Massachusetts

We are celebrating our home state of Massachusetts as part of our book tour of the United States. We started by reading one of our favorite books, Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey. Last summer we spent a few days in Boston and enjoyed visiting the Make Way for Ducklings statues and riding on the swan boats in the public garden so this book has become part of a memory of a great trip.

We also read Good Night Boston by Adam Gamble.

Crayola has great coloring pages for all of the states. We colored the Massachusetts page and talked about the facts noted on the page.

We also found Massachusetts on several different maps of the United States, added our Massachusetts quarter to our state quarters map, and enjoyed Boston Baked Beans!

Our next stop is New York because we will be visiting New York City in a few weeks.

We will be visiting all fifty states via children's literature so if you have any good book recommendations, I would love to hear them!

Tot school

R will be 38 months on the 20th

This week R imagined what the sky would look like if birds wings left color behind, and she painted with a feather after reading Birds by Kevin Henkes.

She enjoyed playing Open & Shut.



Sink or float was a lot of fun too!

Thanks to Jennifer at My Two Happy Homeschoolers, we played a mystery bag game. R loved trying to find the correct shape to fit in the puzzle.

R was so proud of herself after she put these little board books in alphabetical order. I almost didn't let her do this because it was time for bed but how could I say no to learning?

My little barista made wonderful drinks for me when we played coffee shop with coffee grinds and cocoa powder.

Thank you for visiting. Have a great week!

Sisterhood Award

I am long overdue in passing along this award. It was given to me by Jennifer at My Two Happy Homeschoolers. She is amazing; every time I read her blog I am impressed with her creativity. So, in the rare chance that you have not read her blog, you must go there now.

I knew right away that I would pass this award along to Shannon at Letters Numbers and Books Oh My! because I honestly feel like she has become a friend to me. She is an amazing blogger and a nice person. Shannon has always been quick to respond to my questions and kind enough to acknowledge me in her blogs. She made me realize that there is more to this blogging world than just putting a post out there. I am truly grateful.

I also want to pass this along to Marietta (the Bookworm) at The Bookworm's Booklist. She was one of the first people to comment on my very first post when I had no idea what I was doing (not that I have much of a clue at this point)! She also comments with great regularity and I LOVE comments! I am always amazed that people are actually reading this blog and the comments really make my day. Also, I love her blog and all of the wonderful information she has to offer. Thank you!

Coffee shop

We love playing coffee shop but this time (after seeing a similar activity on No Time for Flashcards) we made it a sensory experience. We had coffee grinds with plenty of different scoops and measuring spoons, cocoa powder, and miniature marshmallows. We took turns: one of us made drinks, one made sandwiches, and one worked the cash register. Our customers were pretend and they ordered the fanciest drinks and sandwiches.

This delicous looking sandwich was made with Haba bread, meats, and cheese. I love Haba toys.

I was surprised that C and R enjoyed this so much because when I was saving the coffee grinds, they were both bothered by the smell. Speaking of saving the coffee grinds, my husband and father both thought I was crazy! My father thinks this activity was promoted by the coffee industry to encourage future coffee drinkers!

Sink or Float?

C and R learned about predictions and observations this week when we made a sink/float bottle.

First, we gathered up a bunch of small items that we could fit into our bottle. I made sure that we had items made from wood, plastic, metal, and styrofoam.
We filled the bottle 2/3 of the way with water. C and R took turns dropping the items into the water. Before adding the items we made predictions as to whether the item would sink or float and then recorded our observations.

C is cheering because his prediction was accurate!

C and R took turns predicting and for R it was just a guess but C started to think about why some things would float and others would sink. I loved listening to his thought process. We talked about the items, what they were made of, whether they absorbed water and how that affected what happened, if at all.

C was curious to see what would happen if he turned the bottle upside down.

He then had to try turning the bottle on it's side.

Here are our predictions and observations:

Item - Prediction - Observation

• star plastic bead - sink - sink
• yellow plastic bead - sink - at first it floated but later sank
• dice (die actually, right?) - float - sink
• dime - sink - sink
• car - float - sink
• rubber band - float - sink
• pom pom - sink - it floated until it absorbed water and sank
• piece of sponge - float - float
• ribbon - sink - float
• metal paper clip - sink - sink
• plastic paper clip - sink - sink
• penny - sink - sink
• googly eye - sink - float
• packing peanut - float - float
• wooden clothespin - float - float

C and R enjoyed predicting and recording their observations. They were fascinated by this experiment.

Who are we?

I love reading blog posts that give me some insight into the blogger and her (all of the blogs I read are written by women) family so I thought I would share a little about who we are. (I am always behind the camera and couldn't find a decent photo of myself. I'll have to start letting my husband use the camera a little, maybe.)

I grew up in New Bedford, MA and went to Emerson College in Boston. I always thought I would live in CA and work in public relations but that never happened. The study of law intrigued me and I ended up in law school. That's a good thing because I met my husband there. We practiced law together for a few years and believe it or not we worked really well together. I love my husband and honestly never minded spending the entire day with him. My husband still practices law but I am a stay at home mom. I did teach one class at a law school this year but it was only a few hours a week.

Our oldest child, T, is a sixth grader and will be 12 this month. He is a good student and loves sports. T plays soccer, basketball, and baseball. T also loves Wii and XBox and hanging out with his friends. We don't allow television or video games on school days.

C will be 5 in August. He also loves sports and just started playing tee ball this year. C is obsessed with superheroes and has been from a young age. It was inevitable because T is 7 years older than him and C was interested in everything his older brother liked.

R turned 3 in March. She is the ultimate girly girl; she loves everything pink and purple, pocketbooks, sparkly things, princesses, fairies, mermaids, and SHOES! Oh how she loves shoes and asks to go shoe shopping all the time!

I love teaching my children but we will not be homeschooling exclusively. T has attended public school since Kindergarten and C and R will also. We are lucky to have good public schools in our town. I do, however, consider myself to be the first teacher for my children and learning will always go on at home. Honestly, I consider my children to be community learners. I do my best to find as many educational opportunities for them as possible. We visit museums, hike nature trails, attend concerts and plays, explore the zoo, and try to learn about the world around us. When my children are interested in a subject, we explore it as much as possible. I will not be their only teacher but I will always be responsible for ensuring that my children learn as much as possible and become educated members of the community.

I hope I didn't bore you to tears!

Open & Shut

I read about open and shut at My Two Happy Homeschoolers and knew it was something I had to try with C and R. I found a few things in my recycling bin and a few other things from around the house. I just tried to find things that open and shut in different ways. We have zippers, snaps, velcro, twist off lids in different sizes (I thought that might matter), and a few others. I stuck everything in a pink tote just to keep it all together. C and R were very excited to try this.They did very well. I was actually impressed by how well they did.
There was only one item that they could not open - this little change purse. They tried and tried but their fingers just didn't have the dexterity to make it happen.
I like this activity and hope to find different items that will challenge C and R.