Adventures of Evie

  We're kicking off "E" week by making our handprint animal. This week we chose to do an elephant. I saw some cute eagle handprint crafts but this one seemed easier and Evie really likes elephants too. She's eagarly awaiting G week so she can do her favorite animal; the giraffe! We had cooking day today too! I typically save cooking for later in the week but this one just fit in so well with elephant day that I figured why not. We made these faux elephant ears (they're cinnamon rolls folded differently) and Evie use the extra dough to cut out some elephant shaped "cookies" that we put cinnamon and sugar on top of.  She had a lot of fun playing with the extra dough too! :)

  It's been a crazy week so today we decided to have some fun! Evie is a big Harry Potter fan even though she's only seen the first two movies and we haven't worked through the books quite yet. She's still a little young for some of the content but she loves to hear the stories anyway. So today we decided to use a fictional place to round out our week. We read some of the Tales of Beetle the Bard, had a "Quidditch match" in the living room, decorated a wand for her, and sorted her into a house. Then we finished it up wtih a potions class. For her sorting ceremony I set out four cups and she chose the one she wanted.  I gave her a bottle of vinegar and when she squeezed it into the cup it revealed her house! Ravenclaw it is! She loved the sparkles I put in here too. I suspect when she is sorted later in life she will turn out to be a Hufflepuff rather than a Ravenclaw BUT as a fellow Ravenclaw myself I wasn't sad to see her choose this cup. She definitely d...

  We're still a little behind today but I think I've got most of our week caught up so we should be back on track tomorrow with activities. Today we did some work sheets once I got my printer connected and running and then we had cooking day! Evie was so excited about these donuts. My mom used to make them for us when we were kids and this is Evie's first time making or eating them. It's super easy too! You just cut a can of biscuits into halves or quarters, fry them in oil or your air fryer and then shake them in sugar, cinnamon sugar, powdered sugar, or whatever you fancy. I would typically use a paper bag because the plastic one CAN melt but it worked out pretty well. They were a yummy end to our day! 

  Today was another ill planned day. It figures the one week I didn't prep a ton in advance is the week my PC dies with all my folders of plans and activities. I would typically back all of it up but it also just happened to be back up week and somehow the cord for my hard drive was missing so....just a great big forget you from mother nature. But we made the most of it anyway. Evie had a lot of fun with free play today and we played with dolls together, did a few rounds of princess guess who, pulled some fun things out of her boredom jar and of course we had dance this evening too. Her teacher is finally back so she's starting to learn actual dance routines now which is cool. She is definitely the most colorful and excited person in her class! She gets REALLY into it and she's very pumped to be there and dancing. I'm not sure how she'll do with the choreography, but we'll see as she continues to go. Our handprint animal this week was a dinosaur! She really want...

  Today did NOT go as planned. It was supposed to be D is for dinosaur day but this morning around the time Evie got up my computer decided to shut itself off and be done for eternity. Since I work from my personal PC this is a huge issue so Evie ended up playing with play-doh, watching some Blippi, and singing with her karaoke machine while I called around to see about getting it repaired and trying to repair it myself. Ultimately, we ended up having to buy a new PC which was not the most fun use of our day (or money lol). Later we went to my moms for family night. We had a lot of fun playing games and having birthday celebrations for loved ones. ;) Tomorrow will be another unplanned day since we have to set up the PC and I'll have work to catch up on but at least we're getting back on track! 

  Today we played dress up and Evie had a ton of fun making up stories about far off kingdoms and princesses and dragons. She has a TON of dress up stuff and it made today a pretty easy activity which is always a good thing on a Monday!  Then we used some toilet paper rolls (and an old HTV roll we cut into three) to make some little houses. Evie used her little Polly Pocket dolls to make up stories about who lived in each house and what they were doing with their day. She loved choosing the colors for each door and window too and after we colored them all in (we used the computer to color them before we printed them out) she got to choose how to set up each house. It was a fun day for both of us and even though we still miss summer and having fun outside, we're enjoying coming up with indoor activities too. ;)

  Today is the last day of "C" week. I work from home and Evie always has a lot of questions about it and she likes to pretend she works from home too so today we decided to print up this little work from home kit and talk about careers. We've had Career Week so this topic isn't new but it's always fun for Evie to learn about different jobs people do and it's a good opportunity as well to teach her about the kind of possibilities that are available to her as she grows up as well.  We practiced some writing and learned about bakeries, garbage trucks and recycling today with some printables from Sago Mini . It was a shorter day for us again (last short day for awhile) so these kept her occupied for most of the day. Worksheets aren't always my favorite activity but on the flip side, Evie is so close to kindergarten at this point that it does help to get her sitting still for periods of time! She did a lot of letter practice today making her bakery menu and s...

  Today is C is for Chupacabra day! This is one of Evie's favorite books and its one that I have a TON of fun reading to her. In her book, the little goat has to find a way to keep a Chupacabra from eating him and in the end they decide to use plantains made into goats to make him happy. We didn't have any plantains, but I had Evie use banana chips to make different animals and shapes and as a bonus, she got to eat them at the end! It was a shorter day for me today and since Evie got up a little later than normal this was the only real activity, we ended up doing for the day other than our normal routines. She's doing really great with recognizing and writing her letters which is really exciting to see! :)

  Today was C is for Columbia day. It's also cooking day and since Evie's current favorite Disney movie takes place in Columbia we decided to use it as a base for today's activities. We started by making a family "parrot" We started like a family tree and Evie added some people as well. Anytime we do family activities like this it's a good opportunity for us to talk about how families are more than just blood relatives and how everyone's family looks a little different. Even at 4 she has already had some people say hurtful things to her about the way her family looks and honestly even if she hadn't it is never a bad thing to teach kids that family is not always a mother, father and kids. It can look really different for everyone and that's OK.  After that we talked a little about where Columbia is, how the weather looks there, and the animals that live there. Evie learned a lot about the equator today too! Then we set about our cooking activity! Th...

