Joshua and I made homemade "puff" paint today. It was a lot of fun, very engaging (Joshua worked for over an hour with it), and incredibly messy. But...it was easy and quick to clean up, despite our extensive mess.
I'll post photos of what me painted once everything has dried. One creation requires a small amount of assembly on my part, so that will also be a day or so in coming. But here's the recipe and some directions on how we used the paint. Enjoy!
HOMEMADE "PUFF" PAINT
INGREDIENTS
Flour
Salt
Water
Food coloring
DIRECTIONS
1. Mix equal amounts of flour, salt and water. Works best if the paint is a little on the thick side, so when in doubt use a little less water than the other two ingredients.
2. Add food coloring for desired color.
3. Have fun!
SOME IDEAS ON HOW TO USE IT
1. Pour mixture into squeeze bottles and paint.
2. Splatter paint using straws, forks, spoons, or other utensils.
3. Pour paint onto work surface and smear around using a sponge, hand, fork, spoon, etc (in circular motion) to create interesting textures.
4. Experiment with a variety of kitchen utensils in painting, scraping, sponging, dabbing, smearing, splattering, etc. Try an egg beater, fork, spoon, crumpled paper, cookie cutters, or anything else you can find.
5. Pour paint onto work surface, create desired textures, leave the paint thick enough to run your finger through to write your child's name, draw a picture, etc.
31 August 2009
29 August 2009
Walking and Wise Men
It was generally not the best of days, but there were a few moments that helped me keep the mayhem in perspective.
-Joshua informed me that he saw "Wise Man Trucks". What he meant was that he saw a Verizon truck...but I thought it was a cute attempt at a new vehicle word. :)
-Hannah took her first step without the assistance of furniture, other people, small books, and the like. She didn't seem to notice what she had accomplished and sat down after that first step. There will be many more to come, I'm sure.
-"WuYu" (aka - Lulu the Lamb) "walked" up the steps from the laundry room, helped push the stroller, and assisted in opening the elevator door. She becomes more human every day.
-Joshua recited the Lord's prayer throughout our post-bath routine. He has known it for a while and fills in the blanks as Claude prays it each morning and pauses for Joshua to chime in. Tonight he was saying the whole thing on his own and ended with a big "Amen!"
-Hannah stood by Joshua while he sat on the potty and gave him a series of kisses on his head. She also seems to enjoy examining his hair by poking and looking very closely at it. Perhaps she'll be a scientist with such in depth observation!
All in all it was a stressful-not-as-I-expected-resistance-at-nearly-every-turn kind of afternoon and evening. But it's coming to an end and I was still able to see how the Lord is growing these two little ones up in His Way. Praise the Lord! And hopefully a full night of sleep will help all of us to be falling apart less tomorrow. :)
-Joshua informed me that he saw "Wise Man Trucks". What he meant was that he saw a Verizon truck...but I thought it was a cute attempt at a new vehicle word. :)
-Hannah took her first step without the assistance of furniture, other people, small books, and the like. She didn't seem to notice what she had accomplished and sat down after that first step. There will be many more to come, I'm sure.
-"WuYu" (aka - Lulu the Lamb) "walked" up the steps from the laundry room, helped push the stroller, and assisted in opening the elevator door. She becomes more human every day.
-Joshua recited the Lord's prayer throughout our post-bath routine. He has known it for a while and fills in the blanks as Claude prays it each morning and pauses for Joshua to chime in. Tonight he was saying the whole thing on his own and ended with a big "Amen!"
-Hannah stood by Joshua while he sat on the potty and gave him a series of kisses on his head. She also seems to enjoy examining his hair by poking and looking very closely at it. Perhaps she'll be a scientist with such in depth observation!
All in all it was a stressful-not-as-I-expected-resistance-at-nearly-every-turn kind of afternoon and evening. But it's coming to an end and I was still able to see how the Lord is growing these two little ones up in His Way. Praise the Lord! And hopefully a full night of sleep will help all of us to be falling apart less tomorrow. :)
28 August 2009
Book List and "Pretend" School
I've updated the Book List again. Check out the side bar for more titles. We're working through the picture books at the local library starting with "A" authors and moving forward through the alphabet. I think we'll be up to "C" authors next week. Some, however, are just thrown in as we find interesting books on the shelves. You'll probably notice a transportation theme running through most of these titles. Not surprising since Joshua loves anything that moves on ground, water, or air.
