Full and Empty

April 8, 2020Leave a comment

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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

April 7, 2020Leave a comment

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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.

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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

April 7, 2020Leave a comment

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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.

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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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Kindergarten Home School Week 4: Monday

April 6, 2020Leave a comment

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Having posted a weekly round-up of home school last week, I realized I really prefer to return to a daily post. Although the activities are fairly simple, what I’m aiming to capture is the daily ups and downs, struggles and successes. Hopefully you, as readers, can follow along on this journey as we all live through this historical COVID-19 moment.

9-10: Circle time/ELA. Circle time is quite fun now, and gets Travis in the right mindset! We sing the morning songs and baby sister claps along. We jumped right to ELA from there, today focusing on rhyming. After reading an old favorite (Frog on a Log), we all colored in rhyme flashcards, little sister, too! Travis was fussy by the time we cut them out and matched them up, so clearly we needed a break.

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10-10.30: Recess!

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10.30-11: Math. Today’s assignment was to sort a set of things. We raided the craft bin, and Travis chose straws and pom poms. I asked him how each set of things was the same, and also how they were different.

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11-11.30: Social Studies. Travis watched a quick video about schools and who the members of a school community are, then drew the school nurse in an online program.

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11.30-12.30: Teacher parade: This was the highlight of the day; the teachers of his school arranged a drive-by parade! This meant the chance to socialize with neighbors from a safe 6 feet, and then the thrill of waving as the cars went by, honking their horns and decked out in signs saying “We Miss You”, “We Love You” etc.

12.30-1.30: Lunch/free play.

1.30-2: Spanish. Travis counted to ten in Spanish while hopping on one foot, and then we named Spanish colors as we played a board game.

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2-3: We took a break from the lesson plan for our own home school lesson on Mardi Gras!

3-3.30: P.E.. His special today would have been gym so we played Flip the Yard; throw a plastic bottle filled with rocks underhand towards a target, like a hula hoop. 2 points if it lands inside, 1 point if it’s touching the rim. First player to 15 points wins! The kids just enjoyed the spring sunshine after.

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We also squeezed in a few videos from the San Diego Zoo over a late afternoon snack, and Travis designed an “obstacle course” for his classroom’s hermit crabs. In sum, we did a lot. The day simultaneously felt endlessly long and really fast, is that a thing? I felt like I didn’t give my toddler enough attention, so my goal is some quality crafts or games with her in the mix tomorrow!

Finger Paint Easter Egg

April 6, 2020Leave a comment

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On the heels of her first Easter craft, Veronika made an equally easy toddler-friendly Easter egg today. This one requires only poster board and finger paint.

I initially thought to set up the activity outside, given a nice day of sunshine. You’ll notice the pack of wipes on hand for easy clean-up, a must whenever you use finger paint!

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After cutting an egg shape from white poster board, I squirted a few colors of finger paint out onto at ray and briefly demonstrated how she could dip a finger in the paint, and then press on the egg.

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I also squirted some of the paint directly onto the egg shape, thinking she might want to swirl it around with her whole palm. But after a moment to check it out, the outdoors proved far too distracting!

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So we moved the activity inside, where she was able to pay more attention. This time she dipped her fingertips into the paint. I can’t say she loved the craft, but she did make enough markings on a full sheet of poster board that I could cut out a smaller egg shape around it.

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So we ended up with mommy-and-me Easter eggs, which I think are pretty cute! For preschoolers, have fun making deliberate lines or patterns with the finger paint, to add a little education into the mix.

Circuit Science Kiwi Crate

April 5, 2020April 7, 2020Leave a comment

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Travis’s Kiwi Crate has never been so welcome as during this period of home school and social distancing, particularly on a rainy day when we couldn’t get outside for a spring nature walk. The package literally saved the day! Sometimes Travis wants to spread out the projects, but this time he insisted we dive into the crate right away and do all three projects start to finish.

The big concept this month was electric circuits, which Travis has grown to understand recently from a few at-home projects, so I was glad the concept wasn’t foreign to him.

First up was the Lamp: A simple set-up involved attaching a lamp base and LED light holder onto a cardboard base, then inserting batteries into the provided battery pack. Travis connected red wire to red wire and black to black, and his lamp turned on!

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The second project, the Lampshade, was really the only “A” component of STEAM for this crate.

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Travis loved punching the holes along the lines of a Steve the Kiwi template, with a sheet of black paper underneath, since it was similar to punch art he does at school.

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The black paper then slips easily inside the lamp, and Steve glows!

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We put it all together with the Electric Bowler Game. This was definitely complicated, but Travis was determined to put together a circuit board that involved four brads against a wooden plate and wires that slip over the outer brads.

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He slotted the wooden frame together and held it all together with provided rubber bands.

