Playing with Ice

When I saw Jo Ebi's Ice Cooking post a few days ago, I knew it was something we'd have to try. Today was a super hot day, so this was the perfect way to cool off. At almost 7 pm, it was still 97 degrees, so we didn't stay out for too long. O was REALLY excited about playing with ice, and she had a super time. I was happy because I was able to quickly cut out some pics for a book I'm making for O while she played.

Orange

O and I had fun gathering orange items from around the house for her orange picture (for her colors book). However, she was done with the orange photo shoot before I was :)

A Bowl of Music

I realized a few weeks ago that O would be more likely to play her musical instruments/noise makers if I put them all together in a designated location instead of just having them here and there around the house. I was right :) She loves her "bowl of music," and she is always getting it off the shelf for lots of loud fun! Her favorites are the harmonica and egg shaker, and I really like the chachis. I think the train whistle is Elliott's favorite :)

What Are You Thinking?

I ask O this question every few days. Here are a couple of her recent responses:



Me: What are you thinking about?

O: bedt (standard response when she's not quite sure what to say)

Me: What are you REALLY thinking about?

O: Duggie (aka Guh-guh who is my mom)

Me: Oh, Okay



O heard me ask her cousin, Marg, this question. Marg said that she was thinking about fairies. Ever since then, O is always thinking about fairies, too.



Me: What are you thinking about?

O: Fayees (while grinning and looking very pleased with herself)

Me: What are you thinking about fairies?

O: Fayees, Margie, Fayees

Me: Oh, Okay

Trying to Catch Minnows

We didn't have much luck, but we had LOTS of fun and got VERY wet!

Baking Bread

O and I baked bread this morning. Although, really we just put the ingredients in the bread machine and pressed start. It was lots of fun and very messy. O loved pouring the ingredients into the container. Unfortunately, her aim was a little off, so we had flour everywhere. She also liked mixing everything together, and she even snuck a few bites. Yuck! We made honey oatmeal bread, which is my favorite bread machine bread. Its delicious! Here is the recipe:

INGREDIENTS
1 1/4 cups water
3 cups bread flour (we used 1.5 cups of bread flour and 1.5 cups of whole wheat flour)
2 tablespoons honey
1 1/2 tablespoons dry milk powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup quick cooking oats
2 tablespoons margarine
1 tablespoon active dry yeast

DIRECTIONS
Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select White Bread setting, and Start.

O's Beach

O is in love with her beach. The lake is especially high this year, so we brought in 3 truckloads of sand to make a beach. We need to bring in a 4th, but I am REALLY dreading shoveling another truckload of sand. Its backbreaking work, and I was sore for a week after shoveling the last load. Luckily, Elliott shoveled the 1st 2 when we were out of town :) Despite the hard work, we are so glad that we decided to make beach for O. She LOVES it! She writes her name in the sand, rakes the sand, builds sandcastles, makes sand pies, etc. It freaks me out daily to live this close to the water with a toddler, but having a beach in our front yard is definitely a highlight of living on the water.

Feeding the Geese

O and I had a great time throwing bread to the geese this morning. It was a good lesson on the importance of being quiet since they swam away every time she was loud. I'd remind her to be quiet, and they'd come back.

Putting Marbles on a Frog

Don't you love my creative title?! I wasn't sure what to call this work so I just called it what it is. My mom brought a bath frog that's meant to stick to the bottom of the tub (O and Marg love to play with them in the bathtub at G & G's house), and I had a little glass dish of marbles. I showed O how to carefully pick up one marble and place it on the frog's suction cup. She was super excited and couldn't wait until it was her turn. She did a good job, although she needed prompting to pick up only one marble at a time. She was immediately ready to try it again, but after placing 2 marbles correctly she decided to throw the 3rd marble across the room. She clearly knew that was not acceptable (she was looking straight at me waiting on a reaction when she did it), so I calmly had her pick up the thrown marble and took the whole work away. She was very upset because she really wanted to "bay" (play) with the frog and marbles. Hopefully, she was upset enough to remember that we don't throw marbles! This is a work that she will do only under close supervision because there is a slight possibility that she may decide to taste a marble :)

Choo-Choo Soul

Since O really likes trains, Elliott started watching Choo-Choo Soul music videos on the internet with her (I'm not really thrilled about this since I don't allow her to watch tv, but as long as she dances more than she watches its ok). She LOVES to dance to the Steam Train video, and she put on quite a show tonight :)

We Love Felt Boards!

