It's a jungle out there!

It's Habitat Week around here!  We've been talking about different habitats and the animals that live in each one.  So far it's going pretty well...we're reading a lot of books and making habitats for play.  So far, he's made jungle, farmyard, desert, and arctic habitats.

Here's our little jungle...I think it's the best one :)  I love the monkey swinging from the vines!

In other news, our tadpoles have finally grown up!  They're the tiniest little tree frogs.  This one is just slightly larger than a dime.

We do love the farmer's market!

Hanging out listening to music




Coloring with friends :)




Farmer Sean explains things to J.




Then they both hid in the fort.



Snacking, of course!




Caught in the act:  trying to sneak onto stage to sing and dance!




CHEESE!!!

It's all coming together...

One of the best things for me about having the Chipmunk home with me is that I get to be the one that sees things click and come together in his head.  I was working on the fall schedule this morning when he went to his chalkboard and drew this:



"Mama!!  Look!  I drew a waterfall!  And the water goes into the ocean and then it gets hot and goes up...up....up to the clouds!  Would you draw me a cloud please?"

"Absolutely!  What is it called when water does this over and over again?"

"THE WATER CYCLE!"



That wasn't the end of it either...



"Now I'm drawing a volcano.  It's a BIIIG mountain with fire inside that comes up from inside the Earth.  Would you draw the fire for me?  Make it blue and orange please!"

I love this.

Attention to detail

Mama!  Is this me?  I think it's me.  No, wait.  It's NOT ME.

Well, it kind of looks like you.  Why don't you think it's you?

I don't have those.  *points to lungs*

Those are the lungs - you do have those, right on either side of your heart.

NO.  I mean that one doesn't have the albeeeolee.  I have those.

You're right, you do have alveoli in your lungs.  I think that they're really, really small and you just can't see them in that picture.

Ooooooohhhhh, so it IS me!

More Conversations

In the car, coming back from the zoo and the splash park on an unseasonably chilly day. The kids are starving, tired, and mad that there couldn't be ice cream for lunch.

Chipmunk: Mama. Mama. MOM! I'm just....I'm just....I'm just in a TEWIBBLE DIDDER.

Mama: I can hear that you're upset, but I'm not sure what you just said. Would you say it again? C: I'm just in a TERIBBLE.DIDDER.

M: A terrible didder?

C: DAT'S WHAT I SAID.

M: *mumbling* didder. didder. Terrible didder. OH. You're in a terrible dither?

C: I SAID DAT ALREADY!!!

M: I'm sorry, sweetheart. I understand now. Do you think that lunch and some warm clothes would help?

C: OK, Mama.

 I love my little bookworm.

Conversation with the Chipmunk

Mama:  So now that you've had a little time to think about it, what did you think about your violin lesson yesterday?  Did you have fun?

Chipmunk:  YES!

M:  Do you think that you did a good job?

C:  ummm...no, I don't think so.

M:  Why not?

C:  I didn't do everything she asked me to do.

M:  Well, did you try hard and do your best?

C:  Yes, I did!

M:  I know you did!  I think you did the best job that you could have done.  I think you tried really hard and I'm really proud of you.  Would you like to go back sometime?

C:  Can we practice?

M:  Absolutely!  Would you like to practice with me every morning and then we'll go back when we both think you're ready?

C:  YES!!

Proud, proud Mama!!!!!

Preschool at home

This is a long post with a lot of low quality cell phone pics, so bear with me!  I'm really trying to establish a little bit of a routine for us as we get closer to fall.  I thought that documenting a full day of 'school' might help!

The first thing we do almost every morning is spend an hour cuddled up in bed reading.  It's the Chipmunk's time...he can bring me any books he likes and we'll read them as many times as he likes.  Today, it was a Winnie the Pooh book about color mixing (which we'll try to follow up on tomorrow with a project), a story about a hibernating little bear (I think we read it three times), and a Little Critter book called When I Get Bigger.

When we finally manage to get dressed and get downstairs, we make breakfast and start a little bit of 'sit down' work. Today, we read from our phonics book, drew for a little while, and traced some sandpaper letters.

 Sometimes we sit in the sink to wash the dishes :)




We take care of the various animals and live projects around the house...walking dogs, checking the cat food, and feeding the tadpoles.

The big one has tiny little legs now!




Today we had a few errands to run, so off we went!  First stop was to pick up a music book for his first violin lesson tomorrow, so we turned it into a field trip and explored EVERYTHING in the store.

This drum set is JUST my size!




Here he was showing me how the bass pedals work.  It turns out that they have chains to hold them together and springs that make them bounce back into place.




You have to test them all to see which one works best, of course.




The pitch on one of these bongos is higher than the other.  Our experiment indicates that it's always the smaller one :)  We tested them all.




The next stop was the Community Garden for a little maintenance on our vegetable bed.  This is one of our tomatoes that was looking pretty sad.  He's holding it by the tap root and dragging it to the compost bin.  This was also an opportunity to talk about why the tomato plant was tired and that the seasons were going to change soon.




We hung out in the back of the truck for a little while when we got caught in a pop up thundershower (which he predicted this morning...."Look Mama!  Stratus clouds.  It will rain today.")  Next time he says that, I will bring an umbrella!




We put in some pole beans.  It's a little bit of a gamble, but I think we'll be ok.




When we got back in the car, he wanted to show me the 'dots' in his new book.  We listened to the CD with the book all day.




After we got home, we read for a little while and then he wanted more phonics.  I will NEVER argue with that!



I taught for a couple of hours in the afternoon, so the Chipmunk had plenty of time for free play.

There was some washing up in the new tables from Pop Pop.





And plenty of digging in dry beans with his diggers and bulldozers :)



I'm tired just typing this!

After dinner, he and Dad did some writing letters on the chalkboard, then it was more books and off to bed!


This was a full, but really fun day for us and I'm looking SO forward to a lot more of them!

The Canine Cafe

It's a fun week around here!  We've got company and the two of them are having a blast.

Welcome to the Canine Cafe!  Come on in :)




The Canine Mascot would definitely like a sandwich!




The Chef likes to make tea for all of the customers




The waitress is efficient, friendly, and occasionally bursts into song



It's receiving excellent reviews!  Come on over!