Growing Children with "Green" Thumbs

After two years of failed attempts at growing greens, we have successfully reaped our first harvest of lettuce and spinach!  So exciting to see all that watering and weeding paying off!  My kids helped through out the whole process, from planting the seeds, weeding the garden, watering and picking the full grown leaves.  I took the greens inside to wash and store, and I could have done it much faster by myself, but God showed me this could be a great teaching opportunity.  So, although it took longer, and was way messier than it would have been by myself, my son and daughter learned how to work together, patience, following directions, washing, drying and storing home grown salad greens.  They LOVED helping, and it brought such joy to my heart seeing their little faces laugh and play and learn together.  I hope to look back and remember this experience, and see that just a few extra minutes and a little extra clean up time led to great memories and in the end my little helpers learned a new skill!!

Also....if you have children that aren't too keen on eating vegetables, try to grow some, they will be way more likely to try it, if they help with the whole process.  My two kids both ate lettuce and fresh spinach right off the plant, I couldn't believe it, so I had to take a picture!

We cleaned our fresh picked greens by placing in a bowl and filling with water. Stir leaves around, let the dirt settle at the bottom.  Scoop leaves out and place into a colander, drain and rinse the bowl, and repeat until there is no dirt in the bottom of the bowl.  It took us 3 times.

Drew and Emma enjoyed swishing the leaves around in the water.

We dried our leaves on napkins, and after soaking up the water we placed leaves in a gallon zip-lock bag.  I might have to look into getting a salad spinner :)  

Fun times!!

Quick Learning Game

I was sitting at lunch today and I thought of a quick little math exercise I could do with Drew.  We are learning to identify all the numbers 1-10.  He was eating, I had just finished, I found a scrap piece of paper.  I ripped the paper into 1 inch pieces.

 I wrote the numbers 1-10 on separate pieces.  I placed them in order and just asked him to point to each number as I called it out.  We pointed to the numbers as we counted from one to 10, then 10 back down to one. 

Emma saw we were "playing a game" and she wanted to be included.  I then made up a few pieces for her with pictures she could identify.  I took turns asking them to point out numbers or shapes.  They loved it.  So simple and it took a total of 1 minute to assemble, and 5 minutes to play, short and educational.  We finished by piling all the numbers up and he had to lay them out in order 1 to 10, he did great.  Simple, just wanted to share a quick idea :)

How to challenge a 4 year old....

My 4 year old son is a wonderful ball of energy, he brings so much to joy to my heart.  He is also the real life version of "Curious George"....VERY creative!  I frequently leave the room for 1 minute and come back to something very "interesting" going on....like piles of salt all over the living room floor or butter smeared on the white couch (ask me about that sometime.)  I was sharing these stories with a woman recently who suggested, "Maybe he is just bored.  Why don't you try challenging him a little?"  What a thought!!!!  So I went home that night and ordered some curriculum to work with him on.

Right now his favorite show is "Umi Zoomi", which I absolutely love because it is an interactive, educational program.  They have little math kits, so ordered this:

It came with an episode to watch, a book that tells the story of the movie, 2 work books with topics such as adding, counting, coloring, patterns, and shapes, also a stack of "mission cards" with activities you can do around the house to encourage math and learning, 2 pencils and an eraser.  

I also went to the Library the next day and checked out: 

My sister in law, Heidi, told me she read this to her daughter when she was 2.  I figured I would wait a bit for Drew- being a boy and having a shorter attention span, and so we are reading it at 4, he is doing great.  I hear that if you read to them above their reading level it increases their vocabulary.  Thought that was interesting.  Next we are doing "Mouse and the Motorcycle."

So we have been reading Charlotte's Web and doing his "work books", and I have noticed the "interesting incidents" going down.  Who would have thought challenging a child would help take away the desire for mischief?  So those are a few ideas of challenging a 4 year old, I would LOVE to hear your ideas!

Bee Unit Study for Toddlers

I try to teach Drew (my 3 1/2 year old) things here and there through every day learning experiences. Some weeks I do really good at this, other times we go a month or two without me really planning anything, and to my delight he still learns without me doing little "lessons".

