Our Liquid Watercolors

Someone somewhere (comments? email?) asked me to post a picture of our liquid watercolors in their wooden holder that I keep on our kitchen table, so here they are! They are simple and make a perfect centerpiece for us :)

3 Part Animal Puzzles

E(2) had so much fun putting these animal puzzle cards together last week! She put a couple together correctly, and then decided that it was hilarious to mix them up!

Making Melkkos...South Africa

The girls and I made melkkos when we were studying South Africa. Melkkos is made from milk, flour, and cinnamon. It's easy to make and the girls thought it was yummy. Here is the recipe. The girls loved mashing the butter into the flour. We simmered it with a cinnamon stick. And it's done!

Playing with Sunlight

I love the way the sun shines through our color blocks! Building in a stream of sunlight with these blocks is such a simple, soothing, and beautiful activity. E(2)'s blue hand. Yellow and blue feet I'm pretty sure that I like this activity even more than the kids do :) Here's a link to blocks that are similar to ours. All links to amazon are affiliate links. Thanks for supporting Chasing Cheerios.

A Day at O(5)'s School

I was a substitute teacher at O(5)'s school on Tuesday, and she was THRILLED! E(2) was also very excited that we got to stay all morning, and she got to eat snack and have recess with O and her friends. Spending the day with my girls in a real schoolroom helped me to realize that we really need a dedicated room for our homeschool next year. It's so much more peaceful to have so few distractions and to be able to focus on just a few things at a time. Here are a few pics from our morning... E(2) really enjoyed this water dropper work. I need to set up something like this for her at home. O(5) enjoyed doing lots of "relaxing" work. They both love polishing silver. We have the knobless cylinders and pattern cards at home. We don't use them very often, but E(2) recently enjoyed using them. I need to put them on a lower shelf, so that she can reach them a little easier. O(5) was proud to show us how to polish a plant's leaves. This is another work that I want to set up at home.

Continent Puzzle Map Work

The continent puzzle map was one of E(2)'s most frequently chosen activities in February...she LOVES it! We sing the continent song as we work, and we do the puzzle together. 

 We also listen to Geography Songs, and E and O both LOVE the British Isles song...it's very catchy and it sticks in your head after you listen to it a few times. We all randomly break out into singing "The British Isles! The British Isles! In the Atlantic across the channel from France..."

                                                                     

South African Flag Puzzle

Our cultural exchange country for the month of February was South Africa. Our South African studies were disrupted by Elliott's diagnosis, but we've still managed to do some fun South African projects. O(5) loved completing this South African flag puzzle. I printed the flag from Activity Village and laminated it before cutting it. Simple, cheap, fun, and educational!

Capes and Masks

I've been thinking about making capes and masks for my girls for years, and I thought I'd finally make them this year for Easter.  Then I found out that WM sells cape and masks sets for only 5 dollars!

I immediately lost all motivation to make the capes and hurried to WM to get this great deal. E(2) was excited to receive a cape and mask for herself and her sister for her half birthday :) Since they don't know anything about super heroes, they pretended to be the Phantom from Phantom of the Opera...Love it! By the way, WM stands for Walmart! I thought everyone used that abbreviation, but I've gotten many, many emails asking...sorry about that!

Mardi Gras Fun Box

We gave the girls a box full of fun Mardi Gras stuff...masks, beads, fancy glasses, coins, etc...on Fat Tuesday (all from the Dollar Tree).  Fun times!

Famous Landmarks Work

I recently bought this Safari Around the World Toob (from Michael's) and set up a matching activity for the girls.  Both girls (ages 2 and 5) LOVE playing with the landmark figures, and they also enjoy matching the figures to the pictures.

I was excited when I remembered that I had famous landmark cards (from the Target dollar section), so we had matching cards for all but 2 of the landmarks.  To do this work, E(2) and I laid out the cards and then took out the landmarks one by one to match them.





E(2) picked up the Statue of Liberty and said "I want to go see her one day!"  When we drove by our local courthouse, she said "there's the empire state building!"  One day when we were playing in our yard, she kept saying "Machu Picchu" over and over again.












Both girls (and their mama and daddy) want to go see the real Eiffel Tower one day!





This fun work is a great addition to our cultural studies!  Obviously, due to our family's current medical situation (Elliott's brain tumor), the organization of the next cultural exchange is on hold.  However, once he is well, I plan on getting it set up again.  For the next exchange, I plan to create groups of 4 (each person sends out 3 packages), so you may want to start collecting trinkets and fun things.  Please do not email asking to be a part of the exchange because I am not starting the organization now...just giving you a heads up!






Let me know if anyone else sets up this work for your kiddos!  It's so much fun to hear such little ones talking about famous landmarks (that I'd probably never heard of until high school!), and it really inspires them to learn more about each place.  What fun!