Little Fingers Big Dreams

Jack-O-Lantern Counting

2010-10-12T14:20:00.000-07:00

We haven't done this activity in a long time so MD enjoyed it this week. Especially the halloween theme. He is getting really good at it and I love to see that he is learning.

Spooky Sorting

2010-10-11T14:16:00.000-07:00

Sorting is one of those things that never seems to get boring for MD. I got these pumpkin containers at a yardsale and the mini erasers at Walmart and this is just one of the uses that we are getting out of them this month!

Halloween Theme Sensory Tub

2010-10-07T14:52:00.000-07:00

October is here and that means the Halloween fun can begin! Now that I am finally done with preparations for SE's birthday party I can have more time for other fun things.... Here's MD's sensory tub with a Halloween theme. MD was not impressed with the skeletons so we ended up pushing those to the side since he does not want to play with them. And any tub of play stuff for him has to contain at least one truck!

I've been super busy....

2010-10-06T16:46:00.000-07:00

Working on this.... SE's 1st birthday party. Most of my "free" time has been consumed by this for the past month. But it is now done and over with and now we are ready to begin with October fun and activities.

There have been many changes around here lately. MD started preschool. He goes 3 hours a day and it was an adjustment at first. He loves it now and it is really helping him with his social skills. SE is walking now and becoming a different little person of his own. So I am looking forward to doing more developmental and educational activities with him as well as expanding on MD's knowledge and experiences. And of course arts and crafts will continue to be one of the most important things I do with both of them ♥

Home Bowling

2010-09-13T16:29:00.000-07:00

MD really likes this bowling set that grandmother got him recently. I don't like it much because it is difficult to set the pins back up after he knocks them down and he definately needs help with it.

He loves it though and gets so excited when he knocks them down.

We tried getting SE involved in this one but he wasn't interested in rolling the ball towards the pins. He was very interested in tasting the ball.

Practical Life! Making Pizza..

2010-09-07T15:26:00.000-07:00

Lots of fun for my guy....

And tasty too... it's like art he can eat for lunch!

Shaving Cream on Easil Chalkboard

2010-09-03T15:51:00.000-07:00

This idea cam from the Artful Parent. MD had a lot of fun spreading the shaving cream everywhere. I tried to encourage him to "draw" with his fingers but he was to busy feeling the sensation as he spread it over and over on the board and on his arms. :)

The Grouchy Ladybug

2010-08-23T08:59:00.000-07:00

We've been reading a few books from the library lately and one of them is "The Grouchy Ladybug" by Eric Carle. We read both the English and Spanish version, "La Mariquita Malhumorada". So I decided to use another used carton from the bottom of a frozen pizza to make a ladybug.

MD had fun making it even though a was process that took a couple of days to finish. Not that it was complicated, it's just we needed time for the layers of paint to dry and by the time the paint was dry I was busy with something else around the house.

I found another spare piece of carton in the garage to cut out the shape of the body to paint black.

But we ran into a problem. I had never ever realized that we don't have any black tempera paint in the house. So we improvised. I use to work with oil paints and always made black by combining blue and brown. So I tried it with tempera paints. That made a dark grey color, to which I added black food color, and there you have it. Black paint!

On the last day, MD glued black construction paper dots to the bugs wings, and I stapled it all together, adding small pipe cleaner antennae and googly eyes. I also grabbed a piece of chalk to draw in a mouth and asked MD if we wanted me to add a grouchy mouth or a happy mouth. He chose happy.

Fine Motor Work and Tasty Exploration

2010-08-19T18:54:00.000-07:00

Found an activity they did together. MD practiced something he hadn't done in a long time. Screwing and unscrewing bottles of different sizes. He can now do this pretty well....SE tasted the bottles.

Watercolor Ocean (and Park) Resist

2010-08-11T10:03:00.000-07:00

We recently took a few family trips both two the beach and to an aquarium where the kids got to see many types of sea life. MD has been infatuated with sealife, especially sharks for quite a while now. So I wanted to focus some art activities on this theme. Here is our watercolor ocean resist. I drew the sea creatures with crayon, colored in a couple of them, and then had MD color the rest. The funny thing is, MD has never really colored in a coloring book. Most, if not all his art has been pretty "free" so he really did not get the concept of coloring inside the lines. This is the first time I showed him how to stay inside, but of course he did not.

I really don't know how to go about this because small part of me thinks he should learn to color inside the lines and maybe he should know this by now, or at least try. But another part of me (a bigger part) feels that this would be hindering the creativity that I am trying to encourage in him. So for now I guess I'll wait.

This is our ocean, after he colored and then brushed over it with blue and teal watercolors.

And this is his picture of a "park" he did all by himself.

Shake Shake Shake

2010-08-09T10:30:00.000-07:00

Saw this on the somewhere on the web many many moons ago and we've been using it on and off for a while both with numbers and letters. It's a fun game to use for letter or number recognition. We put the marble in, give it a good shake, and then open the egg carton and name the number/letter where the marble landed. Anything with movement and silliness is always a big hit!

Beach Sand Playdough

2010-08-06T18:00:00.000-07:00

I made a batch of playdough for MD this week and added a little bit of black food color (to make it grey) and a whole lot of beach sand from our recent trip. Since he's been excited about making sandcastles I thought this was a great idea when I saw it on Counting Coconuts.