He responds to learning very when I let him move and use his hands, it really helps him focus.  He is young yet, but I can not imagine him sitting still for a "lesson" any time soon.  He may just be a kinesthetic learner (learns through moving, doing, touching).  I have even read that these type of learners actually shut off or can not learn if they are made to sit still.  Not sure about that, but found it interesting.  I payed attention to Drew after I read that to see if he would fit in that category.  Oh my little moving friend, he is CONSTANTLY on the move or doing something, he even moves in his sleep!  Cracks me up.

Anyways, I decided to do a little work with him on recognizing letters, shapes, & counting.  Over the past 2 weeks we have been learning through studying bees.  It really has been fun, so I thought I would share some ideas with you in case you want to do something similar.

First I googled Bee activities / lessons.  I found a few sites suggest the book: The Honeybee & The Robber by Eric Carle.  I found this at a local library and took Drew and Emma there to read it (they didn't offer this to take home b/c it is interactive and can rip easily).  To my surprise he wanted to read it several times.  So that is how we introduced this bee learning extravaganza.

I searched for lots of craft ideas and asked Toddler Approved page on Facebook (to which she responded right away and she gave me a ton of ideas & links for different crafts, I was very impressed) and I also follow her blog, click here for her beehive letters.  She has GREAT craft & activity ideas.

Here is a list & pictures of the different things we did, such a fun 2 weeks!

Made honey sweetened smoothies

So we did footprint bees and attached them to finger painted flowers.

Made our own honey comb "hive" using a potato as a stamp.

Learned a new shape, the Hexagon!

Worked on adding and subtracting and counting, coloring & cutting with little bees.

Made honey sweetened cupcakes & honey butter cream frosting & decorated them with bees.  Thank you family fun magazine for the great idea!

Worked on letters & spelling with bee hive letters.

Acted out the story of The Honeybee & The Robber with teddy bear & homemade bees.  Too fun!

Spent time outside in our garden watching the bees pollinate (so glad they are out there helping our little garden grow) and took pictures.

Made our weekly bible verse relevant to what we are learning: "How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" Psalm 119:103

 We checked out a bunch of books on bees and learned a lot as we read.  Things like:

-In 2010 it was discovered in the previous 4 years about 1/3 of the honeybees in the US had disappeared without a trace.

-Bees aren't the only pollinators, bats, birds, beetles, butterflies & other insects, rain and wind can carry pollen from one plant to another.

-Honeybees are the most important bees in modern agriculture.  Large farms that grow only one crop need thousands of hives to pollinate & bee keepers transport their hives all over the country to achieve this.

-Not all bees live together in nests, some are by themselves.  Most are solitary.

- Bees wings can beat up to 11,400 times a minute

- The worker honeybees are female and they have "pollen baskets" on their legs to carry it back to the hive.

-The female honeybees are the only ones who have the stingers and can produce wax.

-As many as 60,000 bees can live in one hive.

-Killer bees are not more poisonus than any other honeybees, they just gather in a large group to attack when they smell the danger pheromone.

-Killer bees were born when a scientist brought back queen bees from Africa and crossed them with South American drones.  (Oh why did they do this?!)

-After a honeybee stings it dies.

-Honeybees have a "honey stomach" that stores nectar and turns it into honey.

-Queen bees lay up to 1500 eggs a day.

-In its lifetime a bee makes less than a small spoonful of honey!

-To make a small jar of honey, bees must visit 2 million flowers.

-There are more than 25000 kinds of bees in the world.

Facts from books: "Bees" - Deborah Hodge, "Bee" - Karen Hartley & Chris Macro, "BEES" - Larry Dane Brimner, "The BUZZ on BEES" Why are they disappearing? - Shelley Rotner & Anne Woodhull

The book pictured on top had a lot of craft ideas inside.

