Here's what families have shared so far! We'll either keep adding as more comes in, or create a new post, depending on how full it gets.
Llewyn's family went to the Arlington reservoir and saw SWANS!
On their nature walk, they were greeted by so many bugs.
Shaving cream on blue paper made for perfect clouds.
And they found nice messages on the chalk board at the entrance of the mountain.
William has been dressing up. Here are a couple fun costumes (lion hair!!)
Digging in the yard and playing in the April snow...
In the kitchen, washing dishes...
and making cookies with his Grammy via Zoom.
Dancing with Mark, painting a cloud.
Jemima has enjoyed tricycling (in the snow?!), painting, and lots of playing outside. What a beautiful beech tree at Lindentree Farm!
Kairan got a HAWK kite for his birthday. A blustery day calls for three kites!
Dax has been busy!!!
Exploring different kitchen tools with homemade Play-Doh...
Playing in the snow
Sidewalk chalk,
and
some really great time with Daddy!
Brush painting with Tempura + finger painting with ketchup, mustard, strawberry jam, chocolate syrup and sour cream
Self-taught climbing on the counter and on Dad’s car. Upon reaching the top, exclaiming, “I LOVE this, Mom! I can see EVERYTHING!"
Driving very fast in the firetruck with Daddy! Neil was driving, Dax was the siren (left)
Ginger Black-Ear Pepper Kitty rescuing all the trucks that fell into the ocean (right)
Playing in their local creek down the street
Light housekeeping (left)
Looking for the ever-elusive Goldbug
Finding a real bug! The fuzziest black and brown caterpillar
Llewyn and his brother Eythan made a thank you sign.
Llewyn made a hungry caterpillar.
Llewyn found a piece of bark and said “Beautiful!”
Llewyn visits this stump to see if anything will appear on it, On Tuesday, there was still nothing on the stump, so Llewyn put a rock on it. The rock was still there on Thursday!
Llewyn and Eythan have been interested in planting acorns to see if they will grow, or if an animal will dig them up and eat them before they can grow. Here, they found an acorn that was sprouting and pink!
Llewyn and Eythan 's rest area –
they can see Boston!
Ferdinand plays this no-screen coding puzzle called Cubetto. https://www.primotoys.com/
Ferdinand sings along with Mark,
"On Top of Spaghetti!"
Above, "I'm making a colorful rainbow and then going to add some details."
Below, on the video call with Studio Blue - “so happy to see my friends” and “it was too short, only lasted a few seconds.”
Cassie and her sister Sylvie tied their swings together with a string so that Cassie wouldn’t need to be pushed. When this didn’t work so well, Cassie learned pretty quickly how to pump!
"Scootering!"
Hiking! (Cassie likes to dress herself) What you miss in the video is the spill Cassie took at the very end!
"Pink!"
"Black!"
"Green!"
This seems to be all different colors!
He always stops here to check if there are something on the stump. Sometimes, there are rocks or leaves, but nothing this time.
He caught a leaf using a stick.
They found a tree with so many holes – Llewyn was checking inside a hole.
And Llewyn made Aiken Drum, and a tree drawing in response to Mark's video!
On right: “Me saying ROAR!!!”
Below: “I snuggle him every day.”
William and Cassie shared their tree drawings in response to the Daily Invitation:
Willam's tree has apples on one side and leaves on the other. He also added roots. There is a beehive with bees and two holes. Top one has a squirrel and bottom one has a raccoon. William was very proud that his holes were made by “not making holes” but instead coloring around the holes!!
Cassie says the brown lines “are my branches for my nest and my blue jay.” I have a “shooting star in the sky.” And “it’s an apple tree - red and green apples.”
Sylvie, Cassie’s sister, also took on the challenge! There are babies in her nest and a dad bird bringing a worm. A chipmunk and owl on the trunk. (Her new signature is above the tree “like a real artist.”)
Here is the latest on Will's activity over the past few weeks! Telling jokes...
"What do you call a bear with no teeth?"
"A gummy bear!"
...Making up songs such as “my building's on fire,” “crab dip,” and “I’m going to outer space as soon as possible.”
