Time and Money

       Its funny how things can suddenly just "CLICK" sometimes.  Sophie has always struggled with time increments (like decade, century, minute/hour) and money (remembering that a quarter equals 25 cents for example).  I think that's due in part to the weird spiral method math curriculum that the school was using.  They would just touch on a subject before going to something else, and Sophie just can't learn like that.  I never really made a big deal out of it, just correcting her mistakes or explaining when she would ask.  Out of habit, I often refer to times as "quarter of" or "half past" and that ALWAYS tripped her up.  She would pause and ask me what that meant, every time, and I would have to explain over and over.  The same with phrases like  "3 decades" or "several centuries ago"; she just didn't get it.  She's done a little better lately with money, mostly because I've been giving her all my change and she is big into spending her own money on things.  If she has a pile of change, she has to count it all up to figure out how much she has and what she can buy.  She's always been a saver (when she was 6 or 7, she had saved every bit of change and money given to her and had $150!), and loves to splurge at Dollar Tree haha.  Well, tonight we were watching one of our typical scifi like shows (Monster and Mysteries in America) and a man said he had been dealing with something for 4 decades.  Sophie immediately asked me if that meant 40 years... yay!!!  I didn't make a huge deal though, because it tends to embarrass her.  I just said yep, that's right, and we continued watching.  That really might not seem like a wow moment to many people, but it is to me.  Anything math related really comes hard to her, even when it doesn't seem math-y.  Its almost like any time a teacher even mentioned that it was in her math text, she just put up a mental wall or something.  And that's hard for ME, because I love math.  My brain just makes little math equation out of everything.  She's also doing better with things like minutes and hours because of the TV guide thing with our cable.  She can pull up the guide and see how certain shows are 30 minutes (e.g 8:00-8:30) and that would be a half block compared to say an hour long drama show, or even a quarter of a movie.  Its a very visual way for her to see it.  Fractions kind of clicked for her that way, too, when I happened across fraction strips online and showed her.  Now, she will say, "Good Luck, Charlie is on for 30 minutes, and there are 3 of them on until Daddy is home, so that's an hour and 30 minutes."  Another big step for us, that maybe most wouldn't understand :)

        More cooking stories!  We made no-bake cookies yesterday.  They're super simple and have a lot of "easy" measurements that the kids helped me with.  Sophie can whip out ingredients and measurements like nobodies business now, when it comes to cooking.  Also, I arranged them on one long piece of wax paper to set up, in equal rows.  I showed the kids how to count in a fast, easy way by saying "there are 3 rows, with 5 in each row.  That means 3 5's or 3 x 5, which is 15.  So we have 15 cookies."  Doubt this stuck with them, and I didn't really go into more than what I just said, but maybe if we do enough visual things like this, it will eventually "click" like other things have this week.  FYI, those things went FAST.  No more cookies :( lol.

        Sophie has been a texting/emailing demon lately.  She is keeping in contact with several of her public school buddies via Facebook.  I love that they are at an age where written communication is possible.  Sophie isn't a phone person (comes by that honest... I hate to talk on a phone!), but is such a social butterfly.  She has especially been talking to her BFF Makayla, and I've read quite a few of these convos (with Sophie's permission!).  They both type out all their words, no "text language" of u for you or ur for your etc.  Sophie is very good at typing out things, waaaay better than her actual writing of her thoughts.  We still struggle with her putting her words and ideas on paper.  I still blame this on being told that her written assignments were "bad" and that she wasn't good at it.  I wish teachers could understand how much damage they do!!  We have been using the Rory's Story Cubes a lot and I can't express how much I love, love, love these!!  A big thanks to a couple friends for pointing me in their direction (Felica :))).  Sophie can tell some pretty imaginative and awesome stories VERBALLY, but will freeze when asked to write a story on paper.  Something we will continue to work on, but I refuse to push her on.  I feel like if I push her with anything, she will just push back, and that helps no one.  We are still in the stages of "de-schooling" and unlearning all the bad habits and ideas that public school instilled in us both.

