Busy BODY

Olivia is a very eager learner, and when she is interested in something her focus can be intense for such a tiny being.  Aside from singing nursery rhymes, she has a new interest in body parts. She has been pointing to them when asked for a few months, but has recently been making great attempts at saying them. Her fave book at the moment is called My Nose, My Toes, and Me by Frida Bing. It is a lift and flap book that uncovers various parts of the body.  While we read she always points to her, or my, corresponding body part, and now repeats it herself. She gets so excited and has memorized the book, so she often points to it before lifting the flap.

 

 

                  

 

This week after the reading the story I decided to stretch the story further and add a few activities. Being the diva that she is, she loved looking in her mirror and pointing to the parts of her face on the mirror as I asked her.

We also broke out good ‘ol Mr. Potato Head, always a hit in our home. This was a fun way to see if she could put the parts in the respective areas and then we also got silly creating crazy creations…that’s totally what it’s intended for : ) This is also a great fine motor activity.

 

We sang songs like Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes!

Last, I cut out several pictures of body parts from magazines and gave her the dry erase board with a piece of contact paper taped sticky side up.  She placed her pieces on the contact paper and I simply said what they were while she did it. It created quite a cool collage!

 

I have always had a love for children’s books, and extending the book with fun activities is one of my favorite ways to introduce and practice a skill.

What are some of your kids’ favorite books right now?

Grab a Song

 

 

 



 I’m baaaacckk!!! We had a very busy summer full of Disney adventures, lazy beach days, camp, play dates, gardening, and travel; but we are back into a daily routine of school (for Sean), play, and learning. I feel like my kiddos grew exponentially over those short summer months and are both taking on new stages of development and learning. Miss Olivia is now a lover of babble and learning to say new words daily, mastering fine motor skills like using a spoon/fork/crayon and stacking blocks. She loves music and outdoor play. Sean has mastered recognizing all letters (upper and lowercase) and their phonetic sounds and has moved on to learning to read cvc words. We recently began –at and –an words. He continues to have a love of science and art.

 

 

Now that Sean is back in school part-time, Olivia and I have a few days together to focus on things that interest her. My little songstress can’t say no to a good nursery rhyme and still likes to rummage through treasure baskets, so I combined the two and made her a basket we could explore together.

As I shared in previous posts, treasure baskets are a Montessori inspired activity that promote self-discovery while using various senses. I usually just grab items I have laying around the house and create themed baskets like textiles, balls, color, etc.

For this basket I  listed some of her favorite songs and found or created items that could represent them.

The Wheels on the Bus- a toy bus from the toy box

Old McDonald- some animal shaped play dough cutters

Itsy Bitsy Spider- an old spider teething toy

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star- I cut out a star shape from an old box and traced it onto a sheet of foil, cut it out and used modge podge glue to adhere the foil to the front and back of the cardboard.

Baa Baa Black Sheep- I cut out an outline of a sheep on cardboard and glued cotton balls to it.

Pat a Cake- a wooden rolling pin from the kitchen

5 Little Ducks- a rubber duck from the bath toy bin



Checking out the goods

Singing Baa Baa Black Sheep

I tossed all the items into her old Easter basket and let her dive in. She was instantly attracted to the shiny star and soft sheep. As she played with each item I sang the song they represented. Next up was the rolling pin and she hummed along with me and did the hand motions for Pat a Cake! After a few songs she realized that she could pull the wool off the poor sheep and spent several minutes piling cotton balls into the basket. She delighted in playing and singing with me for a while and then threw her basket on her arm like a purse, as a lady does, and carried on with playing.   

 







...and she's off!

Painting on the Wild Side

Yesterday I whipped up a big ol’ bowl of sidewalk chalk paint. I’ve had my eye on this cool paint for a while on Pinterest, but was waiting for some nice spring weather to bust it out…BAM! I love a good activity that both the kiddos can do, is cheap, easy, and simple to clean. Well ladies and gents this is IT!

 

Despite its name, it actually does not require chalk, all you need are 3 simple ingredients that you probably have on hand: cornstarch, water, food coloring.

 

I’ve used these 3 ingredients to make slime during Halloween, it creates a great textural medium that is runny yet solid at the same time. To make the paint you just need to thin it slightly for painting.

Directions:

I mixed equal parts cornstarch to equal parts water in a bowl. To fill a 6 cup muffin pan I used ¾ cup each. Whisk together until smooth. If you want a thicker slime like paint just add a spoonful or two of extra cornstarch. It should drip from the whisk yet feel  difficult to stir at the bottom.

 

Next separate out into cups or a muffin tin and add 3-6 drops of food coloring in each section, depending on how rich or pastel you want the color to be.

Last, grab some brushes or sponges and hit the sidewalks or patio.

It is called chalk paint because when it dries, which happens quickly in the sun, it dries to a chalky finish that you can actually peel up and use like chalk. I love that you get 2 sensory experiences in one activity.

 

Both kids loved the chalk paint. Although I wouldn’t make it an afternoon snack, it is fairly harmless if your peanut is a taste tester like mine. As you can see, she did not like being told to not eat the paint!

 

Sean mixed his colors and was excited to see it change to brown.

 

Thumbs up all around for sidewalk chalk paint! It easily washes off surfaces, clothes, and skin with soap and water.

