Water works -20 months

 I had all these big plans for doing so many works and activities with LJ after Christmas and so far I've just been a total slacker!

I did manage to set up these water activities one afternoon while I was trying to clean the kitchen to keep LJ occupied.

This is the first time he has experimented with pouring water other than the bath tub.  I put two jugs into a baking pan with about 1/4 cup of water and a cloth to wipe up spills.  Funnily enough it took him a few tries to figure out he had to switch containers each time he emptied out the water.  He kept trying to pour out of the same container even though it was empty.

 He also enjoyed just pouring the water into the pan so he could wipe it up. 

I showed him how to squeeze the water from the cloth back into the container.

I changed it up a bit for him by giving him two bowls and a sponge.  I added a drop of purple food coloring to the water to make it a bit more interesting and for him to be able to see the water he still had to soak up a bit easier.  He transferred the water from bowl to bowl several times before we moved on to the next activity which was pouring into a funnel.  This actually turned out to be a many step activity because he had to remove the funnel and pour the water back into the jug and then place the funnel back onto the container which was quite a challenge.

I remember at this age L was pouring her own drink at meal times from a tiny jug.  I think LJ needs a lot more practise before I'm going to let him loose with any unsupervised water!!

Montessori Shelves-Table Work

LJ is in a good routine with his Montessori shelf works.  I first introduced only works done on a floor mat to him and he has been really good at getting out the mat and unrolling it (with some help) and also putting it back at the end of his work cycle.

 

I thought it was time to add in some table works to the mix.  I added a small place mat to his mat box.  I like the idea of using a work mat for all of his Montessori works so he can differentiate between those and other toys he has.

I placed this spooning work on a small tray.  It consists of a wooden bowl, plastic container with lid and a large measuring spoon.  I used Heritage O's for the spooning because he still loves to put everything in his mouth and I thought it would be safer than beans.  I also couldn't bear to think of the clean up if we used rice!

When he was first introduced to the work he went to eat one and I quickly said "Let me show you" and demonstrated how to spoon.  He was delighted and from then on was only interested in spooning and not eating.  He did this work the first time for about 20 minutes.

 After several days of spooning I introduced pouring.  He gets the idea but is not overly interested and does it a couple of times and then messes about with the Heritage O's. 

 

The ever favourite pom poms in ice cube tray.  LJ loves this one.  I only put one table work out a day and always put it on the same tray so LJ knows which is a table work and which is a floor work.  There still is some confusion though sometimes as LJ wants to do all of the works at the table.  It is a work in progress.

 

 

I was surprised at how well he can manipulate the tray.  He hasn't had one spill.  I think it is because of the high edges.

 

 

Linked up to Living Montessori Now's Montessori Monday.

We love this one....

This is the set up for....

Five little speckled frogs sat on a speckled log

eating some most delicious grubs (yum yum)

One jumped into the pool

where it was nice and cool

then there were four little speckled frogs(glub glub)

dry them off and do it again!


Once we're done we pour the water back into the bottle and put the lid on.



L and I have both fallen in love with her little tropical frogs and always play with them so I set up this activity. We do it together because of the water component(okay and also becuase I like it so much :) I switched from the sponge in the initial set up to an old face cloth so it was easier to wipe the frogs and the table. At the moment this activity is on her shelf but luckily the bottle has a safety cap so she has to come to me to open it. She is also wearing an old top but in the future she will wear an apron or bib.

Making a rainbow and treasure bottle

The last few days have been really fun because we've had G.A.S. (aka Great Auntie S) staying with us. We did lots of projects and even went to a castle!
A few days ago I was perusing some blogs and found this fantastic idea on Unplug Your Kids.
Coloring rice!!! Love it, love it, love it! It was so easy and all three generations had a great time making it. I won't write out the instructions as I've posted a link if any one wants to try this.

We decided to make a rainbow. First we put the food coloring in and shook up the bags. I put tape across the tops just in case. It was also really cool to do the secondary colors and see how the two colors blended to make a new one.

Once we had all the colors for our rainbow L layered them according to one of our favorite songs I Can Sing a Rainbow.

Here she is singing and pointing out the colors. (anyone who is really observant will notice we got two of the colors mixed up!)

We also made the "treasure bottle" from Unplug Your Kids. I took a picture of all of the objects so L can see what she has to find. I have to say this was a really fun project for me as well and I can imagine I will be trying to find all of the objects after L has gone to bed! : )

Wonder of wonders!

We started potty training on Monday. I've decided I'm not going to comment on that until we've been doing it for a week. In the mean time we've been trying to keep ourselves busy while staying close to home.

Yesterday we did some water activities starting off with the sponge water transfer. I was surprised that L actually took to this and successfully transferred all of the water into the bowl several times.

Then we moved on to pouring with a funnel. After I'd shown her what to do she was eager to start and the activity quickly dissolved in chaos! She was pouring water into everything but the funnel and even watering the grass with it. I decided to just let her continue on and play while I put out the washing. After about five minutes I looked over and wonder of wonders she was actually doing the activity just as I'd shown her! I was so surprised. It just goes to show that even when you think they aren't taking anything in they are really absorbing everything.

I've also noticed this to be very true with the lacing chopsticks lately. This is still an all time favorite of hers. When I first introduced this activity we would do it together. On my chopstick I would always put just beads of all one color and say "oh look I'm just putting all reds on mine". She just carried on putting everything on hers. Then the other day she held up her chopstick to me and said "look Mommy all greens". Now she sorts them into colors almost every time. I'm not sure whose is learning more, her or me!

A few months ago I made this dressing doll for L. It took a few attempts and some tweaking and I still haven't gotten it exactly right. At first I put Velcro on all of the clothes and the doll but they just got ripped off so I finally decided to just let the felt go on felt. She loves to play with and dress the doll which is great until she wants to stand it up and move it around and then all of the clothes fall off! She loves the "dressing doll" so much that I made another one for her to play with all the time just out of cardboard. It just goes to show that you don't have to spend a lot of money to keep a child happy and occupied!

Gone Fishin'

It's been a busy weekend and we're all exhausted. Just finished doing our first boot fair and all in all it was quite successful. I can't believe how much stuff one small child can accumulate in just over one year!! I also found some cool things, including this tiny tea set. I think L will love it and it will be fun to use as a pouring activity.



A few days ago there was a post on The Wonder Years about magnets. L isn't quite ready for that one yet but it got me thinking about magnets and I then had this brainwave.


Our own little fishing hole. Complete with turtles, seahorses and even a shark! We started out by me cutting out some fish and we both colored them. Then I taped some paper clips to them. For the fishing pole I just used the pole from her mop (which she isn't using yet) and taped a magnet to a piece of string and viola! Luckily we had one blue bin liner left for the water.

We tried it out and then L came up with the idea to also use her sea creature finger puppets, so I taped some paper clips to them as well and we have a full ocean with very good odds of catching something. I love this activity for several reasons. One because as she picks up the fish she also put them back in the container effectively putting them away as she goes and also the best part is it was free to make!