Ice Water Paint

Now here is something I have been wanting to try!  For the tactile fun of it.  Ant didn't seem to be too fond of it.  I must get her used to getting her hands dirty.  Ate seemed to love it though.

 Non-Toxic water colors mixed with water and frozen into ice cubes.

 3 ice cubes per child seems to be just right.

 This is Ate's work.  Of course there was a lot of HOHA (Hand Over Hand Assistance) from momma and yaya.  That's why she was able to cover up the whole illustration board.

 Ant wasn't too hot on it.  She didn't like the feel of slimey gooey colored ice I suppose.  She would rather hold her crayons. 

Melting away in the ice tray to be frozen again and used another day!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

     In my attempts to do proper homeschooling, I try to do "supermom" tasks.  The lapbook for Goodnight Moon, for example, I haven't finished it because I want it to be soooooper nice!  In the end, I fail to get it done.  I've always thought, that when I do something, it has to be the best. I always forget to factor in - the best I CAN do given the TIME I HAVE.  The fact is, I have no time.  And even if I want something to be better, I will have to settle with "mediocre" work rather than have none at all. 

     The best tip I have heard/read... RELAX!  Chill.  Play and have fun with your child.  I always thought, structured play was necessary.  But unstructured play is the best!  So I started having fun.  My little Ant grabbed the book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, and I grabbed a bag of OT toys Lola recently purchased.  And I started to play...

      I formed a caterpillar as little Ant watched.  There were an assortment of shapes and colors of this rubbery set of toys.

      Then I picked up some more and as I turned the page, I tried to copy the images I saw.  Ant watched as I said the colors out loud in English and in Tagalog, our native language.

      With the limited selection (since the toys came in a bag with pictures of what you can form - and I couldn't form it all because there were missing pieces) I still managed to form what I wanted.

      The best part - I was enjoying it.  Ant watched and started putting the toys together too.

      I would read the book, even if Ant wasn't paying attention.  I was discouraged before but an experienced homeschooler said to just keep reading aloud even if your child did not seem to pay attention.

      I only made it to the apple.  After a while, Ant heard our neighbor outside.  So I thought of another tip from experienced homeschoolers... follow your child's lead.  So okay... we will go outside to play.

      And we did.  Before she rode on her bike with her big sister.  I asked her to take a look at our organically growing Okra.  Hmmm it's not doing quite well.  I think a very hungry caterpillar was eating its leaves.

     Oh well, Ant didn't seem to bother.  She wanted to hop on her bike for a stroll around.    We'll go find the very hungry caterpillar another day.