Week In Training Review: Week 5

This week, I've been trying out a new app on my Android to help me with my outside runs. On my treadmill, it is easy to track pace, distance, and calories burned. Outside, it is easy to track distance by mapping out a route on the computer, and average pace by timing the entire run, but getting times per mile and real-time pace is a bit trickier. Recently, I've been looking into purchasing a GPS watch but when I saw the prices, I decided to figure out a way to make-do with what I have. The app that I was previously using was called SmartTrainer, and I did not like it very much. It was inaccurate, would crash frequently, and did not really do the things it claimed to do. I need something that can tell me my current pace, what time I finished each mile, and my overall time and distance.

I decided to try Endomondo first. It has all of the features that I need, and the paid version has a setting that saves the battery of the phone. Unlike SmartTrainer, it only uses GPS rather than a combination of GPS and tracking your steps. This seems to make it much more accurate.While the real-time pace did not seem accurate at all and jumped all over the place, the overall average pace seemed extremely accurate and consistent.

I really suggest that if you're going to use a phone during your runs, that you get an armband. I bought one that is made for an iphone, by Belkin, but my android fits inside and I can still use the touch screen through the protective cover.

This week's schedule:

Week	Mon.	Tue.	Wed.	Thu.	Fri.	Sat.	Sun.
5	Off	4M	4M	6M	6M	3M	off (traveling) Mon. 11M

I met a personal record this week and ran eleven miles! I am showing this Monday's workout because the eleven miles was supposed to happen on Sunday but due to traveling, it had to happen on Monday. Even though technically it belonged to week 6, it is really part of week 5's schedule.

I was beginning to become discouraged with my long runs. Until this Monday, I had been unable to get to 10 miles. I was beginning to doubt my ability to finish a 13.1 mile race by August 21st, which is when my first half marathon is going to be. But now that I've broken through that wall, I am much more confident that I can do this. My only long run before the race will be only 8 miles, so this past Monday was my last chance to prove to myself that it's possible.

Butterfly Songs

I found this song on youtube and then created different colored butterfly di-cuts to use on our magnet board. The song is really simple to learn, and you can create a variety of different colors to use in the song by attaching a self-sticking magnet strip to the back of paper di-cuts.





We have also been doing this fingerplay:

There was a little caterpillar crawling all about.
He worked and he worked and worked all day without a single doubt.
(Index finger wiggling)

Wrapping himself in a snug cocoon.
Waiting and waiting, will it be soon?
(Cover index finger with other hand.)

Look, he’s coming out, my oh my!
For now he’s become a beautiful butterfly.
(Cross thumbs and let fingers be fingers be butterfly wings.)

Butterfly Art

In the fall, during wooly bear season, I shared a fun caterpillar craft. That would have been a fun activity that would have more of a creative element than the following activities, but since we still have that caterpillar hanging on our fridge, I decided to choose a craft activity that encompasses the entire life cycle of a butterfly. Although it is less open ended, it demonstrates all four stages of a butterfly's life in a way that kids identify with and find fun.

We created a diagram of a butterfly's life cycle by using pasta!

We used four different shapes to represent each stage. Ditalini for the eggs, penne for the caterpillars, shells for the chrysalis, and farfalle (bowtie) for the butterflies!

I used a green marker to divide a piece of printer paper into four rectangles, and labeled each section with the appropriate stage. I also drew a leaf in three of the sections, and clouds and the sun in the section for the butterflies. Older kids can do this step themselves, or you can use cut outs for your child to glue on by themselves.

I got a book that Jonah is very familiar with, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and we went through the book talking about when the caterpillar was an egg, a caterpillar, a cocoon, and a butterfly. I was impressed that Jonah was able to name each stage while talking about the story. 

After having him identify the stage, I asked him which pasta was shaped like that. For example when we read "In the light of the moon, an egg lay on a leaf" in the book, I asked him "What is he first? What is that? An egg! Which pasta looks like the egg?" He was pretty able to identify what the shapes were meant to resemble. He then colored the shape with markers.

Then he used glue to place the pasta on the diagram.

We repeated this for all of the stages, continuing to follow the book as our guide to a butterfly's life. Jonah really enjoyed the "game" of matching the shape of pasta to what the character in the book was doing.

When Jonah was finished, we reviewed all of the stages, then set the picture aside for the glue to dry. When Daryl came home, Jonah was so excited and proud to show his Daddy what he had made, and what he learned about how a caterpillar turns into a butterfly!

Butterfly Literature

We picked up some books from the library to go along with our butterfly themed learning activities this week. Both Jonah and Eve really enjoy reading and looking at these books, because the pages are so colorful!

