May Vacation!

We went to Tahoe for a few days over Memorial day weekend to celebrate Grammy's 85th birthday. 



First he needed a new "airplane shirt".  His old one still fits, but was looking a little sad.  I made this shirt from two adult size shirts cut up, and chose bright colors so he will be easy to spot in the airport.  I added some airplane appliques, and a stitched airplane.

The coolest part is on the back, where I added a bright red zipperd pouch.  Inside, I put his "ID card" which I printed out and laminated.  It has his name, birthday, and cell phone numbers.  It also has "I have food allergies" written at the bottom.
He got lost at an airport once, and I reported it immediately to the nearest gate desk, they had no idea what to do about it!   Lucky for me, he had been found by a mom of 6, who was traveling without her kids and spotted him on his own and took him to security.    He had his little backpack on that contained my contact information, but no one bothered to look at it.  
This shirt though, stands out, and Levi knew to show someone his "ID" if he got lost. 

I will add these to my shop soon, I think they would be handy for travel, or for trips to theme parks/zoos, or field trips - of any place you might be where your kiddo could get lost.  I'll have different applique options for the front as well!

Levi approved!

 On the plane, Levi always rides in his carseat (Radian XTSL).   I put it on a wheely cart I bought from Wal-mart for $12.  It rolls easily through the airport, and I can even let him ride in it if he is being lazy, or put his carry on bag on the carseat for easier carrying.   Its narrow enough to roll right down the asle too.   Its more comfortable for him to ride in his carseat on the plane, and I know it will be safe and ready to go when we arrive (have you seen how the baggage is handled?  no way would I let my carseat be treated that way!)

On this trip, we got lucky, and my dad got us upgraded to first class!   Levi always likes to get his headphones ready and read the safety manual while I get our stuff organized on board.  He does really well on the plane, listening to music, sleeping, and playing with his little toys - he is a good little traveler!

The day after we arrived, this is what we saw outside: 

Yep, the end of May and it snowed!   And check out the temperature...brrrrr..... especially when compared to 80+degree Florida temperatures!  

It would have been nice if it had snowed in the WINTER time, so we could actually take advantage of it and get some skiing in, but the weather was funny this year with not much snow.  

We had a fun birthday party for Grammy.  She invited some of her friends, and some of my parents friends were there, and we had a cook-out on the new grill we got!   The old one tried to burn my mom's eye brows off, so it was time to upgrade.  

I spent most of the day working on a flower bouquet cupcake display:

Grammy liked it! 

I took a head of lettuce, covered it with foil and then stuck it in a red flower pot.   Then I put short skewers all over the lettuce head and stuck the iced cupcakes in place.   There are two kinds, lemon cake with raspberry butter-cream, and chocolate with salted caramel filling and salted caramel butter-cream.    It took a really long time, but was not all that hard to do.    Impressive results though! 

It was a quick trip, but Levi always loves to see his Grammy!

Blueberries for Sal

We needed a project that we could get done in just one day, and I happened to have gotten "Blueberries for Sal" from the library.  

Printables come from Homeschool Creations.

First Levi made a mini book.  It includes different locations from the story, and cutouts of Little Bear.  The text includes positioning words so you know where to glue Little Bear on each page.   I had Levi do all the cutting and read the book to me when he was finished.

Next I laminated a "Read, Build, Write" worksheet that we can use in the future (I need to get some lowercase wooden letters though).   For this, Levi chose a flashcard with a word on it, read it, "built" it with the wood letters, and then wrote it.   

 

The whole time we were doing the above activities, Levi was also eating blueberries.   With the rest, we made jam.

1. Put blueberies in a pan

2. Add a big squirt of lemon juice

3. Add a big squirt of agave (or honey, or put some sugar in there)

4. Cook at a gentle boil until it looks like blueberry jam.

5. Eat.

 

While thats cooking, remove a spoonful of juice and use it to tye dye a scrap of fabric.  And squeeze the fabric into a little bowl and use it as paint!

 For this one, Levi had to read the word on each bucket, and write the number below the word.  Then he used a pencil eraser dipped in blueberry juice to dot on the right number of blueberries.

The juice changed from purple to a blueish color when it dried. 

Next we did some math.  I gave him math problems, and he had to find the right number of blueberries to put in the bucket, and then give me the answer.   I think next time it would be more fun to use actual blueberries in an actual bucket, or at least pom poms.  I could also have him write down his math equations and record his answers.   I saved this one to use again. 

