R is for Rainbow

Wow, it's been awhile! We are still learning, just not blogging so much. But today was fun and blog-worthy!

1. Made indoor rainbows and traced them onto paper, instructions here.

2. Made rainbow flowers with leftover flowers from Valentine's Day.

3. Finished an online rainbow puzzle.

4. Played a rainbow game, found here.

5. Had a rainbow lunch with red jello, orange carrots, yellow bananas, and green lettuce. The kiddies ate all of it! And when they asked for seconds, they asked for carrots and lettuce! Apparently food art makes it taste better!

See Spot

I love the spot books, probably as much as my kiddies do. I just found this website with great stories and educational games: Fun with Spot.

Cooking / Science Camp

We took a break from our summer camps and went on vacation. Much needed.

This week is Science/Cooking Camp!

Ideas:

Food Art
Bubbles Recipe
Rock Candy
Farmer's Market

And as many activities as we can fit in from this website:

http://pbskids.org/zoom/activities/sci/

Water Safety

We are off to the pool! Found this website with a download study unit on water safety - it's 40 pages but I just printed off a few. I found the safe swimming rules and buoyancy experiment especially useful.

The Wetlands

Made a trip to the wetlands this week. All were impressed! So much wildlife in such a small area. I'd like to go back again (with a bird book), maybe in the spring?

Animal Facts

The plan is to have the kiddies pick a favorite animal, do a little research and then tell us all about it at the zoo. Here are a few useful websites:

National Geographic Kids

Yahoo Kids

Camp Wild Things

Here is my list of fun things to do this week:

1. Go to the zoo
2. Go to nature park, bird watch and make nature bracelets
3. Outdoor scavenger hunt
4. Bug catching
5. Make grass seed heads
6. Make plant cuttings

Word Games

My preschooler has recently taken to sounding out words. I have found a few effective teaching tools for this reading stage:

1. Word Wheels

2. Upwords

3. And for the more advanced readers, my first grader loves this one.

Truck Obsession?

My little one has a truck obsession, just like his older brother. I remember driving to construction sites just for a half hour of sweet silence. Now I don't have to leave the comforts of home. This website has it all - truck pictures with labeling for all the parts (handy to have for those of with little construction vehicle knowledge). And the best part, short videos with the trucks in action.

More Mo Willems

I love reading to my kids, but I love it even more when I am entertained as well. And Mo Willems entertains with the best of them! Who thinks of a name like Reginald Von Hoobie Doobie? Mo does.

Our librarian was kind enough to tell us about the Pigeon Presents! website. It has great stuff: coloring pages, recipes, word searches, online games. Try the Elephant and Piggie Dance Game. Oh, we laughed and laughed.

Handwriting

I have a five year old that needed practice writing his letters in the correct direction and a three year old that needed help tracing her letters. Why not do it all at the same time? Using the Aquadoodle Wall Poster, one wrote and one traced. I love it when they help each other.

Then all three got in on the action.

Something tells me my baby is not ready for painting quite yet (and really thirsty). As far as art mediums go, I suppose water is as non-toxic as you can get. Mess-free, toxic-free, whoever invented the Aquadoodle is a genius.

Homemade Ice Cream

Interested in making your kids work for their dessert? Try this recipe for Ice cream in a bag. After just 5 minutes of shaking, we had homemade ice cream! Lots of possibilities with this recipe, next time we will try chopped fruit or cookies. If you want to make the activity educational, read this article for the scientific explanation.

This activity was for the unplugged project from the Unplug Your Kids blog. Head on over for more slippery ideas.

Summer Worksheets

Here's a scary thought: kids lose more than two months of learning over the summer (read here)! This statistic promptly lead me to search around for some printable worksheets, and this is what I found: Family Education's Summer Learning Guide. You can download a packet for every grade level (K-6).

Summer Reading Programs

Nothing's better than reading a good summer book, except perhaps when your child is reading a good summer book. Summer reading programs are a great way to keep those pages turning. Here are a few I found online:

Scholastic Summer Challenge

Barnes and Noble Summer Reading

H.E. Buddy Reading Club

Borders Kids Reading Challenge

Don't forget to check your local library!

Need a few ideas for fun books to read? Try the Amazon Reading Zoo, with favorite titles for every grade level.

Summer Activity Calendar

School days coming to a close? Don't panic, just be prepared. I found an activity calendar at PBS Kids that is sure to entertain and educate.

Joy List

Goldfish has a new campaign, Fishful Thinking, designed to help parents nourish optimism in their children. I signed up for the newsletter and found this idea:

"A simple way to create joy in your family is to ask each person to name three or four activities or situations that bring them joy - and list them on a piece of paper. Call it your joy list and post it on the refrigerator."

"Pay attention to how often you engage in these activities and make sure you spend time doing the things that bring each of you the most happiness." - Tips from Dr. Reivich

My joy list would start with Tillamook Mudslide Ice cream and end perhaps with jumping on a trampoline. I can't wait to take a joy inventory with my kiddies. Ah, so refreshing to put happiness on a to-do list (rather than something like vacuuming the stairs).

Click on the fish for more fun ideas!

Ten Fun & Educational Websites

1. howstuffworks

2. Crayola

3. Starfall

4. iKnowthat.com

5. Nick Jr.

6. PBS Kids

7. Scholastic

8. FamilyFun.com

9. Fun Brain

10. Encyclopedia Britannica