Frozen Bubbles

Another item on my pinterest to-do list has been check off. I wish all my to-do lists were this fun!

Yesterday we attempted to blow bubbles so that we could watch them freeze, but it turned out to be too warm.

(yes that is bed-head and pajama's- that is just how we roll)

Chasing bubbles!

Not that blowing bubbles was any less fun because they didn't freeze, but it was cold enough that I thought I was going to freeze so we didn't spend a ton of time blowing bubbles. 

This morning was a different story. I had plans to get up early (weather.com said it was suppose to be 23 degrees at 7a.m. which was suppose to be the perfect temp for this project), but I was not ready to get up when the alarm went off.

Thankfully, the temp was still pretty chilly when I rolled out of bed a little after 8. 

Bubbles refused to freeze. I tried blowing them onto the window to see if the cold window would help things along (Da was taking photos from inside-wimp).

We discovered that the further away from the house we went, the better the results. 

Next discovery was that bubbles on the ground would freeze eventually.

Popped frozen bubble

On our way back inside, we found these two little bubbles that we had blown when we first ventured away from the house.

And my very favorite photo:

Have a great day!

Bathroom Math- 9's

Emma- "Can I show you a cool way I can do math?"

Me- "Sure!"

Emma- "It's in the bathroom."

Now, I realize that we live a bit differently than most, but if your bathroom is tiled, or has squares of any kind, and your child tells you that they can do math in the bathroom, just go with it. 

Bathroom math is not a new concept around here, but it is still really cool. 

Today's session of bathroom math was more involved than the first time. First we counted the rows, columns, diagonals, and any other way we could think of. Then I showed Emma how to count by 3's and we went up to 12- we probably would have gone higher but we ran into the wall. I was explaining to Emma that 3 squares times 1 row equals 3, 3 squares times 2 rows equals 6, etc. Just trying to get the verbiage out there. 

Emma- "O.k. Mama, here is a math problem for you. If this square had a barn with 9 stables, and this one had 6 stables, and this one had 3 stables... Wait, if all of these in this row had 9 stables, this row all had 3 stables, and this row all had 6 stables, how many would we have?"

I am working on my public math, but I am not there yet.

Me- "So do you still have those little counting bears? What about the little block things that you can stack?"

Off to her bedroom to see what we have. 

Emma found the bears, but I think the small stacking blocks are at Gramma's. We went with mega blocks. 

This is what we ended up with. 

(please ignore the messy floor, we were busy learning math)

I liked using the mega blocks because it was a sneaky way to show Emma that numbers can be added together in different ways to get the same number. 

Anyway, Emma counted all the "stables" in the 9's row. I showed here that by combining the 3's row with the 6's row she gets the same number (27) as the row of 9's. She thought that was neat. 

We used pen and paper to add 27+27 (glossing over the concepts of adding 2 rows of numbers). She was impressed that we could have 54 horses. So impressed that she wanted to go get her model horses and see how many she could put in the bathroom. 

Even I have my limits on how much time I can spend playing in the bathroom. So, we cleaned up and now she is watching some Wild Kratz on PBS.com. 

I am always amazed at the ways this child learns. 

How and Why

Emma and I started building a barbie house the other day out of awesome boxes that Da brought home from school a while back. 

We worked on it for a while as Baby B (one of the little boys we babysit) was sleeping. After Baby B woke up Emma and I had our hands full and so the barbie house sat for a day or two. The the meantime, we talked about what we planned to do next time we worked on it. 

Emma wanted to work on the barbie house, but we have friends coming over later this week so I had hoped to do a bit (or a ton) of cleaning today. The following is what happened instead (what usually happens instead of cleaning) which is why our house is never clean.

"I have an idea for your barbie house..." and away Da went working on his idea.

One of the ideas Emma and I had talked about for the barbie house was to create art for the walls. Emma decided she wanted to work on this. 

Ideas taking shape.

Fixing leggings. 

"I think I want pictures of outer space, with planets!"

And this is how we learn. 

"Is there a red planet?" Yes, there is. Out comes the 1989 children's encyclopedia and the much more recent Scholastic encyclopedia. 

Da showing her which planet is which. 

And then Da was absorbed in the reading while Emma was working on her barbie art. 

Barbie waiting patiently for her house to be finished, Emma's art work drying. 

Her first space painting of the sun and the red planet. 

And this, folks, is how we learn and why our house is always a mess. 

Random Pictures

Cyclops

Herd of Galloping horses

New Pants

More new pants (with HORSES!)

Emma's photo of doggy with a bone

Self portrait

Extreme close-up self portrait

Latest obsession- (1990's cartoon version of X-Men- yes, that is Magneto)

Paint-to-go: Watercolors

Have you seen those paint "coloring" books where all you do is wet a paint brush and you can paint one of the pictures in the book? The kind that has the blocks of color along the bottom?

Emma and I made our own blank paint-to-go sheets this past week. I got the idea from pinterest. Here is the pin, here is the original posting. If you want our version of a tutorial, you can stop by here.

I decided to do a test painting today, and Emma asked if she could do one as well. Of course she can!

We started out with water and q-tips, but we realized that the q-tips held too much water and really watered the colors down a lot. Emma switched to a paint brush for her second picture. I just now remembered that I was going to see if Emma wanted to try painting with just a wet finger, but I forgot. Oh darn, we will have to experiment tomorrow :)

I am a little amazed at her level of consentration during this activity as she was also watching X-Men (a cartoon version from the 90's- thank you Netflix). X-Men is her all time favorite show right now. I think she likes it so much because Da gets excited about it too and she can ask him questions and chances are he will know the answer. 

Mixing colors 

(one reason we almost always use the primary colors is, well, what better way to teach color theory)

Can you see the red and yellow unicorn and the blue sky with black clouds?

This was my masterpiece (don't laugh, I am working on my artistic skills)

Just messing around with mixing the colors. Not sure why the black looks like a fungus, probably the red eye reduction thing on the camera. 

Emma's horse, in progress. 

We really had a blast painting with these. I can see these as an awesome gift, something to take on car/train/plane trips or to places where you know the wait time will be a while. 

Happy crafting!