Snow Bath = Awesome!!

One of the activities that L and LJ had in their advent calendars was a "Snow Bath"

This was in L's words "Awesome!!"

 

I got the inspiration from Growing A Jeweled Rose.  If you want sensory bath ideas this site has them all!

 

So here is what I did.  First off I put a drop of blue food coloring in the water and added a couple drops of peppermint extract.  I found the perfect foam snowflakes at the Dollar store and added in a little reindeer and polar bear to play with.  I set the mood by bringing in a bedside lamp instead of the bright overhead light and hung a few glowing icicles around the room.

 

For the snow I used shaving cream for them to paint the bath and themselves with and to make "real" snow I used baking soda with enough cold water mixed to give it a snow texture.  This is sooo cool as it feels and looks like real snow and just melts in the warm bath water.

 I cut out pieces of craft foam so they could make their own snowmen.

They played for ages and much fun was had by all. 

I think we may just do it again!!

Beach Sensory Bottles

The weather has been gorgeous lately so we've been taking advantage and heading down to the beach in the mornings.  Baby J has his nap while Sweetpea has her snack and then we play on the beach for a bit.  Luckily Sweetpea doesn't put things in her mouth any more so it's a really fun experience.

I brought down our sensory bottles to fill up with beachy things. 

Here Sweetpea is putting small stones into the bottle.  She loved to put several in and then pour them back out again.

 Once Baby J woke up he joined in on the fun.  This is the first time that he has sat on the sand and played.  He loves to put things in his mouth so I had to really keep an eye on him but he so enjoyed the sensory experience of playing with the sand, shells and pebbles.

I love this picture they look like two little mushrooms!

 Here are the bottles we made up.  Sand, shells and driftwood.

Once we got home I made up a treasure basket with the bottles, two large shells and a cool piece of drift wood.  It's wonderful to have a piece of the beach to explore even when we aren't at the beach.  The best part is when we are done with them we can just return them to the beach!

It's summer and I for one am trying to take a break from formal Montessori activities.  L has other ideas though.  I have to say I'm happy, especially in the mornings she will go and pick something now that she hasn't picked in ages and want to do it.

The other day she picked the mystery bag.  After doing it the usual way I made up an extension where I got two of every object and put one of each in the bag.  She would feel one object and then try and find it's match in the bag.  She really enjoyed this and found it quite easy.

We did this wonderful activity that we did last year again but this time I mixed up the colors and L painted each compartment.  She then went round the garden and found things that matched.

After doing our instrument activities and learning about Peter and the Wolf L made her own instrument.  A rain maker.  We got an old paper towel tube and taped aluminum foil to one end.  Then L poured in some rice and we sealed up the other end with foil as well.

We made paper mache out of water and flour and L tore up the newspaper.

Once it was dry L painted it and glued on lots of sequins.  Here she's using it outside since happily this is the only sound of rain we've heard in a while!

Exploring our new home

Now that the weather is really nice we've "shelved"  Montessori shelf activities for a while and taken the opportunity to explore our new home.  Instead we've been doing more I guess what you would call life school.

L has been really enjoying playing in her new sandbox practicing pouring, digging, sieving, burying and many other things.  Talk about the ultimate sensory box!  Adding water is always fun as well!

We've also been spending tons of time at the beach.  Experimenting with what sinks or floats in the ocean, learning about shells, sand dollars and crabs.  Making towers out of flat beach rocks and playing in the water with friends.  Watching the tide come in and wash away our sandcastle villages.  This is what life is all about : )

L has also been helping Granny water the plants every night and taking care of our vegetable garden.  Learning the hard way that we aren't the only ones who like lettuces!
I know that this "break" has been good for both of us but I also know that I can't go too long without making up an activity or two ; )
I've also been enjoying reading all of your posts and am excited to try out some of the great activities you've all been doing with your kiddos!

A bit of our week

I've decided to cop out on the whole "reading" the Montessori way (ie. learning to write first) and am just following L's lead. I'm taking the easy way out and hoping she'll get the right schooling when she goes to school in September. For now we're just doing fun sounding out games like this fishing for words game and lots of the eye spy game.

L catches a word and then matches it with one of the figures.

We've also been learning about living and non-living. This has lead to several funny conversations. Like when Daddy got home and I asked her if he was living or non-living and she said "Daddy's a carnivore!" hehe. She also woke me up the other morning by saying "Mommy an elephant eats food, drinks and has babies so it's living" Good morning to you too!

We then moved on to plants and animals. She totally gets the animal bit but had a harder time getting her head around the fact that plants can't move(on their own) after some good discussion and looking out in the back garden I'm pretty sure she's got it now. Too funny the things that come up when talking to a two and a half year old!

We've also been doing some more work with the blindfold and she's much more comfortable wearing it. Today we did some blind tasting and guessing what the food was. This was easy for her but when it came to my turn she always told me what she was going to put in my mouth. I still tried to act surprised. One day she's going to learn how to play a joke and tell me one thing but give me another!

Montessori Monday

This week we've had some blasts from the past. I made this felt dressing doll for L when she was 19 months. We brought it out again and it's interesting for me to see the difference now in how she works with this activity. Instead of just trying to put the clothes on the doll she makes up different scenarios and picks the outfit to fit the outing. Too cute! I'm thinking of making some more outfits for her so the poor dressing doll can go more places!

Tracing shapes. I cut out some shapes from some old margarine container lids for L to trace. This was her first time tracing like this and she enjoyed it. Once she tires of tracing with the pencil crayons we'll trace with our fingers and count the sides. Then I'm hoping to eventually get her to recognize the shape by feel only.

Another oldie but goodie I brought back is the mystery bag. This time I put in different items we found on our nature walks. At first L just brought out the items and named them.

I then introduced the blindfold for the first time. L picked something from the bag and had to guess what it was. This was funny as she wanted to lift the blindfold as soon as she took the item out of the bag. She had no problem guessing the items because they are all so different. I wouldn't say L loved the blindfold idea but she did it. I'll keep introducing it slowly.

A few things we've been doing

I came up with this while draining the pasta. L's first attempt at lacing. She kind of grasped the concept with quite a bit of help from me. She didn't really get that we had to keep turning the strainer over to pull the pipe cleaners through. I think this activity would be really enjoyed by an older child. You could go to town and do some cool weaving.
Of course L now associates the pipe cleaners with making Cheerio necklaces so kept asking where the Cheerios were. I finally gave in and brought out that activity but she really just wanted the Cheerios.

We also tried a taste activity for the first time. This was really interesting and funny. I put two cups with a bit of salt water, two with sugar water and two with lemon water and then a glass of just plain water to rinse in between. Well L has never really eaten anything with any added salt or refined sugar so this was a big shock to her taste buds! I got her to taste each one and told her what is was (sweet, salty or bitter). I was planning to get her to taste the other cups and match them but after a couple sips she decided she didn't like any of them and drank all of the plain water. I don't really blame her. It was really funny watching her reactions.

And mommy's favorite no mess water painting! Gotta love it!

In answer to the question from My Child's Diary about L drinking and pouring water. I started off with a small glass and jug and just filled the jug a quarter full. Now I fill it half full and she has to ask if she wants more water. This way she doesn't have to worry about stopping pouring before the water is gone and overflowing the glass. If she started messing about I would just say we only use the glass and jug for drinking and take it away. She wouldn't get anymore drink for the rest of the meal. ( she has lots of drink available between meals) She soon realised that if she messed about she would go thirsty. Now we only have the occasional fork in the glass or she puts the jug on top of the glass.