January photos and notes

Daily school that morphs into play...

Fraction work becomes butterfly creations

which get reincorporated into school via art class...











A story and discovery video on water spiders colors subsequent play: the deer (Grace is always a deer) and the puppy (Jasmin is always a puppy) begin gathering air bubbles in their house for their babies - this is what water spiders do - but they couldn't figure out how to have the door of their home on the bottom like the spiders as the couch was the base of their home...





A construction lesson with play clay fizzles... but at the mall a few days later (we discovered a Payless Shoestore - finally decent kid's shoes!), at the lego stand, it clicks, and Mommy can hardly bear to drag them away with their houses unfinished. If only lego wasn't so crazily expensive...










Recently there seems to be a grouping of birthdays - seems like every day for a week the girls came back from their playing saying someone had invited them to their birthday party on the weekend.  Mommy had a hard time convincing them that without a paper invitation, they couldn't go (besides the fact that they never knew where or what time!).  But then they got two real invitations in one day! Excitement abounded.  One has come and gone, and the other is yet to come. 

This first one was at Little Gym.  It took us an hour and a half to get there by public transport, so we missed the first 1/2 hour! Still, worth it.  The kids had a blast in the gym - it was mostly organized routines on the various equipment to loud music, but the staff were excellent with the kids, keeping it fun and interesting. Jasmin told me afterwards, "It was lots of fun, but I'd rather go next door." - a ballet studio. That, plus the transport time means we won't be taking advantage of the coupon for a free session...      This was also the first party in which the gifts were taken home to be opened - I think I like that, though the girls were disappointed they didn't get to see their friend open their present.                                                Aiden behaved himself excellently, despite missing his nap-time completely.  He really enjoyed the low balance beam and the soft floors. He spent a lot of time inching his way along this beam or trying to stand alone beside it.  Looks like he is going to be an early walker...

The girls are thoroughly enjoying their freedom to go play on the playground each afternoon without escort.  By 10 am, Jasmin begins asking if it is 4 o clock yet - the time all the kids are out playing!  Our two are often the loudest on the playground (blush), so Aiden likes to stand watch... to Mommy it seems like he can hardly wait to be able to join them down there...