Now it’s time to link up again. Are you gearing up for summer? Wrapping up with schooling? Or just looking forward to the fun of summer: swimming, picking berries, going on a family vacation?

Link up your great ideas.

Popsicle stick catapult. Lego Star Wars figures, optional.

This is a great project with a really simple design, for those of you with kiddos out there who like to build things. This catapult is made with popsicle sticks and thin ribbon, plus a bottle cap to put the objects you will be flinging. The bottle cap is attached with an adhesive strip, but hot glue would work just as well.

The Creekside Dad tasked Firefly, age 8, with designing his own catapult. First, they looked at pictures of catapults in our history book, and discussed the basics of the design:  a base, a flexible or tension-filled arm, a container to hold what you are trying to send flying. Used to designing things with Legos, this proved a bit challenging for Firefly. Legos are not flexible. He tried Kinex. A very good choice, as they can bend, but our limited Kinex collection didn’t have what was needed for the base.
 Finally, they found a little inspiration, proving that Pinterest is useful to men as well as women. (I knew this, of course, but my husband doesn’t get the whole Pinterest thing.)

I like how this was a whole process. Even thought the first two building mechanisms, Legos and Kinex, didn’t work, Firefly stuck it out, through his frustrations, and the end result was something fun and functional.
 We did this as part of our ancient history studies of Rome.

• More resources on Ancient History page.
• Pinterest Boards: Ancient History, Medieval History and Hands-On History.
• Join us on Facebook.

Linking up at these linky parties. 

We learned about Roman numerals by reading Fun with Roman Numerals and making clay coins.  We wrote Roman numerals on one side of the coins and regular digits on the other side.
 We had fun playing a game with the coins. We “charged” each other for things throughout the day, such as snack ($6), t.v. time ($13), and completing chores ($24).  Yes, I know, prices are expensive around here.  ;-)

My son tried to figure out how much to pay in Roman “money”. He did quite well, but the few times he got stuck, he could flip the coins over and see the regular numbers to help figure it out.

We made the coins using air-dry clay and a circle cutter from our collection of play dough accessories. We used a pencil to carve the numbers. Since it was a rainy day, we couldn’t let the coins dry out in the sun so we put them in the oven at 200 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes on each side. The time may vary, depending on the thickness of the coin, but the clay turns a lighter color when dry.

We did this as part of our ancient history studies of Rome.

• See more activities on our Ancient History page.
• Follow our Pin Boards: Ancient History, Medieval History and Hands-On History.
• Follow along on Facebook.

Linky parties I know and love. 

Learning with the Pinkalicious series, by Victoria Kann and Elizabeth Kann, made for a fun week. Besides reading these great books, we did math, crafts and more.

Our Pinkalicious Math Game
We kept track of all the pink cupcakes Pinkalicious eats throughout the book. They total ten (if you count the number of cupcakes pictured on the pages where Pinkalicious’ dad is trying to get her to go to bed). So we made ten cute cupcakes out of foam (more on that in a minute) and practiced adding them up as many ways as we could.
My daughter was mildly interested in this until I got silly:  ”Do you mean to tell me that if you have 4 cupcakes in the first row and 6 cupcakes in the second row, you have ten total cupcakes?”  And if you switch it to 6 cupcakes in the first row and 4 cupcakes in the second row you still have 10 cupcakes?! How did you do that?!” She thought it was hilarious and we kept going with this game for a long time. She used her Pinkalicious wand to count.
Then she decided that she wanted to feed the cupcakes to Pinkalicious. So I drew a Pinkalicious on a long piece of butcher paper and she colored it in.
While I read the story, she fed cupcakes to Pinkalicious via a slit we cut in the mouth. We taped a piece of paper on three sides to the back of Pinkalicious to catch the cupcakes.

To make the cupcakes, I made a simple template and cut out ten cupcake tops and ten cupcake bottoms. I gave that to my daughter along with ten red buttons for cherries. She assembled them all, and then we added the finishing touch: Pink icing. Only we used our special Pinkalicious Glue for the icing.
 Pinkalicious Glue is a bottle of glue, 2/3rds full of glue with the remaining 1/3 filled with pink tempura paint. Shake vigorously, and you have pink glue to decorate like icing.

