Sylvester and the Magic Pebble

I didn't get as many good pictures for the activities we did with this book, but it was a fun book for me and the kids. We went on a walk around the block to find "magic pebbles" like the one Sylvester found in the book. This went ok until they decided to run away from me and wouldn't come back. This is a big issue that we're trying to work through. One of them will say, "Quick, Hide!" when I come towards them and then take off running. It's difficult to take them places by myself that aren't somewhat contained because they tend to run away from me at some point and won't come back when I call them. We've been instituting punishments for this lately because no amount of reasoning, requesting or pleading will persuade them to come back to me when I call. Oh, well. It's a work in progress.

Anyways, later that afternoon we painted the rocks and pebbles different colors: red, green, pink and blue. Then we set up bowls, and they really enjoyed separating the rocks by different colors. I didn't know if they'd like that since it's a thing they liked to do when they were much younger, but they still did. It's kinda how they like to bring up their baby board books and look at them again even though we are currently reading Charlotte's Web out loud.





We also read Spinky Sulks by William Steig and Fish is Fish and The Wingdingdilly which are books about being content with who we are.

A Rainy Day at the Zoo

It was a colder and definitely rainy day on August 7th when we went with my mom, friend M and her son J to the Brookfield Zoo, and yet it was one of the most memorable times we have been there. You'd have thought with all the rain that there wouldn't be that many people there, but surprisingly enough, it was pretty busy that day. Since my mom has a pass, we went in the south entrance, and Jared and Alexa saw some new lion statues.





Since we arrived near lunchtime, the first thing we did was head straight for some picnic table near the playground. They didn't get to use the equipment because it was all pretty soaked, but they enjoyed throwing pieces of bread to the birds and just running around.




I love both the picture above of J and the picture below of Jared. Jared's finally getting the idea of smiling on cue.

After lunch we headed over to the children's zoo, but on the way we stopped to look at the bears.

Of course, in the Children's Zoo they wanted to feed the goats right away.

Here's Jared trying to give J a hug.



I included this picture because I thought it was so interesting how the ducks bury their head into their feathers when they want to go to sleep.

So it's a little out of order, but the bears put on a really good show for us. This brown bear swam across his little pool, would stand up, flip backwards and swim backwards across to the other side.

A ride on the carousel is a must-do whenever we go to the zoo. I think Alexa was a little disappointed because she choose and animal that didn't move up and down and then couldn't change her mind once the ride started. Still, they both really enjoyed the ride.



We were able to get a group kid's shot before M and J had to leave.

Alexa wanted to put on a little hat fashion show at the gift shop on our way out. Oh, and they loved that Grammy bought them each stuffed snakes, too.

Fun with Daddy

Steve is the best father I know. I know, I'm prejudiced because he's my husband, but I honestly don't know of another father who spends as much time with his kids as Steve does. From the time he gets home from work til the time the kids sleep (which in our case sometimes doesn't happen until 10:00 or 10:30) he's doing things with them, reading to them, talking with them and showing them new things.

Then on the weekends, we try to have at least one family adventure. He puts in just as much time as I do, in fact on the weekends sometimes more than me, with being with the kids. They simply adore him.

Lately, Jared has loved making towers with Steve in the playroom. They make little garages to park Jared's cars and they build corrals for the ponies to live.

I cannot think of a stronger role model for my son to have than Steve.

They love riding on Daddy's back and pretending he's a tiger, elephant or some other animal. They also enjoy long games of hide-and-go-seek around the house in the evenings, too.

Art Lotto & Child-Sized Masterpieces

For Christmas this past year, my mom bought the kids this art game. It's played just like Bingo. Although we haven't played it as Bingo yet, the kids are really into matching games right now. They match the little card to the one that looks just like it on the card. There's a great variety of both European and American paintings.

I happen to love art history (something I just recently got into in the past few years) and have brought home many picture book series about artists including The World's Greatest Artists series and books by Lawrence Arnholdt.

Another great book for introducing kids to art appreciation is Child-Sized Masterpieces. I bought this when the kids had just turned 2. So far we have just done the Stage 1 of the beginner, intermediate and advanced levels. Stage 1 in simply a matching game of putting together cards that are the same. I really love this resource because the cards are large enough (probably 9 by 9) that you can see the detail very well. The title and artist's name in on the back of the card.

Kids naturally love to look at pictures, so why not show them photographs, drawings, etchings and paintings done by the world's greatest artists? We plan to do lots of travel with the kids during the year, so it would be nice if, as we walked through different museums, they were able to recognize different pieces and artists.

