Home Fun

I subscribe to a list-serv called "I Can Teach My Child" that offers fun and feasible ideas for home projects with an educational focus. I like these ideas because many of them do not take a lot of time and are actually enjoyable for the kids! One project I had been wanting to try for awhile was making homemade moon dough. We've gotten this as a gift and it is fun but extremely dusty and messy. The homemade version is a little less dusty and comes with the recommendation of playing with it inside a tub. Genius! It has 2 simple ingredients - corn starch and shaving cream.



Cover the bottom of the tub with corn starch, and add enough shaving cream to make a pliable mixture. I was proud of Cade for doing this, because despite being a boy, sometimes he does not like to touch "yucky" things.



He had fun squishing it around for awhile, and then it got extra yucky when he wanted to add paper towels and water. But he had fun and we were inside on a very hot day, so this was a winner!

Another project that was thankfully very successful was a Sight Word Smash. Cade likes to stay home from school on Fridays, so we let him do this as long as we do something educational. His class is working very hard on sight words, so this game allowed him to find them and do one of his favorite activities - smash stuff.

First, we made puffy glue. This is a mixture of 3 parts shaving cream and 1 part glue.



Then, I wrote sight words on card stock and put one word on each blob of glue. This was the most time consuming part of the project, so I did it while Cade was busy playing with Chance.



After the puffy glue dries for several hours, it is ready to be smashed. We would call out a sight word and Cade found it, then smashed it with his hammer. Some of the puffy glue sprayed pretty far, which Cade found hilarious. It was very cute and rewarding to see him work hard on sounding out words. He is learning so much!



Last Thursday, we had a power outage right before Cade's bedtime. This was the first time we've lost power since he has been old enough to realize what was going on. After an initial freakout, he learned a little about energy and had fun making animal shapes with the flashlight. When the power finally came back on, it was well past Cade's bedtime. So, we decided that since he was already up late, that it would be a good night to cross something else off our bucket list - a living room campout!

Chance was pretty excited about this, so he got the tent set up quickly. He then started making pallets on the floor for himself and Cade. Then something unexpected happened...

Cade: Daddy, what are you doing?
Chance: Making places for you and me to sleep.
Cade: Why are you making one for you?
Chance: So I can camp with you.
Cade: No, Daddy. I camp by myself.
Chance: Really? Usually boys and dads camp together!
Cade: I sleep in my room by myself, so I camp by myself. You sleep with Mama.
Chance: (Not sure if he is excited about not sleeping on the floor, or sad about being rejected by his son). Um, OK.

After this initial confusion, it was time to make the only part of camping that I find enjoyable - smores! Chance and I ate microwave smores, but our son, who does not like anything to be melted (other than queso), ate a combination of chocolate chips and marshmallows. Whatever. Then he got right in the tent, covered up, and slept until 6:30! For those of you that know our sleep struggles, this is quite good.



Not to be left out, Annie has fun at home too. Check out her newest talent - sitting in the bumbo!!