At the Children's Museum

I love taking O to children's museums, but we live about an hour and a half from them. We went
to visit some friends who live only 10 minutes from the museum, so we knew we had to visit. We had a great time.

O loved playing with the boats in the water.

She chose only fruits and vegetables for her groceries! Yay, O!

We spent a few minutes painting.

I love this chalkboard wall where the kids can paint with water. I wish I had a place in my house where I could put a large chalk board for water painting.

Driving the shrimp boat with a friend.

Learning to Steer

O is learning to steer our pedal boat, and she is SO proud! Now that the weather is nice, we are looking forward to daily pedal boat rides on the lake.

ABC Puzzle and Book

I bought this ABC puzzle/book about 4 years ago (so about 2 years before she was born!). We had fun matching the letters to the correct places in the book and labeling the pictures. O loved the picture of the baby, and she kept saying "baby" the whole time we were playing. Lots of fun!

A Matching Game

The idea for this matching game from Games to Play with Toddlers by Jackie Silberg. I traced around several of O's toys with a pencil onto a notecard. Then I outlined it using a black Sharpie pen. I put the objects in a drawstring bag (from IKEA) and spread the cards out in front of O. As she reaches into the bag to pull out an object we say "Abracadabra, 1,2,3. Reach in the bag. What do you see?" She pulls out an object and matches it to the correct card. LOTS of fun! It was also quick and simple to put together :) Next time we play, I'll have her close her eyes while she reaches into the bag to make it a little more exciting. Another variation is to give her one card at a time and have her feel around in the bag until she finds the correct object. I may also expand on this game by taking pictures of some of her small toys and printing them out for her to match the object to. A similar game was posted about on Z Recommends. Enjoy!

On and Off

This is another activity from Slow and Steady Get Me Ready by June R. Oberlander. I had a small basket of about 6 or 7 rubber bands. I showed O how to put one on the door knob, and she was ready to do it herself! O LOVED this activity. It was quick and fun! Once she put all of the bands on the door knob, she took them off and put them back into the basket. This activity develops -skill in following directions -an awareness of stretchable materials -an awareness of "on" and "off" -problem solving -independence -eye-hand coordination

Spools and Straws

For this activity I put a small amount of playdoh in a bowl to hold up the straw. Then I showed O how to put the spools on the straw. She was very anxious to try it herself, and she liked the activity a little bit. It would have worked better if I'd had clay to hold the straw because the playdoh didn't hold it very well. I may also use packing styrofoam (from our recent Montessori purchases) to hold the straw up next time we do this activity. After O realized that the pink stuff in the bowl was playdoh, she was much more interested in playing with it instead of putting the spools on the straw :)

Put the Fish in the Boat

This activity came from Slow and Steady Get Me Ready by June R. Oberlander. I cut the top off of an envelope to make a boat and cut several fish from construction paper for O to put in the boat. The child is supposed to pick up the fish and put them in the boat which will require the child to separate the envelope to slip the fish in. We talked about the colors of the fish. She called them all boo and ed (blue and red), but she did finally say orange after some prompting. O was a little frustrated by this activity (it was difficult to separate the envelope), and I think we'll wait until she's a little older (or in a better mood!) to try it again.

This activity develops:
- skill in picking up a flat object
- eye-hand coordination
- problem solving
- confidence
- independence
- language interaction

Easter Egg Work

My mom brought O a basket of Easter eggs when she came to keep her this week. Here is one of many activities we've done with the Easter eggs. We talk about the colors of the eggs, count the eggs, and talk about the concepts of open and closed. O likes to put the small eggs into the larger eggs, and then she loves to shake the eggs until she finds one with a smaller egg in it. Opening the eggs is also fun, but its not so easy to close them :)

Putting Cards in a Box

This fun and simple idea (that I would never have thought of myself) came from Jeremiah at Z Recommends. Thanks, Jeremiah! I turned a box upside down, cut a slit in it, and showed O how to slip the cards in it. She had a great time! She was very proud to show her daddy when he came upstairs to play.

Everything is a Hat

Everything is a hat even an Easter Basket. She also puts bowls on her head and calls them "ats." The girl loves hats!

Feeding Gracie

O loves to feed Gracie. She thought it was so funny that Gracie ate treats out of her hand (Gracie is usually a little afraid of O). One of O's jobs is to pour a cup of food into Gracie's bowl. She enjoys having this responsibility.

Arranging Wooden Flowers Again

I decided after some input from other mamas that the wooden flower arranging work was a little too difficult for O right now. I thought I'd put the work on a shelf out of O's sight and reach. However, my little monkey is taller than I realized. She stood on her tiptoes and somehow reached the wooden vase (I'm really not sure how she even saw it) and brought it to me and said "mo." She tried to reach the flowers, but couldn't. When she was trying to reach them, she stood on her tiptoes and said "each, each" (reach, reach). I got 3 flowers for her to put in the vase. It took lots of concentration and effort, but she put the 3 flowers in the vase. She asked for "more," but she was distracted by something and we put it away. I was glad she was distracted and didn't want to do more because I think that it would have been too much for her.

Knobbed Cylinders

I FINALLY introduced the knobbed cylinders to O last night (thanks for your input mamas!), and O really likes this work! Our cat, Gracie, was also interested in learning about the cylinders. Although, she's a little distracted in this pic :)

O's Favorites

We have been super busy around here (although I'm not even sure what we've been doing!), so I don't have any pictures of new activities. I thought I'd share a few of O's favorite things, and I hope some of you will share your child's favorite things.

Favorite foods- avocados, watermelon, bananas, cheese, olives, tomatoes, pickled okra :), cheerios, goldfish crackers, spaghetti (my girl loves to eat!)

Library book (this week)- Llama llama mad at mama

Clothing- shoes and hats (She LOVES shoes and hats!)

Toy- Mr. Potato Head, playdoh, & new baby doll (from Sabrina)

Work- matching cards

Drink- water and mama milkies

Rhyme- Hickory, Dickory Dock & Wheels on the Bus

Outside activity- riding in her wagon and sliding

Nighttime activity- painting in the tub before bathtime

So....what are your child's favorites?

Planting Herbs

O and I planted basil, rosemary, and lavender seeds today. We started by breaking up packing peanuts and putting them in the bottom of the pots. (A great way to recycle at home!)

Next we put soil in each pot and patted it down. O is stirring the packing peanuts in this pic :)

Then O made an indention in each pot with her finger. I put a few seeds in each indention and covered them with soil. Hopefully, we'll have some little plants in a few weeks!