Transferring Rice with a Small Spoon

My mom cleaned out her china cabinet and buffet this afternoon, and I hit the jackpot! The tray for this work is the bottom of an old butter dish, and the 2 small glass bowls are old ash trays. The tiny spoon is from the ice cream shop that we went to after our professional photo shoot. (I thought of this work when I saw the spoon, so I asked for few more samples so that I could have a few extra spoons!)

I was not sure that O would be successful, but I was sure that she would LOVE this work since she loves all things "niney" (tiny). She did MUCH better than I expected, and she thoroughly enjoyed herself. She was very excited that Guh-guh found an "ug" for her to work on. When she was finished working, she rolled the rug up by herself and took it to Guh-guh. I was so surprised and proud because it was the 1st time that she's rolled the rug completely independently. She LOVES working on a rug aka "ug."

Matching Magnetic Fruits and Vegetables

I found these vegetable and fruit magnets at the dollar store this afternoon. I bought 3 packs so O could sort & match them, and she seemed to enjoy this work. She was easily distracted, and I think I put out too many items at one time. I put one of each item on the cookie sheet, and I put the matching pairs in the basket. She was supposed to pick up one item at a time and match it to its pair on the cookie sheet. We'll try this again tomorrow with fewer items :)

Playing with Playdoh

O loves to play with playdoh at G & G's house, and today it occured to me that I should put the playdoh and tools on a cookie sheet to help her keep everything together. I can't believe it took me so long to think of that! She really enjoyed herself :)

Color Sorting

My sister found these martini glass things at the dollar section of Target yesterday. I was very proud of her when she immediately saw the potential for a color sorting activity. Yay, Melanie! O really enjoyed sorting the small animals by color. When she's a little older, I think she'll like sorting them by the animal type.

Transferring Water with a Dropper

I introduced this work to O today. I set out 2 small glasses with the glass on the left filled halfway with water. I showed her how to fill the dropper with water and then release the water into the 2nd glass. She was interested, but she didn't stick with the task for very long. She kept forgetting to let go of the bulb once she squeezed it, so she was not getting much water in the dropper. I hope she'll enjoy this work more when we try it tomorrow.

Cheerios and a Free Book!

I was very excited when I saw that the Whole Grain Cheerios at the Dollar General came with paperback books! I'm sure the other customers thought I was a little strange when I pulled out EVERY box to see which book came with it. I bought 2 boxes because I thought the books pictured above looked interesting, and we can never have too many boxes of Cheerios! I'm excited that Little Quack's Bedtime is also in Spanish since I try to read at least one Spanish book to O each day. Other books that were packaged with the Cheerios included Olivia and the Missing Toy and The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle.

Picking Peaches

O was so excited that she got to help G & G pick their peaches today. We had to pick LOTS of them because the birds are starting to eat them. They aren't ripe yet, but we can't wait to eat yummy organic homegrown peaches!

Balancing on Bricks

O had fun balancing on G & G's brick border this afternoon. She calls it a "balance beam." I'm planning on setting up a balancing board in our front yard when we get home (we'll be at G & G's until Wednesday. Then we're heading to the Bahamas on Friday.) O is also a trend setter with her crocs aka "docs." Her 4 year old cousin likes to wear 2 different colored crocs now, too. My sister is not thrilled about it, but I think they look cute!

An Easy Beach Collage

I took my roll of contact paper with us to the beach, so we could make an easy beach collage. I cut 2 equal pieces of contact paper and laid one sheet sticky side up on the table. My niece decorated it with flat shells, leaves, and flowers from the dunes. She LOVED making her collage and was totally focused on this activity. O was not interested at all. She was a bit fussy and only wanted to blow bubbles :) After my niece finished decorating her sheet of contact paper, I covered it with a 2nd layer of contact paper to seal it. She was very proud of her beautiful creation!

Painting with Water

I took O's paint with water book with us to the beach, and it was quite a hit! The older girls (ages 3 and 4) enjoyed it much more than O (she was done after 1 picture). They each painted at least 3 pictures. It was a great way to paint without a mess and with lots of fun!

No Sew Tutus

Since O loves to play dress up, and she loves to dance my mom and I decided that we should make her a tutu. The original plan was to make it for her birthday, but then my mom decided that making tutus would be a great craft project to do at the beach for all 3 of our beach girls. To make the tutus you need 2 yards of tulle for each tutu and a stretchy headband. Cut the tulle into 3 inch wide strips that are about 20 inches long. Then just tie them (using a slip knot) onto the stretchy headband (my mom found the headbands at the dollar store in packs of 6). Mom and Aunt Linda did all of the cutting (thank goodness!), and I helped make O's tutu while they made the tutus for the other 2 girls. They also made flower and ribbon headbands using floral wire and tape, fake flowers, and ribbon. They made flower wands using floral wire, silver pipe cleaners, fake flowers, and ribbons. Total cost for 3 tutus, 3 flower wands, and 3 flower and ribbon head bands was about 20 dollars and a few hours of fun! The girls had a fantastic time dancing on the beach, and I know that O is going to love her tutu for a LONG time!

Sponge Ball

We're back from the beach! We had a great time, and we weren't ready to leave :( We didn't do any Montessori work while we were on vacation, but we did several craft projects. I saw this sponge ball on this blog, and I've been wanting to make it ever since. My mom had the same idea, so she bought the materials to take to the beach for an easy craft project. To make the sponge ball cut a sponge long ways into 3 pieces. Then take as many pieces as you like (I used 6), and tie them together at the center using a zip tie. O helped me arrange the sponge pieces, and then she had fun playing with the sponge ball in the pool.

Summer Concert

We took O to her 1st concert Friday night, and she thoroughly enjoyed herself. She LOVED playing in the sand, and she danced a little, too :) There were lots of kids there, and they were all so cute jammin and rolling around in the sand.

O was "swimming" in the sand

We're Having a Great Time!

We left for our vacation on Friday, and we're having a great time so far! We started our vacation by visiting a local nature park.
Helping row a boat through a cypress swamp. She's been singing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" ever since!

O observed bees making honey.
She was very impressed with the fish, and she kept asking to see "more fish."
She liked watching the king snake crawling around in its cage. This gave me the creepy crawlies, but I tried not to let O see that I don't like snakes.
She pounded rice in a rice mill.
Trying out a tree trunk chair.

Helping Pack

O was ready to pack for our vacation, and since I had lots to do to get ready I let her do her own thing.
She was very busy taking everything out of her drawers. She attempted to fold each item, but quickly moved on to the next thing when she was unsuccessful. She was very proud of attempt at "packing for beach." After she cleaned out her drawer she was insistent that we were packed, and she was ready to go :) I kept sneaking glimpses of her just because she was so funny to watch. She was very focused, and this kept her busy for at least 30 minutes :)