It is definately fun but I think I added to much sand because it's a little on the dry side. Still works though.

This is our quick mini castle.

Untitled Post

2010-08-04T11:39:00.000-07:00

I am calling this Untitled Post because I don't really know what to call it. I saw this a while back on 5 Orange Potatoes and thought it was a great idea. That post was called "Iridescence" and rightly so. What I overlooked when we set out to try this activity is that you are supposed to use neon food colors to create the iridescence. At least that's what I understand of it. So ours didn't quite look the same, but MD still liked it.

He enjoyed pouring salt on the ice. He always enjoys pouring salt for some reason.

He also really liked dropping food colors on the salty ice and we had fun watching the ice melt with all the different colors. I think we went a little overboard on the colors but it was a very fun and quick activity. I like to call it "art".

Beach Dino Dig

2010-08-03T09:39:00.000-07:00

We took a little family beach vacation recently, and this was one "toy" I took along for MD. My mother gave him this dinosour bones excavating kit. I didn't think it would be so much fun for him but it was. He loved it.

He sifted the bones that I hid for him in the sand and dusted them off with a brush.

So excited!!

Spray Paint

2010-08-02T08:45:00.000-07:00

Here was a nice summer art idea I had. Food coloring and water in sray bottles. Too bad the colors were too thinned out with the water and didn't look so bright on the paper. The paper got soaked. But as with most of our art around here, we did it more for the process then the final product. This final product was definately not saved, hee hee.

Sorting Firemen and Policemen

2010-07-28T22:31:00.000-07:00

I've had this post for a while now and had forgotten to post it!

I got these firement and policemen at the dollar store. Sorting them is lots of fun for a little boy obsessed with firemen.

Drawing Letters

2010-07-26T21:03:00.000-07:00

On this day, MD chose to "draw" letters during his art time. Cute.

Bottle Cap Letters

2010-07-21T21:26:00.000-07:00

I had forgotten about this but..... this is like the water bottle cap numbers I made only this one has upper and lower case letters for matching uppercase and lowercase.

Rainbow Pasta Suncatchers

2010-07-16T12:04:00.000-07:00

I have been wanting to do these for a while now since I saw them on Pink and Green Mama.

They look so colorful and beautiful!

I finally found some time to dye the noodles with food color.

The next day, MD and I both worked on making these while SE napped. We drizzled school glue on wax paper and got to gluing the pasta.

We hadn't done a glueing activity in a while so MD got a little carried away...

Shaving Cream Fun and a Confession....

2010-07-11T20:30:00.000-07:00

MD is now loving doing sensory activities like mixing colors in this shaving cream. His speech is also coming along really well and makes life a lot easier. What doesn't make life any easier? An extremely active and curious soon to be 10 month old. SE will be 10 months old this week and for the last month or so life has been turning upside down around here. We used to have our Art and Learning time in the morning after breakfast. Now this schedule is impossible because SE will not stay put for one minute. He is all over everything he sees including MD's art projects in progress and or educational material, and constantly interrupts any type of structured activity I may have for MD. So now we mostly all play together at that time instead which makes great memories but little to post about. Sometimes when SE naps for a descent length of time, I'll get a chance to work with MD or give him an art activity. Those are good days. Because usually all I get to do while SE naps, is make MD lunch, eat lunch, and clean up a bit. Then SE wakes up and it's back to watching him constantly. He will not for any reason stay anymore than 2-3 minutes in a Pack-N-Play without yelling his little head off . . . . so he's all over the house exploring, tasting, and destroying. This is my life for now. This is why posts have gotten few and far between. That's all folks :)

Cold Art

2010-07-08T12:39:00.000-07:00

Ice cube painting! This is a fun activity that I have read about in books and in the web. Last year MD really enjoyed it so I thought it would be a good one to also try with SE.

Not so much. He did get involved with it but he kept complaining when the ice became to cold for his little fingers. Then it hit me that last year I had frozen the cubes with popsicle sticks in them for MD to hold them while he painted. Even MD didn't want to touch them much this year and pushed them around with a brush instead.

But it was still a lot of fun and it is very easy. Just add food coloring to water and freeze!

Easy One to One Transfer

2010-07-07T07:54:00.000-07:00

Summer's been a very busy time for us with outside activities and friends so we've been doing just a few very easy and quick montessori activities like this.

Sorting Buttons: Red, White, and Blue

2010-07-04T06:00:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th of July!

105 degree wheather indoor hopscotch

2010-07-01T07:45:00.000-07:00

It's been hot around here lately. On this day I noticed MD hopping from one square tile to the next in the kitchen and I thought it would be a good idea to introduce hopscotch to him. However, with it being 105+ outside, I was not about to go out and draw on the sidewalk. I remembered seeing indoor, painter's tape hopscotches somewhere on the web so . . .

Edible Art: Painting with Pudding

2010-06-28T19:33:00.000-07:00

In an effort to include SE in more art activities, we used chocolate and vanilla pudding cups as paint.

Both boys had a lot of fun with this. MD only wanted to paint with the brush and not his fingers. SE had a sensory experience and enjoyed sneaking some pudding into his mouth every now and then.

Window Painting

2010-06-24T20:09:00.000-07:00

I made MD some window paint using tempera paint, liquid dish soap, and water. I got this simple recipe from the Super Baby Food Bood by Ruth Yaron, which has a lot of good ideas for fun activities with kids. However, the book said it's supposed to come off easily after wiping with a dry paper towel and this is not true. So I need to look for a better recipe, but this was a fun experience for my boy.