So anyways that was our learning for the last 2 weeks, it was fun, different and a real enjoyable time.  We were reading a book just today and he saw a hive where there were lots of little bees & one big one and he said LOOK mama, that is the Queen bee!  I was like "He was listening!!!"  We hope to wrap up our bee study with watching either Winnie the Pooh, or The Bee Movie :)

Story Time and Picnics

With this gorgeous summer weather I am trying very hard to get out as much as possible.  Where we live winter lasts a LONG time, and this year my smallest child was just too little to be out in the cold.  It was a long winter filled with lots of movies and sitting around.  I hope to be more creative this year and look forward to the kids being older and able to spend more time out of doors.  Both of my kids love to be outside and also love to read, so why not combine the two?  We usually read before going down for nap time, "quiet time" or bed time.  Recently we have been throwing a blanket out under a shady tree and reading together.  It is LOVELY!  I definitely recommend doing this with your kiddos.  It is so simple, but they just love it, and it is a nice excuse to get more fresh air.

I just read my sister in law's post on picnics ( http://dearlylovedmist.blogspot.com/2011/06/picnics.html) and we have now added food to the mix. Picnics or snacks outside don't have to be elaborate, the whole idea is less to clean up and more time to have fun.  I made some gluten free toast, had Emma's tin tea pot filled with ice cold water, and juicy watermelon slices yesterday and we enjoyed the sights and smells of summer.  My husband got home early and we were excited to welcome him to our picnic story time.  It was really fun and just something different to do.  I would love to hear your ideas on creative things to do outside, I am always looking for something new to try.

All About Birds

While looking out the window this morning I noticed birds fluttering around the front yard.  It is a sure sign of spring to hear the birds chirping early in the morning, finally returned from their hiding spots or migratory flights from warmer weather.  (Did you know that not all birds migrate?!  Click here for more info on what Michigan birds do for the winter.)

 The sun peaked through here and there today and lead to me believe that it was warmer outside than it actually was.  I got Drew all pumped up for a walk, and he said "Come on mom, lets open the door and see if it is warm!"  As we opened the front door a brisk breeze poured in our house and we quickly closed it, and I found a nice heat register to sit on...haha!  I woke up a little under the weather today and actually didn't mind that it was too chilly to spend time outdoors. ( I was thinking "shouldn't have sat on the couch with a jar of nutella & a spoon yesterday.  If only sugar didn't compromise the immune system!!")

Since we didn't have anything planned to do today, I decided to make it a theme day!  Inspired by the birds who seemed to come out when the sun did this morning and a cute craft I tore out of a magazine last week I began putting together craft & teaching supplies.  Once Emma was down for her first nap it was "Go Time".

This is a great time of year to learn about birds & do bird themed projects.  With Easter just around the corner, you will have lots of eggs around the house, now is the perfect time to tell where they come from.

First I had Drew cover 3 pinecones with peanut butter (organic- yay for the birds, just kidding, that is all we had on hand!)  Next he sprinkled sunflower seeds, some still in the shell, some not over them all.

I tied a string around one, and the other just left on the plate.  We headed out side to find the perfect tree to hang one "bird feeder" in.

  We chose a tree just outside of his window so he could sit on his bed and watch the birds snack.  (And hopefully not bang on the window & scare them away haha!)

 The other two we put on our table outside our master bedroom doorwall.  The kids like to play by that and look outside, so another good vantage point for our little ones.

After setting up our feeders I had Drew pick up a bunch of twigs so we could make bird nests.  We then headed back inside to do another project and get warm :)  (So I did end up outside anyway.)

For the bird nest project you need glue, twigs and a brown paper lunch bag.

Squish down the bag: 

Pour glue all over the smashed bag, break up the twigs and have your child place them all over.  Allow to dry.  Now when you make those cute eggs for Easter you will have a place to put them :)

Emma woke up shortly after we finished this craft, so she got to sit in on story time.  I found a bible story that coordinated with our theme.  It was of Elijah being fed by the Ravens.  Taken from: 1 Kings 17: 1-6.  I found this great site that gave ideas how to share this with your kids.  They used a Raven puppet, so I don't have one of those, but I did find a stuffed penguin, LOL, they're both black right?  Anyways he was way more interested in the story with "Pingu" telling it.  Here is the link for that site: Elijah & the Ravens

I also printed off a coloring sheet/project from that site for him to do.  Of course he ate 1/2 the food that Elijah was supposed to get, but the picture still turned out cute.  I love the "moral" of the story and the verse they put with it:  God may ask you to do some hard things, but he will always take care you & your needs.  "But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus" Philippians 4:19  I do love all the cool stories from the bible, but I think it is important to point out to our kids what we can learn from it, and the truths of God found throughout, otherwise they are JUST stories.

