Math Fun with Bugs

(41 Months)

Ok, so they aren't real bugs.  I was cleaning out the pantry and found a box of bug-shaped pasta that expired.  Instead of just chucking it, I gave it to the kids for a quick math exploration.

I made a quick bar graph template (minus the titles), poured some bugs onto two plates and then invited Little Miss and Wild One over.  I love how excited they get when I invite them over.  Although this time I knew it had to do with, "who wants to play with BUGS?"

 After a really brief explanation of our modified bar graph, including which bugs go into which column, they went to work sorting bugs by type and adding them to the bar graph.  When they finished we counted all of the bugs on the graph.

We took a few bugs away from each column, then reinforced vocabulary more than, less than, equal to, greater than, fewer than, same as and altogether.

It was interesting watching how the two of them played with the bugs.  Little Miss would search for all the butterflies and as she found one would add it to her graph.  Wild One would locate each butterfly and put them aside, then he added them all to his graph.

Little Miss and I practiced an AB pattern with two of the bugs.  After she completed a row, she just continued the pattern on the next row, and the next.  Wild One decided at that point, he was done with the bugs and started building with his jumbo cardboard blocks.

I wanted to also work on ABBA patterning, but she had other ideas of just playing with the bugs.  For the younger ones, a simple sorting the bugs into piles would be a great math game.

Sometime later (when there's time, there will be time sometime, won't there), I'm going to dye the pasta different colors.  We'll use it for art and more math fun.  Meanwhile, I'm glad that we got in our 10 minutes of dedicated math fun time.

Giant Rainbow Ice Blocks

(41 Months)

I have such vivid memories of the giant ice blocks that my parents made when I was little.  They would fill empty milk cartons with water and freeze them.  We'd have huge ice blocks that would last for hours.

A few days ago I started making my own ice blocks, except I added a few layers of color! The first was done purposeful - one measured cup of each color (10 drops of liquid food coloring to one cup of cold water).  I put in the first color, three or four hours later I poured in the next color and repeated.

The second block has the three primary colors.  If you look closely you can see the a thin layer of secondary colors.

Little Miss loves the hot tub, she calls it "the little pool".  She played with both of the giant ice blocks  until they melted away.

I wasn't able to get any clear pictures of Wild One.  He was practicing swimming underwater and wouldn't stay still long enough for a non-blurry shot.  He just learned how to swim underwater this week and he loves it.  The first time he did it.  He jumped in and swam all the way to the steps by himself.  When I told him that he did it by himself, he was so excited.  "I did?  All by myself?  I can do that?  I'm gonna do it again!  I'm going to take a deep breath and swim all the way to the steps."

Foamy Rainbow Ice Play

(41 Months)

We had so much fun playing with the little rainbow dinosaurs that we knew we'd be playing with rainbow ice in foam (shaving cream).  My two love swirling food dye in foam, playing with water beads in foam and finding hidden letters in foam.  I knew they'd have a ball with this!

I put four drops of liquid food coloring in each of the tiny flower cavities, filled with water and let it freeze.  The next day I filled the water table with an entire can of foam and invited the kidabunks to play.  Hee hee - we had fun!  Soft, squishy, icy cold fun.  Messy, clean 'em up with a hose - heh heh, fun.  Can we do this again Mommy?  Fun!

Rainbow Ice Art

(41 Months)

We love playing with ice.  I use our empty milk and almond milk cartons to make giant icebergs for the pool.  The kidabunks love watching it bob across the water, dunking it underwater and watching it float back to the top and excavating dinosaurs and sometimes Toy Story figurines.

Yesterday, we decided to make colored ice dinosaurs.  Using the primary colors -again with the hopes that they can discover secondary colors on their own- we added five drops of liquid food dye to each mould and filled the rest with water.

Today, we covered their table with white paper towels and let them experiment away.
"Ohhhh!  Dinosaurs!"
"Look, there's a stegosaurs for you!"
"Can I please have all the red ones?"
Then, they noticed that as the dinosaurs melted the paper towels changed colors.
"Are they crayons Mommy?"

Both kiddies liked playing with this.  It's a great work out for fine motor skills.  Ice is slippery.  Especially tiny ice shapes.

Wild One stayed until they were almost all melted, then he decided to play "soccer".  Little Miss asked for a new white towel to finish playing and then asked if she could do it again.