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A wooden dowel in the middle is the switch to deactivate the circuit when needed. 3 silver balls then trigger the circuit; these need to be scuffed with scratchy pads first, although to our disappointment, the booklet did not explain why.

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To complete the game, a wooden board sits on top with a foam bumper. Take turns rolling the three metal balls towards the holes at the end. Once all three metal balls fall into place between the brads on the circuit board below, the circuit is complete, and the lantern turns on!

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Definitely play in a dim room, for the best effect.

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Travis enjoyed the Explore magazine that delved deeper, including an experiment called Let It Flow. What else could complete the circuit in our set-up, other than the three metal balls?

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Three plastic beads failed, as did three marbles. But three strips of aluminum foil did the trick!

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There was no suggested further reading this month, but I recommend Oscar and the Bird: A Book About Electricity.

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We also plan to check out I Am Benjamin Franklin when the title is released in October, as there’s sure to be some fun bits about electricity in there!

Sticker Easter Egg

April 5, 2020Leave a comment

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It seems strange even to think about the upcoming Easter holiday, knowing we’ll be celebrating with family at a distance… but that’s all the more reason to decorate here at home! This simple-as-can be sticker project allows even little toddlers to have egg decorating fun.

I cut an egg shape from construction paper, choosing purple for the background. and then gave Veronika a sheet of stickers. Knowing we wanted a springtime feel, I chose stickers of butterflies and flowers.

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These were puffy stickers, which are the perfect type to help toddlers learn to peel stickers off the sheet. If I folded the sheet ever so slightly, the puffy edge of a butterfly would stick up and Veronika could pull it up.

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In the past, she’s loved just adorning herself with stickers, which I worried might be the case today.

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But when I said, “Veronika, can you put the sticker on the purple paper?” she followed directions perfectly!

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She had started to pile a lot of them in one place on the paper, which was just fine; it’s her art work!

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But when I pointed to other areas of the “egg”, she moved her stickers over to that area. Again, this project turned out to be great for following directions.

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If big siblings want to join in on the project, challenge them to be more deliberate with their stickers, making rows or patterns.

Happy Helper: Floor Mopping

April 4, 2020Leave a comment

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At around a year and a half, toddlers love to copy everything you do around the house. This makes them the perfect participant for any household chores, but sometimes their “help” can feel more like a hindrance. To wit, Veronika has really wanted to help me mop, but that means dropping toys or brooms into the mop bucket. So today I turned floor mopping into a game to get it out of her system!

I filled a small beach pail with just a little warm water and a few drops of dish soap. Then I gave her a sponge and showed her how to dip it in the water, squeeze out the extra, and start to wash the floor.

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Squeezing excess water is great for muscle development, plus it’s fun to do!

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The idea was to have her work alongside me while I mopped for real, but Veronika had other plans. She upended the bucket, which immediately soaked through her pajamas. Both my kids thought this was hilarious.

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Soon they were eagerly scrubbing the entire kitchen floor – my happy helpers!

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They wanted to play for so long, and when the fun was done, it was immediately upstairs for a change of clothes. And my floor was sparkling!

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Kitchen Instruments

April 4, 2020Leave a comment

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Travis and I plan to make a few “musical meals” soon thanks to his latest Raddish Kids, so this morning we made some simple instruments with kitchen objects to kick off the fun!

The most complicated was a Pop Stick Kazoo. You’ll need two leftover Popsicle sticks (or craft sticks) for this instrument. First, wrap one stick with a thick rubber band lengthwise.

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Cut 2 (1-inch) pieces of drinking straw and slip under the rubber band. Secure a second Popsicle stick on top using two thin rubber bands. Blow for a kazoo-like sound!

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Next we made Cereal Box Guitars: Cut a circle in the middle of an empty cereal box and stretch long rubber bands over the box for the strings. We made a smaller version using a cracker box for baby sister, and decided this was her ukulele!

For Water Bottle Maracas, we filled empty water bottles about a third of the way with rice and glued on the lids.

For Tin Can Drums, simply turn empty, rinsed out metal cans upside down. Add chopsticks to play!

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We sat down to rock with our band, and what fun the kids had!

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Travis’s favorite was the guitar, which he loved strumming with extra cut straws or chopsticks.

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Veronika gravitated towards the shaky maracas.

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Both kids loved drumming with chopsticks. For some musical learning, we went over a few concepts. First up, Travis thought of a beat (a.k.a. rhythm, or a pattern that repeats). His was “Bo-ba, Bo-ba, Bo-ba”.

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Then we played around with speed (a.k.a. tempo). We practiced his beat super fast, and then slow on the drum.s

Next you can try making up silly lyrics, although this was harder for Travis to do on the spot. I also challenged him to add style (a.k.a. dynamics), sometimes quiet, sometimes loud.

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