Month: June 2020

Rock Drop

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Rock Drop (4)

Now that warm weather is here, I’m looking for easy ways to entertain Veronika out on our patio. This activity was perfect, and couldn’t get any easier. You just need a container for water plus rocks, whether those found directly in your yard, or treasures from a recent nature walk.

We have an inflatable tray that’s perfect for water play, so I blew that up and filled it with water. (Alternatively, use a baby wading pool or even just a tray with high sides for this activity).

I filled the tray from our watering can, which caught Veronika’s attention immediately.

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She came trotting over to the pile of rocks I’d set next to the tray, and before the water was even all poured she picked up the first one. She knew what to do! Ka-plink! The first rock went in.

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Ka-plunk. Followed by the second.

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And she worked her way straight through the whole pile.

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So then we pulled them out and piled them up and did it again! This kept her busy for a full half hour. I wish I could expound upon it and say we did anything more thrilling than that, but this was pure toddler heaven.

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Rocks plus water, folks, that’s it!

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Shaken Ball Art

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Here’s a painting method that’s fun for toddlers because it involves lots of shaking and noise, fun for parents because the mess is contained, and fun for everyone because it produces a beautiful piece of art. It’s a great way for toddlers to send a card to a loved one…or also to involve toddlers in making art to thank essential workers and heroes.

For set up, Veronika and I poked through the craft bin to find items that would roll; bonus points if they would also make noise! We ended up with a Styrofoam ball, a pom pom, and small beads. I wish I had jingle bells, but we recently used them!

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I then cut out heart shapes from construction paper, choosing pink and red. You can use any color of shape of paper you like, but hearts felt appropriate for this project. Tape one heart into the bottom of a cookie tin (or similar container with a secure lid), and then add the round objects.

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Now we poured in blobs of paint. I let Veronika choose the colors, and she loved watching me squirt in a generous amount of each.

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Close the lid securely and shake! Veronika flinched at first, but then giggled at the loud sound. In retrospect, I wish I’d used my smallest cookie tin for this activity, since the large one was hard for her to hold securely and shake at the same time.

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At first she was frustrated, but then she liked watching me shake as I talked about all my movements: up, down, side to side etc.

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We opened up the tin for the big reveal: our heart was now covered in spatters and streaks of paint.

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Set aside to dry, and repeat with additional hearts. You may not need to add new paint after each round, depending how much is still left in the tin. As a result, we had some that were too painty, and some with perhaps not quite enough, but Veronika was proud of them all.

 

Kindergarten Home School Week 12: Tuesday

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Travis’s Writers’ Workshop wrapped up today, the first of the “lasts” for his kindergarten year which is so hard to believe! Before we got to that, though, I wanted to start his day on a super fun note to avoid yesterday’s mishaps. So…

9-9.30: Math: After a workbook page on addition with marshmallows, I surprised Travis with a bag of the real thing (Dandies vegan minis). We put together each math “sentence” with the marshmallows, after which Travis got to eat them of course!

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Then (because why not on a random Tuesday?) we made proper s’mores with graham crackers and chocolate squares, plus put together an old favorite STEM activity: a marshmallow launcher. Honestly, Travis was more into playing with the marshmallows than eating them, but I let him have his gooey fun.

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9.30-10: Writing. Now it was time to wrap up Writers Workshop, something Travis has fought me on during home school. I challenged him to turn the latest page in his Star Wars writing book into a little story. He phonetically wrote one sentence, drew a picture, and then added his name and title on a cover.

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I played up the moment with great excitement, saying now he was an author with a book! This did produce a moment of pride.

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10-10.30: Snack/recess. We made a straw fountain on the patio to cool off!

10.30-11: ELA. I thought just for a second I might convince Travis to roll dice in a sight word game, but he bailed on it quickly. On the other hand, he did a great stint on Lexia. (Little sister kept busy with stickers!).

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11-1: Lunch/free play.

1-1.30: Social/emotional. After watching a read-through of the story We’re All Wonders, Travis filled out a chart with a kind word or compliment for each classmate. I was proud of the thought Travis put into this assignment from his teacher.

