When I Grow Up...

...I want to be a princess.

my reply: oh really, and what will you do as a princess? (you must understand how shocking this was to me. we don't have much princess stuff, and we certainly don't place great emphasis on princess-ness with our girls).

I will dance. and after I'm Snow White (it changed sometime in there), I want to be...

a volcanologist.

when Addie gets focused on something, she's stuck on it. sometimes it lasts a few days. like the what is a miracle mommy? question. her all things animals kick isn't as prominent now, but there isn't a day that goes by that something animal related isn't discussed around our house.

but somehow she got stuck on volcanoes. I dont remember how or when except she eagerly discussed it with my brother when we were in Raleigh. he, being the always thinking brother that he is, told her that I could certainly build her a volcano that we could erupt. thankyouverymuch!

and then the discussion quickly turned to assuring her that it would be a pretend volcano and the pretend hot lava would not in fact be hot at all!

after watching volcanoes erupt on mommy's computer and checking out a handful of books from the library on volcanoes...

hot lava talk soon moved to most volcanoes happen in the ring of fire around the pacific ocean (no where near us!) when the pressure underground pushes the magma up and out causing the volcano to erupt hot lava and plumes of ash creating craters...

...all of which can cause salamis, otherwise known as tsunamis!

so last week, I got up the energy courage to gather the supplies and build this thing. storms were predicted for the afternoon, so I was counting on a long little girl afternoon nap.

because this was certainly one of the larger projects we'd attempted.

and so we proceeded to build a volcano.

I think when I built one in elementary school, I had a nifty little megaphone I'd gotten at some sports event which became the form for the volcano.

since we didnt have any of those lying around the house, we just used posterboard.

and then instead of making my own paper-mache (knowing the large volume of newspaper strips it required), i cheated with this...

best $4 i spent at w@lmart all day!

so we (i) cut the pieces, and we dipped them in water before placing them on the cardboard cone.

while we patiently let the plaster dry so we could paint it, we watched volcano videos online and learned more about how volcanoes work.

but that didn't last too long!

this kid was giddy with excitement about building a volcano, but i've never seen her quite so serious as when it came time to paint it!

she made sure every bit of that volcano was covered with paint!

from top to bottom...

and all that serious painting paid off!

unfortunately her 3 year old mouth prevented us from erupting the volcano that night, but it served as a great reward for helping us pack and load the car the next day!

you think she was excited?

her first reaction was a little funny because even after all of that prep, i'm not sure she expected what happened when that food colored red vinegar hit the baking soda.

but it didnt take long for her fascination to return along with her reassurance to us that that pretend lava was in fact not hot!

a week later, she's still going strong with this one. we've watched a few more videos and found a book for her to keep from the bookstore. every library book we checked out pertaining to volcanoes has been read multiple times.

i sure am thankful this big girl has her daddy's memory. it takes everything within me to keep up with her, but it's such a joy to witness her make new discoveries and learn knew things...and then want to share them with us and others! 

what's next? musical instruments just in time for christmas!

Lathered Up

Addie loves doing "projects." Many {most} of them center around letters and sounds and now words. We've just started tapping into adding to and taking away because it finally makes sense to her...at least if we dont add more than 5 to more than 5 because she's all about counting on her fingers!

I remember letting my students who needed an alternative way to practice letters or spelling do it in shaving cream. anything tactile. anything besides writing on paper!

so we pulled out daddy's shaving cream the other day.

believe it or not, she was a little hesitant at first.

but it took no time at all for her to really get into it!

and after making a few O's and circles, we got to actually writing something...

her name of course!

and i'm pretty sure she enjoyed it!

a little added bonus: Days-of-the-Week. Paul reminded me that as ingrained as this tune is in us, she's never heard this tune before. but it sure made us smile!

Charts

our big girl has turned into quite the little sponge.

she loves letters and writing and painting and drawing.

she's learned how to write her name and frequently draws various {creative} things.

but her most favorite thing to draw and talk about...

animals.

we never know when there might be a jaguar in the living room or a spider on the wall.

or there might be a request to swim with the jellyfish {that don't sting because they are pretend}.

but while her imagination is running wild, she's often times digging deeper.

what kind of animal is a jaguar? what makes it a mammal? why is an alligator a reptile? and what makes birds different from other animals?

obviously, she doesn't verbalize her questions exactly like that, but our discussions often end up more detailed than expected.

so one morning while the little girls napped, we searched {on my computer according to addie} for pictures of animals. she'd decide on the animal. i'd find the pictures. she'd chose her favorite one.

then we categorized the vertebrates (animals with backbones), and the next day categorized the invertebrates.

her favorite? the mammals of course. according to her, they keep their babies alive. whew! thankfully. but they also have their babies alive unlike the rest of the vertebrate animals that lay eggs.

we had such a blast. her enthusiasm, even in the details, made it so much fun.

as we were charting, all i could think of was the i love charts song from sid the science kid. what? you don't watch that pbs program in your spare time? there are several things about that program that grate on my nerves, but i can't deny that it's got some academic value! here's a clip of the i love charts song.

happy charting!