Happy Earth Day - April 22!

We have been talking about Earth Day all week and decided to make some earth day presents for our preschool friends. We peeled the paper off of several green and blue crayons and then put 1 green piece to every 2 blue pieces in a small paper cups. Each cup had the equivalent of 2 blue and one green crayon. Then we put them in the oven at 200 for 10 - 12 minutes. Just long enough for them to melt with out totally liquefying. After cooling for an hour we peeled the paper cup and the result was a planet shaped crayon.

Our next project to celebrate Earth day was to create bird food necklaces for all our neighbourhood winged friends. We cut tiny strips of brown paper bag then strung cheerios and Alphabet cereal on the strand of paper. We tied them off and hung them in the trees for the birds to eat. We were very surprised to see that the robins liked the cheerios a lot. We will be bringing a bunch out to the chickadees along a local walking trail later in the week.
Sid asked if we could freecycle her little tikes tool bench and all the plastic tools because she needed REAL tools to help daddy work in the garage. So the plastic tools are gone and Daddy took Sid tool shopping. She arrived home with her very own 47 piece tool kit and Dad put her to work disassembling computer hardware to split up for recycling. She is very good with a screwdriver!

Our final project for Earth Day is Sid's new plant, a Bromeliad. She informed me that with all this work we were doing for Earth Day, she should get an Earth Day present (hmmm she doesn't miss a beat!). So we decided a plant would be the perfect gift. This morning we picked it out and now it lives on Sid's dresser in her room where she will love it, care for it and call it Dranker. I hope it lives.....

Science and Technology

Technology: I caught Sid reclining on the couch reading Dad's Air and Space magazine. When I asked her what she was reading she said she was reading about snow planes. Oh what a proud moment for Daddy.



And now for the Science portion of the blog:

Goop! We love goop, such a childhood staple. Cornstarch, water and food colouring if you want and presto a big bowl of goop. Sid was mesmerized with the concoction for close to an hour. It is messy but so worth it!

Today we made our own paper from left over paper around the house. It was a cool experiment and we will do it again when the recycle bin fill back up. Here's how it is done!



Step 1: shred your recycled paper into small bits in a bucket of hot water



Step 2: soak for 30 minutes until it is pulpy

Step 3: Mix pulp into a creamy base using a whisk or blender. Put a piece of window screen in a dish or pan that you can cover with at least 3cm of water.

Step 4: Cover the screen with at least 3cm of water then add a cup to a cup and a half of the pulp mix. Spread it out evenly so it covers the entire surface of the screen. Gently lift the screen and let excess water drain. Flip the screen and pulp onto a dish towel (I used cotton place mats) so the pulp is directly on the surface and the screen is on top. Remove the screen.



Step 5: cover paper with tea towel (or cotton place mat) and squeeze excess water with a rolling pin. You may also cover with a towel and iron excess water with a hot iron. We did both. Carefully set aside paper to dry. It will take between 24 and 48 hours for the paper to be dry depending on how much water is left in it.

Enjoy your handmade recycled paper!

Let it Snow!

It was a beautiful snowy day and perfect for playing outside. We spent almost 2 hours in the backyard this afternoon making snowmen, snow angels and catching snowflakes. It is so fun being able to be a kid all over again!

Despite the fact that it is Mom's very favorite colour, Sidney eyes just glow in the right shade of purple, I can't believe our luck! Poor Ken all he needs is more purple in his life :0)

This morning we awoke to another photo opportunity. It is a good thing I keep my camera on the dock all charged and ready to go. Sidney really wanted to see how much snow had come down overnight and so I opened the curtains shortly after 6:00 a.m. Maggie was still enjoying a nice sleep and was not about to move unless food was involved. I caught this picture and I am calling it Chairedale!

Today was pajama party day at school and Sid didn't seem to mind wearing her jammies all day. I am sure it is what contributed to her spontaneous afternoon nap on the couch. Perhaps every day should be pajama day? Tomorrow is Sid's big show at gymnastics, another great day for pictures and daddy will be there too. Here is a picture of Sid and Dad after Sid's music recital.

A conversation with Sidney

Sid: Mom, pee starts with P.

Mom: Yes Sid, pee does start with P.

Sid: What does poo start with?

Mom: Poo starts with P.

Sid: NO! Poo, what does poo start with.

Mom (chuckling under her breath): Poo starts with P

Sid: MOM! Are you making a joke?

