Watching Grass Grow!

We are waiting for our beautiful grass to grow! The boys can't wait! We have a very large patio so we still go outside but we have to settle for watching the grass and dreaming of playing on it:)
I've been trying to come up with things for them to do on the patio and this is one that was fun for about 10 minutes:)

Paint Brushes + Cups of Water= Good Clean Fun

Caden was very proud of this swirl!

Caden's Reading Chart

I started this reading chart with Caden about a month and a half ago. I made it thinking we would just use it to fill in with stickers but it became a goal instead. I told him if he filled the whole thing in he could pick any book he wanted from Costco. Every time he would read one of his BOB books or one of the books I made for him he would get a sticker for each book. He would read 5 books at a time sometimes so it filled up quickly.
He chose this giant McQueen Sticker and Activity book and is in love with it:)

The reason we started the chart was because Caden was having trouble getting motivated when I would ask him to read books. Once we got started reading he would love it! We would laugh and he would bask in the praise after each page read. So the sticker chart was a great way to get him started on those days he didn't feel like practicing and then the joy of reading would take over! Now he realizes how fun it is to read and discover new books so I think it was a success:)

The Bug

I wrote this story for Caden and he loves it!!!! It's his favorite to read to his family and friends! It's a very easy read with a lot of it and is practice:) Caden Loves reading it to me and telling me where the bug is hiding:) When I printed it for him I had the Character's name as Caden but I left it blank so that you can put your own child's name:) If you have a little girl you could easily draw some hair on the stick figure to make him a girl:) I formatted the pages so that you can print them double sided and then cut them horizontally down the middle. Then use a piece of card stock as the cover. Fold them all in half and staple down the middle :) The title page and "the End" page can be glued onto the cover or whatever? Please leave a comment if you download it:) And tell me if there are any issues. I have never done this before:) Also, I don't have a color printer yet so I just added a little color to mine with color pencils:) It turned out cute:)

Click here to download "The Bug"

Thanks ActivityMom for helping me figure out this whole down load thing:)

Help

I just wrote a new book and I want to give it to my readers to print. How do I do that? I've gotten print outs for other blogs but I have never given one? Help please:)

Write Your Own Beginner Readers!

Caden LOVES reading! I couldn't be happier! However, I have been having trouble finding books for him. I love the BOB books but Caden will get bored with the story before he has truly mastered the book and is ready to move on. Any other "beginner readers" that I find at the library are more advanced then Caden is ready for. My solution? Write my own:) It was easier then I thought and Caden loves them! Caden is on book five in the first set of Bob books and the first thing I did was read through them and make a list of all of the words that they had used in the first five books. I used that list to help write my books. I used some words that the books didn't because they were in the same word family(ie cat bat sat hat)

I'm going to share quite a bit in case you'd like to just copy them word for word:) This first one is about Caden taking a nap and it is a true story;) I used regular printer paper and construction paper for the cover. I sewed it together because I have yet to find my stapler since the move:)
Here's the words;
Drake and Caden can run.
Drake and Caden can hop.
Drake can nap.
Did Caden nap?(the picture above is of him in his Ikea bed:)
Caden did not nap.
Caden did hop. (him jumping on his bed)
Mom is mad!
Caden is sad.
Mom did hug Caden.
Caden did hug Mom.
Caden did Nap.
The End

The next one was actually the first one I wrote for him. I ended up putting it in a photo album:)

This book was fun because it was the first time I realized how easy it could be. On the page above I couldn't think of how to say that Caden gives the cat a treat without making it to hard to read. That's when I realized that the Bob books let the picture do some of the story telling so that they can keep the words simple:) Here are the words for this book;

Caden has a dog.

The dog has a Tag.

A cat!(instead of writing why the cat is scared, Caden can draw his own conclusion from the illustration)

Sad cat.

Caden has a bag.

O.K. cat, O.K. dog. (in this picture Caden is giving the dog a bone:)

This next one is my favorite so I included pics of all of the pictures:)

Every time Caden Masters a new book in the bob books I will add to his list of words and write more stories. He has been loving it and I am having so much fun! I think one of the main draws for him is that the stories are about him;)

Amazing!

Butterflies are amazing! They all emerged and flew away! I was so happy that all 10 made it! 7 of them all emerged within an hour of each other! I was so grateful for the educational experience that the boys had while watching this amazing process! I was so proud when my nieces came over and Caden described the whole butterfly Life Cycle to them! totally recommend doing this with your children! We are going to get some praying mantis next!

Computer Game Rotation

Caden absolutely loves his computer! Since he doesn't watch any TV or Movies anymore I am pretty generous on how often he goes on:) He has nice little collection of educational games now but he favors Putt-Putt! It's a little purple car that goes on adventures:) We have three of the adventures and I played them when I was a kid. They are educational but in more of a critical thinking kind of way:) Anyway, I wanted Caden to be sure and play all of his games so I made this little chart.



It has a laminated picture of each of his games. Some represent more then one game like Putt-Putt has 3 and Jumpstart has 4(Costco Pack). Each time he goes on the computer I take down the game that he chooses and remove the picture(velcro). Then put it in this little pocket. When they are all gone I put them all back:) Caden really likes this and hasn't complained once:)

The Butterfly Life Cycle

Since we have been butterfly crazy around hear we have been doing some little crafts and we put them all together to make a butterfly life cycle!

The projects are simple, the first one is a chrysalis! I cut out two pieces of styrofoam and the boys used glue with paint brushes to attach little bit of tissue paper. We talked about how the caterpillars have to cover themselves up so that they will be safe while changing into a butterfly!

This one is a classic! Egg carton caterpillars! Do I even need to post directions for this one?:) Drake's tore so it's a smaller caterpillar;)

The eggs are little Easter egg halves:) The boys dipped them in glue and stuck them to the green leaf paper that I had already cut out. We talked about how the adult female butterfly uses a sticky glue that her body makes to to stick her eggs to leaves that she knows her babies will like:)

All of these were fun to make and the boys love showing them off and telling anyone who will listen, all about butterflies:)

Our First Butterfly

Our first butterfly has emerged and the boys were soooo excited! They called their Aunt Summer and told her all about it! We have it in the center of the kitchen table so that we can watch the next 9 emerge!
It was such a wonderful opportunity for them to see what we have been reading in the books! We talked about the crumpled wings and how the butterfly has to hang and let them dry. The directions said that the butterflies would like cut up oranges so we put some of them in amongst the flowers. Before we put them in I showed the boys how a butterfly eats. I gave them each a bendy straw and let them stick it in to the orange. They loved doing it! It was a great hands on activity! Then when we put them in we got to watch the butterfly land right on the orange, uncurl it's tongue and start drinking! It was so cool and the boys were so excited! This has been such a fun experience!

Happy Easter

Caden- "Mommy, Jesus died on the cross and he had hurts on his tummy and his hands and then he was ressurected."

More Side Walk Fun!

I drew out a little "obstacle coarse" for the boys. I drew a curvy line to walk on, three lines to jump over, a spiral to spin on, the numbers 1-3 to jump on and shout out and then a big zig-zag to balance on to the finish line!
Next time I am going to add in a balance beam and a tunnel, and maybe our little folding slide:) So fun, easy, and simple!

Shaving Cream

Why didn't I do this sooner?? We used shaving cream when I was a teacher but i haven't gotten it out for the boys because I thought it would be too messy?? It's NOT! It was so easy to clean up and the boys LOVED it! It made them smell so good too:)

We added Dinosaurs and Cars to the mix:)

We also did a little finger writing:)