        Lil Man has been doing a lot this week, too, besides being a meanie.  He's rebelling a lot, and trying to push our limits.  I'm working on saying NO less and trying to pay him more one on one attention, because I think that's part of his problem.  Typical middle child syndrome lol and he's just naturally a very strong willed person, like his Daddy.  He has been talking about rhyming words a lot, and will ask me if things rhyme.  Usually they do not.  He confuses rhyming words with words that have the same beginning sounds.  Example: he will say, "Do SPOON and SPILL rhyme?" and I will say "No, but SPOON and MOON rhyme."  We'll go back and forth like this forever, and eventually, he will come up with a rhyming set, but most likely, the second word will be a nonsense word.  Its a long road, and I keep reminding myself that he is just five, and really good at math type things.  Its only normal that he isn't strong in all areas.

       We haven't really been focusing on too many "science" things lately.  We've broached the topic of anatomy when I was sick and the kids were curious about what was wrong with me.  Sophie wasn't as interested in this as Lil Man, and I didn't really want to get too awful in depth with him.  Sophie is still super into dinosaurs and reads about them a lot in her free time.  Lil Man has been investigating the world outside, since the weather has been nice, and will often ask me to identify leaves or other plants.  Max is also into the whole, "What is this?" thing when bringing me flowers from outdoors. 

     We have talked about the government briefly when we were still going the textbook route.  Sophie tends to zone out, and I don't blame her, its BORING.  She did really enjoy a supply and demand worksheet we did, and lately we've discussed some things similar to that.  Being a pre-teen girl, she really GETS the whole concept of it, and it appeals to her because of her desire to open a bakery.  We've talked about things she would like to sell in her shop, and how a lot of people really liked our snickerdoodle bars, so they would sell fast, etc.  We've also been talking a lot about our present government and how she doesn't agree with a lot that's going on.  Sophie is very into the Hunger Games; she's seen the first movie and read about half the first book.  She's been talking about how she can see how things eventually led to how they are in the story.  Very intuitive of a 9 year old I think. 

     Just a quick catch-up post since I've been so random about my posting lately.  Its been hard, being sick and trying to keep up with house work and the family.  I need more hours in the day!!!

:( AWOL and sorry

        This is a quick update on the monkees....  I have been sooo sick.  I have kidney problems that occasionally raise their ugly heads, kidney stones being the most common.  The other day I was hit by a really bad attack of stones at 4am (after the hubby left OF COURSE) and I've been pretty well medicated since.  Because of that, we've done less around here.  Sophie has been helping out A LOT while I've been laid up in bed, feeling awful.  I explained about kidney stones, and why I was in so much pain, trying to lessen the scariness of the whole situation.  The boys both started a little game of what has kidneys lol, like cats, dogs, and horses, versus things that do not, like cars.

        Sophie hasn't done much other than play Animal Jam on NatGeo kids.  She likes it because she can be a variety of animals, she is socializing with other kids, and there are a lot of mini-games on there.  She's already learned several codes that you have to enter to do things, and I feel like its teaching her language arts skills in a very "Real" setting.  She is typing conversation back and forth with other kids her age and developing friendships.  She is on a limited account right now, but is requesting membership for her birthday.  Its $50 for a year of membership, which isn't too bad, but definitely a present type purchase.  If she is still super interested in it by July, I think I will get her the year package.

        Lil Man is becoming more interested in writing and reading.  He has been writing his name a lot, and does quite well.  He has also been asking how to spell other things, and how to make those letters, with minimal mistakes.  He is noticing words in his environment as well, and will ask me what things say, or will trace a letter in the air and ask what it is.  His natural curiosity is a great learning tool and I'm amazed by what he can absorb in a day.  I print out worksheets for him when he asks, but he quickly loses interest with those, so I'm not in any hurry to purchase a curriculum for him.  I wish he would stay home with me longer, but he is dead set on going to kindergarten next year.

      Hopefully I will be back to posting more regularly, again, but there are no promises with medical things lol.  I'm going to be researching our "curriculum" for next year in the coming months, so there will be a lot about that going.

