It seems that, without my prompting, the children have felt the shift in seasons and are asking for a slight bit more structure to our days.
Callie, being quite excited to be a "kindergartener" now, decided that her first "lesson" should be to make a dolly hospital. She and Annie each made a sign (they copied the words from an idea book we have) to tape up, then Callie overturned a box for her exam table and fished a clean syringe out of the drawer with which she could do her doctorly duties. This was quickly abandoned when...
Annie decided that she wanted to make kissy face pictures. The child draws a face sans mouth. The parent then applies some lipstick to the child's lips, and the child kisses their picture where the mouth should be. These are especially well-loved by girls, though my boy will sometimes join in the fun. The picture is meant to *always* be given to a loved one. While the girls were busy making quite a few of these...
Airius really struggled trying to make a milk jug T. rex skull. His obsession with dinosaurs continues, but he is still really struggling with finger strength. Ever the perfectionist, he was a bit discouraged that he wasn't able to cut as smoothly as he wanted to, but I think he enjoyed this project anyway. For anyone that decides to make one of these, WATCH OUT. Those pointy, plastic teeth are really sharp!
Airius also continued to help me plan our whole yard nature garden makeover. He is particularly smitten with butterflies, and this love blossomed further this summer when--just last week--we found our first ever monarch caterpillar on the milkweed we've been growing for five years now! The kids were ever so vigilant about watching him all day every day and even named him Blotchy. Alas! I think he met an untimely demise. I didn't tell the children this, however, so Airius insists that Blotchy has become a beautiful butterfly. As luck would have it, we have had several monarchs visiting the butterfly bush that Airius picked out and helped me plant last year. He's been looking over and over the butterfly books that he chose at the library, but he hasn't come to me with any new facts or asked me to read anything for him. To build on this butterfly interest, I pulled up some YouTube videos on the monarch migration. (here and here) I thought this might spark interest in a visit to the Franklin Park Conservatory's Blooms & Butterflies Exhibit, but Airius insisted he did not want to go. He just wants to study Blotchy.
After the videos, Airius asked how butterflies can manage to fly since their bodies seem so much heavier than their light, delicate wings. I googled it and found this explanation. I thought, perhaps, that Airius would ask about some of the unfamiliar words in the definition, but he didn't. I didn't offer any explanations.
I had also noticed that Airius carried a magnet that he'd somehow pried loose from a toy with him on our morning walk. He kept talking about "getting vibrations" from it, so I went to our library website to try to find some books (particulary Mickey's Magnet), but the library is switching systems so their online catalog wasn't working. Harumph. Airius asked what I was looking for, so I told him. He was very excited and asked if there were magnet science kits that he could ask for for his upcoming birthday. We found a few to add to his wishlist. The horseshoe magnets especially intrigued him. There was one on Amazon that had a 30lb limit. That was extremely thrilling to him, and he wanted to have that one right. NOW. Tonight I must search for some more magnet fun ideas. I know that there was a post up recently on Chasing Cheerios about playing with magnets, but I'd like to find some stuff geared toward the older set too.
Tonight's bedtime story: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
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