Dance Camp

Elli did Princess Ballet Dance Camp this week. Needless to say she LOVED it.  

My sweet Elli' Bell - when did you get so big?!?!

Transportation Unit

So we are headed out to Maryland this weekend so that I can get certified in Turbo Kick (more information on that later!)  I spoke with an old friend who is an amazing mom with tons of ideas for how to really have fun with her kids.  She told me one cool thing around is a playground that is right by the airport so the planes come down really low and close to the park.  I decided that would be a fun thing to do while we were there, but you know I just HAD to make it a theme. So - transportation it is!

Prewrite - get the plane to the cloud

Size sort - small medium big. She actually just did this for a minute and then played forever with the little cars pretending they were little families.  Gave me time to get dinner ready - bonus!

More Butterflies

We haven't been consistent with our butterfly unit and I hate that.  I wish we could have a consistent time everyday but with VBS and vacation and work and furlough - it just hasn't happened.  Still I'm glad to get in a little here and a little there.  Our summer has been FULL of learning so I won't beat myself that it isn't in a nice/neat/pretty little package. I have to be more flexible right?

Yesterday Jackson took a long nap so we had time to read the Very Hungry Caterpillar and then retell the story with pictures.

Butterflies...

We decided our next unit would be on butterflies but we haven't had a lot of time to do much with it.  It has been CRAZY AROUND HERE these last few weeks and I'm ready for our trip to Florida so we can slow down. I've been running my two week summer program here for our refugee students and I also decided to start being a coach for Beachbody.  Elli has had swim lessons every day at 5 and you can imagine the craziness that we have had.  So butterflies will probably take a few weeks to get through.  When we get back from Florida though, we have NO MORE PLANS for the rest of the summer so I will be chilling with my kids and just enjoying each other.

Sorting Upper and Lower Case "c's" for caterpillar

Ice Cream Observations

Today's ice cream work was figuring out which ice cream was different worksheet. Then, on to the ice observations.  We got to use our 5 senses to observe our ice cream.  As you can imagine, this was a favorite.

More Ice Cream "Fun"

The Ice Cream unit is not going as well as I had hoped.  The books weren't available at the library so we haven't been reading about ice cream but we are still going through with it. Yesterday Elli was in a mood so she wasn't really into our play doh ice cream counting shop.  Oh well - we'll try again tomorrow.

Sorting hot and cold - she liked this one

See that face? Nothing is getting done when is in this mood...

Hey!  I like play doh!!!

All better after a talk about hard work.  Here we are sizing our ice cream cones.

Ice Cream Week

Today we started a unit on ice cream.  All week we will do ice cream activities. 

 I think we will both like this one!

Playing ice cream shop.  How many scoops do you need?!?

Day Four - Beach!

So I had planned to take the kids to another museum today but when we went outside it was so pretty, I decided to try the beach by myself.  Elli promised to be my big helper and she did great!  We got there about 9:30 and it wasn't crowded at all. We played in the water, searched for shells, and did a lot of digging.  Jackson was really cranky by 10:45 (I think he is more like his Daddy and doesn't really like the beach) so we had to go. I think Elli and I would have stayed all day.  We came back and hit up the hotel pool for a few minutes.  It was a fun morning and showed me I really can do anything with the kids. Elli has been super responsible and helpful so we are able to get out there and explore. I'm sad today is our last day of vacation.  It has been nice trying out new things and spending down time with Jacob when he comes home from work. All in all, I'm really glad we did this!

 We do some ocean work every night while Jackson settles down.  Last night we did gold fish counting and measuring with gold fish.

Ocean Trip!

So we made it!  An eight hour trip took ten hours but that's ok.  We had two good stops to get out and stretch our legs.  I mean, it wasn't like a big ball of fun or anything, but we made it here to Jacksonville Florida.  This first day Jacob has been hanging with us and he'll start working tomorrow so that will change things a bit.  Everyone (including Mommy) was cranky this morning with a lack of good sleep but after naps, things turned around a bit.  It hasn't been "smooth sailing" (you know I'm all about honesty) but I think we will be glad we did this together.  Here are some photos from our first day.

Trying out the hotel pool.  This went quite well as Jackson really liked his float!

Of course then Elli had to use the float

Ocean size sorting...

Counting out spikes for our sea urchins

These pictures capture the first time we have ever really been to the beach to play.  Let me tell you - it was a hit!  Jackson did JUST what I thought he would do, sit in the sand and dig.  Elli did just what I thought she would do, run around like a crazy person.

What could be better?  An entire beach to dig dig dig!

Jumping the waves