Trains

The boys LOVE trains, the girls also like trains (not as much as the boys, but still quite a bit) so it was definitely one of the kids favorite theme weeks we have done.

We started Saturday by taking the train to Union Station for National Train Day.  It was crowded, but we picked up some kids materials that we were able to use for the week.  We went home to get kids back for nap time.  Gavin was very upset that he hadn't seen enough of the trains yet.

We ended the week by going to Travel Town on Friday.  There were a couple of new Engines open for climbing on.  Brielle and Gavin took over the controls and were pretending to drive the Steam Train all over the country!

And as for the week in between...we played with trains A LOT!

National Train Day Activities

(well, at least a few of them.  I have a lot of pictures of various coloring, crafts and worksheets, but I'll try to keep it shorter)

The Junior Conductor Hats were a big hit.  I love what simple prop can do to get the imaginations going.

I loved the idea of these edible markers.  The train picture was printed onto the cookie.  Of course it didn't taste great, but the idea was fun and the kids enjoyed it.  Brielle kept licking her colors off so she could re-color again.

These Jr. Conductor books had a lot of information about trains and activities to do.  I loved Gavin's design of a train.  His had a swimming pool inside of it, and lots of wheels so it could go really fast.

Building Tracks 

  set it all up, take it all down a new track is exciting all over again the next day, or the next hour

we had train tracks stretching all over our front room 

The trains and tracks were the only toys we had out all week long.  They were very well used and the kids still didn't want to put them away at the end of the week.

 Books

TrainStop by Barbara Lemman was the one that was chosen the most.  It is a wordless picture book.  The kids also loved Dinosaur Train by John Gurney

I love The Caboose who got Loose by Bill Peet.  The story is too long for the younger kids to sit through, but the older kids enjoy it.

Preschool Pack Activities (links below)

numerical order and introduction to odds/evens by homeschool creations

measuring trains by 2 teaching mommies

First letter sound clipcards by 2 teaching mommies

Ethan just likes to put the clothespins on the cards, which is good fine motor practice.  Brielle easily was able to identify the beginning letter for each word.

Word puzzles by 2 teaching mommies

Preschool Packs (will also be used later this summer for our boat and airplane themes)
http://homeschoolcreations.com/transportationpreschoolpack.html
http://www.2teachingmommies.com/2011/02/ways-we-get-around.html
http://misskindergartenlove.blogspot.com/2011/05/community-helpers-transportation.html

Brielle's Birthday(s)

Brielle's 4th Birthday was on Wednesday.  She has been so excited for May to arrive.  We couldn't fit everything into one day, so the whole week was a party in honor of Brielle.

The celebrations started on Monday with a trip to Disneyland.  Spring Break season is finally over, so the lines have died down, making the park much more enjoyable.  This was are first time exploring Tarzan's treehouse (we've boycotted since it was changed from the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse).  The kids enjoyed it.  Every time I ask Brielle what she dreams about, the answer is Disneyland.  It was on the top of her list for things she wanted to do for her Birthday.

On Tuesday James had a meeting out in Culver City, so we dropped him off for work and spent the day at the LA Temple Vistors Center, the Natural History Museum (where we met up with Grandma and Aunt Alana) and the Beach.

I'd heard great things about the Visitor's center at the LA temple since it was redone, but hadn't taken the kids there yet.   I loved the setting for the Christus statue.

The kids were having so much fun at the beach, that I had random strangers ask if they could take pictures of them.

And I spied some people taking video of Ethan has he rolled around in the sand.  He has the potential to be a professional beach bum.

We concluded our celebrating on Wednesday with a family dinner party.  

After seeing the playable angry birds birthday cake a few months ago, Brielle decided that she wanted the same thing for her birthday.  I tried to change her mind to something easier, since I didn't think I could create those characters out of fondant (I've never worked with fondant and have no artistic ability.... it could have been a disaster.)  

My sister found this idea for angry birds cupcakes which looked much easier, so I convinced Ellie that she wanted cupcakes for her birthday instead.  I also loved the idea to turn balloons into the angry birds, which was an easy decoration.  Grandma Finlay got a slip n' slide which the kids had so much fun with.  

She loves all her presents.  And loves being 4!

Cousin Bonding

We had a visitor this weekend, well actually three of them.  My sister Shelly, her husband Zack, and their kid Morey all came out for a couple nights.  While Shelly and Zack went off and played at Disneyland, Morey got to hang out with us for plenty of crazy cousin memory making.

Can you believe these boys are only 6 months apart?  Ethan is at the top of the charts, Morey hangs out at the bottom.  There is a little bit of a size difference, but they loved playing together...

