Our wonderful one week vacation to Connecticut turned into an even better TWO week vacation. At the last minute I decided to stay an extra week with the kids so that I could spend more time with my family. We just returned home on Sunday and now we're trying to get back in to the swing of things. I have lots of pictures of tot school and other adventures from the past two weeks, but sadly they are all in CT. We had to leave in a rush due to my husband running into a toll booth in Ohio and my mother having to drive us partly to him. (he's fine, the brakes just failed in the car. Everything is repaired and in good working order)

Hopefully I can get my hands on them before the week is up since I tried out some new ideas and really want to share them with you all. But for now, I just wanted to say Hello again to all of you out there and to let you know that I am back now and will have lots to share.

Tot School

2009-07-18T11:08:00.001-07:00

Esther is 31 Months Old

Well, it seems two weeks have passed since I last posted about Tot School. We have had two very full weeks of tot school, so I will attempt to keep it brief, but I must share pictures so my family can see what we've been up to.

The first week, we went back to some old tools that haven't been used in a while.

Hammering Letters
Bottle Top Names
Practicing our handwriting with dry erase markers on workbook pages in page protectors.
I also made this new tool so that Esther can practice putting together snaps on clothing.

Little brother looking on

It is simply an old piece of baby clothing stapled to a cheap picture frame.
Later in the week Esther completely surprised me when she decided she wanted to use the nature notebook I made for her 3 MONTHS AGO!! At the time I showed her how she can draw pictures of flowers she likes, but she showed absolutely no interest. I laid it on her school shelves, where it sat collecting dust until on Friday she picked it up with a pencil as we were going outside. Here is her picture:

This is what she was drawing (my beautiful rose)

I had to guide her a little bit, since she seemed overwhelmed over the idea of drawing a flower from the garden. I asked her what colors she saw in the flower, then to find that color in the box of pastels. She took it from there. Can you tell I'm a proud Mommy!!

We also did marshmallow and toothpick sculptures
I have seen this used on many blogs, but there is one in particular I wanted to share. The Moveable Alphabet is a blog produced by a montessori teacher. She used this as a project with her students and was able to bring out some interesting insights about children and how they learn and create. If you have a moment, you may enjoy it.

And finally I found a wooden puzzle of the United States at the Good Will. The plan was to put in storage for the future, but Esther found it. She put it together with my brother and his wife Tara who were visiting.

Surprisingly, she actually retained some of the names of the states. She loves yelling out CALIFORNIA!! We have no idea why she likes saying this name or why she must yell it, but she does.

That's it for us. We're off to Connecticut for a week. We'll see you in another two weeks, but until then check out this website for more tot school ideas.

Blessings!

Update

2009-07-17T10:13:00.000-07:00

Oh My!! Has it really been two weeks since I have posted anything. Summer is going way too fast for me, but we are enjoying ourselves.

We have made a few projects that I have had on my list for a while. We made a windsock I saw on Frugal Family Fun Blog

I made this dress out of a pillowcase that I saw on Chasing Cheerios. It turned out a little too big for her. Maybe in another year or two, I can try this again. Right now when she wears it she looks like she belongs in biblical times!!

Esther started Swimming Lessons. She is so fearless that she just jumps in the pool, which is the reason for the lessons.

We celebrated an anniversary with my husbands parents by taking them out to dinner.

My brother has been in town the past week with his wife Tara. It has been a great week with them. My brother bought an old version of Mouse trap which we played one night.

One day we went to a rock and fossil store where we were able to mine for our own rocks and minerals. It was a blast.

I plan on using the rocks we found to do most of the activities on a blog called Teaching My Little Bookworm. Here is the link for day 1. The rest of the links are here, here, here, and here.

The rest of our time has been enjoying the library and our front yard.

I hope not to have such long breaks between posts, but I think most of you understand that summer can become very busy. We leave on Sunday for a 12 hour trip to my family in CT. I have been busy preparing for the car ride and have several new tools and kits I'm making. I hope to post about them before I leave, but it may have to wait until we return.

Tot School

2009-07-02T10:25:00.000-07:00

Esther is 31 Months Old

Here are a few of the planned activities from our past week.

Esther made a collage of scrap paper and pictures cut from a magazine. I just gave her the paper, glue and scraps and let her create. She had a blast and amazingly enough didn't make too much of a mess.

I finally got all the materials I needed to do a sewing activity I saw at the another blog called Delightful Learning. I taught Esther how to thread a needle and then sew the button. (sorry, picture is blurry)

I made this file folder game from the book called Usborne Leaning Games. This book has some great reading and counting activities.

It is a great way to practice letters or sounds. Esther is struggling with the letter H and G, so I made a very simple Hippo and Grasshopper as the game pieces. (I made them so that they can lie flat for storage)

I also made up a set of number cards with the same number of dots on them. I then gave Esther several small animal erasers and she had to place the correct number of erasers on the cards using the dots as a guide. I've seen this idea on many blogs, so it is defiantly not of my own creation.

And finally, what do you get when you combine one paper plate, a stick, a piece of string and a balloon?

A really fun activity for gross Motor Skills.

Esther played with this for quite a while. First hitting it with the "bat", then running and hitting it with her head. Then she tried to kick it.

To see what others have done for Tot School, Click the button below.

Strawberries - Yummy treats

2009-06-26T04:25:00.000-07:00

We went Strawberry picking this past weekend. It was a blast. It is amazing how different fresh picked strawberries taste from store bought strawberries. Here are a few pictures from our adventure.

Now for the treats. Here is what I did with our strawberries.

I dehydrated some to be used in our granola. Yummy!

I made strawberry rhubarb pie for my father for fathers day. Double Yummy!!

And finally, I made sugar free Jam. Yep, you read right, I said sugar free. Last year I made strawberry jam and was shocked at the amount of sugar that went into it. I went in search of a way to do it with less sugar and found one. Its called low methoxyl pectin. Here is the website where I purchased mine. Instead of sugar, you use honey, juice concentrate or a sugar substitute. I chose to use 1/2 cup of honey for mine.

