Garden of the Good Shepherd Week 4

I don't have extra activities planned for every day this coming week partly because we had to skip so many from this past week due to unforeseen complications (see below!) that we plan on making them up this week and also... because next week is HARD! My brain just couldn't get in gear to come up with fun things to do. Maybe it was the lack of hot water. Thankfully, the magic of the internet allows me to pick someone else's brain for inspiration and you can't get more inspiring than this lady. Jessica had some great ideas that I hope she doesn't mind if I share. Two heads are truly better than one! Here is what we came up with:


The Boat~ Banana Boats (Jessica suggested Origami Boats and Boats by Anne Rockwell)

The Mast~ I was stumped! Jessica recommended painting a cross on the sail of the model boat with daddy and making Bread Dough Crosses (page 136 Catholic Traditions) to represent the cross as the mast of the Catholic Church. Awesome!

The Sail~ Again, Jessica to the rescue! Hang sail on mast of model boat with daddy. Experiment with "What sinks and what floats". Make Deviled Egg Sailboats. Aren't they cute?

The Net~ Fishers of men net craft idea from Marianne which I think I first saw on Dawn's but couldn't find a link for.

The Fishes~ Jessica has a lot of ideas for this one:

• Buy a goldfish
• Play Go Fish
• Fish Snack: Need: Blue napkins, medicine cups, pretzels, gold fish crackers, peanut butter
  Open up napkin and place fish in the middle. (The napkin is the ocean.) Have peanut butter in the cup. (This is the bait cup.) Use pretzels for fishing rods. Dip in bait (peanut butter) and catch a fish. Eat fish and bait. Keep fishing until all the fish are eaten.
• Fish in the Sea Snack: Need: Italian bread or French bread, Cream cheese, Goldfish crackers, Blue food coloring
  Slice bread. Mix blue food color and cream cheese. Spread cream cheese on bread. Put goldfish in the blue sea.

The Barbecue~ Grill some fish out on the patio, of course!

The Leviathan~ We have a wonderful aquarium that we haven't been to in a while. Jessica doesn't have an aquarium nearby so they are considering a calimari dinner and a reading of St. George and the Dragon in preparation for the 23rd. Which by the way... gives you plenty of time to make you own dragon to slay! I did end up making butter knife swords as you can see here. If I get the chance, I will post how I made our dragon or you can check out this one which is similar.

Enjoy your weekend and week to come. Hopefully, next week we won't have any reason not to be back on track. Have a lovely weekend and if anyone wants some free firewood...shoot me an email! : )