I have to admit it...I love felt boards! O likes her felt board, but I like it much more than she does. She has the most fun when she is destroying the pretty little scenes that I make on it. I took this picture seconds before she wiped the felt board clean :)

Jack and the Beanstalk

I found this Jack and the Beanstalk book at the Dollar General for about 2 dollars, and I thought it looked like something O would enjoy. It has a little drawer that holds the characters in the book. As I read the book to her, I took out each character and stood it up on its stand. She had fun playing with them after I finished the book. This book was definitely worth the 2 dollars that it cost!

Cleaning the Floor

I ordered this adjustable floor and carpet sweeper from Montessori n Such recently, and O is becoming a good little sweeper. She's also pretending to vacuum with her IKEA push toy. I love to see her clean the house!

The Banging Wall

The idea for a banging wall came from here. I've been thinking about this for a while, and its a relief to have finally made it. We still have a few more pieces to add, but there plenty of things to bang on! The best thing about it is that all of the materials were just hanging out in our garage, so it was free and we cleaned out the garage a little bit:) We've had a great time making "music" so far, and I can't wait for O's cousins to come play on it this weekend at our yearly family reunion :) I hope our neighbors won't mind the noise!

Over/Under

O constantly reminds me how the simplest things can be the most fun learning experiences. Our neighbors keep their pedal boat tied to a tree, and we have spent LOTS of time going over and under the rope. O definitely knows the conceps of over and under now!



Going under the rope

Now TRYING to go over the rope...she usually needs a little help to get over it!

Sewing Block

I ordered this sewing block from Montessori N' Such, and O really loves it. This morning she said she was going to "sew like Duggie" (my mom). She's been watching my mom sew the knots on her I Spy quilt for the past month or so, so she's ready to sew by herself.

Counting in Spanish

O surprised us a few days ago by counting in Spanish. I used to count in Spanish with her everytime we counted in English, but I stopped once she started counting independently (about 6 months ago) because I was afraid she would get confused. While we were camping, I was reading her a book and decided to count in Spanish to see what she would say. I said "uno," then she said "dos, tres, cuatro." I almost fell over! All those months of counting in Spanish and listening to Spanish cds paid off :)

"What are you thinking about?"

A online mama friend had the idea to start asking her kids what they are thinking about just because its fun to hear their answers. I thought this was a great idea, so I've been asking O lately. I thought it'd make a fun weekly blog post, and I'll love looking back on the things she's said and how her answers have changed as she's grown. I've also videod a few of her responses. This is how the 1st conversation went...
Mama: What are you thinking about O? (my mom was holding her, and we were standing in my mom's hallway)
O: Hmm?, hmmm? (while looking around the room)
Mama: What are you thinking?
O: night-night! (she was ready for a nap!)

After her nap... (we were outside with Sophie Socks & my mom. We were hoping that the fresh air would help SS feel better)
Mama: What are you thinking, O?
O: grinned and looked down almost shyly
Mama: What are you thinking?
O: night-night (grinning)

I asked her again today, but my brain isn't working and I can't remember what she said. I hope I'll remember to keep asking her. I think this will be fun :)

Color Sorting

O enjoyed color sorting today (it was a GREAT day in O's homeschool in case you couldn't tell!). I had a basket of fruit shaped plastic ice things that I got from the dollar store, and these cups that I bought last year to have for O's birthday parties (don't want to use disposables, of course!). I spread out the cups and showed her how to match the fruits to the colors and sort them. She was slightly confused at first, but she caught on quickly and had fun completing the work. I was worried that I'd given her too many colors at one time, but she did fine. She enjoyed this work, but she didn't want to do it again. I guess it just couldn't compare to the excitement of the Mystery Bag!
Update: O has chosen this work from the shelf a couple of time since I introduced it. She talks herself through the task, labeling the colors, and self-correcting as she goes. She dropped the orange cup as she walked to the mat, and once she set the cups up she said "orange" like she suddenly remembered that she'd dropped the cup. She got the cup and lined it up with the other cups. While sorting she put a green object in the red bowl, paused, said "no, green," then took it out of the red cup and put it in the green cup. I LOVE watching her work.

Shadow Matching Game

I found this shadow mathing game here, and I knew O would love it as soon as I saw it. I finally got everything cut out and laminated, so I introduced it to her this morning. She thorougly enjoyed it and asked for more after she finished. When she wakes up from her nap, I'll show her the shadow matching game that goes with Eric Carle's Very Busy Spider book. She's going to be so excited!