A Couple More Chalkboards

I had leftover plywood and paint, so I made a couple more chalkboards yesterday. They are smaller than the original one, and I'll put one of them on our deck next to O's new playhouse (I'll post about this soon, I hope!). The 2nd one is for my niece. You can't really tell in the picture, but the border is aqua. I hope the girls like them!

An Impromptu Activity

While Ell and I put together O's adirondack chairs and table this morning (a birthday gift for O from my sister and niece), O had a great time taking the sockets out of the tool box. She lined them up according to size, but she got really frustrated when she tried to put them back into the box. I think this will make a great Montessori work when she is older. I'll take all of the tools out of the box, put them in a basket, and show her how to fit them into the correct places one by one. Fun!

Scrapbook Paper Memory Game

When I saw this memory game on the Crafty Crow, I knew I would be making one soon :) Its just too cool and pretty to not make! This game will be one of O's Christmas gifts, and I plan on making a drawstring bag to keep it in. One handmade Christmas present is made, and I have about a hundred more to go! I bought wooden rectangle boards (sold in packs of 4) from Hobby Lobby and used Mod Podge to glue the scrapbook paper onto them. I planned on covering the paper with a layer of mod podge, but I decided to spray them with clear acrylic sealer at the last minute (since it's so much faster and easier). This was a fun and simple gift to make, so give it a try!
Here's a pic showing the other side of the boards. They are bigger than I planned, but I couldn't find boards any smaller, and I didn't want to go through the trouble of cutting them.

Thanks!

I got an award!!! Thanks to everyone who gave me this award- Jo, Shannon, Bizzy Bee Creations, and Ahfat. Sorry its taken me so long to pass it on!

The award comes with these rules:
1. The winner can put the logo on their blog.
2. Link to the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs youv'e nominated.

So here are my 7:

Make and Takes
Megret
Pepper Paints
Shannon's Sharings
The Crafty Crow
Toddlebits
Walk Beside Me

There are many others that I would like to have given this award to, but somebody beat me to it! Thanks again, ladies! I REALLY do appreciate it!!!

Matching Cats Tray

The idea for this work came from the Montessori n Such catalog. I LOVE that catalog! When I was at my mom's house last weekend, I found this cat tray and tiny cats. I knew that I had to make a Montessori work out of them! 2 of the cats are sitting and 2 of the cats are standing, so I showed O how to match the sitting cats and match the standing cats.
She did a great job, and she loved it! I need to find a few more cats because 2 pairs is just not enough!

O's Number Puzzle

O was thrilled to work with her number puzzle this afternoon. I'm just happy that I found this wooden number puzzle for only 25 cents :) I am a bit disappointed that I couldn't get the pen marks off of it. Does anybody have any ideas for getting pen marks off of wood?

Matching Lids and Jars

This a simple activity you can do with jars from around your house. We have lots of jars since we can't recycle glass here. O was VERY excited when she saw me setting this up, and she couldn't wait to get started. I found as many different sized jars with lids as I could. I took the lids off and put them in a basket and put the basket to the left of the jars. O immediately got to work, and she did really well. I was afraid that I had too many jars, but it was the perfect number :)
After she finished matching the lids to the jars, she immediately starting taking the lids off and putting them back in the basket. She was ready for "more game" as she calls it! I think this girl is ready to start back with our school work!

Matching Scents

I was very excited when I found these salt and pepper shakers in the dollar section at JoAnn's. They are stainless steel and perfect for the scent matching work. I'll put matching scents (vanilla, almond, coffee, etc.) on cotton balls and put them into the shakers. There will be stickers on the bottom, so O can check to see if she has matched the shakers correctly. I can't wait to have my new Montessori shelf, so we can start school! I have VERY high hopes that this new shelf is going to be the answer to all of my organizational and storage problems :)

Fun with Thank You Notes

I've been trying to think of a way to have O involved in writing the thank you notes for her birthday gifts, and I figured it out today! I wrote Thank You on her chalkboard (she helped, but I erased her "help" before I took the pictures!) and had her stand in front of the board with the gift while I took pictures. I had her say "Thank you, Guh-guh" (or whoever the gift was from) as I took the picture. This was a lot of fun, and O seemed quite proud to be taking pics for "tank too notes." Unfortunately, the lighting was a bit off, and we'll have to take a few more pics tomorrow (I was hoping to have the notes sent tonight!). I am uploading the pics to Snapfish, and then sending them out as postcard thank you notes. For the gifts that I didn't want to take outside and the gifts of money, I used pictures of O from her birthday party. Obviously, this isn't a picture that we'll be using :) I added her name after I took these pics, and I actually got few shots of her looking at the camera!

Animal Soundtracks

My mom gave O this fantastic game, Animal Soundtracks, for her birthday. We have had a GREAT time playing it! To play the game you listen to a cd with different animal sounds. When you hear an animal that is on your card, you put a dot on their picture. Its a simple game that is great for toddlers and preschoolers. It's great for increasing attention and auditory comprehension skills :)

Finding Rocks in Putty

My mom had this great therapy putty left over from her teaching days, and she let O and I borrow it. O had a great time finding the rocks in the putty. The putty is similar to silly putty, but its much firmer and requires a good bit of effort to find and pull the rocks out of the putty. I was impressed with how focused and determined O was during this activity :) This activity is great for increasing hand and finger muscle strength and fine motor skills, and it's great for teaching persistence and determination!

Mixing Colors in a Bag

For this activity you need cornstarch, sugar, water, a ziplock bag, and food coloring. Mix 1 cup of cornstarch, 1/3 cup of sugar, and 4 cups of water. Fill about 1/3 of the bag with the mixture. squeeze the food coloring into opposite sides of the bag, zip it closed, and squeeze to mix. We mixed yellow and blue to make green, and then we mixed blue and red to make purple. It was a quick, fun activity, but O was a little too fussy to really enjoy it :( It was also a great way to reuse the old ziploc bags that I just can't stand to throw away :)

Mommy/Daughter Arts and Crafts Time

I've decided that since O is a little older (2) and is getting more independent that it may be fun for us to sit down at the table together and each do our own separate arts and craft activity. It worked well today and was fun! O colored with markers and decorated herself with "da-doos" (tatoos) while I worked on a scrapbook paper memory game. Then she played with a little troll doll that her Grandaddy Harry brought her yesterday. Check out that cool forehead "da-doo"! She's VERY proud of it!
Here's her other masterpiece!

Shining Pennies

O and I shined pennies this morning. It was fun, quick, easy, and educational! If you do this activity with a child under age 3, please be very careful since pennies are choking hazards for kids who still put thing in their mouths. First, we mixed a 1/2 cup of white vinegar and a tablespoon of salt and stirred it up. O usually holds the measuring apparatus while I pour in the ingredients, then she pours them into the bowl.
Dropping the pennies into the vinegar and salt mixture.
Drying the pennies and admiring their shininess.
Here are our clean and shiny pennies! They actually don't look that great in the picture, but they are MUCH prettier than they were before we started. We also dropped a few quarters, nickels, and dimes into the mixture and talked about how the chemical reaction that cleans them only works with copper. That's probably over the head of a 2 year old, but I thought it was good to expose her to new information :)

Tray Tuesday

I didn't intend to do a Tray Tuesday post today, but O asked to eat from her muffin tin and it was dirty. Luckily, the tray was clean, and she was excited about eating from it. She had cucumber sandwich triangles, rotisserie chicken and banana pepper strips, avocados and black olives, and whole grain goldfish and raisins. Its very similar to yesterday's muffin tin!