Mystery Bag

I introduced the Mystery Bag to E(1) this week. (The Mystery Bag is a bag full of well known objects...a ball, an elephant, a giraffe, an airplane, etc) I couldn't find the blindfold, so we put a silk over our heads while we reached into the bag to find objects.

After we find an object, we guess what it is before looking at it. We take turns taking objects out of the bag. This was a lot of fun!

A chicken!


A banana!

I'm looking forward to doing this activity with both of the girls.

I can't wait until summer (only 2 more weeks!) when I'll have both of my girls at home full-time. I'm planning to set up a Montessori shelf for O again, and she's been excitedly telling me which work she wants on it...knobbed cylinders, knobless cylinders, bead snake game, and a mama made version of the brown stair and pink tower.

Little Scrubbers

I gave the girls a pitcher of warm soapy water (at O(4)'s request), and the girls had a FANTASTIC time washing a baby doll stroller! This kept them busy for quite a while, and they eventually started scrubbing the floor. E(1) even cleaned a few cabinets when she came in the kitchen! I'm hoping I can make this a daily activity!

Making a Felt Board

I recently made a new felt board for the girls. We have a large felt board, but it's made of plywood, so it's heavy and cumbersome (and we keep it in the fireplace, so it's not very accessible). I wanted a fairly large felt board that was lightweight enough to hang on a wall using velcro (so that it's easily removeable).

To make this feltboard, you need 1 yard of felt, foam core board, and a hot glue gun and glue.

First, I laid the foam core board onto the felt and cut around it.


Then, I just glued the felt to the back of the foam core board using the hot glue. I put about a two inch strip of hot glue on at a time and pulled the felt onto it tightly. I thought about taking a picture of this process, but it was impossible since I don't have 3 hands :)

Here is our finished felt board. It turned out exactly as I envisioned it (that rarely happpens)!


I put a piece of sticky backed velcro on the back of the felt board and the wardrobe, and now we have an easily removeable felt board. E(1) and I have enjoyed using it during our morning "school" time.

Wet Felted Easter Eggs

The girls, my mom, and I wet felted Easter eggs about a month ago. I still haven't taken a picture of the finished eggs, which is why I haven't posted about this yet. I just realized that I needed to write this post before Easter, so I apologize that I don't have pics of the finished products!

To wet felt Easter eggs you need the following items: plastic, wooden, or styrofoam eggs, wool roving (I bought our wool roving from Hobby Lobby), warm water, and liquid dish soap.

First, we wrapped our eggs in wool roving. Then we dipped our eggs in a bowl of warm, soapy water. We squished the eggs and shaped them with our hands while they were in the water.






After the eggs were well covered with the wool and it seemed somewhat felted, we rolled the eggs on a cooling rack. After they were well felted, we left them to dry. This was a fun and simple activity!




Both girls LOVED this activity!

Fun with a Flower Press

I gave the girls a flower press in their April Fun Box, and they were so excited.

Both girls love to pick flowers, and they enjoy arranging them on the paper before smashing them in the flower press.


I thought about making a flower press, but I saw this for only 3 dollars and decided it would be much easier to just buy it :) It's simple and well made, and it will be a great addition to our nature bag.

Making Goop

Making goop on our beach is one of our favorite Spring/Summer activities, and we did it for the first time this year on Sunday afternoon. The girls mixed equal parts water and cornstarch and then mixed it together with their hands. We kept adding more cornstarch, and O(4) eventually added sand "just to see what happens."

We talked about how the consistency seems to change from a solid to a liquid as we played with the goop. We usually add food coloring to our goop, but I decided to make it a little simpler and skip the food coloring this time.

Painting a Mural

The girls and I painted a mural outside on Sunday afternoon. Elliott and I taped a long piece of paper to our fence, and we gave the girls a few cups of paint.

We had fun, but E(1) was pretty fussy and didn't enjoy it as much as I thought she would (she was overtired). This activity quickly turned into a body painting activity, which was not surprising at all :) Luckily, I thought ahead, and we painted right by the lake. Once the girls were through, we just stood in the water and washed the paint off of our bodies.

Next time we'll use finger paint or maybe shaving cream (tinted with food coloring), and I'll have them wear old clothes (the paint didn't come out of E's bathing suit).

Felt Storyboard Activity

I love doing felt board activities with the girls (I think I like them more than they do!) and here is a recent activity that E(1) and I did...

I printed the felt story pieces for Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You Hear? from Kiz Club. After cutting out the pieces, I glued a small square of sandpaper on the back of each piece. As E and I read the story, I put the pieces on our felt board.

After we finished the story, E had fun matching the pictures.



I love all of the story pieces at Kiz Club, and I'm planning to make a bigger felt board this weekend!

Making Volcanoes on the Beach

The girls and I love to make volcanoes on our beach! (see here and here) This is the 3rd Spring/Summer that we've done this fun activity, and it was just as fun as ever.

To make the volcano, O(4) filled a plastic bottle 3/4 full with lake water. We then built the volcano around the bottle using beach sand. O put 2 tablespoons of baking soda and several drops of food coloring into the bottle. She then poured white vinegar into the volcano, and we watched the eruption.

This is the first year that we've had red lava...since O's favorite color is blue, we always have blue lava. This time she wanted the lava to be red, and she told me that red is the "proper" color of lava. Can you tell she's been studying volcanoes at school? :)

We erupted our volcano 3 times, so that E(1) would have a chance to measure the baking soda and pour the vinegar. She LOVED it!

E's Montessori Shelf

E(1)'s Montessori activities are set up on a small shelf that was mine when I was little.  We attached the shelf to the back of the girls' play kitchen since we did not have a wall to attach it to.  This has worked out nicely because I can turn it to face outward into the room during the morning and then face it towards the sliding glass doors during most of the day.  Having these materials out for only a few hours a day seems to keep them a little more fresh and exciting :) 

The top row of E's shelf has the following activities: geometric solids, wooden nesting bowls, Brown Bear "I Spy" bottle and matching cards. On the second shelf is an imbucare box, a q-tip and bear bottle activity, a sandpaper e, and a bead maze (she was uninterested in the bead maze, so I replaced it with cutting fruit). On the 3rd shelf are the Montessori Cylinder Blocks and Ryan's Room (Lace 'Em Up Dragon) 2 (ours is actually a snake, but they don't make it anymore).



Here is the play kitchen.