The Smith Family Adventures

Ii week was a lot of fun here in the Smith household. I decided to do both long and short Ii words. However, Elias insists that “I says ih” (short i). Oh well. He’s only two and we had fun anyway….and he’s got it partly right!

Saturday: I is for Ink

We got Elias a transportation stamp set for Christmas 2012. It got a bit lost in the shuffle since he opened a bunch of presents from a bunch of different people in a couple short days. We decided to put the stamp set away in our closet for another special time because we didn’t think he even noticed it. Voila! Christmas in June! We used just red and blue ink at first, but then expanded to other colors.

Sunday: I is for Isaac

Nathan read to Elias about Isaac from his children’s Bible. Israel is a bit abstract for his age and Isaiah was also a bit out of his reach. So…Isaac it was.

Monday: I is for Igloo

I had a great craft planned. We were going to make a marshmallow igloo. However, when we got started on it, we discovered that the marshmallows I had purchased were all melted, gooey, and stuck together in large clumps. We plugged away trying to separate marshmallows and glue them into an igloo for about ten minutes. The marshmallows just stuck to our fingers. I was very frustrated and so was Elias. So we quit. No igloo for us. Next time I’m going with sugar cubes.

Tuesday: I is for Ice

On Tuesday we made magic ice. We mixed baking soda and water. Then I let Elias dye it with food coloring, and add sprinkles (or as he calls them “decorations”). We put it all in the freezer for a few hours. In the evening, he took out his ice cubes and poured vinegar on them. They were fizzing fun. It would have been nice to do this outside in hot weather….but no such luck. It was still fun! (I’ve also heard you can freeze just vinegar and add the baking soda after it’s frozen. Maybe we’ll try that another day to compare)

Wednesday: I is for insect

Today we made insect fossils. I got some plastic insects for Elias, and got out the play-doh. We pressed the insects into the play-doh to leave an imprint. Elias really liked the activity. We had to get out all of the colors of play-doh, and we have done it every day since!

Thursday: I is for Ice cream

Our song for the week was “Do you know the ice cream man” (to the tune of “do you know the muffin man”). So…we just had to go out for ice cream as a treat. We got a coupon in the mail for Cold Stone so we decided to go there. Of course, Elias wanted nothing to do with the ice cream himself. But he was interested in what flavors we chose.

Friday: I is for Ibex

We made an ibex toilet paper roll craft that I found on DLTK. I was planning on checking out a book from the library so that we could learn about the ibex, but I never got around to it. Elias enjoyed making the ibex, and was excited to show it to Daddy when he got home from work.

It was H week in the Smith household. Elias enjoyed talking about H. I think he just likes making the “h” sound because every time we talked about it, he made the sound right away! Here is what we did:

Saturday: H is for House

I was painting a wooden box for a project at church, so I let Elias pick out a wooden bird house to paint as well. I also let him choose his colors. He picked purple, brown, red, and light blue. I am not sure yet whether we will keep the birdhouse to be displayed inside, or if we will put it outside on our balcony. We have a lot of bird traffic at our feeder right now so it might be fun to put out. Here is my little artist:

Testing out the new medium. I don’t think he’s every painted wood before.

Getting all the sides.

Gotta get the face too!

Sunday: H is for Hawaii

There were so many ideas I had for Hawaii, but we’ve been a bit heavy on the arts and crafts with this alphabet project so I decided to do something different. I cranked up the volume on some Hawaiian music, and we had a listen/dance party. I used the Makaha Sons, but there are lots of good choices out there. I also showed Elias where Hawaii is on the map compared to us. He was not very interested in the map, but hopefully some day he will be.

Monday: H is for Honduras

One of the little boys we sponsor (Esdras) is from Honduras. He was born on the exact same day as Elias. Elias and I talked about Esdras and prayed for him. Then I showed him Honduras on the map (again, Elias was not super interested in that). Then I asked Elias what he wanted to make to send to Esdras. He chose a watercolor painting. Here he is making his artwork to send to Honduras.

Tuesday: H is for Hands

We talked a lot about hands today. We listed things that we use our hands for. We made lots of sign language letters (Elias really likes M, N, and T because his thumb “plays peek-a-boo). We counted our fingers. Then we traced our hands and cut them out to be decorated. Look at his cute little hands:

Wednesday: H is for Helicopter

We went to the library to sign up for the summer reading program, and to find a book about rescue helicopters. Uncle Greg just got hired on as a life flight pilot in Ohio, so I thought it would be fun for Elias to find out more about what he will be doing. We found a book at the library pretty quickly. We checked out Working Hard with the Rescue Helicopter by Cynthia Benjamin. I was also planning on playing with Harold the Helicopter but we never got around to it.

Thursday: H is for Highlights

I was actually planning on doing H is for hammer today. I was going to get some golf tees and styrofoam and let Elias hammer away. However, stellar mom that I am, I never got to the store to purchase them/never found anyone to borrow said items from. So…I had to improvise. As I sat next to Elias at lunch trying to think of an “H” activity, I spotted his Highlights magazine. So…H is for Highlights. We read some short stories and poems out of it, and did a couple puzzles together.

Friday: H is for Heaven

I was going to read the resurrection story to Elias and talk a bit about Heaven today for our Bible lesson. However, when I mentioned Heaven, Elias said he wanted to sing “Our Father in Heaven.” After we finished singing that, I decided to read him the story of Jesus teaching the Lord’s prayer. I still talked to him a bit about Heaven, but that concept is a bit out of his reach at two years old.