Jungle Week

 This week was jungle week which really turned into jungle animal week (and even some of the projects we did weren't necessarily jungle animals... oh well). It was a fun and simple week!

Monday- While Paige did her math from her teacher on her computer, Baylor built with blocks and worked on some puzzles (a constant lately!). This week Paige is continuing to add 3 digit numbers but this week they added word problems which Paige loves.

Since word problems were on Paige's mind, she did her jungle math for Monday and created some of her own word problems for some of the problems that she did.

 For art they created Elmer the elephant with sponge painting.

 Then for writing we watching a video about jungles and jungle animals and Paige picked 3 or 4 facts that she learned about to write an informative paragraph. It says, "Here are some facts about jungle animals. All of the great apes lives in the jungle including the gorillas, bonobo, chimpanzee, and the dignified orangutan. There are animals great and small but the tiger is the real king of the jungle. Less than 300 rare Asiatic lions live in the Gir jungle in India and the other 20,000 live on the grassy plains of the African savanna not in the jungle. So, that is all about jungle animals!"

 Then we switched cooking to Mondays since often we make treats for cooking and that way whatever we make can be our Family Home Evening treat verse making 2 treats during the week. So this week we made turtles which is a chocolate cake like waffle with frosting. Paige wanted to add the chocolate chips for eyes. I learned the recipe when I was a young girl for activity days. I haven't made them in a long time and the whole family enjoyed them!

 Tuesday's start of the day was Baylor coming down like this saying she was ready for school and then while Paige did her math, Baylor did puzzles like always. And this picture looks like she sits there and does it by herself which is not true. She is at a stage where she constantly wants someone by her when she is doing something. She is always saying "come here" or "look mom". 

 Paige's jungle math for Tuesday- dot to dot.

 For art, it was a giraffe and the dots were painting fingerprints.

 Then for writing, Paige wrote in her journal. It says, "If I were as big as an elephant, I would reach every thing with my hands and arms with how big I am. I also can give piggy back rides and I could help get things."

 For P.E. the girls did the workout on Paige's computer together. I love these pictures and I loved watching Baylor look at the video and then Paige to see how to do each workout. 

Wednesday's math on her computer and then a jungle pattern worksheet.

For art, they did hand print flamingos (not really a jungle animal but it was a craft that Paige saw and wanted to do). This one was a little advanced for Baylor and tested my patience helping her since she wanted to do it by herself. Once I got the flamingos glued on, I let her pick out the sequins she wanted to decorate it with and then she would point to where I would put some glue and then she would put them on.

For writing, Paige wrote a narrative about a jungle adventure. It reads, " Once upon a time there was a little girl named Moronica and she was an explorer in a jungle (well actually her backyard that has lots of trees) and she was looking for a wild creature named Jax (her stuffed animal). Moronica said, "Jax I will save you from the wild!" And she looked and looked for where her mother hid him! She found him in a tree with something else. She was curious what is was. It popped out and it was a giraffe! The giraffe said, "Hi, I'm Adrianna but you can can me Adria. What is your name?" I said, "My name is Moronica. Everyone in my family calls me Morah though." I said, "Adria, do you want to come to my house and play?" She said, "Yes!" And we played all day long!

Then for science we did 2 different activities.

First we talked about some different giraffe facts and we did a giraffe science experiment. We made "giraffe" skin and I told Paige about capillary action (the movement of a liquid through another material) and how in this experiment you can see this in action. 

You use water colors to paint on paper towels. You can see the water colors spread and move through the paper towel which is pretty cool. It was a fun little project that we all had fun doing.

Paige did a colorful giraffe skin, Baylor just had fun painting, and I tried doing a giraffe skin with the normal giraffe colors.

Then the second experiment is called elephant toothpaste. You mix hydrogen peroxide, dish soap, and food coloring in a bottle. Then you mix some yeast and water and let it start to foam and then pour it into the bottle. You get this thick colored foam the pours out of the water for quite awhile and kind of looks like toothpaste.

The second time we did it, we didn't mix the food coloring in so much and Paige just dripped a drop of each color down the sides of the bottle so when the mixture foamed out it looked even more like toothpaste with the different streaks of color.

Thursday's jungle math- color by number with some math equations.

Then for art they did hand print monkeys. 

I helped Baylor do her monkey and then I knew that she would want to paint more. So I gave her a different piece of paper and she was content for quite awhile painting her hand quite thoroughly and occasionally putting a hand print on her paper.

Two cute monkeys swinging on some vines.