Waiting For Wings by Lois Ehlert: I really enjoy Lois Ehlert's children's literature. The stories have a nice calming rhythm, and explain things that children encounter every day, in a simple yet elegant way. The illustrations are unique and captivating. Jonah really likes to turn the pages in this book because they vary in size, overlapping pictures of several pages. The story tells the tale of how an egg turns into a butterfly.

My Butterfly Book (a smithsonian board book): This is a board book containing beautiful photographs of different kinds of butterflies. The book asks questions about the color of each butterfly, but my kids could care less about the words, they just want to look at the vivid images.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar By Eric Carle: This is the classic book that everyone thinks about when it comes to caterpillars and butterflies. There is a good reason! Not only are the pictures interesting, but the story is very easy for young children to understand. We love counting each item that the caterpillar ate, and the story includes every stage of a butterfly's life, in very distinct stages that children can understand.

Butterflies!An Introduction

This week, we are talking about butterflies! To get started, we took a couple of field trips. During breakfast, I asked Jonah if he's ever seen butterflies in our yard. I asked him what colors of butterflies he's seen? Were they big or little? How many has he seen? What were they doing when he saw them? Where were they?

Then we headed outside to see if we could observe butterflies in our yard.

 

We looked all around our yard. While we were able to observe quite a bit of nature, we only saw one white butterfly, for a fleeting moment.

Because we didn't see very many butterflies in our yard, we headed to the Cleveland Zoo where an exhibit called "Flutter" puts visitors in a green house full of beautiful butterflies, and demonstrates how butterflies change from caterpillars to elegant winged creatures.

Both of the kids enjoyed seeing the butterflies flit from the flowers and trees inside. While we were there, I asked the same semi-open ended questions: What colors are we seeing? Where do the butterflies like to land? How many can you count? What are they doing? Can you see a big one? Can you find a little one?

I am really glad that we started this "unit" by observing butterflies up close. Jonah seems to be inspired to learn about them, and excited to do more activities involving these lovely little creatures.

Baby Fever

Me: It seems like all my friends are pregnant... again!!! How does this keep happening!?

Daryl: ....ummmm....

Me: Don't look at me like that, I know how it happens!

I can't say that adding number three to our brood hasn't crossed our minds. In fact I think about it almost every day. We had never planned on stopping at two. And I think I can correctly speak for Daryl's half and say that neither of us really feel quite complete yet. The stack of cards that we have been dealt means that we have to think this through a little more carefully than we have in the past.

For now, I'm happy with focusing on my upcoming half-marathons. And living vicariously through my friends' ultrasound pictures and facebook statae that depict their midnight cravings for ice cream and breakfast cereals. I'm plenty busy chasing after the two that I already have, thank you!

Bubbles, Bubbles, Everywhere!

My bestie, Elizabeth, helped me come up with the measurements for this bubble solution "recipe." A good friend is one who will help you with a math problem, even when she's halfway around the globe. We figured out the measurements for three ounces, because it is easy to find three ounce bottles to store it in (they are usually next to the travel sized products) It is also much easier for kids to manage the amounts when making just three ounces, and part of the fun of this activity is that your kid can make the solution with your help.

For 3 oz of bubble solution, you will need:

1/3 cup water

1 ½ tsp dawn dish soap

½ tsp light karo syrup

For large batches use

1 part dawn dish soap

10 part water

.25 part light karo syrup

In my opinion, it is important that you use Dawn brand dish soap. The liquid, concentrated kind. I have made a lot of bubble solutions. Dawn makes the best. They didn't pay me to say that. Also, if you don't want to use light Karo syrup, you can use glycerin, which can be found at almost any pharmacy or drug store. Karo syrup gives you equal results at a much less cost. It will be either in the baking section of the grocery store, or next to the pancake syrup.

The Ultimate Super Cool Amaze Your Friends Bubble Blowing Apparatus:
you will need-
printer paper
tape
scissors

Roll the paper into a cone shaped tube. Make sure you have one end that is very narrow, and one end that is very wide and open.

Tape the edges of the paper so that it stays rolled up. Make sure there is no tape close to the wide end of the tube.

 Trim both ends of the tube with the scissors.

Dip the wide end of the tube into bubble solution.  

Holding the tube downward at first, blow gently into the narrow end of the tube. Breath through your nose and continue blowing with your mouth through the tube to watch your bubble grow to gigantic proportions! To release the bubble from the tube, slide the tube sideways off of the bubble.

This works better the wetter the paper tube is. The first couple of tries, you might get "duds." After dipping it into the solution a few times, the blower will start to soak up bubble mixture. The wet paper will hold onto the bubbles better (rather than the bubble hitting a dry spot on the paper and popping!) and the bubble solution that the paper has sucked up will continue to feed the bubble as it gets bugger and bigger, so you won't run out of bubble solution for any one bubble. That is why you can blow such big bubbles with this tube.