Monday, May 31, 2010

Superhero Robot


Boogs decided he wanted to make a robot out of "some of our recycled junk". He had a good time choosing which boxes, tubes, bottles, and material to put on his robot. After we got the robot assembled, he  wanted to have it wear clothes to look like a frog. It took quite a bit of explaining for me to understand his plan. So we gave the robot a green felt shirt. Then he wanted a metal cape for the robot. He found some gray felt and decided that would be okay to use as a pretend metal cape. When the frog/superhero/robot was complete and dry, Boogs took him all over the house and backyard for rescue missions.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Springwoods Park

We love Springwoods Park because it is always so shady. There are two playscapes, a volleyball court aka sandbox, tennis courts, picnic tables, soccer field, walking trail, and lots of squirrels to chase. We had a playdate there last week and Boogs had a good time. One of the kiddos we were with kept knocking over Boogs' sand castle. So Boogs said, "I like Z and we get along when we run around at Little Gym, but not too much when I am trying to work in the sand. Now he bothers me."

Thank you card for swim teacher

Tuesday is Boogs' last swim class for this semester. I used the Sweet Treat Cups to put a Goldfish cracker swimming in a pool of blue M&Ms for this thank you card. Boogs thinks it is very cool. I have five treat cups left. Hmmm...we are going to a birthday party for a 4-year-old boy. I wonder what I can put in a treat cup for his card, guess it will depend on the theme of his party.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Recent Science Experiments


Boogs loves to make mixtures and "brews". So some days I just open the pantry and cabinets and let him go wild. His favorite mixture is food coloring, baking soda, and vinegar. It never gets old to see a "volcano explosion". It makes a big mess but Boogs is very good about keeping it on his art mat and cleaning up afterwards.


We grew salt crystals this week. We have been checking our string each day to see the growth. Boogs hopes to have the entire pencil covered with crystals before we clean up this experiment.












Another little experiment was to see if we could poke skewers through a sandwich baggie without having any leaks. It worked. Then we pulled them out slowly to watch the water stream out. You can put a skewer through a sandwich baggie without leaks, but not through a water balloon without leaks.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Brushy Creek Sports Park

We have driven by Brush Creek Sports Park many times without ever turning into the complex. I thought it just had baseball fields. It has a small playground area with a really neat climbing structure. I was a bit nervous when Boogs first started climbing up the "spiderweb" but he managed to make it to the top all on his own. I had fun climbing it too.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Spanish Library Books

Boogs and I go to the library every week for story time. We started going to lapsit story time when Boogs was nine weeks old and have continued to go since then. He loves to read and look through books. Recently I started checking out one English/Spanish book each week (Sorry Grandmaman, I am unable to pronounce French correctly). He seems to really enjoy learning new words in Spanish.  I don't speak Spanish, but I remember a lot of the words that I learned when I was little. My parents put my sister and I into bilingual classes from kindergarten through 4th grade. I think it is so important for Boogs to learn another language. Hopefully, our weekly Spanish books will be the beginning of his acquisition of the Spanish language.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Thanks Grandmaman!

Boogs has become very interested in money lately. Well, not money in general. He just wants to have enough to buy a Hotwheels Roaring Dinosaur Track. He wanted to know how he could "get some of Daddy's money" to buy the track. So, we pulled out the Responsibility Chart he received from Grandmaman for his birthday. We tried to get him interested in it when he first got it but he did not want anything to do with it. I really don't know what made him become more interested in it, but I am glad he is. Boogs can earn a quarter every day that he gets at least 3 out of 7 magnets on his chart. It has been two and a half weeks and he is still very into it. The number of magnets required for his quarter may go up soon. He is so proud of himself when he puts each magnet on at the end of the day. Boogs is  much better about keeping his toys in the playroom and picking up after himself during the day instead of waiting to clean up a HUGE mess right before bed. My favorite responsibility is "stop whining". When he starts whining I ask if he is going to earn that magnet and he magically stops whining. Thank you Grandmaman for such a wonderful gift!

Stamp Camp

I had another stamp camp at my house last night. We made three cards. I had the ladies make a similar version of the birthday card for my husband and one like the Mother's day card for my mom. The third card was very time consuming. We used the Stampin' Up Sweet Treat Cups filled with brown M&Ms for the center of the flower and the oval punch for the petals. I think it turned out pretty cute. I bought a HUGE bag of M&Ms so that I would have enough brown ones for everyone. There are not as many brown M&Ms in a bag as there were when I was a kid. Luckily, I had just enough for everyone.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Sprinkler Park


I think we will be spending a lot of time at the sprinkler parks this summer. Boogs had a great time covering up the waterspouts and watching his bucket fly into the air. After we left the sprinkler park, we went for a walk on the hike and bike trail. Boogs was all tuckered out and fell asleep in the car on the way home.
 