The verdict: Wow!! It tasted like I had fresh strawberries mashed onto my toast. It was SO good. We will never go back to regular jam again. (unless of course we eat all of the jam I make, which might happen very quickly) Also, the company I purchased it was great. The have a "jam line" that you can call with your questions. I received a call back very promptly and the woman on the phone was a delight to talk with.

Now, as for the price, at first I thought it was more expensive to use this new pectin, but then I realized that one box was enough to make 20 half pints of strawberry jam. I would need four boxes of the regular stuff, plus think of all the sugar you would need to get.

Overall, if you are experienced at making jam, I would give this a try and if you've never done it before, you should look into it. Its really not that hard, teh istructions are included with the pectin and you just need the righ tequipment and you are set to go.

Baking

2009-06-22T06:06:00.000-07:00

I have recently done a lot of baking. I have been taking advantage of the cool rainy days to have my oven going. I decided to share two of the recipes since they were very good.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is the easiest cookie recipe and it comes out so delicious. Personally I prefer big, soft cookies. If you do too, you should make these.

1 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375
Using a hand beater or stand mixer cream together first 7 ingredients. Then add in flour and chocolate. Drop by tablespoon onto greased baking sheet. Bake 12-15 minutes

I use butter straight from the refrigerator, which means that it is cold. I don't know if room temperature butter will make a difference. Also, I like big cookies, but if you want smaller ones, then use a teaspoon to put them on the cookie sheet.

I also have been making A LOT of granola. My husband loves it, but it is so expensive to buy. I found a recipe that I really like. It is a little on the sweet side, but we like it that way. This recipe came out of an Amish cookbook.

Peanut Butter Granola

10 c Oatmeal
2 c wheat germ
1 1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 c oil
1/2 c honey
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. salt
1/2 c peanut butter
nuts and raisins

Heat oil, honey and peanut butter until melted. Meanwhile mix all other ingredients (except raisins, add these at the very end) Mix all ingredients together until well coated. Pour into cookie sheets and toast in 300 degree oven until golden brown. Be sure to stir often so id doesn't burn. Let cool. Add raisins if wanted.

As much as we LOVE this recipe, I know eventually we may get tired of it. If you have a recipe of your own that you like I would love for you to share.

Tot School - A Little Fun

2009-06-21T03:36:00.000-07:00

Esther is 2.5 years old

Here are some pictures from the fun we had over the past 2 weeks.

We played catch with our new beach ball and LOVED it.

I bought a beach ball from the dollar store and used a sharpie to divide it into 26 parts. I then drew a letter in each segment. I blew it up, leaving it slightly deflated making it easier to catch. We would toss it back and forth to each other and whenever we caught it, we would have to say the name of the letter that our hand was on.

I pulled out our hide and seek rice, but this time added measuring spoons cups and funnels.

My current plan is to focus on numbers for the rest of the summer. Currently Star can count to fourteen and recognizes the written numbers to ten. I hope to make it to twenty by the end of summer. I thought I would share the process I have been using.

I start with flash cards. I say the number, spell the number and then trace it with my finger while saying a little rhyme. I then have Esther repeat it her self. Then we go over the previous numbers.

I then have her go retrieve the current number of things from the house. This past week was the number 4.

Then we use this book.

I found it at walmart and I love it. So does Esther. It uses stickers to reinforce the numbers.

Esther also did her very first dot-to-dot. I started out by placing it in a page protector sheet and letting her use a dry erase marker until she got the idea of how to do it. Then I took it out and let her do it with a pencil. She then colored it it.

This was a caterpillar using the numbers 1-5. I found it here at abcteach.

We have been reading Going West which is a part of the My First Little House series. In the book, there was a picture of a lantern with holes poked in it making a beautiful pattern. Esther was drawn to it so we made our own. I used a paper bag with a piece of styrofoam inside. I drew a pattern on the front and Esther used a push pin to make holes where the dots were.

After we finished, I put sand in the bottom and added a lit candle. Overall the project went ok. We had fun, but Esther didn't have the patience to follow the patter exactly, so she made holes wherever she wanted, and once lit, the holes really weren't big enough to really let much light through.

And finally, what is a fun week without a little dress up!

We hope you had a fun week as well. To see what others did this past week click here!

The Dot - A book review

2009-06-11T17:19:00.000-07:00

This weeks book of the week is The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds.

In the book, a little girl is frustrated because she can't draw. She doesn't think she is a very good artist. The teacher tells her "Just make a mark and see where it takes you." She jabs her pencil on the paper making a small dot. Soon this small dot grows into quite the artistic adventure.

This book is perfect for my little one. I can already tell that Esther is very analytical and a perfectionist. The few times I have seen her try to draw she gives up in frustration because what comes out on paper is not exactly what she sees in her mind. I am hoping this adorable book will help her to see that even the smallest dot can become a masterpiece.

I am planning this weekend to clear off the table and cover it with different types of art utensils and just let her go. Hopefully the result is a lot of fun and some beautiful new pieces to hang on my fridge.

Overall I find the book very sweet and inspiring, in an artistic way. It would be a great starting point for an art filled afternoon or morning. You can visit Peters website for even further ideas to go with the book. (click here to go) There are two more books in the series, ish, and a third which is to be published soon, plus a few more that we will probably be looking in to.

Even if art isn't your "thing", this great story is sure to bring a smile to your face.

A simpler life

2009-06-07T14:45:00.000-07:00

I confess that deep down, there is a part of me that wishes I could have lived during the pioneer times. I know that it was a hard life, and I probably have no idea how hard, but there is something about the simplicity of it all that intrigues me. Please understand that by simplicity, I do not mean easier, I just mean an attempt to go back to basics. Today we live in a world that is obsessed with convenience. Don't get me wrong, convenience is sometimes a wonderful thing and I know I would not have survived my pregnancy without it. But, I believe that there are basic skills that are being lost as generations pass. For instance, this spring I was attempting to do a spring cleaning in my home and I realized that I had no idea how to wash the walls. I know, you may be thinking, wow, this girl doesn't know anything. And that is the point. I didn't know if I should use soap or another cleaner, or nothing at all, yet this is something that everyone knew how to do and did not too long ago.

And what about cutting up a whole chicken? I have always bought the cellophane wrapped Styrofoam hugging pre-cut pieces of chicken. Again, nothing wrong with this, but if I had to, could I process a chicken?

