Color Matching

My mom has a fun game where you match different colored bears to dots on a card. I thought O would love it since she loves to match, and she loves dots. She matched one or two bears before getting bored and moving onto the next thing. We'll try again tomorrow to see if she is more interested in the task.

Dyeing Easter Eggs

We had lots of fun dyeing Easter eggs after supper tonight. O was fascinated, and we made quite a mess. She especially loved stirring up the dye and lifting the eggs out of the mugs.

After we finished dyeing the eggs, we did some fingertip painting with the leftover dye. O dipped her fingers (well, her whole hands really) in the mugs and them made dots on a paper towel and baby wipe. She said "dot, dot, dot" as she made dots (the girl loves dots).

Too Much Water

O had a great time playing with water today. She soaked it up with a sponge and then squeezed it out, and she drank the water from the measuring cup.

Then she decided it would be a good idea to pour the ENTIRE container of water over her head and all over everything. There were about 2 gallons of water in the container and all of it headed towards the lowest part of the room which is behind the refrigerator. I just found out that it even leaked through the ceiling downstairs. Hmmm. Maybe we'll play with water on the deck from now on.

Bowling Fun

I've had the containers for a while intending to use them as terrariums. As you can see that hasn't happened yet, so I thought they'd make for a fun bowling game. O and I are not so good at bowling. We threw beanbags at the bottles and rolled a ball at them. As you can see from the pictures, O's aim is way off when she threw the beanbags. Unfortunately, my aim was not much better when I rolled the ball at the bottles (or maybe I'll blame it on our uneven floor!).

Easter Egg Hunt

O and I had an Easter Egg Hunt this morning since it is such a beautiful day. She didn't understand why I was spreading her eggs all around the yard, and she was a little upset about it. Once we started looking for them and putting them in her basket, she really enjoyed herself.

At the Children's Museum

I love taking O to children's museums, but we live about an hour and a half from them. We went
to visit some friends who live only 10 minutes from the museum, so we knew we had to visit. We had a great time.

O loved playing with the boats in the water.

She chose only fruits and vegetables for her groceries! Yay, O!

We spent a few minutes painting.

I love this chalkboard wall where the kids can paint with water. I wish I had a place in my house where I could put a large chalk board for water painting.

Driving the shrimp boat with a friend.

ABC Puzzle and Book

I bought this ABC puzzle/book about 4 years ago (so about 2 years before she was born!). We had fun matching the letters to the correct places in the book and labeling the pictures. O loved the picture of the baby, and she kept saying "baby" the whole time we were playing. Lots of fun!

A Matching Game

The idea for this matching game from Games to Play with Toddlers by Jackie Silberg. I traced around several of O's toys with a pencil onto a notecard. Then I outlined it using a black Sharpie pen. I put the objects in a drawstring bag (from IKEA) and spread the cards out in front of O. As she reaches into the bag to pull out an object we say "Abracadabra, 1,2,3. Reach in the bag. What do you see?" She pulls out an object and matches it to the correct card. LOTS of fun! It was also quick and simple to put together :) Next time we play, I'll have her close her eyes while she reaches into the bag to make it a little more exciting. Another variation is to give her one card at a time and have her feel around in the bag until she finds the correct object. I may also expand on this game by taking pictures of some of her small toys and printing them out for her to match the object to. A similar game was posted about on Z Recommends. Enjoy!

On and Off

This is another activity from Slow and Steady Get Me Ready by June R. Oberlander. I had a small basket of about 6 or 7 rubber bands. I showed O how to put one on the door knob, and she was ready to do it herself! O LOVED this activity. It was quick and fun! Once she put all of the bands on the door knob, she took them off and put them back into the basket. This activity develops -skill in following directions -an awareness of stretchable materials -an awareness of "on" and "off" -problem solving -independence -eye-hand coordination

Spools and Straws

For this activity I put a small amount of playdoh in a bowl to hold up the straw. Then I showed O how to put the spools on the straw. She was very anxious to try it herself, and she liked the activity a little bit. It would have worked better if I'd had clay to hold the straw because the playdoh didn't hold it very well. I may also use packing styrofoam (from our recent Montessori purchases) to hold the straw up next time we do this activity. After O realized that the pink stuff in the bowl was playdoh, she was much more interested in playing with it instead of putting the spools on the straw :)

Put the Fish in the Boat

This activity came from Slow and Steady Get Me Ready by June R. Oberlander. I cut the top off of an envelope to make a boat and cut several fish from construction paper for O to put in the boat. The child is supposed to pick up the fish and put them in the boat which will require the child to separate the envelope to slip the fish in. We talked about the colors of the fish. She called them all boo and ed (blue and red), but she did finally say orange after some prompting. O was a little frustrated by this activity (it was difficult to separate the envelope), and I think we'll wait until she's a little older (or in a better mood!) to try it again.