  Yesterday our plan originally was C is for Cheetah. So today we did our handprint activity for the letter so we can add it to our handprint book. Along with some practice making the letters we've been talking about the sounds they make so today while we wrote "C's" we also talked about how they sound (typically lol) and I had her guess some words that might start with "C". She's been doing really well with it so hopefully we can start to work with reading more words soon. Then we moved on to our planned activity today which was race cars! I got this kit from KiwiCo  and it has a few cars to put together and race and then a truck you can create a stamp out of. She helped me build all the little cars and make the stamp wheels and then we tested it out! The stamp truck was pretty cool and she really loves stamps. She was also really interested in how it makes the pattern and what happens when you change up the shapes. I really like the Kiwi Co boxes but ...

  Today originally had a different theme but last night it started snowing and Evie has been SO excited for snow. Ever since she found out it was winter she's been talking about going out and making a snowman and running around in the snow. This morning when she woke up and saw that there was still a blanket of it on the ground she insisted that we had to go out and play. So we changed it up, I took an early day from work and we went out to make the most of it while it lasts. We sledded, we had a few "snowball" fights, and then I brought her some fun stuff to play with while I took care of the grown up snow day responsibilities (like shoveling the walk and drive). She really loved filling this little Pusheen ice pop base up with snow and using her snow paints to make it colorful. But she had fun using them to draw in the snow too! The snow was pretty wet and it's not going to last for more than a few days so I'm happy we got to have a short day and play in it for ...

  Friday is finally here and today is B is for Banshee day. One of Evie's favorite books is this one, called Hush Now, BANSHEE!  She loves this whole series of books by Hazy Dell Press but the banshee book is definitely her most favorite. She was very excited to read the book to me today and after we finished some practice on the letter B and the number 2, we made some banshee's of our own! We traced her hand on blue construction paper to make the shapes and then she got to use monster stickers, glitter glue, and fuzzy pipe cleaners to finish them up. She had a lot of fun making them and they turned out pretty cute too!  Next week we are starting the letter "C" and the number "3"! :)

  Today was PJ movie day! We have one per month and it seemed like a good day to have one, so we had B is for buttered popcorn today! Evie made her very first batch of popcorn in the microwave which was a bit of a challenge. We burnt the first bag. We typically make it on the stove top with kernels, so it's been a while since I did a bag in the microwave like this but round two was more successful!! We did some worksheets during the day and then in the afternoon we made our popcorn and settled in to watch the movie... which was Encanto! It's a cute movie but I think some of the deeper meaning of it went over Evie's head. Still it's enjoyable for both of us and it's got a lot of good talking points which is nice too. Tomorrow is Friday and we're doing monster day so stay tuned to see what we get into!

  Today is B is for Brazil day! Today we played with her rainforest tube, dressed up like birds, and made a little clay bird as well. Evie had a ton of fun with today. We made the little bird first out of clay, felt feathers, toothpicks and some paper. Then we made a bird mask and a cape that Evie buttoned more feathers onto. We talked about the rainforest of Brazil and Evie learned a lot about the equator and how places that are close to it are much hotter than here. Primarily we focused on the Amazon rainforest today and talked about animals that live there, how the climate is, and how each animal that lives there is suited to that environment. We did talk a little about the culture of the country in general though, the language, people, and foods. When she's older it will be fun to try out foods from different countries with her but she's a bit young for that now and in a phase where new foods are not her friend. We also had dance tonight!  Evie's regular teacher has bee...

  It's day two of B is for week and today we had our princess day. We played with a Belle sensory bin which Evie loved. It's hard to tell from the photograph but the rice in this bin is gold and sparkly. She also loved playing with all the little gems and guessing what color they'd be when she flipped them over from their silver side. We colored a lot today and practiced writing letters again. We also worked some on the number 2. Her numbers up to about 15 are pretty solid so we're not doing a super in depth review of them until after 10. But we are talking about them and also working more on her counting in general. In the afternoon we made a berry crumble that we could eat after dinner.  Today is usually our family dinner night but everyone was sick this week so we decided to post pone it! Tomorrow we are learning about a new place so stay tuned to see what it will be! :)

  This week we are starting the letter "B" for our review. Today we did some practice writing the letter and then we made some paper tear butterflys. Evie had a lot of fun putting this together and gluing on the pom balls. She also had fun doing the worksheets even though she doesn't love sitting still to do them! We did one today where she had to choose the items that started with the letter "B" and it was a good opportunity to talk about letter sounds and how we can sound things out to see how to spell them. We've worked a little bit on spelling and reading and she can recognize a few words but she spent a good half hour today trying to guess (and mostly succeeding!) what letter certain words started with by sounding out the first syllable. These weeks aren't quite as fun as the themed ones we've done in the past but she's learning so much and that's the important thing. ;)

  Today is library day and it's also the last day of A is for...week. One of Evie's favorite books right now is Anne of Green Gables the adapted version for kids. It's super cute and it also has lots of interactive parts which she loves. So today we had A is for Avonlea day. We had "raspberry coridal" and "plum pudding" for snacktime (it was fruit juice in a fancy cup and pink vanilla pudding) and we also got to go to the library and pick out some new books for the week.  We also went to the grocery store today and got some stuff for next weeks lunches and dinners. We had to get some ingredients for smoothies since we drink them around snack time and occasionally in the morning. This week we tried some new recipes and ended up with an apple oatmeal, chocolate pudding, and peanut butter and jelly one. Evie enjoyed trying them all out and helping me measure and freeze them. Next week we start a review of "B" and the number 2. :)