Well, now I can. Last Sunday I was awake at 5 am due to my allergies. So I decided to take advantage of the early morning quiet and dissect a chicken. I used my Joy of Cooking as a guide and just went at it. Here are the results:

Besides all of this delicious chicken, which I got for $3.50, I used the leftover parts and pieces and boiled them to make a stock, which turned into this:

Yep, it tasted as good as it looks. By using what ever I could find in the fridge and pantry I was able to make enough soup to feed my family for two lunches.

So, for a $3.50 chicken I got the following

1 chicken dinner
Leftover chicken for husbands lunch next day
2 tenderloins put in freezer for future use
4 adult and 2 child servings of soup.
One very satisfied mommy

*small edit* Thanks to Tom for answering all my questions about chickens and soup!!

That same meal, we had a salad made of lettuce entirely from our garden.

Planting a garden was also on my list of back to basics. There is something deeply satisfying in eating something you have grown and harvested on your own. When I first started making my garden plans, I was a little daunted by the idea, but then I read the book "Square Foot Gardening" and I soon realized that gardening didn't have to be difficult, or take up a lot of space. Here is my garden (this picture was taken 4 weeks ago, its much greener now)

It is 4 feet by 6 feet. Currently I have
12 cucumber plants
24 pea plants
8 tomato plants
4 basil
24 radish
lots of carrot
12 lettuce
sunflowers
zinnias
And I still have 5 square feet left! And really it wasn't hard. Many vegetables can be grown in large pots on your porch even.

Next on my back to basics list:
Baking bread from scratch
Find a good and healthy blueberry muffin recipe
Sew Esther one of these skirts

What would be on your back to Basics list?

Tot School

2009-06-05T17:03:00.000-07:00

Esther is 30 months old

Recently tot school has consisted mainly of exploring outside in the yard, garden and sand box. Here are a few other activities we did during the past two weeks:

We made chocolate playdough using this recipe. While the dough smelled wonderful and was silky soft, but it didn't taste very good at all. I am on the lookout for an edible playdough that can be eaten after being used.
We painted. Esther LOVES mixing all the colors together, then painting. Right now my home is decorated with lots of lovely brown paintings!
I also gave her a food pick which she used to make designs in the paint.

We finished a bottle of hand soap, so I washed it out and filled it with water and a little bit of soap. Esther really enjoyed squirting the soapy water, but it was a little difficult for her. I think after doing this a few times more, her muscles will be built up enough that she will be able to do it easily.
For some exploration time one day, I gave her some glass beads and several differnt containers that made different noises when the beads were poured into them. While she enjoyed this, it was short lived.
We also read a lot of Curious Geaorge books. She LOVES Curious George.

That was what we did the past two weeks, click the button below to see what others have been doing.

My Little Monkey

2009-06-01T04:59:00.000-07:00

I recently found a blog by the name of My Four Monkeys. It is a great blog featuring many giveaways as well as great information on mommy made products out in cyberworld. I have been introduced to some great products because of this blog, plus I had the wonderful opportunity of winning one of the giveaways. This was my first ever, and I am so happy. Here is Elijah with his handmade bunny "tippy"

Here is a link to the post with all the details about it if you are interested in it. I just wanted to share the cute pictures and say thanks to Angie for providing such great information and opportunities.

Happy Anniversary

2009-05-30T04:12:00.000-07:00

My husband and I just celebrated our fifth anniversary. I can't believe its been five years! We decided to make some big plans for the day and luckily my husband was loving enough to indulge my joy of gardening.

First we went to a plant sale and purchased a plant together to be planted in the yard so that every year we can recelebrate this small milestone in our marriage. We got heirloom poppies that are the most beautiful lavender color with the prettiest fringing on the petals.

Then we got the grand parents to watch the kids while we took off for Toledo, Ohio where we rented a hotel room for the night. We spent the day just driving around Toledo, stopping where ever we wanted and then we went to the Toledo botanical gardens.

This was perfect timing since I am wanting to add plants to my garden which will bloom around this time, so I just took pictures of every plant that I liked, which was a lot.
Here is my favorite, campagna peony. The center is as big as a softball. It is a very unique peony.

The grounds were absolutely beautiful and if you are ever in the area, you should visit.

Here is my husband taking in a little culture.
We finished by going to our favorite restaurant, Mancy's Italian. We have been known to drive over an hour just for dinner. Yep, its that good. Overall, it was a wonderful anniversary and I am so glad that at five years that I can happily say that I am looking forward to the next five.

I do have to add that we are definitely blessed to have parents who are willing to watch the kids for us so that we can get some much needed alone time. we couldn't have done it without them. Love you guys!!

I'm Back!

2009-05-29T10:16:00.000-07:00

Yay!!! We have internet again. Part of me wonders if it was a good thing that we didn't have internet. I was actually able to read a book, which I haven't done in a while. I may have to rethink how much time I spend on the computer.

During my time off, I did a lot of thinking and I decided that I really wanted to use my children's real names. I don't see any harm in it and I would rather use their beautiful names. So....

I'd like you to meet Elijah David

And this is Esther Grace
When I was in college I had a friend by the name of Esther. I thought it was a beautiful name and I decided that if I was to ever have a girl, I would name her that. When I shared this with my husband he said that was fine by him as long as we could name the boy Elijah since he always wanted a son by that name. So our children's names were picked out even before we were married! It is just coincidence that they are both bible names and that they start with the letter E. Now you know their names, and the story behind them.
There is much to catch up on, so I have written several posts and scheduled them throughout the next week. I hope you enjoy them.

Blessings

Computers....

2009-05-26T16:15:00.000-07:00

What did we ever do without the internet? Well, I get to find out. We have been having problems with our internet, which is why you have not heard anything from me. A technician is coming Friday, hopefully it will be fixed then. Unfortunately I don't think I will be able to post anything until everything is up and running. A 6 month, and a two year old sitting quietly in the library while mommy types, not a pretty picture. I hope all is well in everyone elses worlds. I'll have a lot to catch up on when I get back.

