L is for learning

Asher is excited for his last day (well actually it's only a half of a day) of school on Monday.  We are all looking forward to Summer.  Ezra and I started learning activities this last week.  I made Ezra a dry erase binder, so we can go through the alphabet in order of writing skills.  This last Monday and Tuesday we focused on Ll, and on Wednesday and Thursday we focused on Tt.  We are starting with these letters because they use straight lines.

I just wanted to share some of our activities, because Ezra really enjoyed them.  Throughout the week we do a variety of activities involving reading books, cooking, science content and experiments, math concepts, and arts and crafts.  We are working on small motor skills with cutting, stickers, drawing, writing, etc.  Also, we are doing fun large motor games and more physical activities now that the weather is getting nice.

bubble wrap lizard craft

We read books about lizards and did a craft (left). We made our own lollipops, talking about how we needed to heat/melt the candy melts to a liquid to pour into the molds and then to cool/solidify the lollipops.  Then we did another craft with the lollipop sticks and concentric circles, gluing circles on the paper from large to small to make paper lollipops.  We went on a nature walk and did solar leaf images (below).  We read books about light and watched Bill Nye the Science Guy: Light and Color.  Then we experimented with light using flashlights, mirrors, a prism, and different colored light viewers. 

For each letter, we are making a book with pictures and simple sentences.  The cover of the book is the letter featured in the book, which Ezra decorates with items starting with the letter sound.  Ezra loves that they are his books and that he is featured in some of the pictures.

L is for leaf and a tape T

Also, I wanted to share about some of the new recipes we tried, because they are so simple and delicious.

Lemon Clouds

The Lemon Clouds (treat pictured in his book, above) were especially easy with only three ingredients.  I had picked up some fresh strawberries for Al and I to eat with some homemade Angel Food Cake, but we can never eat the whole cake.  I thought it would be nice to just take 1/2 the cake that would be left over and cut this recipe (left) in 1/2 too.  All I had to do was cut the cake in cubes and toss in one (3 ounce) package of lemon-flavor Jell-O, beat 1 1/4 cups heavy cream until soft peaks form, and layer the cream and cake in cups.  After covering the cups, we put them in the refrigerator overnight.  You could make more topping and add the lemon zest to top it off the next day, but I didn't bother.


We also made lemonade with 3 cups cold water, 1 cup lemon juice (about 4 lemons), and 1/2 cup sugar.





Also, I made lemon scones.  I love scones but never had tried baking them.  I found it to be much easier than expected.  It's really just a matter of following the directions and not handling the dough too much after the wet and dry ingredients are combined.  I made the scones last Sunday to get the kids excited about the coming week.  Ezra was not a big fan, but I made them again today (at Asher's request) for the third time this week.

Glazed Lemon Scones

Some topics for T included:  trees; trucks, trains, and transportation; triangles; turtles.  One cute idea I found in a magazine was to have the kids turtle race.  The kids transform into turtles by crawling with laundry baskets on their backs as shells.  Ezra, of course, did not need any incentive to play with his trains and track.  He also informed me that we needed to be sure to play Transformers too.

Here are a few more pictures from Ezra's T book:

trains

ten triangles

Ezra has been going through this odd phase of not wanting to get his hands messy, so he's boycotting paint and is very careful with glue.  He did really enjoy the triangle tent activity though.  I was just happy to get some cute pictures of my boys :)  At the end of this post, I will put a picture of both the boys together.  They were wrestling and I was able to get a cute picture where they were both actually looking and with their true, beautiful smiles.  (Also, you can see my new short haircut in the picture below.  I didn't like it at first, but I think it looks okay when it's wavy.)

terrific tent and two boys

Next week: H and I.  Guess I'd better figure out what themes we will focus on this coming week.  Happy Summer everyone!