Artwork and Photos at O's Level

IMG_1037 (Large), originally uploaded by omamom16.

I've been planning on hanging O's artwork and pictures at her level for a LONG time, and we finally got around to doing it a week ago. I bought lots of these cheap acrylic frames from Hobby Lobby when they were 50% off (so they were REALLY cheap). I hate to use so much plastic, but I didn't think it would be safe to have glass frames down low since she likes to take them off the wall and hold them. O LOVES the pictures. She walks by and says "O likes this one and this one and this one..." She especially loves the baby pictures since she is REALLY into babies right now :)

Painting with Kitchen Utensils

IMG_0954 (Large), originally uploaded by omamom16.

I gathered several kitchen utensils for O to paint with a week or so ago. She had a great time mixing the paint with them, but she wasn't too interested in actually putting anything on paper :)

Making Art and then Bubbles

I recently purchased Young at Art by Susan Striker, and it has inspired me to encourage O to make more art :) Lately, she'll draw for a couple of seconds, and then she wants me to draw for her :( I think there's been too much drawing for her by her daddy and grandparents which seems to have inhibited her creativity. This wouldn't have occured to me before reading the book, but I've definitely noticed that after someone draws "for O," she's VERY unlikely to draw for herself. So... I just kept telling her that it was O's art, and if I drew for her then it would be mama's art. I've also noticed that she's much more interested in creating when I offer her many different options... In these pictures, she's using crayons, markers, and dot painters. She also used our homemade watercolor paint, but I didn't get any pictures of that.



After art time, she had a great time making bubbles with this super cool bubble blower :)

Family Memory Game

Family Memory Game, originally uploaded by omamom16.

I made this memory game for O for Christmas, and I know that she is going to LOVE it! To make the game I cut a piece of balsa wood (from Hobby Lobby) into 10 equally sized pieces, sanded the edges, and decopaged the wallet sized pictures to the boards. The hardest part about making this game was choosing the pictures. I planned on choosing 5 pictures from each year, but I've got 5 pictures here from O's 1st 4 months! I ran out of boards long before I ran out of pictures. I hope to buy more boards soon, so I can finish this game and mark it off my list!

Sorry for another off center picture! It looks perfect in draft form. I don't think that blogging through flickr is going to work out :(

Making Shapes

Making Shapes, originally uploaded by omamom16.

Since O is still learning her shapes (she knows most of them, but she does need to practice!), I thought this would be a good activity for her. The idea for this came from Lapaz Home Learning. To make this activity, you need tongue depressors, stickers, and a pen. I didn't make a control shape at 1st, and O had a bit of trouble making her triangle. She did MUCH better after she had a model to look at so that she could check her work. I originally planned on glueing the control, but then I decided to use velcro to connect the tongue depressors so that I could take it apart for storage. I've also made a rectangle and plan to make a diamond.

Please excuse the off center photo. It's another problem that I'm having when blogging through Flickr :)

Day 3 of Montessori School

We had a GREAT school day on Wednesday! We worked for about 45 minutes. O chose different work today, which was fun. This is what she chose: wooden shape sorter (Melissa and Doug), Mystery Bag, transferring water with a dropper, jars and lids, sound cylinders, phonics bags, sorting colors into cups, and red rods. We had LOTS of fun with the Mystery Bag and the phonics bags. The red rods were the last work, and she carried the 1st one to the rug wonderfully, but then she threw the 2nd one (several times!). I was shocked, but I did not show my shock. I quietly, but firmly had her pick up the red rods, return them to the shelf, turn the shelf around (school was over), and then I took her to time out. O likes time out, so she wasn't upset, but I think she got the point. When I went to her room at the end of time out, she apologized, hugged me, and said she wouldn't be naughty anymore. She wanted to do more "school," but I decided that we were done for the day. I can't wait until school isn't "new" anymore, and she no longer feels the need to "research" the limits!

Our 2nd Day of Montessori School

We had a quick school session on Tuesday morning because we had an unexpected appointment. O was VERY excited about school, and she was proud that she turned the school shelf around "all by self!" She did the following work: transferring water with a dropper, pouring lentils, red rods, and marbles and frog. She didn't like it when I corrected how she was holding the lentil pitchers, and then she started throwing marbles. This is VERY uncharacteristic behavior, so I think she's still adjusting to "school." After she threw the marbles, I made her pick them up, finish the work, and put the work back on the shelf. Then school was over. She was upset and cried when I told her that school was over. I am definitely putting the frog and marbles work away for a while since they seem to inspire naughty behavior :)

Glue, cotton balls, and toothpicks collage

collage, originally uploaded by omamom16.

