Summer Fun - Week 2

Theme - Under the Sea!

We painted with bubbles and food coloring to represent scales.  This is a simple activity.  Pour some water, a touch of Dawn, and a whole lotta' food coloring (the more you put in, the darker it is).  Then, grab a straw and start blowing some bubbles!

My kids never get to blow bubbles in their drinks, so this was a neat activity for them.

After you've blown your bubbles, scoop them out onto a piece of paper.  We used a soap-covered spatula (the soap allows the bubbles to transfer easier).

Finally, let the bubbles pop and then let your paper dry.

We used these papers a couple of days later and drew fish on them.  Then we cut them out.

Then, using Draw Write Now vol 6, we tried our hand at drawing our own sea creatures of choice on our second page of "scales."

Abby chose to draw a dolphin.  Then, by accident, she cut off its tail.  She tried to draw it again on a clean piece of paper, but was very frustrated with herself.  She couldn't get her arch how she wanted it and her dolphin turned out fatter than she was aiming for.  She was very distraught and cried a great deal.

I tried to encourage her and tell her that her dolphin was fine, and it takes practice to be a good drawer.  My little perfectionist got really irritated, though, and then spat out, "It's so fat it looks like a whale.  Besides, dolphins aren't fish, they're mammals... And they DON'T HAVE SCALES!"  It was very obvious she had reached her limit, so I sent her to go sit on her bed and cleaned up the activity.  We'll attempt drawing again in a few days.

We also visited the zoo, where we got to see lots of sea animals.

We also played in the water spouts at the children's section and spied the flamingos!

The Two-Year-Old

This kid was a big handful this week!  She kept getting into things that she shouldn't have been in.

This is our garden after she "helped" by pulling up all of our bush beans!

I did buy a big container of chalk and she loved it.  We've only had yellow and blue pieces for the last little bit, so she was understandably excited when there was PINK in the new bucket!

All of her mischief, though, is understood when we find her asleep in random spots.

The Reading

Abby finished the entire Mercy Watson set this week and is back to reading Dr. Seuss.

Emmett has moved through his lessons at his regular clip and is halfway through his book!  Yay!

We are also reading The Hundred Dresses which is a great lesson in treating people nicely, no matter what they look like.

The Math

Abby completed Singapore Math 1B!  The only problems that tripped her up were double digit with carrying problems.  It probably doesn't help that she doesn't have her teens number bonds memorized so anytime she is completing a problem like that, she may have multiple steps.  Singapore teaches 42-26 as 42-20-6 so she subtracts 42-20 with no problem, but when she gets to 22-6 she has to think 12+10-6 which she processes into 12+4=16.  It seems long and involved when she's walking through the steps, but I'm certain she's definitely got a good foundation in place value as well as working mental math.  The more she does it and the older she gets, the easier it will be.

Emmett worked with a bunch of dot-to-dots to really solidify his counting to thirty.  He has a better grasp of place value than Abby did at this age.

We also played Monopoly Jr.  It's a great way for Emmett to work on addition with the rods and a good review of math facts under ten for Abby.

Unplanned Summer Fun

• The kids have found many caterpillars this week.  

They even built this guy a nest!

• We're getting pretty warm here and The Husband and I are trying to go as long as we can before turning on the AC.  Subsequently, the kids spend a lot of time outside in their swimsuits.

Sometimes we pull out the water balloons and the kids have to answer a math or language question before they get a new one.

• Our tadpoles are all still alive and getting bigger!  These little buggers sure are active!

• Hyrum is fascinated with all things involved with writing.  He is figuring out pens, pencils and markers and any time anyone has one, he complains until he gets one too.