Month: April 2020

Marker Painting or Drawing

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Marker Painting (6)

We run through markers pretty quickly around here, and normally Travis’s school has a great recycling program for dried-up ones. But with school closed, I found a new use for those dried-up markers today: toddler paint brushes!

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I simply set out paints for Veronika (using old play dough jars as paint pots), and showed her how to dip the tip of the marker in the paint. It then becomes a brush!

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These work best as “dot marker” paints. If you have enough paint on the tip, you can get more of a smeary line, but Veronika was quite content to dot dot dot.

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She worked so carefully, dabbing first in the paint and then on her “canvas”.

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I also squirted some paint onto her paper so she could run a marker through it for thicker lines.

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She eventually decided it was fun to smear all the lines together with her hands. Here’s her final masterpiece:

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As an alternative method, turn the dried-up markers into “watercolors”. For this version, I placed a shallow dish of water on Veronika’s high chair tray, along with white paper and a few markers with very little ink left.

Marker Drawing (1)

As you dip in the water, the colors become vibrant once more, with a pretty, swirly effect very similar to watercolor paints.

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Veronika again loved the process of dipping…

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…and painting.

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She also discovered the little dish was wonderful for splashing her hands in, and tried to make some watery handprints on the paper.

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Next time I would use thicker watercolor paper for this activity, but in a pinch, regular printer paper was fine. She dumped a little of the water right out onto the paper, which really made the colors blend and swirl!

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You’ll know the game is done once the tip of the marker turns white, and then it’s time to recycle.

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Kindergarten Home School Week 4: Thursday

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Home School 19 k

It was a busy one! And honestly, I’m finding that the busier a home school day is, the better, in that it keeps us all from going stir-crazy. Please note that when I delineate the day by hours, we’re not spending a full hour on each subject. Rather, it’s generally closer to 20 minutes per topic; then Travis fits in some free play, or zones out for a bit, and I can do a few chores around the house or change a diaper or whatever it is that needs doing in life before we move on to the next block of time. I’ve found it helpful to think of the day in these hour chunks, though, and I hope it’s helpful to other novice Covid-19 home school parents, too!

9-10: ELA. We started out with a sight-word poem, and Travis was so proud circling or underlining all his sight words. Then we acted it out, lots of jumping and clapping and smiles!

Home School 19 a

Next up was a lesson on syllables: We clapped out words and circled the correct number of syllables for each.

Home School 19 b

To make it interactive, play syllable hopscotch! Make a board on your floor with masking tape (or outside with chalk if it’s sunny), up to 4 levels high.

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Draw cards from a pile and jump the proper number of spaces. This was fun for a few rounds, and then of course the kids had more fun pulling up all the tape.

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10-10.30: Math. With the assignment to sort a toy by color, Travis chose Magnatiles and was avidly interested to see which color “won”. Then we colored in a graph with the results.

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We then played a round of a card game called Garbage, which teaches kids to recognize where a number fits in on a line from 1 to 10. “Mom, this is really fun!” he said. So a win!

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10.30-11: Snack/free play (indoors due to rain).

11-11.30: Science. After watching a video on how to make a collage, Travis made one with our recyclables. He was initially fussy but then confessed he doesn’t like collages because of messy glue. So we used tape, and he got so into it!

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11.30-12: Social studies. We made a thank you card for First Responders in our area as part of his school’s initiative. I was proud to teach him about local heroes in this moment.

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12-1: Lunch/free play.

1-1.30: Spanish. His teacher’s suggestions had us laughing and moving today, including a game of “Simon dice” (Simon Says), to learn Spanish verbs. He sang me his Spanish days-of-the-week song and hunted for three objects in the house that that were “azul.”

1.30-2: Music. By the time we got around to his Thursday special, Travis was tired and grumpy and didn’t like that class felt “different” online. Basically I let the teacher’s class stream in the background while he played.

2-3: We finished on a high note with an indoor fort!

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This was the perfect place for puzzles, quiet “reading”, and just being silly with baby sister. Hopefully the weather is nice enough for a walk, tomorrow, because we all need it.

