tubular

We took some tubes that were intended to be part of a soccer goal and decided they would be better suited at being water tubes.


Everyone had a chance to make their design.

We wondered if the water would defy gravity and move upward.

We liked the zig zag design.


They learned to work as a team and find success.

The only bummer is...they want to do this every day and get wet. =)

homemade play dough...and a good way to entertain all the kiddos

One of the challenges for me has been to carve out time with just the big girls. My time and energy is monopolized most of the day by 2 little guys (well - honestly the littlest one in our bunch). I have been trying to skip the nap for mommy when I put the boys down for rest and do something with the girls.

One afternoon, we decided to make some play dough. I have had this recipe for years and have never done it. Not sure why...just too busy, I guess. But when you are cocooning at home and looking for something to do...you bring out all your ideas and try to keep the little ones entertained. This is a fun book with cool recipes for all your homemade goodies. Our next project will be homemade bubbles. I'll let you know how it turns out.
The girls often enjoy working in the kitchen with me and although this was fun, it wasn't quite as fun as making brownies or cupcakes and getting to lick the bowl clean.


I made a REALLY big batch and here is the recipe I used to make enough dough for all the kids to share.

4 cups boiling water
2 cups salt
4 cups all purpose flour
4 tablespoons alum
4 tablespoons veggie oil

Remove the boiling water from the stove and add the salt. In medium bowl mix the rest if the ingredients. Add the salted water and mix the dough. Add food coloring if desired. Kneed it by hand when it has cooled a bit.

Once the boys got up from their rest time, they got to play with it too. I just had to let them know we don't eat it. And as you can imagine around here, I act all of those concepts out to communicate to them what I need to get across.


I love how these kinds of activities bring all the kids together and allows them to bond and connect as siblings.
If you look closely, you will see little man Tate smiling (well, kind of a smile that says "watch out, I am a handful"). He is so fast it is hard to catch him smiling. Well, that and I am using my phone as a camera. I still haven't gotten back to taking the time to uploading real pictures. Good thing I can snap a shot and email it to myself. At least I am documenting our life here at home.

Oh the things I find when I go upstairs to tuck my girls into bed...

Creative play. It never ends here at our home. These girls come up with some of the most unique ways to play. I have blogged about it before, so here I am again sharing what they were up to.

I walked into their room and burst out laughing when I found this.

Can you tell what it is? A Woody (from Toy Story) doll dressed up as an old woman. Too funny. The girls then wanted to give me a tour of all the characters in the play. Here is Pharaoh Huggy. Can you tell we have studied ancient Egypt this year (and this huggy was also inspired by Kidmo).

And we also have Florence Nightingale. She takes care of the sick.
Of course Taylor Swift was in the story too. I then asked how they knew about Taylor Swift, and they heard about her from friends.
This is a king (actually Huggy) who was looking for a bride in their story. Somehow morphed from Princess Diaries 2.
And their story included an orphaned boy. I know where that one comes from. =)

And last but not least, the Egyptian dancer who entertains everyone.

What it reminded me, was that they just want to share their world with me. And for that afternoon, the girls world was a pretend story. They loved it that I took the time to be interested in their life.

Candy Land

Instead of eating all the candy, these girls have been playing with it all week. I had to take pictures of it, for I am impressed with their creativeness. Click the pictures to enlarge for better viewing.

At first a few toys were added to enhance the fun. And very quickly a coral showed up in front of the barn.And a candy garden was planted. Notice the "Nerds" gate. This is where the candy comes from.

Pretty soon the barn grew and stalls were added out back to house the animals. And a few wooden people were added to ride the horses and play in the garden. Notice the yellow colored candy to represent the hay. And blue candy is for the water.

When they are off playing with something else, or when it is time to take a break and eat or do school, this is how the horses are left, in their stalls.Here is the family sitting at the table. I think the family is inspired by the Ingalls family, I hear a lot of Laura and Mary dialogue going on. Chairs are made out of Milk Duds boxes. If you click the picture here you will notice the fire in the background with a Hershey Kiss as the flame of the fire.

Here they all are tucked into bed complete with covers made out of M & M's and Reese's. They have used the candy just like building blocks to create their world.

Lounging on chairs made of Nerds and Dots complete with the fireplace in the front. Again notice the flame made out of Hershey Kiss and the logs made of Tootsie Rolls. This is the parlor.

Here they are playing by the creek. Since it is inspired by the Little House stories, notice the red Now and Later, that is supposed to be the crab from the story.

I have been amazed that the kids came up with this all on their own. I LOVE how creative they are with how they play. Just had to share our CANDY LAND.

learning to think

Though I bought these math manipulatives when the kids were in kindergarten, we still use them on a regular basis. It is things like this that get the brain working to solve problems, work on thinking skills, spacial reasoning...and like I said in my last post ~ creative play.
One of my goals with homeschooling has been to teach my kids to think. Not just know the right answer, but give them the skills to figure it out them selves. That is one of the reasons we try and carve out time every day to do puzzles, games and activities like the ones pictures here that allow them the chance to think. (HERE is another favorite activity to get you thinking)

One of the best compliments

The other day I was sitting at a park with 2 friends while our children played in the kids play area. There was only one other mom in the park and she came up to the 3 of us and asked us how we got our kids to be so creative with how they play. She couldn't believe how our kids were playing so creatively. And then she commented on how unusual it is that they were older children (not just preschoolers) and playing dramatic play. As you can imagine, it just made my day. To hear someone notice, admire and comment on such a thing. We all thanked her for the comment and visited a few moments and mentioned that our children have spent a bit of time together.

Later I asked Tristen what they were playing and she told me all about it. This was an unusual park (no swings or play equipment), just lots of dirt, one slide (mounted on a dirt hill), a water source, a cabin, and a tee pee. She told me that they were playing farmer. This was the first time we had gone to that play area, I always thought it was for younger kids, and yet my 11 year old had just as much fun as a 4 year old. Making mud, pretending to be Laura from Little House, running around while someone was pretending to be a bear and chase her.

I love it that they didn't feel like they were too old to play. No one said it was for babies. No one squelched their creative play. In fact, they spurred each other on to be more creative as they worked as a group.

I wonder what makes some kids more creative in their play than others. My two have used dramatic play as the main source of their entertainment. (one of my favorite posts and sweet pictures HERE) Forget the toys and video games. Give them a pile of stuffed animals and some linking cube blocks and you might just find an orchestra. Here are their webkins playing instruments. They showed me each animal and what instrument they are playing and the sheet music they made for them to follow. Talk about creative play.