This activity develops:
- skill in picking up a flat object
- eye-hand coordination
- problem solving
- confidence
- independence
- language interaction

Independent Play

O has gotten so much better at independent play lately. Yesterday she played with her rainbow stacker, cat puzzle, and shape book.

Loving her Wagon

The box lid wagon really is a hit! In this picture O is trying to figure out how to make it go while she's in it. Notice how she has the string around her neck. Ahhhhhhhhhh. She loves to wear necklaces and puts anything like a necklace around her neck. I have to watch her like a hawk!

Box Lid Wagon

I made a wagon for O to put her toys in out of a box lid last night. I punched a hole in the side with scissors and tied a rope through the hole. O was very excited to see the wagon, and she pulled it around the room empty a few times before filling it with monk-monk and Baby Sarah. I've been intending to make her a box wagon for months, so I feel relieved that I finally did it. Obviously, the long rope could pose a strangulation hazard, so any mommies that try this at home make sure to keep that in mind. O is closely supervised at all times...our house is so small that there is not way to NOT constantly supervise her :)

Mr. Potato Head

I bought O a box of Disneyland themed Mr. Potato Head accessories for her souvenir from our trip to Disneyland. In one of the shops they have a Mr. Potato Head station set up where you can fill a box with as many items as you can fit as long as the box closes on one side. I had the best time filling O's box (she was napping in her stroller), and I managed to get almost 40 accessories into the box. O didn't have a Mr. Potato Head, but I didn't want to waste room by getting the actual potato. Luckily, Guh-guh had a potato head stashed away in a closet that she said we could have. O and I had lots of fun making different potato heads today. I think I enjoyed it more than her since most of the accessories have no meaning for her since she has never seen a disney movie or read any disney books (other than Winnie the Pooh). I'm sure that we are going to have lots of fun with this in the future and maybe one day I'll let her watch a Disney movie :)

Fill in the Blank

My mom does a fun, simple activity with O that some readers may be interested in doing (or you may already do it!). She says nursery rhymes with O and leaves out key words, which O fills in. For instance... Jack and ____ went up a ____ to fetch a pail of _____. Jack fell ____ and broke his ____ and Jill came tumbling _____. O has such a great time filling in the missing words, and she is so proud of herself. This is a great activity to do in the car, and its so simple. I feel a little silly that I didn't think of it myself! Thanks, mom!

Learning to Climb a Ladder

Auntie Melanie, Uncle Jonathan, and Marg brought a slide over to G & G's house, and O learned to climb a ladder and slide down the slide by herself! O was a little unsure of where to put her feet, but Auntie Melanie (the Pediatric Physical Therapist) helped her out. She loved being able to play independently on the slide, and we stayed close by in case she lost her balance while standing at the top.

Felt Board

Each night after O goes to sleep, I lay out different activities for her to do in the morning. I try to have a different activity for each morning of the week although sometimes we repeat activities during the week. Usually, its just a matter of taking a toy off the shelf and setting it up for play. For some reason, she rarely gets her toys off the shelf, but she likes them if they are set up on the table for her. The one exception is her rainbow stacker, but that's another post. One of tomorrow's morning activities is this felt board. We worked with it yesterday on a mat, and O had fun dressing the girls. I hope she'll be excited to see it in the morning. O was excited to see the felt board Wednesday morning. She loves the felt dolls. She picked one of them up, patted it, and took it with her to play in the rice pit. Funny girl!

Bilibos are Fun!

O loves her Bilibo that her Grandaddy gave her for Christmas. It is the greatest open ended toy. So far it has been a rocking chair, baby doll cradle, slide, hat, turtle shell, spinner, and a bowl. She plays with it every day, and I'm sure that we will have fun with it for years and years (I love toys that kids don't grow out of quickly!).

Bubble Wrap Fun!

I think I need to get O some bubble wrap for Christmas! We had so much fun stomping on this sheet today. Who knew that something so simple could be so much fun?!!