Adventures in MFW- Week 4

Here's a peek at what we learned about in Adventures this week:

Bible- The memory verse for this week was John 8:12 "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

To help us remember that Jesus is the Light of the World, Buzz and Boo both decorated candles that we set on the table and lit during dinner each night.

They also made lightswitch covers for their rooms

Social Studies- We learned about Native Americans this week by reading North American Indians. Both kids really enjoyed the book a lot! We also made model tepees and wigwams.

We have these Indian and Settlers toobs, so the kids used them along with the models to act out scenes.

Science- We talked about space and the kids were excited to share with me what they remembered from our space unit last year. The First Encyclopedia of Science is internet-linked and there were some fun links on the website that the they enjoyed checking out.

We also talked about gravity and did an experiment. We started with a nickel and a piece of tissue paper cut into the shape of a nickel. Both were dropped from the same height and we talked about why the nickel dropped faster.

Then we put the nickel and the tissue paper each in identical tupperware containers and dropped them. We talked about why even though the weights were different the two containers dropped at the same rate.

Reading-

Buzz finished The Littles this week

Boo is working on Andi's Indian Summer

Read-Aloud-

The Story of Dr. Dolittle

Extracurriculars/Family Stuff- In one of the classes that Buzz is taking at co-op they are learning about the Amazon Rainforest. The teacher told them last week to think about some fruits that might grow there. Buzz decided to do some research and make a poster to bring to class. He was so excited to bring it to share today!

Buzz also got his award for reading 100+ hours in the library summer reading program!



Linked to MFW Highlights and Weekly Wrap-Up

100+ Hour Reader!

This summer both Buzz and Boo participated in our library's reading program this summer. The rewards were earned for number of hours read instead of number of books read. Boo ended up reading 80 hours total and Buzz read 120 hours! All of the kids who reached 100 or more hours of reading by the end of the summer were invited for a special award ceremony this week. The librarians gave a speech about how kids who love to read can be reading ambassadors in their communities to help other kids who may not enjoy reading by sharing book suggestions. Each kid was asked to stand up front and share what their favorite book of the summer was and why. Buzz was really nervous about having to talk in front of so many people but he a great job!

Then the librarians handed out a certificate to each child.

Buzz was excited to be recognized for his love of reading and we are so proud of him! Way to go Buzz!

Great Wolf Lodge

Ruben is on leave this week so we decided it was time to head somewhere that we've been wanting to visit for years (ya know before we move away in two months and all): Great Wolf Lodge in the Poconos.



We had originally planned to spend the better part of a week there but it was our first time staying all together in one hotel room since Bean was born and let's suffice it to say she's not a stellar sleeper even when she's in her own room so we decided to make it just a two day, one night mini-vacation.

As soon as we got checked in we took a look around before heading up to our room to put on our swim suits. I had requested a room on the top floor because I figured that way we wouldn't have to worry about people in the rooms above us jumping around and making a lot of noise. It worked out great!

Great Wolf provides life jackets for any child who needs one so we chose to have all of our kiddos wear them even though Buzz is a pretty good swimmer. Two parents, three kids, better safe than sorry. On our first day Buzz wanted to tackle the big water slides right away so he and Ruben headed off in that direction while I checked out some of the more tame attractions with the girls.

Boo loved the smaller water slides and the wave pool. I mostly just held Bean or she sat on my lap in the most shallow parts of the water. She isn't a big fan of water. After Buzz rode all of the slides that he was tall enough to ride (again and again and again), he begged me to go down a couple of them with him. I'm not a ride person at all, you'll never see me ride on a roller coaster and before this I had never been on a water slide, but Buzz was so excited that I just couldn't say no.

Ruben told me which slides weren't quite as fast and crazy as the rest and we started with those. I ended up having a lot of fun! We tried to convince Boo to try a couple of the slides but she wasn't feeling it so we left and got changed for dinner.

We ate at the at the lodge at the Loose Moose Cottage. There weren't a ton of options on the menu but we all found something that looked good and everyone enjoyed their meal.


The next morning we woke up, ate breakfast and loaded our bags back in the van. Check-out is at 11 but you are able to stay and use the water park until 4. We put our suits back on and spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon having more water fun.



Boo decided that she would try a big water slide just once and as soon as she did she was hooked! She spent the rest of the day trying out each of the slides over and over again.



I was so proud of Boo for overcoming her fear! By the end of the day she was even going down the slides all by herself, way to go Boo!



Our family had a blast and we will definitely be going again at some point in the future!

Homemade Sidewalk Paint

This week we made sidewalk paint and had a great time painting with it. Easy and fun for all three kids!

To fill 6 standard muffin cups:

Mix 3/4c. corn starch and 2/3c. water.

Divide evenly among muffin cups.

 Add 6-8 drops food coloring to each muffin cup.

The colors didn't show up very brightly as they were painted on but once they dried the colors were bright and vibrant.

S'mores on a Stick

When I saw a post about making s'mores on a stick on Superheroes and Princesses I knew my kids would love to make some. They were excited to enjoy one of their favorite campfire treats in a new way. In case you don't feel like following the link: stick a marshmallow on a popsicle stick, dip in melted chocolate and roll in crushed graham cracker crumbs. Yum!

Tot School: 13 months 3 weeks

Bean is currently 13 months 3 weeks old



 

Bean's first tray was three books-

         

 

Tray two was a puzzle. She tried to get the pieces in a couple of times but ended up getting pretty frustrated with it. She only pulled this tray out one time this week.

Tray three was jumbo buttons and a shoe box with a hole in the lid. I originally started with just a slit cut in the lid but she wasn't able to get the buttons in by herself that way so I ended up making a bigger hole.

She seemed to like dumping all of the buttons back out more than putting them in.

Of course wearing it as a hat is the most fun of all!