Weeks Work

Week of August 17:

This is a toy called "Pyramis" made by Haba. The blocks have holes in them, and there are cylinders that fit into each hole, so they all nestle into each other. It's very neat. Three doesn't quite "get it" yet, but he enjoys working with it and exploring different ways to fit them together.


Another idea from No Time For Flash Cards (seriously, I love that site!). Three is not a fan of getting his hands messy, so actually getting him to fingerpaint was tough. Although, since then he has asked repeatedly to finger paint, so that's progress!

I was nursing Four, and working with One on her schoolwork when Three painted the fish (using a rolling pin covered in bubble wrap for a neat texture). Daddy and Two were helping. So, I didn't get a picture of the actual painting, but here are the painted fish, and some I had already cut out.

And, the final product:

This is a Hide-N-Seek box I made (see previous posts) after seeing the idea on Totally Tots (a new site I love! New to me that is). Let me just tell you all that Three LOVED LOVED LOVED this...it was by far his favorite thing this week, and he has played with it over and over.

Give-Away!

The Mom Buzz and One Step Ahead are doing a great giveaway of a Sit n Stand Elite Stroller!

http://www.themombuzz.com/2009/07/sit-n-stand-elite-stroller-from-one.html

Entry is easy! Visit The Mom Buzz today. :)

Projects for New Works to come

I've been perusing blogs this week during my free moments on the computer (which are far to few these days!), as well as combing through a book my MIL (Mother-In-Law) bought for me when she was here when Four was born, called "The Toddler Busy Book."

The laminated sheet that you see has a couple different projects on it. The small pieces of paper you see are something called "Find the Oddball." Each strip has 3 of the same stickers or drawings on it, and one "oddball." The two larger pictures are for our vocabulary building/sorting/pre-reading set. We often discuss what the object in the pictures are, and we are moving into sorting them into groups, and then we will move into laying them out left to right, top to bottom as a pre-reading skill. I have a fairly large set of these cards, and I'm almost constantly making more. Anytime I have a spare spot on a laminating sheet I throw a few on there. :)

The ziploc bag has 3 different kinds of pasta in it, for a pasta sort game. I will give him the pasta in a larger bowl, with 3 small glass bowls to sort the different pasta in to.

The cube you see that has a red top is 2 milk carton bottoms put together to form a cube. We are going to cover each side with a different color. This will the base for several different games. First game being obvious, colors! We will toss the cube and whatever color lands on top we will find something of that color in the house. Second game, I will tape shapes to the sides, as well as an outline of the shape on the floor. We will toss the cube and whatever shape it lands on everyone will run to and try to stand inside of! Third game, numbers. Fourth game, alphabet. You get the idea, right? :) Another idea from the book.

Lastly, the clear container that is half filled with oatmeal. This is an idea from Totally Tots called Hide-N-Seek bowls. The oatmeal was a suggestion found in the comments section. I had some extra oatmeal that I had for reindeer food back in December so I grabbed it and made this easy activity. I think he'll like it, and someday in the future I'll change it to beans, then maybe pasta, then maybe rice to keep the activity new.

Other Works from this Week

This is just a gratuitous photo of Three and Four. :)

Pre-Writing skills practice:

Sorting shapes (these are just shapes cut from cardboard):

Then we glued those shapes to a piece of paper, I had intended for Three to paint the shapes with watercolors after he glued them on, but he wanted to go outside instead.

The finished (unpainted) project:

These are actually in reverse order of the way I intended for them to post....but I don't have the time right now to go back and correct them. Sorry! Finished caterpillars...(excuse Three's messy face!) This craft idea is also from No Time for Flash Cards.

Adding googly eyes is serious business:

First time I let him use liquid glue...it went better than I anticipated.

Painting the egg carton:

This is a pizza craft that was One's idea. They each decorated a pizza, then put them on the "fridger". In order from left to right, One, Three, and Two.

Three also put poker chips into a container. He enjoyed it. It was an empty crunchies (Gerber) container with a slit cut in the lid. I have also used it with pom-poms, and fake coins. He enjoyed all 3. I didn't get any pictures of it though. We also played "Memory", he had a really good time with it until Four began screaming and made it virtually impossible to concentrate.

Pictures

Here is the finished project (see last post for link with directions):

Three was not entirely sure he liked the feeling of the shaving cream on his hands. This didn't suprise me, as he is not a "messy" boy. He must have asked 10 times for a napkin before I finally just let him clean it off! LOL

This Afternoon's Plans

http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2009/08/recipe-for-cookies.html

I'm going to do the puff paint, and I'm about to create a set of pretend cookies to sort and sell.

A blog I love:

http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/

Shape Box

I made a shape box. What is a shape box? Well, in this particular scenario a shape box is a box (betcha wouldn't have guessed that!) that has various shape materials in it. It contains wooden shape puzzle pieces (that have long ago had the puzzle board itself broken and tossed), index cards with a traced shape on them, the name of each shape is written on the back, and two of each shape cut from felt. After some time, there will also be household items that are examples of each shape, but I'm still in the process of collecting those items and will probably add them as we learn each shape. I'd like to do a box for each color too, but at this point I'm thinking that may have to wait until after "four" arrives. Ideally, it would be done before...as we are currently working on colors and shapes, but alas, life gets in it's own way. I'll keep you posted if I get to those color boxes. :-)

Blogger Neglect

Most of you found this blog via the homepreschool yahoogroup, or a birth board that I am a member of and therefore are probably aware that I am currently expecting baby #4. This has caused a great deal of blogger neglect. However, I'm going to try to get several projects completed in the next 2 months and hopefully will get them all posted to this and my other blog.