Thursday's writing was a journal entry. This answer was not what I expected her to write but was quite creative. She wrote, "Instead of black and white stripes, zebras should have money everywhere and you can take it off."

Friday's math was some jungle word problems that I came up with.

Then for art, they did snakes with Q-tip painting and paper plates.

Finished project!

This week for her reading (ELA) on her computer she read a story and did comprehension activities about nature outside especially in your own neighborhood. One activity she wrote about the animals and leaves/flowers she had seen in her own back yard. For Friday, we got to do another drawing which I have come to love and Nate even joined us this time.We watched the video together and each drew kites in the sky. (Nate's drawing, Paige's drawing, and my drawing)

Then for her writing on Friday she did opinion writing. Would you rather ride an elephant or a giraffe? "I would want to ride a giraffe because I could sit on it's head and slide down it's big neck!!!"

We didn't get around to sewing on Friday so we did it on Saturday. Paige wanted to sew pillows for her dolls. She cut them out and then I helped push the pedal and sew the first one. The second one I let her do by herself. She was hesitant about it but did great. She then stuffed them and then I did the sewing around the outside.

Her dolls are being spoiled with all these sewing projects!

Paige even got a postcard from her teacher at the end of the week. That was so kind of her teacher and it really made Paige's day!

Next week is another theme that Paige is really looking forward to: Arts & Crafts Week

Family

We took some of our own family pictures this past weekend and they turned out perfect! I love this little family of mine with all my heart! 

You don’t choose your family. They are God’s gift to you, as you are to them. –Desmond Tutu

Families are the compass that guides us. They are the inspiration to reach great heights, and our comfort when we occasionally falter. –Brad Henry

 The family is center of life and it is the key to eternal happiness. –L. Tom Perry

How did I get so lucky to be the mother of these 2 incredible girls! They are mine and I truly am a better person because of them.

Motherhood is not a hobby it is a calling. It is not something to do if you can squeeze the time in. It is what God gave you time for. –Neil L. Anderson

To all mothers in every circumstance, including those who struggle- and all will- I say, “Be peaceful. Believe in God and yourself. You are doing better than you think you are.” Jeffery R. Holland

  Nate is such an incredible father! These 2 girls are lucky to have such a rad dad!

We believe in fathers. We believe that far from being superfluous, fathers are unique and irreplaceable. –D. Todd Christofferson

Rainbow Week

 This week was so much fun! It was rainbow week which equals lots of color and fun ideas. Rainbows bring happiness and these 2 girls doing rainbows activities brought me happiness.

For her math she did her computer assignment from her teacher (more adding 3 digit numbers with and without regrouping). Then she did this simple rainbow math worksheet finding all the ways to make 10.

Monday's art was a rainbow with attributes about you. They each glued on their rainbows and then we switched papers so that Paige was writing the nice things about Baylor and Baylor and I wrote nice things about Paige. Paige wrote that Baylor is funny, helpful, Likes to play with me, crafty (like me), cute, and sneaky (Amen to that!). Baylor and I wrote that Paige is the best sister, sweet, best note giver, fun to play with, smart and helps me learn, and funny & teases me.

 Then for her reading/comprehension on her computer this week she learned all about plants and the plant life cycle. For Monday, she watched a video and took notes. It was cute watching the girls watch it together and take notes together. 

 For writing we both read together some interesting facts about rainbows and then she typed up some of the ones that she liked.

 For science we did 2 small experiments. First one was growing a rainbow on a paper towel. While Paige colored the paper towel, Baylor did her own drawings. We found out that she now can draw heads and it is the cutest thing. I remember Paige drawing people the exact same way. She sometimes will also add the arms and legs and so they look like potato heads. I love seeing both of them grow and learn!

 We put both ends that Paige colored into small cups of water and watched as the colors bled through to create the rainbow. It was pretty cool to watch and happened pretty fast.

 Then second experiment we put Skittles along the edge of a plate and then added warm water to watch the colors bleed. This was another cool one to watch and happened pretty fast.

 Tuesday's math after she completed her math on her computer.

 For art they did Q-tip painting of the rainbow.

 Another cute picture of them doing school work together- Paige doing her reading and Baylor working on her writing. I have loved this princess dry erase book. Paige loved it and now Baylor loves it and she really enjoys writing Os and coloring everyone's eyes but I saw her today trying to copy one of the r's so it is fun to watch her progress in her writing.

 Tuesday Paige did a journal entry for writing: "I like rainbows because they are super pretty to just look at when the rain drys up. I also like rainbows because you can draw them and they have almost all the colors." Then for P.E., both of the girls did the activity on Paige's computer from last week.

