Frogs in the Pond

The weather has been fantastically warm this week, driving us away from "schoolwork" and toward independent learning...

I asked Shane to read a book about a frog's life cycle to Daniel to prepare him for some fun preschool activities I had lined up.  This inspired Shane to take Daniel to the pond to look for frog eggs.  Shane brought a sample of pond life back to the house and started recording what he saw.  Daniel copied what Shane was doing...for a few seconds at least.  I love that!

Evie carried on the proud tradition of taking her baby sister out on the paddle board.  Ami used to do that for Evie when she was a little two year old!  Evie didn't go more than a foot deep since Lula didn't have a life jacket on.

I took my four little ones out to the Dollar Store on Tuesday night to pick up supplies for Ian's upcoming birthday, to train the little ones in proper store behavior, and to pick up a few treats for my preschool on the side...  I love the Dollar Store.  I got these little plastic frog/lizard toys, a dish with three divisions, and set Daniel up with some sorting this morning.  The labels said simply frog and not frog.  Daniel isn't really reading, but he is spelling simple words...

After he sorted the frogs out for me, I put them in a "pond" (also known as a sensory bin...or plastic box) with those really cool hydrating beads that are used in flower vases.  I also got the hydrating beads at the dollar store!  We added water and watched the beads get larger all day.  By this evening, the "pond" was ready to play with.

This is when the fun really started!  My preschool class quickly expanded to include everyone except Ian (who probably secretly wished he was little again) and Shane (who was reading and didn't know what we were doing, but he probably would have joined in if he were around).

These beads feel so COOL!  We searched for the plastic frogs and lizards (we called them newts), glass marbles, and a set of frog life cycle figures.

As soon as the play got crazy (beads bouncing around the porch, Lula sitting in the box), I packed the box away for another time...and we will watch the beads to see what they do next!