Yesterday should have been day one for this week's theme but we had a lot of things to do! First of all, Lilly and I got to be on our local news's midday program to demonstrate fun crafts for the 4th of July! You can see it here. It was a lot of fun but did cut into our time for Mommy Camp. Once we got home we had lunch and then decided to try the waterpark with our friends again since we got rained out last week. 

The only thing we did, in regard to Mommy Camp, was play with the new restaurant themed dramatic play area. This week the theme is America because I felt it tied in with the fact that this weekend is the 4th of July. Each day has a different focus like the president, symbols and more but each day also focuses on a different form of currency. So, the dramatic play area is a restaurant which allows us to practice using money. I also got some great new pretend food items to complete her kitchen and give her the ability to take orders from the fun free menu printable I found.

Today we did a little America themed addition and subtraction after visiting the library for some books to fit our theme this week. After our worksheets we talked about the different coins and their value as well as how to spell them and how each coin relates to the others in terms of value. It was a little overwhelming for Lilly but the goal was to introduce her to the idea and then we will focus on each coin individually from now on until the end of the week. I got a great set of pretend money online that is only slightly smaller than actual currency but looks nearly identical. We will be using it all week to learn about money value.

Then we did a worksheet focusing only on the penny and it's value and read a mini book about the penny.

Then we took a break to learn how money and coins are made by watching a few videos. After that we conducted an experiment with pennies. 

Dirty Pennies Experiment
Materials:
- dirty/tarnished pennies
- water
- soap
- 3 dishes/bowls
- vinegar
- salt

Directions:
1. Fill one bowl with water.
2. Fill one bowl with soapy water.
3. Fill one bowl with about 1/2 cup of vinegar and 2 tsp. of salt and mix.
4. Discuss the different solutions and form a  hypothesis as to what you think will happen to the pennies in each solution.
5. Place the pennies in the bowls and leave for 5 min. or more.
6. While leaving the original pennies alone, take a different penny and dip it halfway into the vinegar solution for about a minute. Then look at the penny together. (You should be able to see a difference in regards to the cleanliness of the dipped side.

How does it work?
Pennies get dull and dirty because the copper in the pennies reacts with oxygen in the air to form copper oxide. When you put your pennies in a vinegar and salt mix, the vinegar and salt react together and remove the copper oxide.

There is an extension activity that goes along with the statue of liberty that you could continue following this activity or save for later. I'm going to save it for later in the week when we focus on the statue of liberty and other American symbols. For the extension activity you leave the pennies that were in the vinegar solution out of the solution without washing them for about an hour. They will turn green like lady liberty.

Why?
If you don't wash the salt and vinegar mix off, a blue-green layer forms on the pennies. The salt and vinegar mix speeds up the reaction between copper and oxygen in the air, forming copper oxide - which is a blue-green colour. It's the same reaction that makes the Statue of Liberty green!

On a completely separate note, I've discovered that my picky eater, Lillian, will eat just about anything if it is a "Mommy Special". She loved the snacks/meals I've made that are themed for each week and now she requests them. Tonight I was not prepared for a special and had to do some quick thinking. I found these spiral hot dogs on a stick/"fireworks" and thought that I could probably manage that. However, Arthur had other plans and I had to work more quickly than expected. Plus, I couldn't find my star cookie cutter. So I just gave the items of the meal a fun name. They enjoyed: twisty dogs, All-American Mac n' Cheese, "Money" Honeydew and Freedom Carrots. Lilly had two twisty dogs and ate everything but the macaroni = success. The best thing about the "Mommy Special" is I can make ANYTHING I want and she doesn't complain! It's genius! Muah-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!

We wrapped up our space week with a focus on the sun. The day didn't go quite as planned but we managed to finish up the remaining lesson plans over the weekend. We started with a little math and writing practice with some free worksheets.

