Our (not so) "Wet 'n Wild Wednesday"

When I explained our weekly plan to Myla at the beginning of the week, my little water lover was super excited about Wednesdays! She prefers to practically live in her bathing suit in the summer in hopes we will be doing something wet outside. Well, I was sorry to disappoint but we did not have a very wet, and definitely not a wild, Wednesday.

We did, however, do an ICE EXPERIMENT! That is technically "wet", right? Since M is a natural lover of science (yahoo!) I thought this could be fun (and super easy!)

The EASIEST ICE EXPERIMENT EVER

Materials

Bowl
Ice cubes
Whiteboard or paper
"Little Scientists"

This pic was taken literally 5 minutes before we walked out the door for gymnastics but we did gather a little background knowledge and predictions first!

And I know this is major "teacher-y" but I just can't really turn it off in the summer. Stop judging. ;) I know I'm a big nerd. I own it.

Asked the kids what they knew about Ice and what would happen if we left the ice in the bowl while we were gone at gymnastics.

M shared her knowledge: "Ice melts. Ice can be frozen. Ice is ice."

Yes, yes indeed.

N's response? He yells..."It's COLD!", as he runs off. Can't expect a whole lot from him right now. ;)

When I asked what she thought would happen to the ice while we were gone, her response...

"We should put the ice in water so it doesn't melt. But it will melt and water will be there."

Posing with our predictions

After gymnastics, an hour later...

"Mom, look...there's still a little ice in there!! And water! Can I drink it?!"

 Noticing that it is mostly melted and some ice was still there, just smaller. 

When I asked her why, she said "Because it wasn't in the fridge!" When I dug a little deeper, she didn't know the exact reasoning so I explained temperature very briefly. 

Went a little something like this...

Me: "So, the reason the ice melted was because the temperature in the kitchen is warmer than the temperature in the refrigerator. How do you think it feels inside the fridge?"

Myla-"Super cold!"

Me- "What about the freezer where the ice is made?"

Myla- "Super SUPER cold!

Me- Right, the temperature is super cold in the freezer. So what would happen if we put ice OUTSIDE?

Myla- "It would MELT!"

Me: "Why?"

Myla: "Because it is hot outside, silly!"


So... I think she's got it. :)

I wrote our new question on the whiteboard for her to predict..."What if we put the ice outside?"

Just then, Noah was calling me from the bathroom so I left to help him, but told Myla to be thinking about it. 

When I came back, she had drawn a picture on her board. (Proud mommy moment!)

She explained to me that she had drawn the ice cubes and the sun. And that "smile-like" line below the cubes is showing that it is melting. :)

I helped her spell the word "MELT"

So then I thought that we could add another factor since she already knows ice melts outside. We prepared 2 bowls of ice...one for a shady spot and one for a sunny spot. Which one would melt first??

Her prediction? They are both gonna melt. :)

Can't tell but this is in the shade.

See the shadow? This one is in the sun.

After 10 minutes, there was just a little melting in the shady bowl.

And this would be the time my camera battery went out so I had to switch to my phone and I forgot to get a pic of the sunny bowl at 10 mins. Oh well.

I did get a video of the kids predicting what we would find in the bowls before we checked after 35 mins or so! Myla predicts we will see water in the bowls and Noah? He predicts we will see garbage trucks. Boys!

All liquid!! Myla thought the one in the sunshine had warmer water than the one in the shade. :)

Noah was happy to dump the water out to water the plant.

Wet 'n Wild Wednesday Part 2!

Water Painting 

Materials:
water in bowls
paintbrushes
food coloring!
"Little Artists"

Ok, so let's be honest, because the water "paint" would dry up the second it hit the driveway, this lasted a whole 2 minutes! 

Noah is saying here "Not working!!"

Myla asked,  "How is this even "painting" if there is no color?!"

 She is exactly right...

ENTER Food coloring!

This seemed to entertain them a little longer!

