Water Balloon Alternative

So this goes under the heading of summer fun, even though I'm writing this in February.  This is a neat idea I saw somewhere and decided to try out.

What you'll need:
- several packages of brightly colored sponges
- several rubber bands or some string
- scissors (optional)
- a large bowl or bucket
- water
- at least one child (the more you have though, the funner this is!)

Directions to create your water balloon alternative:
There are two ways to do this, you can either cut the sponges into smaller strips longways, or you can leave them whole.  If you want them skinnier, cut them while dry.

Next, I found out the hard way that you should get the sponges wet, then wring them out completely before attaching them together.  When I first did this I didn't get them wet first, and so when they got wet, they started falling apart after a while.  I also used string on my first ones, which began to stretch when wet, so I think rubber bands wrapped tightly is a better choice.   Select out 3 or 4 pieces, wrap a rubber band tightly around the center of them all so they form a kind of pom pom.

So much harder to get the string or rubber band around tight when
the sponges or pieces are dry.

 Next, get your bowl or bucket and fill it up with water.  You may want to do this outside so it doesn't slosh all over your floor while carrying it outside.  Set the bowl in the middle of a open area, or you can set up two bowls on opposite ends of an open area if you want to play with teams.

After that you just drop the sponges in to soak up some water, grab them out and toss them at the first person you see.

Daddy always makes the best target!

Now... if you have a really small child - like 3 and under, they may not like getting wet and they'll cry.  This is where having more than 1 child playing comes in handy.  No matter how any child feels about getting wet, when they see everyone else having fun, it is fun.  It just might take a few minutes.

Tahlia cried the first time she got hit, but pretty soon she was after Daddy like everyone else.

WARNING: If you do this in your front yard, you will attract strange
neighbor kids from miles around to play with you.

Lastly, if the novelty of the sponges wears off, your kids will still find a use for the buckets/bowls and water on a hot day.

So for a few bucks you now have a great idea for getting wet without the water waste of a sprinkler, or the clean up mess of real water balloons.  But be warned, the photographer is not immune to getting a little wet!

Uh-oh... 

You better not be thinking what I think you're thinking!

Sigh... she got me.

Lots of Other Fish in the Pond

So this week we continue learning about our Pond habitat by learning about the fish that live in the pond. 

Day 1: Like always this day was packed full of introducing information.  I read lots of books to the girls about fish and we learned what makes a fish, a fish!  Here are some of the cool facts we learned about fish:

• Fish have backbones
• Some fish have hard bones like people, other fish have soft bendy bones made of cartilage (same stuff that makes up our ears).
• Fish have a head, body, and tail. They also have eyes and gills on the head, scales all over their body, and fins on their backs, tummy, sides, and tail.
• Fish swim with their fins
• Fish breathe with their gills by sucking in water through their mouth, then closing their mouth and pushing the water out through the gills.  The gills take oxygen out of the water so the fish can breathe.
• Scales are like tiny little overlapping plates that keep the fish safe, they can come in lots of colors and can be smooth or rough, big or small.
• Some fish have spines on them to help protect them too.  When they are scared, they stick out the spines to poke predators (predators are animals that eat other animals).
• Fish are cold blooded, which means they are the same temperature as their environment.  If you take a fish out of his home water and stick him in new water that is a different temperature, it hurts the fish, just like if someone were to put us in ice or boiling water.  We discussed the proper way to transfer fish from one tank to another - or when cleaning the tank how to re-introduce the fish to the water by placing it in a baggie with its old water and setting the whole thing in the new tank for several hrs so the fish becomes the same temperature gradually over time.
• Fish are omnivorous, they eat plants, bugs, and even other smaller fish or animals.
• Lots of people like to go fishing and catch fish to eat - they taste yummy and are good for us.  They help us grow up big and strong.  Fish are a part of the meat group.

I'm sure we learned other things, but those are the main facts that we learned this week about fish.

