Chess at 3

I am introducing Tyler Schwartz from Chess At 3 today.

His curriculum teaches young children how to play chess in a fun way!

 

 Chess At 3’s new approach to teaching young children the complex strategies of chess is simply genius!  Using a remarkable, story-based curriculum - used in the top preschools in New York City and all over the world - the complexity of understanding the rules and unfamiliar names of the pieces becomes easy for children as young as three years old to understand and immediately comprehend.  Chess At 3’s curriculum consists of 20 fun stories along with teachers notes and commentary. 

The curriculum focuses on teaching the students about the “roles” of each chess piece through a series of remarkable stories, in which each chess piece stars as the “main character” of the story.  Following each story, the students will break into groups, where they learn how each piece “likes” to move.  Once the students learn how each piece “likes” to move, the last two lessons will focus on “Secret Missions” or chess tasks that will teach strategy and focus.  Each session is approximately 30 minutes long.

Chess is a nice analogy for life: Both require giving some serious thought before making your next move and anticipating the consequences of your actions.  Give your children the gift of chess with Chess At 3. 

Rockabye Butterfly's note:  I have received a free copy of the Chess At 3 curriculum and I'd like to share that the stories to introduce each piece of the game as a character, are fantastic!  I've never learned how to play Chess, so Butterfly and I will be taking advantage of Chess At 3.  We now have "Learn Chess" on our Summer Bucket List!

Click here to visit Chess At 3! 

Horseback Riding

Photo Dump Day!!

I took Butterfly horseback riding with her Homeschool friends, one of our Moms in our group rides, so she toured the children around, teaching them about riding gear and how to take care of the horses.  Butterfly LOVES animals, I think the best part for her was brushing her pony and feeding it apples and carrots!  It was a great day!

"I'll scratch my back if you scratch mine!"  says the BFF horses :)

This dude was hilarious!  He smiled for us!!

Next up, we leave the kids home and the Moms will be going horse back riding! Wahoo!

Ribbon Dancers

 

Did I ever show you our Ribbon Dancers?

I made these for Butterfly as one of her Christmas presents this past Christmas, I think I only Instagrammed the photos of them.  I thought I would show you these a little bit closer.

 

Here are some photos of Butterfly dancing with them, first thing in the morning in her PJs of course :) (Really don't know how children get this energy first thing in the morning.  I'm artificially energized with coffee! hehe)

         

        

It looks so pretty, don't you think?

       

They are really fun too and help put more creativeness and colour in dancing and moving.

        

So all I did was buy two wooden rings for the handles, and a roll of ribbon of each colour I wanted on them.  You can find these at a crafts store.

Figure out the length you want them to be and double up on each colour by folding the colour in half and then looping them in a knot over the ring.

At the bottoms of the ribbons, I cut a triangle into them and then used clear nail polish to paint the bottoms.  This has kept the ribbons from fraying at the bottom as Butterfly moves these all around.

 Wouldn't these make a beautiful Summer Birthday present?

I love handmade gifts, and these are so simple and fast to make!

 

 

 

Curlformers

We received Curlformers to review and I must say, we LOVE Curlformers!!!

Curlformers curl your hair with no hot curling irons.  Butterfly used to sit for awhile on a chair if I wanted to curl her long thick hair.  Now I just use these Curlformers making it so much faster and gentler on her hair.

We got the Super Long and Wide Styling Kit for Butterfly.  Butterfly's hair has never been cut (the bottom of her hair is her baby hair!)  Her hair reaches way past her waist and is thick, so this kit was perfect for her!  We also got the Long and Extra Wide Styling Kit for my hair.  My hair reaches to my shoulder blades and is thick as well, I like the wider curls for my hair.

Each kit comes with two styling hooks, you push a hook through the curler, hook a piece of hair on the hook and pull the piece of hair right through the curler!  It's so simple and fast and smooth to do.

Best way to prepare hair for it, is to have it freshly washed and damp.  I kept a spray bottle of water near by so by the time I reached the other side of Butterfly's hair, if the hair dried, I would dampen it again.  I don't put any product in Butterfly's hair, the curls stay well in her hair for the day.  With my hair, I wash it, have it damp, and put some mousse through it, then put the curlers in.  I need the extra hold for my thick hair.

Here's the strips of hair in curlers on Butterfly's hair.

This is her head all finished with the Curlformers in.

Here's my hair with the long and wide set in.

Curlformers also sent us their new Softhood.

The Softhood is like the hair dryers at the salon.  You put the hood on and there's a draw string and chin strap to secure it on, and then you put your hair dryer at the end of the tube and leave it on.  I started it in Butterfly's hair, but being 5yrs old, she of course did not like the idea of sitting that long.  She was okay to sleep in her Curlformers and then we just took them out the next morning.  It didn't ruin her sleep at all and the Curlformers are pretty secure that none of them fell out or slid.  They were still on well come the morning.

For our hair it takes pretty long to thoroughly dry, I used the Softhood for over 45 min. and then also touched it with just the hair dryer over the Curlformers before removing them.  But I have really thick hair.  The average time for a Softhood dry is about 20-30min.

Here's Butterfly's hair the next morning, with the Curlformers freshly taken out.

The next photo is her hair after I separated the curls.  I took the curls and separated them into two or three pieces to make more curls in her hair, making it fuller and curlier.  Still with no product in her hair and no hot curling irons.  I love it that her hair was like this all day long with no damage that had to be done to it.

She put a cute sparkly pink headband in and she was ready for the day!  I am so glad she can sleep in the Curlformers with no problem.  They took about 15-20 minutes to put them in after her bath, and then about 5 minutes to take the Curlformers out!  Can you see why we LOVE these!!!

And here's my hair with the Curlformers freshly out in the morning, the night before I slept in mine too.
My curls stayed in all day.

It looked like I was ready for a wedding!  So pretty!

Check out Curlformers' website, you can see all they have to offer, plus they have a whole YouTube Channel that shows the how-to's and tutorials and styles on how to use them.

We will now be curling our hair this way, with it being fast and easy, we can have this style more often for our straight hair!  I also love that on the second day my hair has a bouncy wave and I still use the style before washing again.

Check out Curlformers' Facebook page