Summer - Week 1 - The 5 Senses

I kept meaning to update over the weekend, but somehow life (and the pool, and Father's Day etc) got in the way and I didn't have a moment to sit down and blog.  And now week 2 has begun already and I still need to blog about week 1 (I suspect this may become a common thing....).

My plan for the summer is this - have a "theme" for each week, and plan an outing and one or two activities each day.  I do want the kids to have time for relaxation and free play, but I also need something to pull out of my pocket when they start to go at each other's throats (or otherwise drive me crazy).  My "themes" are just a loose general idea - more to give me some direction when choosing activities than anything else.  There are SOOOO many great ideas out there, so I like having a way to narrow them down and pick a couple to do with the kids.

Last week our "theme" was The 5 Senses.  So we did things like:

Funfetti & Angel Foodcake yogurt
with chocolate chips

Chocolate yogurt with mini M&Ms

Tuesday- go to a frozen yogurt shop (self-serve, pick your own flavour and toppings, everything done by weight - it was scrumptious!) for "taste". 

Scratch n sniff Koolaid painting

Koolaid scratch n sniff paintings for "smell" - I got the idea from Serving Pink Lemonade It was a lot of fun, but we were all a little disappointed that the smell had pretty much disapated by the evening (when Daddy got home & the kids wanted to show off their artwork).

And we spent some time at the pool, since it was the first full day of our summer vacation :)

Wednesday - scented playdough (I've seen this idea around a lot, but I used a recipe I tore out from a magazine ages ago, and just added a few drops of food colouring and flavouring).  I was AMAZED at how long the kids played with this - even my very "grown-up" 6 1/2yr old daughter!!

Fun with scented playdough - we had vanilla, peppermint & banana scents

We also went out to the Farmers Market, where we rode Llamas, bounced on the bouncy castle and tasted some samples. We also bought some very yummy chocolate covered strawberries.

Thursday - We headed up to the library, where we signed up for the summer reading programme.  They also had a musician performing - he was showed the kids all different kids of instruments, from the usual guitar, to ukelele's & banjos, recorders and various other flutes.  It was a ton of fun!!  We also stopped and picked out a couple of new books to read.

We made Father's Day cards using shaving foam marbling - I used these instructions and was AMAZED that it actually worked.  This was also fun because it turned into the kids playing with shaving foam for ages (I put some freezer paper down on the table and they just smeared it all over them and the table).

Friday - by now I was getting tired, lol. We spent the morning at the park, and then got my little guy a much-needed haircut.  And we still managed to make some swirl cookies (which turned out VERY colourful, but not particularly yummy - I think that may be something to do with the fact that I am not very good in the kitchen, AT ALL!) .

I also tried out some sandpaper colouring - we put some paper over the sandpaper and coloured, noting the texture.  We also tried colouring with crayons on the sandpaper and melting it in the oven (I got the idea here ) but nothing remarkable happened.

And we're on to week 2 - and our "theme" for this week is MAD SCIENCE!