Counting Hearts

Yet another activity with the heart stickers! I gave O a bowl of heart stickers along with a stack of numbers. She put the numbers in order (she was confused by the zero...I need to incorporate a zero into our other number activities). She then counted out the correct number of hearts to go under each number. I was surprised by how easy this activity was for her, and I would have had her go up to 10 if I'd had more hearts :)

Doctor's Office in a Box

O asked for 3 things for Christmas...a fire fighter's outfit, a baby doll, and a doctor's kit. I decided early on that I didn't want to get her a toy doctor's kit that she would grow out of quickly. I wanted her to have real medical supplies and tools. That way she could learn how to really use the materials, and she wouldn't grow out of it as quickly (her almost 6 year old cousin and 9 year old friend both really enjoyed playing with this kit). I gathered supplies for her doctor's kit for months. I bought bandages, hot/cold packs, finger splints, bandaids, knee braces etc from the Dollar Tree and Walmart. I found lots of items in our house... an old wrist brace, rubber gloves, medicine droppers, etc. I printed x-ray pictures and an eye chart from the internet and laminated them. I also printed O and E's 3d ultrasound pictures and laminated them (I gave her an ice-cream scoop to use as an ultrasound wand).

I ordered real, but inexpensive medical tools from Amazon...an otoscope, a blood pressure cuff, and a reflex hammer. I was very surprised by how inexpensive these things were. When O is a little older we can teach her how to really obtain someone's blood pressure, and we've all enjoyed looking in each other's ears with the otoscope :) Once I finished gathering the materials for her doctor's office, I realized that she needed a lab coat. I planned to buy a boy's dress up shirt from walmart or Target to turn into a lab coat, but I couldn't find one for under 10 dollars. I finally found the perfect shirt at the thrift store for 98 cents, and I was so excited. I cut the cuffs off both sleeves and the tail off the shirt. My mom turned them under and sewed them. Then I embroidered "Dr.____" on the pocket (I planned to share a picture, but I couldn't get a good picture without showing our last name). It was SO easy to turn the shirt into a lab coat, and it looks great.
This gift was a HUGE hit with O. She plays with it everyday, and I think she'll be playing with it for years and years!

Homemade Baby Toys

O and I recently made this rolling toy for E, and she really likes it! We put a marble, bell, pom poms, and pipe cleaners into an empty Coke bottle (2 liter), and we shake it and roll it around on the floor for E. O loves to make things for her baby sister.

Here is a rattle that O made for E for Christmas. It's a plastic test tube that she filled with beads and pom poms. I bought the test tubes after Halloween (they had nasty gooey candy in them.) She made several test tube rattles...one has bells in it and another has small balls in it. We're also planning on making a few discovery bottles for E to enjoy!

The Ultimate in Babywearing...

is to wear both of your babies at once! O was on my back in the Beco while E was relaxing in my pouch style sling. I love both the sling and Beco and use them all the time. I'm so glad that E is finally big enough for the Beco! I love the sling, but the Beco is much more comfortable when I'm wearing her for longer periods of time. She's still small enough that I can wear her for 2 or more hours in the sling comfortably. O also still fits in the sling, but only for short periods of time :)

Craft Hope for Haiti

If you haven't checked out the Craft Hope for Haiti Etsy shop, you should! All proceeds will benefit Doctors without Borders in Haiti. I purchased one of these cuties (the aqua one) for my baby for Valentine's Day. I think she'll love it, and it feels good to support a good cause :)

Forehead Art

We discovered (by accident) that forehead art is very intriguing for "baby sister." O loves to put stickers on everyone, and E was fascinated when O put stickers on our foreheads a couple of months ago. Since then we often put on "forehead art" to entertain the baby. We might look a little crazy, but we have fun!

Paper Plate Faces

O and I made the paper plate faces for "baby sister." O made the one on the far right, and I love it. She said he's grumpy :) E enjoys looking at the faces. We play peek-a-boo with them and talk about the different feelings.