After our math and writing we had a yummy grilled cheese sandwich, sun style and prepared to go to the waterpark with friends. Unfortunately, we were completely rained out. (We did look at the radar but it looked like it would miss us. We were very wrong.) The kids got to have fun in the rain because we were only there about 3 minutes before a torrential downpour befell us. Then all of the kids were crying for the 20 minute return trip. But, we stopped for frozen yogurt and finished up with pizza so everyone was happy in the end.

So, that was about all we accomplished on Friday. That meant that we had to wrap up the sun lessons over the weekend. We talked about why we need sunscreen and conducted an experiment using dark construction paper and sunscreen. We also made a sun print with dark paper and various items. Then we worked on a sun math mini book and painted a sun in a bag. The sun in a bag was an epic fail because the paper did not hold up when I tried to remove it from the bag. I think if I had used a heavier paper like poster board it would have been great. We wrapped it all up with a look at the moon and stars through a telescope and fun with a cool app that allows you to see the stars and their constellations. Our next theme has already begun so check out all of the fun stuff we're doing related to America in my next posts!

Today we focused on the moon. The morning started off with some fun dramatic play because last night, after Lilly went to bed, I taped a giant moon to the wall and made "moon rocks" to hide all over the house. When she woke up I told her that her space ship had landed on the moon and she needed to collect moon rock samples. So, she eagerly donned her space helmet and jet pack, grabbed her collection bag and went exploring. Moon rocks were easy to make and the giant moon was a free printable!
DIY Moon Rocks
Materials:
- aluminum foil
- easter eggs
- candy/toys for inside the "rocks"

Directions:
1. Put the treat in the egg.
2. Cover the egg with aluminum foil.
3. Hide them!

After the dramatic play fun we did a little math, reading and writing using some great free worksheets and a free beginning reader. 

Then we watched two great videos. One from story bots about the moon and its phases and another from Bill Nye about the moon. did a moon activity using oreos and a free worksheet. We watched the video and then talked about what it meant. Then we discussed the different phases of the moon and why it changed. Then she got to eat the cookies! To make the moon phases all you need are oreos and a knife. Take the top off of the oreo and scrape off icing to create the moon that you need for each phase. Each time she chose one to eat I made sure she knew what it was called.

While she ate her cookies we watched another video about how the moon got its craters and then did a quick demonstration activity using kinetic sand and a ball. You could perform the same activity using  flour and any round, hard object. I chose the kinetic sand because it was already in a container so the mess would be non-existent.

Then we talked about what the moon does in regards to the earth including how the tides work and watched a video about the tides. Then we wrote down all that we learned about the moon on our giant moon printout. 

We ended the day with an astronaut on the moon sandwich. It looks a little less than great because I couldn't find my gingerbread man cookie cutter and had to free hand it with a knife but it works. 

See you tomorrow when we end space week with a focus on the sun!

We had another great day at Mommy Camp! Today we focused on space exploration and astronauts! To start off the day we did a little space suit math while, got out the do-a-dot markers for some controlled painting fun and made Arthur an alien!

Babies, and most kids, love stickers. Grab some dot pricing stickers, hand the kid a sheet and let them entertain themselves! Arthur really enjoyed it when we "made him an alien" and placed stickers all over him. He thought it was great fun to peel them off.

After all of that fun we decided it was time to make a rocket. This was the epic fail for today. I found what appeared to be a great tutorial about making a rocket. We did everything it said and ended up with a mentos tube that sat there in all it's sticker decorated glory and aluminum covered toilet paper roll cone topper. It just sat there. The supposed reaction that should have caused it to fly into the air didn't work. Maybe my tums were too old or the entire experiment was faulty from the get go. So, that was a dud. Luckily it didn't take long to make and we had other fun things to do! Take a look at the rocket in all it's sad, sad glory. And, if you want to give it a go you can see the tutorial I used here. I hope you have better luck than me. I'm not even posting a picture. That's how sad it was. But, astronaut pudding made it all better!

Before we made the pudding we watched a few videos about astronauts eating in space. Lilly thought they were pretty awesome. We watched an astronaut make a space burrito and eating on the space station. We talked about why eating things is hard and discussed the idea of gravity. Then we made the pudding!