What to do??

       We've reached a sort of impasse today.  Sophie is in a tough place math-wise.  She hates it, it kind of hate her back lol.  She can do the basics (addition, subtraction, and easy multiplication/division), but anything more is just beyond her.  She struggles when math is presented to her in anything but the most everyday way... for example, if you handed her 17 cookies and said to split them evenly between her and the boys, she could, and know that she will have 2 left over.  But if you asked her, "What's 17 divided by 3?" or even, "Sophie if you have 17 cookies and have to split them evenly between 3 people, what would each person have?" she is stumped.  She needs to see it in front of her, working.  The abstract, in your head, IDEA of math is just too much.  I don't know what to do to fix this, or if it even really NEEDS fixed.  We have calculators, they are accessible to us at all times these days, what with smart phones.  Why does she need to have it memorized that 17 divided by 3 is 5 with a remainder of 2?  I think I'm going to just let her be for now.  She plays math games all the time online, at multiplication.com and coolmath-games.com.  She uses various skills on these games, including basic math, strategy, geometry, etc.  I'm comfortable knowing she can use her knowledge to achieve what she wants.  And honestly, she has the skills she needs to do what she wants in life at this point (bakery owner/chef).  Next year, I'm buying the full set of Spectrum curriculum workbooks, which I will give her to use at her own discretion.  I don't want to PUSH her in any direction, but I want them to be there if she chooses to use them.  I'm hoping she will at least be interested in the math book.

        We finished our "Road to Revolution" project yesterday.  We found the project idea online, that a fourth grade class did in groups.  Obviously we don't have "groups", but we worked together on it.  She researched 10 events that led up to the United States becoming a country, found the year it happened and wrote up 2 sentences summarizing the event.  We purchased a medium sized poster board and I drew a "road" with ten segments for her to write her sentences in and Sophie decorated the "road sides" with trees and a period style house.  She worked quite hard on it, and we are both proud with the results.  I'm not going to lie and say she did this completely alone.  I helped her research the events, using the textbook the school lent us and Wikipedia, and helped her to summarize the events into a more kid friendly couple sentences.  All in all, though, she did the bulk of the work, and I think learned something along the way.  She didn't much like the writing part of it, as she struggles with putting her thoughts onto paper, but she did like the research and looking up ideas for the illustrations.  She does enjoy history when it isn't all about dates and textbooks.  Once again, she needs to be able to see it and have it in front of her, visually teaching her.  Words and pictures in a book are just not enough.

            We have been watching a lot of "Octonauts" on Disney Junior.  All 3 of the kids are interested in marine biology right now, following our trip to the beach, and this show is a fun way of learning snippets of it.  We watched an episode yesterday that was about a baby dolphin getting lost because he ended up being in the wrong slip stream.  This was something new to ALL of us, because even I didn't know about slip streams or that each dolphin has its own whistle that identifies them.  In the same episode was a species of fish we had never heard of called "spookfish", which are a subspecies of barrelfish who have transparent heads.  "Octonauts" may not be the most scientific of ways of learning, but it appeals to all three of the kids at once, which I like.  No one is over their head, everyone is having fun, and they are learning without even realizing it :)

         We are also into what I guess would be called cryptozoology right now.  There are several tv programs on discovery and destination America (channels) that are about animals/creatures that may or may not exist.  Sophie and Lil Man are very into this right now and have been on the fence about the actual existence of the creatures.  Sophie is more believing I think, which I found surprising considering she is the older one.  She is very fanciful though, and imaginative, thinking up stories and ideas that are less realistic in nature.  I like when the shows take a more scientific route than just a retelling of people's stories, personally, because they see how "scientists" or researchers find evidence either way and theorize from there.  They both like ghost hunter type shows, too, and often have their own expeditions.  Sophie uses her ipod to record them trying to find the ghosts or creatures, or acts like they have caught evidence of either thing.  We have discussed how scientists theorize that ghosts are a type of energy and therefore show up using several devices that measure different types of energy, like the people of TAPS use.  I think we will do more research on that and maybe conduct our own "ghost hunt".

