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.
Jarrod's favorite is a T-Rex too! We've invented our own dino too. He wanted me to make one with play dough and it didn't "look like a real dinosaur, mom!" so we named it the Jarrodasaurus and he was pretty happy with that!
ReplyDeleteDinosaurs are just awesome lol. I had forgotten how much I liked them until Sophie got into them. And she has the boys interested too. Almost everything else we've been doing, comes back to dinosaurs eventually!
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