What's My Address?

Harmony and I are going to start working on memorizing our home phone number, as well as our home address.  Although, I fear that the entire world will know it.  I found the most wonderful print out to assist in teaching this from a very educational website!

DLK Crafts has wonderful learning idea's for children of all ages and they also offer excellent FREE printables and lesson plans!  This website supplies great learning outlets and resources for you and your family!

If you are teaching your "little adult" their home addresses and need some reenforcement, then you can print out this envelope template.  They even have cute colorable stamps to place on the envelopes!

Happy Monday!

Candice S.

Ballerina Wand

 Harmony begged Santa to bring her a ballerina wand like Angelina Ballerina's.. but Santa couldn't find one.  :(  ... What to do, what to do..  Mommy to the rescue!  

I took a dowel and covered it with a mixture of silver glitter and Mod Podge.  I have done this so many times before and it comes out so pretty when you mix the Mod Podge with glitter!  

Then I took some red ribbon from our Christmas box and started wrapping the end of the dowel until I had a decent length for my "Angelina" to twirl around with.  

I hot glued some gems onto the ribbon but we've been slowly removing them.  They provide a little sting when you're twirling spastically and get hit with one.  So beware of its beauty and the possibility that may want to decorate the dowel with jewels and not the ribbon itself. 

 This is just another of the many lessons in the life of crafting that I have learned.

Then you can.. "Get down, get down, get down!"  

Have a wonderful weekend!

Candice S.

Snowball Counting Game

This game was so fun!  I labeled an egg carton 1-18 and placed the snowballs/cottonballs all over our house.  Harmony loved finding them!  

This game promotes number recognition and fine motor skills.  Harmony held the egg carton and placed each one in the next slot.  I chose this egg carton because Harmony is learning to recognize numbers 11-20.  This was perfect and even slightly challenging.  Harmony did excellent!

For more winter themed ideas click here.

Happy Friday!

Candice S.

Science Experiment #1: Liquid to Solid

For 2011, I wanted to start incorporating Science into Harmony's preschool lessons.  I thought that this was important and provided Harmony with a hands on approach to observation and analysis, even if she is only 4 1/2.  In our first attempt at a science project, we decided that we would create an observation book where we could record, collect our data, and write our hypothesis down to clearly define our experiment. 

Next, I was looking for an experiment that we could do that coincided with our thematic unit: Winter.  *You will get to see more Winter Themed projects that we have completed in the next few days.  

Step #1:  I started by having Harmony pick some small toys that could fit into a zip lock bag.  I ended up finding some jewels that Santa had brought for art projects to put in the bag.  After this, we fill the bag up with water, sealed it tightly shut, and then dried off the outside.  

Step #2:  Write down your thoughts in your observation book.  I asked Harmony questions and we wrote them down with her answers.  The questions were:

What does the bag feel like?  

Is it hot or cold?

Is it hard or soft?  

How many objects are in the bag?

What color is it?

Step #3:  Place in freezer on a flat surface.  Allow it at least 6-12 hours of freeze time.  We placed ours in the freezer overnight.  Harmony observed the bag for about an hour or two, but seeing as we did freeze it overnight, we didn't check again until we were taking it out the next day. 

 Step #4:  Take it out of the freezer, open the zip lock bag (was a little hard to get off) and remove the entire bag to reveal a beautifully shaped block of ice.  

Step #5:  Ask your questions again and observe your original hypothesis.  Make sure you teach your child vocabulary that contains "liquid" for water and "solid" for ice.  Harmony took very well to observing this experiment and because it was so basic (I'm sure you kids see ice all of the time AND water so they know that there IS a freezing process) it is still FUN to focus on your hypothesis of the likely hood of the water freezing.  

Step #6:  Grab a meat cleaver (with strong parental supervision) and watch your little one make a game of your lesson plan by hammering away.  

Harmony did this for about 30-45 minutes with ice flinging EVERYWHERE.  After she was done we watched it return to water, which we observed about two hours later.  I explained how it was returning to it's original state because of the temperature in the room.  We also put it under hot water to see it melting, which was another fun lesson of practical use.  

This experiment was given a score of a perfect 10!  We loved it!

Candice S.

 Inspiring Winter Book's:

     

New Year

Good Morning, Fellow and Humble Follower's!  I don't know if you've noticed that I have been MIA... but I have.  :)  I've been a busy gal making those fun lists of 2011 goals.  I have made goals for Harmony's schooling (preschool), personal goals, family goals, and any other type of goal that you can categorize.

My husband and I are going to make some HUGE changes in 2011, most of which we are pretty excited about.  Our family is going to see advancement, enticing and FUN changes, and growth.  I am beyond ecstatic for the accomplishments that this year is going to bring about!

I've been doing some thinking about Rattles and Redheads too!  I haven't had as much time to blog since the holiday's.  I am so sorry for neglecting something that I love!  Currently on my to do lists these days, just in daily goals alone..

Raise a 4 yr old WITH manners.  HA!

Raise a 9 month old that eats EVERYTHING.

Write paper's, attend classes (online), read 12 chapters a week for my Bachelor's degree.  ugh and blah!

Schedule every aspect of my life and it's many cluttered corners.

Do I have a husband?  .. I think that I do, but I'm pretty positive that he's been neglected lately.

Clean my 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom house.

Declutter my 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom house.

Read two inspirational books:
Organized Simplicity: The Clutter-Free Approach to Intentional Living
and
The Spark: The 28-Day Breakthrough Plan for Losing Weight, Getting Fit, and Transforming Your Life

Cardio and Strength Training Daily (Alternating between days)

Consume fewer calories, drink 70 oz of water, eat smaller portions (which makes me want to eat my own leg)

....See where I'm going here?  I'm a super busy, gal!

I have posts that I am going to be working on in the next upcoming days of neat-o activities that Harmony, Mark Jr., and myself have been doing in the last few weeks.  Stay tuned for more!

*Any advice for blogging and keeping up with daily life, let me know!  I love feedback.  :)

Happy January and Cheers To A New Year!

Candice S.