Leapfrog TAG Reading System

I'm planning on my dad buying the TAG system for O for her birthday (he always lets me choose her gifts!), and since it's on sale at Amazon, I thought I'd go ahead and buy it now. However, I need help deciding which books to buy with it. What are your favorite TAG books and why???? Thanks!!!

Matching Paper Clips

I introduced this activity to O a few months ago, and she was totally uninterested. I put it away and brought it back out today. Today she loved it!

 
She rolls the roller on the paper clip dispenser, gets the clip and then clips it to the matching dot. The last paper clip didn't catch onto the magnetic roller, so we had to shake it a bit. I think smaller paper clips will work bettter with the dispenser.


Wow! Four Montessori posts in a row. Maybe this is a Montessori blog afterall. I was beginning to have my doubts :)  

Rainbow Pipe Cleaner Work

Here's another one from My Montessori Journey! (I LOVE that blog!) As soon as I saw this work, I knew O would love it! I love that it's so simple and easy to put together. As I read the book, O builds the rainbow. Fun! Eventually, I plan to add the bead component to the work, but for now the pipe cleaners are enough :)

Hammering is Fun!

This hammering activity has been on my list for a LONG time, and I'm so glad to finally get it together. O was very engaged in this work. She liked hammering, but she also enjoyed just pushing the golf tees (she didn't like me calling them golf tees. She corrected me and said "O calls them nails!") in with her fingers.


 
I love to see pictures of trays on other blogs, so I'm going to try to do more of that :) Here's an action shot (because I love action shots, too!).


 

Arranging Feathers

  
This idea came from My Montessori Journey. It's fun and easy to put together. O really enjoyed herself!



 
It occured to me a couple of weeks ago that paint chips would be PERFECT for cutting work! The paper is stiff which makes it easier to handle and the lines are wide. Can't get any better than that!
 



 
After O cut the chips, we talked about the differences in the colors and put them in order from darkest to lightest. We saved the chips, so she can use them later to make a collage :)

Getting Ready for Summer

 
O practiced skiing in the grass yesterday while Elliott pulled her all around the yard. She said "As soon as the water is warm, O is going to ski! You'll be AMAZED!" Yes, I will be amazed (and terrified) if my 2 year old starts to water ski this summer! I'm not sure if I'm ready for this yet. I thought I had a couple more years. I guess we'll see what happens...

Sneak Peek

Guh-guh just ordered these bunny baby necklaces for M and O for Easter, and I am SO excited! They are adorable. You MUST check out this etsy store. I'm planning on reviewing these necklaces after Guh-guh and Grandpa give them to the girls for Easter, so make sure to check back :)

Matching Upper and Lowercase Letters

O asked to match upper and lowercase letters a couple of weeks ago, and she and Guh-guh have been having fun with it ever since! Guh-guh is good at making everything fun and incorporating singing and dancing into almost everything she does with O! What lucky girls O and M are to have such a devoted Guh-guh!

A Walk in the Woods

We took advantage of the beautiful weather today and took a walk in Grandaddy's woods. It was fun to show O the woods that were my playground when I was growing up. O was VERY excited to ride in the Beco at first, but then she was ready to walk like a "big girl."



My balancing girl was scared to cross the stream on this log at first, but then she said "O's not scared anymore!" and she wanted to go all the way across (which she couldn't do since it was a rotten log, so Elliott couldn't cross with her to hold her hands). Btw, O is VERY proud of her oversized t-shirt that Elliott brought her from his recent ski trip. She ran up to M when she arrived and said "See my new dress!"



O and M had a super time looking for fairy grass and fairy holes throughout our walk. M is showing O tunnels in the rotten log. They might be fairy tunnels!


After our walk, the girls had fun exploring Grandaddy's house site. Grandaddy is building his house by hand with my brother's help. He has cut all of the lumber himself and is sawing it into boards using a saw mill that he built. We hope that he'll be finished before O and M leave for college :)



The girls love to balance on Grandaddy's boards!

More Science Fun

After watching Sid the Science Kid, Guh-guh and O went outside to find and study roly polys. They studied them with a magnifying glass and inspected their tiny legs.





O has one of her tiny baby dolls under her shirt, and she is pretending that she is about to give birth.  She's such a funny girl!

They also enjoyed looking at flowers through the magnifying glass. We are so glad to finally have nice weather again!
Btw...we are still waiting on the carrot baskets to produce leaves. I'll let you know what happens!

Gardening

O has had so many fun learning experiences at Guh-guh and Grandpa's house this week. Guh-guh taught her how to re-pot African Violets.

Then they planted grape tomato plants outside. Yummy!