Home Again

        Well, we got back to West Virginia today around dinner time.  What a crazy car ride!!  We made the trip TO South Carolina during the night, so the kids were asleep, there was minimal traffic, and it was quiet.  Not so on the way back... we ran into traffic jams, car accidents, and all 3 kids complained and fought.  Yuck.

      We had a great week!  We went to the beach, played in the water and collected sea shells (and found a piece of coral SUPER COOL).  There was a lot of discussion about marine life, so I think when we go back to library, we will be getting some books out about that.  The kids were amazed to learn that coral isn't a plant, but more of an "animal" life form.  We are all curious about the creatures that live in the shells we found, so we're going to google that info, now that we are back to the internet.  Yeah... a week with mostly no internet access SUCKED.  We also found 2 jelly fish that had washed up on the shore, dead.  We poked it a bit with a stick, I'm not sure if they can "sting" you after they're dead or not, and were surprised at how solid it was.  More rubbery than jelly like.

 

 

 

               We went to Bass Pro Shops in the mall down there, as well.  They have a HUGE fish tank in the back of the store.  It had several species of fish in it, but we all liked the big puffer fish.  Well, Max was amazed with all the fish.  They were at least as big as him, but some were probably almost as big as me!  The whole store was set up really educationally, if you ask me, with animal tracks indented into the floor, so the kids had a ball identifying them and then following the trail to the placard to see if they were right.  Sophie was right about 99% of the time.  Lil Man got the deer tracks right, which I'm not surprised.  They go hunting with Gary quite a bit.  There was also some fossil indents in the floor.  The kids found a huge sea turtle one by the fish tank that they liked.

 

 

          Mom had warned us about the lizards at her house.  Sophie, being herself, decided to hunt them down.  It wasn't too hard lol.  On the warm days, they sun themselves on her back porch.  I'm pretty sure they are just anoles, which I had one for a pet when I was Sophie's age.  They're tame little things, friendly, and keep the bug population down.  They also swim, we learned, as they are not afraid to jump in the pool with you =/    Sophie wanted to capture one to bring home as a pet, but we didn't have a little cage for it, so we couldn't.  You can buy anoles online for a couple dollars though, and I wouldn't feel so bad about taking one from its natural habitat.  I want to get Sophie some kind of creature to take care of, either a lizard, frogs, or chickens.   The lizard or frogs would definitely be the least work! lol.

 

 

Busy Busy Busy

        Life has been crazy around here the last couple days!  We're getting ready to go to Myrtle Beach yay!!!!!  It will be the first vacation that we've taken all together as a family since 2004, and we only had Sophie back then.  I've been trying to dig out shorts, flip flops, get directions, and basically go nuts in the mean time lol.  We're leaving tomorrow and we'll be gone for 10 days.  I won't be posting while we're down there, but I'll take lots of pics and post them later :)

        We've mostly been talking about dinosaurs still.  Sophie has read the library book about a million times and showed it to everyone, including company that came to visit.  She's also got a free ebook on the kindle about dinosaurs and fossils that she's looked at a couple times along with a website she put on her favorites that is about dinos and has a bunch of educational type games.  Just about anything dinosaur involved has been happening here.  I had forgotten how much I liked dinosaurs and learning about them until Sophie got into them.  And a lot has changed in the last 18 years or so, I'm shocked!  Or maybe there is just more information out about them?  I don't know.  Its funny that she is becoming sooo into dinosaurs right now, because Jurassic Park is being re-released as 3D.  Sophie is DYING to go see it.  I'm seriously considering it, I want to see it myself!

       Sophie has decided that she is going to open up a bakery, sooner rather than later.  I'm going to look into what she needs to have in order to sell baked goods at a semi-professional level.  Obviously we don't have a building to house a business, but if we could make some stuff, package it, and sell it, she'd be happy to make a few bucks.  She has a whole list of things she wants to buy, and I think making her own money would help her to figure out what stuff she really wants and to appreciate it more. 

