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!

E's Montessori Shelf

E(1)'s Montessori activities are set up on a small shelf that was mine when I was little.  We attached the shelf to the back of the girls' play kitchen since we did not have a wall to attach it to.  This has worked out nicely because I can turn it to face outward into the room during the morning and then face it towards the sliding glass doors during most of the day.  Having these materials out for only a few hours a day seems to keep them a little more fresh and exciting :) 

The top row of E's shelf has the following activities: geometric solids, wooden nesting bowls, Brown Bear "I Spy" bottle and matching cards. On the second shelf is an imbucare box, a q-tip and bear bottle activity, a sandpaper e, and a bead maze (she was uninterested in the bead maze, so I replaced it with cutting fruit). On the 3rd shelf are the Montessori Cylinder Blocks and Ryan's Room (Lace 'Em Up Dragon) 2 (ours is actually a snake, but they don't make it anymore).



Here is the play kitchen.

Raising Readers

Elliott and I are raising readers! We started reading aloud to both girls while they were still in utero, and we've read to them every day since their births. It has paid off, and they both LOVE books!

Reading aloud to my girls is one of my favorite things to do, but even if you don't enjoy it, you should still do it. Reading aloud to your children is one of the simplest things you can do that will have a tremendous impact on their educational development.

Lately, when E(1) gets quiet we can find her "reading" to her friends. She gathers her animals and/or babies and surrounds herself with books! I love it! I love how she arranged her bear to look at the book.


While I was making lunch on Saturday, I suddenly realized that E was very quiet. I felt a moment of dread and fully expected to find her covered with lotion or vaseline or something else that would be difficult to clean. I was SO relieved when I saw this!

I LOVE that our girls love books, and I hope that their love of books and reading will continue throughout their lives.

Learning Her Letters

I put the E(1) sandpaper letter on E(1)'s Montessori shelf. She enjoys tracing it with her finger. I was so surprised a few days ago when she picked the letter up from her shelf and said "e!" She's proud of her e!

Puddle Jumpers

>
We've had a lot of rain lately, so I told the girls to put on their boots and we went out to jump in puddles! This isn't something we do often (I actually can't remember the last time we did this), and the girls were THRILLED! We went out to jump in puddles twice in one week, and it was thrilling each time.

Reading Charlotte Mason's book (Charlotte Mason's Home Education in Modern English (Charlotte Mason Series Paraphrase)) has inspired me to be more open to activities such as this, and I'm so glad because these are the moments that the girls and I will always remember.

I Spy Bag with Beans and Animals

I made an "I Spy" bag for E(1) for our recent road trip. I used a zippered pouch (pencil case) that I filled with mixed beans, plastic farm animals (from the Target dollar spot), plastic babies, and plastic cats. I attached some pictures of the farm animals to the bag with a ring.

I covered the zipper with packing tape, so that E wouldn't unzip the bag. She was determined to remove the tape the first time she saw the bag, but she's lost interest in trying to remove and just enjoys the bag now.





She is currently going through a phase where she thinks "hineys" are hilarous, and she loves to find the babies' hineys. She also loves to count to 2, and you can hear that in the video as well. Today, when we were looking in the bag, we could only see the babies' faces, and she insisted that I help her find their hineys! Funny girl!

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!

Half Birthday Celebration

We had E(1)'s half birthday celebration last month! For her celebration, we made Cheerio treats with m & m's. They are delicious and fun to make. E was eating the m & m's as fast as she could :) O(4) choreographed a recital, and O and E danced for us in celebration of E's half birthday. What fun!