Pouring Black Beans

Pouring black beans from one glass to the other and back again was a big hit with sweet E(2)!

The tiny glasses came from IKEA, and they are the perfect size for her tiny hands.
I finally got out the camera when she was pouring them for about the 4th time...

Sorting Silverware

Sorting silverware was a huge hit with E(2)! As soon as she saw the tray, she got to work and knew just what to do!

The silverware set came from IKEA, and it's the perfect size for sweet E.

I love to spend our "school" time on our porch, so that we can hear the birds and enjoy the view of the lake. Fun times!

Sorting silverware is a recommended activity in John Bowman's Montessori at Home. I highly recommend this book!

Black Bean Bowl of "B" Objects

One of E(2)'s favorite "B" activities was playing with her bowl of black beans filled with "B" objects. She loved playing with the objects, especially the babies and bears.

She wanted to wear the tiny boots and put them on her toes.

She wanted to ride on the tiny bike, and asked me to hold it up for her while she pretended to sit on it. Such a silly girl!

She had fun finding the different objects as I requested them.


She LOVED finding the objects and matching them to a picture (I took a picture of all of the objects on a white sheet of paper and then printed and laminated it).



I have a feeling the black bean bowl may stay around a long time after we are finished with our "B" weeks!

Matching Tree Bark

E(2) and I have had a great time touching and talking about the bark on all of the different trees in our yard during our "B" weeks! E was very interested in the bark, and I was inspired by Playful Learning (which I was sent to review about a month ago) to put together a bark matching activity.

To prepare this activity, I took pictures of the bark of 4 trees in our front yard. I printed them on photo paper and laminated them. I gave each of the girls one picture at a time and told them to match them to the trees. They took off running to find their matches, and they had SO much fun!

This is a wonderful activity that really got the girls interested in learning more about the trees in our yard. As they matched the trees, we talked about the names of the trees. Last week when we were touching the bark, E picked up a pinecone and said "This pinecone! It goes with pine tree!"

As I'm writing this post, I'm thinking of more tree and bark related activities :) I love spending time outside with the girls and try to have them outside for hours each day, so activities like this one are perfect for us!

Sorting Gummy Bears

E(2) received a bag of gummy bears in her ABC Fun Pack, and she was SO excited about them! At first, she called them Yogi Bear (we went to a Yogi Bear Campground in May, and she's loved Yogi ever since), and I thought that she might not know it was candy. That was wishful thinking because she soon informed me that "It's candy! I eat it and it tastes dood (good)!"

I laid out 3 different colors of construction paper and gave her a small bowl of gummy bears. I told her to sort the bears by color. I thought about demonstrating the activity to her, but decided to wait and see what she would do. She knew exactly what to do and immediately got to work. She LOVED this activity especially since she got to eat a couple of gummy bears after she finished!

Cheerios Bird Feeders

E(2) and I made bird feeders for "B" week! We had fun putting Cheerios onto pipe cleaners and then then hanging them in the trees.

E ate more Cheerios than she put on the pipe cleaners, and when O(5) got home from school, she pretended to be a bird and ate all of the Cheerios off of a feeder! Silly girl.

This is E's first time making these bird feeders, but it's an activity that we do every couple of years.

ABC Fun Packs

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you may remember that O(5) receives a "Laura Ingalls Wilder" Fun Pack each month. This "subscription" was one of her gifts from me for her 5th birthday. I wanted E(2) to receive a special fun pack for her birthday and after much thought, I decided that it would be an "ABC" Fun Pack. She's show a lot of interest in learning letters, and somehow knows "W" (and talks about "double-U!" often).