Applesauce & Cinnamon Designs

2010-06-22T21:57:00.000-07:00

I thought I would share this because I had never heard of it but now I think we will definately be making this for the holidays. I have been taking MD to a summer program once a week and this was an activity they did. They are applesauce and cinnamon "ornaments". Mix equal parts applesauce and cinnamon and enough glue to get the right moldable consistency. They used regular Elmer's glue in class. Then the kids rolled it out and used cookie cutters to make shapes. It took about 2 days to dry and become hard. Cute.

Sensory Learning Fun for Two

2010-06-21T21:44:00.000-07:00

S.E. has been much more mobile lately and he wants to be involved in everything. So whenever possible, he is. I love seeing the two of them play together. Here they are both feeling the texture tablets. MD worked on matching them, and SE just felt them and explored them with his mouth.

Texture Tablets

2010-06-21T21:40:00.000-07:00

These are some texture tablets I made a while back for MD to match while blindfolded. However, so far he is not liking the idea of being blindfolded and when I ask him to just close his eyes, he always peeks. He does like to touch them and match them up with his eyes open though. They are wood tablets with different materials glued on top including foam, silk, fur-like material, felt, and 2 different sandpaper textures.

Happy Father's Day!

2010-06-16T20:34:00.000-07:00

Once again I borrowed some inspiration from one of my favorite blogs, Frugal Family Fun Blog to make these cute Father's Day Cards, out of office labels. There are so many ideas in this blog, and I knew I had to do this one when I saw it.

Sadly, MD's participation in this project was minimal since he cannot quite cut small details like the fish shapes out of color coded labels here. He did help me with the placement of the fish and wrote his own message inside the card (with my help also). And he drew a picture inside the card for dad. S.E. also scribbled inside his card for dad and almost tore the paper.

On the other hand, I had a great time working on these cards and they were quick to make. And both my boys had a blast and laughed out loud while they tore and wrinkled the scraps of paper I left while I was making the cards.

Letters in the Salt

2010-06-16T08:37:00.000-07:00

MD has started to have a bigger interest in "writing" letters in the salt tray.

He really enjoyed this activity lately and gets really excited when he makes a letter.

Frozen Banana Peanut Butter Pops

2010-06-09T21:26:00.000-07:00

I have been wanting to make these for a while since I recently developed a greater liking of peanut butter than ever before (probably due to MD's obsession with PB & J sandwiches). However, I wasn't so motivated because MD was on a 2 year strike of bananas along with other fruits and vegetables (except for avocado which he has never stopped eating). But to my great joy, he has recently started eating bananas again and asking for them daily. So I decided to finally make these pops. Just spread peanut butter on banana, add a popsicle stick, and freeze. I thought about adding honey and coating with nuts also, but I was in a hurry, so maybe next time. They taste pretty good just like this.

Trying to Understand Why We Can't Wear a Sweater in the Summer

2010-06-08T22:38:00.000-07:00

I am starting to feel better now and things are getting back to normal in our house. But we are still taking it easy. So here is an easy activity . . .

Here is a neat activity that we did this week from Montessori for Everyone. Classifying types of clothes for different seasons and weather changes.

I knew I had to pull this one out since MD has been having a difficult time giving up wearing a sweater and it's getting very hot here. MD has difficulty with change and transitions very slowly so when the weather was sunny and cool I was okay with him wearing the sweater. But now that it is 90 degrees and he is visibly hot I have been objecting and explaining to him why a sweater is not necessary. But he doesn't like to hear it. So I think doing this activity is also helpful so we'll be working on it for a while.

Surgery Break

2010-05-21T12:49:00.000-07:00

I may not be posting much for the next couple of weeks except for maybe a draft post here and there. I had surgery this week and have to rest a lot and am physically incapable of doing anything with the kids anyways. My mother has been helping me out with them and I can't even bend down or give my kids a hug. It's awful but I need to focus on getting better. Hopefully all will be back to normal soon and I can have lots of fun with my kids to share on this Blog!

Under-the-Sea Collage

2010-05-19T15:12:00.000-07:00

I put together this quick and easy ocean collage for MD to work on using various shades of blue tissue paper.

MD "painted" the tissue onto clear contact paper with liquid starch. I had also added a little bit of blue food color to the liquid starch but it was not very noticable.

When the tissue dried, we added various fish and ocean life stickers to the tissue to get the "under-the-sea" look.

Sink Sensory Tub

2010-05-16T18:09:00.000-07:00

Because I am too lazy to fill up the plastic tub with water and then have to clean it out when MD is finished with it. We have been using the sink as a sensory water tub and he still gets to play with his bean filled sensory tub and his sandbox outide to have all sorts of sensory exeriences. Sometimes we add soap to the sink water and sometimes we add food color to make it extra special.

Making Letters Out of Toothpicks

2010-05-14T08:21:00.000-07:00

Recently, while working with his toothpicks MD began to deviate from the usual activity of putting them into the spice jar and started making "letters" with the toothpicks. I thought this was a great idea! Here is an "I" and and "A".

Then he made "L" and "H".

He then made "F" and quickly turned it into "E".

And lastly he made his mom's favorite letter, "X".

