Despite being very pregnant, exhausted all the time, and so sore, we've still been managing to do quite a lot as far as 'lessons' go. Colwyn has made a lot of progress in his math workbook.. he's gotten through counting by 5's and 10's (which he already knew, really), subtraction, and telling time. The time unit was simplified because it came before counting by 5's, so he mainly knows how to tell the hour and if it's half past. Lachlann picked that up as well, and even though our only analog clock in the whole house has Roman numerals, they can still tell what hour it is.

Colwyn's doing great at reading, getting more confidence and all. His main problem now is that he'll guess too quick, rather than actually paying attention to the words. We have to remind him now and then to focus on the words. Lachlann is great at sounding words out, if he knows what sounds each letter makes. He's spotty on letter sounds, so I'm going to try and dig up our old LeapFrog videos.. but still, if I just tell him what each letter says, he can sound words out pretty well. Not reading, but doing quite well for a 4 year old.

In my last post, I hinted that early humans might be a big topic for us, and boy, have they. Colwyn is just so fascinated that we've been spending a lot of time on it. We've done most of the links given in the Usborne Encyclopedia of World History, we've watched various documentaries I've found on NatGeo and PBS, and we've picked up supplemental books from the library (like the DK book on Early Humans). We had been planning to do a science day about it but I was sick then, so our last science day before the new baby comes will involve some caveman role playing. I've got a couple games all worked out, and Colwyn can't wait.

We finally got the deck washed off (the chickens have been free ranging all winter, and they spend a lot of time on our deck looking for handouts.. thus, lots of chicken poop on the deck) and refilled the bird feeders, so for the last couple of days, we've been IDing birds that visit our house. We've also had a few really warm days and we've been out as much as possible. We're due to have another stretch of good weather starting tomorrow, so we've got lots of park playdates planned.

Post-Holidays

I love the holidays, really I do. But each year it's sort of a relief to be through with the craziness.

So Colwyn is starting on subtraction in his Singapore Earlybird 2B workbook. He's done great with addition and seemed to get subtraction immediately. It reinforces my feeling that the practical, hands-on, incidental math we do daily really helps. I almost feel like the workbook is just a way of checking to see what he already knows. When he pipes up with, "Mom, you gave me seven pieces of chicken, I ate five and just have two left, can I be all done?" - do we really need a workbook? But it is nice to not have to draw up my own worksheets so he can learn the symbols, I'll admit to that. Lachlann is working on learning how to write numbers. His recognition is great, but his pencil (well, dry erase marker in our case) grip is horrible, and it makes him not enjoy writing. We've been playing with plates of flour or sugar and drawing numbers (shapes, letters, etc) with our fingers. I'd love to let him do that with shaving cream, but Doug doesn't use any.. maybe I'll have to grab some at Target. Lach observes most of Colwyn's math 'lessons' so I'd be surprised if he didn't breeze through subsequent lessons.

Colwyn's reading is coming along really well. It's wonderful to see how proud he is of himself when he reads through an Elephant and Piggiebook. The only time he really experiences difficulty is when his own impatience or irritation gets in his way.. then even an easy word can seem hard. That's when we usually take a break and come back to it later. For book club, we just finished The Five Lost Aunts of Harriet Bean. That was a big hit with Colwyn. Last month was Welcome to the Bed and Biscuit, which was very sweet. We ended up missing the actual book club meeting that month, though, as the kids were sick.

Our other work has been haphazard, at best. We're slowly working through the Early Life section of The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History, which has included working on learning the names of the continents and oceans. We've explored some of the neat websites on arthropods, and Colwyn liked making the connection at the Museum of Science when we saw fossils of arthropods. The kids got a calendar for 2010, so we talk about that daily. In the process, I've learned that, yes, Colwyn is firm on the days of the week, and yes, he knows his cardinal numbers pretty well. The months are new to him, but no biggie. He likes knowing what day it is, and we draw little symbols or write easy words on days we have stuff planned, so he'll tell me, "Mom, we have two more days until Lego Club!"

