Reading/Boredom Buster Treasure Hunt

The children played their happy, little hearts out with their yellow play dough at our yellow birthday party. But, the party is over, and the play dough has become yesterday's toy. So, I thought I could recycle it into a reading/boredom buster activity, sort of inspired by Steve Cohen's Learn-to-Read Treasure Hunts, which I used with my older children, when they were first learning to read.



I started with an inexpensive Lego set, the kind that takes the kids about 5 minutes to put together, play with, and then forget. You could probably find an even less expensive, generic version. Or, better yet, pull Legos from your children's existing stash, along with instructions printed off the Lego site, to rebuild an old, demolished, Lego plane, or car.



I made a list of clues/directions. Actually, I made two lists. One, to be cut up an placed with the Lego pieces, and another, so I'd know where to hide each set of pieces. The clues were written with simple words, for my early readers.

I placed each clue, and a few of the Legos into separate, snack size, plastic bags.

Then, I wadded the bags up, as tiny as possible, and placed them into globs of play dough, using a tooth pick to number the top of each glob, so using the master list, I'd know where to hide them.



My intention was to bake the play dough globs, hardening them into "treasure stones", an idea I got from John and Danita Thomas, in one of their Kid Concoction books. Their ideas haven't always panned out so well for us, so I was worried as I placed the play dough into the oven. I wondered if, even at the lowest heat setting, the plastic bags would melt to the Legos, and ruin everything.

It was about that time I started wondering why I was ruining perfectly good play dough, anyway. After all, just because the children were bored with it right then, didn't mean they wouldn't want to play with it again tomorrow. I started thinking, maybe the "stones" didn't need to be hardened, to make the "treasure" fun to find. So, I quickly snatched them back out of the oven, and placed each "stone" into a separate Ziploc bag, and hid those.





My youngest three (ages 4-7) had an excellent time searching for, and discovering, the treasure.

They didn't even notice they were reading. Well...maybe they did notice, but they didn't care.

The hunt lasted for just over a half hour, and then they played for an additional half hour with the Lego set, and the play dough, which suddenly was fun again.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Children's Garden Journals

We checked out Zinnia's Flower Garden, by Monica Wellington, very early in the spring, when we were just beginning to dream of gardening. It's a colorful, well written, informative book, about one girl's love of gardening.

The story follows Zinnia through an entire year of planning, planting, caring for, and laying to rest her garden. Each step of the process includes numerous, helpful gardening facts, and tips. But, what caught our attention the most was that Zinnia, recorded each step in her own, special, garden journal.

My plan was to read the book with the children, and then have them put in their own small gardens. But, that was about the time it snowed...and then the snow turned to weeks of rain. So, by the time we planted our seeds, the book had long since been returned to the library. But, both of my older girls followed Zinnia's example, and are faithfully (or as faithfully as is possible for a 9 and 11 year old) keeping garden journals of their own.

Some of the spelling is pretty atrocious, but the pictures are fun to see. And, I'm making mental note of words we need to work on later, so I can let them journal freely, without correction, now.

After the initial excitement of recording about the seeds, and how they were planted, their entries fell into a steady rhythm of recording whether they had to water (clearly, the picture to the right is from before our Science Sunday, watering can project), or whether it had rained that day.

But now...



...things are starting to get exciting.

For more story stretching arts and crafts, check out this week's stART (story + ART) link-up, at A Mommy's Adventures.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Wordless Wednesday - Parting's Sweet Sorrow

It's always so nice to see Grandma arrive, and so sad to see her go!

Linked to Wordless Wednesday at 5 Minutes For Mom.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Simple, Sunshiny Yellow Birthday

A year ago today, we had a purple birthday party.

The theme request wasn't too surprising, since my youngest's favorite color is purple. This year though, I was all geared up for princesses, a tea party, or even Fancy Nancy. I was a little surprised when she requested a yellow birthday, instead. I even tried to get her to elaborate - yellow flowers? yellow princesses? maybe, yellow bugs? But she stuck to her guns - just yellow.

So, it's a yellow cake, yellow pinata (click here, to see how to make one), filled with yellow candy, accompanying yellow decoration. To be followed by...

• yellow play dough fun (click here, for the recipe).


• yellow balloon bop - where the balloons can't touch the floor


• yellow freeze dance - where the children dance, while the music plays (something like The Beetle's Yellow Submarine song), and then freeze as the yellow object called out, when the music is stopped (sunflower, banana, shooting star, etc.)


• and blowing bubbles in a pan - which is not yellow, but is a favorite of the birthday girl.
  

And, given that the gray, cold, rainy weather has returned today, I really couldn't think of a better theme, anyway.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

A Deadly Yarn Review

I continued on with Maggie Sefton's Knitting Mystery series for my 8th entry in the 2010 Thriller & Suspense Reading Challenge, at Book Chick City.




A Deadly Yarn, is the third book in the series, which by this point is settling into a nice rhythm of Colorado life, alpaca farming, private consulting, soft ball games, and of course, knitting, and murder. It's picked up just enough soap opera quality in the story lines, to draw the reader on into the next book, despite what they might think of the actual mysteries.

And, the mystery in this case, was weak. It was almost an afterthought in the book, staying just present enough to join in the action of the story from time to time. Even the conclusion was somewhat humdrum, no great thrill, or excitement. The killer was confronted in a crowded room, by the amateur sleuth, while the police waited patiently, nearby, to step forward, and apprehend him/her at the right time.

Really, A Deadly Yarn, is a story about...yarn, and knitting, and a love of Colorado. It's a friendship story. And, from that respect, it works.

At the back of the book, there are a few recipes, this time for spicy southwestern food, which I haven't been able to eat since the birth of my second child. So, sadly, even though they sounded tasty, I didn't try any of them. And, while there are a couple of knitting patterns, too, I'm finding that even though I'm making progress with Knitting for Dummies, Kelly Flynn, the stories heroine, is progressing at a much faster pace.

Kelly has the constant help of her circle of friends at the local yarn shop though, many of whom are master knitters, and or spinners. We have a yarn shop in town, and I'd be tempted to seek out help there, but it's one of those shops that has a sign warning unattended children will be given an espresso, and a free puppy. The espresso doesn't bother me, but what would I do with six puppies?

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Kids Bolo Tie Craft for Father's Day (maybe)

The younger kids are in VBS this week, with a cowboy theme, like many around the country. I don't usually like to blatantly rip other peoples crafts off, but the craft they brought home yesterday, was so clever, and has so much potential to be reworked into a Father's Day craft, that I just can't resist sharing it - but I will let the craft leader know :)

They started with a star shaped piece of card stock, which they decorated with stickers, and jewels. For Father's Day, I think an oval with a picture of the kids glued on, framed with braided yarn, or twine, would work great.

On the back, they tightly, taped on a couple of 1/2 inch pieces of straw, side by side, through which they laced a black shoe lace, so it looped at the top.

Below the star, they laced both ends of shoe lace through one bead.

Then, they laced a few extra beads on each end, and tied knots to hold them. If you're making this for Father's Day, you might want to choose manlier colors for the beads, or use homemade play dough beads, even.

The star slides up, down on the lace, because of the straws, and can be held in place by the bead. It works perfectly - very slick.

It's great to be a homeschooler (but then, sometimes it's great to have outside influence, too!)

Happy Flag Day!

It never really feels like a holiday around here, until I've posted some messy, sugar cookie shots. So...

...happy Flag Day!

It's great to be a homeschooler.