Savor The Days

Learning About The Post Office

We love playing outside with chalk in the driveway, especially on a beautiful fall day like this.

While we were out there, Rachel saw the mail truck approaching our house and she watched it as it stopped at each house.

We have a wonderful mail man who waves at us all the time. The kids love it!

Nicholas has always enjoyed checking the mail box.

When he brought the mail to me, Rachel started asking questions about the mail man and why he brought those envelopes and catalogs to us. So I spent some time talking with her about it. Shortly afterward, I stumbled upon the perfect book at a used book sale. It is by one of my favorite children's authors, Gail Gibbons, and it's called "The Post Office Book: Mail and How It Moves".

We read the book and then we set up a little post office in our front yard so the kids could pretend to be mailmen!

Each of them brought out a couple of stuffed animals and chairs and we set them up in their "home" complete with mail boxes.

Can't forget "Big Dog". I love this dog. Nicholas' Aunt Marinee and Uncle John sent him to Nicholas before he was ever born. I'm so glad that Nicholas treasures him as much as I do.

I grabbed some empty cereal boxes and other boxes that were about to head out to our recycle bin and wrapped them in shipping paper complete with "to" and "from" addresses filled in. I let the kids have a blast delivering mail, then pretending that they were picking up outgoing mail so they could bring it all back to the post office to re-sort.

Rachel loved it! We helped her read the names on the packages and she was off!

Nicholas has actually done this post office game in a playgroup when he was about Rachel's age. He loved it then but still had fun with it now.

Rachel discovered a rose bud and decided to go visit the whale family as she studied the bud and took it apart.

Love her curiosity about the world around her.

Nicholas was excited to sit with her and watch what she was doing and even talked to her some about buds and flowers. He is a good teacher!

As we were collecting the packages up for the last time, Rachel sneaked over to the front door and hunkered over as she unwrapped one of the packages. I guess she was thinking this whole time that they were real packages and there might be something in there for her. Poor thing. You know she was disappointed to find it was just a box of Rice-A-Roni...and empty at that!

Nicholas put one of the packages in the mailbox just so we could let her get it from the mailbox.

With Nicholas, I talked about every new experience to make sure that he understood what he saw and experienced each day. I want to do the same for Rachel so I was surprised that she didn't understand the mail service yet. Unfortunately I find that I miss these opportunities for teachable moments with her during the day. I think this is mostly because I'm so much busier and more distracted than when Nicholas was this age or else we're running late for something (probably some activity of Nicholas) and don't have time to just sit and talk about things. I'm so glad I was able to catch Rachel's moment of interest in the mail man and take that to another level to help her to learn more about the postal service.

Konos Stewardship: Macaroni Art

Konos Unit: Stewardship
Theme: Being a Good Steward of Our Body - NERF (Nutrition, Exercise, Rest, and Fun)

Since we've been studying how grains are an important food group, we decided to incorporate some grains into art work.

I gave Nicholas and Rachel each their own tray of various pastas.

Then armed with some colored paper and glue, they went to work on their masterpieces.

Nicholas was very precise and planned out his work before gluing anything down.

Rachel said that this is Dora and Boots in a car. Ummm, yeah. I see it!

I love the quiet concentration anytime we have art supplies out.

Here's Rachel's final piece. I imagine it will take a week or two for all of that glue to finally dry.

And Nicholas' masterpiece.

There is a robot at the top that runs on wheels. Those are antennae on his head, not horns! A dinosaur, a bike, and a race car on a track.

I love their creativity with such unusual art mediums!

Konos Stewardship: Grains

Konos Unit: Stewardship
Theme: Being a Good Steward of Our Body - NERF (Nutrition, Exercise, Rest, and Fun)

As part of our study on the grain food group, we made homemade bread. We used an awesome recipe for Anadama Bread from Family Fun magazine. I'm so thankful for my friend for telling me about it.

Ingredients

1 cup cold water
1/3 cup fine yellow cornmeal
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons butter, cut into several pieces
1/4 cup unsulfured molasses
1 package (2-1/2 teaspoons) active dry yeast
1/2 cup lukewarm water
3 cups (or more, plus extra for dusting) unbleached bread flour (see tip below)

Rachel helped with measuring the ingredients. It's hard to see in this picture but it was cute to watch her scoop the ingredients because she was so focused on what she was doing that she didn't realize that she opened her mouth wide each time she scooped.

It was a little messy but she is such a good helper!

Nicholas was chomping at the bit to help too so I let him measure the salt since it required a little more control.

