Toddler School- Do-A-Dot Markers

I saw these markers on someone's blog a while back and thought they looked real neat. I ordered them and received them a few weeks ago, but we never got around to using them until today. I am very, very happy with them.
They work just like bingo daubers, and Luke could easily use them. (Kimberly was sleeping, so I don't know how she will do) Luke learned the difference between "dotting" gently and "dotting" hard. He consistantly used them gently after a few tries.
One of my favorite craft websites is DLTK-Kids. On this site I found pictures to print out just for these markers. The printables have little circles for the child to "dot" on. The colors are very bright and Luke made no mess at all.
This is a product that we will be using over and over again during "toddler school".

Who Knew?

Montessori Mama knew, that's who!
Montessori Mama knew that styrofoam and any object that can be poked into the styrofoam will keep a bunch of kids busy for an hour.

Scenes from a summer's day....

The family that plays together......

Diet Coke and Mentos-experiment-WOW!!

While looking for science fun, I came across Steven Spanglers great site. You can't beat this for science.

Do you see what I see?

Look up, Luke and Kim!! You will see the......
rose-breasted grosbeak!

Toddler School

We had a surprise in the mail today, Melissa and Doug's Lace and Trace Farm. Amazon reviews it to say it "helps promote hand/eye coordination, fine motor, cognitive and visual perception skills". I am just happy that my "tot schoolers" seem to enjoy it.
Luke quickly got the idea of what he was supposed to do. He continued with the four other animals in the set.
It was too hard for Kimberly on her first try. She just didn't seem to understand what she was supposed to do. She did poke the string into the holes a few times and then.....
she lined them all up and told me what each animal is called and what sound they make.

That's good enough for her first try.

Scenes from a summer's day....

Fun in the creek

Nature Study-Ponds and Creeks

It has been all about ponds and creeks around here lately. Of course, we started with books.....

a lot of books!

Our favorites are the Jim Arnosky books. His website is full of great information, and super coloring pages.

We have been doing all this reading and were very full of knowledge, so today we headed up Mt. Hope in search of whatever we could find.

Off we go!!! Turn around Kim, and follow the group!

We trekked through the woods, until we came to the creek. The kids decided to follow the water upstream and see what they could find.

They walked and walked,

and found little cliffs,

cute waterfalls,
and
steep rocks. What they didn't find was the beginning of the creek, but instead, a corn field. Well, we do live in farm country.
" Hold onto Luke, Becky!"
It was tricky to keep your flip flops on while scaling the "cliffs".

Now on to our nature finds. We saw cattails, and alot of duckweed.

Mark discovered big deer tracks, showing that the deer enjoy this creek.

Notice Gracie's visor. She and Mark made these at the library craft earlier this week.
A leopard (?) frog
A leopard froglet with its tail still on a nice sized crawdad- that we were going to keep- but Luke dumped it out when no one was looking
We found a whole bunch of newtlets. We also came home and learned about the lifecycle of newts.

This very pretty snail was next to the trail on the way out of the woods.

We all did manage to get muddy, wet, and dirty. Kim fell in, but didn't seem to mind,

except for her finger.
This is what happens when you take a two year, without a nap, into the woods, to look for nature. So much for dinner.

Could it be possible.....

that my very own Daddy is a REDNECK?

A Day of Blessings

Pat and I were honored to spend our 22nd wedding anniversary celebrating the blessing of Stacy and Paul's marriage in the Catholic Church.

It was absolutely beautiful.

I pray that God will bless this wonderful family for many, many years to come.

Jenny and Sue provided lovely music during the service.

Stacy, Paul, Ava, and Brendan with Grandma and Grandpa H.

I was great to see all the babies and children that I don't see nearly enough. Above is Elsie Rae of Elsie Rae of Sunshine fame.

Brendan is usually much happier, as can be seen at Ave Elizabeth and Brendan James.

Here is my sister, Sue, also known very well as Grandma G, with Emmy. You can catch up on Emmy and her sister's at My Three Girls.
My nieces Jessie and Cassie
Georgia and Grandpa H.
Georgia entertained us with her great singing, along with Rick and Jenny. I hear that we missed some of the other kids singing and I am very sorry about that. We have to have another party again soon so that we can hear the whole concert!
Brendan knows that the parties over!!