Easter Sensory Tub & Playdough

I'm getting this out just in the nick of time!

Our niece, Tia, is here visiting and she and I had so much fun making our Easter sensory goodies.

PlaydoughWe made a big batch and then separated it into thirds to create a few colors for James to mix and match. There's blue with glitter, purple with glitter and a cinnamon scent, and lime green with a citrus scent. And of course there are lots of Easter themed cookie cutters.


Sensory Tub
Tia thought of some very clever and creative ways to incorporate the religious aspect of Easter into our tub.

::Pink and green rice
::A wooden egg cup filled with stones (to symbolize the boulder in front of Jesus' tomb)
::Bits and strips of palm leaves (in honor of Palm Sunday)
::Confetti doves and crosses
::A wooden spoon
::A little shovel
::Some puffs
::A knitted egg
::Some pretty red beads
::Plastic egg filled with more puffs

Tia also thought of putting a piece of linen in there for Jesus' shroud, some branches (instead of thorns) for his crown and some blunt end screws (instead of nails) to symbolize Jesus being nailed to the cross. We didn't have any linen and I vetoed the screws, but the branches were a great idea - I just forgot to add them.

Let the Countdown to Christmas Begin!

My parents were really big on traditions, especially during the Christmas season. I knew when I was young that when I had children of my own I too would pass on these traditions and start some new ones as well.

Now that James is 2.5 I think he's ready to experience some Christmas fun! I have to say, I'm just giddy with excitement for him - I think he's going to get such a kick out of everything I have planned!

In addition to our usual Christmas traditions (decorating the tree, drinking cocoa while watching Christmas movies, driving around looking at lights, etc.), we'll be adding these next two to our list for years to come...

25 Books for Christmas
I got the idea from The Picky Apple. Here's what you do: individually wrap 25 Christmas themed books, number them (this is optional of course) and each night have your child open one for the family to read together. How awesome is that? It incorporates so many things I love - family time, books, Christmas, and wrapping presents!

If you don't have very many Christmas books, do what I did and check out your local thrift shop or 2nd hand bookstore. I really lucked out and got 19 books for a grand total of $1.50!! Of course some are more used than others, but James won't care.

The Advent Calendar
I bought this years ago - long before we were blessed with James and I'm thrilled to finally put it to use! I was very inspired by Nicole's post and decided to incorporate aspects of it into our calendar.
The pockets are fill with little baggies and inside each baggie is a sticker, some M&M's and a short prayer. James is sticker crazy and I'm sure he won't object to the M&M's, either! The prayer is my favorite part - admittedly, while we whole-heartedly believe in and love God and consider ourselves spiritual people, we don't actually do a whole lot (outside of attending church) with James. This is an excellent way to bring Christ into our home each and every day this season. Going forward, I plan on doing something similar to this with James throughout the year, so he's always reminded of God's love.

Can I just tell you how much fun I had putting all of this together?! All my husband said was, "wow, that's a lot of work", but to me it isn't work at all! James is SO worth the effort and, like I said, I've been dreaming of doing these kinds of things since I was just a girl. :)

Update: I wrote this post a few days ago and we've since implemented both of these traditions and let's just say they've been WELL received by Mr. James! He asks about the Advent calendar all.day.long. and tears into those wrapped books like a pro!

Tot School - The Letter U

~James is 30 months~
We explored the letter Uu this week and, of course, spent lots of time doing pumpkin and Halloween related activities (am I the only one who's glad to move on to a different theme?!)

Art & Music:
I was really excited to make our underwater U craft this week since I thought it up myself! (hooray for original ideas once in a while!) James had a lot of fun making this - the crayons, the glue, the little fishy stickers - all a big hit.

James had a friend over and we decorated pumpkins. I was sooo excited to see how interested and focused James was in doing this activity. (dare I wonder if the anti-arts & crafts saga has passed?)

In Kindermusik we learned a new song, El Coqui, which means frog in Spanish. We all had to bring in a frog sound to play with the music. Just so happens we had this adorable frog instrument in our stash!


Letters & Numbers:

• We played with these fun alphabeads. James is suddenly interested in lacing things, so these beads were perfect for us.
• I made these counting cookies for James. He LOVED them. I made 6 cookies and each cookie has "chocolate chips" on them for him to count (0-5).
• We revisited many of our pumpkin/Halloween learning tools, such as these pumpkin counting sticks I made.

Science & Nature:
Fall is officially here, so we spent plenty of time outside going for walks and exploring the yard.

We talk about Uranus and the universe - this site is a great resource for astronomy and space related topics for kids.




Practical Life:
James is all about independence these days. He wants to do everything on his own, which is great of course, but bittersweet for me. :) We've added a step-stool to his bathroom and he is thrilled about the fact that he can help himself to a good hand washing or tooth-brushing session any time he wants!

• I made some orange rice, which James used to practice his pouring skills. He did a fantastic job!

• I got this CUTE apron from Montessori Services. One day while I was making dinner James noticed my apron. He wanted to wear his so he could "yook yike mama". Awww!

Geography:

• Another U activity - playing with our USA puzzle. I had one of these when I was a kid and I l.o.v.e.d it. Such a great learning tool. James can identify several states on the map now!
• We also read Scrambled States of America, a funny tale about US states and how they want to relocate.

Other activities:
I found this pumpkin matching/puzzle game on Confessions of a Homeschooler. Initially I set out only 5 puzzle sets in a basket, but after quickly matching them up James asked for more.

We talked about how umbrella and under start with the letter U. James had fun playing with the umbrella.

I created this uncle matching game to go along with our U theme. I printed out 2 pictures each of all of James' uncles. Seeing as we live so far from family and that we don't see them more than once a year at best, this activity was a wonderful way to familarize James with family members. Coincidentally, the day after I created this, one of his uncles decided to come to Bermuda over Christmas. Now James will recognize and be able to greet him by name when he arrives!

Once again I dipped into our game cabinet and found more great learning tools. James sorted these poker chips by color and spent a looong time playing with the peg game.

Our color this week was brown. It was surprisingly difficult to find this many brown things!

A beautiful thing happened this week. We say grace before each meal and one night before dinner, James surprised us by signing the cross to himself and saying, "Father, Son & Holy Spirit"! He also memorized half of our mealtime blessing. Paul and I were very moved to hear those words come out of our little man. :)

Click on these buttons to see what others are teaching their children.

Tot Book - Noah's Ark

I got this clever idea from the 1+1+1=1 website and immediately made one of my own for James!I modified the pattern a little to make it work for us: I made pockets for the mini books instead of taping them down (I know James would rip them out). Also the original has paper clips, which I know James would be tempted to eat, and the pockets keep everything in place anyway. I decorated with stickers to make it even more fun. :)

I expected to wait and introduce the book in a few months, but curiosity got the better of both of us and I gave it to him early. I was surprised at how much he liked and understood it.
Of course the pockets were a huge hit and he kept hiding Noah in them ("where'd Noah go?!" he'd say). He loved all the animal stickers and kept counting them out loud ("two penguins, two bees, two zebras!"). Some of the stickers are soft, some are shiny and once again he surprised me by pointing out which were which ("oooo duck soft!").

It was cute to see him enjoy my homemade creation! I really enjoyed making it too. Truth be told it's a bit tedious with all the printing & cutting, but I like that kind of work. :) I'm almost finished with a Finding Nemo book and I'm looking into finding graphics for a Sesame Street book.

Carisa at 1+1+1=1 has created lots of these books and has graciously shared her patterns for them - click here to make one of your own!