Week 4, Day 3

This morning's activity turned into a mission (to which we were somewhat successful). I got out all the bubbles and the girls found a bubble wand that made HUGE bubbles. They got a huge kick out of popping the bubbles with their head and nose! While they were doing this, I remembered that I have pictures of A and L when they were younger in just diapers in the kitchen in the middle of winter playing with bubbles - some with the bubble right in front of their face. I wanted to re-create this so I grabbed the camera and attempted to both blow the bubbles and take photos. The bubble solution mostly stopped cooperating and the bubbles seemed to fall to quickly before I got a photo - but I got a couple of good ones.


Here are A and L as toddlers:

Today's best pictures, although the best ones were with H and Z, as A and L got impatient with the activity:

This afternoon, we dusted off my brother-in-law's karaoke machine and sang a few songs. Z really liked Pour Some Sugar On Me, and everyone liked YMCA. H was really into the activity, as she can read and so she could sing songs that she didn't know well. Once our voices were tired, we headed down to the basement to work on scripts for tomorrow's puppet show. It's looking good!

Week 4, Day 2

This morning, we had a local teen come and teach the girls a dance.  Since the girls really like Taylor Swift, R chose to do "Shake it off" as the dance. She started by teaching the basic moves and then put it to music. After many snack & water breaks, the dance slowly starting coming together. I had not expected A and L to participate, and I was correct. L did the warm-up and tried  a few of the moves but then lost interest. A did not attempt the activity whatsoever. H was a keener (she is a dancer after all) and Z started out frustrated but once the choreography and the music were matched together, she was more motivated. K and C put their all in at first, and were downright exhausted by the end.

After lunch, all the puppet-making items came back out so that K and C could make one as they were not here yesterday. The other girls all wanted to make another puppet as well. I was thrilled that the activity lasted most of the afternoon, because there was a heat advisory and the group had no interest in going outdoors. Some of the finished puppets:

They are now ready to start planning their puppet show!

Week 4, Day 1

Today was H-O-T!! I told the girls that we would try to stay out until 10:00 and then go inside until 2:00. They had a lot of fun playing on the monkey bars this morning, and then found a caterpillar to "take care of", resulting in the imminent death of the poor thing. They spent about an hour building a "house" (cage) for it, and giving it a "bath" (drowning it in the pool). By 10:45, he was dead and we went inside.

This week is drama and dance week. Our first drama activity was to play some improvisation games. I thought that this activity would last about 10-15 minutes before losing the interest of the younger girls, but we actually played for about an hour. The girls really like playing the "family" game, so this activity gave them some more ideas about what their family members can do. We acted out going to a restaurant, going on the school bus, riding a horse, playing at the park, and shopping in a store.  The latter one lasted quite a long time, as they all wanted to have a turn to play the role of the customer and the shopkeeper.  The objective of the activity was to have the girls focus on how to do each action without having the object there, and to enhance language skills.

My goal for the end of the week is to perform a puppet show for parents. Ideally, I would like each girl to have 2 lines, memorize them, and be able to say them loudly and clearly with their puppet in the puppet theatre. We shall see how this goes. Today's art activity was to create the puppets. Here is L with her Zebra (the only pic I got today). Tomorrow we shall continue to make them with K and C here.

Week 3, Day 5

This morning I brought out water beads, which are normally used for flower arrangements, but make a great sensory experience for children (and adults too!) A and Z had picked out purple and green. I had envisioned having 2 separate buckets to play in but the 4 girls all wanted the 2 colours to mix, so I let it happen.

This sensory experience led the girls to make their own concoctions later on in the day. They asked for plastic bags and some pantry staples, mixed them with items from outside (mainly chalk dust) and voila! Pixie Dust. They were seemingly convinced that it was the real deal and that eventually, when spread all over their body, it would make them fly to Never Land. 

Week 3, day 4

I had planned on teaching the girls some frisbee skills today, but decided not to focus solely on one sport. I set up 7 activity stations in the backyard so that they could try each one and spend more time on the activities that they liked.

Station 1: Badminton. We only have 1 racket, so I challenged them to try to hit the birdie 2x
Station 2: Skipping. Again, I challenged them to get 2 jumps, and then see if they could beat their own record.
Station 3: Catch and Throw with tennis ball/velcro mitt. This one was very hard for all the girls, as the velcro on the mitt was so strong that it was almost impossible to remove the ball. I challenged teams to catch 2 in a row.
Station 4: Horseshoes. No challenge - just for practicing aim.
Station 5: Frisbee "Golf". I had the girls begin from a starting line and see how many throws it would take to get the frisbee into the skipping rope "hole".
Station 6: Rest stop & Throw ball for the dog. He needs exercise too! The girls really like playing fetch with him.

Some pictures of the girls having fun with the different activities:

This afternoon the girls finished their board games and I got to make one too! Once they finished the board itself, I helped them to write out the instructions so that they could take them home and play with their parents.

 

 The girls were still feeling pretty crafty so we got out some fabric and made dress-up dolls before going outside for water fun.

Week 3, Day 3

First on the agenda today was another hunt for blueberries. This activity was child-lead. They asked if we could go again. I was not going to suggest it, as the blueberries this year are so scarce. The girls found everything but blueberries. They were happy enough picking wildflowers, but then surprise! we found some blackberries and the bushes are full of berries that will be ready in the next couple of weeks. Everyone got a taste and came back to the house happy. The girls spent the rest of the morning playing their "family" game in the stick den, the swing set fort, on the swings, and on the trampoline.

We spent the early afternoon playing board games, doing puzzles, and colouring, then headed outside for water play. My goal for this afternoon was to make a "water bed" as described on this site:
http://www.clumsycrafter.com/2012/05/water-blob-tutorial/

I have a giant plastic mattress cover that I had taken off Z's bed this past year and thought it might make a good substitute for the plastic in this article. However, the size of it is a bit daunting, so I wanted to test the strength of the fancy duct tape that I have, as the regular duct tape has disappeared, with a smaller piece of plastic. I found a plastic case for a sheet set, and started taping the zipper closed. Once it seemed to be sealed (except for an opening for the hose), I started to fill it up. It began to leak, so more tape was added. I had to finish off the roll, but I managed to close it up, and the kids got to sit on the water bed (cushion). While the water did not gush out immediately, it slowly leaked over the course of the afternoon, and then flattened out. I will try the larger one next week, as my husband found the duct tape afterwards.

Week 3, Day 2

This morning's project was making a board game. Each girl got a board, and then an all-access pass to the 2 boxes of recycled materials, paper, ribbon and yarn, plasticine, markers, glue, beads, and stickers. While they were hard at work, I asked the girls to think about the name of their game, what someone would do on their turn and how many people could play. When they finish next time, we will write up the instructions. They are really thriving with the challenge of inventing something on their own.

Even with the heat and humidity, we donned our socks and running shoes and headed outside for a game of soccer. Today, there were 6 girls. Two of them came ready in their soccer uniforms! Each child got to be the goalie, and the game lasted 15-20 minutes. I wish I had taken some pictures, but I was so busy encouraging them from the sidelines. As soon as the last goal was scored, the girls immediately changed into swimwear to go in the water.

Week 3, Day 1

It's Sports and Games Week at Mommy Summer Camp! Baseball lasted a mere 10 minutes. The younger two tried both throwing and batting, and then ran away. The older girls would not come off the swings to even try.

The game-making was a more successful activity. When I had planned the activity, I had envisioned a large-scale mini-putt course outside, made out of recycled materials. Instead, we made mini versions of mini-putt; small enough for Barbie to play on. The girls had a lot of fun making them and they double as new play-sets for their dolls!