Sticker Lightning Bugs

(4 1/2 Years)

Last Christmas, Bella (our Elf on the Shelf) gave Little Miss and Wild One a going away present.  It was a three-month gift to Kiwi Crate.  These little gift box gems are PERFECT for those times when you want (or need- you know those times) a project that they can work on semi-independently.  Today was the day; we painted, we built, we played with the kinetic sand, we made the volcano erupt- again, and it was only 10:30!  Out came the kit with everything in it.  I handed the kids their bottles, and colored stickers, and let them have fun decorating.

Quick!  Throw in a load of wash, load the dishwasher, start organizing the craft area (again!).  

It took less than ten minutes for them to decorate their bottles.  I thought it was going 

to take two or three minutes, but I saw how carefully they were working and I 

seized the opportunity to get a few chores done.

Wild One created a collage of color, overlapping some stickers.  Whereas, Little Miss 

created rows of the same color, making sure to space them apart ever so slightly.  Twins.

 I love how proud she is of her work!

 I helped them attach the straw, wings and feet.  They added the goggly eyes.

All finished!

 Time to make them fly.

Let's do it again!

 Experimenting the differing rates of speed if the string is held at a steeper decline.  

They loved this.  I did too!  

Letter B Week (Day Two)

(29 Months)

I love my itty bitties!  When they saw their table this morning filled with "b" books, I received "wow!" and "thank you very much Momma". They sat down to their table and began to "read" their books.

After that we partially colored the letter "b".  This full-page letter b is from Erica at Confessions of a Homeschooler.  Thank you Erica.

We carefully placed beans on the b outline.  Do you notice what Wild One is about to do?  That's right, he almost got the bean in his mouth before I stopped him (he's so fast).

Next, we had fun stamping butterflies and bunnies on the "b" paper, on the easel paper, on the tops of Mommy's feet, on our legs, arms, bellies, backs (you get the picture).

Then, we threaded light blue and royal blue pony beads onto blue pipe cleaners.  Wild One threaded seven beads and then got up to start jumping around the room.  Little Miss placed five on her pipe cleaner and then began taking them off one by one to use in her tea pot (maybe it was supposed to be herbal tea?.

Lastly, we used our bottle cap letters to spell out our names.  We tried using clothes pins last week, but they were too challenging to clip onto the paper (we need to develop those pincer muscles).  In all fairness, I had to give a significant squeeze to open the clothes pin as well.
<<picture>>

Little Miss wanted to end with counting three bananas, and then asking to eat three bananas.

Creating Pipe Cleaner Bracelets

(26 Months)

We've been trying to string beads on thin rope for months and haven't had much success.  What has worked really well is stringing pony beads on pipe cleaners and stringing beads on wooden dowels.

For months, I've been saving the tops of plastic straws for some unknown project (we use them in our straw cups when we're out).  Then an idea struck me, let's string the straws and pony beads onto pipe cleaners and turn them into bracelets!  When I was little we made pasta necklaces, so this is just a play on that.  As soon as I brought out the two trays of materials, the kids immediately sat down at the table and got right to work.  Wild One preferred the cuts of straw, whereas Little Miss really liked "the teeny tiny pinks" (pink pony beads).  I loved watching their pincer grip hard at work as they strung straw/bead by straw/bead.  I originally wanted to work on patterning with the straws and beads, but they had so much fun creating their bracelets that I let them just work on their own masterpieces.

Fun with Pipe Cleaners

(25 Months Old)


St. Patrick's Day Week

I brought out a pack of green pipe cleaners and a small colander.  After doing a really quick demonstration on how to push a flexible pipe cleaner through the tiny colander hole, I let them try.  They both learned through trial and error to hold the pipe cleaner more towards the end so that it's easier to push through the hole in the colander.

Then we tried our hand at stringing tiny beads onto the pipe cleaners.  I was really nervous about letting Wild One try this, he still has a tendency to put objects in his mouth.  After he placed several beads on the pipe cleaner, he tried his own method (second picture below).  I love how he created his own solution.

I knew Little Miss would love this activity.  She likes working with tiny objects (small pom poms, Cheerios, grains of rice).  She spent about five minutes stringing beads and taking them off, all while saying, "little pink on (not on), little blue on (not on), little yellow on (not on)."