Blessings

Zoob-Zoob

2009-05-18T18:09:00.000-07:00

My most recent thrift store shopping has led me to a wonderful product called Zoob. These are interlocking plastic pieces like I have never seen before. Their unique shape and design give them countless possibilities. I was concerned that they would be too advanced for Star, but she seems to really enjoy them.

She is only able to connect them end on to end, but she is trying to learn how to cross connect them. I think it will be a little while before she can create actual designs from them. Right now, besides just playing with them, I am using them to reinforce concepts like shapes and her alphabet. I will construct a letter and if she correctly identifies it, she gets to break it apart. Right now she is totally into breaking things apart.

In my opinion, this is a wonderful tool for open ended play that will last for years and years. Here is the link to their official site. Zoob by infinitoy

Unexpected Smile

2009-05-17T10:33:00.001-07:00

Earlier this week, Star and I had been having a difficult day. I was tired, she was tired. Patience was nonexistent. I sent Star to her room, to calm down a bit. (both her and me ) After a few minutes I went to her room to have a heart to heart. When I looked in, this is what I saw...

All the tension just melted away and we shared a good book together. Now this is Bliss!

Tot School, Gardens Galore

2009-05-16T17:28:00.000-07:00

Star is 29 months old

We had a very, unstructured Tot school for the past two weeks. We went to the Toledo Zoological Gardens (A.K.A. the Toledo Zoo)

Also, here in lower Michigan, Mother's Day is the official day you can start planting your garden, so much of our time has been outside. I taught Star how to plant seeds, gave her her own seeds and her own square foot of garden.

I honor of planting season, we read the book, "The Carrot Seed". Star loved this book. I found her "reading it to herself" (she was narrating the pictures out loud). We also did a lapbook for this book from Homeschool Share.

We did have one day where it was too cold and windy outside so we did some planned activities.

We played with Do-A-Dot markers (click here for where we got the picture)

Made Rice Crispies treat sculptures

And Stars all time favorite, pouring water using a funnel. I know you all have seen children pouring water, so the following video probably isn't all that interesting, but I added it for my mother (Hi Mom!). Kids are so cute when they are doing something they really enjoy.

That was our two weeks, to see what others did for tot school, click the link below.

Home Cleaning

2009-05-13T07:01:00.000-07:00

I have had a lot on my mind and heart to share, but it seems there has been many other things requiring my time. Luckily today is a rainy day and Butterbean is napping while Star is busy playing with the game ker-plunk. Before I go any further though, I want to explain that by no means am I an expert at housework. If fact I'm really not that good. My house isn't a pig sty, but I wouldn't classify it as clean either. This has led me to seek out advice and support, which I am going to share.

I really do want a clean house, but I will admit that it is really easy to get discouraged. Keeping your home clean really is an unending battle that can become tiring if you don't have a good outlook or mind set. I have found myself looking around me and thinking, "what's the use, it's just going to get dirty again by the end of the day." And yes, this is true, but what I have found is that when it comes to cleaning your home, the difference isn't really with the change in the house, but the change within me and my family.

For the past two weeks my husband and I have made a real effort to clear our sink every evening and make it shine. (more on this in a little bit) And while our kitchen has been cleaner, the biggest change has been in our attitudes. When I wake up and walk into the kitchen, I can't help but to smile. I know, it sounds silly, but it's true. I also have noticed that there is less tension and more joy between me and my husband as well as the kids. This is now what motivates me to clean. This is also the reason I now call it home cleaning instead of house cleaning because when I do it, it makes my house into a home.

Now, like I said, I'm not perfect. If fact I will admit to the fact that my daughter is currently not wearing any underwear since we ran out. (don't worry the wash is going right now) I still get discouraged sometimes or even distracted by other things I would rather be doing. When this happens I go to the following websites for encouragement as well as a little boost to get going again.

The Fly Lady
My husband and I joke that the Fly Lady is a little excentric, but she does know her stuff. Her number one thing that she says everyone should do is shine their sink. I was a little skeptical, until I did it. There are some nights that I decide that the sink will have to wait until morning, but most nights, it does get shined before we go to bed. The rest of her website is filled with lots of other tips. I personally have not signed up for her e-mails, so I don't know how good they are.

Copperswife
This is the blog of a lovely lady that I stumbled on not too long ago. This link will take you to her homemaking page, while this link will take you to her blog. She writes from a Christian perspective, but I think that even if you weren't a Christian, her words could be an encouragement to you. I am always motivated to do more in my home after re-reading what she has written.

I hope what I have shared has been encouraging. I think I'm going to go clean my bathroom now.
Have a blessed day!

99 cent book sale

2009-05-13T06:00:00.000-07:00

A neighbor shared this website with me for bookcloseouts.com. They are currently having a 99 cent book sale. I haven't had a moment to really check it out yet, but it looks like there might be some really good deals. I thought I would share. She also said that their scratch and dent area has some great deals as well.

Alphabets and Bunnies - a book review

2009-05-08T18:13:00.000-07:00

Star is absolutely in LOVE with the book Alphabet by Matthew Van Fleet.

I had originally seen the book Tails by the same author and thought it was cute. Then, I happened across this book in our local Marshalls and decided to get it. I didn't realize what a great book this was until I got it home and Star wouldn't put it down. The idea behind the book, is that each letter of the alphabet is represented by pictures of three different animals and one plant. The back of the book is a reference guide to all the names of the animals and plants pictured. The pictures are enhanced with textures and moving parts. There are a total of 17 different textures, three moving parts and 5 flaps. It also comes with a poster of the alphabet with even more animals and plants. Plus the poster itself is interactive. Just lift the flap and there is a pop up animal to greet you. All of this leads to a lot of fun for your fingertips.

This book is great for little ones. Butterbean (5 months) really enjoys the textures. Star (2.5) is intrigued by the pictures and moving parts. She is constantly asking "what's that?". When she is older it is perfect for learning her beginning letter sounds. And for me, I find the pictures amusing. The author seems to have depicted just about all the emotions that we as parents seems to find ourselves experiencing with our kids. The only downside, unless you find it for discount like me, the book can be pricey.

My book pick for the week is The Whispering Rabbit by Margaret Wise Brown.