Pinkalicious Wand Craft

We traced a star-shaped cookie cutter onto yellow foam, used a purple tinker toy for the stick and hot-pink cardstock paper for the streamers. This was totally my daughter’s idea. Love that crafty kid! I wound the streamers around a pencil to get them to curl.

Art in the Style of Pinkalicious

Flowers in the Pinkalicious book and paper plate flower templates.

Victoria Kann, the artist of the ‘licious series, uses a combination of different mediums. Her paper collages use photos, maps, fabric, wallpaper and much more. We decided to try making a collage like the beautiful flowers in the Pinkalicious book. First, I cut out some flower shapes, using paper plain white paper plates.

We studied the picture and noticed that pink was not the only color. We saw reds, yellows and oranges in the flowers, greens in the stems. We then searched the house for materials we could use, even checking the recycling bin. We used tissue paper, a gift bag, pink cardstock paper, a rubber mat, and pictures cut out from magazines.  We traced around the templates onto the various materials we found. The Queen Bee needed some help cutting out this many things, so we worked on it together.
Finally, we were ready to glue everything onto a long white piece of paper. And here is the final result:
 Pinkalicious Activity Pack
There are some great printables on Think Pinkalcious.  We printed out the ones we liked and I stapled them together with a cover that my daughter could draw on. She had a great time doing a Pinkalicious word search, complete-a-word, and much more.

Pinkalicious and Purplicious Play Dough Cupcakes
We made play dough one day. It is really easy. I am sure I am the only parent who didn’t discover that until Pinterest was invented. Anyway, my kids are super impressed that I could dump a bunch of ingredients into a pot, stir it for 5 minutes and come up with this:

Each child got a lump of play dough and a cupcake pan with liners at our Pinkalcious play date.

My 3 year old son had fun with this as well, making and serving cupcakes to everyone.

A Pinkalicious Play Date
My daughter loves to have story-themed play dates. She and her friends played with the play dough cupcakes and danced to the soundtrack from Pinkalicious – The Musical (Yes, I know!).  Then they snacked on smoothies and cookies while I read the ‘licious books to them.

Look at these delicious cookies! No, I did not make them. Does it seem like I have enough free time to make and decorate cookies? Haha, no, I do not. But I do have time to run to the grocery store.

The cookies were good but even better were the Goldilicious Smoothies, inspired by Samantha at Color Wheel Meals.  What a yummylicious recipe.  Here is how we got the boys to participate in our Pinkalicious week. My sons love smoothies, you see, and we make them frequently, but Samantha’s use of coconut milk in the recipe was a huge hit. Between my 3 and 8 year old sons, they drank the entire blender full of Golidilicious Smoothies.
So, the next morning, we made Pinkalicious Smoothies for breakfast.

Did I mention that my daughter dressed in pink every day this week? And on the day of her Pinkalicious Play Date, she dressed up as the Princess of Pink herself.

Here she is, posing dramatically on the deck.

More ‘licious Activities from my Blogging Friends

• Maria at Mama Mia’s Heart had fun making an ice cream cone craft and reading Purplicious.
• Kristina at Toddler Approved made Pinkalcious wands and did a cupcake painting and color-match activity.
• Bernadette at Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas connects us with a reading of Pinkalicious by one of the authors, Victoria Kann.

For information about each book in the Pinkalicious series, click on the book covers below.
  

For more great ways to learn with wonderful children’s books, check out our Learning With Literature Page and our collaborative pinterest board.

Linking up with these terrific blogs.

Day 1: The caterpillars arrived about 10 days from hatching from the egg stage. They measured 1.5 to 2 cm.

Day 1 (10 days old)

We set up a caterpillar observation area where we could make daily observations and learn more about the caterpillars. The area contains the cups the caterpillars arrived in (they basically live with their food, a human-made concoction that looks a little like cookie dough).  The Observation Area also contains a clipboard with paper and pen for recording observations, some reference books about caterpillars and butterflies, a magnifying glass, a ruler, and these great scientific method cards.

Day 4 (13 days old): The caterpillars have grown! They measure 2.5 cm now. They grow every day. There is less food in the container and something resembling spider web silk has appeared.

