Work Trays

Z is 2 years 8 months old

Here are some practical life activities that Z has been working on for the last couple of weeks

Transferring glass beads

Pouring water

I was inspired by this youtube video and it has been a great hit with Z, she keeps going back to it several times a day.

Sorting Macaroni by colour

Using a lemon squeezer to transfer water from sponge to bowl

Polishing the chopping board with mineral oil

Cutting tray

Transferring beads onto bath mat

Screwing lids onto the correct jars

Pouring red lentils

File Folder Games

Z is 2 years 8 months old

Z loves her wooden inset puzzles. You could give her puzzles all day long and she would be happily occupied the whole time. However, there are just so many puzzles I can keep buying without going broke, so I've been busy making file folder games for her. Here's a snapshot of what I've made for her so far.

Teddy Bear Shape Matching from childcareland 

(sorry, don't have the exact link, but this website has loads of printable file folder games

                       

Nests in a Tree Measurement game

The yarn pieces are of different lengths and you have to place the nests on their correct spots. This idea comes from ehow

Happy and Sad sorting activity. 

The faces are clip art I got off google images. And who knew finding pictures of sad people in magazines would be so darn difficult?

Upper case and Lower case alphabet matching activity from http://www.archjrc.com/childsplace/lettereggs.html

Matching Directions

(Saw this cool idea on LittleFamilyFun and realised I have the same set of flashcards. Z does find this  just a wee bit challenging which is great.

Colour Matching activity from meandmarielearning

Magnifying Picture Match from biblestoryprintables

Leaf Shadow Match from 2teachingmommies

My printer was running out of ink hence the multicoloured leaves!

Key Silhouette Matching 

This is actually an addition activity from deceptivelyeducational (by the way, she has some other amazing educational printables) however I just traced the yellow keys onto another piece of paper before cutting them out and filled in the outlines with a black marker. Tried to give it a fun twist by punching holes in the keys and adding them to a binder ring. This proved to be quite challenging for Z.

Tetris Shape Matching Game from mrprintables

For more file folder game ideas click here

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Smelling Bottles

I've been saving up some empty brown glass glycerin bottles to make smelling bottles for Z, but have managed to collect only 3 so far. However Z has recently entered the smelling phase where she likes to 'fmell' any object of interest before exploring it further. While racking my brain for other options I suddenly realised I could use small empty buttermilk bottles. After searching around on the internet, I found similar bottles being used for making sound cylinders (my next project...gotta save some more of these!) at  My Montessori Moments and Shannon's Sharings

After washing and drying them, I filled them up with the scents. I used grated orange rind (would have preferred orange essential oil but didn't have any), banana essence, vanilla extract, cinnamon powder, strawberry essence and cocoa powder. Wanting to save printer ink, I cut out the pictures from old magazines (I drew the bananas) and taped them onto the bottles with clear packing tape.

I didn't have enough to make matching pairs, so initially, I just placed the basket of bottles on Z's shelf for her to explore on her own. She would look at the picture on the bottle and then sniff at the scent, correlating the smell to the picture. 

The next day, I placed the bottles with the actual food items next to them (didn't have strawberries that day)

We picked up each item, smelled it, then opened the corresponding bottle, smelled it and then I would ask her if both the smells are the same. I deliberately used the overripe banana since it would have a stronger 'bananaey' smell. 

Next,  I covered the pictures and asked her to smell each bottle one at a time and then tell me what the smell was. The food items were kept on the side for her to check if she had any doubts. 

She identified orange and chocolate correctly. She had a bit of confusion with the cinnamon bottle but checked herself by picking up the cinnamon stick and smelling it and then pointing towards it in affirmation (she doesn't know the word 'cinnamon' yet) When it came to the vanilla and banana bottles, she was completely clueless, and I suspect it was mainly due to the plastic smell of the bottle getting mixed up with the scents ( which is exactly why I've been collecting glass bottles in the first place.)

Anyway, once I manage to collect enough bottles, I intend to prepare 2 bottles of the same scent for a matching activity InshaAllah.

I also have some more scent ideas lined up to use with her from supplies that I already have, namely vinegar, rose water/essential oil (I have both), lavender essential oil, almond essence,coconut oil ( can be used with the dessiccated coconut I have in my pantry), herbs and spices, coffee.  Any more ideas?

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Fabric Box

Z is 2 years 8 months old

I finally finished making my fabric box last week. I purchased the wooden box from Jarir and made 6 pairs of matching fabric squares of different textures. All of the fabric came from my stash

There's fleece, satin, terry cloth, minky, a synthetic wrinkly fabric (the brown one) and corduroy. Right now, Z just likes to open the box and feel the different textures, usually by rubbing the square against her cheek. Since she's still averse to letting anything be draped across her eyes, ( she absolutely hates it and starts panicking when I try to build a tent with a bedsheet with both of us under it ) blindfolding her to match the squares is out of the question right now. However, it's too easy for her to match the squares just by looking at them.

That gave me another idea. I took some old pairs of jeans and cut out 2 rectangles from each to make a matching activity for her.

Except for the brown ones, the denim pieces differ only slightly in terms of texture and look almost alike. This was a bit of a challenge for Z, and she did match a few incorrectly at first, but then corrected herself at the end. Now I need to go and find some more pairs of old jeans to make more of these!