BAM Camp- Garden

Week 2 is complete! The theme was the garden.

Monday we went to George Washington Carver. First we had a picnic.

Then we walked the trail. This was the slave house.

We had to take a few breaks, but Amelia walked the entire trail.

Bo with the statue of George as a kid.

The Carver house.

We found a turtle.

We checked out the museum. We spent between 3 and 4 hours at the park.

This is Bo's box. Bag of dirt from Dollar Tree is the base, fake flowers from there too, bugs I already had, an egg carton painted brown with pipe cleaner carrots, and a Fruits and Vegetables Toob.

It was fun!

Amelia had hair gel and magnetic letters.

Also very fun.

Tuesday the kids made handprint flowers. I cut and drew everything, but Bo did the rest by himself.

Wednesday we had a tent day. Bo was with his Mia and it rained.

Amelia did her box. She learned her colors in Spanish in about 15 minutes.

Thursday the kids played with the stuff in their bags.

Then we planted grass heads.

And we finished up with our boxes.

Bo's  Spanish words were:

Flor- flower

Tierra- dirt

Mariposa- butterfly

Abeja- bee

Pala- shovel

This is the video of our week.

BAM Camp- Camping

Tuesday was the first day of BAM Camp and it was a hit! This week's theme was camping. 

I made a video using a green screen to put me in the woods. I announced what we would be doing each day, how the bead system worked, the Spanish words, and what BAM camp was (B-Bo A-Amelia M-Morgan). Then I had three songs, The Campfire Song Song, Quíen es Rey (Who's the King), and I Married a Marshmallow. Each week we will have a song in Spanish, a funny song, and one related to our theme. Our Spanish words were familia- family, fuego- fire, árbol- tree, verano- summer, and bosque- forest. I showed the video after breakfast on Tuesday.

These bags are for the kids to carry when we go on adventures (field trips). When we aren't on a adventure they hold toys and activities for them to do while I get lunch ready or clean up.

Here's Bo's adventure contents. 

This is Amelia's.

Bo's shirt and name tag.

Amelia's

I used my Cricut to make the shirts with iron-on vinyl. They turned out way better than I thought.

Tuesday we sat up a tent on the deck.

We went "camping" for most of the morning.

We went on a "hike".

Bo was hunting for wooly mammoths and saber-tooth tigers.

Then we found the trampoline and had to play on it.

I got lunch together while they played with their bags.

Bo's camping box. Easter grass base, pan with water for our lake, card stock tents, parts of a River Toob, North American Wildlife Toob, and a Tree Toob.

This box was a special request that Bo made last summer.

Amelia's box was insects. The base is some grassy stuff I found at the Dollar Tree, the bugs I already had from previous boxes. I did have to take the spiders out because they were scary.

Wednesday we painted. Amelia used marshmallows.

Bo made a campfire.

While they dried we did our boxes.

Bo's

Amelia's

Thursday morning it rained, so I drug the tent into the living room. Bo turned off all the lights and we had some cereal and a show.

After breakfast we made s'mores on a stick. To make them crush some graham crackers. Melt some chocolate. Stab the marshmallows with sticks. Dip them into the chocolate and sprinkle with graham cracker crumbs. Set them on some parchment paper to dry. They were so easy even Amelia helped.

And licked the spoon.

Still raining so we had a picnic in the tent.

Finally the rain stopped so we headed outside to play in the puddles.

We wound up with mud tattoos and then a mud fight.

After a quick bath and change of clothes we did the boxes for the last time.

This year I'm handing out beads at the end of each week. Bo puts them on his BAM camp necklace. 

• Black-good behavior
• Yellow- FOB (Flat on Bed) at least 30 minutes without a fight.
• Blue- good eating 
• Orange- Journal page complete (Each week I will add another page to the black folder in his bag to help him learn his Spanish words. This week it had each word and a picture to color.)
• Red- Know all 5 Spanish words (I say "fuego" he says "fire")

This is a quick little video showing what we did this week.

Update

I know I haven't posted in quiet awhile, but my life has been pretty crazy lately. I've started watching the kids after school Monday thru Thursday. I have some pictures of stuff we have been doing. We eat lunch and read three books. Then Amelia goes to sleep. Bo either does busy bags, puzzles, coloring, iPad, or naps while I do homework. Basically I give him simple independent activities to do while I do homework. He usually sits at the table with me and is very quiet because he's an awesome kid like that. If I don't have too much homework and it's nice we head outside or to the park.

Next order of business is summer 2015. I have got BIG plans. Bo requested a summer camp so that's what we're going to do. I will give you guys the same hints I've given Bo:

     1. It is called BAM camp. 

     2. Each week has a theme and accompanying songs and activities. 

     3. We will be outside a ton!

 We had cinnamon scented play dough.

 Glow sticks in the bath tub

 PVC pip building

Bo drew a picture to go with a poem he learned at school. It was adorable.

I got an iPhone 6 and Jacob wanted to play with slow-mo.

 Dry erase on a shower curtain

 Valentines day cookie cutters to go with our play dough. We also had heart shaped sandwiches that day.

 We LOVE play dough.

 A new favorite is bathtub crayons.

 Bo and I did this one day while Amelia napped. It is all magnetic so we can do it again. The set came in a metal box and had several different plastic pages. Essential it's a magnetic color by number.

 Bo loves Color Wonder. I like it because it will only color on the Color Wonder paper.

 One day I brought chalk boards. Bo actually did a little reading with it. I would write a word like dog or mom and he would sound it out. 

 This funny kid likes to wear my keys and sunglasses while sitting in the front seat waiting to get Bo from school.

One day I had a lot of homework so we just went outside for a little while. We probably sang this song and danced around the driveway for an hour or more. Bo came up with it all on his own.

 It was beautiful last week, so we spent the day at the park and went walking in the woods near my old house.

Today is Spring Break and we had all day. It was warm enough to be out, so we went to Wildcat Park. First we visited the Nature Center and rode a frog. Then we walked the short loop (Amelia did surprising well. She walked the whole thing.). Then we had a picnic and headed home. We spent close to 4 hours there. It is one of Bo's favorite "adventures".

A Day at the Park

I picked the kiddos up today and we headed to the park with our picnic lunch. It doesn't get much better than 72 degrees in January. We all had a blast. Bo's photography is coming right along and Amelia is about to master the twisty slide.

Bo took a lot of the shots in this video. The kid loves GoPro.