O's Book Journal

O started coloring and drawing pictures in a journal as I read to her at night a few months ago.  She LOVES this activity, and I love to see her intense concentration as she draws.  Most of her drawings are quite abstract, and it is fun to listen to her explanations of the different things she draws. 



After I finish reading the book and O finishes drawing, I ask questions about the story.  I write the questions and answers in the journal.  I usually have a sleeping and/or nursing baby in my arms while I am writing, so my handwriting is especially terrible despite my best intentions to write neatly. 



I try to write her answers exactly as she says them.  After reading Little Red Riding Hood, she took the journal and edited my "d."  She insisted that it be a capital D...silly girl.  I love how she said that the story was "too afraidy."

Treasure Box

O painted an unfinished wooden box (from Hobby Lobby) a few months ago for us to use as a treasure box.  During dinner we discuss our day and talk about our "treasure" of the day.  It can be anything that happened that day that was special or made us happy. This helps us remember to appreciate the special little things from each day and to not take our happy lives for granted. 

 




For a while (about a month), O said her treasure was when I picked her up from school. Then she would ask E what her treasure was.She'd bend down and pretend like E was whispering in her ear, and she'd say that E's treasure was picking her up from school, too. Then one day I said "I wonder what E's treasure is." O looked at E intently, and then said "she said her treasure is..." I asked "Oh, you can read her mind?" She said "Yes. It's because we are sisters." THAT was my treasure of the day!


 


We discuss our treasures several times a week and write them down on slips of paper about once a week. O loves for us to tell her stories from our childhoods, and one day she said that she would use this treasure box to help her remember things to tell her own children one day.  THAT was my treasure for that day! 

O's Job Jar

O and I recently made a job jar for her to motivate her to do more jobs around the house.  (she has a chore chart, but we both tend to forget to even look at it).  The job jar is filled with craft sticks, and we wrote one job on each stick.  She chooses 3 sticks after lunch, and she get to choose 2 of the 3 jobs to complete.  She's excited about her jobs, and I hope this will help us keep things a little neater in our small, crowded house!

Here are a few of O's jobs...

dust shelves
clean cabinet doors, refrigerator door, stove door, etc (she LOVES this one...she dampens a sponge and cleans everything with it...fun!)
organize art shelf
organize bedroom (this one seems to be impossible lately)
make her bed
vacuum hallway (using small vacuum)
fold dish towels
clean mirrors
clean glass doors

Acorn Stew

O enjoys using her outdoor mortar and pestle (bought a couple of years ago from a yard sale) to grind acorns to make acorn stew!  Yummy! 
When she moved the mortar and pestle, there was a baby snake sleeping under it.  I briefly contemplated trying to catch it, but O was not at all interested and the snake slithered away quickly. 


Does anyone know what kind of snake this is?  I know very little about snakes, but I tried to get a close look at his eyes and head shape to see if he was poisonous, and I don't think he was.  However, I could be wrong...he moved quickly, and I was a little nervous :)

O's Charity Read-a-thon

O is experiencing a surge of interest in reading books lately, so I proposed the idea of a charity read-a-thon to her.  She will have sponsors pay her a specific amount of money for each book she reads. 

When we first started discussing the read-a-thon, she said "I think I'd like to keep the money."  I told her that was not an option, and we discussed St. Jude's Hospital and how nice it would be to help the children there.  Since O is very interested in all things medical, helping the children at St. Jude's is very appealing to her.  She also knows a little about St. Jude's and sees pictures of some of the children there often since her Guhguh and Grandpa support St. Jude's and have pictures of the children on their refrigerator. 

O will read books to for this read-a-thon until Christmas.  We will then collect the money and send a check to St. Jude's.  She is more and more excited about this everyday, and she was thrilled to tell her grandmother about it on the phone yesterday.  She's already talking about her next read-a-thon, and she's looking forward to researching other charities to support. 

O has been reading Bob books, Hooked on Phonics books, and books printed from Hubbard's Cupboard.  We only write books on her list that she has read completely independently.

 

Skeleton Puzzle

Here's another repeat! 

O loved her skeleton puzzle last year, and she's enjoyed it just as much this year.  She liked looking at the skeleton on her flip chart as she put the skeleton together.  After she finished (with help), we labeled the bones and talked about them for a while.  She's very interested in this kind of thing since she plans to be a doctor (as well as a ballerina, fire fighter, artist, and mama) and LOVES to pretend to have broken bones. 

