Music, Dance, Drama and More

Tambourine

Basket Toss

Items Needed:
Wiffle balls or Wiffle golf balls, bean bags, playground ball (We chose Wiffle balls)
Bowl
Laundry basket


Place Wiffle balls in a bowl and place the basket on the side propped up with a pillow or books to tilt it a little. Give a quick demonstration. I chose to do the basket toss. You could also have your child roll them in the basket like soccer and a goal, or you could bounce a play ground ball into the basket. Many options to choose from!

This kept my oldest son entertained but my little one could care less after 5 min. He'd throw them all in the gather them all up again. Super handy to have the bowl (a colander from their kitchen tools) near.

Source: Unplugged Play

Library

I have a confession. I'm addicted to children's books. Whenever we go to the library which has been every two weeks I always pick out more books then my boys. I love reading to my boys, it's such a great way to bond with them and it builds their imaginations. I swear their imaginations have growth exponentially just by simply reading to them. Not only that but it builds their vocabularies. You want to have a child that enjoys reading when they grow up? READ TO THEM. I can't stress that enough.

Here's some statistics about reading:

Parents are key reading role models. High frequency reading parents are six times more likely to have high frequency reading kids.  (2008 Kids & Family Reading Report)

Every school day in America, 3,000 students drop out -- the majority of them are poor readers. Students with below grade level reading skills are twice as likely to drop out of school as those who can read on or above grade level. (Adolescent Literacy: A National Reading Crisis)

The performance advantage among students whose parents read to them in their early school years is evident regardless of the family's socio-economic background. 
( Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) )

Children who grow up in homes where books are plentiful go further in school than those who don't. Children with low-education families can do as well as children with high-education families if they have access to books at home. (Family scholarly culture and educational success: Books and schooling in 27 nations 2010 )

When children are provided with 10 to 20 self-selected children's books at the end of the regular school year, as many as 50 percent not only maintain their skills, but actually make reading gains. (Bridging the Summer Reading Gap, by Anne McGill-Franzen and Richard Allington)

Students who read widely and frequently are higher achievers than students who read rarely and narrowly. (Scholastic: Classroom Libraries Work!)

Children learn an average of 4,000 to 12,000 new words each year as a result of book reading. (Scholastic: Classroom Libraries Work!)

Children in classrooms without literature collections read 50% less than children in classrooms with such collections. (International Reading Association)



Source: Scholastic Website

Visit at Bampa's and Yia Yia's

My in-laws moved so we decided to go see their new home up in Hooper while we were in UT visiting. They have a huge yard (an acre), chickens, two dogs, two bunnies, and will be getting two alpacas. 

Bampa giving them a ride on his new Father's Day gift! They loved it!

Forth of July 2013

We had fireworks at my sister's house with Bampa and Gma. T isn't afraid of anything and he loved the sparklers...

D didn't want anything to do with them at first but eventually he liked them too.

Watching the street ones go off. The neighbors also had the aerial ones so that was fun to look all about the neighborhood and see different shows going off. 

Pom Poms and Cardboard Tubes

I saw this floating around Pinterest and wanted to try it...

By how we montessori

It's intended for Toddlers to develop fine motor skills but it kept my Preschooler busy longer.

Here's an alternative to pom poms as well.

Fourth of July in June!

This year we knew we'd be in UT for the Fourth of July so prior to our trip we had a Fourth of July weekend in June. 

Here we made Smore's on our grill. We don't have a pit. :( One of many items to have in our dream home.

June 22, 2013

Also made some Poor man cookies.

Just need white frosting, food coloring and graham crackers. 

Put red, and blue in a separate container and set a plate out to put your assembled cookies on. 

June 23, 2013

The boys didn't eat as many as I thought they would but it was still fun.

Summer Bucket List 2013

SUMMER BUCKET LIST 2013

Visit Sea World

Swim Lessons

Pool Party

Eat a Popsicle

Lunch with Daddy

See Fireworks

Make Fourth of July poor man cookies

Make Fourth of July Craft

Make S'mores

Go to the Splash Park

See a Movie

Feed the Ducks

Visit the Library

Summer Reading Program

Try to Ride Bike (without training wheels)

Bowl

Play at the Park

Build a Fort

Celebrate Father's Day

List things you Love about Daddy

Answer Questionnaire about Daddy

Make Rice Crispy Treats

Play Uno

Pool Party!

D got invited to his friend Sophia's birthday party and she just so happened to have it at the pool! He had so much fun that he's was upset that we had to leave when the pool was closing. He's usually afraid of water but seeing all the other children having fun made him want to even want to get into the big pool. Unfortunately I wasn't comfortable with that seeing as how I didn't think he'd want to get in the big pool originally so I didn't pack a suit. :( I want to also get him swim lessons this year but they are having them during our trip to UT. Hoping for next year!

Wish I would've snapped more photos of the party!

Evening Routine Chart

I put together a routine chart for D because he likes to ask me what comes next so I thought it'd be fun to put pictures with what we're always doing.

First we have baths...

Then we get dressed...

 We get our giggles out...

We read stories...

Brush teeth...

Then we turn on some lullabies, snuggle, give kisses, and say goodnight.

I can't say how much having a routine has helped my family out. It makes it so much easier for everyone. My boys never fuss about going to bed or get out of bed 20 times. 

SeaWorld San Diego!

This Memorial Day we decided to visit Sea World. My boys had never been and I had such a blast the 1st time I'd ever been. I even got a caricature done (something on my Bucket List). Anyway we live about 3 hours from San Diego so by the time we arrived it was just opening and the boys were already getting cranky. We first came to Sesame Street Bay of Play because it's nearest the entrance and the boys wanted to get on the Elmo ride.

Wish we could've gotten pictures of Talon but he was with me and as you can see I had the camera. They wanted to keep riding this ride but I talked them into seeing the animals. 

From there we ventured to Blue Horizons to see the Dolphins and the birds. It started at 10:30

The boys also saw a Turtle on the way to Pets Rule!

Pets Rule! show... It started at 11:30

By this time T was getting very grumpy. He was tired and it was hot. We all got sunburned but not too bad. I thought this show was really cute though and glad we got to see it. There were all sorts of animals from cats and dogs to birds, a pig, and ostriches. They had the olympics where two dogs raced through an obstacle course one at a time (a big one and a little one). They had to shimmy through the fire hydrants, duck under a plank and walk under it, jump through hoops and swim across the water. The little dog jumped in the boat but the big dog just jumped in and swam/walked/jumped across it. Then to top it off the pig came out and did it too!! Instead of jumping the hoops he barreled through them and went around the pool. Too cute.  

There was also a skit where this black dog had a date with the white one. He had to "clean up" the place and get it ready. He put something in the trash can by stepping on the lever at the bottom to open the lid, switched the radio on by jumping on the knob and pushing it to turn it, picked a bone from the fridge AND closed it again and even put the flower in his mouth to give to her when she arrived. So cute! I couldn't get enough.

From there we went to the Wild Arctic area to pass time until Shamu's show.

Afterwards we headed to One Ocean at Shamu Stadium. This show started at 1:00.

Where they were splashing everyone.

We decided after this show that the boys just weren't going to make it any longer and I was extremely bummed. I had so much planned and even wanted to get another caricature done of T. D already has one. If I could do this all over again I'd take a couple days or even get a hotel room although we live here. It was just too much in one day for my little guys.