Astronaut Pudding
Materials:
- powdered milk
- instant pudding mix (we used banana cream)
- water
- ziplock bag

Directions:
1. Put 1tbsp. and 2 tsp. of instant pudding mix and powdered milk into a ziplock bag.
2. Add 1/2 cup of water to the bag.
3. Seal the bag and mix. (Ours was looking a bit watery so I added a little more pudding mix until the consistency seemed right.)
4. Cut a corner off of the bag and eat!

After making pudding we read a really awesome little beginning reader. Lily was able to read it all by herself and it had little coloring breaks on each page. You can find it here for free, of course!

After making pudding and reading we made a space helmet. It was really quick and Lilly had a lot of fun. We also read and colored this great worksheet about space suits.

DIY Space Helmet
Materials:
- paper bag
- aluminum foil
- glue
- scissors
- round plate

Directions:
1. Cut off the handles on the bag.
2. Lay a small sized plate on top of the bag and trace around its edge.
3. Cut out the circle.
4. You can decorate the helmet however you like. Lilly wanted it to be shiny and metallic so I grabbed some aluminum foil and glued it onto the front of hers.

After making the helmet, Lilly pointed out that she didn't have a space suit. I was not prepared for this so I had to wing it with materials I had plus, I was tired and didn't feel like being super awesome. So, I thought, "We'll just cover you in aluminum foil!". I found pre-cut aluminum foil sheets at the dollar store awhile back and grabbed those along with some packing tape. The result is rather hilarious but she was pleased and happily went to her space ship for some dramatic play.

That's it for the space exploration focus of Space week. Tomorrow we will be focusing on the moon!

Today was day two of space week at Mommy Camp. We focused on the solar system. First, we did some math with a great free printable packet that I also used yesterday. It is great because it allows you to create the addition and subtraction problems with manipulative planet cut outs. Then we watched a video about the solar system. After that we did a worksheet that had you color each planet a specific color. Then we watched a fun music video about the planets.

After learning about the solar system we entered a black hole that was making a solar system. It was a horrible craft and I hated every second of it. I wouldn't call it an epic fail because we made it and it resembles the goal but geez. It was the worst. I found a cool printable that gave you the directions and the planet printouts. It called for you to get a piece of cardboard, cut it into a circle, draw circles that got smaller and smaller, poke holes on each ring for a different planet to hang, cut out the planets and finally string them onto the cardboard. It was just too much that I had to do because it was beyond my 4 (almost 5) year olds ability. That was the problem. I don't know if buying one of those "create a solar system" kits would be any better but it is worth a try if you are interested. Or, you could do this. You've been warned. :)

After our movie break we were ready for more learning. We conducted a simple science experiment with baking soda Jupiters and vinegar. Lilly spent about 20 minutes playing with the fun reaction while I made her another space themed snack.

Fizzing Jupiter Experiment
Materials:
- baking soda
- water
- food coloring (red and yellow)
- vinegar
- medicine dropper/syringe

Directions:
1.  Mix one cup baking soda with 1/4 cup water.
2. Add one drop of red food coloring and mix. It doesn't have to be well mixed just somewhat distributed.
3. Add one drop of yellow food coloring and mix. Your goal is to have swirls/sections of yellow, red and maybe a little orange or white.
4. Form the mixture into a ball.
5. Using your dropper squeeze vinegar onto the ball and watch the reaction. Discuss the reason that it fizzes with your child and how/why the ball represents Jupiter.

We also watched a few videos about Jupiter to help with the correlation.
Jupiter's Super Storm with Bill Nye
Space School Jupiter

Her fun snack was a turkey and cheese sandwich moon with mango stars and a vanilla yogurt earth. She thought it was great!

 That was it for our solar system focus day of space week. Tomorrow we focus on space exploration and astronauts!

Pool Noodles are easily found at the dollar store and you can find many uses for them. Today I took about 5 minutes to make this fun boredom stopper for my kids.