I picked this one up at the Good Will. I had never heard of it, but I recognized the author. (The Runaway Rabbit, Good Night Moon) The story is of a little rabbit who swallows a bee while yawning and now can only whisper. She spend the book trying to figure out how to wake up the bee who fell asleep so he would fly away and she herself could go to sleep. Why do I like the book so much? It is a quiet book. You spend most of is whispering, which makes the child concentrate even more. I found it to be perfect for right before nap time.

Thats it for the book picks this week. Happy reading!

Tot School - A new beginning

2009-05-02T17:42:00.000-07:00

Star is 2.5 years old

Phew!! It's been a long two weeks. I have been totally re-organizing tot school while doing tot school at the same time. I realized I had a lot to share, so I decided to write a few different posts and I will link to them so that if you are interested all you have to do is click the link.

First, the re-organization has been great. Check it out here! I've decided to loosely follow the curriculum given on the website ABC Jesus Loves Me. I'm sure that Star doesn't recognize any real difference, but I feel more organized now that I have a basic outline to follow. I really like their bible lessons as well as the finger plays and little songs they have for leaning things like how to draw numbers and learning bible verses.

The past two weeks we have focused on the first three days of creation. We ate oreos for day one (light and dark). For day two we made a picture of cotton ball clouds and colored salt for the water. (see this post for instructions for the salt)

For day three we made salt dough mountains and valleys since the bible version we were using used these terms and Star didn't know what a valley was.

We also went to the local arboretum to look for flowers and explore the different plants there were.

While we were there we decided to explore the pond. We caught a frog, but he jumped away before we could get a good picture.

Here are some of the other activities from the week.

We sorted small, medium and large pom poms

We painted with sponges

which led to fingers

and surprisingly led to using paint brushes. I've been trying to give star differnt options while painting to inspire her creativity.
I have been saving little boxes for quite some time now, so I was finally ready to put together an activity. Star was given the boxes as follows.

And this is what she found....
Her favorite item was definitely the lock. She liked mixing up the boxes and finding other items to put in them.

We tried learning about patterns using our rubber frogs

but Star preferred to line them all up and count them

Then we sorted and "graphed" them
I am slowly learning that sometimes the best education occurs when there is less structure. A few months ago I would have been frustrated by Star not doing the activity "properly" and probably would have put it away when she started to play with them. If I had I would have missed all of the great learning and fun that followed. Plus, who wouldn't want to play more with these cute little frogs!
If you want your own cute frogs, check out your toy section in Walmart.

Star also took some time to teach Butterbean his letters. Very Cute!

This week we also drew people for the first time. Star has tried before, but this is the first time I could recognize actual parts of a person. This is a picture of me and Star.
We had a couple of surprise 80 degree days, so we got to play with our new sand and water table,
which is where we spent the rest of the week.

There was lots more, but I will leave it for your imagination. Thanks for stopping by and checking out what we did. To see what others have done click the button below.

Re-Organizing Tot School

2009-05-02T15:22:00.000-07:00

Since starting Tot School last December, my plans, tools and storage have changed several times. I think I finally have everything in just the right place that works best for us. I thought I would share since some of my ideas came from seeing what other have done.
We now start everyday with our calender. Actually we start by looking out the window and deciding on the weather. We then choose the picture that best fits with the weather outside.

We then attach it to the correct day on the calendar. The purpose of the calender is to help Star begin to understand the passing of time with words like yesterday, today and tomorrow, as well as being introduced to other terminology like Monday, January, week, etc.

To create the calendar, I bought the base and header from the Dollar Tree store. I then added two pieces of Velcro to each square.

The top piece is for the date and the bottom piece is for the moving weather icon. We use these to mark what day we currently are on.

I also printed other icons for church, the library and Grandparents house. This way Star will see what is coming up in the week and hopefully will start to understand the relationship of time.

Then there is the dreaded "s" word.....storage. As you other moms should know quite well, once you have kids it seems that your house gets smaller and smaller and your possessions just keep increasing with no end in sight. I am quickly learning that this applies to homeschooling as well. My storage works as follows...

All tot tools are stored in bins on a shelf. They are broken generally into three categories. Math readiness, reading readiness and writing readiness. I try to choose at least one from each box each week.
Yep, it's just a jumbled mess. As long as I remember to dig to the bottom every once and a while the system seems to work well.
When I choose activities for the week, they are placed in these bins.

I know they look like workboxes, but really they are trays in box form. The workbox system is a great system, but not right for my home just yet. Definitely in the future I will probably use it. Right now I need some form of organization that doesn't take that much room, but I still want Star to have the freedom to choose what she does and when she does it. She can choose any of the boxes whenever she wants. If she doesn't like what I have put in one of the boxes, then she doesn't have to do it. The top shelf has a drawer system from Ikea. It holds pencils, crayons, white paper and construction paper. Again, Star has total access to these things. The bottom shelf holds the library books that we have checked out for the week.

When we complete an art project it gets hung on the blinds to dry.

By the end of the week if there is something that I think we should hang on to, it gets moved to the cupboards.

Right now, they're a little bare since I just removed all the Easter stuff. When we sit down to a meal, Star's chair faces these cupboards, so she sees what is hanging there quite often. It is my opinion that the more a child is in contact with a subject, even just glancing at it a few times a day, the more they will remmeber and understand it.

I have a few more ideas I want to implement, hopefully in the next few weeks, but this has been a great change for our home so far.

The Joy of Salt

2009-05-01T17:34:00.000-07:00

Yes, I did say salt. Recently we seem to be using salt for several activities, so I though I would share.

A Salt Tray

All you need is a baking pan, a piece of colored paper for the bottom (optional, but helps to make drawings stand out) and lots of salt. We use this to practice writing letters, numbers and shapes. Plus its just a whole lot of fun.

Salt Glitter Pictures

To color the salt, all you do is add food coloring, mix well, and let dry. Then you use it just like glitter. I found some salt shakers at a yard sale to store ours in. It took a little practice, but eventually Star figured out how to shake the salt on to glue she had just put down.

