Child Art

A beautiful painting by V, using tempera paint.

Daycare Retro

A fair amount of the books and toys at my daycare are from my childhood (the 1980's) and my youngest brother's (the 1990's).  My dad is quite the packrat and has held onto a lot of our old toys.  Every now and then he brings over a box of random toys.  The kids love it and don't seem to mind at all that they don't know any of the characters.  They say, "Yea!  Pops brought us more toys!"  Then I have to quickly sort them and wash them since they've been in the basement for 20 to 30 years gathering dust.  Here are some of our retro items:

These are my Lonely Doll books from my childhood
(but they were actually published in the late 1950's)

More books from my childhood

Books from Ryan's childhood

Weird little monster guys from Ryan's childhood

Ewok battering ram (Return of the Jedi)

A Gizmo stuffed animal doll (Gremlins)

2 different versions of the Batmobile (from the 90's)

Legos from my childhood
(Rob and I had tons of Legos!)

Various action figures from Ryan's childhood
(TMNT, Batman, X-Men, The Tick, etc.)

My Fisher-Price teddy bear picnic basket from the 1970's
and Ryan's 90's Koosh balls and Dot Warner figure

We also have a number of new toys that were originally popular when I was a kid; like My Little Ponies, Cabbage Patch Kids, and Star Wars figures.  And a number of new "classics" like Chutes and Ladders, Candy Land, Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head, Hot Wheels cars, and more.  Everything old is new again.

my easy day

I call Tuesdays "my easy day" because it's just the two girls.  They play together pretty well and they play very peacefully separately.

Our only real difficulties come from the two of them competing for my attention.  They both seem to develop an uncontrollable need to be held right when I start to cook lunch, complete with whining and crying if I don't comply immediately.

V sometimes gets annoyed with S's lack of understanding about personal space, but she is still a baby after all.

Overall, it's still a pretty easy day.  There's never any hitting and very rarely any crying.  It's the least messy day, toywise.  The girls are good at cleaning up after themselves and they like helping me.

Playing together

L likes to set up house inside the little circus tent and he pretends that we are all one big family.  We always have to have a dog and a cat which he gives the same names as his real dog and cat.  The  "family" today also included a little stuffed hamster, lots of babies, a few dollhouse people, and lizards.  We had bacon for our pretend dinner.  The lizards ate ice cream and then had to sun themselves on the roof of the tent to warm up again.  L always leads the play and dislikes it anytime I suggest something.

Package from California

Last Thursday we received our state culture swap package from California.  It contained a map of California, wildflower seeds, chop sticks, fool's gold, Sees chocolates, pepitas, a mexican bingo game, a California magazine, a Bay City guide, a map of San Francisco, a SF Giants magnet, seaweed chips, information about Redwood trees and a specimen, a California mobile activity, other activity pages, brochures, and postcards.

The kids went to work on the chocolates immediately and L applied the Giants magnet to the refrigerator.  Today we got a chance to go through everything in more detail.

The kids all tried the roasted seasoned seaweed.  L said it was "interesting", but stopped declined a second piece.  V really liked it and would have continued to eat it, but I cut her off after her third piece.  S made her scrunched up face, but ate her whole piece anyway.

L liked the idea of the California mobile activity, but we tried to do it twice and it just wasn't happening.  So I finished it by myself.  S enjoys examining it when I stand under it while holding her.

What we did this week...

Here are some of the things we did this week:  played with Play-Doh, gave animals figurines and our dollhouse dolls "baths" in the bathroom sink, had pretend tea and cookies together, played with baby dolls, danced to music, tried out our new tutus, made funny faces in the mirror, made shape pictures with glue sticks and cut-outs (see left), played pretend clothing store, played hide-and-seek, emptied my piggy-bank and then refilled it twice, looked at different pennies, played My Little Ponies, had an indoor picnic lunch, picked and ate up the last of the sugar snap peas, and so much more!

Favorite books we read this week included Baby Dear by Eloise Wilkins (which I must have read nearly 20 times), A Tree Named Steve, and An Earthworm's Life.

We also received our state culture exchange package from California.  The kids were really excited about opening it and tore through it, but then the Sees chocolates distracted them from paying much attention to anything else.  So, I plan on going through it again with them in more detail on Monday.

