Magical Duct Tape Mirror

On our first day of official homeschooling, O(5) got VERY involved in making a "magical duct tape mirror."  She was very engrossed in this activity.  She had so much fun and was so proud of herself.   She covered both sides of a piece of paper with silver duct tape.





She proudly gave this magical mirror to her daddy for an early Father's Day gift :)




After she finished making her mirror, she told me the steps involved in making the mirror and we took turns writing the steps down.



I LOVE this type of spontaneous activity, and it's one of the things I think we'll love most about homeschooling.

Math Manipulatives Exploration

We started our first morning of homeschooling with free exploration of math manipulatives!  Fun!  We all LOVED playing with our new balance.  Both girls have always loved the geoboard, and they really enjoyed working on it on our 1st morning of homeschool, too.  I had fun playing with the plastic square manipulatives, and both girls liked the cuisenaire rods.  I can tell that we are going to have LOTS of math fun this school year!

Popsicle Paint

Last summer I saw popsicle paint on a friend's facebook page, and I really wanted to try it with my girls (since they loved painting with ice-cubes so much).  I finally found the perfect popsicle trays this spring, and the girls and I had fun making popsicle paint!

First, they filled the tray with water.




Then we added in a little bit of liquid watercolor into each container.




We put the popsicle trays in the freezer for about a day or so, and then we had popsicle paint!




The popsicles kept falling off the sticks which was a little annoying.




We still had fun with it, but I think we'll use wooden popsicle sticks next time in the hope that they'll stay together a little better.



I think this will be a perfect activity for our "Art on the Beach" days!

Our Aquarium Garden

A couple of months ago, the girls, my mom, and I planted several different types of vegetables (onions, carrots, turnips, and garlic chives) in an aquarium.  I decided to try planting in the aquarium after looking at root-vue planters (and discussing them with a friend) and remembering that I had an old aquarium in our garage.  I'm hoping that we'll be able to see the vegetables developing below the surface, but so far we are just seeing long and skinny roots.





The aquarium garden is near the girls's deck playhouse where they spend a lot of time!  Lately, they love to pretend that they are orphans from Annie, and they sing "It's a Hard Knock Life" while they scrub the walls and floor!

Melon Baby

My mom made this adorable melon baby for the baby shower that we hosted a couple of weeks ago.  We were all SO happy with how it turned out.  The girls especially thought it was so "cutie!"  Today, when we saw the actual baby, they talked about putting him in a hollowed out watermelon, just like the cantalope baby :)

To make the melon baby, my sister and I hollowed out a watermelon to use as the cradle.  My mom peeled the cantalope and attached grape halves to the face with toothpicks.  She used a half ball of cantalope for his nose and hollowed out a hole for his pacifier.   She surrounded him with fruit to make a blanket.  SO cute!

My mom was inspired by a picture of a melon baby that she saw on facebook.  I have searched and searched but I cannot find a link back to the original source. On Pinterest, the only link I can find is back to Repinley, so here it is.

How We Wrap...

There are several things that I don't enjoy doing, and I'm not good at them...cooking, baking, and wrapping presents (I'm sure there are LOTS more, but these are the things that come up frequently).  So, when it's time to wrap presents, I make it REALLY easy on myself!





I wrap the presents in white paper from the girls' easel, and they decorate it using paint, markers, crayons, or stickers.  The girls are always SO proud, and their wrapping paper is definitely original!

Science and Art Fun!

The girls and I had fun doing a science/art project in our "Lakeside Homeschool" last week!  (Last week was our first semi-official week of homeschool...super busy and super fun!).

I froze a bowlful of water a few weeks ago in anticipation of this project.  We finally found time to do it, so I dumped the ice onto a tray and gave the girls a container of salt and food coloring.






They poured on the salt and squeezed on the food coloring.




Iridescence!




Messy hands!




Last time we did this project was when O(5) was 2 or 3 years old.  She was SO proud of her beautiful ice that we had to keep it in the freezer for months!  Luckily, they didn't ask to keep their beautiful ice this time (because we don't have any room in our freezer)!

As Dirty As They Wanna Be!

After the sun finally came out today, I asked the girls if they wanted to go to our wooded lot to play in the clay pile.  They said "YESSSSSSSSSSSSS!"  I told them to put on old clothes, so that they could get as dirty as possible.   Their eyes lit up!

They had SO much fun and got SO dirty!






They went swimming in the lake to wash off, and they were thrilled to swim in their clothes.  Fun times!

Baby Diaper Cake

We (my mom, sister, and friends) recently hosted a baby shower for my best friend (since we were 3 years old!).  We had fun even though the guest of honor was on bed rest.  Luckily, we had the shower at her house, so she was able to participate minimally.

I'm not typically a fan of diaper cakes since I'm an advocate of cloth diapering, but this one was fantastic (and I'm not just saying that because my beloved mama made it!).  She had a lot of fun making it, and she even involved the girls in making the accessories.   They were all SO proud!





A giraffe topper




Sweet rattles to decorate the bottom




Spoons to decorate the top




Baby washcloths rolled to look like tootsie rolls




Baby washcloths rolled to look like lollipops




Don't you love it?  Good job, Mom!   Here is the link for the youtube video that my mom watched for directions and inspiration.