And these are the crafts we did:
Tye dye fabric, dyed with blueberry juice.

Blueberry pie - this looks simple, but actually involved several skills.  First he colored the background with a lite tan color, he had to cover all the white paper.  Then he traced a small bowl and cut out the circle.  Then he cut strips to make the cross hatching.  He used a large hole puncher to punch out all the blueberries, and finally glued it all together (I made the edge crust)

The basket of blueberries was made with a cork as a stamp, and Popsicle sticks for the basket. 

And that's it for a few days, we are on vacation!

Butterflies

In our garden we have a milkweed plant, which is a favorite of Monarch butterflies.  We found some caterpillars on it, and put them in our butterfly net to observe.  

Just like the "Very Hungry Caterpillar" first they ate and ate (and pooped) and ate some more.   One, and then the other formed a "J" shape at the top of the net and shed their skin one last time forming the chrysalis.   

Monarch butterflies have a chrysalis that is bright green with a ring of gold dots around the edge.  

When the butterfly is ready to emerge, the chrysalis turns dark.  Here you can see that the one in the background is about to come out! 

And here it is!

We released them in the garden, in the same spot we had found the caterpillars.

 

Levi's lapbook is made mostly of printables I found online.  For this one, there was a a LOT of color printing, and the questions were pretty specific-  I think I prefer the format that allows for a little more creativity. 

A couple of the pieces came from Lapbook Lessons,  and the rest comes from a Magic School Bus printable. 

Stress balls, splash bombs, and a Glowing bath

Yesterday, it rained in the afternoon, so we did some indoor activities.  

We made "stress balls" from balloons.  These can be used for sensory play and help to strengthen little hands and fingers.   Kids can also describe them, and compare them

Fill the round part of a balloon, use a funnel and a chopstick if its tricky.  Tie a knot and pull it tight.  Take a second balloon and cut off the 'neck'.  Stretch it over  your filled balloon to hide the knot, you can add a third layer for added strength if you want. 

*tip: use large, good quality balloons, dollar store balloons don't hold up well.  

Filling ideas:

flour

sand

salt/sugar

rice

lentils

small pasta

beans

water beads

play doh

cornstarch

cornstarch and water

hair gel

flax seeds 

beads

buttons

Flour in the red one, and rice in the yellow.

 

We made sponge bombs (and tested them in the bath).   

They are super quick to make: 

Cut 2-3 sponges in strips the long way (I got 3 strips from each of ours)

Bundle them up, and put a zip tie around the middle.  Pull tight, and then cut off the excess zip tie. 

Get them wet, and throw them!

And the best part of the bath, was that it GLOWED!

I picked up a blacklight from walmart similar to this one, but half the price, and just to try it out, I set up a glowing bath for Levi.   I just used some things from around the house, but next time we will try some more stuff.

Glowing solutions:
Ink from a yellow highlighter (just remove the sponge tube from the marker, and put it in water)
Tonic water (glows a bright blue)

And other glowing elements:
glow in the dark bugs, stars, etc (I could only find 2!)
neon objects (maybe try a dollar store or party store to find some fun stuff! )
white objects (I put some white yarn bits in the bath)
water beads hydrated in yellow highlighter water or tonic water (tonic water will need to be watered down with regular water, for some reason they wouldn't hydrate in just tonic)

I also added:
clear cups
plastic test tubes
a big neon green bowl
funnel

Ladybugs

On our way home from a homeschool field trip, we stopped by Rockledge Gardens, which is a huge gardening store that has a little of everything.   You could spend hours in there looking around.  They even have a butterfly garden and a kids play area.

On our way out, I saw a bag of ladybugs, so they came home with us for our garden.

First we put them in our butterfly net, and watched them for a little while

 Then we let them out near the garden...

This one liked Levi's crazy hair...

 

Levi thought they might be thirsty after being in their little bag (he brought them a whole glass of water).  So we decided to give them a wet piece of napkin, and sure enough, they flocked to it.

These little guys kept Levi entertained for hours, and they are a good addition to our garden, maybe they will take care of whatever is eating the basil.  

Sight Word Candyland

Levi really enjoys playing games, but has outgrown some of his old favorites.  I turned Candyland from a color based game, into a sight word game simply by writing sight words on the playing cards with a sharpie. 

A quick and easy modification that resulted in a game that reinforces sight words!

Sewing for me - Romper

And just to show that I do make something for myself every once in a while....

Maybe a little dorky, but its super comfy!