I recently bought O blue and red glittery glue, and when she saw it she HAD to use it right away! I quickly grabbed a piece of construction paper, cotton balls, and toothpicks so that she could make a collage. She liked playing with the glue and mixing the red and blue glue to make purple, but she was done with her collage very quickly. Lately, art activities are not holding her attention for very long... I guess that's just part of being 2 :)

Blogging Through Flickr

I'm experimenting with blogging through flickr (since I'm running out of space on blogger). The problem is that I can't figure out how to save my posts as drafts instead of posting them immediately. I really prefer to do most of my blog posts at one time and then posts them once or twice a day. So...if anyone has any tips, I'd really appreciate it! Thanks!

1st day of "school"

1st day of "school", originally uploaded by omamom16.

O and I had our 1st day of real Montessori homeschooling on Monday! Up until Monday, we've done lots of Montessori inspired work, but its been in a very laid back, unstructured format. Elliott and I finally finished our Montessori school shelf, and I've been reading this book to help me prepare (thanks for the recommendation, Stephanie!). O was very excited when I told her that we were starting school, and her eyes were bright with excitement when we turned the shelf around (it stays turned with the shelf to the wall when we are not having "school"). Here is the list of activities that she chose during Monday's session: transferring water with a dropper, placing marbles on the frog, red rods, matching tiny animals, putting clothes pin in an ice cube tray, pouring lentils, and matching cats tray. I presented each work to her (even though she was familiar with many of them), since we haven't done them in a while, and I wanted to be very precise and careful in my demonstration. She did a fairly good job and seemed to enjoy herself. However, she also seemed to be trying to be intentionally naughty. She let out a little squeal and quickly checked me for a reaction. I just quietly reminded her that we only use inside voices. I reminded her that I wanted her to use her nice, school manners, and she said "not naughty manners." I had to remind her to only pick up one clothes pin or one marble at a time, and she laid on the floor and said "O take a deep breath." I have no idea where that came from, but it was pretty funny. When I told her that we were finished with school, and we would have school again tomorrow, she said "O not be naughty morrow." So... she was just "researching" to see what she could get away with during school :) It was very interesting to observe her!

Thrifty Thursday

The addiction continues... I bought 18 children's books this Thursday and 15 last week. I can't seem to stop myself. I'm VERY choosy, but there are just so many that I can't resist. Another problem that I have is that I intentionally buy books that aren't in the greatest shape, so that I can cut them up for various projects without feeling too badly about it. The problem is that I STILL can't bring myself to cut them! I bought 2 books that I wouldn't normally have bought since they weren't in near perfect condition, and we've already enjoyed reading them several times. I don't think they'll be making it to the cutting pile :(

The Backyard Birdsong Guide

O and I gave Elliott this book for his birthday, and it is VERY cool! It has 75 different birds with 130 different sounds. We all love this book, and I'm sure it is going to be a wonderful learning tool for us!

Bath Scrunchie Painting

The idea for using a bath scrunchie for painting came from No Time for Flashcards. A couple of days after reading her post, my mom mentioned that she needed a new bath scrunchie, so I rescued hers from the trash can (it was clean, but a little torn). O was excited about this new way to paint, but she kept looking at the bath scrunchie and was concerned that it had paint on it.
Here's her pink masterpiece :)

Showing Growth

In order to show O's growth, I decided to take a picture of her each year in my wedding dress.

O in 2007

O in 2008. I think she thought I was a little crazy, but she was excited about wearing my wedding dress. She kept saying "too big, too big!"

The idea for this came from Family Fun magazine. A reader had her daughter wear an old fashioned bathing suit every year for a picture until it finally fit her at around age 15. I tried to think of something meaningful that O could wear, and I realized that my wedding dress would be perfect :) I'll eventually put all of the pictures in a book together to show her growth from year to year.

Texture Boards

I made a few texture cards for O about a year ago using old cereal boxes, fleece, bubble wrap, and aluminum foil. She wasn't very interested in them, and they fell apart quickly. I was disappointed, but didn't think too much of it. When I saw these texture boards, I decided it was time to try again! I bought 2 pieces of balsa wood from Hobby Lobby and cut each piece into 9 rectangles using a hand miter saw. I sanded the edges, and then got to work :) I made 2 of each board so that we can do a matching game using touch only (O will wear a blindfold). The boards in the picture are covered with hot glue gun swirls, craft foam squares, lentils, velcro, fleece, paper clips, bubble wrap, and toothpicks. I ran out of wood, but I plan to make many more of these boards. So far I'm thinking of using popcorn kernels, beads, pipe cleaners, pea gravel, mesh, aluminum foil, velvet, flannel, lace, noodles, pennies, etc. I'd love more ideas, so let me know what you come up with!