Morning Table Work - An Easy Way to Start the Day

(42 Months)

We have been doing morning table work since Wild One and Little Miss were about a year and a half old.  The beauty of morning work is that it is something that the kids will want to work on and allow us time to make coffee, breakfast, and empty the dishwasher.

Little Miss loves discovering what's on their table each morning.  Once there, she usually gets right to work.  Lately, she's been trying to finish all of her work before Wild One enters the playroom.  She's been on a competitive streak lately.  Kids!

The only guidelines I use to determine what goes on the table for morning work are: (1) they can work on this independently, and (2) they are reinforcing a particular skill (they have already learned how to do this work, this is to reinforce it).  Our work is almost always in the form of play, so I know they will work on it happily for at least ten minutes (that's usually our stopping point - some activities they will engage in for an hour or more, it just depends upon their mood and the activity).  

If you need a few extra minutes to start your day, or want to incorporate some independent work time, here is a quick and easy way.  Below are some ideas to get you started for morning table work:
Knobbed Cylinders and Tangrams

Unifix Cubes

Magnetic letters and a cookie sheet- match the letter, or practice spelling, or place the letters in alphabetical order

Button Snake and Threading Beads

Art invitation - Cover the table with easel paper with crayons and markers

Legos and blocks

Clay rolled into logs- can be used to form letters, or they can practice cutting with a small spreader knife, or they can just play with it and exercise those finger and hand muscles

Sticker Work

Uppercase and lowercase matching

b, d, p, q Review

Rainbow Macaroni Art

(41 Months)

Awhile back we were playing with bug-shaped macaroni (see here) and I knew then that I would dye those shapes along with some rotini and ditali.  I followed the directions from Many Little Blessings to dye the pasta.  It's quick and easy, although a bit smelly (the combination of rubbing alcohol on the pasta, peeeeuuuu).  If you have never dyed pasta before, give it a try the kids will love it.

All that's needed is rubbing alcohol, food dye, zip top bags and of course your pasta.  In a zip top bag, pour 1/2 cup of rubbing alcohol and 10 drops of liquid food dye (or 1/4 inch squirt of gel food dye- sorry about the strange measurement).  Close the zip top bag and squish and shake to combine.  Open the bag and pour in one to two cups of dried pasta.  Close the baggie and shake.  The kiddies love this part.  Repeat with the next color.  Meanwhile, keep the pasta in the closed bags for two hours or until the desired color has been achieved.  Pour the dyed pasta out onto an old towel.  Allow to dry overnight.  That's it, easy peasy lemon squeezy.

When dying the pasta we discovered that gel food dyes produce a deeper richer color (the purple is so deep purple, it's almost black) than liquid food dye.  We dyed the box of bug-shapes, along with a box each of rotini and ditali.  I wanted enough rainbow pasta to use for necklaces (you have to make necklaces - it's a classic), macaroni art (another classic), some math patterning games and to use in their pretend kitchen.

Little Miss decided that she wanted to use our food-dyed glue to make macaroni art.

Look at those little pincers working.  You can really see it in the picture on the left.  

It's fun and easy practice for holding a pencil.

Squeezing a glue bottle takes quite a bit of hand strength, 

plus the coordination of squeezing the glue exactly where you want it.

 Wild One decided that instead of working with glue, he wanted to make a necklace.

I love watching him concentrate.

Wild One discovered after threading a few tiny ditalis that they disappear underneath the rotini. 

Threading is great practice for hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills.

 The next morning, both kidabunks asked to work on necklaces.

Ta da, their finished necklaces!  These were supposed to be quick pictures of them in their finished necklaces.  Wild One completely filled his, whereas Little Miss preferred to have just one of each color rotini.  It's amazing how different these two twins are.

Time for a quick gripe moment. I have seen so many beautiful photographs of kids posing for pictures.  Smiling, when asked to smile. Facing the camera, instead of looking away.   My two have NEVER (since birth) posed for pictures.  Any pictures of the two of them smiling at the same time is completely a fluke (or tricked by tickles).  I was able to capture a few shots (yes blurry) of them dancing around in the necklaces- this was supposed to be when I was taking a picture of the two of them wearing the necklace.

Look at those faces!  So happy.  I'm so lucky.

We FINALLY Made it to the Beach!

(41 Months)

It took three and a half years, but we finally made it to the beach!  At first they were too little, next it was that the beach is an hour away with no traffic, then throughout her ones and twos Little Miss didn't like sand touching her toes and fingers, but we were finally ready for the beach.  So after an hour-long drive, we were finally there!

Of course, Wild One ran straight to the water, "c'mon Grandpa".  He loved the feeling of the water pulling the sand from under his feet.

Meanwhile, I was convinced that Little Miss would want to search for tiny sea shells, but instead she stayed by the water's edge and scooped sand into buckets.

Wild One loved the feeling of the waves carrying him to and from the shoreline.

 

Little Miss didn't move from the time she sat down.  She just continued to scoop and pour.

After we played at the beach, we went on a dolphin tour (our first boat ride).  I discovered it's not easy to take pictures of dolphins while holding an excited three-year old.

We had so much fun! It was even a perfect morning, slightly overcast to cool down the hot summer sun. I'm so lucky.  I love my little ones and my Dad.  

One would assume that after five hours of beach and boat, that the kids would nap on the way home.  One would assume incorrectly.  They closed their eyes for maybe 20 minutes.  Why don't my kids like sleep?  I love sleep.  

This has nothing to do with today's post - The wall of rain!  No matter how many times I see that it still amazes me.  We were lucky, that it didn't rain on beach day, it rained the next day.