         I started crocheting a couple days ago.  Nothing fancy, a couple dish cloths, a pretty little flower/snowflake, and a granny square, but now Sophie is wanting to do that, too.  I'm going to teach her, but I need to get her a easier to handle crochet hook.  I tried with the one I have been using, and her fingers wouldn't do what she wanted.  She has fine-motor skills issue, which I think is coming into play here.  I'm hoping by doing something she WANTS to do, not really HAVING to learn, it will be a mind over matter situation.  She is still struggling with shoe laces, but that isn't fun, so it doesn't hold much appeal.  If she can get the hang of it, I think we'll do a mother-daughter project with it.  I was thinking about getting a real fine, white yarn and making Christmas tree ornaments :)  We usually have homemade ornaments on our tree.

Dragons and Castles

                 The kids got to play with the sensory bin I created yesterday.  All 3 started out excited to play with it, but after the first, ohh 20 minutes? only Max was playing with it.  Sophie said it was a little boring, Little Man didn't really offer a reason, but Max had a blast with it.  Sophie went back to it a couple times over the course of the day, playing for maybe 10 minutes at a time.  I joined in at one point, just because it seems like such fun.  The colors are super vibrant and the kool aid left it smelling a lot like fruity pebbles.  During our joint play session, Sophie messed around with the 1/8 measure and the 1/3 measure.  She estimated that 4 scoops of the 1/8 measure would fill the 1/3 measure and then we tried it.  3 filled it up pretty much, so she said 3/8 was almost equal to 1/3.  I didn't do the actual math until later, but she was pretty darn close.  3/8 equals 9/24, and 1/3 equals 8/24.  She does so well with math when its in real life situations!  I'm proud of her :)

 

It started off so pretty and neat lol

 

After the kids were done =/  It still smells yummy though

 

            Gary found a castle playhouse the other day, too.  The kids have been wanting a play house for a while now, but our plan had been to build one when we had the time/money.  This was in perfect condition though and such a neat idea!  The kids were excited when he brought it home, but it was kind of late, so they didn't get much play in besides a couple times down the slide.  Yesterday, the sun was shining enough that they were able to really get out there and enjoy it.  Sophie took the lead, as usual, and decided that they were going to pretend that the yard was their kingdom and Max was the King, she was the Princess, and our cat, Bad Kitty, was the dragon protecting the castle.  Little Man wasn't home yet, or I'm sure he would have been recruited to be something too lol.  They played forever at that castle play house! 

 

 



 

             Sophie is getting more and more interested in dinosaurs lately.  We got that book from the library, and she had me look up some stuff online for her to look at.  We found some print out information cards on quite a few species of dinos, and she's been looking at them.  She's amazed at how big they really were and has theorized that maybe WV didn't have any because we are so mountainous, and that didn't leave much room for the dinosaurs to move around where they were so big.  I hadn't thought of that myself, and I can't find any research that suggests that, but its as plausible as anything else!  She also watched an episode of Octonauts on Disney Jr about Narwhal whales and was interested in those.  We looked up some pictures of real Narwhals and read about how they are hunted for their horns and blubber.  We also read how their horns can grow to be 10 feet, and baby Narwhals are around 5 feet long at birth.  That is just a bit taller than she is now, at 9, and that amazed her.  She was especially interested in how their horns were once mistaken for unicorn horns.  She made the connection that sailors also thought manatees were mermaids in the past.  She said that many legends were later debunked to be new animals that people just hadn't ever seen before, and that as science learns more, legends are often left behind for the truth.  She's enjoying this way of learning science much more than textbook learning!  I think it helps that this is all about animals, which interest her anyway lol

Library!!