It was cute to see their reactions when the food coloring mixed with the water. It was like magic.

Downside? The color didn't show up all that well. We wrote her name here but can't really tell. 

But that didn't seem to bother them...they had fun mixing the colors. 

Blue + Red = PURPLE!

Very content pouring the water back and forth.

(Just ignore all the bandaids...poor guy got attacked by mosquitos over the last few days. Yes, I do put bug spray on my kids...they are just super sensitive. :(  )

Mixing all the colors? Makes an interesting greenish brown. 

So, there you have it...our (not so) Wet 'n Wild Wednesday! 

We did get in the house within 30 minutes before it started raining! Myla looked out the window at the rain, then looked back at me and said, "See, mom? It really is "wet 'n wild Wednesday!!"

Yes, sweetie, I guess it is. 

Thoughtful Tuesday!

I think Thoughtful Tuesday may end up being my favorite day of the week. Today, I was in a workshop until 3:30 so I didn't have as much time with the kiddos; BUT we did get a thoughtful task completed. Yea!

Last Friday, my mom moved into her new house. She is a single widow living alone but recently moved to a bigger house with a pool! She definitely had her children and grandchildren in mind when she bought this house! We will definitely be spending a lot of time over there this summer. :)

Anyway, today we went over to swim after N got up from his nap. My mom actually had dinner plans and left while we were still swimming. For our Thoughtful Tuesday task(s), we thought we would help her with a few things as she still had things to unpack.

We started with picking up all the pool toys. I mean, really, we would do that anyway since we got it all out. :)

Then we decided to take the tape from the move off of one of her deck boxes for her. 

Yea! We found more pool toys!!

Myla, CAREFULLY, got the rest of the toys out of the pool. 

Myla spotted a box labeled bathroom/kitchen stuff so we decided to see what we could unpack for her. 

Definitely need some tissues in the bathroom.

We unpacked and put away the bathroom stuff! The rest goes to the kitchen.

Last task for Myla was cleaning up the floor in the living room. Little brother spilled some of his dinner. 

We couldn't leave Noah out, he got to help Daddy install a towel rack (well, kinda). 

Way to go, buddy!

Overall, it was a good first Thoughtful Tuesday. These are things that I want to come natural for my kids...helping others and putting someone else's needs before our own. Challenging for little ones to grasp at times but I feel if we make it a habit and a commitment to do something thoughtful for someone else once a week, then it may end up being something they seek out DAILY! That's my hope, anyway! Looking forward to next week!

Tomorrow is Wet 'n Wild Wednesday....hmmm, wheels are already turning. Stay tuned!

And so it begins...Motor Skills Monday!

Now, before I say it really begins, I must say that I cannot promise that I will post every day on our summer fun schedule, but I will certainly try!

Today kicked off our first Motor Skills Monday. I was in a training all day today and will be again through Wednesday, so it will be short and sweet activities to start us off. Baby steps are good, right?

I wanted to start with a Fine Motor activity, one that I will call....hmmm...The Pom-Pom Pinch & Sort. Yes, I like that.

The Pom-Pom Pinch & Sort

I had already made this activity about a month ago and Myla really loved it so I thought we would revisit.

Materials: 

Multi-colored craft pom-poms of various sizes

Egg carton

Clothespins

Sharpie

I took the egg carton and cut off the lid. Then I took a sharpie and wrote letters to stand for the different colors of the pom-poms. Like how I differentiated the 2 Ps?? :) Then on the other side I wrote the numbers 1-6. I figured we would be doing some sorting by color and practice counting. 

As soon as I had set the materials out, my first kiddo hopped on up to the chair and started exploring. Such an important starting point, in my opinion, is to just give them some free exploration time. 

So he just started picking up the pom-poms on his own and started dropping them in the egg carton. 

