Unplugged Project: Plastic

I joined Unplug Your Kids this week. This week the theme was plastic. My tired brain just could not come up with anything to do with plastic. So, I finally hit on the idea of playing with all of those plastic toys that live in my house. (With 3 little ones ages 6 and under, my house is a veritable treasure trove of plastic toys.) The above picture is our Weebletown. The Little People and Dora came to visit, too. And, hey, they're fun to teeth on as well as play with.

Now, just so you know, I am not the type of mom who gets down on the floor and plays very often. We do crafts, school, reading, etc., but it isn't often that I get down and just play with the weebles. So, this week, I resolved to set aside a piece of every day to play (with something plastic).

Here is the room after we finished playing. We did clean up afterwards, of course.

We fished with the plastic fishing pole. Fun to see what you could hook.

The lite brite snail. We had forgotten we even owned this plastic toy.

Wrapping up the week with some dress up (hey, there are plastic shoes in there, so I'm filing it in the plastic theme).

It was a fun week, and every day (Wednesday - Sunday), I stopped all of my stuff and spent some time with the little ones. Note that not everything is pictured here -- I am so bad about picking up my camera throughout the week.

Quiet family night

Well, we have been running around for a couple months -- moving, vacation, cleaning, getting Hubby's "office" ready for telecommuting, etc, etc, etc... Last night, we found our Jonah movie (Veggietales), so we popped some popcorn and watched. Flopsy liked it in that she knows the bible story, so she got to tell Mopsy what was going to happen next. Mopsy just likes to zone out in front of the TV (am I a bad mama to admit that???), and Cottontail loves to dance to any and all music, so she boogied down to the songs.

It was nice to just veg out with the kids. We need to do that more often.

Just a test

I have been unable to post pictures for a while (in case you haven't noticed). Blogger says that they are working on it. So I am just testing...

Wow, it appears to be working. Here are Mopsy and Cottontail, partying on the bed. Note that Mopsy dressed herself (yes, that is her diaper showing in the back -- she couldn't pull her shorts up over the poof in the back.)

Unplugged Project: Paint

OK, I was liberal with the topic (and late as well...)

Today, for snack time, we made "Monster Toast". I tinted milk with food coloring for the paint, toasted some bread, and gave both daughters paint brushes. They painted their bread for a good 40 minutes -- mmmm, nothing like cold toast. I was thinking of painting a little face on the bread, but both of them painted every square inch of the bread! They enjoyed eating their creations as well. Cottontail sat and snacked on Chex Mix the whole time -- boy, that girl can eat.

Hmmm, camera still isn't working

Grrrr. I've actually been taking some pics. Mom is gallavanting again, so I wanted to make sure to update the blog with pics. So, instead, you get to listen to me ramble...

I got almost all of Flopsy's school books for next year. Looks like I need to get cracking on hoarding things for the craft cabinet. Her history program makes a "hideaway" weekly -- usually out of a box or two, but the igloo takes 60 (!) milk jugs. Gotta drink more moo juice. We will most likely not do every hideaway, but I would like to do a lot of them.

Today, Mopsy goes to visit the pediatrician. He is doing an ear check, as her speech therapist is afraid she has a fluid build-up that is hindering her hearing.

Cottontail is climbing everything in sight. She's definitely more active than the older two were at this age.

I am STILL working on unpacking, organizing, etc. Last night, Hubby let me know that he can work from home one or two days a week. So now I have to find some space for him, get it ready, and teach the children to stay out of his hair. But with gas prices being what they are, we will save boatloads of cash if we can get it figured out... (he has a 3 hour daily roundtrip commute).

Summer Vacation, aka Next Year's Planning Season

Well, school is officially out for the year. Kindergarten is over.

Our new program for next year, Winterpromise's Hideaways in History, should be delivered tomorrow (Woo-hoo, Box Day!). We are also doing Winterpromise's World around Me science program. The Language Arts program, Susan Wise Bauer's Writing with Ease, should be released in June. We'll continue with our mish-mash of Singapore and Miquon Math. We will also be working in some drawing instructions, Sign Language, and other small things.

I've been busy planning how to include Mopsy, who turns three years old in July, next school year. She has a speech delay, so anything I choose will need to work with a child who is mostly non-verbal. I think I have decided on integrating some preschool themes with Flopsy's science program, using some Before Five in a Row (I already owned it), and having her tagalong with the history program.

Over the summer, Flopsy will continue Handwriting without Tears and math. We will do some Five in a Row books in order to do some fun school. This week we will do a mini-unit on Ferdinand. When the ants come for the ant farm (we ordered them about a month ago, so we should get them sometime soon), we will do Truman's Aunt Farm. I haven't planned which other ones we'll visit this summer.

Some other things I want to tackle this summer:
Making a tissue paper butterfly garden (as seen here)
Going to the kids' science museum for some "Messy Mondays", or art classes
Reading program at the library
Swimming in the neighborhood pool

Unplugged Project: Metal

Well, I joined in the fun again. This time the theme was metal.

With the house being still torn apart from moving (yes, I still have boxes to unpack), I decided aluminum foil was the easiest metal to work with.

So, I cut a stack of squares and rectangles to work with. Set out a few odds and ends of things to wrap, press and otherwise decorate. And I turned the girls loose.

Flopsy (age 6) had a ball "crimping" the edges of hers (she used the chip clip that I didn't pick up off of the kitchen table before we started the project -- see, sometimes my lack of cleaning skills come in handy). Mopsy (age 2) poked hers with a pen, and crumpled it into sculptures. She also enjoyed using a small eraser to reflatten the sculptures. I folded mine into chairs for the dollhouse dolls, but I never did get a flat table.

We made nothing that was high art, but we did play and have fun together!

Later in the week, we brought out the magnets to test objects around the house. I was going to have them go around the outside of the house, but the weather didn't cooperate. The 2 year old really enjoyed this, but the 6 year old already knew what was metal...

I do have pictures, but my camera is not talking to the computer today! Hopefully, we will get that resolved by next week.