               We went to the library today and got a bunch of books!  The kids always love going there and playing with the puzzles and picking out books.  Its a little rougher on me, since the boys are in one room and Sophie has moved on to the Young Adult section and everyone wants Momma at one time...    One of the main books we got this time is a dinosaur book that focuses on 5 (I think) dinos.  Sophie was disappointed because it didn't include the T-Rex, which is her favorite, so we'll have to get some more out when we go back.  We also researched what kind of dinosaurs lived in West Virginia, only to find out NONE :(  There has been no evidence of actual dinosaurs in our state, but in all surrounding ones.  I think that news disappointed us ALL.  Sophie and the boys invented their own species of dinosaur that they are calling the Sugarloaf dinosaur.  It has 3 different "calls" that signal either danger, hunger, or spotting another Sugarloaf dinosaur.  They made up a walk/run for the dinosaur (sort of up on your toes, with your arms cocked back like chicken wings lol), and its a carnivore apparently because it eats chicken and ham.  Creative little buggers lol

    
           The kids played outside for a while, before the wind sent them back inside.  They set up a play tent and some chairs and toys to be a camp site.  Sophie is so much like me with wanting things ordered "just so".  She wouldn't use all 5 chairs because they didn't line up the right way (in other words evenly).  It really was too chilly for Max outside though, and they came in before getting too into the campground play.  Hopefully it warms up more soon.  I have been wanting to go walking and see if we can spot more Springtime signs, but I'm not trying to freeze my butt off in the process.

           I was finally able to make it to the grocery store, since Gary has the next 3 days off, and I bought the stuff to make the kids the sensory bin!!  I bought a big 5 lb bag of rice for a couple bucks and some packets of kool aid.  It was a super simple process:  put a cup of rice, a packet of kool aid, and 1 teaspoon of alcohol in a gallon Ziploc bag, get as much air out as possible then smoosh to your heart's content.  Let the rice "soak" in the bag for 15-20 mins, then dry on trays.  It did take a couple hours for it to dry... or rather SOME of it.  Red and purple dried crazy quick, then the orange, then the green.  Blue took forever and a day and the kids were going crazy looking at it drying and not being about to touch it.  I lined it up in the bin, but I know as soon as the kids get into it tomorrow it will be all mixed up.  Oh well!  It's pretty for now lol.  I really like the kool aid method because the fruity smell masks the alcohol smell after its dried, and its an added sensory tool.  I'm going to let them play with this for a while and when they seem to be getting bored, I'll switch up the stuff in it.  I'm thinking of making homemade moon sand next.   This time I just put a couple spoons and measuring cups in, but I'll let the kids add stuff if they choose as well.

 

The rice drying in little foil trays I made

 

The sensory bin set up BEFORE the kids get a hold of it

 

 

             All the talk of dinosaurs and prehistoric West Virginia got Sophie thinking.  We had touched on the fact that WV was once inhabited by Adena Indians, who were mound builders, before.  Gary's dad lives on a piece of property that once had a mound, but it was desecrated a long long time ago.  Sophie wanted to see if there was any pictures of it online, but alas there was not.  I think it was robbed too long ago, like before photographs, and I'm fairly certain the grave robbers didn't think to sketch it before they tore it apart lol.  But in doing that, we happened across an article about the Beards Fork petroglyphs, which are just a couple miles from us.  Gary grew up in the area and had never seen them, so we are planning a exploration trip when it warms up.  He has seen similar ones up his dad's holler though, and is trying to remember exactly where they are so we can go look at them too.  This time period really interests us all and its nice to have a piece of history literally in your back yard.  

