Thrifty Thursday

Today was a very successful thrift day because I donated MUCH more than I bought, which is always my goal.

Donated: 2 pairs of too small shorts, 2 girls' outfits, 1 pair of toddler pants, 1 pair of toddler shoes, bedroom shoes, 2 sippy cups, 3 plastic cups, 1 plastic plate, 1 car cooler, 1 log holder, 2 plastic pampered chef bowls with lids, 1 plastic bowl, 1 ball, 1 chicken cooking thing, and about 15 to 20 children's books (Elliott's old books that held no sentimental value). There were a few more things, but I can't think of them now.

Bought- pretty little planter for a flower or maybe an activity and 11 juice glasses that will be great for Miss O (she drinks from glasses at all meals and straw cups between meals, in the car, and at night) total spent $5.00

Pouring

We tried a new pouring work today. I found this pitcher (probably a creamer?) in my cabinet, and I thought it would work great for O to pour popcorn kernals back and forth. She thoroughly enjoyed herself. You can tell by her tongue sticking out that she was totally focused on this work :)

Picking Strawberries

O was thrilled to pick strawberries last night from our deck container garden. Grandaddy Harry helped her and showed her what to do. We are excited to have these yummy, organic strawberries that we've grown ourselves. O shared a few and gobbled up the rest! Thanks, Guh-guh!

Color Sorting

O enjoyed color sorting today (it was a GREAT day in O's homeschool in case you couldn't tell!). I had a basket of fruit shaped plastic ice things that I got from the dollar store, and these cups that I bought last year to have for O's birthday parties (don't want to use disposables, of course!). I spread out the cups and showed her how to match the fruits to the colors and sort them. She was slightly confused at first, but she caught on quickly and had fun completing the work. I was worried that I'd given her too many colors at one time, but she did fine. She enjoyed this work, but she didn't want to do it again. I guess it just couldn't compare to the excitement of the Mystery Bag!
Update: O has chosen this work from the shelf a couple of time since I introduced it. She talks herself through the task, labeling the colors, and self-correcting as she goes. She dropped the orange cup as she walked to the mat, and once she set the cups up she said "orange" like she suddenly remembered that she'd dropped the cup. She got the cup and lined it up with the other cups. While sorting she put a green object in the red bowl, paused, said "no, green," then took it out of the red cup and put it in the green cup. I LOVE watching her work.

The Mystery Bag

We did the Mystery Bag game for the 1st time today, and O was just vibrating and squealing with excitement! I put several items in the bag- banana (fake), spoon, fork, toy car, and a bead. I showed her the items, and we labeled them. Then I put everything in the bag and put the blindfold on. I demonstrated how to pull out only one item and then feel it and then say what it is. Then it was O's turn. She guessed bananaa before taking off the blindfold, but she was so excited with the rest of the items that she pulled off the blindfold as soon as she had the object out of the bag. Then she decided that it was mommy's turn. She loved it when I guessed correctly, and if I took too long to guess or guessed wrong she called out the answer proudly. I think this is definitely O's most favorite montessori work EVER!

Shadow Matching Game

I found this shadow mathing game here, and I knew O would love it as soon as I saw it. I finally got everything cut out and laminated, so I introduced it to her this morning. She thorougly enjoyed it and asked for more after she finished. When she wakes up from her nap, I'll show her the shadow matching game that goes with Eric Carle's Very Busy Spider book. She's going to be so excited!

Drawing and Stickers Basket

I gathered a basket of drawing pads, a pencil, markers, and stickers for O last night and left it on the table for her to discover this morning. She was thrilled to see it, and she had lots of fun playing with the stickers (they were on her cheeks at one point before ending up on the floor and table) and drawing on the pads. This activity will stay at the table because I don't want her walking around with a pencil in her hand or drawing on the walls and floor. I realized what a packrat I am when I looked closely at the stickers and saw the date...1983! Yes, I saved them from when I was 6 years old probably with the intention of one day sharing them with my little girl :)

We're Going Camping!