Modeling Clay
(we were learning about mountains and valleys)

I found this recipe in the book "The Preschooler's Busy Book" by Trish Kuffner

2 cups salt
2/3 cups water
1 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup cold water

Stir salt and first water in a saucepan and heat for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add cornstarch and cold water. Stir and heat until smooth and thick. Store in a plastic bag. (note, regular iodized salt probably would work best. I used kosher. It has an interesting texture, but is a little crumbly)

The book also contained the following recipe. We have not tried it yet, but certainly are going to very soon.

Salt Playdough

1 cup salt
1 cup water
1/2 cup flour

Combine ingedients in a saucepan anc cook over medium heat until smooth and rubbery. After mixture cools, knead in enough flour to make it workable.

I decided to see if there was anything else we could use salt for, and here is what I found. If you know of another use for fun please feel free to share.
Advanced Salt Projects
How to separate salt and pepper
Salt Ice Sculptures

I'm Still Here

2009-04-30T17:17:00.000-07:00

For those of you wondering where I have been (mom!), blogging has not been at the top of my priorities. But, I do have several posts started with some great ideas and more cute pictures. They will be coming soon, I promise.

This picture perfectly shows one reason I haven't posted. This is what happens to a perfectly neat and tidy area once a toddler decides to play (please note she was playing for less than 20 minutes) ...

Ahh, the joys of toddlerhood.

My Two Book - Book Review

2009-04-21T17:34:00.000-07:00

At the moment Star is entirely hooked on the book called "My Two Book"
This is actually just one book in the series. There is also a series for the alphabet. We haven't received them yet, but have ordered them from the inter-library loan. I was a bit skeptical, because I couldn't believe that there could be an entire book based on just one number. We found this book to be engaging and fun. It's definitely worth checking out from the library. I have been catching Star counting a lot more now that we've been reading these books.

Tot School: Spring is here!

2009-04-18T11:53:00.000-07:00

The beginning of our week we spent in Connecticut with my family. We took Star to the Norwalk Maritime Center. We learned all about creatures of the water.

We even got to touch stingrays. Very cool!!

Here are a few things from the rest of our week...

We played with bubbles

We had a book picnic. (picture a blanket in the shade piled high with books)

We planted flowers.
I gave Star her very own garden pot with plants for her to take care of. I told her that they were entirely for her and she could do what ever she wants with them. I also explained how plants need soil sun and water to live. So far several of the plants have been planted and replanted several times. It will be interesting to see if they survive the summer.

We went exploring
I made an exploring backpack. It is currently filled with a magnifying glass, a bug container, children s field guides, oil pastels and a notebook. Soon it will also have a small fish net and a plant press.

And that was it! It was too nice to be inside, plus I am currently reorganizing tot school. I hope to have it finished for next week to share.

To see what others have been doing for tot school, click on the button below.

How Do Dinosaurs.....

2009-04-15T10:14:00.000-07:00

If your child likes dinosaurs as much as mine does, then they will love this book. We just checked this one out of our library after a neighbor suggested it. Star LOVES it. The first half of the book takes time to describe all the improper things to do at the dinner table and ends with showing how dinosaurs eat their food the proper way. The pictures are colorful, cute and funny. I have found this book very helpful with table manners training. The other night Star was blowing bubbles in her milk so I quietly asked her if dinosaurs blow bubbles in their milk and she answered "no". I then asked her if she wanted to be a good dinosaur. She said yes and stopped blowing bubbles! (score 1 for mom!)

This is only one in a whole series of books covering topics from manners to number and colors. We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of another one from the series.

Enjoy!

Little Bits

2009-04-14T16:52:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been a while since I have posted. We have been away for Easter, we went to Connecticut to spend time with my family. We had a lovely time, although I could easily do without the 13 hour drive one way :( I have SO much to share, that I'm going to try to break it up over a few days. One thing I want to start doing is to take one day a week to share a wonderful book that we have had the joy of reading. I have found it to be such a great help when someone takes the time to share a great book that they have read with their kids which I would have never heard of before. I am slowly coming in to contact with such lovely books that I want to share them with anyone who wants to read them. So be on the lookout tomorrow for the introduction of Word Filled Wednesday where I share either a book or a way of accessing books that I have found to be truly great.

Tot School - Easter Preperations

2009-04-04T17:59:00.000-07:00

Star is 28 months old.

We did a little of everything this week. Here were our tot tools we used:

Size practice with measuring spoons and cupcakes from file folder fun

Stringing beads from the dollar store

Pounding letters

Tonging eggs

Sound egg matching. She had to find a blue egg that matched a green egg. Fillings I used were breadcrumbs, rice, pasta, lentils, navy beans, and beads.

Here were our crafts:

We "glued" tissue paper to butterflies by spraying the paper with water then laying down the tissue

We did stamping with this stamp kit

We colored this great picture about Palm Sunday then I cut out palm leaves from green construction paper and let star cut all around the edges giving it a leafy look. We then danced around the living room waving our palms to the song Hosanna. I think that counts as Gross Motor skills

We also did this AWESOME project I saw it somewhere, but I can't remember where, so I'll do my best to describe it. You mix shaving cream and food coloring to make your desired colors. We were learning about secondary colors so we made green, orange and purple.

You put these colors into a large tray large enough to fit a piece of paper. You then swirl the colors together. (not too much or else you get brown) You lay a piece of paper on top and tap it all around so that it comes in contact with the shaving cream.

When you remove the paper and wipe off the shaving cream, this is what it looks like.

The picture doesn't do any justice, these really are beautiful an you can't mess it up. You really have to try it. We're making Easter cards out of ours.

Are last craft actually hasn't completely dried yet, but you can see what the finished product should be as well as the directions here at the Family Fun website. We are making a paper mache Easter diorama.
It was messy, but well worth it.

Here is a list of ideas and links for what we will be doing next week just in case anyone can use the ideas for their Easter preparations.

1. Hide eggs filled with numbers that match an egg carton with the numbers in the bottom
2. The angel rolled the stone away craft
3. Easter Egg Board Game and Bunny memory match
4. Coloring The Last Supper and The Empty Tomb
5.Make handprint lilies
6. Make a nest for our dyed eggs
7. Bake resurrection cookies

To see what others are doing, just click the box below

.Happy Easter Everyone!!

