Coloring with Markers

O had a great time coloring with markers in her new, thrift store coloring book (it cost me 49 cents!). I love it because the pages are wipe-off, so we can use it for years!
After coloring for a bit (mainly making dots!), she decided it would be more fun to color her toes:)

Too Easy

When cleaning out a few under the bed boxes yesterday, I came across this ring holder. I thought it would make a fun activity for O. I showed her how to put the small hairbands on the ring holder and push them down, then she had her turn. This was much too easy for her, and we won't do it again. I wish I'd thought of this a few months ago :(

Toothpick Work

This is a variation on the toothpick work we've done in the past. Before we used a parmesan cheese shaker which had much bigger holes. O enjoyed putting toothpicks in the container. This time we used an actual toothpick dispenser. The holes are much smaller, so it required more concentration and fine motor control. O did great and she really enjoyed it. She also enjoyed taking the lid off and putting all of the toothpicks in the jar that way :)

Bear Puzzle

O has had a good time playing with her bear puzzle lately. Its been in the toy closet for a while because she used to spend more time chewing on it rather than playing with it :) We talked about emotions and colors while doing this activity.

Brown Bear I Spy Bottle

I made an I Spy bottle for O to go along with the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? I got the idea from here. Thanks Shannon for the link to that site. Its full of great ideas! I used lentils instead of rice since O already has a rice I Spy bottle. For this activity we read the book and after we read each page we look for the animal on that page. I kept saying "Green frog, green frog. Where are you?" O wasn't too interested at first (she just wanted to shake and open the bottle), but she became more interested as a I called to the animals asking where they were.

Thrifty Thursday

Since I go to the thrift store every Thursday, I've decided to do a Thrifty Thursday post each week just because writing about my thrift store finds makes me happy :) Today I bought 2 loaves of bread (whole wheat for us, white for the ducks and geese), 3 small baskets for Montessori work, and a vintage ABC board book all for $2.69. I donated 2 comforters, about 10 books, and a lamp. I'm relieved that I donated more than I bought! Hopefully, I'll have time to find another bag of things to donate for next week.

The Lentil Tray

When I saw the lentil tray at Lapaz Home Learning, I knew I wanted to make one for O. I finally got everything together and introduced it to her yesterday. She had lots of fun (and didn't make too much of a mess). She called the lentils babies. She calls every small thing either baby or niney (tiny). Scoops are surprisingly hard to find, and we are thankful to Auntie EB for giving us one of her scoops from her wedding favors table. Thanks, EB!

Color Box 1

Yay! We did the color box 1 today using the color tablets downloaded from Jojo Ebi's Lulu Shop. I am VERY happy with how they turned out. This was a very easy work for O since she master matcher :) I'm looking forward to introducing the 2nd box tomorrow or Friday. I also need to do a three part lesson with yellow since she's not saying the word reliably.

Goodbye Floor Bed :(

O has slept on a floor bed since she was around 7 months old. After our trip to California, we moved her to the guest room bed since she slept so well on that trip. She has slept so much better, so we decided that its time for a real bed. My mom brought the bed tonight, and I hope we'll get it set up tomorrow. Its going to take up a lot more room than the floor bed, so I don't how we are going to arrange things. Hopefully, we'll be able to figure it out tomorrow.

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day! In honor of Earth Day O and I have decided that we will start picking up litter every time we take a walk. Elliott and I used to do this all of the time, but we've gotten slack since O was born, and its time we started again. O loved being the trash spotter. She pointed and called out "tash, tash" whenever she saw trash, and I picked it up and sorted it into either a trash bag or a recyclables bag. I am always astounded by the amount of litter on our road. We live about 15 minutes from the nearest town, and I guess people think its ok to litter on a country road. It's not!!! Its disgusting and despicable. We hope that if we keep the road clean, that people will stop littering. Maybe if they don't see the litter, they won't think its an ok thing to do. Its worth a try.
We have another Earth Day project planned for this afternoon after Elliott gets home...We are going to try to catch tadpoles! I'm very excited about this. I just hope that we can find some tadpoles. The frog population in our lake has decreased drastically in the last few years, so we are hoping that if we raise the tadpoles until they are frogs and then release them that it will help the population to grow. It will also be a fun learning experience for all of us.

Unplug Your Kids: Scissors

This week's unplugged theme is scissors. At first I thought O might be a little too young for scissors (21 months), but then I decided to give it a try. Elliott bought a pair of child safe scissors last night on his way home from work (Thanks, Elliott!), and O was very excited when she saw them this morning. I rolled out a playdoh snake and showed her how to cut it. She was excited and said "O, O,O" which is what she says when she's ready for her turn. We rolled a snake for her, and I handed her the scissors. She had a great time pressing them into the playdoh and trying to maneuver them. We have a LONG way to go before she is proficient with scissors, and I'm glad that we started now. We had a great time!

We Love Gorillas

I've always been fascinated with apes, and I think O might share my fascination. She loved watching the gorillas when we went to the zoo on Sunday. I could have watched them all day, and I think O could have, too. Elliott, however, was not that interested :)

O's Mini Museum

I got the idea to have a mini museum for O's treasures from one of my library books. The book suggested collecting small milk cartons and cutting the tops off then fitting the boxes into a shoebox. As I was reading I remembered these letter press boxes that Elliott gave me years ago to put my small shells again (obviously I never got around to it). We found the boxes in the garage, and they worked perfectly for O's mini museum. This is the bigger of the 2 boxes. O loved arranging her leaves, rocks, acorns, and gumballs on the small shelves. We are going to have lots of fun finding new objects for her museum each day!

What is your favorite Montessori material?

I'm thinking of buying a few more Montessori items, and I'm wondering what other mamas consider as "must haves." We love the knobbed cylinders, but O is a little young for a lot of the other things I've bought. I want to have sandpaper letters, but I can't decide whether to buy them or make them. I think I can make them fairly easily, but I don't know where to find the board to put them on. I also want the red rods, and I know they would be easy to make but I'm not sure if it would be cost effective to make them since I can buy them for $25. Any input is greatly appreciated!

Loving the Thrift Store

I bought 8 books, 1 shirt, 1 dress type outfit (both for O), and a basket for $3.72! Yay for thrift stores! I also dropped off a bag of stuff we don't need. I'm going to try to take a bag of stuff to donate each week. That way I won't feel so bad about buying things.