When The Banana and I saw beluga whales at Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, I was inspired to learn more about these pale, majestic and oddly lumpy mammals. They are the most common whale kept in captivity, and are highly social with one another.
I learned NOT to schedule a camping trip for the week before school starts. Although we had a great time, it was fraught with many kids missing many important things like school open houses, athletic competitions, and we felt rushed getting there and getting back because of important appointments we tried not to miss.
Skyscrapers are fascinating. I learned so much about architecture on the Chicago Architecture Tour that The Banana and I took in Chicago. (It was perfect that we took the tour on our first day of visiting, because then we had so much fun identifying our favorite buildings from the tour as we zipped around doing other things). Mr. TOF and I are also reading a book about the history and technology of skyscrapers right now.
If I need one pencil pouch and buy five, I’ll need to buy five more. The kidlets turn into maniacs about pencil pouches.
Spontaneous art prompts can be a lot of fun. One day in the beginning of the month I had a sack of corn on the cob. The kidlets and were helping me take the husks off the cobs, and I handed them a corn cob and told them I wouldn’t cook it for them for lunch unless they drew a picture of it for me. It ended up being so fun! I ended up with a stack of corn art, and every single one of them was completely different. DS drew a black and white detailed penciled corncob. Mr. TOF had two corn cobs talking to one another with a funny little dialog in word bubbles. The Banana made a beautiful mixed media painting using oil pastels and watercolor and pencil lines as well. Our host child even got in on the action, which was great because she is a bit fearful about art.
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