I chopped the ends off some carrots while the girls filled their jars with a few stones.

Then they placed the carrot top in the jar and added some water until it touched the bottom of the carrot.

Piper predicted that the carrot would grow.

I think she meant that it would grow into a whole new carrot...

Either way I was skeptical and figured I probably should have bought newer carrots for this to actually work.

A couple days later I was proved wrong!

The top of one of the carrots began to grow!

This is a bit of a blurry picture but you get the gist.

And today the sprouts are even taller than when I took this picture!

Naturally, the girls got in on the carrot chopping action on a night we were having them with our supper.

Good life skill especially when you add the extra challenge of trying to cut a carrot with a bread knife...

Piper is actually able to use the real deal but Tait totally IS NOT so Piper sweetly goes along with the butter knife thing to alleviate any squabbles.

We also made a seed collage.

The only thing we didn't get to do this week was actually plant our garden because the weather was not very cooperative but we'll hopefully get around to it this weekend!

In Tot School...

Taitum explored the color green this week.

We made green ooblek to play in.

(1 part water to 2 parts cornstarch makes a non Newtonian fluid.)

This stuff is ridiculously fun to play with!

Tait's ended up spattering her picture with spit and then gave up and finger painted instead!

Craft FAIL!

Haha!

We continued on to the beach.

The morning there was pure bliss.

I totally should have brought their bathing suits but figured the water would be too cold.

Silly Mama!

I should have known!

By the end they were soaked, covered in sand and grinning from ear to ear!

 

 

The rest of the week was spent 'rowing' Corduroy by Don Freeman.

In the book, Corduroy the bear is purchased by a little girl who loves him despite his imperfection - a missing button.

She kindly sews one back on for him.

The girls delighted in the opportunity to get their hands on some buttons this week, too!

They adore looking through them and discovering pretty and unique ones!

They sorted them by color and counted them.

 

 

And tried their hand at 'sewing' with them!

I assembled these sewing hoops for them using embroidery hoops and onion bag netting.

Then they used yarn and plastic needles to sew buttons onto their hoop!

 

Another day, I set up a toy store just like the one Corduroy was in!

I lined up their stuffed animals, added price tags to them, set up a cash and pulled out our box of plastic (Canadian!) money!

At first, I was the cashier so they could see how to play the part of customer and cashier.

I even made them do something (like dance for me) to earn money once they ran out of cash!

Once they saw how 'toy store' was played, they took over and shopped and sold for much of the morning!

In Corduroy, Lisa, the little girl, is able to return to the store and purchase the bear with money she had saved in her piggy bank.

This lead a disscussion about money - how we earn it and what we should do with it.

This resulted in a craft in which the girls began making 3 banks each - spend, save and share.

We haven't quite completed them yet since we spent a lot of time discussing the 3 banks.

Spend is for money that you can use anytime.

(Such as at yard sales or candy shop.)

Save is for keeping money in until you have enough to purchase something specific.

(They are going to pick something specific and take a picture of it to add to this bank as a goal to save for.)

Share is for giving in the offering at church and to others in need.

( I used our sponser child as an example for them.)

Next, they assembled chore charts.

They recieve ten cents for each chore they do each day.

Their chores don't include things they are expected to do any way like put their dirty clothes in the laundry or clear their dishes from the table.

No, these chores are fun and exciting!

Like vacuuming or washing dishes!

My girls are pumped to not only get to do these awesome jobs but to get paid for them, too!

I'm not much of a chart mom so this system may not last long but it was the only way that I could think of for them to consistently earn money.

I think it is really important that they learn money sense from a young age and this is a fun way to begin!

For the rest of the morning, Piper was running around the house doing stuff and after each chore she would run to me with her hand out and excitedly yell, "MONEY!"

I gently explained that she wouldn't get the money until the end of the day.

Instead, she moves the corresponding chore sticker to her chart to show that she completed it!

Piper continued on with her nature journal this week entering forget-me-nots and crab apple blossoms.

She is quite diligent with this and enjoys finding the right crayon to match the flower's color.

I am learning a lot, too, since I am completely clueless about flower names.

Seriously - I had to Google what those pretty blue wild flowers were!

They week ended with a trip to Daddy's work!

He had taken our praying mantis eggs there and called to say they had hatched during the night!

I am so grateful it happened at his work becuase they escaped their little cage!

Thankfully, he had them in an aquarium in his classroom so they didn't get far!

We visited him at school to check out the new little hatchlings and I was pleasantly surprised -

I actually like these insects!

Normally, I won't go near any insects (on purpose) but for some reason praying manti don't gross me out at all!

I even held one willingly!

They're {almost} cute!

They girls wouldn't touch them but really enjoyed watcing them!

Once our garden is planted next week, we plan on releasing them as an organic form of pesticide!

One of the things that we think is very important in our children's education is life skills. Its important that they learn to do everyday household chores and realize that as part of the family, they too are responsible to help it run smoothly.

At this point, I don't assign any chores to Piper but I do have expectations such as cleaning up her room before she goes to bed, clearing her place at the table when she is done eating and putting her dirty laundry in the laundry closet instead of her bedroom floor! Depending on the day, I do have a bit of a struggle getting her to do these things but for the most part she is happy to help (mostly because it makes her feel like a big girl!). But that is not the end of the tasks this little one is learning to do! She is truly my sidekick and pitches in with whatever I can find for her! She loves being just like Mama and works so hard to get things just so (although they often are not which is something you just have to learn to be ok with!).

But the best thing of all is the time I get to spend with my sweet daughter! My days are full in part because I have this little one, tagging along, keeping me company, desiring to learn and wanting to know 'why?' Why must she start wiping the window she is cleaning from the bottom and not the top? Why should she be very careful of where her fingers are when grating cheese? Why must she not push down too hard on the cracker when buttering it? Why must you tuck the blankets of the bed under the mattress? Why?

I won't lie. Initially, this was simply a means of keeping my girly out of trouble when I had some cleaning or cooking to do! It took a bit of work and creativity on my part but, in the end, I was able to dust the living room or make supper or fold laundry without too many mishaps or interruptions. Over time, I began to realize the value of including her in these things and now it is just becoming a way of life for us!

I'm sure a day will come when all these things are not quite so delightful to her! But in the mean time I'll continue to cherish these memories (and perhaps hang onto these pictures to remind her that once she did love to do the dishes!)

For some more great ideas of life skills appropriate for preschoolers, check out this article at Raising Homemakers.