Again, Rachel was very focused watching big brother do his task.

When Nicholas raised his arm up to pour the salt, Rachel subconsciously raised her arm up too! Isn't that funny?!

We mixed up our cornmeal, salt, and water to make a mush.

We simmered the mush in the stove for just a little bit until the cornmeal thickened slightly. We put it back in the mixing bowl.

Nicholas measured the molasses...

...and Rachel poured it. I love how my kids have so much fun in the kitchen with me but I do have to be sure to divide up the tasks equally or lips may pout.

We added the molasses and butter to the bowl of cornmeal mush and stirred. Then we let it cool off for about 10 minutes.

Next, we talked about the wonders of yeast. I explained that the yeast is active and alive but it is packaged in a dormant "sleeping" state.

Nicholas sprinkled the yeast over a 1/2 cup of warm water to help it wake up. We watched it for about 10 minutes as the yeast started getting foamy. I jokingly said that I could hear them all waking up and yawning and Nicholas put his head down to listen! Hee hee!

Then Rachel stirred the yeast into our cornmeal mush.

We used the mixer to slowly beat the flour into the cornmeal. Once the dough was forming a ball, Nicholas pulled it out of the mixer and put it on a floured surface where he and Rachel kneaded it for 10 minutes. It's good to have helpers!

We let the dough proof for about an hour and half while we went to play at the park. Here was our results when we returned home.

Nicholas loved the next step where he got to punch down the dough!

Then my little team kneaded the dough on the floured surface again for about a minute.

We used a rolling pin to shape the dough in a 12x9 rectangle then we rolled it up along the shorter end and put in the buttered 9x5 loaf pan. Nicholas covered it with plastic wrap and we let it proof again to double its size for about an hour while we worked on an art project.

Heat oven to 400 degrees with the oven rack one level below the center,remove the plastic wrap from the pan and place the bread in the oven. Turn the heat down to 375 degrees. Bake the bread until it starts to brown, about 30 minutes, then rotate the pan 180 degrees and bake for an additional 15 minutes. Remove the bread from the pan and let it cool thoroughly on a rack before slicing and serving.

The waiting to cool is definitely the hardest part of this recipe.

Yum!

Kid Puzzles Review

I'm so excited to have discovered these awesome handpainted wooden puzzles by Kid Puzzles. They are so beautiful and the quality is exceptional.

My little girl Rachel just turned 3 years old and she absolutely loves puzzles. She gets so excited when she fits a piece in its proper place.

We got rid of the big chunky wooden puzzles with knobs that she used last year because they were just too simple for her. All of the wooden puzzles I've seen lately are just too simple for her so I thought jigsaw puzzles were the only puzzle that would give her a challenge. I'm so glad I was wrong. Kid Puzzles offer just the perfect challenge for kids but still in that beautiful wooden puzzle style that I love so much.

These pictures are from the first time Rachel worked on this puzzle. She spent some time on it but was able to complete it with help on just one piece. As soon as she finished it, she dumpled the puzzle out on the table and started working on it again. I love how intensely she worked on it.

This puzzle has multiple pieces in one open frame. There are no pictures at the bottom to tell her where to put the pieces. She just has to start working from the edges and figure the rest out on her own.

Rachel is definitely challenged by the puzzle which is just what I was looking for. Puzzles are not only build cognitive, reasoning, and problem-solving skills which are so important for young developing brains but they also help to improve fine-motor skills and hand-eye coordination. I love being able to offer a variety in the types of puzzles for my daughter to play with.

And of course, puzzles are just fun and a big confidence booster when the child finally solves it.

Check out the beautiful puzzles for yourself at www.kidpuzzles.com.

They make puzzles with knobs for younger children.

There are also some cute personalized step stools

My favorite is their new 3-D multi-later puzzles. Check this out!

Kid Puzzles are made with quality you don't find much these days and then handpainted in brilliant colors. Puzzles can be personalized with your child's name and will make excellent Christmas presents.

I was given the butterfly puzzle by Kid Puzzles so that Rachel could review it. I did not receive any other compensation. This review is completely genuine and the comments and opinions here are all my own.

Old Orchard Park in Lewisville

Sorry but I don't know the actual name for this park but it is on Old Orchard in Lewisville between Corporate and Main St.

We stop here often because it is on our way home from picking up Rachel from preschool at noon. We usually have a little picnic and play time before heading home to try to get her to nap.

There is some open areas that are great for kicking around a ball or just running free. I love how they are holding hands while running together!