Cold Art

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

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

Happy 4th of July!

105 degree wheather indoor hopscotch

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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.