Italian Eggplant

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Italian Eggplant (1)

Layers of breaded eggplant, warm marinara sauce, and gooey Daiya cheese are the ultimate comfort food, making this the perfect recipe for a rainy evening. Mozzarella would be a bit more Italian, but my kids prefer this recipe with Daiya’s cheddar.

Ingredients:

  • 1 large eggplant
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 1 cup breadcrumbs
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 3 cups marinara sauce
  • 1/2 cup shredded Daiya cheese
  1. Peel and thinly slice the eggplant. Place in a colander and sprinkle with the salt; let stand for 20 minutes, then rinse and set aside.
  2. In a bowl, combine the breadcrumbs and olive oil. Add the eggplant slices and toss to coat.
  3. Alternate adding the eggplant and the marinara sauce to a 9×13-inch baking dish, beginning and ending with the sauce. Sprinkle with the cheese.
  4. Bake at 350 degrees F for 50 minutes.

Italian Eggplant (2)

Easy Easter Eggs

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Easy Easter Egg (7)

For Veronika’s final contribution to Easter decorations this year, I gave her wooden eggs to paint instead of egg-shaped paper. To set up, simply squirt pastel colors into a paint tray, then give your toddler q-tips and cotton balls to paint with rather than a regular paint brush!

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Of the two, Veronika definitely preferred the q-tips. She loved delicately dipping them into the paint and then dotting onto the egg. The little spots she produced seemed to fascinate her!

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I showed her how to dip a cotton ball in the paint, too, and press it against an egg for a larger smear, but she wasn’t as interested.

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She did, though, discover that she could dip a little fingertip into the paint and make a similar dot against the eggs. She so carefully repeated this several times, smearing the paint lightly.

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I didn’t help her out with the paint at all, aside from rotating the eggs. The resulting speckled and spotted eggs were decidedly her project, and she looked so proud.

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They looked so pretty gathered together in a glass bowl for a little Easter centerpiece!

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Light-Up Heart Flower

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Light Up Flower (7)

After lots of experiments with circuits, not only does Travis have a good understanding of how they work, but mommy does, too! In all honesty, this was a project I put together for Travis to make home school pencils feel special, rather than one he learned from. Many of the steps were simply too advanced for a kindergartner’s dexterity. But consider it as a STEM project if you have kids aged 9 and up!

First, wrap a pencil in green tape for a flower stem. I did this against a light green pencil, giving it a nice two-tone look.

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To make petals, cut two squares of red cardstock that are 4×4 inches, and one square that is 3×3 inches.

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Fold the squares in half first vertically and then horizontally. Then fold diagonally in both directions. You can now tent up the piece of paper so it forms a smaller square.

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Draw a heart such that the bottom of it comes to the center fold.

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Cut out along the heart shape, and when you open the paper up, you’ll have 4 hearts! Repeat with the other pieces of cardstock.

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Punch a hole in the center of each of these “petals” using the sharp tip of a pencil or pen, and set aside. To put the flower together, glue an LED light to the pencil’s eraser end.

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Slip one large petal over the light, followed by the smaller petal, and use hot glue to secure in place. Tape a 3V battery underneath the large petal. Make sure that the negative side of the battery lines up with the negative end of the LED light, and the positive with the positive. (Hint: the positive leg is the longer one). Secure one of these connections with tape, but leave the other loose.

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Now push the final cardstock petal up from the lead end of the pencil. When it presses the other leg of the LED light against the battery, the circuit is complete!

You can secure this bottom piece of cardstock in place with a rubber band, if desired. Hopefully this makes all of Travis’s writing projects more exciting in the home school weeks ahead!

Explore with Me Panda Crate

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Panda Explore (21)

As with her past Panda crates, Veronika is a little old for the items that arrived this month from Kiwi Co., but they could also be tailored to fit her age. This month’s topic – making sense of the spatial world around us – included fun toys and innovative game ideas. I would recommend this crate for babies 8 months and up.

One: Fabric Tissues

These black and white tissues featured fun patterns, slightly different on each one. They didn’t make any crinkly noise, which I expected, but had a nice thickness that makes them more durable than regular Kleenex.