Around Day 4, we notice little, black, fuzzy parts of the caterpillars seem to be falling off. We consult with the breeder and she tells us that this is sort of like a snake shedding it’s skin. The kids note that the food is getting more crumbly.

Day 5 (14 days old): The caterpillars measure 3-4 cm! Many have moved to the top of the container, where they will soon hang in chrysalis form. They are bigger, fatter, longer than yesterday! They are moving slower.

On Day 5, we decide the caterpillars are not as fragile anymore so we gently hold one. This is also the day we discover that what we thought were crumbly bits of food, are actually pieces of caterpillar poop! It’s the same color as the food. Yuk!

Day 7 (16 days old): Some of the caterpillars in the "J" shape, which means they are ready to start forming their chrysalids.

On Day 7, we observe there are some red dots in the food. We wonder if this is mold. After lunch, we look at the caterpillars again. One has formed into a chrysalis! Just that morning he was a caterpillar hanging upside down from the coffee filter at the top.

By Day 8 (17 days old), each of the 5 containers has some chrysalids and some caterpillars.  But by Day 9 (18 days old), all are in the the chrysalis state. We make hypotheses on how long it will take them to hatch as butterflies.  Our guesses range from one week to one month.

Day 9 (18 days old): All of the caterpillars have entered the chrysalis state. All but one are attached to the coffee filters on the lid. One is in the food. We carefully lift him out with tweezers and transfer all the chrysalids to the butterfly house to await the next stage: hatching butterflies!

On Day 9 (18 days old), we measure the chrysalids.  They are all about 2 cm. Some of them are shaking and moving at different times. We pin the coffee filters containing the chrysalids to the sides of our mesh butterfly house. The one chrysalis not attached to the coffee filter is placed on the bottom of the mesh house.

Chrysalids in the mesh butterfly house.

And now we wait. We check. We wonder. We ask questions. “Why are they called BUTTER flies?”, The Queen Bee, age 6, ponders.  We look it up in Do Butterflies Bite?: Fascinating Answers to Questions About Butterflies and Moths . This is a great resource and it has answered many of the kids’ questions about the caterpillars so far. Incidentally, there are a few theories, but they might be called BUTTER flies because of the cream-colored and light yellow butterflies common across Europe.

Our Observation Area with the mesh container.

Love Bug (age 3) and The Queen Bee build a small fort with a blanket and chairs. They announce that this is a chrysalis. They pretend to eat a lot, then enter their chrysalis. They practice hatching and fly around like butterflies. They put music on and show me their butterfly dance.

The Butterfly Dance.

While we are waiting, we are checking the chrysalids each day and reading some terrific books:
        

Stay tuned for the next chapter of The Very Hungry Caterpillars when they hatch into butterflies. We will care for them, study them and then release them.

We got our caterpillars from a family member but my facebook readers tell me that Insect Lore  is a reputable brand, in the U.S.  In Canada, Canadian Home Education sells them.  Do any of my Australian and British readers have a resource for live caterpillars? What about other parts of the world? Please share in the comments. 

Linking up in these terrific places.

Leah, in happier days.

The Queen Bee recently turned six and so we got her a fish. Her very first pet, all to herself, hers and only hers. And about a month later, it died. Who knows why. She took very good care of it.  But it was a two dollar fish. So, you know, these things happen.

But she is six and she is grieving and sad and today, a significant part of our day was devoted to a fish funeral, fish gravesite decorating, informing friends and family of the fish’s death, and then….planning when and what kind her next fish will be.

All of this came from her and the boys and I did our best to just support the process for her. We all said a few kind words at the graveside service:  ”Leah was a nice fish.”  ”We will miss her.” “I liked seeing her swim in her bowl while I ate breakfast.”

And then we each found a special stone or leaf or flower (weed?) to place on the grave.  I helped her make a grave marker and we had another little ceremony for that.  ”I don’t think I can smile today. I’m too sad.”, she said more than once. We offered extra hugs.

She watched anxiously for our across the street neighbor to emerge, wanting to tell her the news because she once babysat the fish while we were away overnight. This is meaningful to The Queen Bee, a bond has been formed between her and the neighbor because of mutual fish care.

