i moved my blog for now....

To here: http://thelittlesewingshop.blogspot.com/ Join me at The Little Sewing Shop for our homeschooling adventures and sewing projects!

Skiing and Snowboarding

See his skiing in action here

We went to Lake Tahoe for Christmas. We are very blessed to have a family vacation home in such a beautiful place!

Levi went skiing again this season, he started last spring (at 2.5yrs old) and did great last year, but this year was even better! He is doing very well with his turing, and has good control over his skis. He can start/stop/turn/get off the chairlift all on his own (he needs help getting on because he is so short!). He can even "make a pizza" (wedge) without using an edgie wedgie now (an aid to help kids make a wedge shape, last year he just wasn't strong enough to put his legs in the right position without it!)

He also insisted on trying snowboarding, after using a box lid as a snowboard for several days, I let him try it out at a tiny resort with a great beginners kids area. He is 10lbs too light to make a snowboard flex (the starting weight is 35lbs), so he could pretty much only go straight. But he thought he was SOOO cool. I'm hoping he will stick with skiing for a while, he is good at it and its easier to teach!

Also he got a new helmet - a MUST for winter sports (skiing, snowboarding, sledding, ice skating).

Lowes/Home Depot Kids Program

Both Lowes and Home Depot have kids programs on Saturday mornings. Kids are given an apron, safety goggles, a kids size hammer and a kit to make a wooden toy. They hammer it together, and add stickers to decorate. When they finish a project, they get a certificate to take home and a badge to glue onto their apron.

Kids get to use real tools to create a cool project, all while following directions provided (with pictures for non-readers!), following safety rules (watch where that hammer is going!), and using fine motor skills (to pick up those tiny pieces). The constant hammering is a little annoying to listen to, so get grandpa to take them if at all possible!

Bonus: Its free!

Click here to see it in action

(see what I mean about the noise level in there!?)

Puffy Paint

Mix shaving cream with a glob of elmer's glue to make puffy paint. It dries too (takes a while). You can add a little paint or food coloring to it to color it, or leave it white and use colored paper. Try practicing writing letters, or just smush it. It has a really unique texture.

Bonus: its easy to clean up!

Thanksgiving

Pilgram hat:

1. Cut a large rectangle strip long enough to fit around the child's head, staple it into a loop. Make snips all the way around at the bottom of the hat.

2. Trace the resulting circle shape. Draw a circle 3" bigger than this on the outside.

3. Cut out along the outer circle and inner circle (you now have a ring).

4. Apply glue to the tabs created in step 1, and attach the hat band to the brim.

5. Make a buckle by cutting out a rectangle, fold in half and cut a small rectangle out of it. Glue it on.

6. wear it!

November's Harvest

From the co-op garden

Creative Movement - Ribbon dancing

You need:

A ring (wood or metal, big enough to hold)

ribbon any kind

Tie the ribbon through the ring, at whatever length you prefer. Thats it!

Supervise use closely as ribbons can be a strangulation hazard.

Let the child try it out! Turn on some music and dance, or go outside and let the ribbons blow in the wind.

Major slacking on the blog!

Sorry guys, I have been slacking big time on posting! I am going to add some new posts now, catch up and then get back to regular posting!

Mr. Science

Levi has been taking a great science class at the rec center called "Mr. Science". Mr. Science is a funny guy who does all kinds of neat experiments with the kids. He does a good job of keeping them engaged through the hour-long class, and he throws in info for the grown-ups too. I really like that he teaches science in a way the kids can understand, but also uses scientific vocabulary (and explains it to them), and teaches them interesting concepts in a way they can understand, but not in a way that dumbs it down to nothing.

I'm glad we found the program as an addition to the other homeschool activities we do, because science is not one of my strong points. Its hard for me to come up with fun ideas, but its easy to expand on what he learns in Mr. Science class, and often we repeat experiments at home!

Here is a Video too!

Jumping Boy!

Levi likes to jump on everything, so he was excited to try out the bungee trampoline!

Here is my jumping boy:

Levi jumping when he first got on

And here is when he got to go super high!

And today I entered to win some boys patterns! Check out the give away here

Levi's First camping trip - And a BEAR!

We went on Levi's first camping trip, just an hours drive from our vacation home in Tahoe. We went to a campsite at Fallen Leaf Lake and decided to just stay one night for the experience. It was fun!

The bear story:

I rosted marshmallows for my mom, and she decided not to eat one of them so threw it in the fire. Jokingly I commented on how "a bear was going to come and eat it now"

5 min later, Levi and Nai Nai were getting some lemonade out of the bear-proof storage box, and I was sitting in a low chair on the ground by the picnic table.

All of a sudden I heard a 'crinkle' sound coming from behind me. Sense I could see Levi/my mom, I knew it wasn't one of them. I turn around thinking its a person, and its a BEAR!

There was a bear on the picnic table! It looked up at me, I think it saw me at the same time I did. I jumped up from my seat and said "Get in the car". My mom hadn't seen the bear yet, I said again "there is a bear, get in the car".