What else? We've worked on our Secret Agent social studies sporadically. Our Earth Scouts meeting last month dealt with the water cycle (briefly) and habitats. The kids all created terrariums, which was much more fun than I expected. The mess was exactly what I expected. Thankfully all the moms are great about helping pick up. We also did caroling at a local nursing home, which was a great experience. I was surprised at how Colwyn was really into memorizing the words to the songs, he did really well. The kids were a big hit with the elderly residents as well as the staff. For science day last month, we created a diorama of a dinosaur habitat, as well as Play Dough dinosaurs. The diorama included a volcano, which we set off with baking soda and vinegar. The kids loved that part, and with some foresight on my part, it wasn't very messy at all.

We've got a bunch of stuff coming up this month, it should be exciting. Hopefully I'll get better at keeping track.

Month(!) in Review

Yikes, I really dropped the ball on posting. October was a very busy month for us, so I'll blame it on that. We've done all our usual work - Colwyn has about 8 pages left in his Singapore 2A workbook, so that'll get done this week, then we can start on the second half of his kindergarten math. He's pretty much done with Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
, so we're moving on to using easy readers for his reading lessons (which we try to do for at least 10-20 minutes a day, in addition to our regular read-alouds).

We've been working a lot on science/history. We covered (the basics of) the formation of the Earth, composition of the Earth, plate tectonics, the start of life, early life, and evolution. Most of that was through the The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History
. We used some websites for the composition of the Earth. Plate tectonics was covered in the Usborne book as well as through some Science Day hands-on activities with our homeschool group. To complement the Usborne book on evolution, we also read How Whales Walked into the Sea by Faith McNulty.

For Earth Scouts, we read When The Root Children Wake Up
by Audrey Wood. Then we brainstormed some ideas on how to take care of the Earth and used those to play "Mother Earth, May I?" It's pretty much just like "Mother, May I?" except the kids say, "Mother Earth, may I compost our kitchen scraps?" and then the kid playing Mother Earth tells them how many steps to take. They seemed to enjoy it, I think. We were supposed to go on a walk to look for creatures outside, but it was rainy, so I assigned that as homework. The week before, we had done a Recycled Art Day (which Dani planned and hosted), so the kids who participated in that got a Recycling Badge.

For book club, we read The Wind in the Willows
by Kenneth Grahame. We only read the first three chapters or so, but Colwyn (surprisingly) really liked it. I think a lot of it went over his head (due to the language), but it was so enjoyable to read aloud. Both boys participated really well during the book club activities and enjoyed playing outside with the other kids afterwards.

We also went on a field trip to the Aquarium, which was quite a lot of fun. The boys spent a lot of time exploring with Alex and Mila, which was nice. We toured the Beverly Fire Department last Tuesday and will do an encore tour of the Danvers Fire Department this Tuesday. That obviously led to many discussions on fire safety, but I think the boys were most excited about climbing in the fire truck.

Our homeschool group's Halloween Party was a big success, as well. We rented a room at Endicott Park and the kids played that "Guess the Body Part" game with cold spaghetti, a peeled tomato, hot dogs, lunch meat, etc. One of the dads entertained the kids with some acoustic guitar music, which was super nice of him. They played Red Rover and Duck, Duck, Goose - both big hits.

So, all in all, a pretty busy month. We also had various park days, playdates, and who-knows-what-else going on. I'm going to make a concerted effort to stay on top of the journaling, since it's a pain the butt to try to remember what happened over the course of a whole month. :)

Week in Review

Our week was pretty full this week, but not nearly as full as next week's will be. We did reading lessons most days, two days of math, and three days of reading from The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia Of World History. We did cooking math one day (brownies, yum). We had health lessons on two days, when both Lachlann and I had physicals.

