Salad Spinner Art

Hooray! We finally made salad spinner art! This activity has been on my to-do list since last summer, but I didn't have a salad spinner. Last week when we were at Guh-guh and Grandpa's house, we borrowed my sister's salad spinner for the activity.



O enjoyed the activity, but my almost 5 year old niece LOVED this activity! I think she would have continued making art for hours and hours if we hadn't had to stop for lunch.


 
We used food coloring since my sister plans to use her salad spinner for salad eventually. We learned that the food coloring spreads better if you use only one color at a time and quickly put the top on and spin it. Otherwise, the food coloring soaks into the paper too much and won't spread as you spin the salad spinner.

More on Teaching Spanish...

Thanks to everyone for your responses to my teaching Spanish post! Boca Beth sent us free materials to try and then review on the blog (we'll start with these materials on Tuesday). I am really excited about this since O and I have both enjoyed a Boca Beth song on youtube. I am also intrigued by the Little Pim series, and O and I have watched the videos on youtube. I am interested in Flip Flop Spanish and Teach Them Spanish. If anyone has used either of these books, I would love to hear what you think!

99 Cents Shipping at Let's Explore!

Just in case you don't know already, Let's Explore has 99 cents shipping until Monday. I am a sucker for shipping deals (and free shipping, of course), and I thought some of you might be, too :) I REALLY don't need to buy anything, but I may get a few art supplies for O for her birthday since I have trouble resisting a good shipping deal. I think these window crayons would be great for her since the majority of our house is made up of large glass doors. Also, O is getting an art tote for her birthday (that I bought from Let's Explore last summer along with the crayon rocks and bird rubbing plates. I tend to buy waayyyyyyyyyyy ahead of time!), so the crayons will go nicely with the tote. I'm also thinking of getting these crayons and this sticker scene. So...now I'm going to spend a little while trying to talk myself out of buying anything, but then I'll probably place my order tomorrow :) I'll justify it since it's my birthday, and it makes me happy to buy fun things for my little sweetie.

Playgroup Fun

O went to her 1st playgroup ever today (Tuesday), and she LOVED it! O and I are visiting Guh-guh and Grandpa (we try to come here every 2 weeks or so), and my sister and niece really wanted us to go to playgroup with them, so Guh-guh, O, and I met them at M's school and headed over to the church where the playgroup is held. O was a little nervous when I 1st told her about it, and she asked "will you stay with me in the classroom?" After I explained that I wouldn't leave, she was excited.

We all ate lunch and then the kids played and played. O seemed a little taken aback by all of the kids at first. (She's never been around that many children at one time). Then she jumped right in and had a great time playing (I was relieved that it seems that she hasn't inherited my shyness :), and she's been talking about playgroup ever since. She's ready to go back!

I feel guilty that we live in such an isolated area and that she doesn't get to interact with other kids very often. We used to go to storytime at the library weekly, but our children's librarian moved, and they didn't replace her. Now we don't have any scheduled outings :( However, I think we may be coming to Guh-guh and Grandpa's more often (maybe even every week!), so that we can go to playgroup with Mem and M! Thanks, Mem and M for inviting us!!!

Stergonostic Bag

To do this activity you need a bag with matching geometric pairs. I have a bin of wooden items that I ordered from Casey's Wood Supply, and they seemed perfect for this activity. The child wears a blindfold and uses her sense of touch to find matching objects.


 
I introduced the stergonostic bag to O on Sunday afternoon. She seemed to enjoy it and did fairly well. On Monday, she had more difficulty and didn't want to wear the blindfold.





 
The Tinies often join in on our Montessori fun!

Sorting By Color

O was not interested in sorting by color today, but she joined in with me a little once I started the activity. I hope she'll enjoy it more next time :)

Learning about Muscles, Bones, etc.

Elliott bought this human anatomy flip chart book years and years ago for our future children, and I'm so glad that he did! I found it this weekend buried on a shelf in the top of O's closet, and we looked at the pictures while working on her beleduc body puzzle. We matched the puzzle pieces to the pictures and discussed the names of different muscles and bones. O was especially interested in talking about biceps, and she showed me how strong she was by flexing her muscles :)




    O was THRILLED when she turned the page on the flip chart and discovered the pictures of the baby in the belly! While looking at the tiniest picture, I reminded her that we always tell her that she started off smaller than a lentil (when we tell her birth story, which is something we do almost nightly), and that there was a picture of a baby who was smaller than a lentil. She ran to get a lentil to compare it to the picture, and sure enough, the baby was smaller!




After discusing the pictures and completing the puzzle, O laid down on 2 sheets of paper (taped together) and I traced her. She then had fun coloring her picure. This activity is in almost every toddler activity book that I have seen, and I was so glad to finally do it with O. It was surprisingly difficult to find a big, blank paper book (most of the big books I found were coloring books).

Part/Whole Matching Cards

I introduced these part/whole matching cards to O this morning. She wasn't very interested in the activity, but she enjoyed it once she got started. I bought these cards at the dollar store months and months ago, and I just found them (along with lots of other goodies) this weekend when I was cleaning out a bin of matching cards. Understanding the concept of part/whole is an important pre-reading skill, so I'm glad I found the cards when I did!

Tell Me A Story Blocks

The idea for these blocks came from The Toby Show. The idea behind the blocks is to use them as story starters. You roll the dice and start your story based on the picture on the block. Then the next person rolls the dice and continues the story. I've been eyeing these tell me a story cards, so I already loved the idea of story prompts. This was even better since I could easily make it myself, and I already had all the materials that I needed.

To make my blocks, I cut tiny pictures out of old (torn, beat up, scribbled in books from the thrift store that I buy for various craft projects) children's books and decopaged them onto the blocks. This was super simple, fast, and fun! I've made 3 blocks so far (the blocks are 1 inch squares), and I plan to make a few more using pictures of us since O especially loves stories in which she is the star!

Making Pudding

Now that I am feeling a little better (and able to go in the kitchen again after 7 weeks of not entering that room), I am trying to cook more with O. Making instant pudding was a quick and easy way to get back into the kitchen with my girl. By the way, O is wearing a bathing suit and bathing suit cover up :) She rarely wears play clothes since bathing suits, leotards, and costumes are so much more fun!

A Perk of School at Home

O wore her bathing suit all morning, and then instantly transformed into a cat when she got a little chilly :)

Making a Sink/Float Bottle

O and I had a great time make a sink/float bottle this week. I gathered various objects for the bottle while she was napping, and she was ready to do our project when she woke up!
I filled the bottle about 2/3 full with water, and here are the objects that we put into the bottle. I also had a rubberband, but O insisted that it belonged on the doorknob, not in the bottle. Before she put each object in the bottle, we predicted whether the object would sink or float.




After we put all of the objects in the bottle, we talked about which objects surprised us :) We were surprised by the beads since 1 of them sank, 2 floated, and 1 sank and then rose back to the surface to float. I was also surprised that the bear floated. She loves to roll the bottle across the floor and watch the objects sink or float to the surface.









O went a little overboard with the glitter, and she was excited to use her vacuum to clean up!