Big Energy-Little Learners...Can I do it all?

Here is our weekly activity review... Monday we spent the day at the park. It was such a nice day outside so we gathered up some balls and the Frisbee and headed to the park. I wanted to get some learning in so the kids and I came up with a game to play where we could have fun and learn at the same time. The game was Ball Tag. The rules were to throw the ball at someone and if you hit them they had to go to the 'dungeon' and count to 20.  After the kids were counting to 20 so fast the were saying it in one breath we practiced counting by 2's and then by 5's. There was a lot of running around too for exercise. Tuesday we reviewed the story of Abram and Lot  and sang songs.    Athena is retelling the story here.  On the board I wrote the message 'Families support each other'. We used the capital G to represent God.  Athena requested that Lot be represented by Mickey mouse.  The giraffe represented Lots heard. I don't have bible s...

This weeks activities review. Thursday we made fathers day cards.  I gave the kids some stencils and markers to use.  Earlier in the morning the boys did wax paper painting.   I used different patterns then the first time and placed the paint closer together hoping to see more of a design.  Liam asked for his paint to be in different shapes so he had a circle a square and triangle on his paper.  After the paint dried I cut the extra wax paper from around the sides and hung it up on the window.  You can't see in this picture but when the sun shines through you can see hand prints in the paint.  It looks really cool!  Friday we played stuck in the mud!   It started because Spencer found a toy wand under the couch and tapped me with and told me I was stuck.  I played along and the other kids caught on quickly and wanted to play.  We soon got very roudy and ended up taking the game off the couch a...

For this summer I have been trying to do an activity a day then letting the kids play the rest of the day.  :) I downloaded a calendar from Motherhood on a Dime with ideas that I have been referencing when I don't have any. Mostly I only have to substitute the days there are outdoor activities because it has been raining and grey for a week.  :/ Monday we played with story cards for over an hour! I found this picture on google images to give you idea of what the cards look like Story cards are double sided picture cards.  You can play the game in a variety of ways.  We played this two different ways. First I dealt each person 5 cards.  1 player starts the story and then everyone takes a turn laying down a card using it in the story.   I allowed a couple sentences per card for the kids. Second we put the stack of cards in the middle of the table.  Each turn we would pick up the top card and have to add what we pulled to the story.  ...

The weather has been nice and we have been trying to spend more time outside. While at the library I thumbed through a children's science book and saw a wonderful idea.  After we read In The Tall Tall Grass  I thought of this science activity. Observing what lives in our grass.  The kids picked a spot on the grass and we made a circle of rocks around that area.    Then we all lay on our tummies and grabbed the magnifying glass to observe. We saw a centipede first.  It was quick.     They both tried to pick it up between their fingers.  *shakes head*  My kids love bugs :) We took a moment to talk about this being the bugs home why we don't kill bugs outside.  "We are just observing." We also saw potato bugs or rolly pollies and ants.   Of course they still tried to pick them up. Later that day we had a picinic.  It was very spur of the moment but wonderful.  The weather wa...

I am feeling back on schedule after almost 3 weeks of down time. Jerry was laid off and it changed the schedule for awhile. I am behind on blog posts :/. We finished the letter G activities last week and I told the kids we preschool was over until August.  All of their cousins and friends are out of school for the summer and I want the kids to have that 'summer' feeling. Instead of doing our daily preschool schedule we are going to be doing activities I didn't have time to do during the school year. I hope to get in more art and pretend play with the kids this summer. Last week:   M&M's I found this book at the library thumbed through it and thought it was great for the kids.  Not only was it math it was also a treat!  I bought enough packages of m&m's for Jerry to participate in the project with the kids.  Athena, Liam, and Jerry followed along with the book.   It was difficult for Spencer to follow along...