"Living Things" Day One

     Our weeks of themed summer fun have kept us going.  We've been learning new things, experimenting, and tapping in to our deep creative side! This week (and possibly next week), we have chosen the theme of "Living Things." It's quite a big umbrella to tackle, so we are starting small and working our way up.
     Yesterday, Monday,  we learned about plants, what they need to grow and flourish, and some of the other living things that help them... bees.  We made our own flowers using toilet paper roll centers, and some construction paper, and bees using paper and craft sticks.  The boys loved learning about a bees "job." They got to practice is for themselves by playing with their own creations... pollinating flowers!

 Our next project was planting our very own tree!  This may have been their favorite part of the day!  They got to dig, make piles of rocks, and get really, really dirty! Daddy did most of the heavy lifting and digging, but our little guys were still a big part of this living thing!  Now we will have the privilege of watching it grow in front of our house for years to come!

Rocket Week!

      I decided about a month before school let out that I wanted to do this summer differently.  Not only did I want us to do normal fun summer things, but I was feeling really ambitious... we are going to do it all... books, projects science projects, crafts, experiments, cooking, art, music, letters, math, games, and every free community activity I can get my hands on. Well, not only all of that, but I thought, every week we will center all the activities around a special theme to pull it all together and really have an amazing summer! I know what you are thinking... she's crazy! Yes... a little bit. And of course over-ambitious on how much I can get done with a 6 year old, 4 year old, and a 9 month old baby.
     My inspiration for the theme idea came from all the summer's my mom did "summer camp" for kids when I was growing up. She always had a million crazy-creative-resourceful ideas that made every day a fun experience. That's what I want for my boys. I spent much of last summer very hugely pregnant... and very hot... and mostly in front of (sorry to say) some sort of kids show.  I don't want a repeat of that( the extensive tv time, not the pregnancy.. although I also don't want a repeat of that either)!!!
     So, the first week of no school and we are off to a pretty good start on ROCKET WEEK, which with a unanimous vote from the boys deserves an extension over through next week as well. I thought I would try to keep up on everything and post all the fun things we are doing throughout the summer. Here are some of the things we've done so far...

5...4...3...2...1...BLAST OFF!  This was our rocket snack... they even made it to the moon!

This is suppose to be a cardboard rocket... it turned out to be more challenging than I had imagined.

The love being the pilot (however, there is only room for one...)

Rocket activity/behavior charts and Rocket themed books

Lunch one day... (cheese roll-up rocket with red pepper wings)

This was a small experiment to show them how combustion works.

We did this experiment too about thrust... very simple. Wish I had gotten a picture of them doing this, they had so much fun!

We also borrowed a stack of books from the library all about space, the solar system, astronauts, and all things ROCKET! We are having a great time. Even though the days are really busy this way, it makes them more fun and purposeful. We're making messes, mistakes, and lots of memories and loving every minute