Shaving Cream Play

What do you do when its the first day after spring break and the kids are not quite into “school”?

You bring out a bottle of shaving cream of course!

I’ve been wanting to bring shaving cream out as sensory play activity for quite some time.  I even bought some shaving cream especially for the purpose of play. 

So when my suggested school activity turned into a complete meltdown I decided to stop for snack time, mostly to give myself time to cool down.  After we had snack I  asked “"do you guys want to do something messy?”  Their eyes immediately lit up and they started making suggestions as to what sort of messy activity we should do.  I suggested shaving cream.  They were unsure at first, but went with it. 

We got out their trays and I asked them to take their shirts off.  I gave them each a squirt of shaving cream and let them muck around.

After a couple of minutes I added two colours of food colouring to each tray for them to mix in.

Wavy spent a lot of time just watching her sisters and not touching.

but eventually she dove in too.

My job in the whole process was to keep spraying more shaving cream and gather the requested tools.  We used spoons, rolling pins, plastic containers and even a little glitter.

When I saw this happening…

… I asked if she really wanted to do that.  When she said yes, I stripped them down and we moved it to the bathtub where they covered themselves in shaving cream from head to toe. 

When they were finished we just showered it all away.  Their time in the tub also gave me a chance to clean up the kitchen so we were ready for lunch by the time they came out, sparkling clean.

Really, a much better way to spend the morning.

Penny Cleaning Experiment–Remembering to Let Learning Happen

We took advantage of the beautiful weather outside last week to do a science experiment on the deck.  I had chosen the penny experiment from Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas that I found on Pinterest.

I sent the girls to hunt around the house for pennies while I gathered our other supplies.  We met up on the deck.

I first had the girls count their pennies in to piles of ten, having them choose their dirtiest ones.  We had a two year old with us so the piles of pennies soon got demolished.  It wasn’t really a big deal how many pennies were in each pile anyway, I was just giving them something to do while I got set up.

We added our ingredients to each bowl. The first with water only, the second with soap and water  and the third with vinegar and salt. 

We made predictions about what would happen in each bowl and which would clean the pennies best. 

We dumped our pennies in and since they needed to do SOMETHING each girl got spoon and were in charge of stirring one bowl.

Luca immediately wanted to add more things to her bowl, more salt, some vinegar, water, anything.  I held her off explaining that we wouldn’t know which worked best if we added more or different ingredients. 

Nollie understood this concept but wanted to see what would happen with all things together, water, vinegar, salt, and soap, so we got a new container to try that out too.

Soon Luca could no longer contain herself and was switching bowls with the other girls and then dumping hers and Waverly’s together, added more dish soap and was trying to get ahold of the salt and vinegar.

Luckily we could see pretty quickly what was happening, the pennies in the  salt/vinegar and even Nollie’s everything mix were getting cleaner than just water or water and soap.

We had a quick chat about the experiment and which solution worked best and then I took the materials inside, before the whole box of salt was dumped or any more soap was squirted.  I told the girls they were free to muck around and play with what was left while I got lunch ready.  They were so excited, “We can mess around!”

Isn’t that what science is  all about, testing their own hypothesis.  Trying things out themselves, answering their own questions about how the world around them works?  Not just following an experiment exactly out of a book. Sometimes its easy to get caught up in doing what was planned for the day and forget that one of the reasons I chose homeschooling is to keep the love of learning alive.  Besides, if the whole box of salt did get dumped I’d only be down a couple bucks, not much compared to the joy in learning.  Thankfully, I was relaxed enough and didn’t get upset that it didn’t go exactly as planned.   In turn the girls stayed interested and had lots of fun. 

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As we were cleaning up, we dumped all of the liquid into a large jug.  The girls thought it looked like bubble solution, they had to test it out… so I brought out the bubble blowers.

A Summer in Review

Well hello there.  I figured since I basically took the summer off of blog writing I would catch you all up a little before I get started again.  So here it is, a summer in review.

•  Curt celebrated his 31st Birthday

• Nollie had her 5th Birthday.

 

• I painted our Master Bedroom 

• We enjoyed both a Martin and a Buchan camp-out.  I love the family get-togethers

• We enjoyed a free outdoor yoga & nature class for kids

• Luca won a new bike at the County Fair

•  We took part in a weekly library camp 
  

• We went to the farmers market

• We played in the mud 

• We took our first two week holiday as a family

•  We went to a friend's wedding

• We went camping

 

Babies who scootch on their butt get really dirty when camping

 

• Visited Grandma & Papa Hutch

• Spent a week at Buchan's condo

• Played on Grandpa's boat

•  Both girls learned to ride a two wheeler

•  Wavy practiced her tricks

•  I played in my garden and made a few new flower beds

• We planted trees

• Curt covered the beams and posts on the front deck

• We painted the railing on the decks....again, I think we're done for a year or two.

