Planting Seeds

The girls received daisy, sunflower, and basil seeds in their April Fun Box, and we planted the seeds in baseball card sleeves! This idea came from Family Fun magazine.

We put a little bit of dirt in the 6 bottom pockets and taped the sleeve to the sliding glass door with clear packing tape. We put seeds in each pocket. The soil was wet, so we didn't water them for a couple of days.

Within about 3 days, we saw growth! It has been very exciting to watch our seedlings grow!



O(4) uses a medicine dropper to water each seedling.


They are growing FAST! We'll transplant the sunflowers and daisies to our yard and the basil to pots very soon!

Making Goop

Making goop on our beach is one of our favorite Spring/Summer activities, and we did it for the first time this year on Sunday afternoon. The girls mixed equal parts water and cornstarch and then mixed it together with their hands. We kept adding more cornstarch, and O(4) eventually added sand "just to see what happens."

We talked about how the consistency seems to change from a solid to a liquid as we played with the goop. We usually add food coloring to our goop, but I decided to make it a little simpler and skip the food coloring this time.

Painting a Mural

The girls and I painted a mural outside on Sunday afternoon. Elliott and I taped a long piece of paper to our fence, and we gave the girls a few cups of paint.

We had fun, but E(1) was pretty fussy and didn't enjoy it as much as I thought she would (she was overtired). This activity quickly turned into a body painting activity, which was not surprising at all :) Luckily, I thought ahead, and we painted right by the lake. Once the girls were through, we just stood in the water and washed the paint off of our bodies.

Next time we'll use finger paint or maybe shaving cream (tinted with food coloring), and I'll have them wear old clothes (the paint didn't come out of E's bathing suit).

Decorating (Hot) Easter Eggs with Crayons

Drawing on hot boiled eggs with crayons is SO much fun! This idea came from Family Fun magazine as a quick and easy way to decorate Easter eggs. However, we enjoyed using eggs as an art medium so much that we may draw on our boiled eggs every week!


As soon as the eggs finished boiling, I put them in a tray (that came with an egg dyeing kit). O(4) and I drew on them with the crayons, and the crayon wax melted as we drew.


I was undecided about whether or not to allow E(1) to join in on this activity. However, it was a moot point since E understands "hot" and was not at all interested in getting near the hot eggs. She sat quietly and watched her sister draw.

After drawing for a while, O decided to shave her crayons and sprinkle the shavings on the eggs. What fun!

Felt Storyboard Activity

I love doing felt board activities with the girls (I think I like them more than they do!) and here is a recent activity that E(1) and I did...

I printed the felt story pieces for Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You Hear? from Kiz Club. After cutting out the pieces, I glued a small square of sandpaper on the back of each piece. As E and I read the story, I put the pieces on our felt board.

After we finished the story, E had fun matching the pictures.



I love all of the story pieces at Kiz Club, and I'm planning to make a bigger felt board this weekend!

Making Volcanoes on the Beach

The girls and I love to make volcanoes on our beach! (see here and here) This is the 3rd Spring/Summer that we've done this fun activity, and it was just as fun as ever.

To make the volcano, O(4) filled a plastic bottle 3/4 full with lake water. We then built the volcano around the bottle using beach sand. O put 2 tablespoons of baking soda and several drops of food coloring into the bottle. She then poured white vinegar into the volcano, and we watched the eruption.

This is the first year that we've had red lava...since O's favorite color is blue, we always have blue lava. This time she wanted the lava to be red, and she told me that red is the "proper" color of lava. Can you tell she's been studying volcanoes at school? :)

We erupted our volcano 3 times, so that E(1) would have a chance to measure the baking soda and pour the vinegar. She LOVED it!

We LOVE Inchimals!!!

The girls' grandparents gave them a set of Fat Brain Toys Inchimals for Christmas, and we LOVE them!

Here is some information on Inchimals from the Timberdoodle website (LOVE that site!)...


Features 12 Wooden Inchimals Blocks
Dry Erase Marker
100 Puzzles in a Spiral-bound Erasable Book

More Ways to Explore With Inchimals...

Sequence the Inchimal blocks from the shortest to the longest.
Practice counting & learn about numbers as you explore the individual segments, numbers and dots on each Inchimal block
Learn addition and subtraction concepts!
Discuss the animals pictured on the Inchimal blocks and their relative heights/lengths.
Use Inchimals as puppets to invite creative thinking, dialogue, and dramatic play
Stand the Inchimals blocks side by side or stack them neatly on top of one another to promote fine motor control
Introduce vocabulary related to measurement (shorter, taller, longer, height, length, distance, perimeter)
Designed to be used at home, in the classroom or on the go!


Manufacturer's Information
Manufacturer: Fat Brain Toys
Made In: China
Mfg Item #: FA038-1
Recommended Age: 3+

And here is how we like to play with them...

First, we lined the inchimals up from shortest to longest. O(4) pointed out that they look like stairs, and the girls marched around the room and pretended to climb the inchimal stairs.


The girls gathered toys, and we measured them using the Fat Brain Toys Inchimals. We guessed how long they would be before measuring them. We've also had fun measuring our feet, hands, furniture, etc.


O and I took turns making addition problems with the Fat Brain Toys Inchimals. We made and solved 2 digit and 3 digit problems.








O loved writing out the math problems that she created and solved.


We then opened the book to solve some of the problems there.




Here are some other pages from the book.




Fat Brain Toys Inchimals are another product that I really wish I'd had at least 2 years ago (the other one is Montessori at Home). They make learning math SO much fun! I highly recommend them, and we are so appreciative to O and E's grandparents for gifting them with this wonderful resource!

Links to Amazon are affiliate links. Thank you for supporting this blog by buying through the links. Links to Timberdoodle are not affiliate links. Timberdoodle is a wonderful site full of great educational products. If you have not taken a look, you should! I just requested the new catalog, and I can't wait until it gets here!