Money Matters
Thanks to their recent birthday, Monkey and Bug have been learning a lot about money. For their birthday they each received a check, a gift card, and some cash, so this week we've explained how each of these worked. We went to the bank, so the girls could deposit their checks (special notes that tell the bank to move a certain amount of money from one person's account to another). We went to the store, where they bought some new toys with the gift cards. The cards didn't really require explanation since the girls assumed they worked like a debit card, which they always see me use (the card gives information to the cashier's computer, so it can tell the bank to give the store the right amount of money). Then we went to a different store, so they could buy different toys with the cash. They got to hand the cashier the money and everything; they were very excited about this purchase process since it was the easiest to understand. Over the course of the week we talked about how our family has money to spend because Daddy works. At some point they also asked to borrow some coins to play store with, and we talked about the names of the coins and how much each is worth.

Make Some Noise!
One afternoon this week proved highly musical. It started with Goose attempted to sing "I'm a Little Teapot" and Monkey, Bug, and I joined in to help her out since she had forgotten most of the words. Then they requested "Father Abraham" (hilarity ensued). Next they pulled out all the instruments and started making up their own songs. Here's a sampling:

Finally, they requested I turn on kids' music on Pandora and had their own little dance party.

In the Sky
We got to see a harvest moon this week, and that inspired even more questions about how the sun and the moon work out their different paths (and what they're made of) and how part of the world has daytime while the other part has nighttime. Verbal answers simply weren't cutting it, so we went for a hands on explanation. From around the house, we collected a flashlight (sun), a ping pong ball (moon), and a rubber ball that was conveniently colored with blue, green, and white swirls and does somewhat resemble the photos of earth from space that we Googled. We closed ourselves in the garage with the lights off, and I helped the girls get properly positioned and walked them through how everything moves. They thought this was really cool, and we repeated the demonstration several times. I mentioned that there were other balls in space called planets. They were unconvinced at the time, but later in the week we watched an episode of Backyardigans in which the characters become astronauts and mission control workers and take a space shuttle to Mars, and I got to bring up the subject again with a little more success (mostly they were interested in the shuttle itself and what exactly mission control did--because as Bug pointed out the mission control people couldn't actually go into space to help the astronauts).

 Later in the week, Monkey and Bug pointed out that clouds were also in the sky and wanted to know what they were made of and how they fit in. I explained about their relative location, and we completed a quick project with a water bottle, a few drops of rubbing alcohol, hot water, and an ice cube to demonstrate how clouds are formed of tiny droplets of water. Fascinating, of course.

Lights and Shadows
While we were in the dark garage with the flashlight discussing the solar system, the girls noticed all the shadows, and I showed them how to make hand shadows of different animals. All three girls thoroughly enjoyed making "great big girl shadows" too! We also experimented with placing colored tissue paper over the flashlight and turning the garage and our faces different colors--just so you know, turning each other green like aliens is hilarious.

New Verse
I forgot to mention last week, but we have a new "special verse" posted on our fridge for the girls to learn. The current one is: "Surely, God is good" (Psalm 73:1).

Library Day
You know you're doing a good job of helping your children love reading when the announcement, "It's time to go to the library!" results in three pre-reading girls dropping their toys and running to get their shoes. Goose, who's not yet two, even started cheering, "Liberry! Liberry!" While we were at the library we read several stories about Finn MacCoul (but they didn't want to check them out). Monkey and Bug were thrilled to discover that not all giants in stories are bad guys.
This week we came home with:
There Was an Old Woman
There's a Bird on Your Head!
Little Bear's Visit
Thumbelina
Spiders! (Monkey's "what do you want to learn about" pick)
Cacti (Bug's "what do you want to learn about" pick; it's actually a field guide from the adult section since the kids section didn't have any, but she's been fascinated by the full-color photos of all the different kinds of cacti)

Projects
At a consignment sale this week, along with plenty of clothes, we came home with a brightly illustrated Rainy Day Art and Activities book. The entourage spent quite a bit of time flipping through it and inquiring if we had materials for the projects that piqued their interest. At some point they decided they were ready to do some, and it turned into quite the crafty afternoon.

Paper bag puppets! The illustration had dog ears,
but Monkey and  Bug were inspired to add tracings
of their hands and cut out legs and feet.

Friendly spiders! (wooden beads, pipe cleaners, and smiley face stickers)
This choice was inspired by Monkey's spider book.

Then they decided to go freestyle and pull out the collage box.
We're still working on using appropriate amounts of glue.