L's Animal Stack

The kids all love stickers.  Here's a picture that L made using animal stickers.  I love that he always puts so much thought into his placement of the stickers.  He came up with the idea of having the animals standing up on each other shortly after we read The Musicians of Bremen.

Butterfly release - take two

Today we released the last 5 butterflies.  The girls were so sweet and gentle as they watched the butterflies leave the habitat.  A couple of butterflies had gotten their wings wet, so they hung around for a bit while their wings dried in the sun.  V sang them sweet little songs.  And S timidly placed plastic grapes (toy play food) near them as a kind of offering.  So cute!

Butterfly release - take one

We released the first 5 butterflies today!  Maybe it was just the weather, but it seemed like the butterflies that had emerged first were starting to get restless.  I didn't want to risk them damaging their wings so we moved up our release date to today.

We were hoping that they'd stick around for a bit and land on the kids' brightly colored shirts, but that didn't happen.  As soon as the butterflies found their way out of the butterfly habitat, they took off!  Each one flew up high, over the house and they were gone.  L was pretty disappointed.

We saved 5 butterflies to release tomorrow since S wasn't here today to see this.

All our butterflies have now emerged!

Our butterflies have now emerged!  

The kids are looking forward to when they get to release them next week.  

Our caterpillars have formed their chrysalises

Today the kids were using their sleep mats, sheets, blankets, and pillows to pretend that they were caterpillars.  First they said they were really hungry and they "ate" their pillows and blankets (which they told me were leaves).  Then they crawled between their sheets and mats which they pretended were their cocoons.  Finally they emerged as "beautiful butterflies" and ran around the living room flying with their new wings.

It made me feel so good to see the kids playing like this.  It was entirely initiated by them and I just got to watch and take pictures.  We had recently been reading a lot of butterfly life cycle books, but I wasn't sure if any of it was sinking in.  Now I know they understand!  All of our caterpillars have formed their chrysalises now.  I can't wait until they emerge as butterflies.  I think the kids will really get it all once they see that happen.

Another cool kid app

We found another cool kid app called BUGS AND BUTTONS.  You can find out more about it at this website:  http://www.littlebitstudio.com/bugsandbuttons.html 

L absolutely loves this app.  It's not just one game, it's actually 18 different games all involving bugs (which he loves!) and buttons.  He gets to play it for 20 minutes at the end of the day if he makes it through the entire day without getting a time-out.  I think the mazes might be his favorite part but he likes all the games too.  It's not just about having fun either - most of the games are designed to incorporate early math skills like sorting, counting, and number recognition.  It's a very cool kid app!