Adventures of Evie

  Today it was gloomy and rainy so we decided to do a fun craft and make some boats! We got a paddle boat kit from KiwiCo and it was a lot of fun to decorate them and even more fun to wind them up and watch them go! We decorated the sails with rainbows... And pieced together all the parts while we talked about why boats float and how the rudders work and how the paddle helps the boat move. She liked learning about the parts but what she liked the most was winding them up and setting them on their way! 

  Everyone was finally feeling themselves today but it was raining outside...of course. So we used our morning to make a stomp rocket in the garage. Luckily by the time we finished up lunch and had it completed the rain had let up just enough that we could test it out. We had a few competitions to see who could get their rocket to go the highest and at some point Evie sent one off that we couldn't find. Anywhere. We looked and looked and looked. School time came and we gave up but when I got back home I finally spotted it. From our second story window you could JUST see it peeking out of the top of this tree. So I grabbed my ladder, a broom, and some tennis balls and eventually I got it out!  She definitely won that round!

Today Evie wasn't feeling the best and it was chilly outside so we decided to make the other half of our puzzle project. Evie built a mirror box to wear on her face. After we got it built she got to wear it and try to put her puzzle together. This turned out to be trickier than she thought it would be and it was hard even for me to get my puzzle matched up!  After we finished making our puzzles we tried writing our names with the box. This was even HARDER. I told her it was easy and wrote mine in a flash and then later when she tried it and couldn't get it at all I told her how I really did it -- by closing my eyes!! We had a lot of fun trying to write backward though! This was a fun project. :)

We are still working on space and astronomy and today we made a space spinner. Evie got to build this and add the little light up sun, and earth and a moon and then she got to spin it around to see how the Earth orbits the Sun. As we spun it we talked about how this affects day and night and she got to really look at it and see how it works.   We had a lot of fun with this one and Evie was happy to tell me all about how the moon was formed and how it keeps the Earth steady and many other fun facts that she has already learned in previous weeks. It's always so cool to see how much information she retains from what we learn together. :)

                                         This week is Astronomy Week! Evie loves space and stars and always has tons of questions about all of the above. So this week I decided to play into that and do some projects themed around stars and constellations.  So today we made a constellation lantern. First we put the lantern base together and then we used transparent paper and some sticky stars to make some constellations on the sides. Evie really wanted to do mine and hers and then I did the Big Dipper and we made one side sort of random. Then we slid the paper into the sides and lit the lantern with a reusable tea light. It was a fun project and Evie had a lot of fun looking at constellations and choosing which ones she wanted to make for this. Plus it looked so cool at bedtime! ;)

  Today was SUCH a beautiful day. We spent almost all of it outside playing. Before school we jumped on the trampoline and made some fun chalk art on the sidewalk. Over the summer I taught Evie to make rainbows using her fingers to smudge the chalk together and she's been itching to try it out again. So we made rainbows, drew our names, and then played a game where we each choose a color of chalk and the other has to draw something that color.  After school we did some experimentation with colored water and paper towels. We had this water leftover from dip dying some wooden pieces and she had a lot of fun watching the water creep up the towels and guessing which color would reach the top first. It was a really fun day and it has us wishing for more warmer weather! 

Today we are doing some STEAM! It's been a little while since we built something so today we built this sweeper for Evie to use to pick up pom poms, LEGO, and other small toys. She had a lot of fun putting together the rollers, painting the sides, and then assembling the whole thing.  But the best part was when she got to try it out! She was so impressed that it worked AND she built it all by herself! This was a really fun one and it's also been super useful since there are almost ALWAYS small craft supplies around her art desk. 😂

  Well it was back to school today and it was ROUGH getting Evie in there. She didn't feel 100% but she is not contagious, has no fever, and can breathe without coughing so it was time. She rested a lot before she went in and I didn't push her to do much more. But after school we did some STEM. Evie got to put together this claw for a game we will play in the future. We still have a few more parts to make but so far it's been really fun and she loves that she was able to make a working claw! She was so proud of herself. I'm hoping we'll get the rest of this one together next week since this weekend is probably going to be a hectic one! 

Today we learned about the human body ! This was a really fun activity and it opened up conversation for a lot of topics about how our bodies work. Evie was especially interested in how we digest and use food.   We have a lot of conversations about food and we have a very easy going approach to it for the most part. While I try not to do the "healthy/unhealthy" game, we do talk about how foods fuel our bodies differently and why some food are going to give us more energy and make us feel better versus others. So today she had a lot of questions about how and why our bodies need that fuel. While Evie sewed up a little heart, stomach, and brain we talked about what each organ does and why it's important to our bodies. We also talked a bit about bones, muscles, and the cardiovascular system.  When that was all done we made a REAL working stethoscope which Evie used on all of us, even the cats! It was a fun activity and I love it when we find fun things to do that open up co...

