Petals & Leaves Necklace

O and I were thrilled that all of Guh-guh and Grandpa's camelias were in bloom when we were at their house this week. I thought it would be fun to make a simple necklace using the petals and leaves.

O pulled the petals off the flowers while I threaded a blunt needle with yarn. I tied a knot on the needle so that the yarn wouldn't slip off of the needle, and then I showed O how to thread the petals and leaves onto the yarn. She was a little frustrated after her first few attempts because she was pulling on the petals too hard and the yarn was tearing through the sides of the petals. After I showed her how to be very gentle and slowly slide the petals down the yarn, she was successful. She enjoyed making a "patterin" of leaves and petals, and I was proud that she persisted in this task (she wanted to quit at first when the petals kept tearing).

After she finished her necklace, she asked me to make a ring of petals on yarn to put on her hair bun. It looked so pretty...I wish I'd taken a picture :(

Printable M & M Activities

Here are a couple more fun activities from Confessions of a Homeschooler that we've been enjoying lately. I downloaded and printed the pages, laminated them, cut them out, and bound them together on a book ring. O counts the m & m's on each page and matches the correct number to the page.

O has enjoyed practicing writing her numbers. I love that she can just wipe-off the page and do it over again!

Alphabet Movement Cards

O and I have had fun using these using these Alphabet Movement Cards lately. I printed and laminated the sheets, cut out the cards, hole punched the cards, and bound them together with a book ring. I'm enjoying using laminated cards attached to book rings with O lately. They are so simple, easy to use, and don't take up much space.

Handmade Rainbow Gnomes

Clare from Little Red Whimsy sent us a set of rainbow gnomes to play with and review. I was very excited to receive this set since I love for my girls to have well made, original, handmade toys that inspire creativity. This set includes 6 gnomes that are made from wooden pegs. They are dressed in tunics made from wool felt and hats made from 100% wool felted sweaters. They come with 6 matching mushrooms in a drawstring pouch.

I especially love the gnomes with the braided hair. They are so sweet and are the perfect addition to our fairy play. O and I have had so much fun with these little gnomes, and I know that both girls and I will be playing with them for years. If you are looking for a special handmade gift to put in your child's Easter basket, I think these dolls would be perfect!

Also, Clare at Little Red Whimsy takes custom orders. Make sure to browse her "sold" section as she will take custom orders for items that she does not have in stock.

I think this Gnome Sweet Gnome Mushroom Cottage Stacker is just AMAZING!!!

Gingerbread Bunny Cottage

O and I had a GREAT time decorating our gingerbread bunny cottage this weekend! Usually, she is only interested in making a huge mess with the icing, but this time she REALLY wanted to make the cottage look like the picture on the box. She helped me spread the icing on the roof, but then she decided that she wanted me to do most of the icing while she got to work placing the candy on the house. She also had fun making grass using craft foam and a bunny car using red cardstock.

I bought the bunny cottage kit after Easter last year (for about 2 dollars), so there was no question of eating the candy which made the experience even nicer! I'd decided that I wasn't going to buy any more of these kits since I really don't have room to store them for a year (and I'm not going to pay full price!), but I don't think I'll be able to resist after we had such a wonderful time decorating this house!

Winter Nature Bingo

This fun winter nature bingo card came in the winter issue of O's Just for Fun magazine. I made a color copy of the card onto cardstock (I wish they'd included a removable card or had a downloadable card from the website), laminated the sheet, and cut out the card. We put the card on a clipboard and have taken it outside with us when playing in the yard. We use a wipe-off marker to check things off as we find them. O enjoyed this game the first time we played, but she lost interest quickly. I'm planning to take it with us next time we go for a walk in the woods, and I think we'll all really enjoy it!

Winter Birds Science Shelf

A very kind and generous reader sent us the book, Science is Simple, a couple of months ago. One of my favorite things about the book is the idea of having science tables. I set up a science shelf (it replaced our playdough shelf since O prefers to play with playdough at the table rather than the shelf) in our kitchen.