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In addition to just being fun to play with, Panda intends them to help with the idea of object permanence. Although old hat for my seventeen-month-old, the concept never grows stale! We hid her favorite toy and she was so pleased when she uncovered it.

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You can also stack the tissues, and encourage your child to lift one and reveal the one beneath.

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In this way, they can also be used in conjunction with…

Two: Tissue Box

This soft “tissue box” comes in the shape of Poppy Panda, and has nice heft to it thanks to a bean bag-like filling in the bottom. You can use the box to hide any object, like a toy car, but it’s really meant for the fabric tissues.

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Layer these in such a way that when you pull one, the next pops up.

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Veronika recently played this game with real tissues, so I appreciated that now we can do it without the waste of paper! It’s also a great object for self-directed play since you can leave the box out with the tissues dangling tantalizingly.

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Three: Bead Maze

Panda’s version of this classic toy had a few fun twists. We could talk about the colors and shapes of the beads and you canuse directional words related to the little Poppy Panda at the base.

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“The beads are above panda,” I said to her, or, “Panda is below the beads.” Since Veronika is older, I challenged her to follow directions too, like moving the yellow bead from one side to the other.

Four: Coin Box Puzzle

This item was the biggest hit in the crate. Veronika loved fitting the “coin” circles into the box, both through the large opening on top and the smaller slit on the side, which took a few tries.

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Then I challenged her to get the coins out. Dump! The toy is also good for counting out up to four, as the coins go in the box.

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Five: Board Book

The board book this month featured cute illustrations and was all about directional words (up, down, around, over). It would have been nice if the book included cut-outs and grooves to trace or flaps to lift; as it was, there was nothing really novel about the book for Veronika.

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Wonder Magazine contained stage-by-stage developmental advice, and reminded us of past games we’ve played having to do with body awareness, spatial language, textures and spatial objects. There was a useful article about making safe spaces for little crawlers and walkers, including the idea to rotate toys and game ideas like a Tupperware drawer.

The online singalong for this crate was to Itsy Bitsy Spider, featuring lots of spatial words of course!

Beyond the Crate suggestions included those we’ve already done, like What’s In the Bag?

Of course we had to play peek-a-boo, but with a twist: a Peek-a-Boo Parachute! I lay Veronika down and let a scarf fall onto her head gently. Where’s Veronika?

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Peek-a-boo!

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She giggle giggle giggled for this version, and then needed to cover me…

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…and her Baby!

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For books, we read:

  • Over, Under & Through, by Tana Hoban
  • Yellow Ball, by Molly Bang
  • Hide and Seek Harry: On the Farm, by Kenny Harrison

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Kindergarten Home School Week 4: Wednesday

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Home School 18 c

Hurrah for a successful day. Between innovative assignments and an interest in the topics, Travis did great today. There was also ample room for toddler activities, whether getting little sister busy with socks or pausing for a toddler gym video class.

9-9.30: ELA. Today Travis made words with his feet! Write out a few words (consonant-vowel-consonant) with a separate letter per sheet of paper, and arrange them on the floor. I wrote out: pig, wig, cat, mat, hat, van, and can. Now Travis had to spell the words by stomping on them! This was very silly of course, and the kids both loved crumpling up the paper when we were done.

Home School 18 a

9.30-10: Math. Today was about estimating and counting to 100. First Travis pulled a handful from a pile of pennies. I asked Travis to estimate how many he had, which he struggled with for a moment before coming up with 10. It was really 11! He pulled a second handful and I asked if it felt like more or less. He said less and estimated 5, for a correct answer of 8.

Home School 18 b

We then grouped the pennies into 10s, which let us skip count to 100. For a little exercise, we counted by 1s to 100, alongside a movement video.

10-10.30: Travis did Lexia for 20 minutes while baby sister had a “gym” class.

10.30-11: Free play/snack. Too rainy for outdoor recess!

