Meet Lydia

My girls love "growing" animals (found at Dollar General for 1 dollar), so they were very excited to see this crab in their May Fun Box. O(4) named her "Lydia."

I thought about turning this into a measurement or science activity, but we ended up just enjoying watching Lydia grow each day. Simple and exciting!

Rosemary Vinegar

O(4) and I planned to make Rosemary Vinegar for her teachers for "end of the year" gifts, and we finally made it more than a week after school let out for the summer...better late than never!

To make the Rosemary Vinegar, you need white vinegar, glass bottles, and fresh Rosemary. My mom brought us a bunch of fresh Rosemary from her garden. She washed it thoroughly and drained it in a colander. She heated the white vinegar on the stove. While the vinegar heated, the girls pushed the Rosemary into the vinegar bottles.




My mom then poured the hot vinegar into the bottles (using a funnel). After the vinegar cooled, I put the tops on the bottles and put them in a dark place. The vinegar needs to cure for about 3 weeks before you use. It taste great on salads!

We originally planned on O decorating the bottles, and she actually painted a couple of them with glass paint. We then decided that the Rosemary looked really pretty in the bottles, so she didn't decorate all of them. This was a wonderfully simple gift, and O was so proud of the gifts she made!

Let the Summer Begin!

O(4) has been out of school for the summer for 2 weeks, but I finally had my last day of work today! I love my job (as a School Psychologist), but I'm very excited to have the next 2 and a half months off! May (IEP season) is always stressful when you work in special education, and I'm glad to have made it through another year :)

I have lots of activities planned for my girls for the summer, but we'll spend the vast majority of our time playing outside (in the lake, on the beach, and on our playground) and reading aloud. I'm planning for us to spend our mornings outside, and then we'll come in at lunchtime (around 1ish) to do art, science, and Montessori activities. It usually crazy hot at that time of day, so it will be the perfect time to come in and cool off. We'll go back outside at the end of the day to play for a couple more hours. We're hoping to have a great summer, and I hope you will, too!

Apologies

I'm WAY behind on answering email, so if you've sent me an email with questions within the last couple of months and I haven't responded, PLEASE resend it! If I don't answer emails immediately, I often forget to go back and respond (I read them all, I just don't always have time to respond immediately and then I get distracted). I don't spend much time on the internet while the kids are awake, and they've been staying up later lately so my internet time is minimal. So, don't take it personally if I haven't responded to your questions :)

Feeding the Frog

E(1) loves feeding plastic bugs to the frog. She loves all animals, which made this activity even more appealing to her.

This is another activity that I'll add a pair of tongs/chopsticks to when she is a little older. (Btw, I bought the frog from a thrift store and the plastic bugs from Target).

Working on One-to-One Correspondence

E(1) loves putting these spiky balls into a paint palette. She doesn't realize that she's refining her one-to-one correspondence skills as she works.

When she's a little older, I'll add a pair of tongs or chopsticks to this work to make it a little more challenging.

Matching Animal Figures to Pictures

E(1) loves animals, so this farm animal matching activity was a lot of fun for her.

To do this activity, I laid out 3 to 5 pictures of animals and gave her a handful of animal figurines to match to the pics. I told her to "match sheep" and she'd find the sheep and put it on the correct picture. O was nearby and helped her when she needed help. Fun times!

Here is the post about O doing this same work almost 3 years ago.

Learning to Pour Water

E(1) loves this tiny little teapot and teacup that I put on her work shelf. I put the teapot (filled with water), a teacup, and a sponge on a small tray and put it on the bottom shelf. E was excited to see something new, and O was excited to see something old!


After E poured the water, she quickly drank it and wanted more. O used to do the same thing over and over and over again when she was E's age. What fun!

E's Art Shelf

E(1) LOVES to "daw" (draw)! When she sees her big sister drawing, she says "daw, too!" Lately, she's been saying "daw somethin." Since she is so interested in drawing, I decided that she needed her very own art shelf.

We have 2 shelves from Pottery Barn (outlet) in our kitchen. O(4)'s art shelf is on the 2nd from the bottom shelf of one, and now E has her art shelf on the bottom shelf of the other.

I taped a large piece of paper to the bottom shelf and put a jar full of crayons beside it. Both girls were thrilled to see this when they woke up on Wednesday morning. O saw it first and said "E, look, look! Your own art shelf!"





I love how simple this was to put together and how perfect it is for my sweet girl!

Learning the Art of Stillness and Silence

E(1) was being very still and quiet to see if the minnows would nibble on her toes. After about 30 seconds, she said "all done!" and hopped up. We'll try again tomorrow :)

In Our 1st 10 Minutes of Summer Homeschool...

E counted to 10! Her articulation wasn't perfect, and she left out 4, but nobody expects perfection at 20 months old! Btw, I didn't teach her this. I usually only count to 3 with her!

Then, O(4) walked up to me and said 10 plus 11 equals 21. And all of this occured while I was checking email and facebook! Hmmm, homeschooling might be easier than I anticipated!

Fun with Face Paint

Since I stock up on face paint after Halloween, I always have some available for special occasions. When O had Spring Break about a month ago, we spent the 1st morning of the week on the beach and had fun painting faces while we were out there.

O was very specific about what she wanted on her face. Luckily, she's not too particular about how it looks, because I'm definitely not an artist! She was very pleased with the result, and now she says she wants me to paint faces at her birthday party!

For Little House on the Prairie Fans

I posted yesterday that I'd found the entire Rose Years collection at the library, and I wanted to also tell you that there are books for the Martha Years (Laura's great-grandmother) Beyond the Heather Hills (Little House), the Charlotte years (Laura's grandmother)Little House by Boston Bay , and the Caroline years (Laura's mother) Down to the Bonny Glen (Martha Years). I didn't know about these books until just a few months ago, and I was SO excited to find out about them. We've only read one from each of the collections listed above as they are difficult to find at our local libraries, and we really enjoyed them. Happy reading!

A Happy Day!!!

What a great day this has been!!!

First, I signed my contract to work for 45 days next school year. (everyone else signed and turned in their contracts weeks ago, so I was a little nervous that I might not have a job next school year!)

Second, I went to the library and they had the entire Rose Years collection of books (this was thrilling since O LOVES the Little House books, and I've been checking the various libraries unsuccesfully for this set for months). The Rocky Ridge Collection: Little House on Rocky Ridge, Little Farm in the Ozarks, in the Land of the Big Red Apple, on the Other Side of the Hill (The Rocky Ridge Series , So4)

Third, I WON the science giveaway on the Montessori Print Shop blog! I almost never read blogs anymore, and I just happened to come across this giveaway when I was looking at the Montessori Print Shop's shop. I left a quick comment and thought that was the end of that. However, they emailed me today, and I won!!!

Finally, O had her last t-ball game, and she received a trophy. She was SO happy to "win" a trophy! She jumped up, cheered, and smiled and smiled. Both girls were extremely excited about the junk food that they ate at the banquet, too. One thing that is great about almost never letting your kids eat junk food is watching how excited they get when they get to have a special treat! What a wonderful day!!!

Montessori At Home Blog Sponsor

Chasing Cheerios has a sponsor!!! Check out the Montessori At Home button in the right hand sidebar!

I recently wrote a review on Montessori at Home by John Bowman. You can read it here. It is truly a wonderful resource for anyone who wants to implement Montessori methods in their home. I wish that I'd had it 3 years ago!

I'm planning on implementing many of the ideas and lessons in our summer homeschool (beginning next week!). O(4) said that her goal for the summer is to do "math, math, and more math!" Luckily, Montessori at Home has lots of ideas and information for implementing Montessori math lessons!