Friday was our first Earth Scouts meeting, and it was a big hit. At first, I was counting myself as very smart for not inviting everyone over to my house for the meeting, but that morning as I was trying to pack everything, load it and the kids into the car, and get everything into the library, I realized that I was wrong. :) Luckily, the space at the library was just perfect for us and the staff was super nice. While we waited for everyone to arrive, the kids decorated the folders they'll use to keep their journaling pages together. Then we sat in circle and listened to the first Rosie Emery song (I was expecting earthy, hippie type music, but 'Cooperation' emulated a hip-hop, rap-ish song and was a little embarrassing). Then we talked about what Earth Scouts do - the kids enjoyed listing everything they could possibly think of that lives on the Earth. We did a few cooperation games next, with much laughing. Then the kids had a snack. Once snacktime was over, the kids made their individual pictures depicting our Earth community that we made into our Earth Scouts banner. While they did that, I demonstrated the woven belts for the moms, and that was about it. All the kids really seemed to enjoy themselves and were well behaved. Fiona, who I had forgotten to bring toys for, entertained herself quite well for over an hour and a half, with very little help from me. I was so impressed.

I think Earth Scouts will be a big hit for this year, and can't wait until our next meeting. :)

We also made two trips to the park this week.. Lynch Park with Charlotte and Sam, and Stagefort with the homeschoolers. This is my favorite time of year for park days.. the ground is dry, there are a lot of overcast days, and the temperature is almost always cool. Woohoo for fall!

Living Life

Colwyn has been doing well with the Singapore book. He's got the shapes down pat, especially with the extra reinforcement that all the playdough-playing they've been doing recently has given them. We moved onto numeral recognition which is easy for him, too. Recently, we were doing some oral math, which is a pretty routine part of our day, and I decided to write down the numbers and signs, so he's gotten a little exposure to math sentences now.

We've gotten back into the habit of feeding the birds and squirrels. I'm thinking of seeing if the kids want to keep some sort of nature journal and record what they see out at the bird feeder. It might be fun to have them draw some of the birds they see.

Lachlann surprised me the other day by singing the ABCs. He did quite well. I need to remember that he's getting older now and might appreciate some more effort from me. Hmm.

Our homeschool group is still going well. We're having people at our house this week for a little Valentine's Day party. The kids will decorate 'mailboxes' and exchange cards, and then have some cupcakes or something. Two weeks ago everyone came over here for some Imbolc activities.. it was pretty much a bust, except for the ice cream I gave the kids as a special surprise. The activities I had planned really didn't hold a candle to the epic Star Wars battle they were involved in. Oh well.

For the Birds

We made our own birdhouses as a fun project last week. We used Paul Newman's lemonade and limeade cartons, cut out holes, put in perches, and filled with birdseed. Super easy. We hung them out on the pole on our deck that housed last year's birdfeeder that the squirrels chewed to pieces. Nice, quick project. No problem.

Only.. the next day, when the birds arrived.. there was a little bit of a problem. The cartons are just hung with a loop of string, and when a bird lands on a branch (or when the wind blows just a smidge), they spin like crazy. That makes it difficult for the following birds to land on it, and they often miss. I feel bad for them, really.. but it's so funny to watch. I can fix it, really.. it's just a matter of getting off my butt. In the meantime, the kids are having a blast watching the birds and occasional squirrel get dizzy.

Digging in the Dirt

It was almost a month ago that we started those seeds, and to be perfectly honest, it hasn't gone so well. I gave up on the lettuce, spinach, and romaine because it got too leggy. I accidentally left the peas outside too long when I was trying to get them used to the sun, and they totally wilted. The squashes, watermelon, and cucumber are doing well, though, and the tomatoes are so-so. I think that starting next weekend I can start hardening them off, then they'll go out into the garden. Two weeks ago we transfered them into bigger pots and the boys were pretty impressed with their extensive root systems. They really enjoyed helping out with that, too, and we made a giant muddy mess on the dining room table.

We got a lot of work done outside this weekend. It was gorgeous so we did lots of raking, pruning, and general picking up. I'd also spent a lot of time working in the garden beds earlier this week and finished it all up this weekend. I've got (what will be) 40 lettuce plants, 32 romaine, 108 spinach, 128 carrots, and 12 peas. I've been watering the plots and hopefully we should see some seedlings emerge this week. The boys have had a lot of fun playing in the backyard and helping me when they feel like it - they dig with their trowels, they drop seeds into the holes I make, and they love to water. My strawberry plants did pretty well over the winter, too, so hopefully those will start producing in another two months or so.