 Wednesday's math was rainbow word problems along with her computer math.

 Then for art it was a lot of gluing and cutting to create the rainbow with lots of paper squares. I made the gluing a little bit easier by using liquid glue and adding a little water to it to make it runnier. Then they could just paint the glue on each row before adding the paper.

 Paige did her reading assignment on her computer and then for writing she wrote a rainbow narrative. "Once up a time there was a girl named Linda and she was 9 years old and she had a little sister named Katie-Anne and she was 4 years old and they had a dog named Millie. They also had parents. One day Linda, Katie-Anne, and Millie were outside playing fetch with Millie and Katie-Anne saw a rainbow! Katie-Anne stared to yell and Linda stared at her because she had no idea was she was saying. So she said "calm down" and she said "what is this about?". Katie-Anne said I just saw my first rainbow! Katie-Anne said excitedly. "Oh that's what all this is about" Linda said. "Yup I love rainbows so much. Can we color some rainbows now?" said Katie-Anne. "Ok," said Linda. "Let's go inside not to color some rainbows". "Let's go!" said Katie- Anne. The End.

 Then for cooking, we made rainbow rice krispie treats. It was a little bit of a trial and error kind of cooking but once we got going it worked out well. Our first problem is that I got big marshmallows instead of little ones so heating in the microwave like the instructions said did not work at all. So I switched melting the butter and marshmallows to the stove top so that I could constantly stir in until it was all melted together. Then Paige would mix in the food coloring and pour the bowl of rice krispies in and I would stir it all together. I would pour it in the pan and then Paige put butter on her hands to smooth out each layer. Another problem we had was after the first one I should have cleaned out the bowl more because the second one stuck really bad and was a bit thicker so we learned to clean up everything after each layer and grease the bowl really well that we were mixing the melted marshmallows and rice krispies in. They turned out really good despite our problems and look so pretty!

 On Thursday's she has a class meeting on her computer with her teacher and classmates. So part of that meeting was math and they did a little quiz during it. Then for the math that went with the theme she did an addition color by number. 

 For art they did hand print rainbows. I painted Baylor's hand for the first couple of hand prints and then I just let her be creative and paint however she wanted. 

 She loved painting her hand and it kept her occupied longer than any other craft that we did this week. 

 Finished product!

 Then for writing, Paige did a journal entry: "If I played on a rainbow that would be awesome! If I was on a rainbow I could see anything I wanted to! Maybe when I'm on a rainbow I would see a unicorn!"

 Paige loved her music assignment this week from her music teacher. It was a music maker where you would push the notes and beats and could change it to different instruments and sounds.

 Friday's math was fun for both girls. Paige did a Skittle counting and adding worksheet. I gave her a handful of Skittles and she counted the different colors and added groups together. I gave Baylor a small bowl and she was super excited for candy and enjoyed eating hers and lining them up. (For math on her computer it was a catch up day and since we are all caught up it was no math on the computer!)

 Then this art project is the one that Paige has been waiting all week for. I made the flour/water mixture and cooked it until it was smooth and starting to solidify. Then Paige colored all of hers and I helped Baylor with hers. Then you put them all in rainbow order in a bag and then you can write and draw pictures in the rainbow. It turned out pretty cool!

 For reading, Paige finished up with some reading and videos about the plant life cycle and then we got to learn to draw another picture together. You folded this paper just right so that when it is all folded you just see the roots and bud of the plant and then you unfold it and you see the whole flower. It is fun to learn to draw these pictures with her!

 For her last writing assignment for the week she filled out this writing worksheet. "At the end of the rainbow (There is no end of the rainbow (she learned this week from her facts that in fact a rainbow is a circle but from our perspective at ground level we only see half of it)) I found a craft kit and Addison! So I did crafts with Addison. I also saw a sign that says corona virus is gone!" I think she is ready to play with friends again! :)

 For sewing, we did a project that Paige has been wanting to do for awhile. We made bean bags for her dolls. Paige picked out the fabric and cut the circles out and drew and cut out the letters for each bean bag. I sewed the letters on and then I helped her sew around the bean bags. She was hesitant about doing the sewing on the sewing machine by herself. Next time we need to do something with straight lines instead of curves lines which would be easier for her to sew by herself. 

 They turned out cute and her dolls love them! Baylor even used one as a pillow. :)

While Paige was sweeping up the beans that had spilled, she let go of the broom and it stood up by itself. She was amazed and thought it was the coolest thing ever!

What a fun week! Next week's theme: In the Jungle.