Monday's Discovery

Yesterday's post explained how J and I dyed playsilks. So, now I get to show you them in action...


I placed all of the pocket scarves into a tissue box and let Kaleb go.

and we played and played and drooled and drooled...

and then he came after me...

I think he likes the playsilk box. Not sure how long the tissue box will hold up but I can always find another one.

Hand Dyed Playsilks

This project has been bookmarked on my computer for over a year. I had always wanted to dye silks for creative play. So, while I was in 'Merica, I ordered some plain silk scarves from Thai Silks and bought several packages of koolaide. Getting J ready to dye the silks...

then stirring the koolaide into the hot water...

adding the silks to the water...

and hanging up our creations....

my favorite....our rainbow one!

Now for some tips and ideas about hand dyed playsilks. This project uses very hot water, so I suggest extreme caution doing this with a preschooler. J wanted to help and I was there every step of the way, always reminding her how hot they were. I purchased my silks from Thai Silks because they were the only ones that offered the small handkerchief sizes that I wanted to dye for Kaleb. I purchased the 27 inch squares for J and the 11 inch pocket squares for Kaleb. I now wish that I would have purchased the longer and larger squares for tent making and sorts. Next time... I also wish I would have used more yellow koolaide since the yellow turned out so light.

Now for some great links to help you get started....
Sara's Toy Box
stash junkie
Raising Olives

We had fun and we now have lots of playsilks to encourage our imagination.

How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World...(science)

We are still working on our book for the week and today, we began our Science explorations. Last night at dinner, we had an apple tasting party which the family tasted several different types of apples and determined their favorite. Sorry, no pics of this but one surprising fact - J liked the Granny Smith apple the best. That kinda surprised me since it was really tart. Granny Smith's are one of my favorites but it surprised me that she chose it.

J guessed how many seeds were going to be in her apple and then we cut it open to count them. She guessed only one but we ended up with eight seeds. We gathered the seeds to try to plant. I am not sure it will work but we are going to try it.

She looked at the seeds with her "microscope" -really her magnifying glass. Then she ate the apple while I read our book, A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond.

We began our Science experiment of what is left after salt water evaporates? J is boiling water.

She is adding salt to her water which we then ...

put into a pie plate and placed it in the sun. We will check it tomorrow and see what has happened to the water.

I leave you with a cheesy smile. We are off to make an apple pie and practice our math. See you soon!

How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World...(art)

We are still enjoying How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman. Today was a focus on art. In the book, there are several street scenes which we tried to create ourselves.

Using files from Homeschool Share, we created a street scene using paper lunch bags, beans, and crunched up paper (that we recycled). We glued on the pieces which I printed in color because I knew J only likes to do a certain amount of coloring.

We created a hat store, bookshop, market, treat shop, bakery and florist. J made me hang a "gone fishing" sign on the market door since that is what the girl found when she went to get the ingredients for the apple pie. I think they turned out cute but we will keep them out of the reach of destructo - Kaleb - as they would not make it. She will use these stores to recreate the story as well as just for play. Perhaps if I had enough milk cartons, then we could have had a 3-D version of the street. J was wondering why her people couldn't go inside of the stores.

I then drew a street scene on some paper that J proceeded to paint. I helped some - we were using the brushes that included the paint which can be nice for clean-up but difficult to manipulate. Your hands get tired of squeezing.

Here is our completed scene - kinda impressionistic huh? We are still working on modes of transportation. I found this cute wooden set for J to paint that will add to our street scene or just give her something more to play with.

Here she is painting....

and some of her creations....

We had an art filled day. Hope your day is eventful, in a good way.

How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World...(social studies)

Making an apple pie is an easy thing to do. Just gather the ingredients.....unless the store is closed.



This week makes the official first week of school here for not only my DH and Keke but also J. We began our week with Five in a Row. Five in a Row uses picture books to teach basic concepts throughout the week. Our first book was How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman. This has been one of my favorite books which I would teach a unit in third grade. So, naturally I was excited to share this with J.

The book involves a girl who is wanting to make an apple pie but she finds the store closed. So, in order to get the ingredients for this pie, she travels the world. She goes to Italy for the wheat, France for the chicken (for the eggs of course), and Sri Lanka for the bark of the kurundu tree (cinnamon) and so on... She uses many modes of transportation to get to her locations and then she shows how she makes her pie. In the end, she invites friends over to share the pie.

Using this book, we will work on learning the continents, some of the locations mentioned in the book, and we will discover different modes of transportation. For math, we will cut open an apple and count the seeds, we will learn about fractions (loosely, how to cut a pie for friends to have an equal share). Science will have us do an experiment with disolving salt water to see what is left behind and we will use our taste buds to try different types of apples to see which one we like best. We will make an apple pie (or maybe apple turnovers - I am not looking forward to making a pie crust by hand). We will create a street scene with paper bags for art and paint one as well. Language Arts, we will learn some vocabulary such as transportation, superb, and ingredients. We will be learning to write our letters correctly as well.

We began with reading the book and working on learning the continents. We played a "Twister" like game called Globe Trotting. Put your left hand on Africa. We just started learning the continents so it was more like "Put your left hand on yellow Africa." This game can easily be reproduced by using a clear shower curtain and some sharpie markers. I just happened to find this game among my many shopping adventures with my parents (love you) this summer.

Kaleb did not want to be left out so he joined in the game. He mostly chewed on the mat but he wanted to be right in there with his sister.

This is a game which jogs your memory about where the girl went, how she got there, and what she ingredient she attained. Many of the games and mini books we create came from the Homeschool Share website. I love that site!

We will be working all week on this unit so I will hopefully share more of our activities. Until then....

Monday's Discovery

Awhile ago, I was reading about Baby Discovery Boxes on The Imagination Tree and I bookmarked it for a later date. After our return, I decided to make a discovery basket for Kaleb. While we were in America, Kaleb and J fought over rubber duckies in the bathtub. So, I bought several packages of water toys when I came across them. I ended up with a set of ocean/pond animals and, instead of putting them in the tub, I placed them into a blue basket. This basket started out in the playpen but then J wanted to play with it, so it ended up here and there, all around the apartment. I found the water toys at Toys R Us and the Dollar Store. They are ducks, turtles, fish, whales and frogs. Here it is in action....

Sorry for the drool, I think he is cutting some molars....

This is my favorite pic. It really shows his eyes. He loves chewing on those as well as taking them out and putting them back in the basket. I can't tell you how many times I have picked up the toys and put them back together. I need to find a better system of rotating the toys. If I am tired of picking the same toys up, I can only imagine that he is tired of playing with the same ones!

After a long vacation.....

We are finally back here after a great visit in America. We were able to see family and friends that we have missed over the years which was great. With the help from my parents, the kids are set with winter clothes unless Kaleb has a major growth spurt from now til then. We were also able to spend time with Josh who was home from college. That was nice because I wasn't sure that we were going to be able to do that.

So we are back. I returned to a newly painted living room furnished klima (wow!) and a new rug. A nice surprise. The week we returned, I helped my DH paint the kids' room. Now that we have painted several rooms, it makes all of the rooms that aren't painted look dingy. But, since school started today, I don't think we will be painting anytime soon.

I would like to say thank you to all of my family and friends who made our visit to America memorable. I was dissapointed to go but I am praying that I will have the opportunity to visit again next year. I miss you all. Thanks for everything.

I am looking forward to a new school year with J and hope that you may enjoy our adventures as well.