Then I showed him the "alligator"...aka the clothespin. Sometimes you need to add a little familiar vocabulary to engage the littles. He loves alligators and thought he would think it would be fun to have the alligator eat the________ well, pom-poms. I wasn't clever enough to come up with what the alligator was eating but he didn't seem to mind. 

It took a little while for him to figure out how to use the clothespin, but I really wanted to give him time to problem-solve before I stepped in to show him. I think after a couple minutes, he had figured it out. :)

And this would be the part where he pinched his hand. Ouch. He didn't last very long after that...

He did, however, want to climb up in my lap and "play summore".  So we used our fingers this time and counted the little pom-poms and put them in the numbered sections. 

Next up, was Myla's turn....

She is my high-energy, always-on-the-go child so I wanted to start our time off with something fast-paced. I had her sort the large pom-poms by color as fast as she could.

On your mark,

Get set.....

GO!! 

Didn't take her long at all!

Then I asked her a few questions like "Which color has the most? the least? Which color has 4? 2? etc. 

I noticed that she miscounts often as she counts too fast and counts the same multiple times when she has a bigger group. I taught her to take one at a time away from the group to count more carefully. She did well when she tried that.

Next, I told her to sort them by color into the egg carton. We went over the letters and matched them to their colors first. :)

She's a pro.

Then it was time to use the clothespin! She didn't find the "alligator" term as amusing as Noah did. She liked calling it her "pinchers". That works too, I guess...

I was surprised at how much better she did this time compared to a month ago when I first introduced it. She had such a better grasp and control. It was a breeze for her. 

Here she is sorting by color. 

 Then it was time to work with the "babies"...AKA the mini pom-poms. We did the same and sorted by color as fast as she could. Again, I asked questions about how many were in each group etc. I had her count the groups and we put them in order from least to greatest. Didn't get a pic of that tho.

 Lastly, she sorted by color and numbers using her "pinchers".

When I said that was all we were doing for tonight, her reply..."No!! I'm not done yet!" Love it. The last thing I want to do is overwhelm her so I try to keep our activities 15-20 mins tops. When she self-initiates more, that is fine with me. :)

Until next time...It's Thoughtful Tuesday tomorrow and I'm not quite sure what we are doing yet. Stay tuned to find out!!

Making this Summer Count

We are already a week into summer, it's hard to believe. I keep thinking it's just a long weekend and we all go back to school tomorrow. Definitely not complaining and so glad to have the next 2 months off to spend with family. (Whoever said teachers get a whole 3 months off in summer anyway?! Not even close)

Anyway, this summer began on a sad note with the passing of my sister's best friend's husband who had been battling brain cancer for the last 7 years. I attended his funeral on Friday and left the beautiful service knowing not only what an incredible man he really was, but also inspired to make each moment count. I know we have all heard it and even said it ourselves, but it's true...life is short. And it's too precious to not savor every ounce of it.

This picture was taken of Phillip and his sweet son, Kasen, shortly before he was called home.

Phillip was an amazing father, husband, son, brother, friend and follower of Christ. He was always thinking of others and so compassionate to those who knew him.

I share this with you, to whoever is actually reading this, because I feel that his story has sparked a desire for me to be more present in my own life. I know I may sometimes take things for granted. I know I may complain about the kids being up past their bedtime (because I don't get a whole lot done when they are awake!) I know I get annoyed at my kids when they "bother" me while I'm working on my computer or checking email. I know I get frustrated with my husband for silly things and don't take the time to tell him more that I really do appreciate him. I know I give the grandparents a hard time for "spoiling" our kids too much during the school year when I just need to breathe and realize it is all out of love. I mean, they watch our kids for FREE 10 months out of the year!! Gosh, I am so blessed. And I just need to embrace that more. Soooo...in light of everything, I want to make this summer count. I want it to be memorable. I want to make memories each day and cherish each moment when I'm with my kids. Yes, even when they whine and argue and test their boundaries...CONSTANTLY.

