Putting Clothes Pins on a Container

I recently read about this activity in my Chasing Cheerios blog book, and I'm so glad I did! E(1) loved it!!!

I gave her a can full of clothes pins and showed her how to put them on the sides. She was very focused and determined, and she did this activity over and over again.

Flower Arranging Sensory Bin

The idea for this flower arranging sensory bin came to me the other day, and it was quick and easy to put together since I had everything I needed. I love it when that happens!

I filled a wooden box with dried black beans (leftover from our Halloween sensory bin). I put an empty flower pot, a metal scoop, a teaspoon/tablespoon, and fake flowers in the box. I showed E(1) how to fill the flower pot with the beans using the scoop. Then I showed her how to arrange the flowers in the pot. She LOVED this activity!




After she arranged the flowers a few times, E had fun just scooping and spooning the beans into the pot and into piles in the box. I had to watch her really closely because she put the beans in her mouth a couple of times.


O(4) was very excited to see this sensory bin when she got home from school. She loved playing with it, and I added another flower pot so both girls could work in it at the same time. Unfortunately, they went a little crazy and scattered beans all over the floor. However, that just provided them with more opportunities to practice their sweeping skills and to improve their pincer grasps!

It's Hammer Time!

*Sorry to the people who commented on this post. Blogger was down for a while. When it came back up, they'd deleted the post, which also deleted the comments.

My dad (who is building his house from scratch...cutting trees that needed to be cleared for the house and turning them into boards to build the house, etc.) cut a few slices of one of his trees for the girls and I this weekend. I have lots of plans for these tree slices, and we started with a fun hammering activity.

We put this large tree slice under in the shade in our front yard along with a couple of hammers and nails. The girls have had a great time hammering nails. (I never let E(1) do this activity unsupervised just in case she decides to eat a nail!) O(4) especially likes to pull nails out after she hammers them. She was pulling so hard one time that she fell backwards off the tree when the nail finally came out!






While this is not an ideal toddler activity (especially when the toddler is super tired), both girls really enjoy it, and I think we'll spend a lot of time hammering this summer. I love that they are learning so many things through this simple activity...hand/eye coordination, determination, persistence, fine motor control, concentration, etc.

Mud Day!!!

O(4) loves to hear stories from my childhood, and one of the stories I tell her is how my kindergarten always had a "mud day" at the end of the school year. I was never allowed to participate in "mud day" because my parents were germophobe (we had "water day" instead). Since I am not a germaphobe (at least not as much as my mom and Elliott!), I let the girls go crazy with mud this week. They had a GREAT time!

We started off by filling several containers with water.


Then they made grass soup...this is a favorite daily activity. They serve it dry and/or wet.


We started adding dirt to the water to make mud. I was the designated dirt digger at one point.


Both girls eventually ended up in the container of mud.


Afte the girls tired of the mud, we put the waterhose on the slide to make a waterslide. Then I "chased" them with the water while they ran all around the yard. What a simple and fun afternoon!

Fun with the Moveable Alphabet

O(4), E(1), and I had fun with the moveable alphabet a few weeks ago. The girls gathered objects from around the room and brought them to the rug. O and I worked together to spell the words. Then I scrambled the letters, and O unscrambled them. She REALLY loved unscrambling the words! I'm looking forward to doing this more often this summer when we have more time for homeschool!!!

Comment Moderation

I've changed my blog settings again, so that you can comment on the blog now. I have it set so that I can publish (or not publish) the comments. Hopefully, this will keep the viagra spammers away :)

Covered from Head to Toe (almost)

I was so excited to recently find long sleeved swim shirts for my girls at a reasonable price (from Zuilly). I bought long sleeved swim shirts, skirts, and hats for them. We spend most of our time outside, so it's very important to keep these fair skinned girls covered as much as possible. Luckily, they don't mind at all (although O does occasionally ask if she can wear a one piece swim suit).

Buddha Board for Baby

We love the Laptop Buddha Board Black, but we've found out the hard way that if you use too much pressure the metal on a paintbrush will scratch the surface. Since E(1) is likely to mash a paint brush instead of using a light touch, I bought an aquadoodle pen (on clearance!) for her to use with the buddha board. It works great, and there's no cup of water to spill!

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.

Changing Settings

I've changed the settings of this blog so that it will not accept comments. I'm really tired of ridiculous viagra spam, and I'd rather not have any comments at all than deal with a hundred viagra comment spread throughout the blog. I hope that if I block the comments for a while, the spammers will find someone else to bother and I'll be able to allow comments again. If you have questions or comments you can email me at chasingcheerios@gmail.com. Thanks!

Sprinkler Fun

My girls had a fantastic time running in the water from the sprinkler earlier this week. They were hesitant at first because the water was cold (it's well water), but they got used to it and loved every minute of it. I loved sitting on the swing while watching them run, laugh, and play. I loved how they held hands to walk up to the water. Such sweet sisters!

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!

An O Quote

O(4), E, and I were sitting on my bed, and O was working on an embroidery sampler. She said "Mama, guess what?" I said "what?" and she said "Nothing is for sure whenever hope is gone." She really blows my mind on an almost daily basis :)

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.