  Today was a really fun day. Evie is still a little off her schedule and waking up later but we're slowly adjusting to the time change. This morning after breakfast Evie played and watched some Encanto. Then we worked out together (although her workout was much easier than mine!), and when we finished up with that we had a picnic lunch outside. It's been so warm this week and it's only getting warmer which means summer is on the way! We are very excited about trips to the zoo and the amusement park and water balloon fights and swimming in our pool and just all the things that summer brings. After lunch we made a little kaleidoscope together. Evie had a lot of fun sticking the little transparent stickers on the wheel and then turning it to see what kind of designs it made. We have more projects to do with kaleidoscopes this week but we're going to spread them out so we can enjoy the weather before rainy Spring shows up. Today was also Nana Day. So we got to go and make ...

  One thing Evie is really into lately is construction. Awhile back she saw an episode of Blippi about an excavator and she quicky added driving one to her list of future careers (also featured are: astronaut, ballerina, teacher, and performer.) So today we explored construction with a wrecking ball and a little dump truck.  We started stacking up foam blocks and knocking them over and then we added a little town from our Sago boxes and a road and some little workers.  She had dance this evening and they are starting to learn some of the dance for the rehearsal this summer so I'm really excited to see how she's going to do with that. She's really pushing me to put her back in gymnastics and spring can't come fast enough for either of us! Kindergarten enrollment starts next week so we're doing some overviews of all her letters and numbers to 25 this week and will try out some new themes after she does her eval. :)

  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 ...

  It's Christmas week...which feels insane! I can't believe it's already here. This week we are using up the last of the activities I planned for 2020 that we either didn't get around to or that we had extra sheets for. Next week I am on vacation, and I hope to get the first month of the year set up during that time, so I want to clear out all the stuff we haven't used yet.  Today we made a little farmers market out of beads, felt and fluff. Evie used to be super great about eating and then over the last year she's gone from very easy and adventurous to being SUPER picky. Recently she's starting to get back to trying new things and eating more variety and I love activities like this one where we can talk about food and where it comes from and why it's important to eat lots of different kinds. It was super easy for her to stuff and thread beads too so she could do it almost all by herself which she was really excited about. After we finished making all ...

  Today we are talking about hearing. This was a fun one because we are HUGE music lovers in this house. We sing and dance every single day and have so much fun with it. Today we talked about sound and how we use it to communicate and how it can help us to get around and navigate danger. We also just had loads of fun playing with instruments. Evie is a huge fan of the guitar... ...and we tried out some drums and tambourines too. After we finished playing with music I used some headphones to play some sounds for Evie to see if she could tell me what they were. It was really fun, and she did a great job! Today was also family day so after we finished up our hearing activities, we did some letter review and headed up to Nana's house for some family time. Tomorrow's focus is touch. It should be a really fun one too! :)

  Family Week has turned out to be more of a hands on type week for us so far and today was no exception. We've done a lot of discussion on what family means and who is a part of our family but in terms of projects we haven't done a ton. We made family tree and some paper plate family members but it's been more of an opportunity to spend lots of time with one another and the people we love than a crafty type week. I had a bit of extra time on my hands today so Evie and I practiced writing her letters again and then we made a fun lunch. I haven't done this for her in awhile and honestly, that's been somewhat purposeful since I don't want her to become reliant on fun foods and today she wasn't super into it. She did ultimately eat her entire lunch though even after complaining that it wasn't in a pink bowl. Points for trying I guess. After lunch we took a trip up to visit one of our most favorite people and together we all made a little campfire out of tis...

  Today was another nice day and since winter weather is well on it's way we decided to make the most of it and play outside for awhile again. We spent most of our morning reviewing letters and working on counting to 15. She's still making great progress on that! We also moved her unicorn rollercoaster inside so she can use it in the loft and she had a ton of fun riding it all morning. After lunch we headed outside with her nature book and she rode her scooter around making observations and writing them down. She really loved filling in this little book. It has some prompts and some blank pages. I think once we've finished it I'll probably make her another little one to use. This box has been a HUGE win for us. Kiwi boxes , while fun, often end up being a one day (or a few days!) activity that we never touch again. But this one has gotten SO much use. And if you don't have a sub to the box its super easy to grab a notebook and a crayon, print out a little nature sca...

  It's day two of nature week and today we broke out the KiwiCo nature box again. I love this little activity box. It has a few different activities and some are a little hard for her at her age which is great because it will continue to grow with her. She loves playing with the nature hunt and the magnifying glass and measuring tape are also big wins. Today we did a little nature hunt and we looked for some things that matched the cards in her box. Once we finished the card for items we moved onto shapes...   ...and then we tried colors. We did a few leaf rubbings as well and we talked about the items she found and what role they have in nature. We also spent some time looking at her finds under a magnifying glass to see if they changed at all. Some of them were more exciting blown up than others!  This evening her Sago Mini box showed up and since it was music and I had no plans to work it into a theme this month we set about getting it going. Music is one of mine and...