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.
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