...most of the time.  'hey, you took my train!'

but, two seconds later they were sharing and playing together again.  I love how easy kids forgive.

 

Brielle was 'mothering' Morey all day.  All day she was saying 'Mom, do you want me to watch Morey for you?" Or 'Mom, can I hold Morey's hand so he doesn't fall in the water?"  She is a sweet girl, and a good helper.

We took a walk to the river to throw rocks.  I loved watching the different approaches from these three kids.  Ethan searched for the biggest rocks he could find to throw in.  Morey went for quantity, picking up rocks and dirt with both hands and throwing as fast as he could.  Brielle cleaned and polished each rock before throwing it.

As you can tell, the boys had a hard time resisting getting in the water.

So, then we went swimming to get all the splashing and water play out of their systems.  

Bugs

We stepped back a bit this week.  I let the kids be a bit more creative with free-play art rather than focusing on too much 'learning'.  They of course learn by everything they are doing, but I try to follow their lead and interest.  There is so much to focus on with bugs theme that I still want to have another week where we spend more time with the science and animal studies i.e. parts of an insect, insect vs. arachnid, where different bugs live and what they eat, etc.)  That is going to be later this summer when we do bugs week 2!

For this week:

Playdoh Bugs

The boys especially loved this project.  I love when I find something that can make Ethan hold still. (that is hard to do!) 

Here is one of Gavin's bug creations.  Of course we started building bugs, and then went on to build monsters.  And Gavin's favorite thing all week was making 'ghost snakes'. 

 Pattern Block Bugs

Gavin's caterpillar 

 

The set of pattern blocks I have comes with pictures that you match each shape to.  Because it is more challenging I have saved it for Brielle to do while Ethan is napping.  Now that he is *finally* getting a little bit better about not eating everything, I let him try playing with them for the first time.  He really likes puzzles, so when he tried it with a pattern to match (I didn't get a picture) he loved it!

It was another little-kid success.

Free Art

 I let the kids look at the insects in our book and decide what to make.

Lissy requested to make a blue butterfly.  She colored a coffee filter while I provided the clothes pin body. (we've make these kind of butterflies before). 

Outside Exploration

Mostly we spent a lot of time looking for and at bugs outside.  We found caterpillars (a huge fuzzy one!), spiders, pill bugs, earwigs, butterflies...and lots of others that I don't remember or can't name!

Letter Writing

Brielle really enjoys doing worksheets, so she did quite a few this week.  She practiced capital letters.

and we did our first practice with lower case letter writing, which she did great with.

it is hard to see with the yellow crayon, but this was the first time I realized she could write her name on her own.  (It is a mixture of capital and lowercase). 

Books

The Big Bug Surprise by Julia Gran was a favorite for all the kids.  It has fun facts about bugs that are told along with the story.

Bugs! Bugs! Bugs! by Bob Barmer had an audio CD that came with it.  We listened to it over and over and over again in the car.

I was showing the kids a clip on you tube about insects from Life.  We then found this t.v. series that the kids loved!  Each episode is only about 5 minutes long.  The kids thought the plots were very funny.

Easter

Family Easter Party

The Family Easter party at Aunt Eileen's ranch was amazing. Kids had fun, adults had more fun. We ate too much of really good food and consumed even more candy. Great memories!

Here is the entire group

It was a challenge to walk through the tall grass. Ethan did a better job at finding the eggs that I did! Maybe because he was closer to the ground and could see them better. He was very excited!

The kids scoured the field looking for every last egg. They wanted to make sure we didn't leave any behind.

And when they discovered all the candy inside, it was like little kid heaven!

We played a few games.

destroyed a pinata and had a whole lot of fun!

Easter Egg Dying

It is amazing how messy a simple project can be. Luckily we were prepared and stripped down the kids before we even started. It was a good thing to, because there were plenty of spills.

But of course, the kids loved it.

School Time

Sorting biggest to smallest. We used these before when we learned about N for nest. (yes, Ellie is dressed like a fairy. We had the dress up clothes out for the week, so there was a lot of costumes and pretend playing going on.)

Patterns (you can tell by Ethan's face that he didn't quite get the concept yet.)

Numbers (Brielle liked this, but it would have been fun if it was more of a puzzle. All the cut outs were the same. It would be fun to re-create making it a self-correcting game that you have to match the right number to have egg fit together.)

'Eggsercise' scavenger hunt. We used these action cards. (Each egg had a paper inside with an action to do like a bunny. Hop, wiggle your nose, munch a carrot, etc. )

Egg Science-soft shelled eggs

More Egg Science (one of my favorite experiments, the egg-in-the bottle trick)

The cooked vs. not cooked spinning test

Books

Happy Easter!