I can do it myself update

2009-04-03T17:57:00.000-07:00

Last week I wrote about some struggles we were having with Star and about a video I watched about letting children do more in their environment. (click here to go to that post) For the past week or so, I've conducted an experiment to see if letting Star have more freedom would lead to less tantrums and stress in the house. Simply put, it worked. This past week we did the following things,
1. Taught Star to go to the bathroom and wash her hands by herself
2. Let Star make her toast every morning
3. Give Star the ability to help, even in the littlest way, with every meal
4. Gave Star a drawing table.

The First two were very easy. I just had to rearrange the stools in the bathroom so that she could reach the light switch and put everything she needed in arms reach. Since doing this, we have had only two accidents in one week.

We relocated the toaster so that she could reach it using her "helper stool". This is a step stool I kept stored in the kitchen to reach things in high cupboards. Star now knows that she can only help if her helper stool is out. Here is her proud picture.

As far as helping with every meal, basically all it takes is remembering. She got the biggest thrill out of adding salt and pepper to the meal a few night ago. To my surprise she was also able to crack an egg into a bowl with out any eggshells falling in.

The last one was very big for me. Every time I would leave crayons out for Star she would draw on everything but the paper. It didn't matter how I explained it, or how many times I explained that crayons were for paper, she still insisted on sneaking off and coloring the walls. So, I now have decided to change tactics. While Star was spending the night with her grandparents, I set up a little table with washable crayons, pencils and different colored papers. I figured that since its all washable and erasable, if she draws on the walls, then I'll just teach her to clean it off, no rebuking, lecturing or harsh tones.

The next morning when Star came home, I left it all out for her to find on her own. It was wonderful to be in another room and eavesdrop on her. When she first saw it she let out a little gasp. She quickly started investigating. I could hear little murmurs as she was naming things as she drew them. I really didn't want to disturb her, but eventually my curiosity got the best of me. So I went to look, and this is what I found:

Here she is trying to trace her elbow. Now this was a definite moment of bliss. The best part, not a single mark on the wall in two days! Maybe the more we trust our children, the more they will work to live up to our expectations. All I know is that there has been a lot less stress, raised voices and time outs, which has led to more time for snuggling, dancing and laughing.

An Award!

2009-04-01T11:02:00.000-07:00

I was delightfully surprised to receive an award last week. Val at Wiggleworm's First School presented me with this award:

It's amazing how such a little thing can brighten up a day. I wanted to pass this little joy onto a few other's out there who I have enjoyed reading their blogs, but haven't had a chance to tell them yet. So here is my list of wonderful sites that I would like to give this award to also:

1. Delightful Learning
2. The Wonder Years
3. Mommy Meals!
4. Four Little Penguins
5. Adventures of a Rainbow Mama
6. Spinner's End Nursery School

If you would like to pass this award on, here are some guidelines:

1) Add the logo of the award to your blog

2) Add a link to the person who awarded it to you

3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs

4) Add links to those blogs on your blog
5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs!

Tot School-Caterpillars and Butterflies

2009-03-28T12:29:00.000-07:00

Star is 28 Months Old

This week in Tot school, we learned about caterpillars and butterflies. We read the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar while using this great project. It was great for counting practice as well as re-telling the story later in the week without the book.

We made caterpillars from a bunch of letter C's I cut from construction paper. We used watered down glue to attach them. This was a perfect way to practice drawing the letter.

We finished with a little glue and glitter.

We made butterflies with clothespins, tissue paper and pom poms. We then did various things with them like flying them on our heads, down to our toes. We flew them in circles and danced with them. Sorry, there are no pictures since we were having too much fun.

I made a few new tools with the butterfly theme. I made a butterfly matching flipbook.

Also butterfly letter match. I used the idea from this picture and dug into my supply of bottle caps for the letters. You pick a letter out of the bag, say its name or sound then try to find its location on the butterfly. It's a little difficult for Star to find her letter out of the mass of letters, but I like to give her something that's challenging. The first day she did two bottle caps, while the second day she did six before deciding to move on.

I also made these counting cards (little butterfly stickers)

to go into these counting envelopes, which we will use tomorrow. I plan on re-using the envelopes and making different cards to match with different themes later on.

We also played I-Spy to practice our colors and Hide and Go Seek to practice our numbers. (Counting to ten then Here I Come!)

Which leads me to the cute pictures of the week. Star "hiding"

And when she finds me hiding.

To see what others have been doing for Tot School, click on this button, and have a blessed day!

A Free Giveaway

2009-03-27T12:08:00.000-07:00

Jolanthe at Homeschool Creations is having a wonderful Giveaway on her blog. Its for a preschool curriculum called Itty Bitty Bookworm. If you have a preschooler, you should check it out, it looks like a wonderful program. Even if you're not interested in the giveaway, you should check out her blog. I always get good ideas and wonderful information from her. Just click on the blog name above to check out the site.

I Can Do it Myself

2009-03-25T12:04:00.000-07:00

Recently my hubby and I have found ourselves almost daily in a battle of wits with our 2 1/2 year old. Star is very bright and also VERY determined. When she decides something, then it's final. She has been trying to do a lot more on her own recently, which is fine except when she really isn't able to do it on her own, or so we think. Also she is not quite able to communicate to us exactly what she wants or what the problem is. This has led to a lot of frustration, tears, acting out and time outs. Frankly this is not what I want my house filled with. It can be easy to say, "well, that's the terrible two's", but I don't want to accept that. There has to be a better way to bring peace and joy to this house. Then I saw this video on another blog I've been reading and it made me think. As parents it is our responsibility to teach and train our children and not just in faith but in how to live their lives. This is something that should start from birth, so why do I find myself waiting for some magic age to start instructing Star in different tasks and allowing her to do more for herself whether she can do it to full completion on her own or not.
I had a chance to test this all out today. We have been potty training for over a month now. Everything was going great until a week ago. Suddenly Star didn't want to go on the potty any more and we couldn't figure out why. After watching this video ,last night and watching my daughters behavior today I determined that the problem was that she didn't want any help, but wasn't sure how to do it on her own. Now, while we are not a Montessori home, occasionally I come across different things that will work well in my home. I believe that this is one of those instances, so I tested my theory. While I was nursing Butterbean, I noticed that Star probably had to go. Instead of interrupting Butterbean like I usually do, I instructed Star to go into the bathroom and turn the light on by moving the step stool. I then walked her through the entire process by calling from the couch. Amazingly, she did it, well...almost. Once she had flushed she was so excited at what she had done she came running naked out into the living room yelling "I peed in the potty!". Ahh, the simple joys of toddlerhood. After a little help we got redressed and hands washed and I sat down to do some serious thinking. Is there more in this house that Star really wants to do, is capable of doing and is frustrated with us because we won't allow it? Hmmm, I have to think a little more and post again with what I come up with.