Kaju Burfi Attempted

O and I had fun making Kaju Burfi a few weeks ago.  I found the recipe on National Geographic Kids.  This recipe was simple, fun, and the end result was delicious. 

To make Kaju Burfi, you need 3 cups of ground cashews, 1/2 cup of water, and 2 cups of sugar.

O spooned the cashews in to the grinder.




Then she ground them  with a little help from me.





While O worked on grinding the cashews, I heated the sugar and water over medium-high heat.  O grew tired of grinding, so I finished grinding the cashews while stirring the sugar water.  Meanwhile, E was tired and wanted me to hold her.  As soon as the sugar/water mixture looked ready, I threw the cashews in and mixed them.  I poured the mixture into a glass pan and spread them out.  Our cashews were not ground into powder (as the directions described), and the sugar/water mixture wasn't quite ready, but our Kaju Burfi was delicious!

Water Xylophone

O, E, and I made a water xylophone this afternoon. O poured water into the glass baby bottles in progressive amounts. After the bottles were filled with water, we added food coloring to make them beautiful :) The girls had fun making music, and O did hand over hand to show E how to play the xylophone.


After we finished making music, we poured a little water from each bottle into mugs. We folded paper towels and dipped them into the colored water to make art. O enjoyed this part of the activity more than the making and playing of the xylophone.



Our colors were not very vibrant since we only used a few drops of food coloring in each bottle, but O was still very pleased with her paper towel art!

Loving the Rice Pit

We revamped our rice pit a couple of months ago, and started letting E get in it to play when she was about 11 months old (she's almost 13 months old now).


I have to watch her closely because she'll occasionally try to sneak rice in her mouth, but she LOVES the rice pit.
We usually come straight to the rice pit on our screened porch after we get home from dropping O off at school. We have fun scooping, pouring, using the funnel, etc.



The rice pit is definitely a favorite activity for O and E, and I highly recommend it for hours of fun!

I added a few links showing the rice pit that O used to play in when she was a little older than E is now.  I can't believe how little O used to be and how quickly she's grown up :(

Zubber

O and I recently made insects using Zubber. I bought the kit from WM for 2 dollars. We had fun making the insects, and O was impressed with and proud of her insects. Although we had a good time, I was glad that I only paid 2 dollars for the kit.

A Fun Party Activity and Snack

My mom and I helped a friend plan activities and snacks for her little girl's birthday party a couple of months ago, and one of the fun activities that we did was make a dirt and worms snack.

To make the snack, I put 5 or 6 oreo cookies in a ziploc bag and gave a bag to each child. I told the kids to smash the cookies any way that they could. They started off by smashing them in their hands and hitting the bags. They quickly realized that it was easier and more fun to stomp and jump on the bags. O and the birthday girl put their bags under a twister game mat and danced on them.

Once the cookies were crushed I put a handful of gummy worms in each bag and gave each child a spoon. They loved eating the tasty dirt and worms!

Making Mini Pizzas

O, E, and I made mini pizzas last week using whole wheat sandwich thins, spaghetti sauce, and veggies.

To make the pizzas, we spread the one piece of the sandwich thin with olive oil and broiled it for a couple of minutes. Then O spread the spaghetti sauce on her pizza and added her veggies, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, and cheese. We baked them at 350 until they were done (I didn't time it), and we all really enjoyed our yummy lunch.

E was so excited that I let her eat pizza, too. We used the leftover spaghetti sauce to make chicken parmesan...yum!

Fingerpainting Fun using Textured Trays

O and E had a great time fingerpainting this weekend using our textured fingerpainting trays. I squirted fingerpaint into the tray, and O squished it and spread it all around.


E was a little hesitant, and when she finally put her hand in the paint, she immediately tasted it. It must not have tasted very good because she only tasted it once. She seemed a little disturbed by having blue hands at first, but she relaxed after a couple of minutes.

After they spread the paint in the tray, we put a piece of white cardstock on the tray and pressed to make a print. This was a messy and fun activity that we'll be doing again soon.


The fingerpainting trays came from the Let's Explore shop (which is no longer open).