Hannah, My Black Eye Bee

Today in science, we discussed insects and what differentiates them from arachnids (spiders). (In case you did not know, there are 3 distinct differences: 1. 6 legs 2. 3 parts to the body and 3. Antennae)...

Well, after we finished, I sent the kiddos on an adventure with their binoculars that we made yesterday to find some insects. After a few moments, I realized Hannah was no longer outside. I begin to call her name and walk towards the side gate to see if maybe she, in some mysterious way, interpreted stay in the backyard as go to the front yard. As I round the corner to the gate, I hear a child made hum behind me. When I turn around, I saw a beautiful bee that just so happened to resemble my sweet Hannah!

Hannah, My Black Eyed Bee was oh so proud of her creativity... and so was her mommy! I think it is safe to say that she fully understood the lesson. ;-)

Bodyology with Mr, Slim Goodbody

What better time to study the human body then during Halloween?!?! When we were made aware of Mr. Slim Goodbody coming to town with his Bodyology tour, I knew that we had to go. . . And I am SO grateful that we did! The kiddos had SO much fun learning about how our body works through songs, pictures, and dancing!

I looked at the schedule the night prior and saw "9:00am" with the words "do not be late" in the email. So, since I am so incredibly smart, I read no further and made a mental note that we needed to leave the house by 8am so that we could be at the University of North Florida by 8:30. Since I can never leave on time, we did not, AND we had to make a stop to get some cash. Even with that, we arrived on campus by 8:30 - I was ecstatic, until I realized just how early we were! It turns out, that the show did not even begin until 10, so we had 90 minutes to kill on a college campus with 4 kiddos. . .

The stairs were a hit - and we even practiced out math!

4 kiddos (Robert, Hannah, Aahliya, and Wesley) - 1 kiddo (Wesley) = ???

4 kiddos (Robert, Hannah, Aahliya, and Wesley) - 2 kiddos (Aahliya and Wesley) = ???

This guy was swinging something that the kiddos thought was pretty cool!

Hannah was just taking it all in. . . she especially liked the lady with HOT PINK hair!

Wesley was a bit timid!

These raised square/platforms were a huge hit - Robert and Aahliya like to sit on the and just observe everything!

Finally, after waiting for over an hour, our group had gathered and we were ready to go in. My crew was SO excited - we had been talking about him for a while and watched some of it on the internet, but they were still quite timid! Aside from the circus that we went to with daddy, this was the only indoor theater/arena we had been to and they were scared!

Robert and his buddy Emily - she kept her arm around him and comforted him when he would get scared!

After they all calmed down and became somewhat comfy in their seats, I was able to get a few photos before the show began. Wesley is such a little squirt that he could not hold the chair down and that made for a great laugh!

And of course, since we are VERY early for the show, the show has to start late - Murphy's law, right?!

Finally, about 25 minutes after it was supposed to begin, Slim Goodbody made his appearance onto the stage and the kiddos went nuts! They were so excited. He sang. He danced. He taught us about our bodies. He invited kiddos (and teachers) onto the stage to help him. It was a great time had be all - my kiddos are still singing the digestion song!

By the time we left there, I had some hungry, cranky, tired, and fussy kiddos, but they all said that they had fun and as anyone knows, whether you are a parent or not, those few, simple words, make everything worth it! I am grateful that I had the privilege of enjoying this outing with my wee ones yesterday - without my fabulous husband, it would not have been possible, so thank you, my love for allowing us these opportunities!

The Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary

Last year around this time, the kiddos and I made candy corn/pumpkin rosaries. It was so much fun, that I made a mental note to do it every year. So, this year, I thought it would be perfect to make them today, October 7th, as it is the feast day for Our Lady of the Rosary.

We were all excited as we gathered all of the supplies - the candy corn. candy pumpkins. construction paper and poster board. hot glue and white glue. There was 1 big decision that needed to be made - do we make one big one (poster board and hot glue) or individual ones (construction paper and white glue). We took a vote and the poster board won - I think mostly because there would be more candy left over if we only made 1!
 
