"What's inside?"

One of our new activities last week consisted of putting an object in a small oatmeal cylinder and rolling it across the floor. As it rolled I asked "What's inside?" O's favorite part of the activity was pulling the lid off to discover what was inside. She also liked squeezing her eyes shut while I put the objects in the container. What fun!

Another Matching Activity

Thanks Montessori Mama for this great idea! O had so much fun matching her small plastic animals to pictures in a book. Unfortunately, I only had 3 animals that matched the pictures, but it was still fun.

Phonics Bags

These phonics bags have been in the works for a while now. I bought the bags from Michael's a few months ago, but I was in no hurry to make them since O is still so young. Since she's showing an interest in learning letters and enjoys reading to herself (scanning a book while saying "ra, ruh, ra, ra, ra, etc." --VERY cute!), I thought it would be a good time to make them an introduce them to her. I printed the letters onto iron-on transfer paper, and my mom cut them out while I put O down for a nap (thanks, mom!). Then I started ironing. It took a while, and I didn't have the directions, so the 1st 10 bags don't look so good, but I eventually got the hang of it. I'm somewhat pleased with the result. Now I just have to fill the bags! I have a mini book with pictures of things with that particular letter in each bag (a few books have more than one letter, so each bag does not have a book) that came from a set of books that my mom gave O. Other things included in the bags are small plastic animals - dog, penguin, seal, turtle, frog, dinosaur, etc; finger puppets- giraffe, pig, etc; pink pipe cleaner, wooden acorn, and blocks. I have lots of bags to fill, so if anyone has any great ideas of things to put in the bags, let me know!

Activity Kit

I started getting Activities Kits from the library again this week. Here is a picture of O doing one of the activities from the kit.

Clothes Pin Activity

Today O learned to put clothes pins on the side of a a tin can. She liked this activity, but it wasn't easy. She had to really concentrate to get the clothes pin lined up and on the can. Her favorite part of the activity was running back to me and looking at her picture and saying "dada" because she likes to show the pictures of her activities to her daddy each day.

Thursday's Activity

This is the activity I'm leaving out for O to do in the morning. I'm working tomorrow (I work one day per week as a School Psychologist) and my mom will be keeping O. This activity is from a Melissa & Doug shape puzzle set that we gave O for Christmas. She liked it a lot, and its been at my mom's house since Christmas, so I think she's going to be excited to see it in the morning.

She Loves Shells!

O's grandparents brought her some shells from their recent trip to the Bahamas. She has had a great time exploring their shapes and textures and sorting them into this egg carton (a muffin tin would have worked better). She also had lots of fun bringing the shells into the kitchen and putting them into a water pitcher and then taking them out and putting them back in the basket. This went on for a while!

Shape Puzzle

O enjoyed her shape puzzle on Monday. She can put the circles in quickly and easily, but the other shapes take a little more concentration and effort. We had a very busy Monday. We took a brief walk (it was cold and windy, so we came home quickly), played outside on O's slide, collected acorns, rocks, and twigs for the "I Spy" bottle I'm making, played with playdoh, colored, walked the line (well... I walked the line and O just kept falling in the wa-wa! She clearly doesn't get that the purpose is to NOT fall in the water! What a silly monkey.), transferred water with the sponge, did the straw activity, O helped wash dishes and cook breakfast and supper while in the Kitchen Helper, and we read at least 30 books. Phew!!! I was tired by the time dh got home!

Matching Animal Pictures

O and I had a great time matching animal pictures today. I was surprised that she caught on so quickly to the activity, and she REALLY enjoyed it. I made these cards using small calendars that I got for 50 cents after Christmas. I'm hoping to find a few more calenders to make some more matching cards since O had such a good time with the activity.

Walking the Line

This activity came from Slow and Steady Get Me Ready by June R. Oberlander. We had lots of fun balancing on this line as we walked acros with our arms outstretched. We pretended that the line was a bridge and the rug was water. O thought it was hilarious when dh, guh-guh,and I lost our balance and fell into the water, and she was anxious for her turn. She did a good job although she had difficulty staying on the line. Her favorite part was falling in the water. She called out "wa-wa" as she fell and then she laughed and laughed. I plan on showing her how to walk backwards on the line once she is good at walking forwards on it.

Learning to Cut a Banana

O had her 1st lesson in cutting a banana today. She was excited about the banana which is one of her favorite food, and she preferred to just grab chunks of it and stuff it in her mouth. However, she did a pretty good job of cutting it with her knife, and she loved putting the pieces in our cereal bowls.

Spooning Activity

We're starting to do more Montessori type activities, and this was our first spooning exercise. I decided to use cheerios since I wouldn't have to worry about O choking on them. I was pretty sure that she would spend more time eating them than scooping them, and I was right. She was thrilled to put a big spoonful of cheerios in her mouth, but she also did a good job transferring them to the other bowl. Check out my new tray- I got it from the thrift store for a dollar, and I really like it. I think it will be perfect for our Montessori tray activities.

Color Matching

Guh-guh is enjoying teaching in O's homeschool, too! She came up with this creative way to teach colors. She turned an oversized medicine container into a color matching activity. She covered the doors with felt and put hairbands in them. O LOVES to wear the hairbands as bracelets, and we have all had lots of fun with this activity. Thanks, Guh-guh!

Learning About Fruit

O loves fake fruit, so I was really excited when I found some good quality fake fruit for a low price. I've been doing the 3 period lessons to teach her the fruit. She knew what they all were except the lemon and lime, and she learned those quickly. She won't say the names for them (except banana), but she signs apple (and banana), and she knows them receptively. The Montessori 3 part lessons are very similar to the discrete trial training that I used to do when I was an ABA therapist, so its a fun way for me to teach O.

A Sorting Activity

I set up this activity for O to sort the balls and blocks. I think she understands the activity because she'll sort them for a while before she starts mixing everything together again which is lots more fun than sorting! My little fashionista loves wearing 2 different shoes and her bear hat!

A Few Activities

Here are a few activities that we've been doing in our homeschool this week: Magnetic letters and chalkboard- Uncle Tommy gave O a Peebles gift card for her birthday, and this is what she bought! Its a magnetic chalk board on one side and a wipe off board on the other. It came with magnetic letters and numbers. O loves the magnetic letters!
O loves putting the poker chips into the container. We've been using a cottage cheese container, but I REALLY did not like it, so I was very happy when my mom found this plain white container for this activity.

Scent bottles- O is really into smelling things lately (I wonder if she has her Aunt Melanie's super sonic sense of smell...). I put 3 different scents in these bottles- tea tree oil, peppery vinegar, and vanilla- and we smelled and labeled the scents. O LOVED this activity. I'll probably switch the scents every week or so, and I'm on the look out for more bottles. I found these 3 at the rummage sale in St. M.
Listening Activity- I shake each thing and label it - rice, bell, water- then O shakes each item and listens to them. I put 2 of them behind my back and shake one, then show them both to her and ask her which one she heard (I was asking her to close her eyes, but that wasn't working). She thinks this game is so much fun, and she usually chooses the correct item. I made this felt board and felt pizza kit to go along with an activity song about pizza. We haven't done this activity too much yet, but I think its going to be lots of fun. Although I guess O's a little clueless when it comes to pizza because she's never eaten it, and I'm not sure if she's even ever seen a pizza (other than Marg's wooden Melissa and Doug pizza).
Glitter Discovery Bottle- This bottle is filled with glitter, corn syrup, and water. Its fun to shake and watch the glitter swirl around.
Threading spools onto pipe cleaners is lots of fun!