Day: June 17, 2019

Design a D

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Design D (6)

Our summer letter of the day for tracing and writing was D. Travis doesn’t struggle with the upper case, but still sometimes confuses his little d with little b. Working slowly through a worksheet helped him focus on which direction the line and circle needed to go.

To think about it spatially, we then designed D in two ways. First I gave him a pencil and string; could he make an upper case D?

Design D (1)

At first he was confused, but kept a good attitude about it!

Design D (2)

I helped him make the loop of the D with the string. Now could he see where the pencil needed to go?

Design D (3)

Tada!

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Next we made a lower case d with our hands. He remembered cupping his hand into a c from yesterday, which worked the same for the loop, here. His other hand went straight against it, for a delightful d!

Design D (5)

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Create Your Baby’s First Fort

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First Fort (8)

Forts are such an iconic part of childhood – and it was about time to introduce Veronika to her first!

First Fort (1)

To make a cozy, baby-sized version, use a children’s table as the top of the fort. I draped it with blankets, and set her gently underneath. Her eyes went wide and she took to it right away!

First Fort (4)

Everything was fascinating, from the texture of the blanket “walls”, to the way the light came through the blankets, to the legs of the table.

First Fort (3)

Big brother needed to join, of course!

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If there are no siblings in the house, consider inviting in a stuffed animal friend or two.

If you need an activity inside your fort, what’s better than a tea party or picnic? We added pretend food and invited Veronika to the “party.”

First Fort (6)

Cupcakes fore everyone! She was delighted with the play scenario going on around her, and the fun only ended when we needed the table for the next meal!

First Fort (5)

 

Garden Games

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Garden Games (14)

A trip to a local botanical garden had us playing garden games in two ways today. First up: a scavenger hunt! The printable Garden Bingo card from Raddish Kids gave purpose to our walk along the paths and past the beautiful blooms.

Garden Games (1)

Some items we spotted right away (grass, flowers, leaves, hoses).

Garden Games (2)

Others we really had to look for, like sprinklers:

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And wheelbarrows:

Garden Games (9)

Travis got down low to spot clover:

Garden Games (5)

And dug in the dirt for worms!

Garden Games (8)

I was amazed when he spotted a rollie poly bug crossing the gravel path. I thought for sure that one would go unmarked on our sheet.

Garden Games (4)

Travis loved the hunt; near the end we had four boxes crossed off in multiple directions, but no actual Bingo. Then a watering can sealed the deal!

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Meanwhile, midway through our hunt we paused to play Bug Detective. I challenged Travis to pick an insect and observe it in close detail. He found a big fat wood ant and stopped to watch.

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We kept it in our bug jar for a short time, but then released it.

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Travis watched the ant scurry about. We hoped it would pick something up, but never did.

Later, Travis drew the ant, working from memory to make the three parts of the body and the legs. He added an arrow for the direction the ant had gone, as well as the grass it had been crawling through.

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Both of these activities really had Travis thinking about nature in new ways, and challenged him to see the garden on the macro and micro levels. What fun!

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