Halloween Crafts Part 2: Footprint Ghosts and Colorful Jack-O-Lanterns!

       Since the boys decided the house needed more decorations, I went back to Pinterest and found two more things we could try. The first thing we worked on was the Colorful Jack-O-Lanterns! Here is where I found the idea: http://kidsactivitiesblog.com/47751/halloween-art-project. First we got out some coffee filters, drew on them however they wanted with markers, then sprayed them with water so the colors spread. After we let it dry, We just taped them to the back of some Jack-O-Lantern faces I cut out and voila! Super cute pumpkin!
     Next, we made our Footprint Ghosts! I didn't have white paint, so I figured in the spirit of Halloween, we'd just go with orange! Well... I didn't remember until I was getting everything set up that when I bought paint, I only bought big bottles of the primary colors figuring I could just mix up any other color I need. Well... when I had that plan... apparently I forgot my serious lack of artistic talent,,, and no matter how hard I tried... orange turned out too red, but close enough... lol.  Here's the link for this one: http://www.craftymorning.com/footprint-ghost-craft-kids/. Anyway, I mixed up the paint, put it in a metal tin, put down a paper and made our footprints! Once they dried I outlined them and drew faces on them and we had some awesome ghosts! Now our house, (I think anyway) is decorated and ready for Halloween! :-)

Halloween Crafts: Bat Pictures and Boo Garland!

         The boys told me that we just HAD to decorate for Halloween this year. Normally I don't really do too much holiday decorating, but since they insisted, I went searching for a few things we could make to put up. The first thing I found was these bats: http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2008/10/im-going-batty.html . Basically you trace your handprint, draw a bat head shape, cut them all out, then paste them on some orange paper so we get the Halloween colors going on. Then they picked out some googly eyes and I cut some little red fangs and they glued those on. Voila! Halloween bat!
       Next we made some Boo Garland. I got the idea here: http://peppermintplum.blogspot.com/2011/09/ghostie-boo-garland.html. I have some white yarn we keep around for crafts, so the only other things we needed were kleenexs, cotton balls and a permanent marker, which we had too! Basically you take a few cotton balls, wrap the kleenex around it to look like a "ghost", then tie the string around it to make "garland". We made sort of an assembly line and they helped me make some of the ghost faces too. They were so excited about everything we had to hang it all up right away and now they're asking to make more! Eep! Back to Pinterest I go... haha!

Science Experiment: Does it Float or Sink?

      Yesterday we were supposed to do an experiment involving learning about air pressure. Well, the preparatory part didn't go well...and I couldn't get it to work... lol! Go me! Haha! So thankfully I remembered that I had already printed out a few worksheets, and one of them was the sink or float experiment. A while back I found this site (not sure how...Pinterest probably) and printed out the worksheet along with a bunch of other stuff to have around for occasions such as this. :-)  The site is here:  http://www.themeasuredmom.com/water-math-science-activities-for-kids-ages-3-6/ .
      I filled up the biggest bowl we had with water and found a pencil, coin and crayon. Then I called the boys in and told them to find other things like the objects I found to see if they sink or float. Of course this ended up with A LOT of interesting options...so I chose the most variety I could. This included things like; bouncy balls, a toy ninja, a plastic toy chain and so much more... ;-) I wrote down all the objects they chose, then we went through the list and they decided whether they thought it was going to sink, or float. Next was the fun part! They dropped each thing in the bowl one at a time and watched it sink or float! Then they went back to their worksheet and filled in whether each thing sank or floated. They got some right and some wrong, and amazingly enough didn't really care that they had been wrong. The really awesome part is after they were done, they kept finding new things and trying them in the bowl for another half an hour after we were done! That's what I call a successful experiment! (P.S. I'm fully aware they're in their pj's for this...yay for school in your pjs!) :-)