Mom (now laughing): No, the word Poo starts with the letter P not the pee from in your body. P the letter like in Pig, Pirate, Pizza and Pickle. P

Sid: OHHHHH! Poo starts with P. What does Wax start with?

Mom: Wax starts with a w it makes the sound wuh, wuh, wuh.

Sid: Oh, like road (pronounced woad) and restaurant (westaurant)

Mom: No, road and restaurant start with the letter R

Sid: Pirates say Arrrr and they start with a P!

This was a conversation Sid and I had in the car on her birthday. It's a keeper!

Backyard Science

Today was backyard science day. It was warm and sunny again so we went exploring and searching for Bearadales (bears that look like airedales according to Sidney). We found two! We also spent a lot of time in the mud and water and even had a visit from Via!

"Bet you don't have one of those in your backyard!"

We took a moment to stop by one of the three trees we planted when Sid was in mommy's tummy. They were planted in 2005 so theyare 3 years old too. It is a weeping willow and we can't wait until it is big enough to sit under and swing from!

Meet Benny

Playing doctor has lasted a long time but I think we might finally be able to put away our Dr. prop box. Occasionally Sid likes to fix her babies and she is still very baby crazy however, since Benny's arrival, she is all about her Tiger named Benny!
We have read Our Big Backyard Magazine about tigers, we have read every book in our collection that has a tiger or African animal in it. (Benny is from Africa, not Asia as one might assume!) While out getting her hair cut with Dad yesterday, they stopped at a toy store and got a schleich Tiger figuring who Sidney has dubbed Little Benny. Big Benny is a folklore puppet and has incredible conversations with Sidney and travels everywhere with us. We are hoping Little Benny will have the same power to captivate her imagination since he will travel a lot better in stores.
We have started a prop box for a Safari which Sid calls a Refari. "Mommy, mommy, lets go on a refari!!!" We have included 2 pairs of binoculars, a spotting scope, a magnifying glass and a flashlight. We will add to it as Sid finds more items. Here are pictures of Sid on our morning refari in her jeep. It was a bumpy ride but once we got there it was well worth the trip!
We are going to spend lots of time learning about tigers and other African animals. Today we learned that while a group of lions is a pride, there is no name for a group of tigers because they are solitary animals unless breeding, and a group of rhinocerus are call a crash! Tomorrow we are going to buy a world globe (with Nunavut!!!) so we can see where Africa is.

Hands on Science!

It was a busy weekend with a family get together on Saturday and a birthday party for one of Sid's friends early Sunday morning. The meltdowns were plentiful and we knew we had one absolutely exhausted preschooler on our hands. We turned our focus to home time and just hanging out with Dad on Sunday afternoon and Mom on Monday. We had so much fun and learning by just being home and doing what we felt like.

Sunday Sid spent the afternoon in the garage with Grandpa and Daddy working on the plane. Below you can see how she pulled her tools out and was under the airplane. Daddy got her the creeper and showed her how she could roll under it. She thought that was the coolest thing. It was a real pride moment for Daddy and Grandpa!

Monday we had our music class but decided to skip it and have a pajama day instead. A nice relaxing day to just play! Sid had oodles of fun with her magnets and got a kick out of putting the wand under a piece of paper and then dragging magnetic marbles on top. We drew roads for her to drag the magnets along, then we experimented with moving the magnets through different mediums like this bubble wrap bag. It was so neat to watch her face as she discovered new science.

We were supposed to go to the pumpkin patch today but the weather did not cooperate at all. Very cold, rainy with some snow and strong winds. We might get to go next week!

Ken has the parts he needs to mount the engine on the plane and is anxious to get that done. It is nice to see the plane back in the garage as they get it ready for its first inspection.
This past weekend hockey was very busy with a league game Friday and Sunday and house league game Saturday. Good times with friends but I am thankful that I don't play that often every week! We have moved up a division and are carrying fewer skaters so I am seeing a lot of rubber. I am getting my monies worth this year!

Apple Orchard

Well we are right on track this week. It was our first VERY full week of activities which left us both a little bit more tired than usual and so we each had our "moments" but we are working through it and starting to get into the swing of things.