This week coming up is supposed to be super nice, as well, so hopefully we can finish off cleaning up the backyard. We're also finally feeling healthy again (after two very long, miserable weeks), and our library books are way past due, so we'll have to at least drop them off tomorrow, and hopefully make a trip to get new ones quite soon. We may be meeting up with Jen and her boys tomorrow, and we'll try to get together with some other friends this week, too.

Happy Spring!

It was 35 degrees outside this morning, but that didn't stop us from heading to the nursery and picking up some seed starting supplies. Within a month the weather will be warm enough for the cool weather veggies, though I'll probably end up keeping the warm weather stuff indoors a bit longer (I've got heaps of containers to transplant them into, also).

Colwyn had fun picking out seeds. I've never tried watermelon and have a feeling it won't go so well, but who knows.



Alas, all my gardening tools are somewhere out back, so I let the boys use spoons to fill the trays with dirt. They were so impressed that I was completely unphased by the inevitable spills on the floor.

Nature Study

I finally did something with the kids that I've been wanting to do for a long, long time. We made birdfeeders. Well, ours were more like squirrel feeders, but whatever.





We covered pine cones in peanut butter, then dipped them in birdseed, and hung them on our Christmas tree, which is currently residing on our deck. All four feeders that we made were carted off by squirrels (which I totally don't mind), so we started tossing handfuls of birdseed onto our snow-covered deck.

We got huge numbers of birds and squirrels, much to the children's delight. We got out our field guide and identified a few varieties of nuthatches, wrens, and swallows, and we even saw male and female cardinals. Bluejays were the most common, though, and the kids soon learned how to quickly find the bluejay page. It's so adorable to hear them shout, "Look, Mom, a blue jay! I can see his blue back and wings and his black necklace! And he's very loud and noisy!" Too cute.

Today we went outside, as I just got around to getting the kids snowpants and boots. They had a good time, but as I don't have anything other than moccasin-type boots, I got tons of snow in my shoes and froze. It was also more work than I've ever done for a mere 20 minutes of fun. Yikes.

Neighborhood Pests

We had a very exciting evening last night, and as with most things, it was a real learning opportunity for the kids. We were sitting at the table working on a long-neglected math workbook (more about that later), when I noticed a raccoon prowling around on our deck. I quietly got the kids attention and tried to move them slowly to the slider, worried that we'd scare the critter away. Well, this guy certainly wasn't scared. I had set a garbage bag right outside the door for Doug to bring down to the trash barrels when he got home, and the raccoon was happily digging through the bag and pulling out bits of food and wrappers.

Now, let me just interrupt the story here to say that I fully recognize a normal reaction would have been to try to scare the raccoon away to avoid a big mess. Well, first off, it wasn't me that was going to be cleaning it up. ;) And secondly, how often are my kids going to get the chance to see a raccoon less than a foot away, while still protected by a thick glass door?

It was a fascinating experience. We observed the raccoons' behavior (we quickly spotted another hanging near the stairs), how he rummaged for food and held it in his paws, how he got a Ben & Jerry's carton stuck on his head (lots of laughter at that), how whenever they heard a noise outside they would freeze, and sometimes climb up the railing and into the arbor vitae. We got to examine the markings on their faces, their stripped tails, and their long claws. We talked about where raccoons live (Colwyn worriedly told me, "But raccoons live in the forest!" right when we saw them) and the geography of our neighborhood, why their fur was so thick and why their bellies were so fat, what hibernation means and what other animals hibernate and why. We talked about weather and the seasons, and how animals (including humans) adapt to changing weather conditions. We talked about why we shouldn't open the door, and how if we ever see a raccoon while we're outside, how we should stay far away. We talked about wild versus domesticated animals, and why we couldn't let the dog out to say Hello. We talked about baby raccoons and fully grown raccoons and their relative sizes. Today we came up with a few different stories about the raccoons and why they didn't come back, where they might be, etc. We also pretended to be raccoons. If Colwyn is still interested tomorrow, I may pull up some info on raccoons online.

All in all, it was a very thorough lesson. Just look at the different subject areas we touched on. I was quite impressed. And to top it all off, Doug was perfectly willing to clean up the mess (it wasn't that big of a mess anyway) and thought it was very cool that we got such an up-close encounter with raccoons.

