Two Learning Activities

We've had a couple of learning activities in the past few days that the kids really enjoyed.  The first one was that we held our "store" again.  This time we pretended that the kids woke up one morning as grown-ups, and none of their kid sized clothes fit so they needed to shop for adult clothes.  We incorporated the money again, and then just for kicks I interviewed Logan for his first adult job.  He wanted to be a pilot.  He did rather well for a four year old.  :)

They liked this activity so well, that they kept repeating it later that day.

The other activity was sparked from the fact that we have a LOT of birds in the area that we live and we are constantly watching them in our backyard.  I thought it would be fun to see if we could get a closer view of these birds, and try to identify some of them.  So we spent a couple dollars on birdseed, and made ourselves a bird feeder.

It's made from an ice cream bucket and a sour cream container bolted together on the bottom.

We painted it yellow...

Then added our beautiful artistic touches!

We hung it outside our dining room window where we can also see it from the living room and kitchen, and we've had a lot of feathered friends come to visit!  Unfortunately I haven't been able to get a good picture of one because they always fly off before I can.  The visitor in this picture is our most common guest, but we haven't figured out what he is.  So far my best guess is a black phoebe.  We've got a lot of other birds visiting, though: blue ones, yellow ones, brown ones, red ones, with so many patterns, and we definitely identified a bright red cardinal (although he wasn't enjoying the birdfeeder).  He must live in a nearby tree because we hear his call every morning at 6:30 and it's VERY distinct.  At first I thought I was hearing a bird call, but then I thought it might not be because it was so rhythmic.  Today I stood a few feet away from him and watched him do it.  I guess I can't ask any neighbors to turn off that "alarm clock".  Anyway, our whole family is enjoying these birds.  The kids are fascinated and Logan has all sorts of questions about them.