Spending time outside.
Helping build a walkway.
Will and his next door neighbors made these wonderful signs to post on Will's fence. Will and Siena’s is the heart and handprints one.
Olivia explains: We are one of the major routes to Emerson Hospital so it's resulted in a lot of waves and honks from ambulances and firetrucks!
Cooking with Daddy, baking with Mama, and “reading” to Siena. (Siena humors him but is starting to feel like important plot points might be missing from The Lorax 😉) Will does an activity of his choice “while Daddy cooks” – on this day they paid tribute to the great Bill Withers and Will explored pointillism (aka “dot, dot, dot, dot”.)
Will is serious about painting rocks, too!
And Will has been doing loads of building.
Mark was doing some digging and found buried treasure – well maybe not actual treasure. He knows what one of the pieces is, but can't guess what the other two are. If anyone knows, please tell Mark!
On nature walks this week. Llewyn continued collecting rocks. He also found a piece of coal to color rocks. And he even saw a hawk chasing a squirrel!
Llewyn and his brother Eythan did “shaving cream marbling” using water and food coloring.
William made himself a clipboard to use at home.
He also baked a "crazy loaf of bread" with his family.
Outside, William did some solar viewing and then used his home clipboard to sketch what he saw.
William has also been learning how to ride his bike. Here is a video of William on his bike this week!
Ferdinand's dad was reminded of this when he saw Alice's shadow exploration (below)!
My Shadow By Robert Louis Stevenson
I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,
And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.
He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;
And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.
The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow—
Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;
For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,
And he sometimes gets so little that there’s none of him at all.
He hasn’t got a notion of how children ought to play,
And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.
He stays so close beside me, he’s a coward you can see;
I’d think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!
One morning, very early, before the sun was up,
I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;
But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,
Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.
This news in from our friend Alice!
Alice has spent time at a little stream, observing how fast different things travel down it: a leaf, small sticks, big sticks, a rock, an acorn without a hat and an acorn with a hat!
Alice has been outside… looking for her shadow all the time! When she sees it she yells, out, "Look, it's my shadow!"
"This one is going. The acorns with the hats go the best...
Alice on a little field trip to Hanscom to watch the planes take off. "It's going up in the air!"
And jamming with Mark.
...It goes far away."
Mark went on a bike ride...
...and saw many things!
Llewyn continues to take nature walks. He found a stick that looks like an airplane! They also found a small fort and a big fort. Llewyn made a paper plate sun catcher with his brother, Eythan, and played a duet with Eythan, too!
Vivian and her sister Tessa have been into yoga, lots of outdoor time with nature walks and playing in the backyard. They collected snow melting from the roof into these two large buckets and have been making all sorts of mud stews outside. We built a large cardboard box tent in our sunroom - and did Music with Mark in there.
News from Ferdinand: He built a parking garage with block and magnatiles, planted seed starts for our garden, baked muffins, put together a puzzle, played and dug in our mud pit, played the bucket drums. Ferdinand saw hawk! "Look, Hawk! He came to visit." We walk to a local house renovation and watch the progress almost daily.
During a FaceTime play date with William, Kairan and William mentioned Lauri’s cardboard box project. Watched it online and were so inspired: we built an emergency village. Roads, water canals, parks and of course a fire station, police station, ambulance station with helicopter pad. Kairan had a fire break out in the rotary. There is lots of smoke!
Jemima has been very excited to learn a new skill in the tennis court! “This is fun!”
She has also been cooking with her brothers to make the solar system in cookies. When they were finished she pointed and said “This one is where we live. And this one is for me”
We had a fun walk in the woods with lots of jumping - at first Jemima was nervous to jump off this big tree trunk “I can’t do it, no, I can’t do it” , then later, she tried and cried out “I did it! I can do it, I can do it! Look at me!” Then “I’m doing it again! I am flying!”
Mark takes a hike and finds an icy waterfall and a rock leaning on a tree that was a nice resting place.
Here is Kairan finding a stick and then deciding to make a lamp post out of it!