As I mentioned earlier, we returned to the Singapore Math workbook after nearly a full month of not touching it. I didn't think it had been that long, but I date the pages as we do them. Well, we did several pages and Colwyn thought it was great fun. I'm always sure to stop him before he gets tired of it, and we only sit down to do it if he's agreeable to it in the first place. I do have to suggest activities like that most of the time, as they're out of the way and he would never think to ask for it on his own, though he does really like doing the workbooks. So far all of the concepts and activities are things he already knows how to do--I haven't had to explain anything other than briefly give him directions. I'm pretty sure that'll be the case throughout most of the book (I've looked ahead), and it isn't until the next book (we're on 1A right now and will start 1B whenever he finishes the first one) that there are some things he's probably not familiar with at all.

We also wrote thank you notes yesterday for Colwyn's birthday party. I've been having him write out "Thank You" on the front and then draw a picture on the inside, and while his spacing is usually a little off, he does great with the letters. I even had to take Lachlann for a diaper change before he had started writing "You" on one of them and he did it all by himself. We've got a few more left to do, including our out-of-town relatives who sent gifts.

Tomorrow we have a playdate with Charlotte and I'm planning on trying to fit a library trip in either before the playdate or maybe after naptime. Either that or we'll go Thursday.. but I've got a book on hold and I'm anxious to get it. :) Plus, I can handle reading the same childrens' books over and over and over again for only so long.

A Brief Reprieve

Well, it's raining again. We had a nice weekend, but it rained Wednesday-Friday, and now it's drizzling.

In the meantime, I took these pictures of the kids outside. Well, the first is of Lachlann playing dressups, but whatever. Anyway.. as you can see, the kids love the water and the swings. You can also see that although we start off fully dressed, the boys usually end up in undies and diapers pretty quickly.

Colwyn's asking me to play Koala Brothers with him, so this will have to be a short entry.

Natural Wonders

One of our homeschooling friends mentioned a book she was reading called Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. It's by Richard Louv. So, I checked it out from the library and have been reading it here and there as I get time. It's a really interesting book and it seems to fit with a lot of our experiences.

I'm not one for the heat, but there's something wonderful about just sitting outside. When it's terribly hot, we stay very close to the pool, but when it's cooler we run around barefoot in the grass, swing for hours, tend to our garden, and look for shapes in the clouds. There's something almost.. healing.. about sitting out on the deck as the sun sets, watching the kids run around in the yard, throwing a ball to the dog, and wiggling my toes in the grass. I have fond memories of spending long periods of time in the woods, near the lake, or along a creek, and I want my boys to have that as well.

Our tadpoles are doing really well. We added some rocks to their aquarium and they love swimming amongst them. Still no sign of legs, but they're quite huge. They go through about an ounce of boiled lettuce a day. Colwyn has been working on a little booklet on the life cycle of frogs.. here are a few pictures:





Today when we were playing outside, Colwyn found a really neat looking caterpillar. We put it in his bug jar and brought it inside so we could try to identify it. After about a half hour of searching online, we found out it's a Orgyia leucostigma, or a White-marked tussock moth caterpillar. Turns out that it's actually kind of a pest, but I think we'll try to raise it anyway. Doug took the boys out to gather leaves to give it, and boy did it go crazy eating them.

We also went to the Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary for the first time last week. It wasn't what I was expecting at all, but it was still pretty fun. We saw a few chipmunks, lots of birds, a lovely blue butterfly, and we got covered in caterpillars. They were hanging from long silks suspended from the trees all up and down the path and we didn't see them until it was too late. It was actually kind of gross.. along each strand were dozens and dozens of wriggling little caterpillars. But the kids liked them, so oh well. I did have that icky feeling like things were crawling over me all day, though.. yuck. Here are some pictures from that trip:







As always, we've been hard at work in our garden. I've harvested quite a bit of spinach already and Doug has trimmed some of the onions to use in, err.. something. When Colwyn and I were picking some flowers to give to my mom the other day, I was marveling over these giant puffball type flowers. I came in to look up online what it might be and was delighted to discover we have a huge amount of chives growing in our side yard. So I made a delicious bacon chive cream cheese.. mm. Just like Bruegers. Here's a picture of the very first spinach leaves we harvested:



So really we're just enjoying our "old-fashioned" summer.. lots of playing in the grass, looking for creepy crawlies, and doing other fun boy stuff. It's so nice to be able to just relax and enjoy my kiddos.

