What Doesn't Belong?

I downloaded these cards from Montessori for Everyone and introduced them to O this morning. She marks the picture (with a wipe-off marker...the pictures are laminated) that does not belong. She zoomed through this activity and seemed to really enjoy it. I included a little piece of felt in the bowl for erasing the marks on the pictures.

A Few of Her Favorite Things...

are blocks, rocks, shells, and playsilks. The simplest (and most natural) toys always seem to be the best :)

Magnolia Leaves Crown

When I called to check on O while I was at work on Friday, my mom told me that O was really enjoying playing with Magnolia leaves. I suggested making a Magnolia leaf crown, and they did! O calls it her "marrying hat" because she loves to pretend to get married. (She also gives birth to multiple babies each day!)



To make the crown my mom cut a piece of cardboard to fit around O's head and stapled it into a circle. She then stapled Magnolia leaves all around the cardboard circle. It doesn't get any easier than that!

Overheard...

O and my 5 year old niece were coloring in a big coloring book on the floor. M was coloring a picture, and O was coloring on the back, blank side of a coloring sheet. I overheard M tell O proudly "I'm coloring in the lines, and you are just doing scribble scrabble." Just as I was about to assure O that her "scribble scrabble" was beautiful, she confidently said "Scribble scrabble is good for my brain!" Good girl!

Floam Fun

It's been a while since O has played with floam, and she really enjoyed herself! She asked to play with playdough, but when she saw the blue floam, she quickly changed her mind. Floam is a nice texture variation to playdough, but I still prefer homemade playdough :)

Learning about Car Engines

Elliott is determined that O is going to like and know all about cars and their engines. Luckily, she LOVES to help him check and change various car engine parts. She identified several parts to me, but I had no idea what she was talking about :)

 

Fun in the Garden

We were so happy that O and Guh-guh prepared and planted our earthboxes for us one day when Elliott and I were at work. We decided to primarily garden using earthboxes this summer instead of planting a large traditional garden. Last year our grape tomato plants grew to over 6 feet tall and produced grape tomatoes until October. We are hoping for similar results this summer!



They also planted flowers in O's window box on her deck playhouse.



O loves to help Guh-guh & Grandpa in the garden at their house, too. She helps spray the bugs off the lettuce, water the lettuce, and pick it for our daily salads :)

Fun with Sidewalk Chalk!

 
Oh, you mean you aren't supposed to let your kids lie in the road while coloring with sidewalk chalk???

Just kidding :) We were at an outdoor concert, and the road was closed to cars. O was happily drawing on the road, and I was quite surprised when I looked down to see her lying on the road with her chin in her artwork. Obviously, my girl was worn out!

Open/Close Activity

We haven't had the open/close basket out for a while, but I found a few new objects when I was organizing this weekend and decided to give them a try.



I expected O to have some difficulty with this jar, and she did. I encouraged her to try again (to close it), and she was SO proud when she was succesful by herself.

An After Easter Art Project

I decided after Easter that I would really like to have O paint a wooden egg each year to have as special Easter decorations. She was not interested in using brushes and only wanted to use finger paint. She thoroughly enjoyed painting her egg. She said that the paint was soap and she was giving her egg a bath :)







She really enjoyed the sensory experience of squishing the finger paint in her hands, and I learned that tomato trays make great finger paint trays!

The Sand Tray

I introduced the sand tray to O on Tuesday, and she LOVED it. I'd originally planned to use salt in the tray, but when I saw this blue sand at Hobby Lobby (for only 1.50), I knew it would be perfect. O loves all things blue!



After spending some time writing letters in the sand, we tried the animal tracks activity that I saw on The Wonder Years. We took turns closing our eyes while one of us made tracks with an animal. Then we had to guess which animal made the tracks. This was so much fun!

Another Buddy Update

Buddy is now officially out of the water and shrinking. O was upset when she heard that he would shrink, but I consoled her by telling her that we could grow him again.



When we took Buddy out of the water, he was 10 inches long. He's shrinking by about an inch a day. This is a great introduction to measurement skills!

Bead Sequencing Set

O had fun with her Melissa and Doug Bead Sequencing Set this week. To do this activity, you put the pattern board in the holder (this is not easy to do!) and match the beads to the pattern board. This was a fun way to practice patterning skills!