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Saturday, July 4
This morning I woke up around 8 AM and again I was the first one awake. I made my coffee, spent some time on my computer, and at around 9 AM I went up and took a shower and started waking everyone else up to get ready to go to the Fourth of July parade at 10 AM here in our town. We all walked down there as it was just a few blocks away. My sister in law walked up with my three nephews, and we all watched the parade. The kids' favorite part, of course, was when people in the various cars and floats threw candy and they could run out and gather it and stuff their pockets full of candy :)
When we came back home, we ate breakfast, and then Alexa went out in the backyard for a while with a Fourth of July Activity Booklet I'd printed for her. It included a "Where I Live In The USA/Label Me Printout," information on the Bald Eagle (which she could color), a printout on the Great Seal of the USA which she could color, word games such as finding how many words she could make from the phrases "Independence Day" and "Fireworks Display," a word find puzzle, writing sentences for Fourth of July related words, a fill in the blank worksheet using Fourth of July terms, a Fourth of July Grammar Sheet, 10 Fourth of July words to put in alphabetical order, and a couple of pages on Thomas Jefferson to read.
We ended up going out to a seafood place and the supermarket to get some things for dinner; we'd decided to make some chicken and shrimp skewers with fresh vegetables to throw on the grill and some rice and corn on the cob. Other than that, we hung around the house, Shawn mowed the lawn and Alexa helped him move things around as my back was still bothering me, we had our barbecue and everything came out great!
Alexa finished the Fourth of July Activity Booklet, we got ice cream from the ice cream truck, we all watched James And The Giant Peach together. We have the book here too for Alexa to read, it was a book I remembered reading and enjoying when I was probably about her age.
After the movie, Ben and I ended up going to bed- Shawn put him in his bed and then he and Alexa went to watch our town's fireworks. I had decided I was too tired to stay up for them and I knew Ben was tired, too. So I got into bed to read, and after a few minutes, Ben wandered into my room and got into bed with me and ended up falling asleep there after a few minutes.
Meanwhile Shawn and Alexa went to the fireworks. I had given her an experiment to try, which was to figure out how far away the fireworks were. I told her that as soon as the shell bursts she'd see a bright flash and at that point she should start counting seconds and keep counting until she heard the boom from the explosion. The experiment said that the speed of sound is 1,125 feet per second, which means that it takes sound slightly less than five seconds to travel a mile. So if she counted five seconds between the flash and the boom, it would mean the fireworks were about one mile away. She subsequently told me she counted six seconds.
That was really about it for today, more tomorrow.
P.S. Update: Oh I almost forgot to mention this! Yesterday I had posted about how Ben and I did a little preschooler worksheet on the five senses. I had asked him if he wanted to "play school" and he said yes, and we had done that worksheet. So this afternoon while Shawn was out mowing the lawn, Ben came over to me and said "I want to play school again." I decided to get a board game out of the closet and for the first time ever I played Chutes & Ladders with him! He won and wanted to play again. By then Alexa had wandered in, and she wanted to play too, so we played one more game.
While Ben seemed to enjoy it for the most part at first, he started getting upset when he had to go down a chute lol. He kept wanting to just randomly pick what number the spinner landed on and where he moved his game piece. But we made it through the game, and I must say I was impressed by the fact that he could almost always tell me what number the spinner had landed on. I hadn't even realized he knew numbers by sight like that! It is amazing what kids learn without you even trying to teach them!
This morning I woke up around 8 AM and again I was the first one awake. I made my coffee, spent some time on my computer, and at around 9 AM I went up and took a shower and started waking everyone else up to get ready to go to the Fourth of July parade at 10 AM here in our town. We all walked down there as it was just a few blocks away. My sister in law walked up with my three nephews, and we all watched the parade. The kids' favorite part, of course, was when people in the various cars and floats threw candy and they could run out and gather it and stuff their pockets full of candy :)
When we came back home, we ate breakfast, and then Alexa went out in the backyard for a while with a Fourth of July Activity Booklet I'd printed for her. It included a "Where I Live In The USA/Label Me Printout," information on the Bald Eagle (which she could color), a printout on the Great Seal of the USA which she could color, word games such as finding how many words she could make from the phrases "Independence Day" and "Fireworks Display," a word find puzzle, writing sentences for Fourth of July related words, a fill in the blank worksheet using Fourth of July terms, a Fourth of July Grammar Sheet, 10 Fourth of July words to put in alphabetical order, and a couple of pages on Thomas Jefferson to read.
We ended up going out to a seafood place and the supermarket to get some things for dinner; we'd decided to make some chicken and shrimp skewers with fresh vegetables to throw on the grill and some rice and corn on the cob. Other than that, we hung around the house, Shawn mowed the lawn and Alexa helped him move things around as my back was still bothering me, we had our barbecue and everything came out great!
Alexa finished the Fourth of July Activity Booklet, we got ice cream from the ice cream truck, we all watched James And The Giant Peach together. We have the book here too for Alexa to read, it was a book I remembered reading and enjoying when I was probably about her age.
After the movie, Ben and I ended up going to bed- Shawn put him in his bed and then he and Alexa went to watch our town's fireworks. I had decided I was too tired to stay up for them and I knew Ben was tired, too. So I got into bed to read, and after a few minutes, Ben wandered into my room and got into bed with me and ended up falling asleep there after a few minutes.
Meanwhile Shawn and Alexa went to the fireworks. I had given her an experiment to try, which was to figure out how far away the fireworks were. I told her that as soon as the shell bursts she'd see a bright flash and at that point she should start counting seconds and keep counting until she heard the boom from the explosion. The experiment said that the speed of sound is 1,125 feet per second, which means that it takes sound slightly less than five seconds to travel a mile. So if she counted five seconds between the flash and the boom, it would mean the fireworks were about one mile away. She subsequently told me she counted six seconds.
That was really about it for today, more tomorrow.
P.S. Update: Oh I almost forgot to mention this! Yesterday I had posted about how Ben and I did a little preschooler worksheet on the five senses. I had asked him if he wanted to "play school" and he said yes, and we had done that worksheet. So this afternoon while Shawn was out mowing the lawn, Ben came over to me and said "I want to play school again." I decided to get a board game out of the closet and for the first time ever I played Chutes & Ladders with him! He won and wanted to play again. By then Alexa had wandered in, and she wanted to play too, so we played one more game.
While Ben seemed to enjoy it for the most part at first, he started getting upset when he had to go down a chute lol. He kept wanting to just randomly pick what number the spinner landed on and where he moved his game piece. But we made it through the game, and I must say I was impressed by the fact that he could almost always tell me what number the spinner had landed on. I hadn't even realized he knew numbers by sight like that! It is amazing what kids learn without you even trying to teach them!
