"Art on the Beach" Week...Handprint Canvas

The girls and I have had "Art on the Beach" Week this week, and it's been lots of fun. In fact, I think that we'll continue with daily art projects on the beach throughout the summer, since we've all enjoyed it so much.

One of our projects was to make a handprint canvas for their daddy for Father's Day. The girls decided to paint the canvas blue (blue is O's favorite color). The painted the whole canvas blue using tempera paint.

After the canvas was covered, we pressed their hands onto it to make handprints. We've done this several times in the past, but it's been almost 2 years since the last time, so I thought we needed updated handprints!

Getting the squirmy toddler's hanpdrint was not easy and took several tries...she kept moving her fingers when they were on the canvas. We are all happy with the final result, and we hope Elliott will love it!

Where is it?

E(1) and I had fun playing "Where is it?" this week. To play this game, I had 2 cups...one blue and one red. I put a small object (a wooden girl) under one of the cups while E had her eyes closed. When she opened her eyes, I asked "where is it?" and she tried to find it.

I put it under the red cup each time and waited to see if she would realize that the girl was always under the red cup. She kept checking under the blue cup, but I realized that she "got it" when she handed me the blue cup and demanded that I put the girl under the blue cup. She said "boo cup!" several times...she really wanted me to use the blue cup, too!

Rough/Smooth Board

I introduced the rough/smooth board to E(1) last week.

To make the board (I made it about 3 years ago for O), I glued a square of sandpaper on one side piece of foam core board and left the other side empty.

To introduce the board to her, I lightly rubbed E's finger on the sandpaper and said "rough," and then I rubbed her finger on the foam core board and said "smooth." She repeated the words after me, and seemed to understand completely. Simple, yet effective. She also really liked scratching the sandpaper with her fingernail :)

Sister Love

I have really loved watching the bond between my girls strengthen this summer as they spend all day and night together (since O is out of school, and they are now sharing a room). They love each other so much, and I love to watch their relationship grow.

Counting by 10's

O(4) LOVES to count by 10's! She learned a counting by 10's song in school that she sings all the time. So, when I saw these orange counters in Montessori at Home by John Bowman, I knew that O would enjoy the activity.


I gave her ten 10 golden bead bars and showed her how to place the counters after each one. She immediately understood and got to work. She liked the activity, but she was a little disappointed that it was so easy. She had asked for a really hard math lesson, and this wasn't challenging enough for my math girl! I'm going to show her how to count by 5's with the beads soon, so hopefully that will offer a little more of a challenge for her.

Easy Microwaved Eggs

I have a confession to make...I rarely cook a hot breakfast for my children. I prefer serving them cereal and milk, yogurt,boiled eggs, and fruit. Occasionally, we'll have oatmeal. Sometimes, I feel guilty about this, but most of the times I'm ok with it :)

However, when a friend mentioned microwaved eggs a couple of weeks ago, it reminded me of making microwaved eggs for breakfast years ago in my "before kids" days. Since my girls LOVE eggs, I decided to try microwaved eggs this morning.

I poured olive oil in a microwave safe bowl and swirled it around to cover the sides and bottom of the bowl. I cracked 2 eggs into the bowl and mixed them around with a fork. Then, I microwaved them in 30 second intervals. I think I microwaved the eggs for a total of about 1 minute and 45 seconds...the last interval was only 15 seconds. Once they were cooked thoroughly (not runny at all), I cut the eggs into pieces and served them to my girls.

E(1) was THRILLED! She squealed and shouted "eggs!" when she saw her plate. O(4) liked the eggs, but she said that "daddy's scrambled eggs are better because he cooks them with milk." Maybe, I'll put a dash of milk into our microwaved eggs next time :)

Chasing Cheerios is on Facebook!

I've finally created a Chasing Cheerios facebook page! There's not much on there, but come on over and "like" me! I've seen links to fb pages on blogs, but I have no idea how to add it to my blog...if you know how to do this, please tell me!

Here's the link.

Toothpicks and a Shaker

My little purple fairy (E) loves to put toothpicks in this parmesan cheese shaker (bought from the Dollar Tree).


I gave her the shaker and a small glass filled with toothpicks. I showed her how to pick up one toothpick at a time and drop it into the shaker. When it was her turn, she picked up several toothpicks at a time and then ended up dropping them. She learned that it worked much better to only pick up one at a time. She was very engaged in this task and thorougly enjoyed it. O(4) saw her working and has gotten this work off of E(1)'s shelf several times to do it herself :)

Matching Animal Pictures

I recently introduced this animal matching activity (that I made for O about 3 years ago) to E(1), and she really liked it.

