Second Month, 13th Day

Today was a very purple day. Beware.

As usual, Babe and I started with Math today and kind of blew through that again. I had her do a quick exercise to show me that she knew what "one less" meant, then I had her do her worksheet.

Math done.

Since today we finally had a sunny day, I was able to do a quick Science lesson with Babe about keeping our skin healthy. I brought out some construction paper and sunscreen and she immediately recognized it as an activity that Sid and his class did on Sid the Science Kid (on PBS Kids). I was more interested to see if what he did really worked, and to my surprise, it did!

I mentioned to Babe that in order to keep our skin healthy while out in the sun, we have to put sunscreen on, otherwise our skin burns. To demonstrate what the sun can do to skin, I had them each smear sunscreen on their paper. We had the stick kind and the lotion kind, so Babe had fun writing letters and drawing shapes.

Once they were each happy with their designs, we headed outside! Babe chose a nice sunny spot and we laid down the paper to catch some sun.

While the paper was catching some sun, we went inside and did our color of the day activity with purple.

I then read them all one of my favorite books when I was little, "Harold and the Purple Crayon" by Crockett Johnson. Z was quick to point out the moon that Harold drew, Babe recognized the city skyline before I even read that page, and Bubs thought the dragon he drew to protect his apple tree was very scary. They each loved the book and Z even stayed glued to each page the whole time. And what better way to end the book than to give each kid a purple crayon and a white sheet of paper?

Z's scribbles.

Bubs's sketches.

Babe's drawing.

By the time we were done with this activity, which they each actually really loved, we headed back outside before the wind picked up to check out our sunscreen activity. And what do you know?! It worked! Totally cool!

With the sunscreen dried up you can totally see that the paper faded a bit, but their designs and smears are completely as bright as the original paper color. Pretty neat!

After lunch and naps, Babe read the Reading Comp. book, "In the Big Blue Sea" by Chyng Feng Sun. I extended the lesson a bit and brought out another fish book she owns, "Rainbow Fish to the Rescue." She knew the difference between the real and imaginative fish, as I knew she would, but it definitely got her mind going. It kind of threw her for a loop that I was even asking. I noticed that it made her realize there was a difference, and that books can be "true" and "pretend."

Today she read her tenth book and is well on her way to her goal of 20 for the month! We'll see!

We ended the day with a discussion on good habits and how to keep our bodies healthy. We went through the Calvert-assigned Science worksheet featuring a daily chart on things to do everyday. She noticed that she already completed two of the habits today, so I gave her some star stickers to put in the boxes. She is already adamant about doing all six habits each day this week.

We got a ton done today and it felt good. I think Babe felt really accomplished when she saw all the stuff laid out for her parents to see. I hope tomorrow is just as accomplished, however, with a cold front approaching our area tomorrow, it's likely we will be spending all day outside.