Fall ABC Book

I've been doing some mild crafting lately and one thing I'm beginning to love more and more are small photo books.  Something new I want to try doing with the kids each season is to make a photo ABC book, and together if possible on our photo walks.  We have our list in hand that we write up in advance, and it's like a scavenger hunt as we look for each item.  Here is our first book.  Not all the letters are complete but I left open spots so we could come back to them later.  Here are some seasonal alphabet books to help give you ideas of what to include for each letter.

MOST of the pictures I took myself but there were a few I just found via Google because they were not things available at the time (ie cider donuts, frost, Thanksgiving)

These are some of our pictures, but I strongly encourage you to make this an adventure to do WITH your kids. They especially love the pictures with THEM in it!  =)

 You can download the book cover here.  Just cut out and glue onto construction paper.

Fall Senses

I found this idea on Pinterest but didn't see a Fall version so I created one on my own.  Simple really, sometimes I don't get why it takes Pinterest to come up with things? Anyway... the kids and I drove over to town and took a little fall walk around the neighborhood, searching for things for our ABC book (coming soon, I hope).  And after we got home we filled out our Fall words. I did one too. Then when Kevin got home I read each paper aloud and had him guess who wrote it.  Was fun and almost a little poetic. Hope to do this for every season.

Download PDF here.

Summer Journals

I've been trying to have the kids reflect/recap many of the activities that we've done. It practices handwriting and spelling and helps me see how their little minds process.  Of course we don't do this after EVERYTHING, just a couple times a week maybe. After enough random papers around, I realized I needed to gather them in some sort of system. And here's what I came up with!  It's so simple, yet I love it!

Take a peek...

the first week of summer we went to the Lincoln Zoo, and I created this journal sheet for them to fill out once we were home

We did a balloon science experiment.

And then I found this cute printable paper that we'll be able to use for nearly any fun outing!

I included Eli's spelling pages 

And the Boggle games we do together

And the kids' recap of how we made butter, including some of our pictures!

I hope to do many more of those "Summer Fun" pages!

In the front cover of the folder is Eli's sight word list, and in the back cover are the kids' Brown Bear stories. Eli and Hannah each have their own folder they seem pretty proud of. By the end of the summer we'll be able to flip back through and see many of the fun things we did!

{Rainyday activity} Homemade butter.

I've been wanting to try this for awhile now. It really is oh so easy. Full instructions here. But basically...

just fill a glass jar with heavy whipping cream. I added a marble to help it mix well. 

 Put the lid on tight and...

 shake shake shake!!

  shake shake shake

 everyone takes a turn!

first peek: look and taste and touch!

tasted like whipped cream without sugar. definitely getting creamy though!

it didn't take long for results!

 shake some more!

 

second peek. getting thicker.

look, poke, taste again.

 

 

 add some salt. shake a lil more. 

and done!

 We had bread n butter with our dinner tonight! It tasted good! I'm thrilled!! 

We just might be doing this again!!!

Well on our way!

We've filled out almost 2 of these sheets of books that we've read and once complete, we get to host an ice cream party for our friends!

(the starred titles indicate the ones Eli has read on his own. After starting, I realized getting to 100 books wasn't going to be all that much of a challenge, so the rule quickly became 100 different books)

{Summer activity} Park Clean-Up

I LOVE planning things and organizing events (probably to a fault at times, right dear??). I LOVE going places and getting out. I LOVE being with friends. I do also LOVE spontaneity and adventure and being able to decide on a whim that we're going to do something new or drive all gravel somewhere just so we can discover the backcountry. I rarely decide to just hang around the house. I feel restless and would rather call a friend over and invite them over for a playdate than just BE home, though we DO have some of those days too. 

Anyway, I already have several things in mind for the summer, some we've already done, so I thought I'd start sharing, in you case you wanna do it too!

A couple weeks ago the kids and I were visiting a "new" park in a nearby teeny tiny town that seems pretty dead. No businesses, school or anything really. The park is actually impressive but I noticed it really needed cleaned up. There were weeds all over the sand volleyball court so the kids and I started pulling them. But time ran out and there was still just so much more to do. And what bothered me most was shards of pop cans all over, and I know those would be so sharp for little bare feet to step on! So I decided to come back again with supplies--rakes and trash bags--and invite our friends and turn it into a little event!  

It suddenly hit me that service projects like that are a great thing to add into our summer plans! So the next week, here we are... The kids did great! They weren't thrilled of course, but I figured even if it was mostly us moms working (which it really wasn't!), it would still be a good example to the kids and maybe open their eyes to what's around them and the idea that THEY can help whenever they see trash laying somewhere. Such a fun afternoon project!

I had promised a cold treat afterward!

 And then the kids played!

Just might do this one again!