Summer Bucket List: Whale Pool Time!

LittleBear enjoyed some time this morning in the whale pool, splashing around, pouring water and just lounging with his head on the side of the pool (Mommy's favorite).  We even saw the first Monarch butterfly of the season (though it was too fast for Mommy's camera)!

 Sadly, his bathing suit fell off for the fourth time and we left it off after that (would you believe this 18 mos swimsuit is STILL too big for my three year old!?), so please pardon the swim diaper in some of the photos...

He was really big on practicing his pouring using empty containers from the recycling bin...

 Splashing around...

LittleBear says, "So THIS is why my shoes have all these holes in them!"

And just for fun, here's a video:

Before Five In A Row: Corduroy

Wow, am I behind in my posting about school stuff...this is a book we did a while back that never got posted...sorry!

Because of the awesome opportunity of a fun beach vacation and the fact that it meant we left and returned in the middle of a week, we decided to spread Corduroy out over two weeks (three days in one week, two days in the other).  Ah, the beauty of homeschool!

LittleBear really liked this book after we read it a few times and we even got to the point where he could tell me the story on his own.  Hooray for LittleBear!

 Here is what we had planned for our week on Corduroy:

Day1-

- talk about saving & sort coins in piggy bank

- sort fruit snacks by color using the Color Bears Concentration Game

- Corduroy Bear Craft

- Tracing Pages

Day2- Read Corduroy

- Animal Classification Cards

- count bear crackers/gummy bears

- button sorting

Day3-

- feelings tot book

- Teddy Bear Coloring Page

Day4-

- my feely fabric book

- practice sewing on a button

Our fruit snacks didn't end up being bears because I was a little hesitant of all the artificial coloring in the ones I could find, but LittleBear didn't really notice or care.  I didn't get the feely fabric book done either, which I really wanted to, but just didn't have the time.  Otherwise, we did everything else as planned!

LittleBear loved the fruit snack sorting and playing with the buttons.  Who knew that "Grandma's grab bag" of buttons from Hobby Lobby could produce so many hours of entertainment for a preschooler?  It was great (even better with a 40% off coupon!).  He sorted them by size, color and found the matching ones...we did this every day at his request, it was definitely a favorite activity for him.

We are currently experiencing some technical difficulties with our photo album system, so forgive me that these are all the pictures we have for this book.  I do have a cute button sorting video for you that will hopefully make up for it :)

Inspiration, ideas and printables I used for Corduroy can be found at:

Before Five In A Row manual

Homeschool Creations

Homeschool Share

Delightful Learning

My Pursuit of

Summer Bucket List: Blueberry Picking

 This weekend, we had the opportunity to do something that Mommy has always wanted to do with LittleBear...blueberry picking!!!  We found a wonderful farm outside Houston with 20 acres of chemical/pesticide free blueberries for $2 a pound!  To beat the heat, it necessitated getting up REALLY early, but thankfully we have family that is up for any adventure together, even if it costs them a little bit of sleep.  We filled up the minivan and headed out to Moorhead's Blueberry Farm for their last open Friday of the season. 

LittleBear tired of picking after about a half hour, but he was also a bit sick and had woken up early, so who knows what affect that had on him.  Still, he enjoyed eating and picking and seemed excited about it.  We stayed for about an hour and all had a good amount of blueberries in our buckets.  Overall, a great time was had by all and we even came home with lots of blueberries to freeze for later.  YUM!  Mommy definitely wants to try this again next year...we'll see if LadyBear is up for it too.

And just for fun, here's a video of LittleBear in action with the blueberry bushes:

Summer Bucket List: Playing In The Rain

Around here, we love a good musical.  One of our favorites is "Singing In The Rain."  While LittleBear is a bit shy to sing on camera, we did manage some fun playtime in the rain today.  Mommy and LittleBear splashed, danced, played and had a great time!