Our first subject was winter birds. We've enjoyed making art using bird rubbing plates. I set up a sensory box using birdseed, and O LOVES it! We watch birds with binoculars and listened to birdsongs on our Backyard Birdsongs book. We made a bird feeder using a pinecone, peanut butter, and birdseed. We put it on the railing of our deck and predicted whether the birds or squirrels would get to it first. Then we sat down to wait. We waited and waited and waited. Evidently our birds and squirrels are well fed because they didn't eat the birdseed for almost a week!

We've enjoyed taking daily nature walks in the woods, and we spotted a woodpecker a few days ago...that was very exciting! We're loving the wonderful weather we've been having lately, and I'm so glad that my girl loves playing in the woods as much as I did as a child :)

Do NOT Buy This Skwish Ball for Your Baby!!!

E was just playing and mouthing this Skwish ball when one of the beads came off in her mouth. This toy is marketed for babies ages 0 to 12 months, but obviously it is very dangerous and should not be given to children who still put toys in their mouths.

I'm still shaking at what could have happened. Luckily, she didn't choke on the bead, but just let it drop right out of her mouth. We've had this ball since O was a baby and both girls loved it. I'm sad to see it go, but I'm very thankful that E is ok.

What's That Sound?

On Friday afternoon O and I gathered items from our den and kitchen that made sounds. We then took turns wearing a blindfold while the other person chose an item and made a sound. Then the person wearing the blindfold had to guess which item it was. This was a fun and simple game that I'm sure we'll play again soon!

Paint Chips Word Family Game

The idea for this great word family game came from The Snail's Trail.

I wasn't sure if O was ready for this game, but she recently started covering up parts of words while we were reading and asking what the words were. She LOVES doing this, so I thought this word family game would be fun for her. I was happy to see that I was right! O LOVES this game. She has read more than a hundred words, and thoroughly enjoys herself. She's been obsessed with rhyming words for close to a year, so that makes this game even more perfect for her. Check out The Snail's Trail for directions and a list of word families.

Handmade Toss & Catch Toy

Here's another forgotten post that I just found saved in draft...it was written last summer. I think this is the last of the old posts. I guess I'll have to find time to start writing new posts again :)

I made this throw and catch toy for O months and months ago, and she is just starting to like it :) To make the toy, I cut a milk jug in half and put duct tape around the cut edge for safety. I attached rubber bands to the ball and to a hole I punched in the jug. Then I showed her how to toss the ball in the air and try to catch it in the jug. My 5 year old niece LOVES this toy, and now O does, too! (I think she was too young when I first made it...she was 2).

Bug Race Game

Here's another printable game for you!

To play the Bug Race game, you roll the dice, count the dots, and mark through the correct number. Keep marking off the numbers rollled until a bug reaches the other side of the page and wins the race!

Thanks to Confessions of a Homeschooler for linking to this great game and to Blessings for creating it!

Domino Parking Lot Game

O and I had a lot of fun playing the domino parking lot game last week! Thanks to Amy from Let's Explore for the link :)

To play the game, you simply count the dots on your domino and then drive the domino to the correct number. We had lots of fun making beeps, bumps, and screeches as we drove, and baby E looked at us as if we were crazy :)

A Fun Fine Motor Activity

Here is a fun way to get your kiddos to practice their fine motor skills, and it was very simple to make.

To make this toy (I don't really know what to call it), you need an empty water bottle (cut in half), duct tape, pipe cleaner, and 3 bottle tops.

I cut the bottle in half, put duct tape around the cut edge for safety, made holes in the side of the bottle for the pipe cleaner, put pipe cleaners through the holes, made holes in the bottle tops, and put the other end of the pipe cleaners through the bottle tops. I used an ice pick to make the holes in the bottle tops...unfortunately, I was a little hammer happy, and I hammered the ice pick through the bottle top and into my kitchen table. I was pretty surprised when I lifted the ice pick up, and it stuck! Oops!

The idea for this activity came from Julie K in Taiwan.

This post was written a loooooooooooong time ago...July, I think. O wasn't very enthusiastic about this activity, and I eventually put it away. When I took it back out in December, she was very excited and she has really enjoyed working with it.

Loving the Olympics

We've been letting O stay up late every night to watch the Olympics, and she has thoroughly enjoyed it! She especially loves to watch ice skating. I recently printed an ice skater coloring sheet and an Olympics flag coloring sheet for her to color and cut. Thanks to Laura from My Montessori Journey for the link to the flag coloring sheet!