Boat School

The girls and I have had fun having "boat school" this past week! I pack a bag of snacks, water bottles, and "school" activities, and we head to the boat for school. They LOVE this, and they'd rather do "boat school" than play on the beach!

E(1) LOVES to match, and she is constantly noticing things that match around her and exclaiming "they match!" I've set up several matching activities for her to feed into this new obsession :)


"They match!"


I was surprised by how well E(1) matched the phases of the moon. O(5) and I helped her a little bit, but she did most of it by herself.


While E matched, O practiced her handwriting.


Having "boat school" with my girls is one of the many reasons I want to homeschool...what can be better than spending your school day on a boat??? However, we have one more year before we are officially homeschooling. O begins school at her Montessori Preschool next week :(

Btw, the boat was beached, which is why the girls are not wearing life jackets. They ALWAYS wear their life jackets when we are out on the water.

Passports for the Cultural Exchange

When I was ordering items from the Oriental Trading Company for our cultural exchange packages, I came across these "My Passport" sticker books. I ordered a pack of them (less than 7 dollars for a pack of 12 passports!)to give the girls when I give them their "subscription" to monthly cultural packages.





These little sticker books will make the cultural exchange even more exciting! We've started compiling our packages, and I can't wait to finish them and send them out! What fun!

A Seashell Fish Collage

The girls and I had fun making seashell fish collages while we were at the beach this summer. The girls excitedly filled a bucket with tiny shells while exclaiming "we hit the tiny shell jack pot!" When we got back to our beach house, I drew a fish with glue on a piece of cardboard (I spray painted the cardboard blue before our trip in anticipation of this project).

The girls had fun pouring the shells onto the glue fish.




We poured off the excess shells after the glue dried to make a fun fishy shell collage! The girls are very proud of their fish!

Word Treasure Hunt

O(5) has had a fantastic time finding and writing the words from 1+1+1=1's Read and Write the Room set.

I told her that she was going on a word treasure hunt, and she had to write each word as she found it. She loved hiding her eyes while I hid the words, and she loved for me to say "hot" or "cold" when she was close to or far away from the words.

She also loved writing on a clipboard!


What a fun way to motivate a child to practice their writing skills! Thanks, Carisa!

If you like paper dolls...

you can get a fantastic deal on mini-me paper dolls here. This offer ends tonight, so act quickly. I bought one of these paper dolls for my niece last Christmas, and it's just beautiful. O and E will both be getting Lily and Thistle Mini-Me paper dolls for Christmas along with a subscription to the outfit of the month club!

Rubberbands on a Doorknob

Stretching rubberbands onto a doorknob was one of O(5)'s favorite activities when she was E(1)'s age, and now E loves it, too! I love to watch her work when she is so focused and determined!

I offered her a stool to stand on, but she was not interested in that at all :)

Beach Sand Candles

The girls, my mom, and I had fun making beach sand candles a few weeks ago.

First, we melted the wax on the stove. Then we went to the beach and dug holes for the sand molds. We used a Kleen Kanteen to make the right shape. We put the wick down in the hole, and I held it in place while my mom poured the hot wax into the hole.

We had to hold the wicks in place for a while until the wax hardened a little. We let O(5) one of the wicks after the wax cooled a little.

After about an hour or so, the girls dug the candles up from the beach. They were SO excited!


The girls were very pleased with the candles, but I was a little disappointed (but I didn't tell the kids that I was disappointed!). I was hoping that more sand would stick to the sides of the candles. Also, they are a little lopsided :) We plan to make crushed ice candles next!

Science on the Beach...Sink/Float

Lately, E(1) has been excitedly saying "It floats!" whenever anything floats in the lake. So, I decided to gather various objects from our house and yard to take to the beach for a sink/float experiment. O(5) excitedly took her mask out with us to the lake, so that she could retrieve the sunken objects. (Her swimming skills have improved dramatically since she has started swimming with a mask!)

Before dropping each object in the water, we predicted whether each one would sink or float. E predicted that everything would float :)


It was interesting for the girls to see that the shells floated if we placed them gently on the water, but they sunk if we threw them in the water. Fun times on the lake!

DIY Flower Barrettes

My friend Rebecca recently showed me her daughter's flower barrettes, and I really liked them! I was actually surprised that I liked them so much, because I am not a "big bow" kind of mama. I prefer small barrettes and bows for my girls' hair. However, the girls loved the flowers, and so did I!

My immediate thought was "I can make that!" and even more exciting "I have everthing I need to make that!" I love it when I see a project or activity, and I already have everything I need to make it!


To make these flower barrettes, you need artificial flowers (I bought our flowers from Hobby Lobby when they were 50% off), alligator clip barrettes, and a hot glue gun and glue sticks.

I took the stems and back off of the flowers (I didn't take enough of the stem off with the first one I made, and the flower was much too high on the barrette), and hot glued them to the alligator clips...done! So simple and fast!



The flower looks huge on E(1)'s little head, but it was actually really cute...the perfect splash of color to go with her white dress (and she was very proud of her "hot pink!" flower...hot pink is her favorite color).

Telling Time Game

We had some rainy days while on vacation, and the girls and I spent this time playing on the porch. We painted with watercolors, played with playdough, read books, knitted with our looms, painted faces, played Memory, and played with these telling time cards.

This set includes analog and digital clocks to match, and they fit together like a puzzle which is a self-checking feature. The clocks show the time on the hour and half hour.

O(5) enjoyed setting up the cards, but she got upset when E(1) accidentally scattered a few. She wanted to quit, but I sat with her and we matched them together until we finished. Lately, she has been wanting to quit activities before she is finished, and while I don't want to force her to do "work", I also don't want her to be a quitter. It's hard to know (while in the midst of the situation) whether to insist that she finish what she started or whether to step back and just let her do her own thing. *sigh*

Cultural Exchange Package from Julie (Ohio)

Julie from Ohio was kind enough to send a package to the O(5) and E(1) (as a bonus since we aren't a part of her group). It is a wonderful package, and we are very thankful to Julie for her kindness!

Here's a picture of all of the loot! I love how Julie put the things in individual bags and labeled everything.








The girls are going to LOVE the glow sticks, and O will adore the postcard of the Amish children.


Julie included a craft which is a great idea!




Here is an excerpt from the letter. It's full of great information and pictures.




Julie included a map and coloring sheets (with permission from Erica).






I'm saving the cultural exchange packages to start giving the girls one a month after Christmas. They'll receive a map for Christmas along with a "subscription" to a monthly cultural exchange package. I think this package will be perfect for July when we celebrate July 4th!

Receiving this package from Ohio has gotten me excited about doing a USA exchange in the future! It will be so much fun to receive packages from the different states when we are studying USA geography!