I started towards Levi (mommy instinct, even though my mom was already picking him up and slamming shut the bear-box) and we all got in the car.

The bear lumbered around for a while and walked off.

It had ripped open an empty cookie packet that we had JUST set on the table, knocked over the lemonade, stuck its nose in my lemonade, and sniffed the grill.

We asked the park ranger what we should have done, and she said walk diagonally away from the bear, which is exactly what I had done when I headed towards Levi.

It made Levi's first camping trip 'official' and will be a great story to tell!

Some other camping adventures: (We also went to Stanford Camp during the camping trip, also on Fallen Leaf Lake)

Kayaking

Paddle boat ride

Nature Walk (guided tour)

Catching crawdads (and letting them go right after pics)

Some random pics of other activites

Kids Yoga

Giant Magnifying glass

Writing practice

Space man

Blowing up balloons in a New way!

This simple experiment was a big hit with Levi who loves balloons. Normal balloons work best, not the skinny kind which is hard to put on the bottle.

Use a funnel to fill the balloon with baking soda. Put a cup or so of vinegar in the bottle (if your kid is allergic to it like mine is, don't let them help with this part!)

Stretch the balloon over the opening of the bottle and make sure its very secure (rubber band it or even hold onto it if necessary)

Now let the kiddo tip the balloon upright, releasing the baking soda into the bottle. Watch what happens!

Check out the link to our experiment:

Levi blows up a balloon (click here!)

Paper Mache

Paper mache recipe:

1 part cornstarch

3+ parts water

boil until glue like consistency. It will continue to thicken as it cools, so stir often and add more water as needed.

Lost and Found

"Stuff" being left all over the house has become a problem. I am constantly stepping on little random toys and other junk that Levi has accumulated.

After leaving his shoes at the rec center, Levi collected them from the lost and found box the following week. On the box was a sign stating that items not picked up after a certain time would be donated. This gave me a great idea which we put into use at our house.

Random stuff I find around, goes into the box. And I explained to Levi that it is his responsibility to check the box frequently and decide what he wants to keep or give away. If he wants to keep it, it needs to go back where it belongs (anywhere else and it goes right back into the box). Items he doesn't want, go into a bag in the garage along with outgrown clothes and other give aways. When it gets full, we donate the bag.

He understands that 'give away' items are given to someone else who needs them, and he will not see them again (there are no 'take backs' from the give away bag!). Often he chooses something to donate (sometimes something no one would want, but I don't tell him that!)

This system has worked surprisingly well - Levi notices right away if something is in there and takes care of it.

Stuffed Animal Beauty Pageant

Levi participated in a stuffed animal beauty pageant! This is an annual thing that has been going on for many years now. It was cute how they had it set up.

Levi decided to bring his monkey, which he named 'Five' (???). He wanted a dress for it, so I made one using the same fabrics as one of his shirts that I made for him.

He stood up at the podium and answered questions about his monkey. He is way better at public speaking that his mommy is! No fear and no problems answering the questions. (they asked a lot of stuff even to the little ones!)

Each child won a certificate and a 'title' . Levi and Five won 'Best Match' thanks to their custom, mommy made outfits!

Rolling and folding Napkins

I love activities that take only a few seconds to set up, and this is one of them!

Here Levi is rolling napkins (an 'unpaper' towel actually). The trick is to roll it tightly enough so that he can put it in the napkin ring. Not an easy task for a 3yr old!

We have also done napkin folding - initially by drawing 'fold lines' on a napkin with a sharpie (or you can stitch the lines), and showing him step-by-step how to fold one demonstrating with my own napkin. Then I leave the sample for him to look at, and let him try it without help.

Levi also can set the table - folding napkins, counting the correct number of forks/spoons/knives, and putting them on the table. Still working on correct placement, but he manages to put one of each utensil on top of a napkin at each place setting, which is good enough for our family!

Aquatica

We got a season pass to Aquatica, and Levi really enjoys it. They have a bunch of rides he can go on, as some don't have a height limit, they just have a 'must be able to hold the handles' requirement (which he can hardly do, but he is a strong swimmer, AND they require kids his height to wear a lifejacket anyway!)

While we were there, we learned about commissary dolphins, which are beautiful black and white dolphins. Levi asked the lady working there all sorts of questions about their names, what they eat, why they are black and white, how to tell them apart etc.

Learning to Sew

Sense I sew myself, Levi wanted to learn. Lucky for him, my sewing machine has a 'sew verrrrry verrrrry slowwwly' setting.

I set up the machine on his little desk, and he was able to make a little (somewhat wonky) beanbag with very little help from me.

Looking forward to teaching him more projects, maybe eventually he can help me with my sewing projects!

Videos:

http://s169.photobucket.com/albums/u218/leighi123/baby/June%202010/?action=view&current=MOV04206.mp4

http://s169.photobucket.com/albums/u218/leighi123/baby/June%202010/?action=view&current=MOV04207.mp4

Sunflowers!

Levi planted these sunflowers from a tiny seed, transplanted the seedlings into his garden, and watched them grow! They got to be over 6feet tall. Unfortunatly, something ate the seeds before we got the chance to save them.