Time 4 Learning: Math

      We use Time 4 Learning for part of the boys' lessons each week, and they seem to enjoy it quite a bit. The graphics sometimes drive me to the point of insanity with their 80's graphic awesomeness... but I'm pushing past it... lol. One part I really like in particular is the math lessons. Yesterday the boys did their weekly Time 4 Learning math lesson and I decided to take some pictures to show you what they do besides the computer work. For each math section, there is a quiz. You start each new lesson (if you finished a section last time) with a quiz from what you learned last time. So far the boys have both gotten all the answers right, which is great because I know they actually listened last time... :-).
      Once that is done we do two lessons on the website (www.time4learning.com) and then move onto the provided teacher materials which include some activities and worksheets. Some of the activities aren't really possible to do with only 2 kids, but we do the ones we can and do all the worksheets! There is usually a pretty even mix of worksheets you use a pencil for, ones that involve cutting, and others that have cutting and pasting, but this week we had a ton of cutting and pasting to do, which is great for their hand-eye coordination! They're getting SO much better at cutting! (Which is great...mostly because I'm not TOTALLY terrified they're gonna cut off a digit with child scissors... which are somehow sharper than my kitchen shears by the way...eep!) I really do love the supplemental stuff we do on Time 4 Learning, and honestly would recommend it be part of your curriculum if you can!

Making Caramel Apples!

      We were in the grocery store one day,  and Wyatt saw a display of different kinds of "toffee apples". He wanted some then, but there was no way I was paying $3 for an apple so I told him we'd make some! We bought this Caramel apple making kit and 5 Red Delicious apples and it cost about $4 for it all. I was going to do the whole shebang with the real caramels you melt and dip the apple and all that but anything that involves temperamental caramel and a candy thermometer spells a recipe for distaster for me...so we went with this...haha! Andrew's mom was in town for a few days so she helped too!
        It was all super easy to do. I forgot to take a picture of the caramel circles that came in the package, but you just pull them off the wax paper, stretch them a bit,  and then wrap them around the apple, then stick the popsicle stick in the top (sticks were in the kit). I did most of the caramel pulling and sticking and the boys took care of the sticks. They turned out really yummy! I'll be picking caramel out of my teeth for days...but yummy.  :-)

Art: Color Spray Science!!

        I found this really fun looking project on Pinterest, and I just had to do it with the boys! They had a few extra plain white t-shirts laying around that are starting to get on the small side, so I figured at least if we decorate them, they'll get some use! So far the boys have wanted to wear them two days in a row so I'd say that's a win for the Mom team there... lol. Anyway, it was super fun and they loved it. We just got two plain t-shirts, and stuck a file folder (that's all I had...haha...a bigger piece of cardboard would have been nice so there was no bleed through to the back...but oh well) between the front and back of the shirt so that the marker youre writing on the front doesn't bleed through to the back. Like I said before, I wish I would've had a bigger piece of something to put between the layers since some marker bleed through happened on the edges of where the folder was, but it only bothered me, not them. We got out the permanent markers we have and let them draw whatever they wanted! When they were done, we just sprayed the shirts down with rubbing alcohol so all the colors spread out and set it, then let it air dry (in our case with the help of a fan...we're impatient..haha). Then we washed it on cold in the washing machine and dried them on medium in the dryer and they were good to go! Of course my models make them extra cute... ;-).

Here's the link to the idea:
http://kidsactivitiesblog.com/47873/color-spray-science

I caught my first fish!!

        I can't believe that I forgot to post this! A few days ago we went fishing for a few hours at a lake we have always wanted to stop at. Since we had our fishing stuff with us, the boys just HAD to try. Haha! We set up and within a little while, we actually caught a fish! Next Wyatt caught one, and Wade did too! They were SO excited that they finally got to catch a fish! Plus that means we got to keep them and take them home for dinner! Yum! We've never caught trout, let alone cooked it before, but it turned out pretty good. :-)  I forgot to take a picture of it after it was done because I was hungry...lol... but the important part was the catching of course! :-)

One Month of Work!

      As we do school work, we slowly show Daddy what they've done and then I punch holes in it and put it in their Kindergarten work binder. I finally got exactly 1 months worth of work in there and its crazy how much they've done already! The second picture below shiws how thick the stack of papers is! They really do such a good job getting their work done with minimal whining or complaining. I'm pretty proud of how well theyre doing.  :-) I took a few pictures of work in their binder to show what they've been doing because I've seriously been slacking on remembering to take pictures WHILE they're doing work...haha. Hopefully I'll manage that better this week...