Toothpicks

2010-05-14T08:16:00.000-07:00

This is one activity that MD used to work on since last year and he was able to do it well which I believe helped improve his fine motor skills and concentration. I recently brought it out again and he continues to enjoy it. He puts toothpicks into a empty and cleaned spice shaker one by one.

Flowers for Mother's Day

2010-05-09T12:56:00.000-07:00

MD and I made this Mother's Day card for my mother the other day based on an idea for a science type activity I saw on Family Fun Magazine.

I took flowers from our garden and laid them on a piece of watercolor paper folded in half. Covered the flowers with a paper towel and let MD hammer the flowers down until colors were showing through the paper towel. It was pretty neat to see the colors start popping out after he hit the paper.

When finished I peeled the smashed flowers off. The paper towel looked great!

I think I have really low quality watercolor paper though because it did not absorb much of the flower pigment so the card turned out like this. That's why I ended up tracing the outline of the flowers with a black marker afterwards. :)

Fun with Chalk

2010-05-06T22:33:00.000-07:00

The wheather has been really nice lately and we spend as much time as possible outdoors going on walks, going to the park, and in the back yard. This was a fun game we did using chalk. I wrote the alphabet letters in upper and lower case and called them out randomly so MD could find the letter called out, run to it, and jump on it. He laughed and enjoyed it, and it got him to do some physical activity. The idea for this came from Family Fun Magazine.

Afterwards I gave him a cup with water so he could dip the chalk in to make chalk "paintings". It's been nice doing things outside lately.

Found Objects Stamp Art

2010-05-03T19:46:00.000-07:00

I've collected lots of little items from aound the house that have "knobs" for MD to hold to use for this easy stamp art activity. A jumbo paper clip, pizza divider, wooden car tires that broke off, wooden pine tree, etc.

MD loved this, but then again he pretty much enjoys any art activity these days and is glad to use some type of paint or goo on a daily basis.

Water Bottle Number Match-Up (Extended Version)

2010-04-30T11:19:00.000-07:00

MD still has difficulty with numbers and counting. He can identify numbers 0-10 except for 6 and 7. Those he cannot remember for some reason. After we finished our number crafts we finally began doing the Water Bottle Match Up and Marble Game using numbers 0-10 but he still has difficulty with the larger numbers so I help him out a lot.

He really enjoys putting the marbles in the bottles and screwing the lids on to shake them.

Texture Balloons

2010-04-28T20:30:00.000-07:00

I saw this texture matching activity a very very long time ago at Chasing Cheerios. They are balloons pairs filled with flour, rice, and beans to match together based on the way the texture feels. This was another activity that MD had difficulty with in the past but now he is finally able to complete and match the pairs. In the past he insisted on matching them by color. He is doing so much better with sensorial excercises now.

New Art Area

2010-04-26T13:09:00.000-07:00

MD has a new art area all for himself that I set up for him in our laundry room. Art is so much easier this way and most art supplies are nearby so I can pull something out quickly when he wants to do some art including, painting, collages, etc. The best part is I don't have to worry so much about the mess or the clean up. If I am busy when he is finished I just close the door when he steps out to wash his hands and I can go back in and clean up later. There is also nothing in there that I would be really upset about if he got paint or marker on anyway.

Homemade Baby Food

2010-04-23T08:56:00.000-07:00

Making homemade baby food is one of the easiest things in the world. SE is now eating lots of new things and I have been busy making him food. It is as simple as steaming a veggie or pealing a fruit and then pureeing it. Then scoop some into ice cube containers and freeze.

Once it's good and frozen transfer into plastic freezer bags and label. When it's time to eat I just get a cube or two out, or a combination and defrost, and lunch is ready!

Here is SE eating some steamed and pureed brocolli. ☺

Sound Bottle Work

2010-04-21T20:07:00.000-07:00

Even though I made these Sound Bottles a long time ago, MD had not been too interested in them for a long time. His only interest in the past was trying to see what was inside and unscrewing the bottles. However, recently he finally started to get the idea and now enjoys shaking them and matching the sound.

Just A Few Things We've Been Doing Lately . . .

2010-04-20T21:50:00.000-07:00

Walks

Lacing

Letters

Art

"Baking"

and playing with my chubby cheeked cutie pie!

Busy Bugs and Bilingual Songs

2010-04-18T20:59:00.000-07:00

Busy Bugs is a favorite game/toy that I ordered through Discovery Toys. It helps introduce early math skills and concepts such as sorting, categorization, matching, sequencing, and patterning. MD loves "playing" with the Busy Bugs. We also have this bilingual music CD from Discovery Toys which is great to teach Spanish or English to kids.

Fishy Play

2010-04-12T21:52:00.000-07:00

I saw the lovely counting felt fish at Counting Coconuts and knew MD would just love them. He is really into fish and fishing right now for reasons I don't understand because we don't go fishing. However, I can't sew to save my life, do not own a sewing machine, and am really busy right now, so I didn't think of making these fishies.

Then one day recently, I remembered that I made MD a Halloween bag 2 years ago and made a firetruck design out of felt to go with his fireman costume. I remembered I still had some felt glue leftover, and thought, what if I just cut out a few fish shapes, put a magnet inside, and glue them together. Won't look as cute but will serve the purpose. I added some buttons for eyes and puffy fabric paint for designs.

