Nathan's Big Adventure: Summer 2010

This week's theme is SPORTS.

We started our week with a field trip to the Palaestra Gym. Our playgroup won a party there and we were very happy to attend. They have gym equipment, several trampolines and even had two bounce houses.

Nathan loved the trampolines. They had an extra long one for tumbling. Nathan ran down it over and over and over. I ran down a couple of times. It was really fun! The two bounce houses are in the background. One was Disney Princess with an obstacle course and the other was a giant fire truck with a tall slide.

Nathan coming down the slide. He was moving so fast all over the gym, it was hard to get a good photo of him.

Nathan loved this gym. We both got lots of exercise there. He didn't want to leave when our time was up. We will be going back in a couple of weeks and we can't wait!!

We also did a couple of craft projects. Nathan painted different sports balls on construction paper. Mommy cut them out. Then, Nathan stuffed them with shredded paper and stapled them shut.

Nathan painting a football.

Here are the finished balls hanging from the kitchen ceiling. We made soccer balls, footballs, basketballs and baseballs.

Nathan and I played basketball in the living room. We gathered all different sized balls that we could find around the house. Then we took turns throwing them into a laundry basket. We only keep score by the amount of fun that we were having.

Our sensory tub this week was filled with Cheerios. I added some sport ball whistles and erasures that I found in the party section of the store. I always put a magnifying glass in the tub so Nathan can get a close look at everything. I also add a couple of plastic eggs to hide items in or fill them up with Cherrios and shake them.

Nathan likes to play with the sensory tub outside. I put a blanket on the patio and he will sit and play in the tub for a long time.

Our second craft that we made was a torch. Nathan remembered the Olympic torch they had at school for their Olympic Field Day.

Our torch was made from a paper towel tube. Nathan started to paint it with a brush but finished with his hands.

He liked squishing his hands in the paint.

Messy Hands

When the torch was dried, he decorated it with some blue glitter glue. Then, we glued orange tissue paper at the top for the flames.

Nathan and I visited the library and checked several sports books out. We read books about baseball, football, soccer, basketball, hockey and golf. Our favorite books were:

Let's Play Basketball! by Charles R. Smith Jr.