This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

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Water Play

Very few things are more exciting to my girls than playing with water, in any form. They were so happy to see me pull out the water table so early in the year. We have a lot of great sensory activities planned where we'll be using the water table, but we started the season with just a simple set of nesting cups. Kaitlyn spent a solid hour standing right there at this table experimenting with the water.


 




It's the perfect place for her to practice her pouring ability. She still has a long way to go so practicing outside in the warm weather is a great way to keep this mama from having to mop up water all day long. Though if she finds a cup of any liquid sitting around she will practice her pouring skills indoors without hesitation. It's all a learning process.





She also discovered how cold the water was when she poured it down the front of her dress.  Though it seems to have been quite the refreshing drink.









Occasionally Kinsley would come back over to check out what we were up to. She usually brought a new experiment with her like discovering that the cat does not actually like to have an ice cold bath. Notice him hiding under the table in the end? Kait would dump water on whatever part happened to be sticking out from under the table. The cat was actually quite tolerant of the whole event.

Zoo

While we were down visting the family last week the girls got a trip to their favorite zoo. We tried the Lorikeet adventure for the first time thinking Kaitlyn would love it and hoping that Kinsley wouldn't completely lose her cool. Of course they both ended up being terrified of the birds flying around and barely tolerated being close to them. Then as soon as we were out of there they couldn't stop talking about the birds. Silly girls. We always have a great time at the zoo though and they are already asking to go back.  Kinsley loves the "filimingos" while Kait is only worried about seeing a monkey. 

She does look happy here though doesn't she?

Three Sisters Festival

A long time ago there were three sisters who lived together in a field. These sisters were quite different from one another in their size and way of dressing. The little sister was so young that she could only crawl at first, and she was dressed in green.

The second sister wore a bright yellow dress, and she had a way of running off by herself when the sun shone and the soft wind blew in her face.

The third was the eldest sister, standing always very straight and tall above the other sisters and trying to protect them. She wore a pale green shawl, and she had long, yellow hair that tossed about her head in the breeze.

There was one way the sisters were all alike, though. They loved each other dearly, and they always stayed together. This made them very strong.

One day a stranger came to the field of the Three Sisters - a Mohawk boy. He talked to the birds and other animals - this caught the attention of the three sisters.

Late that summer, the youngest and smallest sister disappeared. Her sisters were sad.

Again the Mohawk boy came to the field to gather reeds at the water's edge. The two sisters who were left watched his moccasin trail, and that night the second sister - the one in the yellow dress - disappeared as well.

Now the Elder Sister was the only one left.

She continued to stand tall in her field. When the Mohawk boy saw that she missed her sisters, he brought them all back together and they became stronger together, again.





The Chickasaw people (like many other tribes) share this story of The Three Sisters and we were lucky enough to get to visit the Chickasaw Cultural Center for their Three Sisters Festival.  It is important to me that the girls gain an understanding of their ancestry and this was a perfect time to introduce them a bit more to the Chickasaw culture and their heritage.






















It was a terrific day and I was very impressed by everything the cultural center had to offer. We took part in all the various activities set up for the day, visited the museum and the girls even got to plant their own Three Sisters garden. Everything was extremely kid friendly, even the museum was designed for interaction. 

This week we'll be transplanting their Three Sisters garden into our actual garden.  The garden consists of corn, beans, and squash which are all staples of the Native American diet and grow very well together.  Like the story says, they live in harmony supporting each other. 

If you want to plant your own Three Sisters garden here is a great webpage with information on why these three grow so well together and how to plant them as well.

This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by Soulemama.

  If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see. 

Spring

Spring has officially arrived in a downpour of rain and thunderstorms. We're happy to see the rain, it is so very much needed. It has put a bit of a damper on our outdoor plans for Spring break but we're focusing on the importance of the rain for all the spring and summer things we love. Some of us are having a harder time remembering this lesson and can often be found standing at the back door staring out at the rain. We've done our fair share of splashing in puddles to be sure.

