Shaving Cream Toy Wash

I found this idea online and thought it sounded like so much fun!

Truthfully, AJ enjoyed the wash station more than his sister. She was not interested in washing toys. She got bored and decided to wash her shoes, some leaves, rocks, and finally stood in the pan herself!

AJ did take time to clean his cars and toys and then made a LARGE rinse station and played in the water. I would consider it was a moderate success... worth about 30 of playing time!

I got all the supplies from around the house and the Dollar Store, so it was cheap to create and not overly messy (when done outside). I think we might just do this one again!

Supplies:
Aluminium Foil Pans
Water
Shaving Cream
Brushes
Cloths
Toys to wash

Coffee Talk

I LOVE coffee. I have a special, Hazelnut cream that I buy at Wholefoods and mix it with my Fair Trade coffee and a little raw sugar. It is my special treat every day! I look forward to it. I don't let anyone else make it. I LOVE my coffee.

But, even more than my coffee, I love my family. And MOST days I prepare my special cup around 8am only to find a 3/4 cup of cold coffee on my counter around 3:30 in the afternoon. While I take great care in making my coffee, I rarely find a good time to actually drink my coffee!

Then, at Christmas I received a metal travel mug for taking coffee on the go. I used it for going out a couple times before I realized that I am ALWAYS going somewhere! Now, I prepare my special cup of Hazelnut, Fair trade, raw sugar coffee at 8am in my 'to go' cup, and go around the house all morning with a warm cup of coffee following me from room to room and activity to activity. I usually complete my coffee around 11, and it's still warm!

Just a tip for my fellow, busy morning coffee lovers!

Learning Shapes

Si learns a little differently than AJ. She is like her mama... kind of stubborn and likes to do things her own way! :) Consequently, she still has not learned her shapes! Aj learned his in two days, and Si has still not learned them and it's been MONTHS! To her, everything is a circle or triangle! I called a friend for some advise and she offered up a great game.

I cut out a bunch of shapes on card stock and outlined them with a felt marker -just to make them look pretty. I kept them all white, so that we would not get confused with color vs shape.

Then I took envelopes, cut the tops off and drew each shape on it's own envelope. I cut out four of each shape and used the following shapes:
-Star            -Heart
-Circle          -Square
-Rectangle    -Triangle
-Oval            -Diamond

Then I mixed all the shapes up and AJ and Si took turns putting them into the correct envelope. BONUS: This also worked on fine motor skills!

It was great! She still doesn't get all of her shapes, but this is certainly more fun than flash cards! Plus, it taught AJ self control because he loves to blurt out the shapes without giving her a chance to guess!


Happy Shape Sorting!

Supplies:
-A couple sheets of card stock
-Scissors
-Marker
-Envelopes

Categories and Measuring

I'm busy planning my week ahead (for once) and I wanted to start a unit on measuring with AJ. I was busy putting together a worksheet, when I had a brainstorm.

We are going to grab daddy's tape measure and head to AJ's stuffed animal bin. Then we will carefully (hopefully) measure each animal and have Si place them into buckets based on their size (i.e. 1 - 3inches, 4-6 inches, 6-8inches, etc). That way we all have a hand in the fun!

And, after all the measuring fun, we can teach Si her colors by changing the categories from size to color!

I'll let you know how it works out!

Supplies:
Stuffed animals
Tape Measuring
Buckets with sign on front showing sizes, colors, etc