Baking Soda and Vinegar with Color Fun

March 25, 2020Leave a comment

Baking Soda Colors (8)

This activity was intended for my toddler, but it turned out to be my kindergartner’s favorite part of the day. Since there’s some STEM involved, keep it in mind if you find yourself home schooling!

For set up, I wanted Veronika to have the option of color mixing, so I filled three cups with vinegar. I left one clear, added yellow food coloring to the second, and blue food coloring to the third.

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I then sprinkled a box of baking soda into a shallow tray. Veronika instantly liked making lines through it with the pipettes I had left out. It was sort of like an indoor sandbox for a moment.

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Then it was time to start squeezing in vinegar! I used the clear cup first, knowing the bubbly reaction was enough to get a “wow” even before we added color.

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Then we started piping in the colored vinegar. I had hoped Veronika might get in some fine motor practice with the pipettes, but that was too much for 16-month-old fingers. Big brother Travis loved using a pipette and baster, though! Then the kids poured the cups of vinegar instead, for even bigger reactions.

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The blue and yellow turned into a nice green, of course, which I’d also hoped to demonstrate.

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After that we just had a big pile of green bubbly “lava” that the kids loved scooping through with pipettes and cups for ages.

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Eventually they wanted to drip in other colors from the food coloring set, which was fine, although it didn’t look so pretty.

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A great afternoon activity!

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Peanut Butter Sculptures

March 25, 2020Leave a comment

Peanut Butter Sculpture (4)

This fantastic sensory activity is perfect for entertaining a toddler… and it takes care of snack time, too!

I simply spooned a large glob of peanut butter onto a shallow tray, and set out a few craft sticks (or use plastic take-out knives) and circle crackers.

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Your child can use the craft sticks to make lines and movement through the peanut butter, or to build their budding knife skills by spreading it on the crackers. Once the crackers are sticky with peanut butter, you can stack them into towers and make “art”.

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Veronika loved experimenting with the peanut butter, as well as nibbling the crackers and licking peanut butter right off the craft sticks.

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She also was intrigued by the peanut butter jar, occasionally dipping in a craft stick.

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I wouldn’t recommend this activity for a toddler solo, since it’s bound to get a little messy and you’ll want to supervise.

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But a great way to keep little ones busy! Note: Use another nut butter if your child has peanut allergies, or even jam for all nut allergies!

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Kindergarten Home School Day 7

March 24, 2020March 24, 2020Leave a comment

Home School 7 b

Travis and I only had a half day of home school today, in keeping with our town’s early release Tuesdays. It made it much easier on him, I think – and on me, too!

7-9: Breakfast, get dressed, free play.

9: ELA. Travis came over after our quick check-in for “writer’s workshop”. The assignment was to write a story with the structure of: first, next, and last. I loved watching him write about yesterday’s snowball fight. We also did one letter in his workbook (C).

Home School 7 a

9-9.30: Math: He played three different games on his class computer program involving counting the pips on dice and cards. (Baby sister was busy with tape).

9.30-10.30: Snack/recess. The kids were hungry early, so we hopped right to snack time and then headed out into the spring snow. Travis had so much fun that I let him get out his energy an extra long time. I wish I’d taken pictures!

10.30-11: We discovered the website Fluency and Fitness, a great site to get kids learning and moving. After solving a few problems on the topic of your choice (math, reading etc.), kids do a move like lunges or push-ups. He was a little antsy though…

11-11.30: …so we went off-book and finished the day with a recipe, still one of my favorite ways to spend time together. Check out our whole unit on Japan here!

Little Passports: Japan

March 24, 2020Leave a comment

LP Japan (23)

Travis’s envelope this month from Little Passports took him to… Japan! There was lots to learn and great hands-on activities in this particular kit. First up was the booklet, full of inventive activities like how to write a Haiku (spoiler: Travis’s was about eating a cookie), and a pictorial three-in-a-row search that was a fantastic alternative to a word search for non-readers.

Of course there was also a country coin for his coin chart, a stamp for his passport, and a push pin for his world map. Bonus features online included gorgeous photos of Japan, audio recordings of common Japanese words, and a Q&A with a Japanese “pen pal”.

Souvenir:

The adorable sushi erasers that came with the package were a big hit, particularly the fact that they could be disassembled and reassembled. Travis became a mini sushi chef!

Activities:

The most involved project with this kit was to make a koinobari, a kite in the shape of a carp fish traditionally hung on homes during Japan’s Children’s Day holiday (which falls in May).

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Rather than use the suggested fabric pants, which I worried would be messy, I had Travis use fabric markers.

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We first drew two fish outlines on an old pillow case and colored with the markers, after which I cut them out and hot-glued together on three sides, leaving the top open (alternatively, use fabric glue).

Cut a piece of cardboard from an old cereal box and glue into a loop; attach this at the mouth of the fish with more glue. Punch two holes through the pillow and cardboard, and loop a string through.

