Toilet Paper Dough

The girls and I had lots of fun making dough from toilet paper and water a couple of weeks ago.  We unrolled a roll of toilet paper into a container (this felt very wasteful to me, so we probably won't do this again very soon), and added in the water... a little bit at at time.


Then we just played...I made a cave for our Ice Age people, and O made a bowl.  E helped me with the cave and then she started knocking it down...I think she was pretending to be a wooly mammoth.






We had a lot of fun, but we'll probably never get all of the dried bits of toilet paper off of our deck...luckily, I'm ok with that :)


 

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Learning to Sew

O(6) and E(2) spent a LONG time exploring O's sewing box a couple of weeks ago.  E told me that "O is learning me how to sew!"  She was so excited.  I love their close sister bond...they love each other so much.

"It's a Hard Knock Life"

Ever since O(6) dance to the song "It's a Hard Knock Life" for her dance recital, the girls have LOVED playing Annie and singing while they cleaned.  I gave them a quick lesson on scrubbing cabinet doors, and they got to work...singing the whole time.  Love it!

Finding Ancient Fossils

O(6)'s uncle gave her the ancient fossils toob for her birthday, and I set up an activity with them (of course!).  They weren't overly interested in these figures at first, so I was surprised (and delighted) by how excited they were by this activity!

I put the ancient fossil figures into a basket and covered them with lentils.  I put the strip listing the figures beside the basket.  Both girls were immediately by my side and ready to find the fossils as soon as I finished setting it up.



They loved reaching in the lentils to find the fossils.  O says that she loves the way the lentils feel in her hands.  As they found each fossil, we matched it to the list and read about each fossil.




When looking back on this activity, I realized that I should have put the identification strip on the right of the basket, so that the children would be crossing their midline from left to right as they found and matched the fossils....I'll change this next time I set up this activity (I had to put it away because I don't have enough shelf space to leave it set up right now).

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Spark! Story Starter Cards

The girls' pediatrician gave us this fun story starter card set when we went for an appointment many months ago, and we really love it!


O(6) LOVES for us to tell us stories, and she is ALWAYS asking for stories.  We try to get her to tell stories, but she never will.  However, she WILL tell stories when I bring out the Spark cards!  (This makes me really happy!)


I like to bring out the Spark cards during breakfast.  It helps our day get off to a good start!


E(2) likes to play Spark, too, but I can't get her to give me any original stories!  She just repeats whatever O says :)

I think these cards will be a great addition to our Language Arts shelf (if we ever get the schoolroom of my dreams)...I plan to put a few cards along with markers, paper, and an ipod so that O can record and draw her stories.  Then, when she is interested in writing, I'll put out a few cards with blank books, so that she can write her stories.  Fun times ahead!

Here's a link to all of the Spark cards options...there's even an app!

Making Clay Tablets

After reading about the Sumerians writing on clay tablets and the Ancient Egyptians making clay bowls, we decided to make our own.  We had fun getting very messy!  I made several tablets, and O(6) made her handprint on one.  O tried to make a couple of bowls, but they fell apart.







E(2) loved writing on the tablets with twigs.



We traced her hand.


O asked if she could put clay on her face, and she seemed surprised when I said yes.  Then she seemed REALLY surprised when she asked if she could put clay in her hair and I said yes!


E quickly copied her and covered her hair with clay, too.  It was a fun and messy afternoon!

After they washed off in the lake, got sprayed off with the waterhose, and had a shower, we had a snack and watched a show about ancient Egypt via Discovery Streaming.  Since we'd read about the Ancient Egyptians eating figs, I went out to our fig tree and picked a few figs (the girls were too hot and tired to join me...it was close to 100 degrees).  They don't really like figs, so I put cheese on them, and O loved them.  E ate the cheese, but not the figs.

Boone and Little Bear

The girls and I finished reading The Indian and the Cupboard last Monday, and we have had fun pretending that these toob figures are the characters of Boone and Little Bear.  We LOVED this book, and we are looking forward to reading the rest of the books in the series!

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Our "Old Time" Girls

Our girls love to play "old times!"  Last week, we took a break from playing ancient Egyptians to play "old times" for a while.

Recent Reads...

The girls and I read A LOT!  Since I often get emails asking for book recommendations, I thought it would be a good idea to post a list of our recent reads every so often.  Most of our books come from the library, but I will occasionally buy a book, borrow one, or find one among our vast collection.

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Cave Paintings

The girls and I studied cave people and cave paintings a few weeks ago, and we had a lot of fun!  We turned our treehouse into a cave!



We lined our treehouse with brown paper and decorated it with paintings using our spray painters, markers, and stencils.  We looked at pics of caves on the internet and since we saw handprints on cave walls, we made sure to make handprints, too!












After we finished our cave paintings, O and E built a pretend fire from twigs I gathered (I was the cave child, and they were the cave mamas).




O made a delicious twig and leaf stew.



Fun times in Lakeside Homeschool!