So, a couple of weeks ago, E recieved her first "ABC" fun pack. She was so excited to check the mail to find a package with her name on it. When we were opening her package, she excitedly said "This is fun!" In her package were a couple of printables from various blogs (Confessions of a Homeschooler and Homeschool Creations, I think), a growing alligator, an applesauce squeezer, notecards with activities written on them, and an "a" bag. There are tons of fun printables out there for "letter of the week" curriculums, but I really want to focus on doing more than just printables (which is kind of hard because the printables are SO cute!). So, for A, I just printed out a couple of dot painter A sheets and an A playdough sheet.

We started our 2 weeks of "A" activities by making apple playdough. E LOVED this! She loved mixing the ingredients to make the playdough and playing with it when it was warm. O also loves to play with the playdough when she gets home from Montessori school.

E is a taste tester whenever we cook, so she tasted the playdough ingredients, too. She kept saying "it's good," and she even said this after I added in the cream of tartar. She was wincing as she said it and seemed to be trying to convince herself that it really was good...so funny. She loved mixing in the red glitter, and I didn't let her taste it again after that :)


She loved touching the warm playdough...she was laughing hysterically as she did this. I'm not sure why she was laughing, but it was hilarious to watch her.



She loved using the airplane cookie cutter to make airplanes in the playdough. She made several airplanes and then put one behind another and said "this airplane behind" and then she put one in the front of the others and said "this airplane in front." It always amazes me how she understands these conceps (and others such as hot/cold/warm, big/little, wet/dry, and on and on and on) without being taught.

We cut out "A's" with the cookie cutters.


I used the playdough mat to make an A. She wasn't very interested in this. She was much more involved in making and pretending to eat an apple cake. She also really loved making "mermaid hair," which she sometimes calls "faghetti" (spaghetti).





We had a fantastic time going on a leisurely kayak ride while looking for alligators. Luckily, we didn't see any.


She enjoyed using her dot painters to paint some "A" printables.




Allie the growing alligator is loved very much! We've had her since O was 3, and this is the 3rd time we've grown her. E loves to check on her and step in her water bowl each day.



Both girls have had fun playing with the animal sensory bin. Although, they really weren't interested in the animals at all.


E loved picking apples while on our recent camping trip. She also tried apple cider for the first time...she's not a fan.


We spent 2 weeks on A since we had so many things to do that related to the letter A. E was VERY excited when I set up the easel for her to paint pictures of apples. She painted several pictures, and she also painted in a book and on the wall of the house when I wasn't looking.


I decided not to use the big easel paper since I want to put all of her paintings and printables together in a book for her once she's finished the alphabet activities.


Both girls LOVE the stories from the Amazing Action Alphabet. E loves to shake her fist while saying "a-a-a" just like "A the angry alligator."


We made apple prints which didn't turn out that well since I somehow managed to cut the apple crookedly. The girls didn't mind, and they had a great time painting. O reminded me SO much of myself when I told her we were going to make stamps out of apples...she asked "Isn't that wasteful since we can't eat the apples?" I've never been able to bring myself to use food as stamps because it does seem so wasteful to me, but I've never mentioned that to O. I actually couldn't bear to waste an entire apple, so I cut the bottom off for us to eat before we began stamping.




E and I had so much fun making an animal collage for "A" week. She chose the pictures, I cut them out, and she glued them to her paper. She evidently likes the layered look, and she kept glueing the pictures on top of other pictures. She LOVES animals, so this was a lot of fun!




We also put together these animal puzzles. E LOVES these puzzles! They belong to my mom, but we borrowed them about a month ago because she loves them so much. She needs a good bit of help to put them together, but she does a pretty good job. We had a wonderful morning on our screened porch listening to the birds and putting these puzzles together.


So, there are our A activities. We had lots of fun, and I can't wait for "B" week (or 2 weeks). I have a long list of fun activities that I know the girls are going to love!

Oh, and I realized that E actually did learn the letter A and it's sound when I was discussing whether or not to get the Hepatitis A vaccine for E with her pediatrician...she shouted "A! a a a!" Whenever she sees an A, she excitedly calls out "A!" She really loves learning her letters! What fun!