August has been a busier month with some vacation and outdoor day camps, but we’ve still relied on the bingo board to round things out. Recently we had a lot of fun building LEGO animals with basic bricks. I’m super excited that our LEGO conversations have moved away from which sets he’s hoping we buy. Instead my kid is making his own “sets”. I don’t think it hurt that we also rewatched the LEGO movie. Nice to see him tapping into his creativity as he strives to become a “master builder”.
Elephant and reindeer inspired by YouTube videos, plus “parrot” as envisioned by my kid
We’ve also been focusing on helpfulness these past few weeks, from weeding (didn’t get that in July, but came back to it in August), to vacuuming, to folding laundry, to helping prepare food! Tonight we worked together to make falafel burgers – garbanzo deliciousness. Tying these activities to the bingo board did help garner excitement. The chore chart has been created and, at least for now,my child is proud of his helpfulness. I’m hoping to take advantage of this momentum and build a chore muscle.
We’ve been out in the woods on holidaya bunch this month, so I’m a little behind posting about our August bingo adventures. With so much time driving, we had the chance to go deep into a few podcasts. Story Pirates was already a favorite and perfect for the road. The Poisonous Butterfly/Cartwheel Girl was the episode my kid loved the most in Season 3. Packed with zombies, a girl scientist who saves her town with help from bugs, and a “baby with a mustache” what’s not to love? We also all sang along with Noodle Loaf. In fact, I can’t get the “Weird Picnics” song from the July 1 episode out of my head. Plus it was lovely to hear the host’s young bi-racial daughters talk about skin color and, particularly, how much they love their own.
Try Dr. Sherri’s “Emotion Experiments” from The Imagine Neighborhood
Still, the podcast that been the biggest hit with my kid is The Imagine Neighborhood. While not quite as outlandish as the Story Pirates, there is still a lot of silliness to tickle his funny bone. And it really does spark conversations about the feelings highlighted in each episode. Facing fears, calming down, practicing patience, learning to ask for help, putting yourself in someone else’s shoes, problem solving… it’s all covered! 🙂 I’ve been super pleased with the content and my child’s engagement. In addition to the episodes, the site offers some really great supplemental resources including behind the scenes peeks into how sound and music interplay with feelings and “emotion experiments” with Dr. Sherri. Check out the daily activities for the Switcheroo episode as an example.
Being out camping was also a good time to try the solar oven. It worked okay, and perhaps could have performed a little better with more precise craftsmanship, but you really can’t lose when you are giving kids chocolate and marshmallows 😉 I’l tell you what really demonstrated the power of the sun… leaving Hershey bars out on the picnic table to be bombarded by the hot rays. And of course the gooey chocolate tasted just fine.