The Book List only has books that Joshua (and soon Hannah) asks to read several times during the week. Some he asks to read all day, and if Claude or I would sit with him, he would read these favorites at least 10 times before moving on. From past two updates here are some of my favorites:
The Book List only has books that Joshua (and soon Hannah) asks to read several times during the week. Some he asks to read all day, and if Claude or I would sit with him, he would read these favorites at least 10 times before moving on. From past two updates here are some of my favorites:
Toot Toot Zoom (Root/Cordell)
Be Gentle! (Miller)
The Adventures of Taxi Dog (Barracca/Buehner)
Whales Passing (Bunting/Davis)
Be Gentle! (Miller)
The Adventures of Taxi Dog (Barracca/Buehner)
Whales Passing (Bunting/Davis)
In addition to working through the Greenburgh Public Library picture book collection, we're also embarking on what I call a "pretend" homeschooling endeavor. Pretend because Joshua and Hannah are only two and nearly one, respectively. We had a trial day yesterday so that I could see if my plan of the time of day for lessons would actually work. It went quite well and we all had a fun time.
Here's what we did and how long it took:
-Read library books -- a stack of 8, took approximately 30 minutes and held both Joshua's and Hannah's attention
-Took a walk to a nearby playground -- looked at wheels on parked cars to identify shape and color, ran around the playground to get our bodies moving, blew bubbles and identified shape (Hannah also experimented with poking and kissing the bubbles); all of this took about 1 hour
-Drew circles, tractors with various attachments, fire trucks, and suns -- re-learned that wheels are circles and that "circles are perfectly round" as Joshua says, also enjoyed making really big and really small circles and got some great gross/fine motor skill practice in while doing it; this took about 30 minutes but was cut short since I needed to prepare lunch, Joshua may have kept going for a while
And here's what we learned:
-Correctly identify circles, something that Joshua could only do on occasion, and now is finding circles all over the place (grapes, rolls of tape, door knobs, and of course...every wheel he sees on a truck, car, etc)
-Bubbles will pop when touched or kissed
-Tractors with manure spreaders are difficult to draw
Claude and I have some fun ideas for the coming year with this homeschooling stuff including learning about cells, more shapes and colors, farm animals, zoo animals, sea creatures, field trips to farms, aquariums, etc, and a lot of art and other activities that sound like they'll be a lot of fun...and simple! (That's probably the best part right there!)
More on the book list after next week's trip to the library. And more on "pretend" homeschooling as the year progresses.
Here's what we did and how long it took:
-Read library books -- a stack of 8, took approximately 30 minutes and held both Joshua's and Hannah's attention
-Took a walk to a nearby playground -- looked at wheels on parked cars to identify shape and color, ran around the playground to get our bodies moving, blew bubbles and identified shape (Hannah also experimented with poking and kissing the bubbles); all of this took about 1 hour
-Drew circles, tractors with various attachments, fire trucks, and suns -- re-learned that wheels are circles and that "circles are perfectly round" as Joshua says, also enjoyed making really big and really small circles and got some great gross/fine motor skill practice in while doing it; this took about 30 minutes but was cut short since I needed to prepare lunch, Joshua may have kept going for a while
And here's what we learned:
-Correctly identify circles, something that Joshua could only do on occasion, and now is finding circles all over the place (grapes, rolls of tape, door knobs, and of course...every wheel he sees on a truck, car, etc)
-Bubbles will pop when touched or kissed
-Tractors with manure spreaders are difficult to draw
Claude and I have some fun ideas for the coming year with this homeschooling stuff including learning about cells, more shapes and colors, farm animals, zoo animals, sea creatures, field trips to farms, aquariums, etc, and a lot of art and other activities that sound like they'll be a lot of fun...and simple! (That's probably the best part right there!)
More on the book list after next week's trip to the library. And more on "pretend" homeschooling as the year progresses.
