Excavating Dinosaur Bones

Since we are studying archaeology in our history program, I thought it might be fun to let the girls do their own excavation.  When I saw these dinosaur bones, I knew they would be perfect for my plan!



We walked over to our clay pile and filled a bucket with clay.



The girls had a wonderful time burying their dinosaur skeletons in bowls of clay mixed with water.








They were covered in orange clay by the time they finished!








We put the containers of clay in the sun to dry for a couple of days. We saved the excavation activity for a day that Elliott was home early from work, so that he could participate in this fun activity.



He gathered together a couple of hammers, flat head screwdrivers to use as chisels, and brushes to brush away the clay and dust.











They squealed in excitement when they finally saw their dinosaur bones!








After they finally freed their dinosaur bones, they had lots of fun making clay soup!




They requested that I read to them while they played, so we read LOTS of books about fossils and archaeology while they played.  Fun times at Lakeside Homeschool!

Edible Artwork...Painting Their Breakfast

When I saw this fun painting activity on Pinterest, I knew I was going to have to break my "no artificial colors" rule for the girls.  (and I'm SO glad I did...we all had fun with this one!)

I filled 4 small glasses with milk and food coloring, gave the girls a few paintbrushes, and whole wheat bread, and they got to work!




I was afraid that the colors wouldn't show up that well on the whole wheat bread, but I think they look great.




O(5) painted a rainbow and a landscape (her words), and E(2)'s bread was a little more abstract.  She used so much milk that she had a hole in her bread, so she said it was a puppet...love her!




Since we don't waste expensive, organic milk, the girls had a color mixing lesson and poured the colored milk into their breakfast milk to drink.  E(2) poured the green and yellow milk into her milk to get a slightly lighter shade of green...surprisingly, she drank it all!  O(5) poured the red and blue colored milk into her glass, so she had purple milk...she eventually drank most of it.




After they were satisfied with their artwork, I toasted the bread.  Yummy and beautiful!

Appliques for Baby

I love to make special appliqued clothes for the sweet babies that we love.  So, for our most recent addition (the sweet baby boy that my bff recently gave birth to), my mom and I made several appliques.

His mom had a special quilt made for him, so I ordered fabric that matched the quilt for the appliques.  My girls chose the pieces for the applique, and I cut the fabric, applied the steam a seam, and ironed the fabric pieces onto the clothing.  My mom sewed around the edges (which started out quick and easy and ended up being a huge hassle when the sewing machine went wacky on her).   We appliqued 4 different outfits (onesies, gown, and a romper) and hung them up from a clothes line to decorate for the baby shower.

Soap Clouds

The girls and I had SO much fun making soap clouds last week!  We put a bar of Ivory soap in the microwave, turned it on, and watched.



I don't know how long we microwaved the soap because we kept stopping the microwave to check it.  The cloud deflated a bit every time we opened the microwave door, so then we'd turn it on for a little longer.  At one point, we pulled the cloud off the soap and there was a little bar of soap left.  O(5) and I made the mistake of touching it, so we had HOT sticky soap on our fingers and it hurt!  We put the bar back in the microwave and made a 2nd cloud.   We let it cool before touching it this time!





We took the soap clouds down to the slip n slide to make it slippery...it didn't help much.  We just aren't that good at slipping and sliding :)




The girls had fun using the soap clouds to scrub the pedal boat.



This was so simple and so much fun.  Next time they are planning to use their soap clouds to clean their play house!

The idea for making soap clouds came from this blog via Pinterest.

Tales 2 Go on Homeschool Buyer's Coop!!!

Tales 2 Go is our favorite ipad app, and it's for sale on Homeschool Buyer's Coop!!!!  It's a little pricey, but I was able to buy a couple of years subscription before the price went up last year.  My girls listen to audio books every day via Tales 2 Go.  They especially love listening to the American Girls books.  Check out this deal at Homeschool Buyer's Coop.
It's free to join and if you put "cheerios" as your referral code, I'll earn a nominal fee when you make your first purchase.  Thanks!

"I" Week

During "I" week, E(2) had fun tracing a sandpaper "i."  She matched a tiny igloo to the sandpaper letter.




We had fun reading the "I" story about "itchy insects" in our Amazing Action Alphabet book.   E had fun scratching her knees while saying "i, i, i."





We read an "i" book (that I bought from the thrift store for 25 cents).





E enjoyed a few iguana printables from 1+1+1=1.  She liked coloring the iguanas with her dot painters.







She also had fun painting the "I" with her dot painters.





She found an insect and kept putting him on top of the dot painter tops that she had stacked.  When she put him on the top, she said "King of the world!"





She liked cutting out the iguanas and gluing them to her "I."










She fed insects to the frog.





We looked at the "I" from our Alphabet Stomp Game and talked about the pictures.

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