Post office

Lately Lila has been very interested in how the mail system works.  She likes to write and deliver mail.  We went to the post office to mail some packages and I decided that we should make a post office/mail center at home.  We started saving and collecting boxes around Christmas.  The first thing we did was paint them.  The girls insisted that we do all sorts of colors and not just blue.  It took a few days to paint and cover all of the boxes. 

Once the mailboxes were painted we added flags to the small ones to indicate that mail was ready to be picked up-although that doesn't work in real life at my house.  We then added signs to indicate what the mailbox was to be used for-packages, local mail, out of town.....  Lila did a lot of the writing herself.

Each of these mailboxes are currently labeled with a color and a number.  I created some sorting games to use with these which I will show later.

The flags were added using fasteners. 

The large mailbox is a large box with all of the flaps taped up to make it look taller.

Some of the mail that we use is simply just junk mail that came to our house.  We made "packages" by wrapping some of our blocks in paper.  Other games we made using envelopes and note cards.  They also have a basket of different sizes of envelopes.  We make our own stamps using label stickers and cutting them. 

General mail with the name of some of their friends

Packages

Lila and I made these math games.  Count the stickers and put the envelope in the mailbox that has the answer.  The answer is on the back for help if needed.

(2+2=4 goes in mailbox 4)

We cut out pictures from the newspaper of different colored items.  The kids put each piece of mail into the matching mailbox.

Counting and number recognition.  The ones with words has the number on the back for self correcting.

Our post office also has a cash register, money, a scale and a list of prices (dictated by Lila)

Weighing a package to determine how much it will cost

Pretty pricey- unless you want to mail a little girl:)

Overall, it took about 2 weeks to finish everything.  The girls really like it though!

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$4 please-per Lila's rates.  I have a pic with both girls in it but I cannot seem to find it.  Somehow they can both squeeze their way in!

Milk Please! It's a long one!

Today I was determined to keep the tv off all morning so I loaded our morning up with activities that revolved around milk!  I was going through some of my teacher junk and came across one of my Mailbox Magazines that had a small section about fun with milk.  I had a lot of what was needed to do the science project and then remember some stuff that I had done the past when I was teaching.  Here are some things that we did:

First we did a taste test to see if you could tell the difference between whole milk, skim milk and heavy whipping cream.  The answer was not really.  They liked all 3!

I had them make a happy or sad face depending on how they felt about the milk.  I then told them to color the cup to the milk that was their favorite.  Sophia colored them all and Lila colored the skim milk.

While we were tasting milk, we mixed strawberry milk.  At first Lila did not want to try it but Sophia tried it right away so eventually she tried it.  Guess what?  They liked it:)

Next we decided to see what happens to milk when you add fresh lemon juice to milk.  Essentially the milk turns sour because of the acid.  We made a chart to predict what would happen and then recorded what did happen.  I taught them the word curdle as well.

Lila was so into this!  She was quick to say all of the things that were wrong with our predictions.

Pouring the lemon juice into the milk

Taking a peek at the changes happening

Eww!  It is disgusting!

Thick and chunky-yum:)

Then we decided to make rainbow milk.  It a very fun science project.  The girls made swirls and designs for nearly 25 minutes.  All you need is milk, dish soap and food coloring.  We filled the glass dish with a thin layer of milk.  They then placed drops of food coloring in the milk.  We then dipped a cue tip in dish soap and put the tip in the milk.  The colors start to move around.  My kids couldn't resist mixing colors and also stirring which you really do not need to do.

Did you know that you can make butter by shaking whipping cream in a closed container?  It takes A LOT of shaking!  The kids gave up after about a minute.  Of course, I had to finish it.  They then sampled the butter on a cracker.  They made sure to leave Daddy some!

We also made "ice cream."  It wasn't a huge hit.....  Also, more shaking to be done by me.  All you need is ice, milk, vanilla, sugar and salt.  Mix the milk, sugar and vanilla in a small bag.  I then filled a larger bag with ice and add about 1/4 cup of salt.  Put the small bag in the large bag and shake, shake, shake!

We read the book It Looked Like Spilt Milk.
The girls then made their own mini books.  We took paper and folded it in half.  The girls then took white paint and put in in the middle of the paper.  They folded it and smeared the paint around.  When they were dry, they told me what they thought it looked like.  They love reading their books to each other and me!

Lastly, we painted with liquid coffee creamer.  I added food coloring to the creamer and the girls painted with it as if it were water colors.  When it dries, it looks glossy- although it is hard to tell in the picture.  Lila really enjoyed it.

Success!  No tv all morning!