Home School Chronicle – Class time, then off to the Strawberry Patch we go.

After an eventful weekend, the kids and I made it back to the classroom today. I brought some of February’s activities back out to the shelves and CC and RJ were immediately drawn to them. After Rug Time, both CC and RJ dashed to the shiny spooning-transfer activity below. Thankfully, RJ quickly found something else to work on when I reminded him that he had to choose an activity from his shelf first. You can tell from the picture that CC needs some brushing up on her spoon transferring skills. RJ is working on a foam puzzle that he struggled with just a few weeks ago, but now enjoys often.

RJ then moved on to some hammering.

But as soon as CC put the spooning-transfer activity back on the shelf he decided to give it a try. He did much better than I anticipated.

The color sorting activity that CC is working on is the first Montessori inspired material I made. Except for the pom poms (which I purchased for $1), I used all recycled materials. It was made with the white box that packaged a case of water bottles, small apple sauce cups, and a larger container that used to hold rice pudding. CC enjoyed finding it on her shelf after not seeing it for over a month.

I must have been a little distracted because I almost missed the fact that RJ seems to be getting better at color sorting. He normally just randomly places the small toys in the compartments with his hands. But today he grabbed the tongs from another activity and got most of the colors sorted correctly=)

After today’s class session, the kids and I went to a local strawberry patch to pick some fresh delicious strawberries. The last time we were there, RJ was much younger and didn’t do any strawberry picking, but today CC and RJ both had a great time filling their own containers.

The ‘Girls’ Have a Fun Day Out

Not many of my family and friends know this, but I am a huge figure skating fan (living in sunny Southern California, there aren’t very many of us). Today was a great treat when I was lucky enough to find some passes to an official practice session of the ISU World Figure Skating Championships at an unbeatable price. Friday, became a last minute day out for “just us girls”, as CC likes call us. We dropped off RJ at grandmas and off we went to watch some figure skating!

Here is CC outside of the L.A. Convention Center
CC enjoyed watching all the skaters, listening to the music and taking pictures.

Although, her favorite part was probably waving to the zamboni driver.

Fun at AdventurePlex

My parents, sister and brother live about twenty-seven miles away from us, the kids and I visit them about once a week. Today, CC and RJ had an exciting play date with their 6 year old cousin. We all had some fun at AdventurePlex, a children’s fitness center with an open play area that has an enormous indoor play structure. We last visited this facility about five months ago and on that occasion CC and RJ spent most of their time in the toddler area. This time they explored every inch of the structure and had a great time climbing, crawling, jumping, swinging and sliding.

This was the first time CC and RJ both entered a ball pit without being afraid.

We then made it out of the toddler area and into the play structure. Here is RJ sliding and bouncing.

CC's favorite spot was this rope swing.

RJ initially spent his time following CC around (like he usually does at home), but then he started to explore on his own and this is where he ended up. On this picture, you can see CC in the background and can get an idea of the size of the play structure.

We all had a great time at AdventurePlex, especially since we had the whole place to ourselves during most of our visit. I only wish it was closer to our home so that I could take the kids there more often.