The Weekly Review: Week 66

This week's weekly review format will be slightly different. I'm going to highlight several memorable events searching for my favorite one.

1. Taking my daughter to school I discovered that all the other children were dressed in swim clothes while she was not. The school had announced the splash day on Wednesday. We aren't there on Wednesdays. It all worked out though. I just told them to let her play in her clothes and then change her into her spare clothes afterward. -- Not my favorite event of the week.
2. Michael, now being four years old, is eligible to go on field trips at school this summer. This week was his very first field trip - to the zoo. He was so excited about riding the bus with his friends and wearing the special shirts and going to the zoo with his teachers. It was such a shame that he also got his very first bee sting on the trip. -- Also not my favorite event of the week.
3. There was the delightful morning that started off with laundering one puke-soaked and one urine-soaked set of sheets. -- Do you really need to ask if that one was my favorite?
4. Leaving for school one morning our little escape-artist feline managed to sneak into the garage. I went ahead and buckled the children into their car seats hoping she'd choose to wander voluntarily back into the house. Nope. Then, as I oh-so-casually approached her she darted right under the minivan well out of reach. I spent the next 10 minutes waving a broom under first the front of the minivan, and then the back of the minivan, and then the front, and then the back while listening to the children giggle hysterically in the car. Did I mention the garage was really, really hot? -- Not really a great candidate for my favorite event, however I can see how the children thought it was funny in retrospect.
5. And then there was the lovely dinner with my friend of nearly 18 years and husband of eight years on our wedding anniversary. I am so fortunate. -- Definitely the highlight of the week.

And the Giveaway Winner is...

Commenter #3, Jen P. who is going to use the Artic Practice app at home with her daughter. Congratulations to Jen and thank you to everyone who participated. Next week I'll be doing another review of two great Learning Fundamentals Speech Apps and hosting another giveaway.

(Jen, please contact me via email so I can arrange getting you a code to redeem your free app. You can find my email address here.)

Another Twist on Baking Soda and Vinegar

We've used baking soda and colored vinegar on the light box using squeeze bottles.



We've used baking soda and vinegar to make our volcano model erupt with a bit of unintended realism.



This time I wanted them to work their fine motor skills more. Using eyedroppers is excellent for strengthening and reinforcing the pincer grasp which is a great pre-writing activity. It also has the side benefit of making your vinegar and baking soda last a lot longer. I sprinkled a shallow layer of baking soda in a glass baking pan and gave them small containers of vinegar and and eyedropper each.

I gave Ava red and blue vinegar so she could mix purple. I gave Michael red and yellow vinegar so he could mix orange. They had a lot of fun with the activity and I had to rinse and refill the baking pans three times for each child.



Then I ran out of baking soda. They poured the rest of the vinegar into the pans to watch the colors blend and use up the last of the fizz. Then we noticed some undissolved baking soda at the bottom of the pans. The children began to draw in the baking soda. Michael wrote his name. Ava helped me spell hers. Then after some shaking and swirling, the names disappeared and they could begin again. Michael drew a snowflake and Ava drew a smiley face with arms and legs. They continued to draw and shake away several more creations before wandering away.





It was an accidental discovery, but drawing in the leftover baking soda and vinegar was a perfect additional activity for my pre-writing goals. Next time, I would have them use the eyedroppers rather than spoons for the drawing activity. This would also be a great way to have children practice writing their letters.

You should also be able to recreate this activity by stirring salt or sugar into colored water. You just have to be sure to keep adding sugar or salt until no more can dissolve and you have a layer left in the bottom of the pan. It would be even more fun on a light box (see how we made some out of storage bins).