Elliott and I are so excited to be planning O's 1st camping trip! We've been talking about one day taking our kids camping since long before O was born, so we can't wait. We've finally found a free weekend, and we hope the weather will cooperate. We're taking the easy way out by going to a campground where we can set up our tent right next to our car. Does anyone have any advice on camping with a toddler? I'm trying to figure out what kind of food to take, so any suggestions are appreciated! Thanks!

Homemade Mother's Day Gifts

O and I have spent the last 2 weekends making homemade Mother's Day gifts for her grandmothers, auntie, and me. We're trying to do only handmade gifts from now on, and we have really enjoyed ourselves!
O painted flower pots and then we planted basil seeds in them. She needed encouragement to keep painting, but she enjoyed the planting process. Unfortunately, I dropped and broke one of the pots. I guess the broken one will be mine :(
O and I really enjoyed making exfoliating sugar scrub. I love the fact that its all natural, and it smells great! We used Burts' Bees Apricot Oil since I didn't have any essential oils, and it smells good enough to eat (and I admit that I tasted it when O wasn't looking...not bad).
I was proud of how well O spooned the mixture from the bowl into each jar. She was really into this, and she did not want ANY help. This made it a little difficult and messy, but fun and a great learning experience for us both!

Entertaining Herself

I don't usually get on the computer while O is awake, but I decided to give O a chance to have some independent play while I blog. I thought she would fuss and want my attention, but that was not the case at all. She's been reading books and playing with her bear puzzle. I think she really likes having this time to herself. Looks like mommy might get a little more time for blogging :)

Going Fishing

While looking in our guest room closet for a wedding present (sorry EB but I didn't find the present), I found this cool fishing game that I bought 2nd hand about a year ago. O was THRILLED when she saw it, and she did her little excited expression/sound that we love so much. She had fun catching the fish, and then I put them back for her. She got a little frustrated at times because the fish fell off, and I had to remind her to move slowly so she wouldn't lose the fish.

Feeding the Frog

Here's my thrift store frog! O fed him a basketful of bugs (from the dollar section at Target). She loved this work and repeated it 3 times immediately. When she a little older, I'll let her feed the frog using tongs or tweezers. I think this may be a daily work!

Unplug Your Kids: Green

The unplugged theme this week is green, and we decided to share a few of our weekly "green activities.
O loves to drink from her green Kleen Kanteen just like mommy!

Helping sort the recycling.
Helping mommy put the plastics in the correct container
Helping mommy and daddy crush cardboard boxes
Helping daddy put the boxes in the correct container

We cheated a little since we didn't really do anything that we don't normally do. However, O doesn't usually go to drop off the recycling. We had to go to town on Thursday and in order to minimize wasteful spending of gas, we packed everything into one trip... dropped off the recycling and trash, dropped off the tiller at Kenny's house, went out to eat, and went grocery shopping. It was a long night, but we wanted to get our money's worth since it cost $7 to go to town and back (yes, I'm a dork, and I like calculating things like that).

Thrifty Thursday

Donated: 15 magazines, 20 greeting/Christmas cards, 1 record, 5 cassette tapes, 1 teddy bear, 1 small Barbie, 1 small photo album, etc.

Purchased: 2 small glasses for O, a basket for Montessori work, a wide mouthed ceramic frog (I've got a few Montessori inspired ideas for this frog!), a small doll for O (I'm feeling some buyer's remorse for buying the doll since O REALLY does not need another doll, but it was cute and only cost 1 dollar) Total spent- $3.69

Open/Shut

I presented O with a basket of items to open and shut. She was very interested, and she liked the ring box the best. She said "ope, shut" the whole time she was doing this work. For some strange reason, she does not like to clean up after this work (she usually puts things back with no problem and actually enjoys putting things in their places). She'd rather leave the items scattered on her rug while she goes off to play with something else. Obviously, that's not acceptable. Hopefully, she'll do better with this tomorrow.