We went to a play date and The QB’s friend made her the sweetest condolence card on the loss of her fish. Then on the way home, a huge storm rolled in with rain whipping around and trees bending and traffic backing up. The Queen Bee suddenly realized that her poor fish was out in the elements.

"Leah, Our Dear Fish."

“Hurry, Mommy, we have to get home and check on Leah!”  I reassured her that Leah was okay. Her older brother sweetly offered that fish like water so surely Leah is not minding the rain one bit. Spying lightening, I told her that as soon as the storm passed, she could go out and check. But by then, she had moved on.

She’s planning for her next fish. “A bigger one, so that it lives longer.” The fish bowl and it’s gravel and little plastic plant have been washed and dried and await the new resident. Life, as they say, goes on.

The Creekside dog pays her respects.

So, this morning, I pulled a few random letters off the fridge and put the same alphabet cookie letters on a tray and we played a matching game. This is fun, see, because when you match a letter, you get to eat a cookie.
 He was so excited by this, he asked for paper and he wanted me to draw some letters. I did, then asked him to find the matching magnetic letter. I kept it focused to the same six letters we’d used with the cookies.
 This is all so sweet because he is truly growing from the toddler I have to keep occupied during learning time, to the kid who is eager to learn, too. Not that he wasn’t learning before. But now, well, he has some things he wants to know and he is going to get to the bottom of this letters thing, so determined is he.

Sweetest of all, a few hours later, he came up to me, his little fist closed tight around one of those magnetic letters.  ”This,” he said, “is yours, Mom.”  It was the letter “M”.

Ain’t no party like a linky party ’cause a linky party don’t stop. 
(Sorry, I get bored posting the same thing about linkies at the bottom of all my posts so I have to keep it interesting.)

Roman laurel wreath crown project, from History Pockets.

We’ve been learning about ancient Rome and doing some fun projects.

This week we made laurel wreath crowns and a toga, then the kids dressed up like the Roman emperors we’ve been studying.

The laurel wreath crown was inspired by History Pockets.

"Toga! Toga! Toga!"

The toga is one long piece of fabric leftover from a party decorating box my relatives left in my basement (score!). So we borrowed it to make an easy and perfect toga. Here’s what we did: Tuck one end of the fabric into your waistband, wrap the material one and a half times around your waist, then sling it across your chest and over your shoulder. Tuck into the back of your waistband. Instant toga!

In between these fun activities, we’ve been reading our go-along resources about Rome. We have a large collection of books about Rome. For some reason I kept scooping them up at bookstores, homeschool conferences and such. But here are our very favorites:

• Usborne Encyclopedia of the Roman World  (internet linked)
• A Visitor’s Guide to the Ancient World
• History Pockets: Ancient Civilizations, Grades 1-3
• The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History

More to come about ancient Rome. We’ll be studying it all month. Next up, catapults, Julius Ceasar and more!

For more fun history projects, be sure to follow my collaborative Hands-On History Pin Board and my Ancients Board on Pinterest.

Linky parties: Get inspired. Play with your kids. Get your craft on. 

Kelly at Little Wonders’ Days posted about the book The Carrot Seed. This is also a link-up to others who read this book and did related activities and crafts. So many great ideas.

Melissa at The Happier Homemaker has a great post on learning about Cinco de Mayo, including the history of the holiday, some interesting facts about Mexico and some fun crafts.
 This week on Creekside Learning, we shared about the benefits of kids and yoga. There are some great book recommendations included in this post as well, thanks to my wonderful yoga teacher.
 We also celebrated Firefly’s 8th birthday Harry Potter Style with some great invitations, decorations and activities. Click through for the free printable invitations and Diagon Alley shop decorations.

Quidditch Broom cakes.

 Time to link up this week’s learning activities. Show us what you’ve got and check out the links to get inspired.

Our invitations:  An acceptance letter from Hogwarts, with the Hogwarts crest at the top and signed by the deputy headmistress.

You can download the full text in a pdf document here and change the wording to whatever suits your party. I printed it on parchment paper  and used Hogwarts stamps printed on plain paper and lightly glued to close the letter. The Hogwarts crest for the top of the letter can be found here.

We also wrote a letter “To The Muggle Parents” of each party guest, detailing other pertinent party details (address of the party, where to meet in the park, etc.). It is contained in the pdf document above.