Rainbow Water Xylophone

One last rainbow themed activity for us this week. We saw this post over at Meet the Dubiens and had to try it.  I didn't really want to pull out all of our drinking glasses so I reached for our ever plentiful canning jars.  We used regular liquid food coloring so we had to mix them to get the orange and purple but that just added in another educational dimension to this activity. 







Kinsley got to mix all the colors herself. It was really pretty fun to see how the colors spread through the water, she was most impressed with that part.



The colors turned out really vibrant. She may have added a bit much to the purple, it's a little dark, but she says she liked it better that way so we left it. We also learned very quickly that in order to make it last we needed to add lids to make it a Kaitlyn proof toy so using canning jars turned out perfectly.



The girls have used wooden mallets, knitting needles and sticks to see what different tones they could make. They also discovered that everything looks different when you hold them up to your eyes. I think we'll leave the jars out on our window for quite a while.

Froot Loops as art

Froot Loops. They are a guilty pleasure snack at our house, I've loved them for as long as I can remember. Yes, I realize how bad they are for you but I just can't help it. I was happy to see this printable from Making Learning Fun and knew it was a must for our rainbow week. It is a great activity for practicing fine motor skills and color recognition.  Kinsley is happy with any activity that allows the use of lots of glue so she thought it was great. 
















You really wouldn't even need the printable for this activity, the kids could just make their own rainbow on a blank sheet of paper. I thought the detail would help Kait if she wanted to participate, which she didn't. She colored for a minute and then ate the Froot Loops instead.

If you do want some printables, there is a really sweet set we're using from 2 Teaching Mommies.

Rainbows

It finally feels like Spring is here, and with the sighting of our first robin today we're going to embrace it. We've grown weary of the long cold days of winter and are more than ready for some sunshine and warmth. Looking forward to the days where we can begin to move outside and spread out a bit more. The girls and I have also been looking forward to this week because it is going to be filled with Rainbows in honor of St. Patrick's Day. The girls absolutely love rainbows. I understand their love, rainbows are fun, bright, and beautiful. We started our Spring nature table this week and it's amazing how much brighter the house feels because of it. It makes me happy to look over and see such cheeriness. We also added a rainbow window star next to our window prism. We ordered the window star (and some playsilks) from The Purple Tangerine. It was the first time I've ordered from her shop and I am thrilled. We're going to use the playsilks in the place of grass for the girls' Easter baskets this year.

We're going to fill this week with rainbow themed activities so don't forget to check back and see what we have going on. If you need some more Rainbow ideas check out this list of Rainbow links over at No Time For Flashcards. And don't forget that Pink and Green Mama always has a ton of rainbow activities as well.

This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual inspired by Soulemama. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

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Weather Week

This week our lessons and activities have centered around the weather. With Spring on its way in we're also entering tornado season around here so I thought it would be the perfect time to really get to know our weather and what causes it. Especially with two littles that aren't quite over their weather related fears. We chose a few topics that are of particular interest to the girls and categorized our activities. We chose thunder, lightning, rain, clouds, and tornadoes. This morning we made rain in a jar to match the rain falling outside our window.



Supplies:
Glass Jar
Hot Water
Plate
Ice cubes




Heat your water until it is almost boiling and pour into your glass jar.



Quickly cover your jar with your plate and then place the ice cubes on top. Keeping a towel handy to clean up the mess when they knock the jar of water over. The voice of experience speaking there.



Watch what happens as it begins to rain inside your jar! The warm moist air from the water rises and mixes with the cool air created by the ice cubes causing condensation and then the rain.

The girls loved this activity and Kait was actually the most entertained. She loves to play with ice so this shouldn't have surprised me.



She kept sneaking the ice cubes off the plate and then she started her own ice experiment.



We have lots more in store for our weather week and lots more "rain" activities. If you're looking for some weather related idea and information check out Weather Wiz Kids, they have compiled an amazing amount of weather related info. We printed most of our worksheets and info from them.