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1.30-2: Science. After filling out a workbook page about the seasons, Travis and I celebrated spring with some seed planting!

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His teacher had dropped off supplies on the front porch, enabling us to plant the following 4 seeds: pumpkin, sunflower, bean, and pea. The kids loved mixing up the soil with water on the patio!

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Travis helped scoop it into cups, dig small holes for the seeds, and add them to the cups.

2-2.30: Outdoors. We headed to the park for exercise and fresh air. And fit in a scavenger hunt, too!Home School 61 n

Scavenger Hunt

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The purpose of this particular scavenger hunt for Travis, besides just the thrill of seeking for and finding a toy, was to use his directional words. He and I headed to the park with a plastic dinosaur along for company, and took turns guiding one another on the hunt!

For the first round, he hid the dinosaur while I counted to 20. I then asked him to guide me to the hiding spot using lots of descriptive words. Should I go forwards, left, or right?

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Should I look under the truck or inside it? Should I got around or in front of the tree?

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The idea with this particular hunt is not to trick the other person, but to be each other’s guide. It’s a great skill builder for kindergartners learning map reading skills.

Travis loved it so much he wanted to play multiple rounds. He was especially excited to find dinosaur high up in a tree one time!

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Early Morning Fun

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Early Morning Fun (1)

I’ve heard stories of magical children who wake up and occupy themselves solo before their parents come in to get them each morning. Does this sound like a fairy tale to anyone else? Certainly it’s never been the case for my son!

But Veronika has shown herself capable of waking up and chatting with her stuffed animals for about 30 minutes before she grows restless enough to call out for me. Right now, this collection of “friends” is the only thing in her crib at night.

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I hoped the addition of a few small toys might stretch our mornings even longer! So before she went to sleep, I chose a few toys with specific criteria:

  • They had to be soft, in case she rolled onto them in the night
  • They had to be quiet, so they wouldn’t disturb anyone else while she played
  • They had to lend themselves to solo play, meaning items she can keep busy with all by herself without growing frustrated or needing assistance.

To wit, I used a ribbon toy expressly designed for busy solo play. I also added a fabric book with lots of flaps and textural elements, and a few small bug toys that she really enjoys, like a butterfly and ladybug. I tucked these into the corner of the crib. Here was hoping…

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She noticed them as she lay down to sleep. Uh oh, now I worried they would keep her awake! But luckily she settled right down. In the morning, I peeked at her in the monitor. Ladybug and butterfly were in her hands!

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It was hard to tell if she had kept busy with the book and ribbon toy. Both were moved from where I had left them, but I wasn’t sure if she had really played or just tossed them.

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Either way, I intend to keep this up! The plan is to mix up the toys once a week or so to keep things fresh. Does your toddler keep busy solo in the crib in the morning? Please share any tricks in the comments!

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Straw Fountain

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Here’s a quick STEM experiment that will technically teach your kids about centrifugal force (i.e. the same technology used in commercial water pumps, such as a laundry machine when it’s draining). But even the science is too advanced for your child, there’s the pure fun of spraying water!

To put together the “fountain”, cut a straw to about 2/3 of its length. Snip two holes at even intervals, sniping into but not through the straw, so it now has three segments.

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Poke a hole in the middle of the center segment with a needle, and then insert a skewer. Fold the other two segments down toward the tip of the skewer; you now have a triangle. Tape it all in place.

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Fill a glass with water and head some place where it’s okay to get wet! Our patio was perfect. To activate the fountain, just roll the skewer between your palms.

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Unfortunately it was really hard to capture photos of the fountain in motion, because Travis couldn’t quite master the trick of rolling the skewer quickly enough to make the triangle spin. When I showed him how to do it, on the other hand, our fountain worked fantastic but Travis kept stepping back to avoid getting wet and didn’t take any pictures!

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Still, it was well worth the effort to make this craft. The D.I.Y. “sprinkler” was just right for a warm spring morning!

Super Quick Sticker Art

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Looking for a quick way to occupy a toddler’s endlessly curious hands? Look no further than the top drawer of your desk for office supplies!