I hope to do many art projects and look at many different art works with the kids over the years. They have so many different art books, particularly one called Discovering Great Artists: Hands-On Art for Children in the Style of the Great Masters, that I'm so excited to introduce to the kids. For now, I'm just ecstatic that they love to paint and draw so much.

Our Favorite DVD's

Our kids don't watch T.V. They've seen two or maybe three shows on the television before, and will occasionally watch a spots game for a little while with Steve, but they almost always just watch select DVDs, and even with that I try to really limit the amount they watch. At the very most, I try to have the limit be an hour per day.

It's just been hard lately this past year because since they gave up regular naps at 27 months, they'll usually be up for fourteen hours straight. They are very active, and usually want a lot of my attention. They'd have me play all day long with them if I would. I love playing with them, and spend many hours a day playing and doing things with them, but I need to get dishes done, floors vacuumed, laundry done. They sometimes will want to help me with this, but more often they drag so many things out that it seems all I do is follow them around, straightening up after them.

I've been struggling with the concept of limiting screen time. I've read and thought long and hard about the concept of unlimited T.V. time for kids. I guess the argument is that if kids are free to choose how much and what kind of programming they want to watch, then they will eventually not care that much about watching T.V. because they know they can have it whenever they want it. So, I tried for about a month letting them keep watching whatever and whenever they want to see a program (which was still their DVDs and not television.) But, my kids would watch DVDs literally ALL DAY LONG. I would do my best to distract them with other activities, but like I said, I need to get some things done and during those times when I couldn't actively engage them in other things, they'd just want and crave more screen time.

I noticed that they were much more lethargic, crabby and dull. They didn't play as creatively anymore, didn't care as much to play outside, and didn't want to read as much. So, after this experiment, and reading Endangered Minds, I decided for our family's mental health sake, that there should be pretty strict T.V. limits set. We are very relaxed about bedtimes and eating, but the T.V. issue is quite another thing. And you know what? After just a week of this new "diet," the kids don't crave watching something as much. They are back to making up the most wonderful worlds and games for themselves, running around outside for a good part of the day and are in much better moods.

That said, we do enjoy as a family some really good movies. What I like about watching things together as a family is the discussions we are able to have, and how a lot of their questions come up about what is happening because they have us there to give answers right away.

Some of our favorite DVD's lately have been:

Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang, Inkheart and Five Children and It

The kids adore musicals and in the past have loved Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music and

Annie. They will also watch episodes of Reading Rainbow, Mister Rodgers Neighborhood, Between the Lions or a Scholastic book special.

Cow Milking and Goat Grooming

I was so excited about the chance for the kids to see a cow being milked, even if it was through a machine. One of the few good memories I have about school is of going to a dairy farm and watching a farmer hand- milk cows. We were able to watch this demonstration at the Brookfield Zoo.

It was a little crowded, it went by really fast, and it was difficult to see with the many bars in the way, so the kids didn't seem that into it. I really hope to have them participate in a junior farmer program this year at a self-sustaining farm where they can help with the farm chores and get to milk a cow for themselves.




Almost every time we come to the Children's Zoo at the Broofield Zoo, we have to go in the petting zoo area. They love to brush the goats. Alexa still remembers feeding the baby goats in Missouri three months ago and asks why we can't feed them here, too.

Jared got nipped a little by the goats, and now it's made him wary of feeding them. Every so often he'll retell the story of how the goat bit him.

When the kids were still two and a half, we went to see the Dinosaur exhibit at the zoo. Since it costs so much, once was enough for us, but they have this huge one next to the fountain when you first come in the South Gate. The kids, especially Jared, loves how it moves, how drool (water) comes out if its mouth and how it will growl at them.

We ended up our day at the Swamp House, a favorite with the kids. They usually want to sit in the canoe and the rowboat and look for the alligator. This visit they were particularly fascinated by an exhibit where you'd pull a lever, water would cause a platform to rise with play furniture on it and then everything would topple over in the "flood."

Picture Book Activities - Bread and Jam for Frances

Bread and Jam for Frances was a favorite book this summer. I think their favorite activity was making bread from scratch and then spreading jam on it after it had cooled. They have watched me bake bread several times in the bread machine, but this is the first time we made any by scratch.

We also checked out a couple other Frances books (they had already been introduced to Frances with Best Friends for Frances) including A Baby Sister For Frances and Bedtime for Frances. Even though it was a board book, they like re looking at and reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. We read a nonfiction book about badgers. This will be on a different post but we also made up a menu for our pretend restaurant, decided what we would serve and how much things cost.