Here is Kiddo's:
Top row: pretzels, teeny turkey sandwiches, edible Indian corn
Middle row: pretzels, butternut squash, caramel to dip apples in
Bottom row: apple chunks
And Kutey's:
Monday, November 23, 2009
Muffin Tin Monday--Thanksgiving
This weeks Muffin Tin Monday theme was Thanksgiving. Since we will have 2 Thanksgiving dinners this year already, I opted to try to avoid the foods we will have for those meals. And I added in some fun, too!
Here is Kiddo's:
Top row: pretzels, teeny turkey sandwiches, edible Indian corn
Middle row: pretzels, butternut squash, caramel to dip apples in
Bottom row: apple chunks
And Kutey's:
Here is Kiddo's:
Top row: pretzels, teeny turkey sandwiches, edible Indian corn
Middle row: pretzels, butternut squash, caramel to dip apples in
Bottom row: apple chunks
And Kutey's:
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Glow Stick Magic
One of my kids favorite things to do is show off their dance moves. Neither DH or I are big dancers, but we try to encourage the kids to dance freely :). I sometimes wonder when we lose that freedom and become so inhibited.
The only thing that they love more than a good dance party night is a good dance party night with glow sticks. You can often buy a tube of 15 bracelets at the dollar spot at T*rget. It only take one per kid, and you have a hit, which stretches that dollar! Cheap, fun, family entertainment. It doesn't get much better. Oh, unless you add in a few long exposure photos...
The only thing that they love more than a good dance party night is a good dance party night with glow sticks. You can often buy a tube of 15 bracelets at the dollar spot at T*rget. It only take one per kid, and you have a hit, which stretches that dollar! Cheap, fun, family entertainment. It doesn't get much better. Oh, unless you add in a few long exposure photos...
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Our Classroom Today--November 17
In Minnesota, you have to enjoy the nice weather while it is here. We can be trapped inside for months with weather that is just too cold to do much outside. Especially for little ones. So we are extra appreciative of the beautiful November we have been having. And of the fact that our Tuesday group has been able to enjoy the great outdoors for a little bit longer than we anticipated! We returned to a nature center we have previously enjoyed this week, and enjoyed it immensely again.
Today we walked all the way around the lake. There are several places where the path is a boardwalk which gets you right into the middle of the cattails. Because of this, the cattails were within reach (especially with the assistance of the hook stick Kiddo found). I guess I have never really explored cattails. I love to photograph them. But I guess I never actually touched them before. They bloom in your hand. The seeds literally puff off as you touch them, and it keeps going and going. There are thousands of seeds packed on there. A little tip, though. When you are holding a cattail for a child to touch, make sure you are up wind. Though being covered in cattail seeds does lend itself to a lesson in seed distribution.
Muffin Tin Monday--Thankful
The theme of this week's Muffin Tin Monday was "thankful." So I asked Kiddo what foods he was thankful for. His list was long. The kid likes to eat. So we restricted it a little. For example, melon isn't really in season here right now. You can get it, but they are not the best always, are often expensive, and may have had to travel a lot to get here. So we skipped it, even though it is a favorite food in our house--Kiddo and Kutey could and would eat half a melon in one sitting.
Instead we came up with this:
It could also have be the letter P muffin tin, as we could make everything start with the letter P.
Here is Kutey's:
Top row: Pizza goldfish, Pomegranate applesauce, Plain bagel (with whipped cream cheese and jam)
Bottom row: Peanuts and Pretzels, Plain yogurt, Pepperoni.
There were many other food they were thankful for, this was just my selection of what we had on hand that fit in a tin well.
Here's Kiddo's:
Instead we came up with this:
It could also have be the letter P muffin tin, as we could make everything start with the letter P.
Here is Kutey's:
Top row: Pizza goldfish, Pomegranate applesauce, Plain bagel (with whipped cream cheese and jam)
Bottom row: Peanuts and Pretzels, Plain yogurt, Pepperoni.
There were many other food they were thankful for, this was just my selection of what we had on hand that fit in a tin well.
Here's Kiddo's:
Monday, November 16, 2009
Mill City Museum
We visited another historical site/museum today! Kiddo's fascination with history is teaching me a great deal! Today's outing was The Mill City Museum, a museum "built into the ruins of what was once the world’s largest flour mill." The mill closed in 1965 and was all but ruined in a fire in 1991. I remember the fire, it was obviously huge news--it was a huge fire. Thankfully, someone saw the historic value of the building and made it into a museum. Mostly it was destroyed, but there are still pieces that are valuable and they have done a great job of making it into a museum. They brought in items to round out the history, too.
There is a kitchen where they do cooking classes for field trips, and a water lab where they explain how water was used to run the mill through interactive water tables. We didn't participate in the kitchen activities, but we did have time in the water lab. It was very cool.
It was, however, one of the few times with a homeschool group where I felt the groups were poorly divided--but it was entirely our own fault. Our group had one child who was considerable older than the rest. She really wanted to direct the other kids. Given that everyone else was younger than Kiddo, they had a little bit different idea of what they wanted to do and how they needed to do it. There were a few moments of frustration, on both sides. It was OK, but could have been better. The kids really did enjoy it, for the most part.
