Unplug Your Kids: Books

We've decided to start doing some of the Unplug your Kids Challenges, and this week was a great one to start with since the topic is books! We spend the vast majority of our time reading, and it is one of O's all time favorite activities. We typically read 20 to 30 books a day, but she somehow convinced my mom to read her over 100 books one day when she was babysitting. My poor mom could barely talk by the end of the day. We have books spread throughout our house on shelves and in bins. Our favorite place to read is the reading chair in the den. We love to snuggle up with a big stack of books.

I'm actually trying to stop my book buying addiction. I check out 8-10 books every week or so from the library, so I'm trying to cut down on the actual buying of books. Although I do still go to the thrift store weekly to check out the children's book selection. I've made a few homemade books for O, and I plan to make more like this one. O loves to look at scrapbooks and photo albums nightly, and she is learning the names of family and friends that we rarely see.

We go to storytime at the library tomorrow, and I can't wait to read some new books with O!

O's New Sleeping Bag

On Saturday O's Grandmother gave her this turtle sleeping bag that belonged to O's daddy when he was a little boy. It was made by his grandmother. O loves it (and I do, too!). In this picture, she is putting her babies "night, night."

O Loves to Paint!

I've been feeling guilty lately that it has been so long since O has painted, so today we had lots of painting fun! We tried a variation on painting with marbles using a golf ball. It worked well, and O embellished her painting with a few brush strokes, too. Then she tried printing circles and dots using a bottle top. After that she had a great time painting on her chalkboard easel with water. What a great afternoon!

Hard/Soft Sorting

O learned the attributes hard and soft today. I had 6 items in a bowl- 3 hard items and 3 soft items. We talked about the different concepts as we touched the items and sorted them into 2 containers. O was really thinking during this lesson, and she really enjoyed it. She kept wanting to do it again, so we ended up sorting the objects 3 times in a row.

Our Version of Dressing Frames

I bought this Zoolio activity set before our cruise in December. I thought it would a good, quiet activity to take to dinner. O wasn't very interested, but my 3 year old niece loved it. After we got back, I put it away in the closet until this week. O has enjoyed trying out the different activities. It includes 6 removable pages that have a different activity on each- velcro, zipper, snaps, buttons, weaving, and a pocket kangaroo. O also likes carrying it around like a purse. Actually, this is her FAVORITE thing to do. She puts it on her arm, turns to walk away and says "bye" like she has somewhere very important to go! This toy well-made and attractive, and the best part of all is that I bought it 2nd hand for about 3 dollars! I LOVE 2nd hand shops!

Stringing Beads

We've been working on stringing beads lately using O's snake bead stringer that was a baby shower gift. Its made by Ryan's Room, and we really love it. The beads are wooden and nicely made. O has a little trouble stringing the big beads, but she's learning. Somehow my Kleen Kanteen jumped into this picture. I LOVE that thing!

Making a Rain Maker

Our favorite exhibit at the Arts Alive Festival on Saturday was put on by the local Montessori School. It was a station set up for children to build their own rain makers (not that the rain need any encouragement!) using plastic cups, popcorn kernels, tape, and stickers and markers to decorate. O loved sitting on the mat to decorate her rain maker.

It's my Birthday

Bleh! I'm not ready to be 31. 30 sounded old enough. Oh, well. Ell and O brought me breakfast in bed, and it was delicious. I've been spoiled since my mom and O brought me breakfast in bed yesterday. I just might get used to this :) Its a perfect rainy day to nap and be lazy, but we're going to an art festival to enjoy art in the rain. Hopefully, the sun will come out!

Oh, The Things You Can Do...

with an egg carton! I cut holes out of the bottom of the carton. First, O put clothes pins in the egg carton. When I showed her how to do this, I put the clothes pins upside down. She quickly corrected me!
Open the carton and drop the clothes pins through to the floor. This is very exciting!
Push wooden acorns into the holes. This was a little challenging, and O REALLY enjoyed it.
Then she put bears in the holes or "caves." This was soooooo much fun!
Then shake, shake, shake to get them out again!

Gardening with Guh-guh (aka Duggie)

My mom (Guh-guh, Duggie) keeps O on Thursdays and when we are lucky she stays for the day on Fridays. Today she's sewn O shirts for O and helps us with our container gardening on the deck. She brought 6 Rosemary plants that she and O planted. O loved watering the plants! I think she might be a little gardener! We can't wait until Guh-guh brings us the grape tomato plants she and Grandpa bought us for Easter (they kept them for a while, so we wouldn't accidentally kill them).

O Shirts for Our O

My mom and I have been planning on sewing O shirts for O since she was a newborn. 20 months later, we finally got around to it! My mom did the vast majority of the work, since I was feeling lazy this morning. Thanks, mom! O is VERY proud of her O shirts, and she had to wear both of them at once. I can't wait to make more (and maybe I'll help a little more next time!). Oh, notice Guh-guh's pretty barrette in the top picture. O loves to share her barrettes!

Finally! The Felt Snake.

Montessori Mama posted this great idea about a month ago, and we decided to give it a try last night. My mom brought all of the materials and got things ready while I was at work, and we introduced it to O when I got home. My mom and I were much more excited about it than O was unfortunately. It was a difficult task for her, and she didn't stay with it long. I'm going to try it one more time before I put it away for later.

Sink or Float

O and I played with water on the screened porch today, and we tested different objects to see if they floated or sunk. O understood the concept of floating, but I'm not sure if she knew exactly what sinking meant. I didn't have enough water in the container, so the objects that sunk still broke the surface of the water. Oh, well. We had fun and that was our main objective. Shortly after I took this picture, O decided that she couldn't "each" well enough, so I put the container on the floor. Shortly after that she stripped and was taking an impromptu bath in the container. She had the greatest time and kept herself entertained for about 15 to 20 minutes. I took advantage of this time to read a few magazines :)

Fun with Play Silks

We haven't played with O's playsilks in a while, so I brought them back out today. I put them all in an old baby wipes container. She loved pulling them out one by one. She also had fun wearing the silks as capes and putting them on my head.

I Love Embroidery

She's done! I've been working on this stitchette from Wee Wonderfuls for several days, and I was thrilled to finish her today. I'm making a Christmas stocking for O, and this was the first step. I know its not really the season for Christmas crafts, but I knew that if I waited it was unlikely I would finish it in time. Now the hard part...finding the perfect fabrics to finish the stocking! O really enjoyed watching me embroider. She said "uh-oh" each time I stuck the need through the fabric. This is the 1st time I've embroidered anything in almost 4 years, so I had my Klutz instruction book right beside me. O enjoyed looking at it while she sat beside me on the couch. It was a wonderful way to spend a quiet afternoon with my girl. I promised her that I will teach her to embroider in a few years, and she seemed pleased :) When I was trying to take this picture, O kept turning the fabric over. She was much more interested in the mess of fabric on the back than on the front. She also kept calling the girl "Marg," which was really sweet (Marg is her cousin and best friend).