Materials:
- pool noodles
- knife
- ribbon/robe/string

Directions:
1. Cut the pool noodles into chunks.
2. Give the noodle blocks/beads to your child along with some sort of string.

These are great because they can be stacked for great, noise and pain-free tower building but can also be strung like beads for gigantic necklace/snake/whatever you can imagine making! They entertained both my toddler and 4 year old for more than 20 minutes straight!

Today was the first day of week two of Mommy Camp. The theme is space and we started off with a fun dramatic play space ship and jet pack. You can see the DIY's for those here. In addition to the space dramatic play area I made space themed felt board manipulative using laminated free images from teacherspayteachers. After fun in space I had plenty more fun and learning planned including space math, reading and writing practice, space slime, starry shaving cream art and a fun space themed lunch!

I used several free worksheets for math, reading and writing practice including a space themed math worksheet, the introduction of new sight words, space themed beginning letter worksheets and writing practice with the word rocket. 

After fun with slime it was time for lunch. I made a cute rocket ship pb&j with a yogurt ocean. Lilly thought it was awesome so I got some major cool mom points. I simply cut the bread into the shape of a rocket and then put the pb&j on both sides. Then I used another piece of bread to make the two wings and applied m&m's with a little peanut butter, mixed a drop of blue food coloring into some vanilla yogurt and boom, spaceship taking off!

To finish the day we made shaving cream art in the style of Van Gogh and "The Starry Night". It is a very easy project that kids will find appealing time after time. 

Shaving Cream Art Prints

Materials:
- shaving cream
- liquid tempera paint
- comb
- baking pan
- paper

Directions:
1. Create a smooth layer of shaving cream that is about the size of a piece of paper on your pan.
2. Squeeze some paint onto the shaving cream in various colors. We used blue, purple, black and yellow to mirror Van Gogh but you could use any colors.
3. Use your comb to swirl and mix the colors.
4. Place a piece of paper on top of the paint coated shaving cream and gently press down to transfer the paint to the paper.

After we made the art we discussed who Van Gogh was and talked a little about the piece "The Starry Night" and how it related to our space themed lessons.

I hope you find some fun ideas for your kids from day one of Mommy Camp: Space! Check back for the rest of our space week where we will be focusing on astronauts, the moon, the sun and the solar system!

While trying to spend a little time with my older child to practice writing and reading I needed to give my little one something to do. So, I grabbed a few items I had laying around and whipped up this quick toy. It might not look like much but babies aren't too worried about aesthetics and he played with it for at least 20 minutes. So I call that a win!

Directions:
1. Cut a hole in the top of the container.
2. Stuff the container with your other items.

He enjoyed dumping/pulling the items out and putting them back in which is great since that's what this toy is all about! There are plenty of other versions of this same toy but I think that his ability to see the items inside was intriguing and he also enjoyed the sound the container made. Hopefully your toddler will enjoy it too!

For our space theme this week I chose to create a spaceship and jet pack! The kids think they are both great and I only needed a few materials!

DIY Spaceship
Materials:
- cardboard boxes
- silver spray paint
- packing tape
- scissors/knife/something sharp to cut with
- battery operated light strand (optional)
- kid slide/rock wall combo (optional)
- free control console printable

Directions:
1. Paint both sides of the boxes. I only used two boxes and I got them for about $1 at home depot.  
2. Begin constructing ship. My original plan was to simple tape the boxes together with various shapes cut out for wings and such to create the ship. However, I realized that it would be way more awesome if I used the kids slide/rock wall thing as a base for the ship. So, We just opened up one box and cut one seam open so instead of a box it was just a very wide piece of cardboard. Then we folded it around the top portion of the play slide and taped the cut sides together to "hug" the slide. We left the flaps sticking out of the top and cut two sides to angle and form the spaceship nose. Then we taped the flaps together. For the bottom we just cut two sides off of the box and then taped that to the top part of the box that was already affixed to the slide. 
3. Cut out a porthole and tape the console printout inside. 
4. Add optional lights and/or decorations. I found a fun poster light up kit with all of the school project/poster board/poster paint stuff. It is a string of battery operated lights that come with a poking tool specifically designed for the lights and use with poster board/display boards. It was really easy to use and only cost $8. I'm sure I will be using it again in future mommy camp dramatic play areas. I think it adds a lot and my kids thought it was awesome!

