Matching Animals Figurines to Animal Pictures

E LOVES animals so I thought she might enjoy a matching activity using one of her favorite books and animal figurines.  She doesn't quite get the concept of matching yet, but she's catching on and she really enjoys it.  This is the activity that she has chosen off of her shelf first all week.

To do this activity, I put the book along with several animal figurines into a basket on her Montessori shelf.



We look at the book and match the animals to the pictures in the book by placing the animal figurine on the picture.









Sometimes she'll choose an animal and we'll flip through the book looking for that animal.  Other times we look at the book and match the animals as we read the book.

Free Photo Books!

I LOVE to make photo books at Hotprints!  The books are easy and fun to make, and they are FREE!  You can make up to 4 free photo books each month, and you only have to pay 3 dollars shipping for each book.  I've made these books for each of our summer vacations and the girls' birthday parties.  Both girls love the books, and I'm so glad to have printed pictures to look at with them instead of only having pictures on the computer.

Pumpkin Pie Playdough

Making pumpkin pie playdough is one of our Halloween traditions. (see here and here for the recipe) We were excited to include E when we made it this year. 

O loved mixing the ingredients together with her hands.



It was especially fun to mix in the colors (a fun lesson on mixing red and yellow to make orange) and pumpkin pie spice. 



E stood nearby in the Kitchen Helper.  She loves to be in the Kitchen Helper when we are in the kitchen.  I've kept it on the lowest level since she likes to climb in and out of it by herself.  She LOVED smelling (and tasting!) the pumpkin pie spice container while we were making the playdough.



While I was stirring the playdough on the stove, O mixed the colors from our water xylophone.  This was another fun lesson on mixing primary colors to form secondary colors. 



It's so much fun to knead the warm dough.



Then the playdough cookie making began!

A Fun Day!

O had her 1st field trip today, and we had a great time!  We went to a pumpkin patch and took the whole family...O, E, my mom, Elliott, and me.  Got to love a school that welcomes everyone on field trips! 

O had fun jumping, sliding, running through a corn maze, riding a hay ride, and choosing her pumpkin. 



O was excited to paint and decorate her pumpkin with stickers when we got home. 

Halloween Sensory Box

I set up O's Halloween sensory box with dried black beans, cups, scoops, and Halloween knick knacks on Sunday night and had it waiting for her at the table on Monday morning.  She was SO excited!  She's really enjoyed playing with it, but it really needs another bag of black beans.  She has to be extra careful to not spill the beans since E would be sure to pick them up and try to eat them (she's been eating cat food lately!). 

Here is our Halloween sensory box from last year.  This box doesn't have as much stuff as last year's, and she seems to enjoy it more.

Kaju Burfi Attempted

O and I had fun making Kaju Burfi a few weeks ago.  I found the recipe on National Geographic Kids.  This recipe was simple, fun, and the end result was delicious. 

To make Kaju Burfi, you need 3 cups of ground cashews, 1/2 cup of water, and 2 cups of sugar.

O spooned the cashews in to the grinder.




Then she ground them  with a little help from me.





While O worked on grinding the cashews, I heated the sugar and water over medium-high heat.  O grew tired of grinding, so I finished grinding the cashews while stirring the sugar water.  Meanwhile, E was tired and wanted me to hold her.  As soon as the sugar/water mixture looked ready, I threw the cashews in and mixed them.  I poured the mixture into a glass pan and spread them out.  Our cashews were not ground into powder (as the directions described), and the sugar/water mixture wasn't quite ready, but our Kaju Burfi was delicious!

Ball Exercises

I try to do exercises with E on our large, bouncy ball a few times a week. I have her sit, lay on her back, or lay on her tummy.  We started doing these exercises when E was a few months old at the suggestion of my sister who is a pediatric physical therapist.  I always have my hands on her, and I keep the ball steady by bracing it between my knees.   A great book that encourages this type of activity with babies is Active Baby, Healthy Brain.  

A Personalized Book for E

A representative from Little Bunny Press contacted me a few months ago offering a book for review.  After browsing their site, I decided that I was definitely interested.  These personalized books are beautifully made.  The stories are cute, and the illustrations are great.  E LOVES animals, so I chose the Zoo book for her.


I uploaded a picture of E to the site, and in a couple of days they emailed a proof for me to approve.  It looked great, so then we just had to wait for our book.  The binding was not glued properly on the 1st book that was sent to me.  I emailed the company on a Friday night and within 2 hours they had emailed me back apologizing and promising to immediately send another book....AMAZING customer service!!!



The 2nd book was PERFECT, and it arrived the day before E's 1st birthday.  We took her to the zoo on her birthday, and this book was the perfect gift for her.  She loves to look at the animals, and she gets so excited when she sees her picture in the book.   I know that this book will always be a treasured keepsake for her!






Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

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All About Blue

I recently introduced the bag of blue objects to E. She really loves taking out and exploring each object.







Then she puts the bag on her arm and walks off as if she's going shopping. Could she get any cuter?!!   (I don't think so!)

Water Xylophone

O, E, and I made a water xylophone this afternoon. O poured water into the glass baby bottles in progressive amounts. After the bottles were filled with water, we added food coloring to make them beautiful :) The girls had fun making music, and O did hand over hand to show E how to play the xylophone.


After we finished making music, we poured a little water from each bottle into mugs. We folded paper towels and dipped them into the colored water to make art. O enjoyed this part of the activity more than the making and playing of the xylophone.



Our colors were not very vibrant since we only used a few drops of food coloring in each bottle, but O was still very pleased with her paper towel art!