11-12: Science. We watched a video of a sunflower book, after which he cut out the steps in the life cycle of a a sunflower. First he ordered them, then glued them down in a booklet and colored them in, thinking about the realistic colors of dirt, sky, flower petals etc. We even sent a video of it to his teacher!

Home School 18 d

Travis also colored in our state bird (the chickadee) for Draw a Bird Day – yes that’s a thing!

National Draw Bird

12-1: Lunch/free play.

1-1.30: Library. There was a rhyming activity online for what would have been his special today, and we watched our town librarian read a story video. Travis rounded out the half hour with a few games from PBS Kids online.

2-3: We tacked on our own extra-curricular: cooking! This counted as music, too, since we didn’t just make blueberry bars, we made blues-berry bars.

It was too rainy to get outside, so we got out our wiggles with a Go Noodle dance. We capped off the day with puzzles (48 pieces, a first for Travis!).

Full and Empty

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Full and Empty (5)

In the category of everyday objects that can entertain your toddler, look no further than the sock drawer!

I set a large kitchen bowl on the ground and gave Veronika a pile of socks, including her own and big brother’s. More is better for this game, so separate the socks from bundled pairs.

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Now it was time to fill it up. She actually picked up the bowl and turned her back to me so she could do this on her own, without my help!

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I started out saying, “Look, the bowl is empty.” As she filled it, I added, “You’re filling up the bowl. The bowl is full!”

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Then we gave it a big dump upside down. “The bowl is empty!” I said again.

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If you want to be extra silly, dump it right on your toddler’s head! Of course it didn’t stay empty for long. Veronika busily loaded the socks in a second, third, and even fourth time.

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This was such a great way to keep her occupied!

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Kindergarten Home School Week 4: Tuesday

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Home School 17 c

Oh boy was today a struggle. Travis fought me every step of the way on home schooling, but I was so proud I kept calm and we made it through! Thank goodness it was a town-wide Tuesday half day.

9-10: ELA: Tuesday is Writers Workshop, so we sat down after circle time with the assignment to write about something he could do for Earth Day. Well, here’s what happened to his paper.

Home School 17 a

Ok, deep breath for everybody. We skipped ahead to the day’s lesson on social/emotional learning. After watching an online read of Moody Cow Meditates, we made a mind jar like the one in the story. Fill a small jar with water, and add beads for your child’s emotions. I had Travis designate each color bead as a different emotion – starting with red for angry of course! We put them in and stirred, then watched his “thoughts” settle. I had him laughing a few times with this, but once the activity was over, it was right back to a mood.

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10-10.30: Ok, let’s reset with recess.

10.30-11: ELA cont. He still didn’t want to write, so I had him sit with Lexia. He alternated feeling great and confident (“I love Lexia!”) to temper tantrums (“I hate this!”). Yes, those two statements came three minutes apart. It probably didn’t help that I was cleaning up a painty mess from baby sister.

11-1: We took a long break for lunch, free play, and testing out lemon batteries just for kicks. Baby sister napped.

1-1.30: Writers Workshop redux. Grudgingly, with hugs and encouragement, he drew the Earth and wrote one sentence (actually, a fragment). I considered this a win.

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We’re done for the day! Off for a spring walk.

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Lemon Battery

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Lemon Battery (4)

Travis has enjoyed learning about circuits lately, and today we tried to make our own battery! This is a bit of a spin on the old potato battery experiment you might remember from elementary school.

For the set up, first we washed a penny in warm soapy water to make sure it was clean.

Lemon Battery (1)

Cut two small slits in a lemon, about 3/4-inch wide and deep enough to reach the lemon juice under the pith. The juice is key!

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Fold a square of aluminum foil in half and then half again, so that it makes a sturdy strip. Insert the penny into one slit of the lemon and the foil into the other, making sure both touch the lemon juice.

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Now you can test your battery! The easiest way is to do a reading against the two nodes of a multimeter. Alternatively, try attaching alligator clips and wires to an LED light, and see if you’re able to power it up.

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We didn’t have fantastic success with our “battery”, which might have been because our aluminum strip was too long, or perhaps was due to a slightly faulty multimeter. If you do the project, please share your results in the comments!

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