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!!

Outdoor Play

The weather here has been amazing the last week and it's looking like it's going to stay a while.  We have been taking full advantage.  We have a huge deck which is perfect for playing outside.  We have been having snack outside as well as playing with balls, pushing strollers and ride on bumble bees!

Here are some other activities.

Water play.  This is always a hit with all children.  Just a combo of bowls, cups, spoons and a whisk and you can just sit back and watch while the littles go to town!

While Baby J was napping I set up this rice transferring activity for Sweetpea.  The aim of this activity was not actually to practise transferring per say but to really develop her focus and concentration.  It worked like a charm.  Not only did she transfer with her hands from bowl to bowl she also experimented with pouring.  Sweetpea ended up focusing and manipulating the rice for 25 minutes which is a record for her!!

 There is major excitement at our house at the moment as we are having our backyard landscaped.  This morning there were diggers and dump trucks working.  The littles were fascinated and the noise for any vehicle right now is "brrm brrm" so we had a chorus of brrm brrms all day long!

 

Another popular activity as you can see by the brush in Sweetpea's hand is scrubbing the deck!  Too funny.



Water activities

L has been enjoying doing water activities outdoors. 

First I set her up with a sponge and two bowls.  She soaked up the water from the left hand bowl and squeezed it into the right hand bowl until she was done.  She looked at me like "too easy Mom!" so I then gave her this sieve and we put some twigs and flowers into the bowl for her to remove. 

Once she'd done that a few times we moved on to making bubbles with an old hand held beater.

Oh the concentration!!

The best water activity of all was helping to wash the dog! Granny also got very wet in the process!

The next day L asked for more water activities so she started with dropping single drops of water into her plastic fish.

I then colored these dots on a folded paper towel.  Some of them have two colors together so they blend to make a new color when wet.  She really enjoyed this and when she was finished I gave her a blank paper towel and a red, yellow, and blue marker to experiment with.

Rain, rain go away

We've been forced inside for most of the time these days as the heavens have opened and don't seem to want to stop. 

I took on the if you can't beat 'em join 'em attitude and asked L if she would like to do some water activities.  Has a kid ever said no to that question??

L never ceases to amaze me with her natural development.  She's been pouring her own water out of a small pitcher for about a year now but she never seemed to grasp the concept of stopping when the glass was full.  We've just been putting enough water in the pitcher to fill the glass.

The other day I decided she could use some practice at stopping.  Well she just poured out even amounts of water for all of us without even thinking about it.  What a lesson to remember when we are trying to push our children to do something.  Nature will take it's course and when they are ready it just "happens" with little or no effort for the child! Amazing!

We then moved on to trying to pour to a line.  This was so amusing to watch.  L got the concept but didn't quite stop in time.  My mom and I loved watching her extreme concentration!

I finally found a medicine dropper and Lwas fascinated.  She did this colored water transfer activity about four times in a row.

For all of these activities the set up was simple.  A tray to catch the spills and a cloth to clean them up. 

Just a reminder about my needle felted creations giveaway.  If you would like to enter please click here and leave a comment.

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.

What we've been doing

These are some of the things we were up to before I dropped the camera...



Family body tracing. We all really got into this and after doing our hands and feet moved on to heads and then full bodies! Obviously it was too exciting for me as I dropped the camera a few minutes after I took this picture.



Ice excavation. Idea courtesy of Chasing Cheerios.

L used spoons, forks, a spray bottle and a cup and bucket of warm water. It was such a hit that I refroze it right away and did another container for when her friend came to visit.

I bought some emergency vehicle stickers when I was at the craft store and stuck them onto some 2p coins. L takes them out and matches them. I'm also trying to introduce the memory game which she ends up playing her own version of.

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!