Tot School

2009-03-23T10:31:00.000-07:00

Star is 28 Months Old

Well, another two weeks have passed and we still do not have our computer back, which means another short post. We have had a wonderful tot school the past two weeks, with many great pictures, but I can only share a few.

We practiced drawing in a salt tray
We matched up letters to make words in a file folder game
We played another folder game from this website.
I found Chicka Chicka Boom Boom for 19 cents at the salvation army. We did several activities from this wonderful website, including painting with our new Do-A Dot markers
And we tried coconut for the first time. Star did not like it, but mommy sure did!

This was a proud moment for me when Star was able to do this activity all by herself. In the past I had to hold the cardboard, while she put on the clothespins. But not on this day, she wanted to do it all by herself. Yay!

We had a couple visitors this week in tot school. My mother visited and we went to the local children's interactive museaum.
Also Daddy got to join us one day as we practiced our writing skills.

And finally we played with our trains while practicing the words red, yellow, green, black, over, under, next to, in the middle, first, last, fast and slow. Phew...who knew you could learn so much from a wooden train.

And here's the cute picture of the week..

To see what others have been doing, click on this button,

Tot School, sort of

2009-03-09T10:48:00.000-07:00

Star is 28 months old

The past two weeks has been filled with sickness, broken cars and broken computers. This all adds up to one really short post about Tot School, but I wanted to at least share the little we did. Unfortunatelly the computer is still broken so I don't have the links to where I got my ideas from, sorry.
We read the book Mouse Paint which came in a package from our library which also had these great color chips so that you can mix the colors as you look through them. Star Loved it.

**I have a great picture of this on the other computer, whe we get it back, I will add it in**

We also painted with red and yellow. First we did marble painting by rolling marbles in the paint, then dropping them into a tub with paper on the bottom and letting them roll around. We also did some free painting.

For blue and yellow we made a bubble bottle. We took a plastic water bottle and added laundry detergent and water to it to fill it about half way. I then added blue and yellow food coloring. (I have heard that the colors are brighter if you use tempura paint)

I then hot gued the top on and let Star shake it, producing wonderful green bubbles. After a little bit, the bubbles start to dissapear, letting Star (or Mommy) have the joy of shaking it all over again. This bottle is still rolling around the house a week later. Whenever one of us finds it we shake it and are mesmerized by the bubbles at least for a few minutes.

Unfortunetly the sickness over took us before we could play with red and blue, but I would love to hear if anybody has any other great ideas to demonstrate how to mix colors.

The only other things I have to share is a fishing game I made. I have seen on many other blogs some wonderful puzzles or games that used magnets to let the kids "fish" for different articles. Alas, we do not have one of these, so instead I made my own. I just found a graphic of a fish I liked and copied several times on a page. I used Microsoft Word, but anything would work. After printing, I cut them out and wrote one letter of the alphabet on them. I laminated them and attached paper clips. We happened to already have a fishing pole with a magnet attached to it, but you could use a stick, some string and a magnet. Star enjoyed this a lot. I think I will make some with numbers next.
The rest of the two weeks was pretty sporadic. Luckily Star didn't get very sick, but Butterbean and I did. So what I ended up doing was setting up our dining room table with stations using various Tot tools or art projects which did not require supervision. This way I could collapse on the couch or take care of the baby, but Star still was getting the stimulation she needs. Here's a picture from one day.

Finally, I wanted to just show this picture becasue I think its adorable. With all the sickness in the house, Star appointed herself "doctor" for everyone who was sick, which in her mind was everyone and everything. The Cat was sick, Mrs. Potato head was sick, the baby doll was sick, etc. Here she is taking the baby dolls temperature.

I just love her imagination.
I hope your week was better than ours to see what other have been doing click on the Tot School graphic at the top of the page.

Tot School

2009-02-21T11:33:00.000-08:00

Star is 28 months old.

This week we played a rather interesting game called "pass the cold" in this house. It wasn't really a horrible cold, it just made you feel a little crummy. Because of this we had a very unstructured week for tot school. Mostly it consisted of watching educational videos, reading books and drawing. But we did do a few things. We read the book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, which Star somewhat enjoyed, but then one day I got a spurt of energy and we baked cookies and made mouse ears. Now she really likes the book because she thinks it means she gets cookies. Here are some pictures...

We also read The Big Green Pocketbook and did some of the activities for a lapbook from here. She REALLY liked the paper pocketbook with all the things inside. She walks around the house waving it saying "hello bus" and taking the items out and putting them away.

We also made the memory game with crayons.
I did have two days where both of us were feeling pretty decent and we had a more thought out Tot School time. First we sorted letters,
Then we pounded them in
We played with the rubber band thing (I still don't have a name for it) This week she figured out how to make a triangle with the rubber bands on the nails.

We made binoculors out of toilet paper tubes. This was just for fun, no real lesson connected to it
We matched colors with clothespins
We also did some mini puzzles from a set called I Can Spell I got at Sam's Club. We then went in search of matching items in the house
I have decided to try and only introduce two new tools a week to keep tot school exciting, but also so that we are still utilizing the old tools. I don't know if I can restrain myself this way for long because there are so many great ideas out there. Here were the two new tools for this week.

I made these letters using different textures. I got the idea from here. I only used three this week so that I don't overwhelm Star. We used them to learn letter recognition and letter sounds using a Montessori technique.

I also introduced this measuring/spooning excercise. We learned the words big, medium, small, largest and smallest.

After completing the task the way I asked her to, I let her experiment with the tools, which looked like this...
It ended with the rice just about everywhere, but she sure had fun. And that was our week. To see what others did for their week of Tot school, click here.