All About Me Week; recap of our favorite activities

Sorry for the delay of not writing any posts recently.  Once the boys recovered from being sick, guess who was next in line?  If you guessed me, you would be correct.  I went back and forth all day yesterday between being burning hot and freezing cold.  Now I completely understand why the boys were so miserable when they had this dreaded cold.  However, we did continue on with school this week after we revamped our set up, and I have to say it is going MUCH better.  Carter is way more willing to participate, and it is nice to have zero distractions.  Well, except for the 90 pound golden retriever that gets super excited when I say school time now.  That is hilarious.  Here are a few recaps on our 5 favorite activities of the week.

Texture Painting:

 Tuesday night I decided to take the boys for a nice evening walk at Thomaston Dam.  They were full of energy since they had slept until 5 pm, so it was time for them to run, and for mommy to get her workout in as well.  The boys requested that we stop and take a look at all the pretty leaves that had fallen on the ground, and how could I say no?  Pierce was amazed that the leaves were different shapes, and Carter went NUTS over the colors.  Our dog then pointed out that there were acorns everywhere (she was chasing one that fell on the ground), which lead to comparing big ones vs small ones.  We gathered a bunch of materials to bring home for school the next day.  Since we were focusing on hands and feet, as well as touch and taste, we decided to paint using the objects to see what the various textures would make.  We also had a competition to see who could pick the most acorns up with their feet as well.  They absolutely loved painting with their nature finds, and did not stop talking about all of the different colors and textures the entire time.  It was great!

Fresh Squeezed Lemonade:

I honestly had never made fresh squeezed lemonade before.  It was something that was on my list, and thanks to Yo Gabba Gabba (feel free to start singing the song in your head now), it is something that the boys have been wanting to do.  So, what better way to teach about taste and sweet vs sour than making lemonade?  Before I cut the lemons in half, I had the boys describe to me what they felt like.  Words such as cold, bumpy, and wet were coming out of the boys.  Once I cut them in half, I had them each lick a lemon and then describe it.  So of course sour was the first thing that was said; but then I could not get Carter to stop licking the lemons!  He loved it!!!!  Pierce thoroughly enjoyed using the juicer to separate the juice from pulp.  He then noticed that the lemons felt different after they were juiced.  I absolutely love when my boys make their own observations without being prompted.  In the end, we all enjoyed a fresh glass of lemonade with not a lot of sugar in it.  For that day, they decided they did not like sweet.


Homemade Sensory Bags:

I know these are all over Pinterest, and it is certainly not an original idea.  I even bought the hair gel to make them about a month ago, but had decided not to since I thought the boys were too old for them.  However, since my children decided not to nap at all on Wednesday, and asked for more school, I decided to finally make them.  And I am glad I did.  Not only do they love the squishyness (is that a word?) of them, but they loved holding it up to the sun and looking at the different colors.  That was a realization they made all on their own as well.  Both boys also loved that they could move the beads around the gel, and making letters in the gel.  This was a project on Wednesday, and even now they are still using them.  Lesson to myself?  Never assume the boys are too old or too young for a sensory project.  Let them decide on their own.

Nature Walk and Play Dough Prints:

To continue on with the theme of the week, we took a nature walk to find things that would make prints in the raspberry play dough that we made (oh it smelled so good!).  I had the boys pick out ANYTHING they wanted to make prints with, and they learned that some things (like the chestnuts) work better than others (like leaves).  They had so much fun picking things up with their toes (I swear they are part monkey), and then had so much fun playing with everything.  Both boys have asked to this activity again.  Next time, since we are using items from nature, I want to make a play dough out of natural spices to complete the theme.  It did look odd making prints of nature in raspberry jello play dough.

Spice Painting:  Or is it?

It started out as a nice simple project.  I handed the boys some containers of cheap spices and had them shake them to see if they could hear the difference in the spices.  Then we had glue sticks to "paint" on the paper with, followed by "sprinkling" on spices.  HA!  Who was I kidding thinking my boys would do a simple and neat project?  After all, learning is messy, and that is what I keep telling them, right?!  They used all 5 senses of their body for this project, and I loved it.  It did kind of start out as planned, minus the sprinkling of the spices.  Oh no, we were dumping spices out in the tray and having a blast.  They also enjoyed tasting each one (Carter has decided he does NOT like Dill.  Pierce loves Ginger).  I then had the idea to turn all of these extra spices in their trays into play dough.  However, I did not want to pry them away from their beautiful creations, so I gave each of the boys shaving cream and cornstarch to make their own dough with.  Carter (who usually does not like a big mess) loved being a part of this experiment.  He loved clapping his hands and watching the shaving cream go everywhere.  Pierce loved it as well, and I have to admit the school room smelled fantastic!  Clean up was honestly easy since the shaving cream had cornstarch in it.  There was also minimal staining to the carpet, and I am sure it will come out when I wash it again (I will never buy a rug again that I cannot put in a washer.  I love washing it!)

So there are our 5 favorite school activities of the week.  Hopefully it is some inspiration to our readers to try something new, or to expand on something they may already do.  I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend, and next week we are doing Dinosaurs.  ROAR!!!!!