Garden Tenders: Active Advent Season

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Our Tree of Good Deeds

We have been moving right along despite everything. While I haven't been actively teaching site words we are beginning to recognize a few. I am not convinced sight word reading is best for a child. But If she is learning them on her own in essence, then so be it. One thing that is hard is stopping a 4 year old from doing something so you have to kind of weigh the battle. Is it worth the fight? It's not like they disobeyed and could have gotten hurt. LOL

We have also started our Tree of Good Deeds. She still wants to put what she is thankful for on it, which is cute. It means the leaves on her thankful tree had an impact on her, even at 4 years old.

Planting wheat 12/12

Also, while we are not of Hungarian descent we did plant some wheat in honor of St. Lucia. I am told, by The Little Acorn Education learning activities, that wheat is planted on St Lucia day to symbolize rebirth and our Saviors birth and the new growth being shown in the sprouting of wheat. So we discussed that and a little bit about how the fable is that Lucia was the daughter of a rich nobleman and that she would travel, much like Santa Claus, from house to house leaving a baked good with each family, returning home by daybreak. Each village in much of Scandinavian countries had their own Lucia who did good things for those less fortunate.

All this ties in so well with our theme of good deeds this month and winter as well. Of course December has been a month also of adventure. One morning a I found the Bear cracking 5 (five) dozen eggs on the floor. I felt a kinship with the mom who's toddlers played with a 5 pound bag of flour. I have discovered during the adventurous journey that all it takes is 5 minutes in another room (less than that really!) and you can come back into chaos. Literally! Just this week I found Sarah (who had woken before the rest of the family) had decided she would put our gingerbread house together as a surprise gift for me. I had bought a kit and was telling her that we were going to be putting it together but she decided having the kit in the house overnight was too much to bear. Ahhh the joys of Mommyville.

At the moment, when I first discover her antics, I am distraught, but even just a couple days later I can seriously see the humor in it and how she wa trying to do something to "make mommy happy" or just plain trying to see how something worked or would go together. What more can a mom ask for than her child to try to make her happy and desire full blown 24/7 learning? Of course that isn't saying she couldn't try to do it a little more within certain bounds! LOL I am sure my friends on Facebook are thinking I am over wrought. It is overwhelming sometimes but ya know, I am discovering that much of my precocious four-year olds antics are not from meanness, or outright disobedience, but of her little mind just moving at 100 miles an hour. She is very mechanical and LOVES to see how things work. She has an imagination that is more than active, it's downright RIPE. She loves pretending to be animals and she LOVES learning about all living animals and even dead ones like dinosaurs. Today she pretended to find a dinosaur egg and insisted that we find a cloth to wrap it in to keep it warm. Yes there is an fascination with eggs. LOL

This week we experimented with things that "GO BOUNCE". We used play dough to see if it would bounce. It does, once! We also experimented with how the shape of something effects how it might or might not bounce. Flat play dough doesn't bounce at all, nor does a flat ball and a foot ball bounces differently than a soccer ball. We also witnessed that while things like eggs and apples are round they don't bounce (I recommend doing the egg into a bowl or if your child can stand on a stool, into a sink, otherwise it could get messy).

Mixing up Cinnamon Dough

Sarah said she thought she might bounce and she wanted to jump off the back of the couch to test the theory, but I convinced her that while she might bounce on the cushions (a no-no! by the way) she would not bounce when she hit the floor or ground but would be like the flattened out play dough or egg. She would just go SPLAT or THUD. All of this led to us pretending to be kangaroos somehow.

We had another Creative Kids play time today. Message me if you are local, for we would love for you to join us. Even the six month old that came today was fascinated with the Cinnamon dough we made. I let the kids make it and work it up themselves and it was a hit as far as texture, smell, etc. I am not so sure it will make good long lasting ornaments. The lessons were learned though about measuring (adding) and how you take some of this, some of that and add it together and get a lot of something.

Of course our new to us car is in the shop, hopefully we will find out what's going on without it breaking the bank. The bright side, it's keeping me at home. :-)

Recipe I used for the Cinnamon dough

1 C Applesauce

1/2 cup Glue

1- 1/2 coup of cinnamon or even pumpkin pie spice or add some nut meg (I used cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice)

Also, I am starting to get things up on Sarah's Closet & More. I am thinking of building up things for a few sales next year to just get my feet wet again in the crafting circles. Plus I am getting so disappointed with some of the mass produced stuff out there. Anyway, keep checking it out. If you see something and want to order it let me know you seen it here on my Blog and you can get a 20% discount (before shipping) off your first order!

Highlights from the past several days and activities.