Thomas

Monday 10 April 2017

Waiting for Spring

Spring is almost here!

Jumping in puddles, insects, fresh spring buds on trees and flowers. The anticipation after a long winter is almost unbearable, but here are a few spring activities to get us into the mood for a change of season.

1. Puddle jumping

Every spring when the snow begins to melt, one of the first things we do is find puddles. We really enjoy cracking the layer of ice that formed on the top of puddles when it's still just cold enough to freeze the top layer.
It's so neat to see the water moving under the ice.

2. Looking for new Buds

When the weather turns warmer, we always check out the branches of trees and bushes we pass by. Once the new Buds start appearing, we know the world will soon be changing from white and grey to green, Brown and every other beautiful colour of the rainbow.

3. Hunting for Insects

I'm not  too into this one. I still find insects creepy (yes even the pretty ones). However, we always seem to start gathering different types as they emerge from a winter sleep (or hatch, change etc).

This year we are planning an ant farm, to see how they act together.

4. Starting a Vegetable Garden

Every year around this time, we begin our indoor planting. We start the tomato and cucumbers inside early. This year we are adding pumpkins and zucchini, so there will be other indoor starters this year.

5. Spring Scavenger Hunt

Scavenger hunts are always fun, but as spring arrives, there are many new and interesting things to find, letting us know spring is finally here.

We love celebrating the beginning of every new season with some seasonal activities to get us in the mood for the upcoming season.

What kinda of activities do you do to bring in spring?

Let us know and we will try them out.

Peace, joy and love until next time.

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Saturday 25 February 2017

Science Play~Dancing Popcorn

I'm always looking for simple, fast and fun science experiments we can work on.

Here's one we have done recently and had tons of fun with.

For dancing popcorn, you need:
un popped popcorn kernels,
baking soda,
water,
White vinegar
A clear container such as a drinking glass or an old bar from the recycling bin.

What we did:

We added water to the clear container, added some baking soda and stirred it until the baking soda was disolved.

We then placed about 20 popcorn kernels into 2 glasses. Then we added some vinegar.
 At first nothing happened, so we talked about waiting to see, or adding more vinegar. We decided to add more vinegar to one and more baking soda to the other and waited.

Within a couple of minutes the kernels were moving from the top of the glass to the bottom, going up and down.

The popcorn "danced" for several hours, and although we left the project after awhile, we went back to see how much they were still moving every few minutes.

Have you ever tried this, or an experiment similar to this? I've read about doing this same idea using bits of uncooked spaghetti noodles.

Peace, joy and love until next time!

Wednesday 1 February 2017

Snow Fort

Winter's here!

Although our snow didn't fall until December this year, when it started it didn't stop. And what else to do with all that snow? Build things with it of course.


My idea started before snow hit, and I attempted to build a small hill to slide down in the backyard. With some wood as the start of my sides, I started piling up the snow. I dug out paths and built up the walls, with some help of course from my little helpers. Most of the time they were more interested in trying to climb while I threw the snow up, but we all had fun.

As I made the hill higher, a second idea hit me. Why Not build a fort the slide could go into?


I started more walls, and with that a second hill, this time to dig out a shelter similar to a quinzee (winter snow shelter).

By the end, we had a snow shelter, a tunnel, a hill to slide down and another snow "room" with just walls.

Unfortunately, it's beauty didn't last because we had a warm spell (+3 Celsius in mid January?!) but the fort still stands.

What keeps you busy during cold, snowy months?

Peace and love until next time.

Friday 27 January 2017

Our Winter Fun

Winter this year has been great so far.

Lots of snow, even some sticky snow days (an unusual treat for us here), and warm weather (not as many days below 25 degrees).

From snow people to forts check out what we've been up to so far this season.

Here's a few sneak peeks before I get my posts all published. Its been too busy the last little while, hope to spend more time here soon.

Enjoy!

bottom of the hill

Santa Claus parade

after a blizzard

sticky snow
Stay tuned for what we've done and more!

Peace and love.