19 August 2009
not my idea of a good time
tan⋅trum [tan-truh
m]
–noun
| a violent demonstration of rage or frustration; a sudden burst of ill temper. |
Origin:
1740–50; orig. uncert.
1740–50; orig. uncert.
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
11 August 2009
anemo-what?
So, Joshua is learning new words every day. It's interesting which words he picks up on. today the word he learned was "anemone". And now I've spent the afternoon trying to find an illustration of a sea anemone to turn into a coloring page. Praise the Lord for the National Geographic website! :)
07 August 2009
What We Did Today
The date is Friday, August 7, 2009. The events are ordinary. The story is somewhat interesting. But regardless of the entertainment value, this is what we did today...
Today the Chew Family... woke up, ate breakfast, and read the 
with 
. 
put his nose in a 
just before he made a shaker instrument from a 
filled with 
. After seeing off to work, 
took a 
while 
washed the 
and played with his 
. It wasn't long before the fell into the 
. rescued the from the and doused it with 
before returning it to . and learned about a happy, cool, clever 
and enjoyed a tasty 
which ended in a happy, cool, clever .
After awoke from her and finished his tasty , and the kids were ready to go out. Just as they were about to leave the house, interrupted them with an important and monumental announcement. "I go poo poo," said . And off to the 
he went. was very proud of because this was the first time went to the of his own initiative. This marks a big step in 's training. Once the business was taken care of, , , and went 
shopping. They ate lunch by a 
and came home just past 1:00pm.
and enjoyed a 
while put the away and worked on this blog post. The afternoon was fairly usual. and were pretty 
until they had a healthy 
. Things were looking up from there. They enjoyed an outing to the 
where they sat on a 
under a 
. This location allowed for optimal traffic watching and a "present" to be dropped on 's 
. "Nothing that a little can't fix," thought . She learned later, however, that her initial assessment was wrong. On the way home, and enjoyed a rousing game of 
and went 
. An uneventful dinner was followed by baths and then . To say that happened without a fight would not be the complete truth. An amount of resistance followed the routine, of which missed none of it, having arrived home just as the wailing began. The battle was won after 10 short minutes and and enjoyed a quiet dinner on the 
until a mess ensued on the time front. This required a quick bath, a change of bedding, and made a trip to the 
to finish it all up. Now time started all over again. This time it was a short battle and an easy victory to and sleeping like .
washed the while updated this blog. The two enjoyed a yummy 
and slept happily ever after.
THE END
with 
. 
put his nose in a 
just before he made a shaker instrument from a 
filled with 
. After seeing off to work, 
took a 
while 
washed the 
and played with his 
. It wasn't long before the fell into the 
. rescued the from the and doused it with 
before returning it to . and learned about a happy, cool, clever 
and enjoyed a tasty 
which ended in a happy, cool, clever .After
awoke from her and finished his tasty , and the kids were ready to go out. Just as they were about to leave the house, interrupted them with an important and monumental announcement. "I go poo poo," said . And off to the 
he went. was very proud of because this was the first time went to the of his own initiative. This marks a big step in 's training. Once the business was taken care of, , , and went 
shopping. They ate lunch by a 
and came home just past 1:00pm. and enjoyed a 
while put the away and worked on this blog post. The afternoon was fairly usual. and were pretty 
until they had a healthy 
. Things were looking up from there. They enjoyed an outing to the 
where they sat on a 
under a 
. This location allowed for optimal traffic watching and a "present" to be dropped on 's 
. "Nothing that a little can't fix," thought . She learned later, however, that her initial assessment was wrong. On the way home, and enjoyed a rousing game of 
and went 
. An uneventful dinner was followed by baths and then . To say that happened without a fight would not be the complete truth. An amount of resistance followed the routine, of which missed none of it, having arrived home just as the wailing began. The battle was won after 10 short minutes and and enjoyed a quiet dinner on the 
until a mess ensued on the time front. This required a quick bath, a change of bedding, and made a trip to the 
to finish it all up. Now time started all over again. This time it was a short battle and an easy victory to and sleeping like . washed the while updated this blog. The two enjoyed a yummy 
and slept happily ever after.THE END
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