So... did we get a chance to learn about secondary colors?  Not this time, they were fascinated by the colored ice melting and staining the paper.  I had to keep forcing myself not to say, "look what happened to that blue spot when you put the red ice on it."

I have a batch of colored flowers in the freezer and I'll be making another batch of dinosaurs in a few minutes.  Tomorrow, we'll fill the water table with shaving cream and add the colored ice flowers.

Pinkalicious (Raw Beet) Smoothie

(41 Months)

Little Miss is my carnivore- she loves meat.  Beef, chicken, turkey, fish (especially salmon sashimi) are her top choices after fruit and chocolate.  Wild One is my herbivore, he rarely eats meat except for salmon sashimi (that kid can put down 1/2 a pound easily).  He's eat a few pieces of steak and chicken here and there, but he prefers sweet potatoes, baby spinach, avocados, corn...  For twins, these two are as opposite as North and South.

In my ongoing quest to find new ways to introduce vegetables to Little Miss, I decided to try a raw beet smoothie.  After all it will turn out her favorite color- pink.  She loves beet pancakes and beet cupcakes, so hopefully she'll love this too.

I adapted this recipe from Fettle Vegan.

Pinkalicious (Raw Beet) Smoothie
(serves 4)

• 1 medium-large beet, peeled and chopped into quarters (or smaller if your blender requires it)
• 1 frozen, ripe banana
• 1 cup of frozen watermelon cubes (or ice, I just happened to have frozen watermelon in the fridge)
• 6 pitted dates (we always keep these in the pantry for homemade Larabars- click here for a list of our favorites)
• 1 1/2 cups of unsweetened almond milk (or whatever kind you have in your fridge)
• 1 tsp of vanilla
• 1 tsp of chia seeds (not necessary, just for an added nutritional boost)

Blend everything until very smooth.  Serve immediately.

The verdict- Little Miss: Ohhhhhh.  It's pink Mommy!  It's pink.
Wild One: Can we try it?

Little Miss had half of her tiny glass and then decided it wasn't her favorite.  Wild One downed his and his sisters and a third.  That boy loves his veggies!  I asked Little Miss why she didn't like it, and all I could get out of her was "it's not my favorite."

Although, my little carnivore didn't finish her 4 oz portion, she did at least try it and had half; which is a lot for her.  My little herbivore now has another yummy smoothie that we can add into our rotation.  Plus, thanks to my little ones, now I'm eating (and drinking) more veggies.  Before the kidabunks came along, I pretty much stayed away from most veggies.  With the kids we are eating cleaner and healthier.  I never would have thought that my little three year olds can help transform the way that I eat, but they have.  I spend most of my time at night researching healthy recipes and sharing them on Pinterest.

I love my little ones and am so grateful that I have them, even though Wild One isn't napping.

Sun Melted Crayons

(40 Months)

It's been so hot, that we were joking that we could probably melt crayons.  The joke was on us, because we did melt crayons!  Instead of turning on your oven during these hot-hot-hot summer months, just fill your silicon moulds with crayon bits and leave them outside for a few hours in the baking (hee hee) hot sun.

Like most of you, we save all of our little crayon bits in a jar until we have enough to make NEW crayons.  We purchased this heart silicone mould from the Dollar Tree, but we also found really inexpensive ones (costing less than a dollar at IKEA).  Please keep in mind that once you use your mould for crayons, you might not be able to use it for anything else though.  Sometimes all of the wax doesn't come out.

If you have never made melted crayons before.  It's really quick and easy.  Especially the sun-baked version.

Start by giving the crayons a rough chop.  We have found that standard Crayola crayons work best- over the other brands and the washable version.  Crayola's melt easier and the colors are more vibrant when melted.

Let the kidabunks fill their moulds.  I originally wanted to do a lesson here on mixing primary crayon bits to make secondary colors.  They had other plans.

Place your moulds in the sun and allow to bake for a few hours or until the crayons are melted.  We did this on a 92 degree day and they were done melting in three hours.  Another wonderful option, is while they are still melted to use a toothpick to either swirl the colors or completely mix the colors.

                                                       Before                                                After

Allow to dry overnight and gently pop them out of their moulds.  So easy.

Enjoy!