So...Snack Attack Wednesday

This weeks snack was specifically for a little guy with a sore throat - so some lollipop flavoured jelly, some cream cheese and a few salty penguin crackers.  To drink - organic wildberry tea & vitamin naartjie juice

So...Cloud Dough

Before we start just a quick snap of my Bear looking after his sleeping princess :)

Right, now back to business.  In the theme of sensory play I decided to try a recipe I found for Cloud Dough (also know as moon sand)

The ingredients are simple, all you need is 8 cups of flour and 1 cup of baby oil

Pour into a tub & mix well (you can even get your children involved int he mixing if they aren't like my Bear)

Then give them some paper cups, silicone muffin/cupcake moulds etc and watch the fun.

It has the loveliest texture, super soft but also holds it's shape so nicely.

Sadly Bear did not take to it that well, he would not put his hands in it...just touch with the fingertips briefly before washing off the hands in the pool and we had a few mild meltdowns before we even got that far.  He did however use a cup to scoop some up and try make a castle...so I have hope yet!
Evie however LOVED it and also enjoyed scattering it everywhere so the paving looked like a freak snow storm had passed our way :D

So...Snack Attack Picnic

So...what do we have for our snack this week?

It's a whole picnic!

We have wraps, strawberries, cheeses, yoghurt covered rice cakes, naartjies, dried fruit roll slices, carrot sticks and hummus.  Pudding is some jelly rings and to drink some rooibos juices.  For the littlest we have some organic rusks, blue berries and dried organic mango.

And cause I can here are some more photos from our picnic down at our local botanical gardens where we have been spending some time lately.

They have a new children's garden which my two are enjoying!

And the littlest is getting to grips with the grass

There is lots of wildlife, just this week we;ve found all manner of locusts and grasshoppers, frogs, birds, little fish and so on.

And I even found a secret hidden fairy garden

So...Beeswax on and off

I came across beeswax modelling clay the other day and was intrigued so managed to track some down locally for the children.  I've also been trying to do a bit more sensory stuff with Bear because he's quite sensitive when it comes to different textures etc.

Well it arrived and we excitedly got stuck in!  It's different from normal play dough/modelling clay but so good!  it really has a lovely feel when you are working with it!

We each chose our colours

Then we worked the beeswax to soften up and make it nice and pliable

Bear made a lion - which was stalking mine and Evie's creations

Evie made a tortoise

And I made the hungry catepillar

I can see hours of modelling ahead of us!

So...Science Experiments - Growing Beans!

We learnt about what plants need to grow - water, air & sun...and wanted to observe it for ourselves.  So we grew some beans.
So much excitement over something so simple - I loved watching the wonder on their faces every day when we checked on the seeds and they had grown and changed!

So...Please Slow Down!

I know that you just want to walk like the rest of us.
I know that hairy toes can't be the best looking things to be on eye level with.
I know that your brother and sister disappear from time to time and you just want to see where they are.
I know you'd love to play tag, and catches, and hiding go seek.
I know you want to be a Jedi knight and wield a light saber.
I know you want to eat all those interesting things during snack time.
I know you want to shout and scream and roar and sing.
I know the laptop seems interesting and the baby toys don't do anything.
I know falling over hurts but you keep getting on up.
I know you want to climb windows and shelves and tables and stairs.

But please just slow down and be my baby for a little bit longer...

So...Snack Attack Wednesday

This weeks snack, a pinwheel of orange slices, a digestive biscuit, a yoghurt covered rice cake and blueberries.
To drink - organic wildberry tea & naartjie vitamin juice

So...Science experiments - water & ice

The other day we were left without electricity due to an incident at the power plant involving stolen cables and fire.  There were rumours it would be days before it would be restored and it was widespread.  So with a freezer full of perishables I rushed out and stocked up on ice to try keep our freezer cold for as long as possible.
Luckily the outage wasn't long lived and we were up and running that evening again.
Now I had a freezer full of ice...add two small children and you have another science experiment!

 We filled up two tubs with water - one hot and one cold (I coloured our cold water just for fun)
Then I put our a big tub full of ice, some sieves and just let them play.
Some observations:
The ice in the hot water melted faster than in the cold water
Ice floats
Even BIG blocks of ice float, although only certain bits stick out the water - like an iceberg
Our hot water got cold
Eventually we had lots of water and no ice

 The setup

 Adding ice to the tubs

 A big floating iceberg

Examining a teeny block of melted ice

So...Science Experiments - Bubbly potion

There is an overwhelming favourite in our stash of new books, which has inspired a love of all things science and I'm being asked for science experiments daily at the moment.

The favourite book - suggesting an experiment we decided to do

 The ingredients - bicarb, vinegar, food colouring a jar and 2 small children

 Adding food colouring to our vinegar

 All mixed up and ready for our bicarb

 Eeek, the fizz!!!

 It's like a magic potion!

So...Another Snack Attack

Another quick snap of a snack
Honey weetbix bites, strawberries, dried peaches and pieces of peanut brittle.  With warm rooibos & naartjie vitamin juice

So...Unschool Mondays - Unschooling doesn't mean no books

Just cause we're unschooling doesn't mean we don't do any book learning.
One of my children's favourite things is reading and we read to them every single day, many times a day.
They love stories but they also like more factual & non fiction books too, so we get all sorts of different subjects.
The other day we got a bunch of new booksn and I had my camera to had for the box opening...they are always so excited!

Cutting it open

 What's inside

 Books...

...and books

 ...and more books

 The stash - they couldn't wait to get started reading it was hard to get them to sit still for this one quick pic and we've been immersed in the books ever since.

And the littlest?  Well he's just enjoying the warmer weather and his ability to explore his environment on his own now!

I'm joining in with Owlet's Unschool Mondays