January 2012 Stuff

Here are some of this month's activities, in no particular order.

We went to Swakopmund on the coast of Namibia.  We had a great time playing in the ocean.



Ryan got some tinkertoys for Christmas and the boys LOVED them.  I found some on clearance at kmart.com and got them some more.  What a great toy!  Unfortunately, I don't think the quality is as good at the tinkertoys I had as a kid.   They have changed a few of the pieces, not for the better.  Oh well.

In Swakopmund we went on the living desert tour with Tommy.  Best tour ever!  Here is Tommy bringing Ryan back up a dune to where the vehicle is.  Evidently it was easier to go down than up. :)



In Swakopmund they also had a children's play place for kids to play as much as they wanted for about USD $4 a day per child.  Justin and Ryan both enjoyed these boats.

We went over to Walvis Bay and went for a dolphin and seal cruise.  Unfortunately, Justin appears to get seasick.  Note to self for future trips on the water!

We use dot a dot markers on these coffee filters and then attached them to pipe cleaners for a cheery bouquet.

Justin was exploring weighted numbers with the balance.  Who knew there were so many ways to get to 10?

We sorted things according to size.  I had three different sizes of each object and the boys compared to put them in the right place.

Here are some of the objects we used.

Our yard is incredibly uneven and in a moment of weakness I made an indoor bike course for the boys.  It really helped them figure out how to control their bikes.  Now they can manage better on a bumpy, slanted surface.

We traced things (like our hands) and measured them using nonstandard units of measure such as crayons.

Ryan found this in the scrap box and insisted on doing it.  I cut, he matched and glued.

This month we have been making a lot of games.  Some make more sense than others.  I guess a lot of the fun is in the creation.

For my birthday we went to Na'an ku se Wildlife Sanctuary.  This is one of the animals we got to see.  He and a few friends escaped from Etosha and needed a place to live where they weren't killing farm animals.

Ready, aim, fire!  We shot at targets. 

March 2011

Here are some of the activities that have been keeping us busy during the month of March.  We have also enjoyed swimming/wading, playing in the sandbox, building castles and rockets out of empty boxes, making Thomas train layouts, playing our new  Nickelodeon wii fit game, and a number of other things.

Justin (Cat in the Hat hat) and Ryan (orange hat) listen to a reading of Dr Seuss books at the Embassy community Dr Seuss celebration.  Justin thought it was weird to have a bday party for someone who was not there AND had never even been to Namibia.  He thought it was really weird when he found out Dr Seuss isn't even alive anymore.

J and I flipped a penny ten times and graphed the results.

Justin trying to predict if his penny will land on heads or tails this time.

Our Cat in the Hats.  Justin made his into a thank you card, but realized that he didn't know how to write "thank you" so he stopped trying and wrote "the end" because that is what you put at the end of things.

We put flashcards on the floor and one of us calls out a word and the other person has to shine the light on the word.  I have no idea while Blogger thinks it should rotate this picture sideways.

We sorted some cards in different ways.  Shown is by number of letters in the word.



Ryan was really into coloring with markers.



Justin building with the pattern blocks Meredith made.  Once again, Blogger thinks this picture looks better rotated.

Justin has patterns down, but he does not want to work on his cutting skills.  He has the most awkward grasp!  He was a better cutter 6 months ago when he accepted help with positioning the scissors.

This is Ryan's "leopard-con" which he for some reason thinks looks like Rob.  The hat?  Bushy beard?

Looking at letters with Dad.

Ryan has FINALLY started showing an interest in letters and numbers.  Much later than Justin, but he is getting there.  He knows 16 uppercase letters and some lowercase (like w).

The boys are getting ready to play a game that is based on one of the wii party games.  I don't mind building the game with them, but I can never keep up with the rules.

Ryan working on counting to ten with 1:1 correspondence.

Justin using his feet to manipulate the unifix cubes.  Lovely.

We were experimenting with different ways we could make ten.  Justin finds it fascinating that so many different combinations of numbers can add up to ten.

Ryan thinks he is pretty cool with cubes on his feet.

We were decorating hats for an alphabet safari.  Unfortunately, Ryan decided the letters should go Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and foam letters went flying of the table and all over the floor.

Ryan sporting his alphabet safari hat.

Justin adding the finishing touches to his alphabet safari hat.

We started our alphabet safari.  Each day, I give the boys a list of letters, and we go around the house looking for things that start with those letters.  We have taken many pictures.  When we finish the whole alphabet, we will choose our favorite pictures and put them in a powerpoint.  The boys have been having a lot of fun.

Justin with Brown Bear, Brown Bear manipulatives, retelling the story in his own order.

Ryan has the leters up the coconut tree, but they will come crashing down soon.  Chicka Chicka Boom BOOM!

December 30, 2010



Aside from the regular Christmas stuff, this is what we have been up to this last little bit.  Having two birthdays kept us busy too.  December is a busy month.

Justin took over the task of making his robot birthday cake.  Really it was a cake with about as much frosting and candy as it could possibly hold!



Sorting Christmas and not Christmas pictures.



We got lots of dress up things for Christmas (thanks to after Halloween sales!).  It was nice to find some stuff for them since most of the year all I can find is Disney Princess related.  Yuck!

We made "gingerbread" houses out of milk cartons, graham crackers, and candy.

Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer puppets complete with red pom pom nose.

The boys are still thrilled with all the new stuff from Christmas. : )  It is nice that they can entertain themselves for 5 seconds without getting on each others' nerves. :)

December 19, 2010



This is what we have been up to this week. 

Reading in Justin's room.



Santa puppets

 

Busy with trains, blocks, and play food, and dinosaurs.

Snowman gift tags for goodies we are giving people.

Wreaths

Painting the stockings was fun, but we had some frustration issues with cotton balls getting stuck on our hands while we were gluing them on.  Didn't have that problem with the beards.  Go figure.

I think their Christmas trees turned out nicely.  They were topped off by stars that Grandma sent.

Ryan thinks it is hysterical to listen to Grandma read to him in this Hallmark book.  I had to put the book up high and require only supervised readings because he was taking it everywhere with him and being less than careful.

Sorting bugs and counting them.



More bug fun.