In an effort to avoid the usual Monday blues we started our day a little differently – immediately after breakfast which came after a Cyberchase (which is in HIGH demand right now!) we brought out our selection of paint colours (though I forgot all about the massive container of TEAL I have in the cupboard… I boxed up our other paints and left the box open for convenience sake). The goal for today – to create a painting from the story we read last night before bed – The Velveteen Rabbit. I am not sure that is what Trinity was painting but she had fun doing it and managed to get a lovely amount of paint on herself in the process.
The top left picture is a plaid piece Gavin worked on in the end and I am sure you can guess which is Trinity's!
Creativity unleashed
After cleaning up paints, including a bath for Trinity we had enough time for some quiet play before lunch. I love it when they take their time on painting pictures… the creativity is wonderful. The boys also started a new science project with Daddy. They put TWO eggs in vinegar to see what happens. This is a craft that was suggested on this website when I hunted down Easter and egg related activities. There is a work sheet they will do tomorrow when they remove the eggs from the vinegar. You can print that off here.
Note the foam... ewwww
Our afternoon was full of fun activities. Since I did Legos with Gavin on Saturday it was Zander’s turn today. So we made a little village together. I personally like to do my houses all in organized colours where Zander is more of a smack them together rainbow kinda guy. Though he did build a house like mine to “try it out.” I don’t know why but I really enjoy making the peeked roofed homes.
Our little town
Another view
While we we working hard on our construction skills Gavin started a project of his own. Each of the boys is making his own story. Gavin’s is titled Daddy and Echo and he is determined to make each page chalk full of colour and activity. He got two pages in before he wanted to leave it for the day (which took him almost 3 hours of work!).
Gavin's Cover Page
First page
Zander's cover page
Emanuel made me a bit of Easter art. Two eggs decorated in glittery flowers and connected with some sparkly leaves.
Emanuel's gift
The boys also coloured and then we assembled mini books late last week. You can print off a black and white copy here. Folding instructions for this type of books can be found here. A nice simple Easter (religious) activity I wanted to be sure to share with everyone.
The completed book
The rest of the week we are going to work on our stories, math and reading… There are some Easter colouring pages, mazes and the like to do… and I am debating just grabbing all of the craft supplies I have in the cabinet that are not packed and telling the kids to GO NUTS. Imagination is always a great thing to cultivate.
We have been rather insular lately. It has just felt like we needed to circle wagons and spend some time as our not so little family of 7 I guess. Sometimes you just need that reinforcement, that we are all together and loved and happy. Sunday was amazing for me for that reason alone – after the boys and Ken got home we spent our afternoon as a group with games, crafts and lots of fun. Today I was on the go for the whole day which has completely burned me to a socket (the weather is still chilly so the boys were out only briefly in the backyard and for some reason all 5 kids had amazing amounts of energy, enthusiasm and NOISE)… I think tonight it is time for some Mommy time…
The very serious business of chewing on a star