Valentine's Day Sensory Box

O and I had fun putting together her Valentine's Day Sensory box last week. I let her choose between oatmeal and rice, and she chose rice. This made it easy for me since I was able to borrow rice from the rice pit that is on our screened porch. I added in pink, red, and white pony beads, heart stickers, scoops, small cups, pom poms, and pipe cleaners (later I added a toilet paper roll). She wasn't interested in playing in the box for a day or 2, but then she started to enjoy it. She makes quite a mess with the rice, but that just gives her more opportunities to practice her sweeping skills.

Valentine's Day Spooning Activity

To complete this activity O spooned a marble into each heart on the silicone heart tray. She had a little difficulty balancing the marble on the spoon, but she enjoyed the challenge. We'll be doing more spooning activities in the future.

Valentine's Day Transferring Activities

Here is another simple Valentine's Day activity (anything pink or red is classified as a Valentine's Day Activity :).

This activity was more visually appealing than the one above, so I didn't even put the first one out. O picks up a pom pom with the tweezers and puts one pom pom in each opening. The tray came from IKEA. O really enjoyed this activity and has done it repeatedly.

Valentine's Day Activities

There are SO many activities that can be done with a bag (or 2) of foam heart stickers! These glittery heart stickers are from WM and cost 1 dollar.

Our first Valentine's Day activity was number sequencing with hearts. O was very excited and asked if she could do this activity every day :) To make the activity, I wrote the numbers (1 to 10) on the stickers using a black sharpie. She put the numbers in order using the number line as a guide.


The hearts are also great for sorting activities. First, she sorted the hearts by color.


Then she sorted them by size.

She also had fun making patterns with the hearts.

This one was another favorite! It just looks so pretty :)


We're really enjoying these Valentine's Day activities, and I hope you will, too!

I guess it was a good idea...

Judging from the response to my Confessions... post, it seems that it was a good idea to post about all of the things that I don't do. I guess I should have written something like that before, but I had no idea that anyone would be interested, and I did not realize how I was perceived. I feel sad, disappointed, and guilty to read about how reading my blog is the low point of some people's days and that it's a guilt inducing read. I hope that you realize that has never been my intention. I write the blog simply to document our activities for our own use and for the grandparents to enjoy and to share ideas and inspiration with other mamas.

Winter Transferring Activity

I set up this simple winter transferring activity for O last week. She used the chopsticks to transfer the cotton balls to the ice cube tray. The cotton balls are supposed to represent snow :) This activity promotes fine motor control, one-to-one correspondence, attention to detail, and concentration. O enjoyed doing this activity when I first presented it to her, but she wasn't interested in doing it again. (So it's already back in the Montessori rotation drawer to make room for lots of fun Valentine's Day activities).

Number Wheel Activity

I downloaded this great number wheel activity from Homeschool Share, and O LOVES it! After printing the number wheel, I laminated it before cutting it out. Then I wrote the numbers 1 through 10 (using a sharpie) on 10 clothes pins. O counted the dots, found the correct clothes pin, and clipped the clothes pin to the wheel. She was a little unsure of a few numbers, so this was a great way for her to practice recognizing her numbers.

Last Week in "School"

Here are couple of pics from "school" on Tuesday. O was excited to play this "What Goes Together?" game. It's a Winnie-the-Pooh game in which you match cards of things that go together (hat and coat, broom and dustpan, etc.). After you make your match, you turn the cards over to see if they go together to complete a picture. If they do then your match is correct. I found this fun game at the Dollar Tree.

O was also really excited about this cutting activity. I have a Kumon cutting book that I pull pages from periodically for her to cut. Last time I had a page for her to cut, she was not very enthusiastic (this was surprising since she loves to cut), but this time she was thrilled. I chose a page with a winter theme since we are doing lots of winter activities this month. She cut very slowly and carefully and with excellent concentration. After she finished cutting on the line, she asked if she could cut the page up. Of course, I let her and she had fun cutting out the animals and trees.