Colored Rice

I love this stuff!  The colors make me happy and I know two little preschoolers who enjoy it too:).  I'm working on filling their general sensory bin so I'm making several batches over the summer.

Things you need:

Rubbing alcohol

Food coloring

Plastic bags

Instructions:

Divide rice into bags

Pour in some alcohol (I just do two pours)

Mix colors as you wish

Seal and shake each bag

SN:  The longer you let the rice sit in the bags the brighter the colors

 Pour onto paper plates or newspaper (something you don't care about) and let dry

When the rice is dry pour into a plastic container for some sensory fun!

Ideas for play:  

Pouring

Seek and find

Rice art (you know...like the sand art kits)

Enjoy!

Seeing the squares

How do you guys plan your lives?  I LOVE seeing the squares on a paper calendar.  Now don't get me wrong, I'm not sure what I would do if my smart phone did not "beep" at me reminding me of certain things.  However, when it comes down to it there's nothing like the awesomeness of putting the pencil to the calendar and planning something...anything!  I know I'm a nerd, but I don't care:).  The tricky thing about planning though, is you have to know when to let it go.  For instance, I have our entire preschool plan ready to go for next year but I am completely OK with the school day taking on it's own vision.  As long as we have a blueprint, I'm good.  I feel the same way about meal planning and unfortunately I believed this a little too much when it came to the cleaning schedule this year.  

So, the plan is to execute preschool (officially twice a week), a meal plan, and the cleaning schedule everyday.  The trick is to know that the desire is great just as long as the schedule doesn't become an obsession.  I like a "lived in" home, but that good 'ole fashioned straightened up house that my Grandma believed in and STILL delivers on every time you walk into her home IS my desire.  I.  Can.  Do.  This.  

It really makes a for a calm day and fun times!

How do you guys like to plan?  Is it in your head, on paper, on an excel spreadsheet?  Please share:).

One-on-One Time

Dancin' Diva and I have one-on-one time while the other girls are sleeping on school days.  When we have school together things are great, but there's nothing like on-on-one time with each girl.  It gives me time to really see where each girl is in her development and it allows each of us to really linger in the excitement when the "light bulb" comes on:).  The "light bulb" moment for DD on this particular day was word families.  We were doing our graphing activity when she starting forming words and wanting to continue.  So we quickly wrapped up graphing and I took a piece of paper and wrote "at."  We then proceeded to add consonants and she LOVED it!  She thought it was hilarious every time we made the consonant sound, added the family sound, then got faster and faster (insert giggle from me as I type...hehe).  I absolutely loved seeing her realize that she was making the words!  Now my next planning task is trying to figure out when I will get in some time with the Singin'Diva.

 She decided that putting "M" in the graph was a good idea and then "MY."  :)

I even got in on this action:).  It was pretty fun!

Homeschool: Fourth of July

So I have a problem.  I plan, and plan, and plan but have a hard time actually preparing the awesome crafts/activities I find and think of doing so that I can actually do them with my kids without the headache that comes with procrastination.  So tomorrow's holiday gave me a reason to complete one of my units I have had in the planning stage for a week or so.  Ahead of time, I got everything ready for the Fourth of July unit and was ready for today...yay me!!!

SN:  I know tomorrow is the holiday, but we will be playing all day with friends so I did our lesson today.

Grandmom let us invade her house so that we could still come visit and get things done.  It was so much fun and I know she enjoyed "seeing" school.  I've got SO much planned for next school year and this makes me giddy:).  

We hope you enjoy you 4th of July!!!

The books we read and the crafts supplies...ready to go!

 Mini red, white, and blue sensory bins

 Wind socks (favorite)

 Gluing our American flags

 Chalk drawing, sprinkle fireworks, popsicles, and bikes

 Straw fireworks (my favorite activity of the day next to the windsocks)

 Star lunch

Bonus...

We listened and colored to the music of a string quartet at the Benjamin Branch library on Monday.  THIS was so much fun!!!  The best part was when DD says to me,"Mommy, look at this sound!"  She totally understood the concept behind coloring to the mood/tempo of the music.  The library is truly a magical place...love it!

Water Play!!!

So I found some really cute ideas for some water play and the kids loved it!  The stuff we already had was the water table, pool, and spray bottles.  I was so tired of water guns being so hard for the kids to re-load and then squirting one time, then empty...ugh!  I do not have the site reference (oops!), but I found where someone made an aquarium out of Tupperware and an under-bed storage container, colored ice cubes, and ribbon frozen into a bowl of water!  The idea here was to "paint" with the ice cubes and watch the big block melt and get the ribbons:).  We invited some friends over and it was a great day!

"HOLMESchool Happenings/Summer Fun

I'm too excited about about all of the things we are doing/going to do this summer!  We have already gone to different parks, libraries, and taken several trips to the sprayground.  Summer is SO fun!

Here are some things we've been up to in the pre-school department...

 Sensory Play/Coloring pasta

Filling our sensory buckets a little more

 Making igloos

 Fixing/finishing Singin' Diva's Spidey blanket and pillow

I made this matching activity to go with "Wocket in my Pocket" by Dr. Seuss.  I have been doing so much research on homeschool and been inspired by the creativity of the moms and dads I read about.  So I decided it was time for me to put my creative mind to work!  Each girl has their own "wocket" (no judgement people...he's REAL homemade...ha!) and matching fabric rectangles to match to the pockets.  I LOVE it and I know they will:).

...and painting!

If I'm being honest, I have been anti-painting at home.  When I think of the mess I cringe, BUT no more!  Dancin' Diva painted "brilliant" (her words) paintings for at least 45 minutes and painted again today while Daddy slept.  You see the sticker-filled easel above?  It's now a lovely shade of grey because of Daddy's little nap...ha! 

Next on our summer bucket list:

1.  Colored ice cube painting

2.  Spray bottle water play

3.  Chuck E. Cheese

4.  Bounce U (thank you summer reading program for the free passes!)

We hope you're having a fun-filled summer too!

P.S.  Lil' Bit just decided to walk across the room last night, but she hasn't done it since:(.  We'll keep practicing.

Forever Family!!!

On June 9, 2007 J and I became a forever family!!! The temple is a beautiful place and we are so glad that we were able to share that day with friends and family.

Enjoy the pictures :)