In making the Rosaries, we not only spoke about our faith and what the Rosary means to us, its history, etc, but we were also able to turn this into a math lesson as the kiddos counted out the candy corn and pumpkins. We also incorporated a bit of science as they ate the candy corn and tried to figure out what was in them - honey!

 

After we organized all of the candy corn into piles for the Hail Mary's and the candy pumpkins into piles for the Our Father and other prayers, we were ready to assemble the Rosary! The kiddos and I decided upon a shape and went to work. After we hot glues everything into place, Robert and Hannah decided to draw pictures of them and Holy Mary. Then, Robert wrote out Ave Maria for the center of the Rosary and it was complete. . .

 We are all quite proud of how it turned out and after nap, we will all say the entire Rosary using this as our guide.

Science Club ~ Dry Ice

We had been counting the days until this science club meeting. All the kiddos knew was that we were all required to have safety goggles for our eyes and that there would be something really neat! Above and beyond that, they had no idea! They all had their hypothesis as to what was going to happen, and they were all great ideas! The kiddos guessed everything from explosions to cooking. Bedtime last night was quite easy with the bribe of potentially missing science club today!

The white grape juice with dry ice.

When we arrived and the kiddos all sat down, they were finally told what we were learning about today : DRY ICE! They were quite excited, but they had no idea as to what it was! Ms. Kitty led the group and had purchased a kit from Steve Spangler Science. 

Our first experiment was putting a piece of dry ice and a piece of regular ice in seperate cups, allowing them to melt, and discussing what was left in the cup at the end. (The kiddos were beyond excited when, at the end of class, one cup had water and the other was empty! How crazy?!?!)

Our next experiment of adding dry ice to a pitcher of white grape and apple juice. The kiddos LOVED watching the bubbles through the pitcher! After the dry ice completely dissolved, each child was able to taste the juice of their choice. Robert chose the apple and was convinced it tasted like sour patch kids! The white grape remained unchanged according to the kiddos present!

Then, each kiddo was allowed to come up to the science table and hold a dry ice/soap bubble on their hand. They had to wear a glove or the bubble would burst because of the dirt and oils on their hands. Robert and Hannah had a great time with this one. Wesley wanted to try it for a while, so I put his goggles an glove on, but he became terrified at the last minute!

Let the hands on experiment begin!

Hannah was indifferent about holding it, but LOVED stepping on it!

Robert LOVED every minute of this!

He had trouble keeping his hand straight.

Little Robert has been speaking about these experiments all afternoon. He is desperate to try it again as he had THAT much fun! In fact, during our prayers tonight, when I asked him what he was thankful for, he said Ms. Kitty and all of her science fun! I think she made an impression on him.

Good Eats!

This week, we are discussing staying healthy. Our books have not been updated to the new standard of the "Food Plate" but the food pyramid is just as good at this age. As the kiddos know that they need to have a lot of color on their plates at meal times and that we need to try and stay away from junk, this way our bodies can grow and we can have a lot of energy. So, keeping it simple is the plan for now!

To help them better understand this, and to get a better look at fruits and veggies that they would not normally see at Publix, I took them to the Farmer's Market for the first time ever today! We became a little lost on the way there, but after we found it, we had a great time! The kiddos could hardly wait to see what was there!

Shopping bags in hand - ready to go!

Wesley was having a great time!

Robert and Hannah trying to decide what to buy!

For $14 - watermelon, 5 plums, 3 peaches, green beans, an onion, 3 bananas, a pineapple, 3 yellow squash, 3 HUGE carrots, and a HUGE container of strawberries. . . there might be something I am forgetting!

They has a great time!

Some of it post-wash

Sadly, only about 1/3 of the strawberries were good :-(

Roasted green beans for dinner - YUM!

All in all, we had a great time. I learned that I have to keep my eyes on not only the kiddos, but their shopping bags as well - There were many times where I had to return things to their rightful owner because over-zealous kiddos wanted them! I also learned that they will try a lot of different things when given the opportunity - Little Robert tried to bite a hot pepper!

They learned a lot about different fruits and veggies and were able to talk to some of the English speaking employees about where they come from and how they grow! One grandma even gave Hannah and Wesley samples!

We will definitely be going back as it was a great time by all!