Friday, June 7, 2013

Pet Caterpillar

Zilla is 5 years old
Mega is 2 years old
As the weather warms up the kids feel the pull to be outside for I creasing lengths of time. With the coming of spring they have enjoyed seeing the "garden" come alive. We have a a small parking area outside our living room door which they call the backyard or garden.
They found this little "caterpillar" (I'm not sure if it is actually one but the term works for our purposes...) and put it in the bug box for observation.
They decided to take notes and draw pictures to record what they saw.
This kind of activity is something totally unplanned but because we had the tools in place (prepared environment) they were able to take the teachable moment and run with it.
They observed that Catapilly (the name they gave it) would curl up and stop moving when frightened, climbed on leaves and sticks in the box and it even stopped to munch on a leaf from time to time.
 
While Zilla was at school Mega was on observation duty and she takes her responsibility seriously!
At 6:30 this morning while I was just getting ready for the day I hear the kids outside talking about going for a walk. When I went to investigate I discovered they meant giving Catapilly a chance to take a walk!
Since they have been so engrossed with their new "pet" I gave them the book "From Caterpillar to Butterfly" to look at. We have an oversized edition which seemed to add to the reading fun!
 
One of the greatest thing about this whole Catapilly experience is at the kids have been able to do nearly everything on their own. They know where the supplies are, they worked together to figure out what would make Catapilly happy and to figure out the best way to make observations. I love that they are at this stage! It makes my job easy :-)
 

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Only 1 day left! Two Little Hands $10 DVD Sale!


Biggest sale of the year on Two Little Hands DVDs On Mon-Wed. (US Time) this week! 
All DVDs and DVD/CD combos are $10. 
 Limit 2 of each kind... but with so many DVDs to choose from you can still end up buying over 60 DVDs!

Have some children's birthdays's coming and want to get a great gift? 

☆ For a preschooler try Rachel and the Treeschoolers. 

☆ Baby? How about Baby Signing Time? 

☆  Child headed for 1st grade? Look at the ABCs and Practice Time DVDs for a multisensory and fun start to phonics and sight words. 

☆  Potty Training while the summer is hot? Potty Time can help make it fun for everyone! 

☆  Stuck inside because of rainy season? Check out Move and Grove! 

With so many choices there is somethign for every kid! Don't be overwhelmed by the choices - ask (e-mail is ok!) and I'll share some suggestions! Here's your link to get to the sale!



While you're thinking of gifts why not pair a DVD with a board book or flashcards to keep the learning going?

Teachers, homeschoolers, parents, grandparents... there are plenty of other resources and ideas on the Two Little Hands homepage so why not take a look around?

Rachel even made a video to share about the sale!

Monday, June 3, 2013

When Inspiration Strikes...

When inspiration strikes... it makes a mess!
 
 

Friday, May 24, 2013

When Inspiration Strikes...

Zilla is 5 years old
Mega is 2 years old
 
When the kids feel the inspiration to create I let them create. When the feel the inspiration to move I let them move. When the feel the inspiration to sing I let them sing.
However, sometimes it is not easy to encourage these things.
 

This evening I had a number of things which needed to get done but they both wanted my attention and help to follow two very different inspirations...

Mega wanted to be Hnady Manny, Zilla to be Mr. Lopart and me to be Kelly. She does make a pretty cute repair girl even though she is better at breaking things and making messes than fixing them and cleaning up!
Zilla had gym class at preschool today so he wanted to try to recreate what they did in class. If we had more space and a mat I wouldn't mind.
For someone who spent a few year spotting vault for gymnastics it was nearly painful to see his pitiful form but the joy he was oozing made up for it.
A stack of blocks made from milk cartons does not a horse make...
But with a bit of imagination and inspiration can make anything possible!
 
 
 
 
 

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Favorite Zoo Books & Resources

This list is a work in progress...
I'll come back to add links later but need to get this up so I can get to the next post :-)
Here is a list of our favorite zoo related books:
Dear Zoo
いろいろかくれんぼ
Peek-A-Zoo
Curious George Visits the Zoo
Mr. Brown can Moo, Can You?
OldMacdonald Had A Farm
Down in the Jungle
Brown bear brown bear
Animal signs
All God's Critters
Reading books can be very interactive... especially when signing along!
Introductory Animal Research activity
Animal Tracks matching activity