Toddler "School"

E(2) and I have fun having "school" together during the afternoons while O(5) listens to audio books on the ipad (tales 2 go...this is O's favorite part of the day!  That girl LOVES to listen to audio books!).   E likes to pretend that she is the "mama."

She was teaching me how to sew.  I love for her to be the mama or teacher...so cute!






She really loved matching these art cards (from A Bit of This and That)!  E(2) especially loves the Degas cards, and we spent some time looking at the painting and talking about it.












She had fun playing with our water beads.  It's fun to squeeze them in our hands.  (Don't leave your child unsupervised with waterbeads...they look like candy!)






We had lots of fun playing with blocks, and then we really enjoyed making the block patterns while looking at the pattern cards.







One of E's favorite activities is playing with unit blocks...so much fun, and she's learning so much through this free and independent play.  This is one her recent "houses."  She was SO proud of herself!






Sorting silverware is always fun!





Matching animals in her animal flip book.




E spends the vast majority of her time engaging in pretend play, listening to me read aloud, dancing, and playing outside.  However, she does enjoy having "school"  a few times a week (for maybe 20 to 30 minutes at a time...it just depends on the day).  She spends maybe 5 to 10 minutes per week on printables (worksheets)...she likes them, but I am careful to not overdo this type of activity at her age.

I hope you enjoyed this peek into what sweet E has been up to in our "Lakeside Homeschool!"

Here is the link to E's blocks (per email request from a reader).

These are not the exact blocks that we have, but they are similar.  

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Bubble Room

Since we have such a small house, we decided to add on a bubble room (just kidding, of course!).  The idea for a bubble room came from here.





A friend gave us a HUGE sheet of plastic, and I folded it in half and used duct tape to seal 2 sides.  I left the 3rd side open for the fan.  The fan blew the bubble up nicely, but I would have liked to have 2 fans.  It was fun to play in the bubble, but it was pretty hot, so we didn't stay in there too long.



I have to admit that I was a little unsettled by the idea of essentially creating a plastic bag for my children to play in since I've seen warnings on to keep kids from playing with plastic bags my whole life.  However, they were never unsupervised and were never in any danger of suffocation (I promise, Daddy!...my dad was very concerned about this!)

Birthday Balloon Countdown!!!!!!!

Sweet O(5) is SUPER excited about her balloon countdown to her birthday!
The idea for this birthday balloon countdown has been bouncing around in my mind since the girls and I made the balloon surprise gift for my niece's birthday in April.  (Although, I admit that even though I've had the idea for months, I didn't actually put it together until the day that she began the countdown!).



To make O's balloon countdown to her 6th birthday, I filled 10 balloons with either money, candy, or notes with activities.  I printed numbers and taped a number to each balloon.  I threaded the balloons together, starting with #10 and counting down to 1, using embroidery thread.  (The idea to make a threaded balloon garland came via Pinterest...I'm not sure if this is exact link that I saw, but it's similar.)






Each morning O wakes up very excitedly and is ready to pop her balloon!  The first day she received a pack of Smarties (candy)...1 for her and 1 to share and 5 dollars to go shopping for herself and her Grandmama (with whom she shares a birthday).  On the 2nd day, she received a note that we would play hot/cold for her to find a prize.  The hot/cold game led her to the refrigerator where she found a can of spray whipped cream (something we almost never buy), and I sprayed it directly into her mouth!  She was SOOOO excited as this was certainly a novelty for this health conscious mama :)  (one reason it's fun to almost always eat healthy is because it's makes these special occasions even more exciting!)




Other items in the balloons include...a treasure hunt for a gift (Magic School Bus Science Club subscription...yes, I give my children their homeschool curriculum for their birthdays!), a dinner date with her daddy, a trip the the YMCA waterpark near my hometown (but not so near to us), another treasure hunt for a gift (a mama made subscription to a monthly American Girl fun pack, which will also be a part of her homeschool curriculum and the core of our US History program), a couple of dollars to take on vacation, a trip to pick blueberries, and a visit to the Dairy Queen for a blizzard.

Cultural Exchange...Jordan!

The girls and I are excited about our cultural exchange package from Jordan!  We have had fun exploring all of the items in the package, reading the letter, and finding Jordan on our Smartglobe.  O(5) especially loves listening to the national anthems of the different countries that we study on the globe.










There were lots of postcards in the package!




and tons of pictures!





O(5) LOVES this Jordanian flag bracelet.





A couple of fun sticker books for the girls!





Jordanian coloring pages...the girls love to color flag pictures





We now have several fun recipes to try!





We love these postcards.





Candy from Jordan...the girls were SO excited about this!





A camel figurine





a rock from the Dead Sea...SO cool (especially when paired with a picture of the little girl throwing rocks into the Dead Sea!)





Jordanian coins





More coloring sheets with interesting information










We had lots of fun practicing saying words in Jordanian Arabic.





In addition to the items pictured, they also sent a small Jordanian flag and a tile with an olive tree.  The girls love both of these things and were playing with them (which is why I don't have a picture of them).  They also included a wonderful, detailed letter.  This was a fantastic cultural exchange package!

Thank you SO much to our new Jordanian friends!  Also, as an extra bonus, they sent a second package because the first one took so long to arrive (we thought it was lost).  It arrived the day before she was going to send the second package, so she decided to go ahead and send both.  I'll give the girls the 2nd package in another week or so.

I hope these pictures will help those of you who are participating in the cultural exchange know what to send!  This was the perfect package!

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