A few other things we did: We watched "Are you my mother?" & Wonder Pets Save the Pigeon on You Tube.  Also, I got down a globe and talked about birds flying to warmer weather when it gets cold.  So we had a pretty fun, educational day! I hope this gets some ideas going for ya!

If you are thinking of doing a Bird themed day, here is a great site, filled with ideas & crafts.  I just used what I had on hand, but if you have time to plan there are some really cute things you can do with your kiddos!  http://daniellesplace.com/html/birdcrafts.html

Simple Boredom Buster

We were looking for something fun to do this morning and I came up with this simple game.  It kept Drew and I entertained for a good half hour- 45 minutes.

What you need:
Apple container from Costco (cupcake tin would work too)
A mound of change (pennies, nickels, quarters)
Paper (if you want to keep track or chart your findings like we did)

Put the container or tin against the wall, sit back a few feet and do a coin toss.  See how long it takes you to fill up each hole.  It took Drew and I working together 97 pieces of change to fill up 22 holes.  42 pieces were scattered on the floor, 55 were in the different holes.  It is actually a little harder than it looks!

Make sure you have them count out the change with you.  Talk about how much each is worth, add & subtract with them.  See what works better, throwing them one at a time?  Throwing a handful?  If you have multiple kids playing assign each a different coin (example Joe has pennies, Jane has nickels, Tom has quarters) then you can see who has the best aim!

Anyways it was fun, easy and we learned some stuff too.

Volcano Day

My son recently became very intrigued with volcanoes.  I decided to make a fun learning day based on his interest and it turned out really fun.  I like "playing school!"  Anyways, I thought I would post some pictures, ideas & websites we used to create our exciting educational day.

He first got interested in volcanoes after reading a book about God creating the world.  I picked up "In the beginning" book from the dollar store after a friend spoke at our mom's group. She gave the idea of having individual bible story books with pictures for a little one's devotional time.  I immediately followed her advice because Drew was starting to say "No bible story" every evening when we would read his chapter bible book- I want him to enjoy it & pay attention.  Now he loves picking out a picture bible story book each night, great advice, thanks Holly!!

I found a great blog for crafts with toddlers, they had a lot of info on volcano projects so I got some ideas from there, including making our "erupting" volcano out of play dough- genius!  I encourage you to check it out by clicking on the underlined "volcano projects" above.

First we made 2 pictures from scrap book paper, brown paper bag, colored tissue paper, glue & scissors.  We made a regular volcano & an underwater volcano.  It was fun excuse to work with him on cutting & gluing.  I just  let him go at it, and he had a blast.

Next I put on Go Diego Go, Season 2 Episode 14 " Giant Octopus to the Rescue" (thank you netflix).  It talks about volcanoes above & below water, and they even have an underwater volcano song.  While he was watching the show I got the ingredients together to make homemade play dough (that we used to create our erupting volcano).  I pre-measured the ingredients into different bowls, so he could help me make it quickly.  I chose a no cook recipe from this great site:     http://www.playdoughrecipe.com/  It has all kinds of recipes for play dough including flavors & edible versions.

After making the play dough we headed over to our cousins house to share our experiment with them.  It was so fun watching the boys excitement as their volcanoes erupted.  It was really simple, cheap fun and after the volcanoes bubbled over (several times) we let the boys play with action figures in the "lava".  We put 3 Tablespoons of baking soda in the plastic cup inside the volcano.  Next we mixed 1/2 cup white vinegar with 3 drops of dish soap & poured into the volcano.  It immediately bubbled over.  Try pouring the vinegar solution in a few times to keep it erupting.  Plan to throw the play dough away, it gets pretty gooey.

We ended our day by heading to Rain Forrest Cafe.    They have a Volcano Dessert, it comes out with a sparkler inside, way cool!  So so good, of course I only had the ice cream, but the boys tell me the cake was delicious.  It was a fun treat, and the look on Drew's face was priceless!  Hope this inspires some fun educational days for you and your family :)