Colour Mixing

Z is 3 years 6 months old

We read 2 books recently that dealt with mixing of primary colours to give secondary colours and so forth- The Color Kittens by Margaret Wise Brown and Curious George's First Day of School. 

                          

Z was so intrigued by the concept that we decided to do our own colour mixing experiment. Here's our set-up

Z thoroughly enjoyed it and was amused by the way 2 colours would mix to give another colour. This also made a great fine motor activity with all that dropper squeezing.

Work Trays

transferring acrylic jewels

wet pouring

matching button magnets by colour

pulverizing egg shells

sawing styrofoam sheet

counting with glass beads

transferring water with a syringe

Busy Book

I made this quiet book/busy book last year when Z was about 18 months old and we were going to travel to India sans hubby for the first time. I love the fact that it cost me next to nothing while sewing this up. The cover's made of soft denim from an old skirt of mine and the fabric for the pages came from my husband's old shirt. I used thin interfacing to give strength to the pages and cut out squares from an old fleece blanket to use as batting between 2 pages.

touchy feely page..the bunny patch came from Z's old minky nightsuit to which I sewed on bells, 1 pair on each hand. I first sewed on the ribbon tags, then started with the circle. I stuffed it with a bit of polyfil batting before sewing it up completely.

colour wheel and animal search pages

The colour wheel page was inspired by the colours page made by servingpinklemonade. I didn't have any brads so I used the snaps from Z's old onesie and sewed them on . The best part that the white part of the wheel can rotate on the snaps. This page was good for review of colours and some fingerplay as well.

 I got the idea for the animal search from littlehandsbigwork but used button pins instead of buttons. Basically, the animals lined up at the top have a matching counterpart in the 'grass' below and you have to look for it.

What's in the pocket and buckle pages

counting and zipper pages

Put the dolly to sleep  page

I love this little felt doll in a kimono. The doll's pattern can be found  here and the kimono's pattern will be here. Z loves putting the doll in and out the quilt too.

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

Sea Shells (+ Free Printable)

Z is 2 years 7 months old.

Z has recently become interested in the seashells that I got for her ages ago, so I've taken them out and placed them in a basket on her shelf. We've been going through Andrew Cleave's book on seashells. It's a nice coffee table book with beautiful pictures of seashells, I got a brand new copy 5 years ago when it was on sale in Jarir for only 9 Riyals (about $2.5) ; )

Since she was eagerly matching the shells to the corresponding pictures in the book, I thought I would make some cards for her using pictures from Google images, while I was at it, I thought I might as well make them into 3 part cards so that we can use them later for classification.

You can download the whole set of 26 cards here

Transferring activity

Trying to get her interested in counting , though she couldn't care less : (

Get the 3-part seashell cards here !

I am linking to Montessori Monday at Living Montessori Now. Go there and check out some other great Montessori activities!

Potty Training Jumpstart

Z is 2 years 7 months

After several unsuccessful attempts, Z finally got the hang of holding her pee till we go to the bathroom and I put her on the seat. Of course there were a couple of accidents and of course I had to keep reminding her that she wasn't wearing her 'Pampers' and that she had to tell me when she wanted to go, but she fared well overall. In celebration, she got to wear brand new underwear I had bought a couple of weeks ago. It has small hearts all over it. She loved it and kept going to the full length mirror to pick her skirt up and look at the hearts!

So continuing the theme of hearts, I set out a sorting activity for her.

I found the pretty ice cube tray at a 2 riyal shop last week and knew instantly what I was going to use it for, the tray's from IKEA and the beads come from a necklace that I bought intentionally for getting the beads out, again from a 2 riyal shop.

How it went: Did I mention Z loves hearts? She instantly took to the activity and started sorting the hearts into different colours (while matching them with the hearts on her knicker as well : ) ) I placed the tissue beneath the hearts to prevent them from dancing around the bowl, got this idea from Chasing Cheerios (Sorry I couldn't find the exact link) It was a bit tricky for her at first since the beads are smooth and kept slipping off, but she eventually did figure out to hold the beads by their edges.