MORE MUSIC!

Still more additions to our kid music library:

 

• Sing Me To Sleep:  Indie Lullabies
• Yo Gabba Gabba:  Music is Awesome! vol. 1
• Yo Gabba Gabba:  Music is Awesome! vol. 3
• VA:  Mother Goose Songs

Package from Utah

Our state culture swap package from Utah has arrived.  It contained Utah postcards, brochures, a map, recreation guides, hot cocoa, salt-water taffy, a Jacob's ladder game, a Utah chocolate truffle bar, a lacing project in the shape of Utah, statue symbol flash cards, instruction and equipment for how to play a pioneer game called Graces, lime Jello mix, information about Utah's signature foods and recipes, info about how Utah was settled, and state facts.

The kids really liked it, especially the salt-water taffy.  L really enjoyed the Jacob's ladder and he liked the flash cards too.  V said the hot cocoa was yummy!

Now that he has an idea of what to expect,  L is very much looking forward to the arrival of the other state packages.

Week review...

We took advantage of the nice weather on Wednesday and Thursday with trips to Washington Park and Jacobus Park.  All the kids love going to a park but getting out of the door is always a challenge for me.  Sometimes it takes a good 20 minutes or more for us to get ready.  By the time we get out the door, I'm already exhausted.  Everyone needs a change before we can go and then I have to get everyone's shoes, coats, and hats on too.  By the time I get the last person ready, the first person has removed their shoes and socks and I have to start over.  But still it's worth it because they have a blast once we get there and it's great exercise.

Other things we did include decorating little pumpkin gourds, making halloween sticker pictures, playing dollhouse, ponies, baby dolls, little legos, pretending to be a variety of different animals, having play-food picnics, coloring with crayons, and much more.

Here are some of the books we read this week.

"A Good Day" and "The Salamander Room" continue to be favorites.  L really enjoyed "A Log's Life".  And S seemed to like "Happy to be Nappy" and "Sing-Along Song".  V is oddly particular.  She did not like "The Watcher" and refused to listen to it after the 4th page, but she was content to be read "Harry The Dirty Dog".

State Culture Swap - Wisconsin

General Wisconsin Info

My state exchange culture swap packages are all ready to go!  Here are some pictures of the package I made for Wisconsin.  Each package contains 4 envelopes.

The first envelope contains a Wisconsin Map, a Milwaukee Map, a variety of tourist brochures and information, worksheets and coloring pages about Wisconsin, Info about Wisconsin Dairy Farming, a recipe for cream puffs, a postcard of Lambeau Field, a Packers pen, and Harley-Davidson playing cards.

Wisconsin Wildlife

 The next package is about Wisconsin Wildlife.  It contains information about animal tracks, Wisconsin woodland animals, an eagle mobile activity, coloring pages, and Schleich animals figurines.

Famous People From Wisconsin

The next envelope contains information about Famous People from Wisconsin:  Georgia O'Keeffe, Golda Meir, Les Paul, Harry Houdini, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Laura Ingalls Wilder.  It has a little quiz,  a little house book, a shoebox guitar activity, magic tricks, and more.

The final envelope contains information about Native Americans in Wisconsin.  It has coloring pages, a map showing reservations, a maze activity, a summary about Black Hawk, and more.

Wisconsin Native American Indians

Each package also contains a letter from us about Milwaukee, Milwaukee postcards, a Racine Danish Kringle, and some nature we collected at Washington Park.

I hope our exchange families are happy with what we've put together.  We are expecting packages from California, Utah, Florida, and Pennsylvania.  I know the kids will like opening the packages when they arrive.  I can't wait!

Greetings From Wisconsin

China

This month, D is supposed to learn about China.  Here are some of the books and DVDs we got from the library to find out more about China.

At the end of the month there will be a quiz and she will have to get all the questions correct if she wants to open the Barbie Doll of the World that represents China.  L is rooting for her and he already has his eye on the panda that comes with the doll.

The quiz this time looks like it's going to be even more difficult than last month's about Argentina.  And there are more questions this time too.  I'm sure if D applies herself like she did last month, she shouldn't have any problems!

L's latest masterpiece

L says this is a "pass walk" which he describes as a walkway through a forest of trees and a pond.

I think it's great how he fills the whole page with paint.