Celebrating Cold, Snowy Weeks...and a new AHA moment

This looks like its going to be a long snowy, stormy week. I love weeks like this--but they can get exhausting. Along with hours of snow play we need hours of interesting inside play (besides the usual legos, reading, board games and general toy playing) I was inspired this morning by a bag of white foamy things my mom acquired for us. I have no idea what their real purpose is only that when I looked at them this morning I suddenly thought "IGLOO!"  Of course I added an educational aspect to it--we researched igloos and how they are really made. We found this awesome article which included a video. The kids were inspired and what was a bag of white foamy things turned into three cute little igloos.

ok so they had their fun crafty moment this morning I had mine (although they did help) on Sunday. I gave an Apparent Project presentation at a beautiful home several weeks ago. As I pulled up I noticed they had ice lanterns lining the walkway to their house--it was gorgeous and I wanted to do it too (of course--I have a thing for candle light in the winter). They were easy to make --I used a bucket then found a container slightly smaller than the bucket. I put rocks in the smaller container (keep it from floating) and placed in in the larger bucket. I then filled the larger bucket about half way with water. Then I put leaves, bark, dead flowers, pine cones, acorns, pine tree branches--any pieces of nature we could find --and put them in the water. I left them outside in the shade of our house till Sunday when they were frozen solid. I brought them in the house and ran warm water to loosen them (Note here make sure the inner container has smooth sides--no ridges. My inner containers had ridges so the ridge got hung up on the ice and was hard to remove) And Voila....

And now for the AHA moment: With the help of a free kindle book Book Love: Help Your Child Grown form Reluctant to Enthusiastic Reader by Melissa Taylor  I made a simple tool to help Jaden read better. Jaden has a pluthera of eye issues--the worst of which is ambliopia (sp?) and with that comes eye muscle problems. Now that most of his major vision issues are really corrected by his glasses and he seems "more used to" his glasses his other eye issues are rearing their heads. Anyway I made him a reading tracker--now the book recommends buying one here BUT for the price I decided I could easily make my own with a couple index cards and clear packing tape. Enough said. I made one. He used it and voila problem solved. Frustration level for him: eliminated!!!!