Firefly (the birthday boy) received his own Hogwart’s acceptance letter, which was delivered via owl.
 I then announced we were going on a trip to Diagon Alley (our foyer) to purchase his supplies. There, Firefly was presented  with a HP robe, glasses and wand (found at a consignment sale for $9). The packages were wrapped with white butcher paper, with Madame Malkin’s and Ollivander’s logos printed on parchment paper and affixed to each box. You can download them in a pdf file here, along with the Honeyduke’s logo for the party favor bags.

Boxes wrapped in plain white butcher paper. Labels printed on parchment.

The party was held at a local public park, which is heavily wooded with hiking trails.  The guests were invited to wear “dress robes” (all of these boys are avid HP fans, so some own a dress-up HP costume) or “Muggle attire”.

Upon arrival, they were presented with their very own wand, handed out by the birthday boy, from the “Olivander’s Wand Shop” box shown above. These were plain wooden dowel rods that Firefly painted with brown paint. I then streaked them with thin marks of black paint and sprayed them with clear coat so the paint wouldn’t rub off, since it was washable paint. Probably not necessary with permanent paint.

My son brought along an old witch’s hat from our costume collection and the kids performed a sorting ceremony. All the boys got to speak for the hat and call out their own house. They all chose Gryffindor, naturally.
 Once the guests were sorted, we ventured into the Forbidden Forest. I advised them all to travel with their wands at the ready, in case we ran into any unfriendly magical creatures. They are 7 and 8 year old boys, so wands drawn, they quite enjoyed running and spinning and jumping through the forest, battling imaginary creatures and each other.

Searching the "Hogwarts Lake" for the giant squid.

We stopped to take some photos and then we returned to the starting point, on the edge of the forest, to have cake. The single-serving cakes were concealed inside Quidditch brooms, based on the tutorial found here, although I used pretzel sticks for the broomstick. Inside the brooms was a serving of cake for each guest, packed in a mason jar. I wanted something easy to transport, easy to serve and something that wouldn’t be sitting out in the open, attracting bugs and other critters at the park while we were in the Forest.
Drinks were pumpkin juice (really orange juice) or water, served in goblets.  The goblets are plastic wine glasses, which I had on hand from some long ago party.

I baked thin cupcakes, putting about half the amount of cake batter into each cupcake pan.

Once baked, the flat cupcakes slipped easily into an 8 oz. jelly jar.  I layered cake and piped-in icing until the jar was full, added a few sprinkles on top and the cakes were ready to pack into the brooms.

After our hike in the forest and cake, the boys just ran around and played in the park. I purposefully didn’t plan any other activities because I knew they would just be happy to run around, explore, and cast spells on each other.  I had a couple of ideas as a back-up, in case the kids would’ve gotten bored, such as letting the birthday boy open presents and taking a hike on another path through the woods.  None of this was necessary, however. They made their own fun. They practiced spells, found a gate that they designated Azkaban, the famous wizard prison, and they tried out their Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans.

 I found the Bertie Botts’ at the grocery store around Easter time, but you can order them from Jelly Belly. I put them all in a paper bag with a “Honeyduke’s Sweet Shop” label and my son handed them out. The boys all sat down to read and laugh at the descriptions on the back of the box (ear wax, vomit, grass, sausage–blech!). They spit a lot of them out. Gross? Yup. That means we had a successful party, in the eyes of five boys, ages 7 and 8.

Cost Breakdown:
Parchment paper: $9
Paper bags: $2
Jelly jars: $8
Spoons: $2
Napkins: $3
Cake mix and frosting: $7
Bertie Botts (5): $15
Wooden dowels for wands: $2
Costume (2nd hand): $9
Juice: $3
Goblets: FREE

TOTAL:   $60
(note: my prices may differ a bit from the links included in this post, as I was able to find some of my items in local stores)

We kept the party small because it’s less stressful for kids and parents that way, but it also keeps the cost down.

And look at the adorable gift wrapping job my friend, Stephanie, did for Firefly’s present:

You can see more great Harry Potter party ideas on my Harry Potter Obsession Pinterest board.

If you enjoyed this post, follow me on Facebook for more fun learning ideas.

Linky parties I participate in.

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