Dax has been very busy!!! Building cushion forts in the living room . . .Perfecting the “claw” tool . . . Seeing what else Magnatiles can stick to. . . Trains and cars around and around the table. . . . A deep dive back into our baby toys for simple puzzles, etc. . . . Check out Keekee the Rocking Monkey! . . . Goofing off . . . Taking the leaves out of our dining table. . . Painting Shamrocks to hang on our front window last week. Many families in Maynard did this so kids could walk around and count shamrocks. . . Looking out the window to see every person, dog, truck, emergency vehicle and mail carrier and delivery person that passes by our house. We knock on the window and wave to EVERYONE walking by. . . Digging, raking, clearing leaves out of the creek, climbing the hill, making a stick fort. We buried a dead possum we found up in the woods here. Dax is pretty sure it was a skunk, but Daddy did the job and confirmed it was a possum. . . Building a car garage on the deck with Daddy. . . Enjoying the wide range of weather. Each day brings something new. It’s been fun to walk around and look for sprouting plants, buds on trees, worms and bugs.
Arlo's family has been taking lots of walks on the rail trail and Arlo is doing great on his balance bike! They are also doing a lot of playing inside -- yoga, picnics, in boxes, etc. And Arlo is SINGING up a storm!
Cassie was building rocketships for her friends. She took them to the “moon” (a round table) and “they floated around in space.” Later, Cassie was drawing: “making the circles in the park that you can go through.” “I go there with my friends in Studio Blue.”
Jemima has been doing lots of exploring and playing outside. She has been happy to visit the sculpture park with her brothers and sisters, showing them around and saying “this way! Come with me!” Then telling the others how you behave with the sculptures “You can not touch. You must to look”. When they reached the big boulder, she said “ You do this, look at me!” , then showed us all how to slide down.
Jemima made a kind of tapestry and found a good way to hang it up.
“This is the doctors and this is the waiting room. The baby needs to go to the doctor.”
At Plum Island, bouncing on driftwood: “It is fun, bouncy! Its a bit ow-y.” Looking for birds with binoculars: “I need my noculars! Quick! I need my noculars!”
“I am a snake! I am trying to wiggle. The Hunters are coming! I am hiding!”
The whole family listened to music and did some yoga with Mark and Jemima went to fetch the ukulele.
Rie tells us: There is a tiny mountain in our neighborhood, so we took a nature walk almost every day. Llewyn collected rocks and planted some acorns with his big brother, Eythan. He also found a pine stick to clean rocks. He helped me to make cupcakes.
He made a pancake with a strawberry, a blueberry and a carrot (see purple and green creation below!)
Kairan’s family went to Mt misery (on a rotation of all the conservation land each day!). Kristen reports: “Coming down the hill they heard the deafening sound of peepers. It was amazing. And so beautiful, early spring.”
Cassie and her sister Sylvie played with shaving cream and food coloring . . .
built a “super carriage”. . .
and made people with disposable gloves.
Then they drew with Mo Willems!
Alice has been busy watching
the birds nearby...
“That’s Arlo’s birdy! It’s black.”
Kristie explains:
Alice has been watching the herons fly behind our house over the last week. We went on a walk to get a closer look at the nest on Wednesday and we saw the heron flying overhead. Alice said, “He’s going to his nest cause he found his mommy in his nest.”
Canadian geese in the pond behind our house. We’ve also been watching the Canadian geese the last couple of weeks. On a walk, we saw a flock of them on the water. Alice said, “They put their bottoms in the air. They’re drinking the water. I need to go in the water and touch them. They’re swimming. I need to swim with them and get my bathing suit.”
Will has been bringing circle time home and working on balance (aren’t we all!)
Vivian and her sister
Tessa followed along
in music with Mark!
William's family collected maple sap from their tree and then boiled it down (while making cookies!).
On right: William made a “crab boat”
William helped fix the sink (literally!)
Their family has gone on many walks. Here’s a snowy one on St Patrick’s Day
Near Hanscom field.
William looked for signs of spring and found some plants coming up in his yard!
He found some new leaves on a rose bush.
And, of course, puddles are a sign of spring!
