New House Blocks

I was shopping on line looking for animal toys when I saw little wooden houses that I thought, 

"Hm, Raymond could make these and I could paint them".

 I also painted peg dolls to match the colour of the houses.

 Day 1 - I set the farm mat on the floor with the box holding the houses and dolls.

 They took their time pulling them out and exploring them.

 Once they set them down I placed them around the mat.

 Day 2 - I set the box in the middle of the floor.

I think the most fun, for them, is emptying the box.

 Once the box was empty I placed them in a circle with each peg doll in front.  By this time two of the peg dolls had gone missing.  Their mom eventually found them, a few days later, in their clothes hamper.

 They discovered that they can be knocked over with a bang.  Which the one standing loves because she is a thrower.

 I helped them stack the blocks but they discovered putting the dolls on top themselves.

 At clean up time I placed them all in a row under the tv stand so they were available to play with any time.

 That afternoon they explored a box of small blocks that were given to their mom.

They go well with our house blocks and peg dolls.

Boat Building

Last week for Earth Day we did our annual boat building

at Brooklyn Creek.

We are so grateful to Grandpa Ben who made all these boats for us.

He even drilled a small hole and included doweling for a mast.

Awesome!

Other materials we used was sandpaper, tape, hammer, nails, screws, screwdrivers,

 markers, fabric for a sail and yarn.

The families got busy gathering their materials to build.

Some started with sanding their boat,

others decorated their sail,

and others started with hammering.

Once they had it decorated and the sail attached they had to do one more thing before launching.

They needed to tie a string to their boat and the other end to a stick.

Time to launch.

And launch again and again.

A few boats had issues staying upright so some modifications had to be made.

"Oh, oh my boat is sailing away!"

Grandma to the rescue.

After playing in the creek for over an hour we walked to the beach

for snack and story.

I read "One-Dog Canoe" by Mary Casanova.

It's a cumulative tale that includes lots of animals.

We then attempted to sail our boats at the beach but it was quite windy

and the waves kept pushing our boats back in.

This picture sums up our Earth Day.

We love the earth and love spending time outside.

A Ladder for Our Fire Truck

After our tour of the fire station and learning about the different equipment

needed we began to build.

We started with the ladder.

 I was given a railway track that was a wall decor in a child's room.

It is really long, so today we measured our fire truck and cut the track down to size.

The children took turns using the saw 

sometimes needing help from their grown up.

Once it was the right size we used zap straps to attach it to the truck.

It is meant for a decoration not to be used.

Building Our Airport

The beginning of our airport started
with a bench and a clipboard.

There was one other piece of equipment that I was excited to share.

A four foot length of roller conveyor.

The children were fascinated with it too.

They spent the first morning sending the suitcases across it.

 We used this opportunity to talk about packing for a trip.  

Where are we going?  What would we need?  What would we like to take?

Using the suitcase worked their problem solving skills and
fine motor skills, trying to close the latches.

 But the excitement grew as the children discovered that the cases travel across the rollers very fast.

We ended up with a box on the floor at the end to catch the cases.

  Day two, after our first tour of the airport we set up the luggage x-ray machine.

I found photos on line of suitcase being xrayed and attached it to 

the side of our machine.

At the end of the morning after the children left, I added a few more pieces of equipment.

A computer, tickets, baggage tags and
a scale was include to weigh the suitcases.

It's ready for the children to use tomorrow.

Although I'm concerned how well the x-ray machine (box) will hold up.