• We (mostly Curt) put in two brick patios, one outside the garage door and one outside the walkout door.

•  We started homeschooling

•   Nollie lost her first (and second) tooth..

•  We had a great summer!

Kindergarten Crazy

Kindergarten, agh! A few years ago I remember listening to ladies discuss what kindergarten they would send there children to and thinking they were making a big deal about nothing and now here I am, making a big deal about kindergarten.

Nollie, my oldest is set to attend kindergarten next September. The school I was going to send her to was never really my issue. The local Catholic school was our choice. Small school - good, small class sizes - yep, faith based - sounds alright, many of her friends would be going there - cool, Curtis went there growing up. Easy, done. I was just getting used to the idea of Nollie going away to school three days a week next year, talking myself through it, mulling it around in my head all the time. Then they threw me a curve ball. St. Anthony's School in Drayton Valley would be going to a 5 full day a week kindergarten schedule next year. What!!!!!!! I was NOT OK with that. Five full days, getting up and onto the bus at 7:30am and not getting home until 4:30pm every week day. Spending more time with a teacher and some peers than her own family?!?!

Call me crazy but I actually like being around my kids. I enjoy cuddling with them, reading to them, listening to their crazy stories, watching them draw, colour and craft, baking with them, showing them how to find out about things that they are interested in from the library or on the internet, listening to them play (or fight) in the background, I even enjoy grocery shopping with them (for the most part).

Last night I went to the information/registration night at the school. I felt like I was being given a sales pitch "Teachers love the 5 day a week program....The Alberta government would like all schools to have a mandatory 5 day a week Kindergarten program....faith is very important here...this will put your child ahead...this will make for an easier transition to grade one...we do lots of learning ... but its fun...." I don't really like sales pitches, they turn me off, it makes me wonder why they have to sell it to me in the first place? After the presentation my friend asked if it made me feel better, all I could say was "NO". It made me feel even worse. All they told me is that they are going to do all the same things I already do at my house but they will do it and not me. Reading, writing, crafts, playing, letters, numbers, patterns.... yep that's our day every day. Growing plants, taking care of pets, even worm composting, yep, yep, yep. Was the fact that they will be baking with my kid supposed to make me feel better? She's baking at school and in return doesn't have time for baking at home? And after lunch they will have quiet time and centers?? Why not end at lunch and they can have quiet time and centers (aka playing with their toys) at home. I'm not buying it. And don't try to tell win me over by saying that many weeks are not a full five days because there are holidays, pd days etc, it doesn't change a thing for me.

I know kindergarten is not mandatory and I could just keep her home next year but she would hold it against me forever. For nearly a year now she has been talking about turning 5, because then she can go to school. It's not hard to see where she gets the magical idea about school, every adult that we come across asks if she's going to school, are you excited to go to school, school will be so fun, you'll learn to read, school, school, school. I'm guilty of it too, what do I ask a child between the ages of say 3 and 18? Do you go to school yet, what grade are you in, how is school, do you like school, what do you do a school,... really? is that all there is.

People seem to think that I'm just sad that she is growing up and leaving me, "I cried too sending my child off..." "...its normal, you'll get over it." Its more than just being sad to see her go though. Sending her to kindergarten is like subscribing to a system that I just don't agree with. I'm not a fan of sitting in a classroom for 12 years being taught what someone, somewhere decided will be the curriculum. I don't agree with testing and report cards, making some children feel dumb and like they are unable to learn and making others that learn how to take test well think they are smart. I don't agree with learning for the sake of the grade, I don't think children need to be taught. My biggest worry is probably that the education system will stifle or even destroy the creativity, curiosity and the drive to learn that I see in my kids. How many 12 year olds still love to learn, and enjoy school? Sure kindergarten is fun, of course it is, but what happens in a couple years when they have to just sit at a desk and listen, write out their times tables, learn about this now, oh stop the bell rang, now learn about that, no you can't go pee, its not bathroom time, I'm sorry you're hungry we can't eat now. I know we all did and and we survived but it doesn't mean it is the only option.

Its not really my style to just do something because it is what everybody does and its what we have been doing for the last 100 years. Someone is going to have to give me a better reason. I feel like I've read too much and learned too much to just send my kids to school.

So when one of the teachers asked me last night how I felt about the 5 day a week program and all I could say was "not good" there is just a sample of what I meant.