The Seaweed is Always Greener ... Under the Sea!

Our Under the Sea unit is one of my favorites so it is one I have to keep doing each summer! Beckam LOVED it! We did so many fun things - a lot of them new this year. 

Click to see last year's "Under the Sea" unit!

"We'll be devotin' full time to floatin' under the sea!"

-  Disney's "The Little Mermaid"

Sponge Paint Sea Turtles

 

 Library Books

These were some of our favorites this year:

"Dips and Floats" Lunch with Friends

Beckam and four of his buddies took swim lessons together in our pool. On the last day of class we had a "Go For a Dip" Lunch afterwards. Everyone brought one dip-able food item to share. 

We had:

Chicken Nuggets and Sauce

Veggies and Ranch

Pita Chips and Hummus

Chips and Salsa

and Root beer FLOATS for dessert

Paper Plate Aquariums

Find instructions at enchantedlearning.com

Letters and Numbers Learning

I found this great book at Target. It is Pre K - K grade level so it has a great span of things to work on with my son this year as well next few to come. 

Under the Sea Book

I printed off free coloring pages from the internet and let Beckam color them. Then we stapled them together to make his very own Under the Sea Book.  

Octopus Veggies

My son came up with this one all on his own. We were eating bell peppers and dip after making his book and he held up one of the pepper slices and said "Mommy! Octopus leg!" He was right- it totally looked like one. So I arranged all the slices  to make it look like an actual octopus. He loved it!

Visit to the Aquarium

We got to touch star fish and horseshoes crabs and even pet some sting rays!

Fun with Play-Doh "Beach Creations Bucket"

Painted Paper Plate Ocean Life

Watch Little Mermaid and/or Finding Nemo 

We had a popcorn movie night in "mommy's bed" one night and watched Little Mermaid. Beckam had never seen it. He loved it! 

Bucket of Sand Dessert

See recipe on my previous Under the Sea post (see link above).

Jello Aquariums  

Sand Dough 

Mix 5 cups flour with 1 cup baby oil! Easy as pie!

Be a Fish!

We've done a lot of swimming!!

"Just look at the world around you
Right here on the ocean floor
Such wonderful things surround you
What more is you lookin' for?"
- "The Little Mermaid"

Back to the Days...

“Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have

 always been the two most beautiful words in the English

 language.” 

- Henry James

One of the very best parts of summer is being able to just relax - days spent poolside with popsicles in hand and nothing to do but cloud gaze and day dream. Unfortunately though, relaxing these days usually involves staring at a screen - iPad, phone, TV, computer, or otherwise.  Children (and adults) are forgetting the simple pleasures of being able to entertain themselves instead of always needing to be entertained by something.  That's why my mom created this specific unit - which she calls "Back to the Day of Pooh"- to help bring back some of the magic of the good old days- and to remind us to slow down, un-plug, and be present in our lives.  (For a more complete look at this unit, see my previous post HERE!)

To kick off our summer right, Beckam and I shut off TV, phones, and computers, and spent this last week doing nothing but enjoying summer... the old fashioned way!   

Here's what was on our list:

Go to the Park

Eat Ice-Cream and Go Swimming

Blow Bubbles

Do Sidewalk Chalk

Have Old-Fashioned Ice-cream Cookie Sundaes

Watercolor

Play Hopscotch

Beckam didn't totally get Hopscotch but it was a fun way to just practice  recognizing numbers. 

Eat Popsicles

Other Ideas:

Picnic lunches

Bowling

Night Games like "Kick the Can" or "Ghosts in the Graveyard"

Card and Board games

 Play Croquet

 Jump Rope

Ride Bikes

Read a Fun Novel Together

Go back to the days and ways of your 
own childhood summers
(Share with your children what you liked to play as a kid, or what your favorite treat was.  Or, have them ask a grandparent what they liked to do for fun when they were little.) 

Hope you all are having a fun-filled and relaxing summer too!