adventures with color

I continue to do a "PeeWee Science Group" at my house once every two weeks.  This week we focused on primary and secondary colors. We read a few books on color, the most informative being "Adventures With Color".  It talked about how we use colors with stop lights, sports teams, holidays etc.  Then we sang the song "Primary Colors" several times as we used their egg cartons (painted in in the primary colors) and gathered matching paper clips.  We stuck 2 popsicles (food coloring in water) into 3 separate cups to mix the primary colors into secondary colors.  Next we mixed the primary colors into our ranch dressing to make the secondary colors... which brought us our snack--- carrots and dip!  Last but not least, we made a color wheel by using red, yellow and blue paint.  Okay so it sounds like we did the same thing over and over.  I guess we did.  Hopefully the repetitiveness helps them remember what they were taught :) 

afternoon with Tabor

Tabor and I were able to have some one on one time.  Tabor is an outdoors man so that is where we went.  It was fairly warm out on Friday.  Tabor thought it was swimsuit weather.  It only took a few minutes of being outside shirtless before I could easily convince him to put a sweatshirt on.  First we dug up carrots. I put the buckets of carrots on a stick so we could both carry it back to the house, just for fun.  He loved how it "hangs".  He figured out if we set it in between two things it still hung above ground.  He was convinced we needed a picture.  Then we got out the croquet stuff and set up an uniform course.  It was a lot of fun.  He can focus on a game a lot better without his sisters around to distract him (or argue with).

Nuts About You!

Pepper made her own Valentines this year. 

Ear Infection Cure

Both of my girls have had chronic ear infections.  Pepper went on one antibiotic after another.  I became determined to find a more natural way then tubes and antibiotics with Kitt. I have heard from SEVERAL sources that it is likely an allergy to dairy.  I believe that and have tried to keep her off, but it is just so hard.  I have tried Mullen Garlic and Essential Oils (melaluca) which seemed to soothe her long enough to fall asleep, but did not kick it.  The combination of Goldenseal (natural antibiotic) and Mullen Garlic does! In just a couple days she went from a flaming red ear infection to no trace of an ear infection.  It tastes nasty... but it worked!  And they are inexpensive in the natural section at Fred Meyer. What a find!

woods

Every time we go in the forest we learn new things (yes, I am back on the forest subject - I am a little obsessed).  We talk about what about smooth v.s. rough, where the roots they trip over are from, animals tracks, plant names, examine bugs, who eats what, all about life-cycles. Today the kids noticed a woodpecker tearing a tree to shreds. Look at the amount of chips at the bottom  of the trunk.  I think it was going beyond looking for bugs... it must of been building a home.  I love when they make new discoveries.

preschool books

My Grandma gave me a box of both coloring and preschool books from the 1960's.  Can I just say that I LOVE them.  I love the pictures.  I love how they are of the countryside and simple games.

Kitt's Kitchen Habits

Kitt feels the need to dart into the fridge whenever it is open.  She is pretty sure the bottom of the fridge is a seat made just for her.  She will just sit there and sip on her smoothie.  I probably should of cleaned the fridge before I took the picture but I feel that the fact Kitt sits there all the time will justify all the spots. Right? Her other favorite things to do is push the chair over to the sink and do the dishes.  13 months seems early for this stage.  But she just thinks she is the biggest girl.  I am pretty sure she has not realized that she is not the same age as Pepper and Tabor.

rain.

Pepper will grab her basket and Tabor his bucket and then ask to go collect things in the forest.  They get so excited when they find a leaf or pine-cone, as if they can't see the 20 ga-zillion other ones sitting right next to it. I think it is great and am slightly jealous of their enthusiasm for life.  As we arrive back to our house Pepper always goes straight inside. An hour of the wet & cold is about all she can enjoy.  The other two couldn't care less what the weather is like. They have felt this way since birth.  Tabor would never step foot into the house if I didn't make him.

Adaption. Migration. Hibernation.

I did our little preschool on "Animals in Winter Time".  For adaption we played a game where each child got to hide a nut and then the squirrels (other children) would come looking for it.  Then we made bird feeders by rolling a pine cone covered with peanut-butter in birdseed.  For migration we formed a V like geese and practiced "flying" in that formation.  We also read a book about whales migrating.  For hibernation we read "The Bear Snores On" and "Where Does Bear Go?"  I gave them a coloring page with a sleeping bear on it.  Their job was to make a nice warm cave for the bear.  Pepper glued grey circles (rocks) all around her bear.  Lastly, we taped animals onto a poster (that Pepper & I painted previously) into their proper homes.  I love how my kids always get excited for "preschool"... it makes me excited to prepare things for them.

Pepper, Tabor & Kitt

 I am down to only 2 people hanging on my legs 24/7.  Pepper has started looking at books, coloring, digging etc. on her own for an hour + at a time.  I am more efficient this way, thus giving me more time, to spend with her.  It is a happy little cycle. 

 Tabor said "Mom look at this picture I colored!"  I could not see a spec of ink on the page so I asked "What is it of?" in which he replied "It is Jesus getting baptized, he is under the water".  It was a blue paper.  I guess if it was white he would of seen a polar bear in a snow storm.

 When I made dough there was enough for two pizza's and then some.  Tabor insisted he used the extra dough to make his own pizza.  When we were sitting down to eat he asked where his pizza went.  Kitt had found it.

Each of these kids are sweet and enchanting.  Together they are chaos. But I love them!

little thief

When Pepper and Tabor were toddlers they would play with a toy for 30 seconds and then move on.  Neither concentrated on a activity long enough to be bothered when the other tried to take it over.

 

We now have that problem.  When Pepper colors Kitt tries to take the markers.  When Tabor builds a towers Kitt knocks it down.  This basically goes for everything they try to do.  In this case she kept taking off our tape "roads" and stealing the cars.  It is hard to get mad at her... she is so delighted whenever she takes something!