Nature Studies

I've been having a really good time with the kids lately. The weather has been nice, so we've been spending a lot of time outdoors, and I think I'm always a better mom when we're outside.

We took a walk to Norwood Pond the other day to look for tadpoles, but couldn't find any. Instead, we got to see Maddy's instincts at work as she jumped into the water to try to catch some geese that had swam over to us. Then later, when I invited her to jump onto a huge tree that had fallen across a nasty algae covered inlet, she jumped up onto the tree and then into the nastiest patch of algae. Gross. We did spend a lot of time looking closely at the water and examining the patches of grass and other green stuff that was starting to grow.

When we were sitting on our front steps the other day, we spent a good deal of time watching a few birds go in and out of our birdhouses up in the tree. We talked about what they might be doing, and when we came in, we tried to identify them online (we couldn't.. I need to dig up one of our old Audubon guides).

As I mentioned in my other blog, we've started working on our garden. Last weekend Colwyn helped me plant spinach and pea seeds into peat containers (I just love the idea of planting the containers directly into the soil, rather than pulling the baby seedlings out). We talked about how the little seeds will grow into food that we can eat, an idea which was made easier by the pea seeds which look like, well, peas. He's enjoyed watering them, though I have to supervise him closely since he tends to pour all the water into one container.

Colwyn also helps me with the compost, although he was rather distressed at first that we were putting our old food in there. I don't think he quite got that it was only food that was too old for us to eat, as he kept saying, "But no, Mommy, I love our food!" While I turn the compost, I show him the bits of food that are still decomposing, and the foods that haven't started yet, and the nice black compost that our old food and grass clippings and other stuff has turned into. We talked about how when all our food has turned into compost, we'll use it to feed our growing plants, and that then our plants will feed us. And what we don't eat will go right back into the compost bin.

We've talked about a few other odd things this week.. like yesterday, Colwyn asked me about the cracks in the pavement when we were outside. So he got a mini-lesson in how the ground contracts and expands in different weather, and how that causes the cracks. Then he gave me a mini-lesson in which machines the city will use to fix the cracks. :)

We went to the library the other day to pick up some gardening books that we had requested on interlibrary loan. It was a spur of the moment trip, so I hadn't looked up kids' books ahead of time, and thus my expectations were low. But we ended up finding a ton of good books, most notably Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs, by Giles Andreae. Huge hit with Colwyn, and Lachlann even enjoys pointing out the dinosaurs ("Dorothy!" he calls them.. well, it's more like "Dorwy!") and roaring at the right moments. While we were there, the boys befriended a 6 or 7 year old girl and had fun building with blocks and then spinning around in the chairs. It was sweet to see them playing with an older kid, a kid who was actually really good with them. Kind of reaffirmed my belief that the boys will get to socialize with people of a wide variety of ages. They also talked to the older librarian about the elephants on display, too.

I've started introducing Colwyn to the idea of learning French. A few times in the past week, we've talked about how people in different parts of the world speak different languages (social studies!), that we speak English, that people in Mexico speak Spanish, that people who are deaf use sign language, that people who live in France speak French. I've demonstrated how we can talk about what Maddy is by using English ("Dog!") or ASL (patting our thigh). Then I told him that if we want to use French, we can say "chien." He repeated it willingly for me a few times, and also attempted "J'aime le chien." We're taking it slowly.. if something is very hard or new, he sometimes avoids it, so I don't want to push him.

I have pictures of Colwyn gardening, but they're still on my camera, so I'll have to post them later. That's all for now!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

What a change in weather since I wrote last. Wednesday was sunny and in the 70s, Thursday was rainy and in the 50s, and Friday was in the 30s and it snowed. At least the snow made for some fun activities.. I brought in two giant bowls of snow and let the kids play with it at the table. Lachlann was a bit hesitant at first and kept saying, "Cold!" but after a few minutes he really dug in. We made mini snowballs and threw them at the table to see them break apart. Then we put green sprinkles on the snow, as I was also baking sugar cookies and had them out. The kids hands are still green, despite repeated washings. :) I have pictures, but since I'm posting at work, I'll have to put them up later.