Cookies and Bubbles

                I knew we were going to have a kind of tough day today as soon as I woke up.  For starters, it was raining and cold, which meant we weren't going to get much outside time.  The first thing Sophie did was look at the inside/outside thermometer and announce that it was only 47 degrees and that the sky was dark and stormy looking.  Yuck!  We watched some TV, the kids ate some candy, and then everyone got all sugar-high and crazy.  I had seen a recipe for homemade bubble solution the other day so I googled it.  (6 parts cold water, 2 parts dish soap like dawn, 1 part corn syrup in case you were wondering)  I made that as quick as possible in a Tupperware container and bundled the 3 of them up.  We didn't have any leftover bubble wands or anything, so I told the kids to get creative.  They found an old straw (the party favor kind that whistles), an egg whisk, a plastic bangle bracelet, a cheese grater, and a spaghetti spoon.  I sent them out to the front porch to have fun, while I cleaned up my Easter Disaster House lol.  They experimented with all the different ways the bubbles came out with the different utensils, but that they were ALWAYS circles no matter what shape the hole on the "wand" was.  Sophie also liked how the bubbles had rainbow reflections on them and said it was maybe some kind of light bending thing (we did some brief reading on light waves a week or two ago, apparently SOME of it stuck lol).  It was kind of too cold to play outside with the bubbles for long, even with jackets and hats and whatnot on, since you are sticking your  fingers into cold bubble solution in 40 degree weather.  Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the bubble adventure since I was stuck cleaning the house :(

          After being inside for a while, Sophie got to talking about cooking.  She is currently pretty obsessed with cooking of any kind, but particularly baking.  She is always asking to help me with meals or treats and to make her own "alone" (with supervision of course).  For the last year or so, Sophie has been saying she wanted to be an architect when she grew up.  She wanted to make everyone a house, and they make a lot of money.  I have been trying to explain that money isn't everything, that you only need enough for all your needs and some of your wants.  Today, I suggested that maybe she would like to be a chef or baker when she grows up, because then she would get to do something she really enjoys for a career.  This fueled questions of how much money do they make, would she get to own her own business, and how do you get people to work for you.  So now her plan is to someday own a bakery and co-own a plant shop with her Meme.  After all that conversation, Sophie was apparently hungry, because she asked me to find a recipe for something yummy to cook.  I looked around and found one online for snickerdoodle blondies, which I had all the ingredients for.  I had her get all the ingredients together, measuring them herself with a little prompting from me, and she put it all together.  They were delicious!!  She really is an accomplished baker already at 9.  And that is something we both enjoy doing, so its a "together" project.  We often browse through my tons of cookbooks together and fantasize about making elaborate meals. 

        Another thing Sophie has been into a lot lately is drawing or even Art in general.  She asked for art supplies for Easter and I got her watercolors, markers and colored pencils.  She has been drawing since then pretty much non-stop.  She had never used watercolors before, but has picked it up quickly.  Most of her drawings are of animals, but more like cartoon animals, as they often have clothes and make up on, and they are doing human activities.  I'm not sure if this is because its more interesting making them "girly" or just because she likes making cartoon-type drawings.  Maybe she isn't even sure herself.  Either way, I'm letting her feel this out on her own.  Little Man has also been drawing with her a lot.  He sticks to shapes mostly, hearts in particular.  He's good at them and stays in his drawn outline 95% of the time when coloring them in.  He hasn't asked to do any letter worksheets lately, so I can't comment on his handwriting skills here of late.  He was getting pretty frustrated with himself last time we printed out his name to trace, so I'm actually glad he's taking a break.  No sense in stressing himself out. 

             When I get a chance to go to the grocery store, I'm planning on getting some supplies for a sensory bin type box.  It will mostly be for the boys, but I'm not going to tell Sophie she CAN'T play with it.  I'll include some measuring tools and hopefully she will practice a bit with them.  I have seen a ton of ideas for sensory bins online lately, but most of them are so blatantly educational that I'm not going to "copy" them.  I am not trying to push education down my kids throats, and I don't see how making a three year old have a whole week of a single letter themed play is going to help.  That's just my opinion though, so if that's your style, go with it.  I do have a plan in the future to label a lot of things in our house with their names, just as a visual tool to SEE it when you THINK it kind of thing. I don't know if it will do anything in the way of helping and I don't plan on making it a lesson at all, but if he asks what they say I will explain it and let it go.  I'm still working on a way to make these labels that won't hurt whatever it is I'm labeling lol so I'm not sure when this will be happening.

             Sorry no pictures in this post!!!  I haven't really had the time to take a lot of pics today :(  But its been a busy day and when I've had the chance, I have been in the middle of the activity, not observing.