I also remembered that I had an extra rod that broke from my bamboo kitchen blinds and I decided to use this as the fishing pole to avoid a trip to the store for a dowell.

MD loved it! He had fun fishing and also fished a few magnetic letters. It was a little tricky to get the "fishing pole" magnet in the right area of the magnet inside the fishes though. I didn't realize until I went back to read the post on Counting Coconuts that she used a washer on the fishes mouth to attach to the magnet. I also had forgotten that they were "counting fish" and did not add that part. Oh well, this was still a lot easier than I thought and a lot of fun. (Thanks for the inspiration Mari Ann!)

Oh yeah, and we also made this "fancy" diaper box boat . . .

Watercolor Resist

2010-04-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is an art activity I saw on the Artful Parent Blog. It looked so beautiful.

It is rubber cement, painted and sprinked over watercolor paper and left to dry. Later MD painted with watercolor on the paper. I had him do two, one with a painter's tape border that I later removed, and one without a border.

Ours did not turn out quite as beautiful as the Artful Parent's because of the dark colors and may have been a little nicer looking if I had done the rubber cement "designs" myself instead of letting MD do it by himself, but as with most things art, it was very much fun and I love to see his creations!

Animal Families

2010-04-05T23:42:00.000-07:00

Working on the animal families activities from Montessori for Everyone. I love giving him things like this to work on while I'm making dinner.

Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T09:14:00.000-07:00

Colored Eggs

2010-04-01T16:35:00.000-07:00

Here are some eggs we colord using crayons. The eggs were still warm enough to mostly melt the crayon wax while they were being colored but not too hot to burn little hands.

Flower Painting

2010-04-01T16:33:00.000-07:00

Another art activity we did this week at my mother's was painting with flowers. I had been wanting to try this one for a while but was inspired to do it this week after seeing it on Fox Toy Box recently.

The kids loved it!

Flower Prints or Not

2010-03-31T19:52:00.000-07:00

We spent a few days this week at my motrher's to take a little break from our routine. While visiting we did some art activities with a few of the kids that my mother babysits.

This was our attempt at flower prints made from dipping bottles and lids in paint like the ones at Frugal Family Fun.

They did not come out looking like flowers at all but the kids had a lot of fun doing their own thing!

Easy Easter Activities

2010-03-29T21:29:00.000-07:00

Foam egg shaped stickers from Dollar Tree = lots of fun.

Sorting them by size.

And lining up a number sequence while practicing counting and number recognition.

Tonging Easter Eggs Big and Small

2010-03-25T10:58:00.000-07:00

Some more easy Easter activities courtesy of Dollar Tree. These are a little more tricky for MD because the eggs can be a little slippery but they are still fairly easy and fun to do.

Number Crafts: Ten

2010-03-23T21:32:00.000-07:00

We finally arrived at number ten. This is the last number craft and MD had a lot of fun with it.

Painting bubble wrap and pressing it on the number to paint it.

Then adding glitter glue over the paint.

And glued ten little green beads under the number.

Easter Play Dough

2010-03-22T22:43:00.000-07:00

We made some Play Doug for Easter last week. I thought I would let MD choose the color this time but I suggested we make it yellow. So of course he chose to add 5 drops of blue food coloring, 3 drops of green, and 2 drops of red. No yellow. I was hoping we could make it a pastel Easter-like color but it came out this funky mold color instead.

Mini Easter Egg Sorting

2010-03-21T22:11:00.000-07:00

This is one of MD's favorites. Sorting mini eggs by color. The funny thing is they are some type of candy or hard gum eggs from Dollar Tree but he doesn't know it or he'd be eating them instead of sorting them.

Easter Sound - No Sound

2010-03-19T08:42:00.000-07:00

This activity was very easy to put together. I added beans to the inside of half of these plastic eggs so MD can classify them depending on whether they make a sound when he shakes them. He really likes this.

First Nice Weather Walk and Flower Collage

2010-03-18T16:23:00.000-07:00

Last week we starting having very nice wheather around here so I decided to take the boys on a walk to collect wildflowers for a collage.

But MD was more interested in trying to stand on a ball, playing with a stick he found, and running around.

And SE was more interested in grabbing grass and trying to eat it.

So I collected flowers by myself including some flowers in our backyard while MD played in the sandbox. Later I took out some contact paper and MD was eager to help me stick the flowers on the paper to make the quick collage.

Window Fun and Learning

2010-03-16T12:31:00.000-07:00

Some art with window crayons.

And some coloring of shapes.

And tracing letters.

Easy Flowers

2010-03-16T12:23:00.000-07:00

I cut out a leaf shape out of bubble wrap and let MD paint it green, then turn it over and press on construction paper. He really enjoyed this and kept pressing it over and over. Then we punched out circle shapes from yellow and purple paper to make some easy flowers to glue on top of the green paint after it dried.

Rainbows and Paper Towels

2010-03-14T21:56:00.000-07:00

I saw this idea by Deborah at Excellence in Early Childhood Education. It looked to good to pass up so we tried it.

MD loved it. It was so simple yet so much fun.

Just marker, paper towels, and a spray bottle filled with water.

I like how MD's rainbow looks like tie dye. It is hanging up on the wall.

Rainbow Cupcakes

2010-03-12T19:21:00.000-08:00

We made rainbow cupcakes for our playgroup this week in honor of St. Patrick's and the whole rainbow thing.

