Lots of stuff

I've slacked on blogging, but we haven't been slacking on learning. We took a trip to Arizona to see Casey on the Babbitt Ranch. Before we left we put up the map poster of North America and put a push pin where we live and where we were going and talked about all the states we would have to drive through to get there. I pointed out every time we came into a new state and we even stopped in Texas and took this picture.

One thing we seemed to talk a lot about was how the mountains changed as we drove across the country. Alex was really interested in that. She would say, "Oh mommy! Look at that mountain! It beautiful!"
The girls had a great time on the ranch. They got to help feed the horses and calves, ride the horses, pet the horses, play in the dirt & rocks, meet some other cowboys & watch them work the colts, and ride around the ranch in the pick up truck.
We visited the Grand Canyon while we were there. Instead of getting into the science of how the it came to be, I just asked Alex who made the Grand Canyon. "God did!" Yep, that sums it up. We can talk about the technicalities like erosion, etc. when they get older.
In the van they had lots of time to watch movies. In addition to HSM3, Horton & The Little Mermaid... they also watch The Letter Factory & Sesame Street ABC's.
Back home we have been going with the flow and adjusting to the time change. One morning we made mosaic pictures with construction paper and glue sticks. We would paint (with the glue stick) on a shape or letter and they would place the little paper pieces. Emma made the letter Z, a circle, a flower and the sun. Alex made a letter R, a triangle, a flower and a sun. The letters were to practice the ones they have a little more trouble with, the shapes were mainly for Emma's benefit, and the flower and sun were because spring is coming. We talked about all of those things as we worked.
Carrie found some great Sesame Street board books at Target for a dollar, and we have had fun with those the last few days. We have read the books together, but the girls look at them a lot on their own also. I noticed Alex reading to herself the other day and looking for shapes in our living room that she was looking at in the book. "Hmmm... that a square...." that a circle..."
Lots of learning seems to be taking place in the bathtub lately. The girls got bathtub crayons for Christmas and we've been playing with them often. We write letters, peoples, names, shapes, etc. and draw animals, people, houses, flowers, etc. The girls have one request after another and we just draw and write and until the water is too cold and they have to get out. It is also good for them to practice writing on the wall (like a dry erase or chalk board) because it develops their fine motor skills. They can't lean their weight on anything when they write on the wall and it takes more body control.
Alex makes it easy to do so much because she is curious. "Let's do this... What this letter?... What this say?..." Seems like we are identifying letters and sounding out words wherever we go. She can't sound anything out on her own yet, but identifying the letters and understanding that together the letters make words is progress.