 

Little Green Thumbs

 

Now that the threat of frost is gone in my neck of the woods it is time to get those hands in the dirt and grow something. This is the third year that Sean and I have tried our “thumbs” at gardening. Since owning my own home with a decent yard, I’ve grown a love for gardening. I most certainly am NOT an expert, but with the help of my amazing mother in love, I have planted flowers for spring/summer and fall/winter with pretty good success for the past 10 years.  Before having kids I tried my hand at container gardening with herbs, tomatoes, and strawberries. Last year my husband bought me a 4x4 raised bed frame for Mother’s Day…he knows me too well- BEST gift! He took Sean to help pick out a blueberry bush and some sweet potato plants. I later added some basil and tomatoes which flourished all summer long. I realized as we tended to our little patch how much Sean enjoyed going out each day to water and check on his plants and he began to devour tomatoes like they were apples. I knew that this would be something that we would continue to do each year.

Our garden beginnings- container garden tomatoes-Sean 1 year old

He never ate tomatoes until we grew our own! 

Both of my kids love being outside so gardening is a natural hobby that we can enjoy as a family.

Why should your family try gardening?

From my experience gardening provides learning in the best environment-NATURE! Most people, myself included, have no idea how MOST of our food is really grown, the best places/environment to grow them in, what it looks like from seed to plate etc. Having your own little garden gives you a full scope and sequence of a plant life cycle. Also it’s a great experiment in which you will definitely experience trial and error as you grow, it teaches your child to have delayed gratification in our microwave society, teaches your child responsibility as they have to diligently tend to their crops, and your child will be more willing to try these new foods since they personally had a hand in their growth. If you are eco-conscious then an added bonus is your child will more likely also form a deeper feeling of responsibility in caring for the Earth since they will form a connection with Mother Nature in the gardening process. Educationally, so many language, math, and science skills can be incorporated into gardening.

What do you need to get started?

First you will need to determine what you’re willing to tackle based on time, space, and funds. If you are feeling ambitious you can purchase, or make, a raised bed kit or 2, ours was purchased at Home Depot, and dig out the sod within the bed. Add a bag or 2 of soil and manure and combine with the dirt already there and plant your choice of vegetation. You can purchase plants that have already sprouted or buy seeds, cheaper option, and sprout them yourself first and then transplant them into your garden. The first year we planted all plants that were already started. This year we did both.

our raised bed-last spring,Sean-2 years old

In his element!

Gardening is a family affair!

 

If you want to start a little more low key, or you don’t have a yard, you could always get a few inexpensive pots, a bag of soil, and some plants for a great container garden to place on your patio. You could even do a few small pots and do an indoor herb garden in a kitchen window. Gardening is as a simple or grand as you like and there are tons of free resources online to get you started, last year I watched my fair share of youtube videos.

pot of carrots sprouting

 

You will also need a few basic supplies for you and your littles that can be purchased at a home improvement store or Walmart: gloves, spades, cheap garden shoes, watering can, etc.

Things I’ve learned along the way:

When we did our first garden last year Sean was 2 and Olivia was a newborn so it was easier to get plants that were already sprouted and were able to be harvested fairly quickly; however, now that Sean is a bit older and has a greater interest, I found that growing from seed has been much more rewarding and educational for Sean.

seed starter greenhouse

fine motor practice

sowing snow pea seeds

Watering seeds with his lil helper!

 

I purchased a seed starter greenhouse kit from Walmart for $5 which included the soil pods and let Sean pick out 2 seed packets, snow peas and carrot, and followed the directions on the kit. It was very easy and Sean was able to do most of it himself. All you do is add water to the soil pods to make them expand, pull them open, drop the seeds in, and cover it until they sprout. This could also be done in an egg carton with a few scoops of soil, in an old milk carton, juice jug, in rolled up newspaper, or small cups. Just cover water well, cover with saran wrap and place in a sunny spot. Most seeds actually sprout very fast in warm, moist conditions. Ours sprouted by day 2 and were several inches tall by day 4. Sean loved observing how fast they were growing and we even used a ruler to measure them each day. At the end of the week we transplanted them to the outdoor garden. Starting from seeds is super cheap and allows more room for error as there are far more seeds to try out than you could plant in your garden.

sprouting in an egg carton

sowing carrot seeds in juice bottle to view as they grow

 

Let gardening be a shared activity. You and your child should pick out seeds; plants that you would like to try or already eat. Sean eats, and will try, way more fruits and veggies than the average 3 year old since we’ve started gardening. This year Sean picked out 2 strawberry plants we put in pots, 2 cherry tomato plants, basil (we use it to make homemade pesto his favorite lunch), a watermelon, edemame (favorite veg), cabbage (from fall garden), blueberry bush (from last year still growing strong already producing fruit again), and the snow peas he grew from seed.

Let them get down and dirty and as involved as much as possible from digging, to watering, to harvesting.

adding fresh soil and manure to last year's soil

filling holes

blueberry bush

We are ready for spring and summer!

 

Of all the activities we do at home for fun and/or learning, gardening is by far our favorite. I really feel that every child should experience gardening in some form at some point in their childhood, even our lovely First Lady has taken to the soil and made gardening and healthy living a huge focus for the youth of this country.  It doesn’t take much to give the gift of growing, go ahead, grab a spade, and grow something today!

I would love to hear about what you're growing at home in the comment section. Happy Spring!