The highlight of the visit is the "Flour Tower," a media presentation in an elevator that culminates with a visit to the 9th floor roof with breathtaking views. It was fabulous.
Kiddo, of course, wants to go back. We read as much as we could, but we took the train in and I wanted to get back out before we hit too much of rush hour, when the train is much more crowded. We'll have to find another time to go, so he can explore more.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Our Classroom Today--November 10
After visiting several area nature centers, today's outing took us to another zoo!
The Minnesota Zoo is great. We have been members since Kiddo was a toddler. One of the major benefits of being a member is that we never feel bad about only visiting for a couple of hours at a time. We try to go early and leave just before the kids get too worn out for it to be any fun anymore. We can go back any time we want to. Since we went with our Tuesday group, however, we stayed much, MUCH longer than normal. We got there at 10 and we weren't headed toward the door until 3:30 or later. I have never before heard the announcement that the zoo is closing, but we did this time!
One of the best parts about the Tuesday group is that there is never a rush to make sure we are getting enough in. Even though we were there for over 5 hours, we didn't see everything. The kids soaked it in. They ran as a pack and looked at the animals. They ask awesome questions. They remember a ton. And they share what they know with each other. So much fun.
One of the newest things at our zoo is the Grizzly Coast exhibit. It is so well designed! They have 3 grizzly bears, all of which were found alone as cubs and would not have survived in the wild. The great thing is that their exhibit allows them to come right up to the people. The kids were touching the bears paws--with a large piece of glass between them, of course. It just gives you a much better sense of just how big they are when you can get that close to them.
On this trip, in particular, we were blessed with a plethora of awesome volunteers. They answered our questions so nicely! When they didn't know what the huge horn on the hornbill was for, they went and found out, then came back into the trail and found us to tell us! (It is just for display. The one pictured is a male, hence the huge horn). They also pointed out the Victoria Crested Pigeons on their nest. We were amazed to see the baby already had the crest. We probably would have missed it if the volunteer hadn't pointed it out. We also learned how they transport our giraffes (they are only here in the summer because we don't have good winter housing for them. They have to be moved twice a year in a 19 foot tall horse-like trailer with hydraulic sides that can be lowered temporarily if they have a low passage they can't go around. Who knew?!), that the sea otters are the most expensive animals to feed (because they eat restaurant grade seafood), and that the bears are not actually fed raw meat, but are instead fed fruits and vegetables along with a hefty serving of dog food. We learned there are 3 amur leopards at the zoo, 2 females and one male. The females are sisters. At least one of the leopards is on loan from somewhere in Europe for an unknown period of time. Oh, and of the 3 bears, only one knows how to fish, but he only gets to eat about a third of what he catches because one of the other bears takes away the fish if he can. All of this we learned from the volunteers (the bear stuff was a staff person, I think). What a wealth of knowledge, and kindness. Thanks zoo volunteers!
The Minnesota Zoo is great. We have been members since Kiddo was a toddler. One of the major benefits of being a member is that we never feel bad about only visiting for a couple of hours at a time. We try to go early and leave just before the kids get too worn out for it to be any fun anymore. We can go back any time we want to. Since we went with our Tuesday group, however, we stayed much, MUCH longer than normal. We got there at 10 and we weren't headed toward the door until 3:30 or later. I have never before heard the announcement that the zoo is closing, but we did this time!
One of the best parts about the Tuesday group is that there is never a rush to make sure we are getting enough in. Even though we were there for over 5 hours, we didn't see everything. The kids soaked it in. They ran as a pack and looked at the animals. They ask awesome questions. They remember a ton. And they share what they know with each other. So much fun.
One of the newest things at our zoo is the Grizzly Coast exhibit. It is so well designed! They have 3 grizzly bears, all of which were found alone as cubs and would not have survived in the wild. The great thing is that their exhibit allows them to come right up to the people. The kids were touching the bears paws--with a large piece of glass between them, of course. It just gives you a much better sense of just how big they are when you can get that close to them.
On this trip, in particular, we were blessed with a plethora of awesome volunteers. They answered our questions so nicely! When they didn't know what the huge horn on the hornbill was for, they went and found out, then came back into the trail and found us to tell us! (It is just for display. The one pictured is a male, hence the huge horn). They also pointed out the Victoria Crested Pigeons on their nest. We were amazed to see the baby already had the crest. We probably would have missed it if the volunteer hadn't pointed it out. We also learned how they transport our giraffes (they are only here in the summer because we don't have good winter housing for them. They have to be moved twice a year in a 19 foot tall horse-like trailer with hydraulic sides that can be lowered temporarily if they have a low passage they can't go around. Who knew?!), that the sea otters are the most expensive animals to feed (because they eat restaurant grade seafood), and that the bears are not actually fed raw meat, but are instead fed fruits and vegetables along with a hefty serving of dog food. We learned there are 3 amur leopards at the zoo, 2 females and one male. The females are sisters. At least one of the leopards is on loan from somewhere in Europe for an unknown period of time. Oh, and of the 3 bears, only one knows how to fish, but he only gets to eat about a third of what he catches because one of the other bears takes away the fish if he can. All of this we learned from the volunteers (the bear stuff was a staff person, I think). What a wealth of knowledge, and kindness. Thanks zoo volunteers!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)