fire drill!

i can't believe i didn't get photos! since we've been in the midst of all these fires, we've had an impromtu fire unit study. yesterday the best part was my kids climbing out of the boys' bedroom window and holding hands running to our "meeting place".
j opened the window (i'd already removed the screen), he pretended to PUNCH out the screen (very exciting), then he jumped out (carefully, but very excited as it was his first time jumping out a window!) k then helped kj up the bunk bed ladder and turned her around on her tummy with her feet dangling out the window. k lowered her to j - they were such caring brothers! then k made his move and j helped him down so they could all run together to the special safe spot.
this is something i'd wanted to do for a while, but i didn't want to bring up the idea of our house burning from out of nowhere. so now seemed like a great time as the kids are all asking about "the fires".
sunday we were on our way to the cousins' house in bakersfield and we saw the castaic fire coming closer to the 5 fwy we were driving on. we were not sure if we'd even be able to come back that way if the fire were to come much closer. the kids saw tons of smoke and some huge flames. on the way home it was dark. the smoke was not visible, but we could really smell it and there were several huge glows of orange in the darkness on either side of the freeway.
consequently, they've shown more interest than if it was just something on the tv.
each morning and evening we've checked out what the current stats are together. then we've had opportunity to talk about a wide variety of fire-related subjects. they've really learned a lot of science, math, and social science. we pray for the firefighters (our neighbor is one) and the evacuees. we've talked about preparedness and what steps we take to avoid such danger in our home and community.
j seems to be really understanding so much and it is really fun to watch him grow in his understanding. i am amazed at how he really gets it!
at the same time, i know that they don't really comprehend all of the circumstances affecting our region right now - i don't even. i feel stressed by whole thing and i am not in anyway directly affected by it. i keep wondering, "what can i do?" but even if we don't have a tangible gift, we will keep praying.

fun with science

we've had a fun week of fun with science! now i am very limited in fun science activities. i loved science in high school - took an extra year as an elective - but i didn't know how to teach little people. so i used my "go-to-for-everything" website, google, to find activities! the last couple weeks we did experiments with CO2. for this week, i picked up 30 items around the house (see photo)

then on monday we played "is it magnetic?"

on wednesday we talked about what a hypothesis is and actually guessed what would happen with each object before playing "will it float?" and today, we played "make a mold", making impressions with the same objects in playdoh (i don't know if that's scientific, but it was a fun conclusion to using our basket of 30 little things.)

just when you thought...

it would never happen... si rolls! 4 times in a row. i put him on his tummy & he'd flip to his back then cry like he was stuck. so i'd roll him over and he'd do it again!
wow! you'd think he was my first. i'm so proud. :)

forget rolling... i'm doing pushups!

here's the latest from si. since he has yet to be featured... if you can't tell, he's on only his hands and toes - better than mommy can do! other than this, there is no movement yet!

beans, beans, a musical fruit...

we're doing a bean unit! counting with beans, gluing beans, a bean table (much like a sand table but... with beans), and, of course, bean burritos!

i am trying to do some craft or art project regularly. (i was thinking "daily", but i think i forgot yesterday already! so "regularly" it is.) today's project consisted of picking any color paper you like, then mommy drawing lines to divide it and numbering the boxes 0-10. then the kids job was to glue the corresponding # of beans in each box. kj & i did her glue dots together, but the boys did the whole thing by themselves. both used way to much glue, but with nothing else on the agenda i thought they could just learn about how much glue was too much by trial and error. 14 hours later, k's is still wet! on the brighter side, i figure this is 165 beans less to pick up off the floor after we have time at the bean table! (shown below)

this is a favorite with all our kids and today went better than any past experience. i don't think there were ever more than 100 beans (or so) on the floor at once! (in the past, we've had ALL the beans on the carpet! - not so fun) hooray for bean day!