MD usually helps me out by adding the ingredients and stirring but he usually is scared of using the electric mixer. This is the first time he used it and had fun with it.

We mixed food coloring into the divided batter and then layered the batter colors into the cups to get the rainbow effect. This idea came from Family Fun magazine.

I didn't get a picture but before serving you add a whipped cream "cloud" on top and they look really cute. They were yummy!

Fun Shamrock Art

2010-03-11T18:45:00.000-08:00

I thought I would show MD some cool kid friendly art "techniques" now that he's really liking this art thing. So I thought of using a pointalism type style to paint a St. Patrick's Day Shamrock with three different shades of green. I showed him how to dip the eraser tip of a pencil into the paint and make dots on the paper. He did it for a little bit. Then he decided he wanted to dip the cabinet handle that he had been playing with earlier into the paint and use that instead. So I let him, same technique just a different tool. But shortly after he got paint on his finger and wanted it cleaned. I told him it was only a little paint and he could wipe it on the paper if he wanted. Well that did it. From then on this project became Finger Paint! He loved spreading the paint around with his fingers. I guess his sensory issues with gooey things is history now. Finger Paints here we come! ♣

After the paint dried I cut out the shamrock shape since he painted all over the paper. Not that I ever expect him to stay inside the lines☻

Number Crafts: Nine

2010-03-10T19:46:00.000-08:00

I don't know what's wrong with my camera and blogger but I could not get this picture upright. This one was easy and fun.

Easy Educational St. Patrick's Day Treat

2010-03-08T08:31:00.000-08:00

Here's another color mixing activity. We mixed food coloring into white frosting to make yellow and blue. And put it on a graham cracker.

Then we spread the frosting and combined the colors until they turned green!

Sprinkled with candy clover sprinkes.

And enjoyed them.

St. Patrick's Day Activities

2010-03-05T17:54:00.000-08:00

Spooning and pouring green beads. The green beads were cut up from necklaces we recieved for free last year at our town's St. Patrick's Day parade.

Using the green beads as counters.

Practicing patterns using printables from First School. Patterns are very very hard for MD right now.

This shapes activity also from First School was very easy but fun.

Pouring Green Rice

2010-03-04T16:42:00.000-08:00

Learning to pour colored rice from a pitcher to a cup. This has gotten a lot easier. The last time we tried it a few months ago, MD kept holding the pitcher with both hands and spilled way too much rice.

This time he spilt less and cooperated with cleaning it up. I thought it would be good for his fine motor practice to pick it up with his fingers instead of a dustpan.

He was cooperative with the clean up part, but not too happy about it. :)

Number Craft: Eight

2010-03-03T18:08:00.000-08:00

Faux Ice Cream

2010-03-02T19:23:00.000-08:00

Problem: No ice cream in the house.

Solution: Dark chocolate pudding cones!

St. Patrick's Day Play-Dough

2010-03-01T19:45:00.000-08:00

We made this homemade green play-dough in December. MD chose the color and helped add the ingredients. I Added gold glitter and peppermint extract and we made Christmas trees out of it. However, he had not played with it in over a month even though it's been within his reach daily. Recently, I put out some play-dough scissors since he's been so into cutting lately. This was all it took for what seemed like hours of play with it. And it's perfect St. Patrick's Day Play-Dough.

Ready For Spring Paint Chip Tullips

2010-02-28T20:24:00.000-08:00

I found these paint chips at Home Depot recently. Since I usually go to Lowe's I hadn't seen these in "petal" shape before. They also have these neat plastic rings for you to clip your samples with.

This was the easiest and cheapest craft ever. We just clipped the chips together with brads to make spring time flowers.

Spring or Easter Sensory Tub

2010-02-26T19:14:00.000-08:00

Here is our Spring Sensory Tub. I was going to add yellow silk flowers that I bought at the dollar store along with the eggs but they got lost somewhere between the store and our house. So no flowers but I don't think MD minds at all. I know it is not technically Spring yet and we've had some rain lately, but last week it was sunny and 65 degrees and blossoms are on the trees, so it sure started to feel like Spring to me.

Sandpaper Letters

2010-02-25T20:31:00.000-08:00

Our first attempt at tracing a couple of letters and making the letter sound.

On an other occasion, MD practiced matching lower case to uppercase letters with the sandpaper letters. It's still a bit difficult for him because so many lowercase letters look the same if you turn them around like, p, b, d, u, n, etc. He's starting to get it though.

Puzzles

2010-02-25T20:30:00.000-08:00

MD loves doing puzzles. He used to do the 18 or 24 peice wooden puzzles since he was 2 but he lost interest in them recently. I have been buying him some larger size floor puzzles (24 or 48 pieces) and he has been getting busy with these floor puzzles now. However, I was a bit dissapointed with this Melissa and Doug Continents puzzle because it is difficult even for me to complete since the pieces do not interlock. The are cut smooth and just kind of sit next to each other and move very easily. So every time MD wanted to do this one his father or I would have to help him. Recently, MD pulled out the puzzle while I was busy and I told him to get another one because I figured he would ask for help. He stood his ground that he wanted that puzzle so I let him get it out and expected he would just give up or be calling me for help. When I finished what I was doing I walked back in to check on him and I found that he had completed the puzzle all by himself! That was a great surprise since this puzzle is a bit difficult for me (embarassed to admit) because I have to think about where each continent goes and then figure out where each weird shaped piece goes. It's hard to expain this puzzle unless you have it, the pieces just don't connect to each other, but somehow he did it and I am so proud.