Lakeshore Teacher Store


Lakeshore has craft days every Saturday. We occasionally have time to swing by. Boogs got to make a megaphone for his craft this time. He was so precise with how he placed the tape on his cup. After he finished the craft, he told me it did not work very well because it didn’t make his voice too much louder.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

School Picnic

Boogs had so much fun at his end of school year picnic. For the past two weeks, he has been asking me when it would be "Dolphin Fest" day. We went to a Fall Festival called Dolphin Fest in October so I kept telling him we were not going to Dolphin Fest. Today, I finally realized why he kept calling the end-of-year picnic Dolphin Fest. Every year, the school rents an inflatable water slide. We had the same slide this year as last year. It turns out that there are two dolphins on top of the roof of the water slide. Boogs was remembering the dolphins from last May. I wish my memory was as sharp as his. It was a fun picnic. Boogs dug for buried treasure in the sandbox, got wet in the kid car wash, ate pizza and a  snow cone, played with the beach ball sprinkler, and had fun with his friends. I still can't believe another school year is over.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Jungle Java


We went to Jungle Java (an indoor playscape) and I had a whole new experience there…free time. Boogs told me he did not need me to come on the playscape with him because he was going to play with his new friends. That is a nice change. Usually he only wants to play with me. It was nice to just sit and read the paper while he played.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Gazebo Puzzle


Our neighborhood park is in need of a few repairs. The center pieces of the gazebo floor are loose and a few were out of place. Boogs decided this would be a great puzzle. He kept mixing up the pieces and then putting them back in place. He asked me to put them in the wrong way while he went to the playscape. He came back a few minutes later to inspect and correct my work. We played this little game for about 20 times. 

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

My Little Penguin

Today was Boogs' last day of school for the year. He is leaving the Dino class and will be moving up to the Penguin class in the Fall. His teachers had the Dino class walk across the hall to the Penguin room to receive their penguin wings today. It was so cute. The Penguin teachers taped a penguin belly and wings onto each child while the current Penguin class cheered them on. My boy is getting so big. One more year and then I will have to send him off to kindergarten all day. I am really not looking forward to that.

Alphabet Practice


We found these ABC cards on the website www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com Boogs spent about 20 minutes putting them in order. He must have sung the alphabet song at least 30 times. He was very proud when he had the entire alphabet lined up in the correct order.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Books on Tape


      We have been listening to books on tape in the car. Boogs really enjoyed the Magic Treehouse series. We have checked out and listened to all of the Magic Treehouse stories that our library has. I am surprised at how much information Boogs recalls from the stories. We were drawing and writing on pieces of construction paper the other day when Boogs said, “You know, back in Roman times they didn’t really have books. They just used tree bark and that was very hard to write on. I am glad I have real paper.”
     We are currently listening to The Boxcar Children. Each story has a mystery for the characters to solve. Boogs frequently yells from the backseat, “Freeze the sound. I just heard a clue that will solve the mystery.” He is super excited about solving things and using clues.
     If anyone has suggestions for other good books on tape series, I would appreciate you leaving them in the comment section.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Boogs' Picture Collage





In Boogs' preschool class, the kiddos were given a stack of magazines to cut out any pictures they wanted to glue on a single piece of paper. All of the other kids in the class chose pictures of cute cuddly animals. This is what my son chose. He told his teacher that he really liked the top center picture because "it looks like that person wants to be a cat". If you look closely you will see "whiskers" coming out the side of that person's nose. He liked the guy with the camera because he likes to be in the snow at Grandmaman and Grandpapa's house. The bottom center picture was chosen because it was "really interesting to paint like that on your face and not just on paper".  Boogs' is always interesting. I have not been bored since he started signing then speaking his first words. 

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Random Comments


Here are a few of my favorite Boogs’ comments from last week:
  • “Yummm…that salad dressing is so good it makes me fall down. Luckily, I fell down gently and didn’t really get hurt.”
  • While playing dragons and dinosaurs, “I have to shoot dragon fire at the T-rex before he could devour all our friends.”
  • “The dragon fell asleep with three unfamiliar animals.”
  • “Wow! Lizards sure are speedy little creatures.”
  • “Momma, you’ve got to be kidding me. That does not sound very interesting to me.”
  • “I know dragons, trolls, and centaurs are just made up things but unicorns are real. They have one horn that they use for protection and to fight off their enemies. But they are really alive.”
I questioned Boogs on the meaning of devour and unfamiliar and he knows their meanings. Some days the things he says just really surprise me. What is going in his brain?

Saturday, May 15, 2010

What???

I went to run a few errands while my husband stayed home with Boogs. I have no idea what they were up to but it looks like they were having fun. I came home to this

and this