To wit, Veronika loves the stickers in her big brother’s home school workbook, but I can’t let her have them. Thinking quickly to avoid a tantrum today, I pulled out office dot stickers, the kind you can buy in bulk from any drugstore or office supply store.  And that was it!

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I gave her a few sheets of colored construction paper and just let her start sticking stickers all over.

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Older toddlers might want to be deliberate with their stickers, either grouping them by color, or making a pattern, or lining them up in straight rows. You can even encourage sticker piles, aiming to have your child place one circle directly atop another. For Veronika at a year and half old, this activity was just about pulling them off the sheet and pressing them onto the paper.

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She was so happy to do so!

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When she seemed on the verge of losing interest, I added anther office supply: pens and markers!

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At first I showed her how to draw right on the dots. But okay, this was too advanced for her coordination. Instead, she loved using the markers all around the dots.

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She even tried using two markers at once!

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And best of all, she was very busy.

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Sponge Bath

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Veronika recently painted with sponges, and since we had leftovers from the pack, we decided to continue the fun in the water!

A sponge is the perfect cheap toddler bath toy. First there’s the obvious fact that it’s, well, a sponge! It will hold a large amount of water and toddlers love squeezing them out. Veronika delighted in the squishy sound that it made whenever she did this, as well as the bubbles that foamed up if she squeezed them under water.

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Then there’s the fact that they stick to the side of the tub. It’s almost like playing with big wet stickers!

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Plus sponges play right into your toddler’s love of cleaning. My tub was sparkly clean by the end of Veronika’s bath!

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For learning fun, cut the sponges into shapes before adding them to the tub. It can be a bit tough to cut into thick sponges, but luckily Veronika didn’t mind that my circle and heart were a little crooked.

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We also talked briefly about the different colors, but honestly I mostly sat back and let her play! An extra long bath never hurts.

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Kindergarten Home School Week 12: Monday

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Don’t let the big grin in the photo above fool you; it was one of those home school days that felt two steps forward, two steps back. But we got through it!

8.30-9: Letter Q/Quarters: After a workbook page focusing on letter Q, I seized the opportunity to play up q for quarters, since Travis still struggles with coin values. We reviewed the various denominations and then of course he wanted to play with all the coins in mommy’s wallet!

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9-9.30 History. His second workbook page focused on past and future. First Travis drew an imaginary future car. Then he had to write about how people used fire in the past.  I thought it might be fun to turn it into a mini lesson on the Oregon Trail, checking out his encyclopedia page on the American West and a video about cowboys, He wasn’t at all interested, leading to tantrums, meaning we switched gears and headed on to…

9.30-10: Math. After two Star Wars workbook pages about estimating, we estimated the number of dominoes in a pile. Travis provided remarkably adept at this for his first try. Since we had the dominoes out, we then played with them in two ways. First: could he make a math sentence about each one (i.e. 5+5=10, 6+2=8).

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Then we played War but with dominoes instead of cards. This part he enjoyed, and he grew very fast at tallying up the pips.

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10-10.30: Snack/recess. Much needed!

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We rolled balls downhill outside on a relatively chilly day, then detoured back inside to design a ball course. Could he lead a ball from the couch down to a box, without touching it?

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Success!

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10.30-11: ELA. Travis wrote an ‘Over the Weekend’ sentence, the first time he’s done this class assignment in weeks. He also did 20 minutes on Lexia.

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11-11.30: Specials. For Art, he drew his self-portrait, a monthly classroom activity. We can’t believe this is the last one for kindergarten! He also watched a video about Buenos Noches/Buenos Dias in Spanish.

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11.30-1.30: Lunch/free play.

1.30-2: Class Zoom. He was reluctant to sit for this group session again today, and grew very angry by the end. I diverted his mood with…

2-2.30: Games. We played a board game (Zingo), and then played “what’s my rule?” If I sorted something from the craft bin, he had to guess the defining characteristic of each group. This was hard for him to grasp at first so I was proud he stuck with it.

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2.30-3: Exercise. We needed to get moving to shake out his bad mood. A little Star Wars yoga was in order.

3-3.30: Cooking. We made mole sauce for dinner to round out a unit on Mexico.