Day 2:  Since I got a cold from a small child at Safeway on Saturday (yep, I know it was this kid because she was EXPLODING with boogies and I was stuck behind her and her mom waiting to get Abby's b-day cake), we were a bit mellow this week too.  Today we did some fish drawing.  I've been finding some things online that are step by step drawing instructions, and I think the concept is still too advanced for Serenity or Tahlia, but Abbagail did some very cute fish.

Here is one fish colored, one not colored. They were striped fish.

Day 3: I wanted all the girls to get into the science thing again (Abby has been monopolizing most of it) so we did fish collages today with tissue paper.  I also put up all the art they have been doing in the front window in an attempt to get them more energized about what they are learning - nothing like a little showing off to all their friends to get them not only talking about what they learned, but I caught them teaching their friends about the animals too!  I didn't even think it would do more than look cute, but they get to talk about what is in the window with others and it helps them recall the info I'm teaching and put it into their own words.  Totally awesome idea that I didn't even mean to be so awesome! Yay me!

Serenity really liked making the collage. I think because I sat and helped tear the paper.

Tahlia kept telling me "I can't do it!" Looks pretty done to me kid!

Abbagail wanted to make her scales herself, she said they were supposed to be smaller. She is not afraid of intricate and tedious tasks - just like mommy.

This is our front window pond.  I used some brown paper for mud at the bottom (you can't see it here) and green tissue paper for the water plants.  The very top is Abbagail's duck picture, the frog collages are below that, and the new fish collages are swimming down in the water. We'll add more when we learn bugs next week and hopefully I'll get a pic before we switch it out for July.

 Day 4: We had our test today and labeled fish pictures with the basic parts.  I also asked them questions about fish to make sure they got something out of our week.  Overall it was a fun relaxed day.

This week was long, but we only did fish every other day.  Mostly I had just enough energy for math and reading for everyone and a simple art project.  Hopefully the weekend will help me recover - I'm taking Sat and Sun off from schooling at all or working at all even (all the chores will be there Monday I'm sure!)  If I don't get over the cold I wont be able to finish bug week before July 1st!

A few of the other fun things we got to do this week were: the splash park, playing outside in some nice sunny weather (for a change!), 2 trips to the library, and lots of "The Little Mermaid" and "Finding Nemo"!  (They also watched "Ponyo," but not many of you will know that one - it is cute though).  I couldn't find any fish songs to sing... and I wasn't feeling up to the internet searches for video clips of real fish, but oh well.  We had one really windy day on which I attempted to make a home made kite... but although it would fly briefly, it wasn't stable (kept spinning) and I couldn't fix that... but the girls were excited for a full hour watching me try to get it to work and taking turns having it lift off and spin around before crashing back to the earth.

there is a neat army car for the kids to play with at the playground

Abbagail is the only one who will go in the water 

Serenity enjoys being wherever I am

Abby is learning more about money in math right now, she can count pennies and write them as cents (with the cent sign and everything) she can say how many cents things are, add the cents, and even recognize what she can buy with a certain number of pennies.  This coming week we'll introduce nickels and keep her moving on.  Our calendar is working great - she now puts her full name and date on all her homework by herself. Yay!  She kept wanting to write her middle name too, but it wont fit so I convinced her it was overkill.


We started a "Book E. Worm" - he's a little pea head who loves to eat books.  Abby is going to feed him all the books she reads (has to read it without any mistakes) and earn prizes for every time she gets to a green body part. (that will be every 8th book).  I got myself a little treasure chest with small prizes like pencils, erasers, stickers, notepads, coloring pages, markers, tattoos, etc. in it.  Things that are a dime a dozen and the girls love to play with. I should go buy a sheet of bubble wrap and cut it up - they love that stuff!!!  I might end up having to make it more books per prize though - I think she's going to get like 4-5 books done on Monday alone!

Abbagail thinks it's hilarious to call him a "little pea head."

That's everything new for now.  I have a lot more that I want to do with the girls this coming week.  Our school is really evolving as we get into more subjects now that the girls are getting older.  I have so much stuff that they know so well I don't even need anymore - like all my "learning colors" books and printables.  Oh well, they are fun to use with Tahlia, they keep her occupied with something easy when I need more time to devote to everyone else.