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Finally, we glued on ribbons as tail streamers.

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It looked beautiful on our front door.

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Next up was to write in ema wishes on the provided template.

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These wooden tablets, traditionally hung at a Japanese shrine, came just in time for our new era COVID-19. We strung them up along our kitchen window for good luck!

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Of course we had to make origami, too. The package included fun instructions for penguins and jumping frogs.

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The frog could really jump!

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Travis wanted to make a whole army of penguins.

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Finally, he did a cute food match-up game which highlighted all four islands of Japan, and he colored in the flag for the garland begun with his Brazil package.

Recipe:

The journey is never complete without a recipe, of course. Travis got to make dorayaki, a sweet Japanese pancake.

Ingredients:

2 Ener-G eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon agave nectar
1 cup sifted flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup water
Canola oil
Red bean paste
Jam

To start, whisk together the Ener-G eggs, sugar, and agave in a bowl.
Add the flour and baking powder to the bowl, stirring until smooth. Continue to stir while adding the water slowly.
Heat a large skillet coated with a little canola oil over medium-high heat. Spoon 1/8 cup batter into the skillet per pancake and cook for about 2 minutes, until bubbles cover the tops. Flip and cook for an additional minute. Transfer cooked pancakes to a plate and repeat with the remaining batter.
To serve, spread bean paste between two pancakes and eat sandwich-style! If the bean paste isn’t to your kids’ liking, try jam instead.

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Travis loved eating the dorayaki with a ramen noodle bowl, for a full Japanese meal.

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Clothespin Poke

March 24, 2020Leave a comment

Clothespin Poke (6)

Much as with tape or tissues, it doesn’t take much to keep a toddler busy. For this game, I used an upcycled egg carton and spring-type clothespins for a simple fine motor activity.

Poke a hole into the bottom of each egg carton portion, just large enough for the clothespins to slot in (I poked the initial hole with scissors).

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For the first round, I pushed all the clothespins in and presented the egg carton to Veronika, so it was her job to pull them out!

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A few of them got a little snagged on the springs but she was very patient puzzling this out, and so proud when they came free.

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Once she had a pile of clothespins next to her, of course she had to poke them right back in again.

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And again.

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And again.

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I loved seeing her return to this throughout the day, pausing to insert a few or pull out a few and then heading off to other games. It was a great way to keep little hands busy!

Fun with Tape and Peeling Tape

March 24, 2020Leave a comment

Peel Tape (2)

Tape is a fantastic way to occupy a toddler – yes, just tape! Make the game especially fun by using lots of different varieties and vibrant colors.

To start out, I simply set up a tape station for Veronika.

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Most of the rolls were masking tape (I had a full rainbow of colors), and I also had clear double-sided tape.

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First I gave her two pieces of tape for her to try sticking them together.

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This was intriguing, as was sticking tape to her belly!

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She was in front of a wooden puzzle frame, which was a handy surface for layering down pieces of tape.

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She kept quite busy sticking the tape pieces off and on for a while.

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Then we moved on to a slightly more focused activity: Peeling tape. Peeling up layers of crisscrossed tape is not only a great cognitive challenge, but also excellent for strengthening finger muscles.

I laid down long strips of the colored masking tape on a wooden floor (a wooden table would work, too, if you have one large enough). Make sure there is lots of overlap and intriguing angles.

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Sure enough, Veronika couldn’t wait to rip it up off the floor. When she encountered a spot where one piece of tape pinned down another, I could see her brain at work for how to get it all to lift.

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She soon became adept at finding the ends that were curled up slightly in the air, and provided a handhold to start pulling.

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Another success!

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As she worked, I gathered up the strips until we had a big tape ball, which turned out to be fun to play with as the final variant on tape play.

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All of this kept her busy almost all morning!

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Kindergarten Home School Day 6

March 23, 2020Leave a comment

I may start to do these home school posts as weekly roundups, especially as it seems likely we’ll extend further into the school year. But for today at least, here was our second attempt at a Monday! There were some real challenges today, less about the schooling and more about a five-year-old’s emotions at missing friends, missing “real” gym and recess, and more. How are you faring? Please share in the comments!

7-9: Breakfast, get dressed, free play.

9: Check-in/ELA. I’m making sure to ask Travis how he’s feeling each morning, in addition to going over the weather and day of the week. When we started today’s literacy lessons, I could tell he was bored with sounding out words. What he really needed was to see his teacher, so we were glad to find another recorded read-aloud online. I could only get him to sit for a little Lexia. (Baby sister was busy, meanwhile, with Velcro).

10-10.30: Snack and recess. The kids got silly eating snack, which was a lighthearted moment. It’s cold and snowy so we weren’t outside long, but did fetch a few sticks because we needed them later for arts and crafts…

10.30-11: Math. I had him count out peanut butter puff cereal in 3 ways. First just counting the total, then arranging them in a circle, then in 4 groups of 10.