I know this diy is a little more open-ended and less specific about how to do it but you can find many spaceship diy's on pinterest that can help you create you're own unique ship.

DIY Jet Pack
Materials:
- 2 clean 1 liter soda bottles
- silver spray paint
- hot glue gun
- red, yellow and orange tissue paper
- scissors
- felt (I used black.)


Directions:
1. Paint the bottles.
2. Hot glue the bottles together on the side.
3. Make fringe using the tissue paper, roll/twist together and hot glue inside the mouth of each bottle. 
4. Cut one wide strip of felt, wrap around the bottles and hot glue to the bottles.
5. Cut two more wide strips of felt, create a loop, and hot blue vertically on the outer side of each bottle to create the straps.

Lilly immediately put them on and began running around the room making jet sounds. It was nearly impossible to get a picture and she was in no mood for posing. 
I hope you like this fun diy! Be sure to check back for all of the fun stuff we'll be doing for Space Week at Mommy Camp!

We wrapped up week one of Mommy Camp with a focus on nocturnal and diurnal animals. We did a few worksheets including a venn diagram comparing birds and bats, learned how to draw a bat, and visited the pet store to identify the animals as nocturnal or diurnal. Then we finished the whole week by making a paper bag camping vest and pretend lightning bug jar. 

I used worksheets from several different places and have posted them below. First we discussed the words nocturnal and diurnal and what they mean. Then we talked about different animals and hypothesized as to what type they were. After our discussion we did a counting worksheet with different animals and identified them as nocturnal or diurnal. Then we discussed the differences between birds and bats and wrote them down on a venn diagram. I of course did the writing but I feel like introducing the idea of graphic organizers, like venn diagrams, is something that she will benefit from. After discussing birds and bats we learned how to draw a bat with a fun worksheet and rounded it out with a coloring, cutting and pasting activity where she placed the animal in the correct category of diurnal or nocturnal. While we were working on lessons, Arthur was playing with a  quick and easy toy I made him. You can read about it here.

Once Arthur had a nap we decided to visit Petco and look at the animals. We talked about the different types of animals and whether they were nocturnal or diurnal. We also walked away with a fish. Lilly named him Emma. He is very happy on our piano.

To finish up our camping themed week we made a camping vest out of a paper bag and a "jar of lightning bugs". They were both pretty simple and fun!

DIY Paper Bag Camping Vest
Materials:
- paper bag
- scissors
- glue
- pen
- stickers (optional but fun)

Directions:
1. Cut the handles off of your bag.
2. Place the bag with the open end down and draw a v at the top (bottom part of the bag)
3. Then cut from the bottom (top/open part of bag) up the middle seam to your v and cut out the v as well.
4. Then cut out armpit holes and a little of the top back for wearing. (I actually had to take mine in on the sides and shoulders by cutting out excess length/width and taping the vest back together so it would fit my four year old. But you might not need to.)
5. Using the scrap leftovers, create squares for pockets and glue them onto the front of the vest. I also drew faux pocket flaps with a  sharpie and wrote her name above the left pocket and added "buttons" down the front.
6. Then I gave it to my daughter along with fun camping and bug themed stickers to decorate.

Pretend Firefly Lantern
Materials:
- glow in the dark paint
- small tipped paintbrush
- clean jar (we used a large plastic peanut butter jar)
- sharpie
Directions:
1. Paint small lines/ovals on the inside of the jar in various locations.
2. Using the sharpie, add lines/wings and lines/antennae to each paint spot on the outside of the jar. (I allowed my 4 year old to help with this step.)
3. Expose the jar to light for a bit and then have fun in the dark!

Don't miss all of the fun next week when we learn about space!

