Glue, cotton balls, and toothpicks collage

collage, originally uploaded by omamom16.

I recently bought O blue and red glittery glue, and when she saw it she HAD to use it right away! I quickly grabbed a piece of construction paper, cotton balls, and toothpicks so that she could make a collage. She liked playing with the glue and mixing the red and blue glue to make purple, but she was done with her collage very quickly. Lately, art activities are not holding her attention for very long... I guess that's just part of being 2 :)

Blogging Through Flickr

I'm experimenting with blogging through flickr (since I'm running out of space on blogger). The problem is that I can't figure out how to save my posts as drafts instead of posting them immediately. I really prefer to do most of my blog posts at one time and then posts them once or twice a day. So...if anyone has any tips, I'd really appreciate it! Thanks!

1st day of "school"

1st day of "school", originally uploaded by omamom16.

O and I had our 1st day of real Montessori homeschooling on Monday! Up until Monday, we've done lots of Montessori inspired work, but its been in a very laid back, unstructured format. Elliott and I finally finished our Montessori school shelf, and I've been reading this book to help me prepare (thanks for the recommendation, Stephanie!). O was very excited when I told her that we were starting school, and her eyes were bright with excitement when we turned the shelf around (it stays turned with the shelf to the wall when we are not having "school"). Here is the list of activities that she chose during Monday's session: transferring water with a dropper, placing marbles on the frog, red rods, matching tiny animals, putting clothes pin in an ice cube tray, pouring lentils, and matching cats tray. I presented each work to her (even though she was familiar with many of them), since we haven't done them in a while, and I wanted to be very precise and careful in my demonstration. She did a fairly good job and seemed to enjoy herself. However, she also seemed to be trying to be intentionally naughty. She let out a little squeal and quickly checked me for a reaction. I just quietly reminded her that we only use inside voices. I reminded her that I wanted her to use her nice, school manners, and she said "not naughty manners." I had to remind her to only pick up one clothes pin or one marble at a time, and she laid on the floor and said "O take a deep breath." I have no idea where that came from, but it was pretty funny. When I told her that we were finished with school, and we would have school again tomorrow, she said "O not be naughty morrow." So... she was just "researching" to see what she could get away with during school :) It was very interesting to observe her!

Thrifty Thursday

The addiction continues... I bought 18 children's books this Thursday and 15 last week. I can't seem to stop myself. I'm VERY choosy, but there are just so many that I can't resist. Another problem that I have is that I intentionally buy books that aren't in the greatest shape, so that I can cut them up for various projects without feeling too badly about it. The problem is that I STILL can't bring myself to cut them! I bought 2 books that I wouldn't normally have bought since they weren't in near perfect condition, and we've already enjoyed reading them several times. I don't think they'll be making it to the cutting pile :(

The Backyard Birdsong Guide

O and I gave Elliott this book for his birthday, and it is VERY cool! It has 75 different birds with 130 different sounds. We all love this book, and I'm sure it is going to be a wonderful learning tool for us!

Bath Scrunchie Painting

The idea for using a bath scrunchie for painting came from No Time for Flashcards. A couple of days after reading her post, my mom mentioned that she needed a new bath scrunchie, so I rescued hers from the trash can (it was clean, but a little torn). O was excited about this new way to paint, but she kept looking at the bath scrunchie and was concerned that it had paint on it.
Here's her pink masterpiece :)

Showing Growth

In order to show O's growth, I decided to take a picture of her each year in my wedding dress.

O in 2007

O in 2008. I think she thought I was a little crazy, but she was excited about wearing my wedding dress. She kept saying "too big, too big!"

The idea for this came from Family Fun magazine. A reader had her daughter wear an old fashioned bathing suit every year for a picture until it finally fit her at around age 15. I tried to think of something meaningful that O could wear, and I realized that my wedding dress would be perfect :) I'll eventually put all of the pictures in a book together to show her growth from year to year.

Texture Boards

I made a few texture cards for O about a year ago using old cereal boxes, fleece, bubble wrap, and aluminum foil. She wasn't very interested in them, and they fell apart quickly. I was disappointed, but didn't think too much of it. When I saw these texture boards, I decided it was time to try again! I bought 2 pieces of balsa wood from Hobby Lobby and cut each piece into 9 rectangles using a hand miter saw. I sanded the edges, and then got to work :) I made 2 of each board so that we can do a matching game using touch only (O will wear a blindfold). The boards in the picture are covered with hot glue gun swirls, craft foam squares, lentils, velcro, fleece, paper clips, bubble wrap, and toothpicks. I ran out of wood, but I plan to make many more of these boards. So far I'm thinking of using popcorn kernels, beads, pipe cleaners, pea gravel, mesh, aluminum foil, velvet, flannel, lace, noodles, pennies, etc. I'd love more ideas, so let me know what you come up with!

Bubble Wrap Fun

Our Let's Explore goodies came with LOTS of bubble wrap, which was thrilling for O and M! O immediately spread a long piece out in our hall, and we took turns hopping down it. Then when M came to visit, she made a "maze" in the den, and we all had fun hopping and popping! We also plan on doing more bubble wrap paintings, and maybe bubble wrap pillows (recently seen in Family Fun). I hope Amy will be glad to see that her shipping materials are being put to good use!

Decorating Another Present

We put our Let's Explore shop shipping box to good use! I put Elliott's birthday presents in it, and O and my niece had a great time painting it! M was especially proud of her artwork, and she described her art to Ell before he opened his gift :)

Making Crayon Letters and Numbers

I recently purchased the silicone number and letter ice trays from the Let's Explore Shop (among LOTS of other things!), and we are very happy with them. The first thing we've made were crayons! I shouldn't say "we" since I had nothing to do with it other than providing the trays and crayons :) Unfortunately, we used cheap crayons, so the wax floated to the top and the color sank to the bottoms. It was a learning experience, and we've gotten Crayola brand crayons to use next time :) My mom, sister, O, and my niece had fun peeling the crayons (right, Melanie?) and putting the crayons in the tray. I'll show the finished product after I make the next batch :)

Toothpicks and Styrofoam

Thanks to Montessori Mama for this fun activity! I handed O a sheet of styrofoam and a container of toothpicks and showed her how to stick a toothpick in the styrofoam. She thought it was great, but we quickly ran out of toothpicks. Luckily, our guests arrived at the same time that she ran out :) I'll have to find more toothpicks before I let her try this again!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

O and I made this sign for Elliott last year for his birthday, and I thought I should share it since it was a fun activity and a wonderful keepsake! (Elliott's mom just laminated it for us, so we can use it every year without worrying about messing it up. Thanks, Grandmother!) To make this sign, I took pictures of O holding each letter spelling out "Happy Birthday Daddy." My mom had the stuffed letters that worked perfectly for this project. I then printed the pictures as wallet sizes and glued them to a posterboard. I also traced her hands and cut them out for added decorations! Elliott loved it, but I think I love it more! O also REALLY enjoys looking at the sign and "reading" it :) I'm not sure where this idea came from, but I *think* that I saw something similar in an issue of Family Fun years ago.

At the Park with Daddy

O and Ell had a great time at a nearby park a few days ago. She was very excited to tell me that she saw an alligator!

Painting with Water

O and I took a few paintbrushes with us this morning when we went to the beach and painted the retaining wall (this has been on my to do list for MONTHS, but I always forget the brushes!). She had so much fun, and so did I :) We also made handprints, footprints, and lily pad prints.