Little sister helped herself to a snack on occasion, so I kept extras at the ready. High fives all around!

We also did 1 fun page from How High Can a Dinosaur Count.

11-11.30: Arts and crafts: Using our sticks from recess, Travis made tissue paper flowers. He twisted big pieces of colorful tissue into “flowers”; they ended up looking like calla lilies!

11.30-12.30: Gym: He would have had P.E. as the special today. One suggestion was to throw snowballs, but despite the wintry weather, there wasn’t that much snow on the ground. So we made some! This indoor mommy-son snowball fight was the highlight of the day. Next I encouraged him to try an exercise tabata, but this, on the other hand, led to tears and complaints about how home wasn’t the real gym. So we called it quits for…

12.30-1.30: Lunch/free play.

1.30-2: Social Studies. It was hard to get him to focus after lunch. We tried a suggested social studies unit on being a good citizen from pebblego.com, but missing classmates made him angry.

I felt like I was failing. Yes, I can provide my son with literacy and math skills here at home, but I’m also very aware of how far short I fall from replicating a classroom environment for social learning. We tried out a Spanish song and a Kidzbop dance to change his headspace, but those didn’t help much…

2.30:3: Science. Luckily, a little science did! I decided we needed something more hands on so we made an outer space parachute. We finished the afternoon with a board game. By this point he was really tired, but I pushed him to play a round of Silly Sentences, which is wonderful for teaching parts of speech. Soon he was roaring with laughter for “shiny squirrels singing” and “scary sandwiches breaking”. So much so he wanted to play a second round!

Just before bed, we watched an online read of I Am Peace, a suggestion from his school counselor to help kids with mindfulness in this trying time. We needed this one tonight, gulp. We’ll jump in again tomorrow.

Outer Space Parachute

March 23, 2020Leave a comment

Space Parachute (5)

Last summer and fall, Travis and I experimented with a few different ways to make a parachute. For home school “science” today we tried once more, but this time made it outer space-y with a coating of aluminum foil. Travis thought it looked just like the gear used to ease the landing of Mars rovers!

To start, wrap a paper cup in aluminum foil. Travis enjoyed decorating all over with star stickers (in keeping with the theme of course).

Space Parachute (2) Cut a square from a plastic shopping bag, and then use a hole punch to make a hole in each of the four corners (you may need to rip the bag a little bit, too, to help the hole punch through).

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Cut four equal lengths of yarn and tie one to each corner with a knot. Gather these four strands together and push down through a hole in the top of the cup. Make a fat knot so they won’t slip back out.

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Time to launch! My intrepid explorer bravely climbed the stairs.

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Then it was 3, 2, 1: Blast off!

Yarn Snowballs

March 23, 2020Leave a comment

Yarn Snowballs (5)

These fun indoor “snowballs” are a larger version of homemade pompoms Travis and I recently made for finger puppets. We found this larger version to be much easier than the little fork version!

Cut a U-shape from cardboard (ideally a stiff box cardboard, but even a manila folder worked in a pinch).

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Begin winding white yarn around the U until you have a nice fluffy pile. Wrap a piece of yarn around the center, going through the notch of the U, and double-knot securely. Slide off of the U, then snip all the loops and fluff out.

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Once we had 6 “snowballs”, it was time for a battle.

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For extra amusement, we even set up pillow forts and then had at each other.

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Then Travis wanted to have batting practice against the snowballs, saying this was his defense against my attacks.

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We laughed and dodged and pelted each other for ages with this game! (Thank goodness there wasn’t the icy sting of real snowballs, as we would have been covered in snow).

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Action shot!

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This was one of the best mother-son activities we’ve done to date, and that’s saying a lot.

Sticky Figures

March 23, 2020Leave a comment

Sticky Figures (6)

Here’s a great way to keep little toddler hands busy… and build muscle strength!

I set up this game the night before for Veronika, using hot glue to attach the scratchy side of Velcro strips onto a piece of flat wood (about 5×7 inches). The Velcro strips were already sticky on one side, but the hot glue was extra insurance that they would stay put.

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I then glued the opposite side of the Velcro (the fuzzy side) to the bottom of little animal toys and figures.

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This game will work best with toys that have a nice flat bottom, although I did try little dinosaur figures, too.

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Now it was simply a matter of presenting the game to Veronika! She loved the way the animals became stuck once attached.

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I had worried that she would be frustrated at the challenge of pulling them off, but instead she seemed intrigued. She soon learned to pull down on the wood and up on the figure at the same time to help the two Velcro halves apart.

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In sum, this is a nice game for keeping little hands busy, although I can’t say it occupied her for as long as other recent projects.

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joyful parenting

Month: March 2020

Baking Soda and Vinegar with Color Fun

Peanut Butter Sculptures

Kindergarten Home School Day 7

Little Passports: Japan

Clothespin Poke

Fun with Tape and Peeling Tape

Outer Space Parachute

Yarn Snowballs

Sticky Figures