R is for Railroad Worker

Our Community Helper for R is Railroad Worker. I was planning on taking the trains outside,  so putting together a railroad would be a bit more of a challenge for the girls; of course the day I got ready to do it,  it was raining. Seriously? We have been in drought, and now when I need it to be nice it rains. *sigh* No problem,  I can make it challenging and stay inside!

I decided to give the girls something they would have to build the railroad around. Something they couldn't move which would require them to be more selective in the pieces they use. So while Eli was sleeping I told the girls we were going to build him a zoo; every zoo has a train. You see Eli has been very into trains since his birthday, and last week at the library he picked out a train book called Down by the Station.  Where a little train carries the baby animals to the children's zoo. We have read it so many times;  I thought this would be fun for him.

I set up most of the zoo and then left the girls to build the train. They were quickly frustrated by the size they had to work with.  Between the small train table and all the animals there wasn't much room left for a train! I suggested they try some different sized pieces, and they found a way to make it work!

They barely got it done before Eli got up, but he was excited to find it! I think they were pretty happy to do something for their little brother too!

Really they all enjoyed playing with the little train and the animals. They even rearranged the zoo and the train a couple times! 

I'll definitely have to try giving them some more train building challenges sometime! 

Q is for Quilter

Our Community Helper for Q is Quilter. My first choice was Quarterback, but the girls are more interested in sewing then football right now. As a matter of fact Bria has been asking for months to learn how to sew. This seemed like a good time to start! 

The girls love quilts and looking at all the pretty colors and fabric combinations in them. They have several baby quilts of their own, and I am sure they have all watched either me or their Grandma quilting at some point.  They know how long it takes to make all those little stitches!

Since I didn't learn to sew as a kid, I wasn't really sure where to start. Luckily No Doubt Learning had posted on beginning sewing just a few months ago! She suggested starting with tapestry needles, embroidery floss, and styrofoam plates.

I drew a few simple designs on the plates for them to try to follow with their thread.

They were thrilled to pick out some embroidery floss, thread their needles, and get started sewing!

They quickly realized that while it was easy to keep the thread on the lines in the front of the plate, it was much more difficult when moving back through. Several times we had to back up because someone brought their needle back to the front to find the line creating a thread circling around the edge of the plate. Eventually they got the hang of it by holding the plates up to the light, so they could see the design and the needle behind the plate.

The other thing that gave them a few problems was keeping the correct tension on the embroidery floss.  If they pulled too hard it would just tear right through the plate. It didn't take Bria long to figure that out, but Nadia struggled a little more with pulling out stitches. In the end they both got the hang of it.

I figured they would do a couple each and be satisfied, but they kept on going! They had me draw more designs, and they drew some of their own until all my little styrofoam plates were gone!

They were still pretty excited about their sewing once we were done, so perhaps they will learn to quilt someday too! Until then, they hopefully understand a bit more about it.

Next step...actual fabric in an embroidery hoop!

P is for Plumber

Our second community helper for P is Plumber! I explained to them that a plumber is someone who fixes pipes, so if there is a leak or a clog they are the ones you call. I also mentioned that Mario and Luigi (yeah you know who I mean) are plumbers too. This was probably by far the most exciting news of the day to them! *sigh* 

In order to explore the movement of water a little more, I set up a little water wall on our fence. I used zip ties to attach various bottles and pool noodles to the fence. This did require cutting holes in the bottles and pool noodles (near the top where the water won't run out). I purposely put one pool noodle up in a way they couldn't get water through it (unless they have the hose to provide extra pressure).  I also left some caps on the bottles. I did put holes in some of the caps with a nail, so they would still drip just a little.

Then I turned them loose with a bucket and pitcher full of water and little cups. They had to find and "repair" the clogged areas (caps).

They figured it out fairly quickly, and then they wanted to do it over and over again! They would put the caps on, and say, "I think there is a problem," and then they would start working on it.

They also got to solve leakage problems when one of the pieces would slide a bit and no longer line up with the one underneath it. This was especially true with the pool noodles and funnels.

They played and played until their bucket was empty, and hopefully they know a little more about water and Plumbers.

P is for Policeman

Our first Community Helper for P is Policeman!  The girls knew a little about what Policemen do, but for the most part they just thought they were there to help people. So we talked a little about how the police are also there to make sure everyone follows the laws (or rules) in the community.  We also talked about how they have to look for clues and solve mysteries to find out who may have committed a crime.

In order to be (pretend) Policemen we first needed some badges.  I cut some badge shapes out of fun foam (they chose the colors), and then they decorated them with foam star stickers. Once they were happy with them we pinned them on and went to work.

We talked about our fingerprints a little and how they were all unique and therefore used as clues to solve mysteries. We stamped our fingerprints and looked at them with our magnifying glasses.

They didn't know that I had set up a little mystery for them to solve. I kept it very, very simple for them. I told them there was something making a lot of noise, and they needed to figure out what. I placed some word clues along with a bag of evidence (all with fingerprints on them) around our yard.

Once they collected all the clues they had to put them all together to figure out what noise maker I was talking about.  Their clues we "pop", "snap", "bang", "drop it", and a Baggie of sawdust. They all pointed to some little boxes of poppers that we had left over from July 4th.

They were so excited once they put it all together and got to play with some poppers of their own!

I was surprised at how much they enjoyed the little mystery! They kept asking to do it again even though they already knew the answer! I guess I need to start putting together some more for them!

We fully intended on taking our local Policemen some cookies, but we haven't had a chance to get them baked! It will happen once things settle down though!