Today we learned about plants. We did several worksheets, read a beginner level reader book together, conducted a science experiment, analyzed a leaf and made play dough prints with objects found in nature. It was pretty fun and Lilly learned quite a bit!

We started out with a little math on a fun bug worksheet. It's not plants but bugs and plants are related right? I really like the worksheet because it teaches how to subtract in an easy way that my daughter instantly understood. Kids also get a lot of satisfaction from marking out things so she really enjoyed herself. I found a leaf worksheet that is similar to the one we used and you can find it here at education.com.

After a little math we talked about what plants need to grow and sang a cute song. Then we discussed the parts of a plant and practiced writing the words for the different parts as well as doing a matching activity where we matched the word to the part of the plant. You can find the worksheets I used here at homeschoolcreations.com. We also discussed the life cycle of a plant and used this easy sequencing worksheet from teacherspayteachers. Both worksheets are free!

After discussing plants it was time for examining some. We went outside and looked at some of the plants in our backyard and collected a leaf from one of our hydrangea bushes for our next project, leaf rubbing! I used this free worksheet from teacherspayteachers. Lilly thought the rubbing was really neat and she loved measuring its length.  Then we collected more nature items like rocks, sticks and more leaves to play with making imprints in play dough. 

Our science experiment will require a little patience as it doesn't reveal the cool part until a couple of days have passed. But, we took three glasses of differently colored water (using food coloring) and placed a stalk of celery in each cup. After a few days the celery leaves and stem will take on a tint of the color that the water. You can explain what they should expect and then they can check each day to see if it has happened. You can use this experiment to explain how a plant uses water and soil to grow.

We ended the day with reading a beginning level reader about the life cycle of a plant. It was good because it re-used words and several of them focused on words with double "ee" like need and seed. I got it for free from ... you guessed it! Teacherspayteachers, they have a ton of free things as well as not so free and many of the worksheets I will be using for mommy camp came from there. You can get it here.

Tomorrow we will be focusing on nocturnal and diurnal animals and that will wrap up our camping unit! We were planning on finishing the week with an actual camping trip but good ole tropical storm Bill will be rolling through our neck of the woods this weekend so that might not happen yet. See you tomorrow!

As part of the camping themed week for Mommy Camp we focused on fire safety and safety in general today. We did an easy experiment to understand fire and how it works, discussed our family safety plan, learned about stop, drop & roll, practiced our address and phone number and talked about the differences between emergencies and non-emergencies. I know I feel a lot better knowing that my almost 5 year old knows what to do in the event of an emergency. Keep reading to see how I did it and all of the printables I used.

We started by watching a short video on youtube about fire safety. It is only about 5 minutes long but gets the main points across and has a cute singing firefly doing the teaching. After we watched the video we discussed the information it presented and analyzed it for better understanding. I asked questions like, "What do you do if you catch on fire?" and "Why do you roll? How does that help?". Then we practiced stop, drop and roll. (I tried to get a picture but was too late. Then she was acting shy and refused but I think you can figure it out. lol). We also did a fun little worksheet I got for free from Teachers Pay Teachers that practices spelling, writing and basic motor skills. I've placed it for you below.

After practicing we did a short experiment that demonstrates how fire works and why you should roll to put it out. I even created a free worksheet that you can use!


Materials:
- 3 candles
- spray bottle
- water
- playdough/clay
- glass jar/cup
- lighter
- hypothesis worksheet
(I set mine up on a cutting board but you don't have to.)

After the experiment we worked on our family safety plan and practicing our address and phone number. I used several worksheets from various sources for free and have placed them below for you.

I had also planned on heading outside to play with the squirt bottle and put out some chalk "fires" on our patio but it was reeaaaaalllllly hot and I didn't want to become a gigantic ball of sweat. So, we didn't. But, you're more than welcome to brave the heat and have fun! I hope you enjoy my fire safety lesson!

We want to share one more fun 4th of July themed craft! Today we made fizzing fireworks art which is both a fun craft and a mini science lesson! ​