To make this activity, I bought 2 mini animal calendars and cut them apart. I added labels and laminated the cards. I put 3 to 5 cards out at a time, and then hand E one card at a time to match. She loves animals, so this is a fun activity for her.

Organization

My mom recently went to an organization seminar, and she's been reorganizing everyone's drawers. We were glad to have her help! She "filed" our clothing in our drawers, so now we can see exactly what's in there instead of having to tumble through everything to get to the bottom of a stack. This is a picture of O(4)'s drawer. O is VERY excited about this!


O and my mom worked together to organize her mini American Girl dolls in her drawer. They arranged them in age order. O is thrilled with this! She loves her mini American Girls!

We still have a lot of organizing to do in our house, but things are definitely getting better. Life is so much easier and less stressful when things are organized!

Meet Lydia

My girls love "growing" animals (found at Dollar General for 1 dollar), so they were very excited to see this crab in their May Fun Box. O(4) named her "Lydia."

I thought about turning this into a measurement or science activity, but we ended up just enjoying watching Lydia grow each day. Simple and exciting!

Rosemary Vinegar

O(4) and I planned to make Rosemary Vinegar for her teachers for "end of the year" gifts, and we finally made it more than a week after school let out for the summer...better late than never!

To make the Rosemary Vinegar, you need white vinegar, glass bottles, and fresh Rosemary. My mom brought us a bunch of fresh Rosemary from her garden. She washed it thoroughly and drained it in a colander. She heated the white vinegar on the stove. While the vinegar heated, the girls pushed the Rosemary into the vinegar bottles.




My mom then poured the hot vinegar into the bottles (using a funnel). After the vinegar cooled, I put the tops on the bottles and put them in a dark place. The vinegar needs to cure for about 3 weeks before you use. It taste great on salads!

We originally planned on O decorating the bottles, and she actually painted a couple of them with glass paint. We then decided that the Rosemary looked really pretty in the bottles, so she didn't decorate all of them. This was a wonderfully simple gift, and O was so proud of the gifts she made!

Let the Summer Begin!

O(4) has been out of school for the summer for 2 weeks, but I finally had my last day of work today! I love my job (as a School Psychologist), but I'm very excited to have the next 2 and a half months off! May (IEP season) is always stressful when you work in special education, and I'm glad to have made it through another year :)

I have lots of activities planned for my girls for the summer, but we'll spend the vast majority of our time playing outside (in the lake, on the beach, and on our playground) and reading aloud. I'm planning for us to spend our mornings outside, and then we'll come in at lunchtime (around 1ish) to do art, science, and Montessori activities. It usually crazy hot at that time of day, so it will be the perfect time to come in and cool off. We'll go back outside at the end of the day to play for a couple more hours. We're hoping to have a great summer, and I hope you will, too!

Apologies

I'm WAY behind on answering email, so if you've sent me an email with questions within the last couple of months and I haven't responded, PLEASE resend it! If I don't answer emails immediately, I often forget to go back and respond (I read them all, I just don't always have time to respond immediately and then I get distracted). I don't spend much time on the internet while the kids are awake, and they've been staying up later lately so my internet time is minimal. So, don't take it personally if I haven't responded to your questions :)

Feeding the Frog

E(1) loves feeding plastic bugs to the frog. She loves all animals, which made this activity even more appealing to her.

This is another activity that I'll add a pair of tongs/chopsticks to when she is a little older. (Btw, I bought the frog from a thrift store and the plastic bugs from Target).

Working on One-to-One Correspondence

E(1) loves putting these spiky balls into a paint palette. She doesn't realize that she's refining her one-to-one correspondence skills as she works.

When she's a little older, I'll add a pair of tongs or chopsticks to this work to make it a little more challenging.

Matching Animal Figures to Pictures

E(1) loves animals, so this farm animal matching activity was a lot of fun for her.

To do this activity, I laid out 3 to 5 pictures of animals and gave her a handful of animal figurines to match to the pics. I told her to "match sheep" and she'd find the sheep and put it on the correct picture. O was nearby and helped her when she needed help. Fun times!

Here is the post about O doing this same work almost 3 years ago.

Learning to Pour Water

E(1) loves this tiny little teapot and teacup that I put on her work shelf. I put the teapot (filled with water), a teacup, and a sponge on a small tray and put it on the bottom shelf. E was excited to see something new, and O was excited to see something old!


After E poured the water, she quickly drank it and wanted more. O used to do the same thing over and over and over again when she was E's age. What fun!