We also decorated sugar cookies for St. Patrick's Day (since the kids can't drink beer, they get cookies). We looked up Ireland on the globe, and talked briefly about St. Patrick.

Last week Colwyn saw a show on Animal Planet (Most Extreme something or other) that talked about prehistoric eagles. There was a reenactment of an eagle trying to catch some people, and Colwyn got a big kick out of that. We spent a good amount of time pretending that he was an eagle, and he'd chase me around. He also showed up his beak, and how he could gobble us up. He also likes pretending to be a bat, so when he does, we talk about where bats live and what they eat.

I bought some glow-in-the-dark stickers of planets and stars so Colwyn could put them on the wall next to his bed, but we were disappointed to find that the stickiness was gone. What a waste of $5. I also bought some of the plastic stars that you adhere with putty, and we're going to put them on our planets display. I still need to figure out where I want to put that.. it's frickin' huge. Unforunately, Lachlann likes to try to scrape the paint off the planets, so I can't really let him have access to it.

We were planning on going to the library today, but unforunately, it didn't open until 1pm because of the snow. So instead, we went to Target (so I could buy the kids their Ostara presents) and then to Sylvan Street Grille for lunch. Not quite the educational activity I had planned, but oh well. Oh, actually, we did fool around with the concept of more and less when we were playing a travel fishing game.. after we played, we counted how many fish we had each caught, and then figured out who had more.

Okay.. back to work.. I may add more later, and I'll definitely post the pictures tomorrow.

The Boys Get Wet

I don't talk too much about Lachlann in this blog because, to be honest, I'm not really doing much "homeschooling" with him. Not that I'm doing any school-y academic work with Colwyn, but I do make more of an effort to plan fun learning activities for him, where as with Lachlann, I just play. He is, after all, only 18 months old.

One of the "enrichment" things that I do with Lachlann (and Colwyn), though, is water play. In the summer, water play is easy.. but in the winter, it requires a bit more work. At least once a week, I lay a few towels on the kitchen floor and set out several big bowls of water and as many interesting utensils as I can spare. The boys have tons of fun with this activity. Just so ya know, kids that engage in frequent water and sand play are more likely to have better language skills.



In other water-related news.. we took a 45 minute walk today down near Norwood Pond. I say near because we never actually made it there.. turns out it's a much longer walk when you have two kids and it's icy. The weather was really nice, though, close to 50 degrees, so we went for it. The kids had a really good time, despite getting wet, as did Maddy, who we actually let off leash for a bit. We didn't see much in the way of critters, but we did hear a woodpecker. We talked a bit about what woodpeckers do, and when we got home, looked up a picture on the Internet.





So Colwyn has resumed his interest in space. I finally got him to glue down the planets, sun, and appropriate labels. He really likes pointing to planets and either telling me which ones they are or asking me to identify them. I don't have a picture, because unfortunately, I realized that two planets are painted the wrong color. Apparently, a lot of the pictures you see in the paper or on websites are artificially colored. So, I found the right colors, and as soon as I feel like bringing out the paints, I'll explain it to Colwyn and we'll fix them. I figure it'll be a good lesson in correcting your mistakes, and in how to research things. I may "stage" looking up the real colors online.

But we have done a few other cool things. The most recent was when we dropped objects into a container full of baking soda to see how moon craters are made. We did this after watching a Naked Science episode about the moon. Colwyn really liked this activity. Here he is dropping an "asteroid" onto the "moon":



And here he is shaking the container to clear the craters:



Right now Doug is reading Zoom! Zoom! Zoom! I'm Off to the Moon! by Dan Yaccarino. I've got some other recommendations for good books about space, so I'll try looking for those at our next library trip.

And just for the fun of it, here's a quick picture of the boys dressing up in Doug's t-shirts. Colwyn wore his all day, and insisted that I call him Dad. It was kind of weird saying, "Here Dad, let me wipe your bum" and various other things I would never say to Doug. :)