The Little Legers

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Eve's First Ballet Class {Part I: At the Barre}

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

The Wait is Finally Over!!!!

2011

Eve (and Jack) patiently watching and waiting at Grace's ballet class

2012

Eve patiently watching and waiting at Jack's first ballet class

2013

Eve patiently watching and waiting at Jack's ballet class...

...more watching and waiting for Eve!

January 15, 2014

The watching and waiting for Eve is finally over...

Eve had her very first ballet class this morning at Maine State Ballet!!!

Lots of pictures of my newest prima ballerina coming tomorrow.

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Combing Art & Science With a Color Changing Milk Experiment!

I love combining art and science activities with my children. This color changing milk experiment was the perfect activity to do just that! This experiment involved using only three ingredients: milk, food coloring and dish soap. Here's how we did it: First we added just enough milk to cover the bottom of a plate. Next, we added drops of red, blue, yellow and green food coloring to the milk. Using a dropper or a cotton swab covered in dish soap, we placed the dish soap/cotton swab in the center of the milk dish. We discovered within seconds that the dish of milk became full of color! We were so mesmerized with this experiment that we ended up doing it again and again! The best part of this activity is that the colors continued to move and dance long after the cotton swab was removed from the dish.

After adding the dish soap we saw the milk react and begin to disperse the food coloring in a very colorful display like this. It was like a tiny living ocean of beautiful colors!

Here is the science behind why this experiment works: "Food coloring is less dense than the milk itself - so it remains suspended within the fat molecules of the milk. The dish soap breaks up the fat molecules, which then spread across the surface of the milk. As the molecules break and expand, they create movement in the milk and pull the food coloring along for the ride!"

After thinking about why this experiment works, Jack was able to explain to me why skim milk or water would not yield the same results (or any results at all)...some great critical thinking skills by Jack!

Here are a few pictures of Jack and Eve conducting this experiment:

So beautiful and intriguing how all of this works. I'm not sure who had more fun with this...me or my children! :)

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Getting Out!

It was so nice to see the sun shining today after what seems like a very loooooong stretch of snow, freezing rain or below zero temperatures. We took full advantage of the warmer weather today (doesn't 30 degrees feel fabulous now?!!) and put on some snowshoes to enjoy a beautiful hike in the woods along a snowmobile trail path near our home.

Friday, January 10, 2014

The Book Order...

Every month Grace's teacher sends home the book order and you wouldn't believe what that is like at our house. The only way I can think to describe it is like Christmas, New Year's, everyone's birthday, the Fourth of July fireworks and all of the other holidays and big events wrapped into those book order pages (really and truly!). As soon as we arrived home from school today Grace, Jack and Eve ran to the couch as fast as their little legs could carry them and sat together in silence to examine every square inch of those book order pages (for those of you who know my children, that is extremely rare since all three of them are very big talkers). It was only after every book was studied in detail that the talking resumed once again. Grace, Jack and Eve excitedly began to me (all at the same time!) what their favorite books were. Oh, I do so love that book order...a very rare moment of silence followed by three very happy and very excited little ones! :)

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Reading the Dictionary...

As I walked by Grace's room one night this week I was surprised to see that the light in her room was still on long after I had tucked her in for the night. I opened her door to find Grace wide awake in bed and reading and rather large book. I asked Grace what she was reading and in a nonchalant manner she said, "The dictionary." I smiled and thought....of course she is! The best part was that Grace had a pad of bright pink post-it notes next to her and she had at least twenty pages marked in her dictionary.

How I loved walking into Grace's room and seeing this because it is so very much her. Ever since Grace was an infant she has had such an intense desire to learn. Every day Grace challenges me by asking such deep and intense questions in order to fully understand every situation or event. I find myself doing daily research on a variety of subject matter for Grace and every day I learn something new from her. I can't wait to see what becomes of this my girl someday!