Color Mixing Science

2010-02-24T20:06:00.000-08:00

This is one of MD's favorite activities. I put baking soda and some salt on a cookie sheet, fill two bottles for ketchup and mustard with vinegar and food coloring (one red and one yellow), and let him squirt the colored vinegar onto the cookie sheet.

He loves to see the fizzle action as he pours the vinegar and he likes the color mixing as he makes "orange" from the red and yellow colored vinegar. He actaully calls this art and when he's done squeezing the bottles he tells me we need to let it dry on the counter like his painting and other art projects :)

Whole and Half

2010-02-23T20:47:00.000-08:00

Matching pictures of whole and half fruits. This one is a little difficult for MD if I don't have him use the control pictures to match. The first time I presented I also brought out some fruits I had on hand (orange, lemon, apple) and sliced one of each leaving the other whole to show him the concept. These printouts are from Montessori for Everyone.

Number Crafts: Seven

2010-02-22T21:35:00.000-08:00

More Classification

2010-02-21T21:56:00.000-08:00

More classification fun using pictures from Montessori for Everyone and toys or objects from around the house that I have collected in a case for MD to use.

Fruit or Vegatable?

Animal or Plant?

Homemade Rattles

2010-02-19T16:35:00.000-08:00

Here are some homemade baby rattles. One made out of an empty and washed plastic spice jar and the other made out of a breast milk storage container that I recieved as a sample from the hospital. The spice container has plastic beads, googly eyes, pompoms, and pipe cleaners. The other has colored rice. Both were sealed with a glue gun. I'm a little scared SE will somehow pull open the rice one so I only rattle it for him from a distance. I have tried pulling it apart myself and it seems to be a very tight seal, but you can never be too careful with babies.

Zeros to Heroes

2010-02-18T22:02:00.000-08:00

This was another fun learning activity for one to one correspondence. First we talked about zero again and practiced clapping, 2 times, 0 times, etc. thanks to Montessori Moments for the idea. MD is really getting the hang this now and he especially enjoyed using the firemen as counters.

After this we also played around a little and counted the chocolate chips on the chocolate chip cookies I made out of construction paper which have the number symbol written on the back. These quick cutouts were inspired by the wonderful and cute felt food counting cookies at Counting Coconuts which would have been much nicer to have around.

Uppercase & Lowercase

2010-02-18T22:00:00.000-08:00

Practicing alphabet uppercase and lowercase matching with printable cards from Homeschool Creations.

Rainbows, Trucks, and Cookies: Cheap Art

2010-02-17T22:06:00.000-08:00

We've been on an art kick lately. Doing more art than anything else. It seems that since MD turned three he has really started getting into the whole art thing and actually lasting more than a couple of minutes doing it. I'm liking it. So we've been doing more of it.

This rainbow was made out of cut up paint chips (paint samples). My obsession with these freebies continues.

This truck was made out of the wrapper paper for my Valentine's Day roses and coffee filters.

Lastly a giant chocolate chip cookie made using tempera paint on the carton in back of a frozen pizza with black contruction paper chocolate chips.

Number Crafts: Six

2010-02-16T19:25:00.000-08:00

This week our craft number was six. I like tissue paper art but MD didn't really care for it before so we had not used it in a while until recently when making some valentine cards with it and now for the number six. He is really starting to enjoy using the tissue as he carefully laid it on the number and painted over it. Makes me happy.

These number crafts are a good way to fit art into the day and they have been great for teaching number recognition and counting. After they are complete I stick them onto cabinet doors in the kitchen and since we spend a lot of time there, MD looks at them a lot. Sometimes he points to each of them and says the number and then I encourage him to practice counting.

His Own Spooning Work

2010-02-16T06:00:00.000-08:00

Someone's been busy serving himself his own breakfast these days.

When he chooses to have cereal for breakfast, he quickly grabs the box, a bowl, and spoon, and begins doing some serious spooning work from cereal bag to bowl.

When he's done I offer him to add milk to it but he's been turning it down lately and simply eats his dry cereal with his spoon.

Mini Rainbow Snowman Blob

2010-02-15T10:09:00.000-08:00

On our recent trip to the snow/mountains MD and his cousins made a small "snowman" that looked more the "the Blob". They sprayed it with colored water. I put food coloring and water in three spray bottles for them to spray.

They also used the rocks that MD painted here as buttons and eyes. This was a lot of fun.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-14T01:00:00.000-08:00

I hug and kiss my kids and tell them I love them every day (sometimes too much :) but Valentines' Day is just another reason (excuse) to celebrate and have fun doing crafts, baking, and eating sweets! Our fun preparations for Valentine's included baking and frosting cupcakes, though MD's idea of frosting the cupcakes was eating the frosting straight out of the can. SE smiling and cooing as he watched us make the cupcakes. And of course making several kinds of Valentine cards for friends and family.

Mixing Colored Water

2010-02-11T20:14:00.000-08:00

MD loved doing this color mixing activity, he loves anything with water and color. Seeing the colors change as he mixed them was very exciting for him. He had difficulty using the dropper though as he has not quite yet figured out the squeeze and release. So of course I helped him out.

