Tadpole Disaster!!!

We've been raising tadpoles for the last three and a half weeks. 

We got them when they were at this stage from a nearby pond with plans to release them once they turned into froglets.

It has been such a wonderful learning experience to see the tadpoles growing and going through the different stages.  L colored, cut out and glued this Life Cycle of a Frog.

I also made up some three part cards for her with real pictures.

 L couldn't wait until they got "gills"

Yesterday we had painters here to power wash the house and our deck before they paint our house next week.  Apparently they used bleach and left the almost empty bottle on our patio table where the tadpoles are.  I noticed the bottle for the first time this morning when L was playing out there

and had a bit of a freak out and took it away.

Well tonight while we were playing out there I went to check on the tadpoles.  The poor little things were all lying lifeless on the bottom of the bowl.  I called L over and after some questioning I got out of her the fact that yes she did indeed pour some bleach into the tadpole bowl.

Ahhh.  It really was an eye opener for me.  She seems so advanced in so many ways but this is such a reminder that she is only three! She doesn't know what bleach is and I just thank God that she gave it to the tadpoles instead of to herself!  The painters will be getting a few choice words on Monday when they come for sure.

I'm also super sad about our poor tadpoles.  I'd gotten pretty attached to them and was really looking forward to experiencing the rest of the stages with L.

Of course L took it all in stride and said "Well we'll have to get some more next spring".  Still too young to really understand.

RIP little tadpoles.

You know your child is Montessori when....

I recently posted about L's fish Charlotte that she got for Easter.  The other day we were talking and I asked her how she liked having her own pet which was her responsibility to feed and look after to which she replied, "I'm going to show Charlotte how to look after herself" !

I couldn't help but laugh.

Look What the Easter Bunny Brought!

We don't do chocolate and candies at Easter in our house.  This year now that L is reading we did an egg scavenger hunt.  Each egg had a clue inside telling L where to go next.  Along the way there were things beside the eggs to give L clues of what would be the final "treasure".

Here she is reading her clue and finding a library book on Bettas.  Hmmm......

She also found a little fish net and some Betta food.

Anyone know where I'm going with this.....

 Remember this?

 Well it's now home to "Charlotte" the male Siamese Fighting Fish.  Proudly named by L while saying "no it's a girl it's a girl"  According to L she's also not a Siamese Fighting fish because she's nice.  She's just a Betta!

It was a complete joy to see the amazement and excitement on L's face when she pulled the cloth off to reveal her new fish.  L is very excited to have her own pet to take care of .  She can't wait to give Charlotte her breakfast and dinner.

Happy Easter!

Early Spring Nature table with swap peg dolls

 Finally I have to time to spend writing the backlog of posts I've been wanting to do! I've been in Vancouver at a training course this past week.  Hopefully now things will settle down and I will get my work/life balance back!

So here is our early spring nature table.  We've had it for just over a month now and I've put all of the gorgeous little peg people I received from We Bloom Here's peg doll swap.

Many thanks to the ladies from Time to Craft, Ozarkmountain mama, Wonderfully Crazy Home, StichyCraftyMama and Kriebevel L and I love all of your wonderful creations.

My vision for this table was for all of the forest folk to gather round the little pot to witness the first signs of spring.  We planted some chia seeds in the blue pot in hopes they would grow quickly.  Well they are totally not cooperating.  So we have our poor wee folk still looking at a few little green things and mostly mud!

I'm still holding out hope!

 We've also added things that we've found on our outings and in our backyard.

We had to cut down a beautiful tree a few weeks ago because it was too close to the house so we saved a few pieces of it to put on our nature table.

Swiss Family Robinson

Our latest chapter book has been Swiss Family Robinson.  I found a children's version at the dollar store. Score!  There are still some bits I need to edit for L as I think there is too much talk of guns and killing but she loves the rest of it.

I told her teacher we are reading it and she has introduced L to the land and water forms so she can see what an island is.  L is totally stoked!

We also got a coconut from the grocery store to try.  Daddy drilled a hole and L drank the milk with a straw.

 He then broke it apart and we enjoyed the yummy coconut just like in Swiss Family Robinson.

 When we got to the part about them using a pulley to bring up all of their provisions into the tree I told L we would give it a try.   Not having any rope we tied some long scarves together.  L stood at the top of the landing and I tied on our provisions one by one as she pulled them up.  It was a good idea to start but after what seemed like the 100th time I was second guessing myself. LOL

 We then made our tree house at the top of the stairs.  L was the mommy and I was one of the sons along with the other stuffed animals.  She made us dinner and then put us to bed.

We have really enjoyed this book and doing activities to go along with it.  I think it is especially good as it has a drawing of what is happening on every second page so L can follow along.  There are a lot of new concepts for her to try to get her head around.

Next up is getting Daddy to show her how to make a bow and arrow!

Life

It's been two weeks since I've posted anything and well the only reason for that is that "life" has been really happening around here lately.
This is the first time in two weeks that I've been able to have any real free time to sit down at the computer.  That is because for the past two weeks I've been working! That's right.  After almost four years of staying at home it's finally become imperative that I get a job to bring in some more income.  The first two weeks have been a shock to all of our systems as I've had to train 34 hours a week.  Things should settle down in the next few weeks to 15 hours which is totally manageable but not until I've spent a week in Vancouver away from my family doing a training course.

Needless to say not a lot of "blog worthy" things have been going on around here.  We have been keeping L busy with a few projects that I'll hopefully get around to posting about soon.  We also have our nature table up and running and I'll take some pics if it's every sunny again!

Amazingly enough in the evenings as a way to relax I've also been working on some of the Continent Boxes.  Australia is finally done and I'm just waiting for my mom to finish sewing (yup my mom! I don't sew a stitch!)the little three part card holders and I will blog about it.

We've also been plagued with two computer viruses.  A few days without the computer and $140 later we seem to be sorted.

So that's a quick update if any one's been wondering.......I've really missed having time to read all of my favourite blogs and also do things with L.  Thankfully things will calm down soon and hopefully be back to normal with a little more cash! :   )