Math Everywhere: Division

Math Everywhere: Division

While preparing for our first family trip involving an airplane, we got to do a little hands-on math.  Our kids’ pediatrician suggested we bring gummy bears along for the flight to help avoid painful ear pressure during take-offs and landings.

Independence Day

Independence Day

 Happy 4th of July! I hope you and your children are spending some time running free today! My husband and I recently took our boys to Olympic National Park, and I had the immense joy of watching them play outside

Gardening with a Preschooler: Strawberries

Gardening with a Preschooler: Strawberries

An update on our three-year-old and his gardening project: We wanted our preschooler to take more ownership of our family garden this year, and as he is in a big “all by myself” phase, we decided that he needed a

Literacy Games: Bananagrams

Literacy Games: Bananagrams

We love the game Bananagrams, which is essentially Scrabble without a board.  We come up with lots of little activities to use the letters and work on our early literacy skills. The other day, we tried something new.  As we

Gardening with a Preschooler: How Plants Grow

Gardening with a Preschooler: How Plants Grow

Our seed project has been taking off!  Our preschooler planted zinnias in a few pots, and he has been faithfully watering them every day and making sure they get plenty of sun.  The sprouts are finally big enough to put

Preschool in the Kitchen: Hummus

Preschool in the Kitchen: Hummus

My three-year-old loves to help out in the kitchen.  He’s now at a point where if I get out my mini-chopper, he runs over and asks me what we’re making.  This is an appliance that terrified him just a few short

If You Don’t Have It, Make It: Woodshop Edition

If You Don’t Have It, Make It: Woodshop Edition

While we are a far cry from homesteaders, we would like to instill in our children some sense of self-reliance.  Rather than run out to the store and buy every little thing, if it’s at all possible for us to

Preschool Science: The Walking Rainbow

Preschool Science: The Walking Rainbow

To reinforce the color-mixing ideas we’d talked about previously, we tried another experiment with food-coloring and water.  This demonstration relies on the tendency of liquids to reach equilibrium.  When we connect the jars, the water will flow until it has

Preschool Science: Color Mixing with Ice

Preschool Science: Color Mixing with Ice

We have been talking about boiling, melting, freezing, and states of matter with our preschooler, so we tried this simple color-mixing activity. First, we made blue, red, and yellow ice cubes.  We needed five of each color for this activity,

Puzzles for Baby

Puzzles for Baby

We loooooove puzzles at our house, but how do you know when baby is ready for puzzles and where do you start? First of all, puzzles require fine motor control.  If your baby can put together MegaBlocks or something similar,