5 a Day Books: (Week 1 for me)

So I know I'm late to this rodeo, but it's not because I don't wholeheartedly believe in the benefits of the 5 A Day Books challenge. We actually have been doing something like this for a while, but consider me officially in.

Normally, I like to have a theme for the week when we go to the library. I pick out the books that I have written down and then Logan will select ones that he finds interesting. This week the five books we read every day are a mixture of his picks and mine.

The Mixed Up Chameleon, by Eric Carle

Who doesn't LOVE Eric Carle? The Mixed-Up Chameleon, by Eric Carle, is about a little chameleon who wants to be like everyone else. In the end, he realizes that it is best to be himself. Logan adores animals so he had a great time identifying each animal in the story. He thought it was quite silly when the chameleon was mixed up.

Meeow and the Big Box, by Sebastien Braun, was one of Logan's picks. Meeow reuses a big brown box and makes it into his favorite plaything! Logan adored this book. He instantly made a connection to this book about the time we made a mailbox (which is the most recent of our cardboard box adventures).

I remember singing this song as a little girl. Logan LOVED this book. It was probably his favorite of the week, and he was able to recite it pretty accurately by the end of the week. 

Farmer McPeepers and his Missing Milk Cows, by Katy S. Duffield, was also a favorite. Farmer McPeepers notices his cows are missing and he goes off to look for them without his glasses. He searches high and low for them but can't find them until they return home. Logan enjoyed pointing out the cows throughout the book that Farmer McPeepers was missing!

I thought that this book was going to be a little long for Logan, but he listened to the whole thing. A little boy goes out for the day with his mom, and everywhere they go, they get a dinosaur in addition to whatever else they are buying. The pictures are well done and Logan particularly liked when the boy was able to keep all the dinosaurs in the end! 

What are you reading this week? Any new favorites? 

Stuff my kid says #11

How many of you are familiar with the Pajama Jeans commercial? Yes? No? Well if not, here it is, for your viewing pleasure:

This commercial happened to be on during a show Logan was watching. In the commercial, it says something about giving you a "smooth butt." He said nothing about it, so I didn't even think he was paying attention. A few days later we were at my mom's house (Logan's Nana). He goes over to my mom, who was cooking in the kitchen and says, "Nana, I like your smooth butt."

Outdoor Play (6/26/11- 7/2/11)

This summer we took off from all our regularly scheduled classes. I wanted to give Logan (and me) some time to just take the days as they come. We have still be remaining active and enjoying the beautiful summer weather.

True to my summer bucket list, we have been seeking out new playgrounds. Summer allows us to go visit school playgrounds to play. Sometimes some of the stuff isn't geared towards him, but it doesn't stop him from trying.

 My husband's parents have an above ground pool, but Logan has been slowly working up the nerve to try it out. He has in the past years, but he doesn't seem to remember. So for now, we stick to our inflatable pool. One of his most favorite things to do in the pool is play with ice cubes. I love this, especially when my ice machine somehow freezes the ice into one giant block!

And finally, it wouldn't be summer if we didn't have weeds popping up everywhere. After seeing me weed a million times, Logan has suddenly become very interested in helping! This is MUCH appreciated, of course!

I've been featured!

A few weeks ago, I was approached by a website called Productive Parenting. Imagine how flattered I was when they asked to feature me! I was so excited! They interviewed me about my view on being a mom. As you, my dear readers know, I love talking about that kind of stuff, so this was right up my alley! Please feel free to check out the feature interview! Also, while you are there, you might like to check out their website. When I learned about their site, I spend forever looking through it. They have a huge amount of activities that you can do with you little ones. You can even search by age for appropriate activities! I became a member (because it was free), and I love having another place to visit to get playful ideas! 

Just a bit of Words Wednesday

Face vs. Sidewalk

My poor baby

Popsicles helped a bit, but my oh my. There is nothing sadder than when your little one gets hurt. He's already forgotten about it and moved on...... Mama is a different story.

Color Sort Activity

I know how important it is to practice mastered skills occasionally. It is a way to make a child feel confident and keep those skills mastered. Logan has a strong grasp of almost all of his colors. He is able to identify them consistently and can recall most of them without any prompting. When I was looking through some of my supplies, I came across a color game that I had never used. Unfortunately, I don't know where I found this fantastic printable. If you have any idea, please let me know so I can link back to the site!

I made a bag for each color it was Logan's job to sort the cards into the correct color bag.

Of course, he had to go through the cards to pick out all the pink ones first!

He had so much fun, that my cat tried to join in on the fun.

Since introducing this game, Logan has taken it out a  number of times to play independently. However, I think while practicing mastered skills it is also a good time to perhaps practice some other activity. We have also used this as a listening activity. Logan will identify the color and then I will give him a direction. For example he may recognize the green butterfly. My direction would then be, "jump over to the green bag" or "pretend to fly over to the green bag."  Really the action is limited only by your imagination, and it also helps the child practice tuning into what other people are saying. 

Have you ever played this game or a variation of it? 

Daisy Science Experiment

Our daisies have finally bloomed! Completely a off topic, but my love of daisies started when I was in high school and saw Drew Barrymore wearing one in her hair. At the time I thought she was so wonderful for doing this. (Apparently, you can buy a framed picture of her doing precisely this). Back then I was easily impressed; not much has changed except for what impresses me. For a while after that, I was all ehhhhh.... about daisies, but once I bought my house, I received FREE ones, and my love for them has returned. My long winded totally unnecessary story about my relationship with daisies aside, I have been waiting to attempt this little science experiment all spring as they kept growing and growing.

Behold the daisies:

I cut a couple off and we took them inside. Logan filled up the cups, and picked out the colors. He asked for pink, but we were out of red food coloring, so these were second best. Then we waited overnight, and.....

when we woke in the morning, the daisies had started to change colors!

Notice that some of the leaves were mysteriously missing? One of my cats thought it would be a good idea to sample some daisies as a midnight snack.

The longer you leave them in the food coloring, the stronger and more vibrant that they will get. It usually takes a few days, but this is a quick little experiment that yields a big result!