One reason I like the Montessori philosophy so much is the emphasis on having children pick up and clean up after themselves and caring for their environment. We have been making a lot of progress in this area lately.

Rainy Day Painting

2010-02-10T19:41:00.000-08:00

This is my favorite type of art.

Number Crafts: Five

2010-02-09T16:45:00.000-08:00

For number five, I put out some paint rollers and finger paint and tempera paint. After a few rolls MD was no longer interested. But once I suggested he use a car, he kept going and I even had to give him more paper to roll the tires on. It ended up looking similar to the marble paint number.

Valentine's Cards

2010-02-08T20:31:00.000-08:00

These are our Valentine cards for family and friends from our playgroup. The top two are inspirations from Frugal Family Fun blog. The first picure has cards made out of paint chips (paint chips quickly becoming one of my favorite items) and the second top picuture we used bleeding art tissue to make the water color look. They didn't come out as nice as Frugal Family's though. The first picture at the bottom are Valentine's I made up after my first attempt at the Reverse Resist cards from Frugal Family Fun did not work out since I used the wrong kind of tissue. I ended up switching the water for liquid starch and cut up the tissue to make a tissue collage. The last picture is cardstock I cut into squares. I drew hearts on the white cardstock and had MD color them in with a red Crayola Twistables Slick Stix crayon. These crayons are very bright and very smooth and the feel and look like lipstick on the Valentine cards (which I like) but they don't smudge off like lipstick would. These were all fun to make and MD had a part in making them all including painting with water over tissue, painting with starch over tissue, sticking the foam hearts on the cards, coloring hearts, and cutting alongside me on extra paint chips while I cut out the cards.

Tower Games

2010-02-06T10:53:00.000-08:00

In my treatment of children at the mental health clinic, one game I always had around was Jenga or Jumbling Tower. Since my internship days I always had one with me in which I wrote "feeling" words on each of the blocks such as "angry", "happy", "confused", "sad", etc. I would also leave a few blocks blank. As we began to play the game the child would have to talk about a time when he/she felt such a feeling and describe it. If the child pulled out a blank block then he/she would get to ask me a question about anything they wanted. The same rules applied to me and both the child and I had the chance to decline answering a question. This was a favorite game of the children and myself. It occured to me that this game could also be used at home with our own children, as I sometimes had children play with their parents and me, and sometimes parents would comment that they had the game at home and would be adding the "feelings" words to the blocks also because it helped them discover things about their child. Kids just seem to open up more when they are playing. So I am definately planning on using this game with my children as they get more verbal and better at understanding the game process.

For now I also decided to make this same game educational. I went out and bought 2 more sets of the tower game. On one I wrote a different letter on each block. This can be used to play a letter recognition game and can also be used with older children as a phonics game.

On the other tower game I wrote numbers 1 through 10 on some blocks and dots for counting on other blocks. So far we have played with the alphabet one and MD enjoyed identifying the letters as he pulled out a block. Since he's only three, this game is a little difficult for his coordination so our tower tumbled over pretty early in the game. But the good thing is you can always start over :)

Valentine Treats & Valentine Numbers

2010-02-05T12:59:00.000-08:00

We made Valentine themed bagels. Mini whole wheat bagels topped with light cream cheese, no sugar added strawberry preserves, and a few red sugar sprinkles. MD was so excited because he thought he was making and eating jelly donuts. I told him they were bagels but he was too excited to listen to me. He happily ate his yummy treat with a big smile on his face.

I've seen this number ordering activity many times at Chasing Cheerios and decided to give it a try. MD preferred to put the foam heart numbers over the numbers I wrote on the piece of paper instead of below them. It was quick and easy to put together and he enjoyed it.

Discrimination

2010-02-04T16:54:00.000-08:00

This color discrimination activity using paint chips was a bit difficult. MD was able to do it but with some help because some of the shades only have a slight difference. However, it is very helpful to increase his concentration and to learn about various shades of the same color.

Final(ly) Cut

2010-02-03T18:05:00.000-08:00

All those Montessori tonging exercises are starting to pay off. MD starting cutting late last week. He finally learned how to do it. For several months I had attempted to teach him how to hold the scissors but he refused to do it how I showed him and kept trying to hold them like pruning shears (he is very stubborn or as I like to see it, persistent). Obviously that was not successful since he could not cut anything like that and he would give up quickly and loose interest. But last week he finally tried it "my" way and since then he's been wanting to cut things everyday. Over the weekend I stocked up on paint chips from the hardware store because they are thick and small and perfect for him to cut easily. He's also been trying to experiment cutting on different surfaces like a chair before I had the chance to catch him and redirect him. Shortly after that he also cut the edge of his shirt. This is what happens when I look away for a minute.

Some Valentin-y Activities

2010-02-02T20:45:00.000-08:00

Sorting foam hearts (I gave him tweezers but he only did a few with them because it was too difficult) . . . .

and matching upper case letters to lowercase letters (in Valentine theme colors) :)

Our Funny Valentines

2010-02-01T20:50:00.000-08:00

We made cornstarch clay hearts with a recipe found in Family Fun magazine for a winter snow figures project. This has a different texture than homemade play dough and dries/hardens faster, which I think is supposed to be the purpose of making the figures with it. I like homemade play dough better but this was fun and easy.