 ((DEEP BREATH))

So, I had seen a cool daily summer schedule on Pinterest and decided to copy, I mean make my own version. I definitely stole the idea but changed a few things.

I wanted to have a focus for each day because I know it would be so easy for me to get in a rut this summer and allow the kids to just stay inside where it's cool and play on the iPad and watch movies all day. Well, wait a minute..who am I kidding? My kids love to be outside despite the 100 degree heat...it's me that prefers the A/C. Anyway, I really wanted to have activities that would provide well-rounded experiences for the week.

Last summer, my main focus with Myla was for her to learn her letters! We had so much fun doing letter of the day activities and crafts..you can check out that journey HERE.

Just a few pics from last summer...

Now that she's got her letters down, I wanted to provide some fun learning activities that would encourage reading & writing and really, just a love of learning. She starts kinder in August!! I feel that she really has a self-driven desire to learn as she is so inquisitive and soaks up everything she learns like a sponge! And Noah, being just 3, is the same way. I know most kids are that way but it's just fun seeing your own littles get excited when they learn something new. :) I also plan to do activities that will be beneficial and enjoyable for Noah too!

So to further explain the schedule...

MONDAY- Motor Skills Monday... I want to do different fine motor and gross motor activities to help strengthen those areas. Myla has a little difficulty cutting still but really wants to do arts and crafts stuff on her own. I have seen an improvement this last year in PreK but know she will benefit from extra practice. :) Also think it is equally important that we do some bigger gross motor activities as well!! Did anyone else read that article on the importance of kids moving and strengthening their core?! Well, I did...you can read it HERE. from the TimberNook blog.

And besides...have you seen my sweet daughter dance?!

She tries so hard and is so determined! I love it. So, I do plan to have some active, fun-filled activities in our future this summer!

TUESDAY- Thoughtful Tuesday...If there is any way I can instill in my kids to have a gracious, servant's heart, I will do it. I believe it starts with me and Jeff as parents. We can model for our kids on how to put others first at times and to care for those who are less fortunate or different. And we need to do more of that. So Thoughtful Tuesday will be a day that we do an act of kindness. Whether we bake cookies for our local firefighters, help Nana or Granny with something, donate clothes to a family in need, bring a meal to a friend, pick up trash at the park....the possibilities are endless. Pay it forward.

WEDNESDAY- Wet 'n Wild Wednesday will just be exactly that. A day we do something outside that involves WATER! I definitely envision water balloons, sprinklers, pruney fingers and SUNSCREEN for our summer Wednesdays. :)

THURSDAY- Thinking Thursday...I'm thinking Thursday will be one of my favorite days. Probably because I'm a big nerd, I know, but I plan to do some learning activities with the kids that focus on reading and writing. Myla is really into the San Diego zoo website. She has enjoyed looking at the different animals and often has questions about them. So, I wanted Thursdays to also be a research day where she (and/or Noah) picks a topic to learn more about. It could be as simple as researching online and making a little craft or report to show what we learn or we can visit a museum/place to learn more. Fun, fun! It's the teacher in me, can't help it.

FRIDAY- Fun & Friendly Friday will be a day that I will actively schedule playdates for my overly social kids! (I am so bad at this during the school year. Really, I'm just selfish and want the kids all to myself on the weekends and don't want to share them! But summer time? Totally ok!) I know most kids like to be around friends but my sweet girl is desperate for time with her peers! It literally lights up her whole day if she can interact with any kids even close to her age. It doesn't matter where we are...she is making friends. She made some good friends in her little class this year and it would be great to stay in touch! Plus, what a great opportunity to work on our manners and social skills.

So, that's it...just a way to keep me focused on embracing each day with a specific purpose that will benefit my kids and our family. I'm no super mom and don't claim to be. So, please no judging...90% of the things we do will be straight from Pinterest. And I am sure there will be a few Pinterest fails along the way but we will make the best of it.  I just want to make this summer count. How about you??