Merry Month of May

We dabbled here and there with Gardens, Insects, Building & Fairy Tales this month.

Nathan enjoys hammering with two hammers but favors the louder one.  He is also fond of tasting the wooden one.

Kaitlyn puts together a new birthday puzzle of Eric Carle’s VERY Hungry Caterpillar all by herself in about ten minutes time. 

Sandy, who is never far from the children during their morning hours at home, got in on the fun when she made a diaper box into a building of her own.  This caused a great deal of excitement.

The box didn’t make it out to the recycling bins as quickly as usual, serving as a plaything for the three little guys all morning!

Kaitlyn is sporting a “boo-boo” under her left eye right now which she somehow acquired Saturday afternoon as she ran full speed from her bedroom into the boys room and threw herself on the rocking chair!  It’s getting better.  She also has a cute short haircut, also from Saturday, cut by Sarah.  Kaitlyn was slightly afraid she looked like a boy now!  Tristan also got a VERY short haircut (because his hair has a mind of its own and because Tristan thinks he has snarls)  and was afraid he no longer looked like “himself”!!!  Attending church the next day put them at ease as all their friends and teachers still knew them and liked their cuts.

 

 

Nathan works at trying to stack the colorful, various sized rings onto the post for the first time and finds success.  Before they were just fun to pull off and toss.

 

 

 

 

Nathan observes the spinning flowers and insects as they roll around inside of this toy, making clattering sounds when the top is pushed several times.  He is often seen with teethers in his mouth right now as he is adding 5 larger teeth at once to the 8 he already had in the front.  Painful?  I’m sure… but the good news is that he gets to eat more of the regular meals served instead of always baby food.  He likes self feeding and new tastes very much.

 

 

 

Nathan loves to read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.  The foods in the book have holes where the caterpillar ate through that are just right for Nathan to stick his little fingers in.

 

 

 

 

 

Kaitlyn invited Lindsay to put on a hard hat out at the work bench in the backyard so they could work together.

 

 

 

  

 

They organized their tools and pieces and made some sort of creation using a drill, screwdriver and hammer.

 

 

 

 

But once Tristan joined them with the third hard hat, he drew the girls attention to a VERY large spider crawling through the grass and up the lilac bush.  They got their exercise running away from the spider, who was surely on his way to “get” them, and then going back and finding him again to repeat the process.  Poor Cindi didn’t know what all the fuss was about, but took it in stride as she does most things these days. 

 

We made another trip to the museum where Kaitlyn donned a safety vest and got to work moving lots of rocks with a huge truck which she got to operate…

and Nathan got to work with hammering nails right nearby.

 

 

“Farmer Kait” has joined me in the garden often over the past several weeks.  Here she is driving some of my marigolds around the house on her “tractor” to wait in the backyard until the next gardening session. 

 

 

 

We had added a few marigolds to draw the bees attention to our raised vegetable garden which was planted several weeks ago on the sunny side of the house.  Already the beans, cucumbers and zucchini are springing up along side the tomatoes.  The key word here is up.  I try to utilize vertical space outdoors just as I do inside the house so I train my garden to grow up instead of sprawling out.  I can grow more in a smaller space that way and it works pretty well.

 

 

We stay on the lookout for deer who try to eat our blackberries.  We have many flowers on our bushes this year.  We also check out different kinds of rocks in the yard and the bugs underneath them.

 

 

 

Speaking of rocks, Kaitlyn and I went caving with Nathan to see different rock formations inside of the Earth.  I love rocks and caves and Nathan was game for anything we wanted to do.

What causes these rock formations and why?  Why are the fish in the caves born without eyes?  Why is it so dark?  Why is it so cold?Why are the bats asleep in the day?  Why do the walls sparkle?  Why are there beetles and crickets in a cave?  Why is there water dripping from above?  Why are the rocks smooth?

  Why?  Why?  Why?

 

Nathan fell into exhausted sleep as soon as we were done in the cave.  Kaitlyn decided she’s a little nervous about caves and was happy to get out.

 

 

Back indoors at home during so many rainy days Nathan plays with a ladybug pull toy.  Living in an older home we often find real ladybugs upstairs in his bedroom so he is learning the word “bug” quite well.  One time, before the windows were replaced, there were 35 ladybugs on one window.  Luckily we like ladybugs.  They are said to bring good luck.

 

 

 

 

 

Kaitlyn stacks a pile of magnetic bugs a mile high!  They are fun to stick together and to hear them click.

 

 

 

 

 

Nathan loves to knock down the bug tower and chew on their soft extending wings or legs.  He also likes to take them in and out of containers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This little boy is very happy to have wiggle time at home.

 

 

 

 

 

This month we are reading lots of fairy tales.  Goldilocks and the Three Bears is one favorite and this version with beautiful three dimensional illustrations has an ending that slightly varies from most.  It’s a little less scary and a little more responsible as it has Goldilocks doing the right thing instead of running away from what she’s done. 

 

 

 

Kaitlyn and I make up our own fairy tales using cards with objects that we include in our joint story.  The trick is to retell this story over and over again by memory, adding one more scene with another card draw on each turn.  Kaitlyn does remarkably well with this activity and we got quite a few giggles out of the silly scenarios we came up with.  Very, very silly.  Kaitlyn has the hang of fairy tales.  And she has a GREAT memory!

 

 

 

Spinning fairy tales continues in creative play with the castle and tree house as new stories are woven, new characters come to life and the children learn to collaborate… to an extent, of course.

And as the end of the month approaches, Nathan begins using this toy to push in front of him as he struggles to “walk” across the room!  I must say that he might have an easier time if he didn’t leave a path of destruction all through the room first but luckily it’s quick and easy to clean up fast.  

 

 

We try to keep a path for him so he can work on this skill.

He’s growing up sooooooo quickly.

 

 

 

Happy, merry month of May!