Scooter Time and Gingerbread Man

Today R had fun riding her scooter up and down the street. 

When C came home from school, he and R played Gingerbread Man.  Run, run as fast as you can, you can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man.

I am really enjoying the Great Outdoor Challenge.  I have to admit that I have never been an outdoorsy person, and I can find excuses to stay in the house.  My kids (and my husband) love to be outside though, and this challenge is getting me out there with them.  We are spending a lot more time outside than we ever have, and I am enjoying it!

Rose's Garden

Rose's Garden by Peter H. Reynolds was inspired by and dedicated to the late Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, mother of Senator Ted Kennedy and President John F. Kennedy. 

Rose travels the world in a teapot, collecting seeds along the way.  When her teapot is full, she decides to plant a garden.  She waits and waits and waits for her garden to grow, but nothing happens.  Word spread of Rose's faith in her garden, and children from all over the world began bringing her paper flowers for her garden.  Before long, she had a colorful garden filled with thousands of  paper flowers, and then real flowers began to grow.

This book is a beautiful story of nature, beauty, and faith, as well as the spirit of community.  Every once in a while, I come across a book for children that melts my heart; this is one of those books.

After reading this book multiple times, R made her own paper flower with scrunched tissue paper in the center.  I drew and cut out the flower shape.  I also cut out the leaves and the stem.  R glued the stem and leaves, colored the flower, and scrunched the tissue paper before she glued it to the center of her flower.

April Showers

Join us for the Great Outdoor Challenge over at 5 Orange Potatoes.

Treats from Vermont

We are currently studying the state of Vermont as part of our Fifty States Project.  Our state studies always involve food, and Vermont = maple syrup and Ben & Jerry's.

I was so proud of C.  He is not a fan of anything sticky and usually only has powdered sugar on his pancakes, but he was a good sport and willing to try sticky maple syrup for the sake of geography!

He thought it was delicious!

Ben & Jerry's Phish Food ice cream - always a delicious treat!

Play Ball

Signs of Spring

While participating in the Great Outdoor Challenge, we have been looking for signs of Spring in our yard, and we have found quite a few:

What kind of seasonal changes have you seen in your yard? 

Fifty States Project - Vermont

Our next state for the Fifty States Project is Vermont.  For this state study, we are reading:

M is for Maple Syrup, A Vermont Alphabet by Cynthia Furlong Reynolds - I love this series of books.  We only read the simple fact that follows each letter of the alphabet, but the longer text explaining how each fact is significant is great for older children.  We will definitely revisit this series as my children get older.

From Maple Trees to Maple Syrup by Kristin Thoennes Keller - This is a great book for young children to learn about how maple syrup is made.

Maple Syrup Season by Ann Purmell - This fictional book follows a family through maple syrup season.  At the end of the book, there is information about the legends of how maple syrup was discovered, and there is a maple syrup glossary.

To learn more about our Fifty States Project, click here to read about our method of learning about our beautiful country.