At story time tonight (A Second is a Hiccup), we made sure to locate the title and author on the front cover before reading, and then searched for sight words as we went through the story.

I’ve forgotten to mention a few recent reads, including: The Very Hungry Caterpillar; Where the Wild Things Are; Beautiful Oops; Castle: How it Works; and Separate is Never Equal.

The day was overly busy, since I was trying to balance requests from his teacher with lessons I thought he’d enjoy. Perhaps tomorrow we will aim for less-is-more.

Little Passports: Mexico

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We may not be able to travel right now, but Travis journeyed to Mexico this week thanks to Little Passports! He was thrilled when the package arrived, so we wasted no time setting off on the virtual journey. He added stickers to his map, suitcase, and passport as I read him “Sam and Sofia’s” letter from the country.

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The booklet was just shy of too advanced for a kindergartner. He was proud to solve a tricky maze, and enjoyed information about Mexican animals. Online activities included learning familiar Spanish phrases and completing a tricky dot-to-dot with points 1 through 85 of a Mexican landmark.

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Souvenir:

The kit contained a D.I.Y. pinata; any activity that involved candy got a big thumbs up from Travis! The pinata was tricky to put together, so turned into more of a mommy project, following instructions to fold the cardboard cactus shape and glue on strips of provided tissue paper.

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We made beautiful flowers, too, by rolling tissue paper around a pencil tip, then removing from the pencil and pressing down to bend the “petals” outward.

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Travis proudly selected candy at the store to fill the cactus for a mini fiesta. Here he is gearing up for the big hit.

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Even little sister wanted a turn taking a whack.

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Candy! I loved that we did this on a random school night, without waiting for a special occasion, which made it feel extra fun for the kids.

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Further Activities:

Next up we followed instructions for Day of the Dead Masks. Mark a paper plate in such a way that it forms an 8-wedged pie, then draw cheek ovals on two of those pie pieces nearest the bottom. Cut out around the inner rim of the paper plate.

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Travis was so proud of his decorations!

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Tape to a craft stick for an instant fiesta mask.

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Next we headed outside for Sunshine Art, which was the bonus add-on for this country package. Arrange items on top of the provided plate and special blue-tinted paper, and then lay in the sunshine. You’ll have an image within two minutes!

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We played around with which items worked best. I had hoped Travis would get into the idea of putting together a whole collage, but he lost interested rather quickly.

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Next up was Aztec Guacamole. Travis was thrilled when I came home from the grocery store with 5 ripe avocados. We scooped the flesh into a bowl, and he was in charge of mashing!

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Add 1 chopped tomato, 1 small finely chopped red onion, 1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro, the juice of 1 lime, and 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt. Serve with tortilla chips!

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Finally, he colored in the Mexican flag for our garland; this was by far the most intricate flag to date, and he was so proud!

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Recipe:

Who doesn’t love the thought of chocolate for dinner? Travis was quite excited when he learned we’d be making a chocolate sauce (mole); unfortunately we used red chilies that were very spicy. Look for mild red chilies for more kid-friendly results.

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Ingredients:

  • 5 red chilies
  • 2 teaspoons coriander seeds
  • 1 teaspoon sesame seeds
  • 2 tablespoons slivered almonds
  • 5 black peppercorns
  • 1 large onion, sliced
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
  • 2 tablespoons canola oil
  • (14-ounce) can diced tomatoes
  • 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 5 ounces vegetable broth
  • 1 (3-ounce) dark chocolate bar, chopped
  1. Place the chilies, coriander, sesame seeds, almonds, and peppercorns in a mortar. Crush with a pestle. Transfer the spice mixture to a small skillet over medium heat and dry-fry for 1 minute. Set aside.
  2. Meanwhile, heat the canola oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion, garlic, and cocoa powder; cook for 2 minutes.
  3. Add the tomatoes to the onion mixture, along with the spice mixture, cinnamon, sugar, and vegetable broth. Bring to a simmer, then continue to cook for 25 minutes.
  4. Transfer to a blender and process until smooth. Pour into a bowl and stir in the chocolate, stirring until melted. We served the sauce over vegan chick’n!

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