I was taught to teach children upper case letters first but I was getting frustrated because most words are in lower case and most letter recognition activities are either lower case or both upper and lower case. So I did some research and found out the Montessori method encourages lower case first because 95% of our written word is lower case. This makes a lot of sense to me, however, Sidney knows at least 10 upper case letters to start so we are now going to try and learn upper and lower together. I don't know if it will make too hard, but Sid is really into babies right now so we play games where we have to find the mommy or daddy letters and their babies (upper and lower case) and she totally gets it! Today she shocked me by completing this worksheet in about two minutes on her first try. I would say we are ready for the letter Bb!!!

Sid was really into academics this morning because we haven't done any work sheets all week and we were almost late getting to the apple orchard because she kept asking for more games! We played alphabet memory on the computer and did some exercises in her workbook. We finished off with a new emotions wall by our back door to help her better discuss how she is feeling. My sensitive girl doesn't take much to melt down lately so we are trying out this activity to help tell each other how we are feeling. It worked really well this afternoon when she was sad about having to have a time out for pulling on the dogs tail. She told me, "I feel yellow, he is sad and I am too." I showed her the scared face and explained that that is how the dog felt having his tail pulled and I showed her the mad face which was how mommy felt because I asked her two times not to pull the tail. The faces seem to provide a good foundation to help us talk through these situations versus Sid throwing herself on the ground and screaming. That conversation ended in her going over to the dog and saying sorry. I hope it continues to work!

Sidney and Kayla, her field trip friend met up again at the orchard. It was exactly 2 years ago we were here. This time we met up with a couple other friends too. Celia and Sidney used to play very well together at playgroup and they ended up doing indoor soccer together in the spring. We have recently reconnected and the girls do the Monday music class and Julie, Celia's mom, and I get along really well so we chat and hang out. The girls are very cute together and you can see a nice friendship developing. I really like Celia, she has a strong independent personality and plays well with Sid.

Although the season is getting late and we had our first frost last night, the apples were plentiful and Sid didn't need a boost to pick hers this time. We picked Lobo and she ate two of them while playing at the park area. I am glad she likes them because I find them way too tart. She told Ken he wasn't allowed to eat any because we were going to make an apple pie. hahaha I guess I am going to the store to buy and apple pie tomorrow! Mom doesn't bake pies (yet!).

Next week is the same as this week minus the trip to the apple orchard, we will have a trip to the pumpkin patch with playgroup next month, I can't wait! We managed to accomplish the two goals I had set out for us this week which were knowing and recognizing the letter Aa and reciting the alphabet without singing it. So this week we are going to work on the letters Bb, add more animals to her field journal and talk a lot about our feelings! It is so nice that for her learning is playing and Dad is really great about spending time every night playing whatever Sidney wants to. This week they have been playing toy and grocery store. Since starting preschool I have been doing the groceries while she is in school and I think she misses it!

Gitan is going to visit a family on Sunday. If everyone gets along they will likely adopt him. I HOPE it is his forever home. He is always in Sid's face and she is so annoyed with him. He really does like kids. He needs a home where everyone just loves on him and appreciates him.

Dr. Sidney

For about 3 weeks Sidney has been into taking care of her babies and playing doctor. Her favorite book right now is Franklin goes to the hospital and last week we had to take our foster dog to the vet for X-rays so it was very EXCITING! This morning we made Sidney a doctor prop box so she could fix her babies to perfection. We added syringes, medicine droppers and bottles, bandages, band-aids, a tensor, tape, scissors and X-rays. Her babies are looking so much better.

We are still learning about apples and the letter A we might add the letter X to go with the X-rays this week!

Apples, apples, apples

"How many apples fell on Newton's head before he took the hint? Nature is always hinting at us. It hints over and over again. And suddenly we take the hint."Robert Frost (1874-1963)

Our Apple tree has really produced a lot of apples this year. They are still quite tart but both Ken and Sidney love them like this.

We have been working on name recognition with Sidney and she now can pick her name out quite easily and knows the letter S. Our next step is helping her to learn the letters of the alphabet. Since our apples are already ready and we are going to the apple orchard in 3 weeks with our playgroup friends we are doing lots of apple activities. A = Apple! On the rescue front, we have another foster boy. He is the nicest Airedale I have ever had here. He is 6 and was surrendered because his owner was tired of picking up poop. He has some serious hip or back issues so he will stay with us until we know what is wrong with him and can put a care plan in place for his new family. He is our little Gypsy boy and Maggie and Groovy have accepted him right into the pack.

Also, Airedale Rescue has started their 2008 Quilt promotion. As always it is a beautiful work of art. You can see it here: http://www.airedalerescue.net/a_day_in_the_life/