Montessori Monday - Lego Water Color Sorting

Legos are, by far, E's favorite toy right now. Ask her what she wants to do and 9 times out of 10 it will involve building something out of these brightly colored blocks. Don't get me wrong, I think Legos are are one of the best toys out there, but I can only build camel houses and rainbow stairs so many times in one day. To extend here interest, I've been trying to come up with new and different ways to use them lately. A couple of days ago we decided to bring the Legos into the pool for a fun new way to play. Our exploration turned into a fun color sorting exercise that really engaged E!

I filled the pool with red, yellow, and blue Legos and provided 3 tubs of colored water to match. My little girl is not into sorting unless there is a practical purpose, so I put a bit of soap in the colored bins and told E that the Legos needed a bath. The red Legos needed to go in the red bath, blue Legos in the blue bath, and red in the red. To add a bit of fine motor work, I gave E a net to catch and transfer the blocks with. I also spread the colored bins of water around the yard for an added gross motor component. 

She really enjoyed this activity and it was a fun way to sneak in some sorting work!

Saturday Picnic

Nothing says summertime like spur of the moment adventures! After lazily wasting most of the morning away, Hubby and I were racking our brains for something fun and different to do with our Saturday afternoon. Just when I had about given up, the idea of an impromptu picnic dinner popped into my head. We gathered supplies, called the parents, and made plans to meet at a nearby park later that evening. The weather was gorgeous, the setting was picturesque, and the company was delightful!

 

I just love moments like these when everything comes together and reminds you that this is what life is about! Adventures don't have to be grand to be memorable. Sometimes simplicity is the most beautiful gift of all!

Tea Time

For one of our recent invitations to play I put together a surprise tea party for E.  I wish I could have captured her face when she saw the table all set up with Bear Bear and Rabby waiting for her. She was so excited!

 My little girl LOVES tea but I don't let her have it often so she was thrilled to discover that her teapot was full of real tea! We had so much fun being girly together, throwing out words like scrumptious and delightful left and right!

This activity was great for honing her pouring skills and also gave us a chance to practice using nice manners.  She had so much fun with her tea party that they have become a morning ritual for us - Truely a delight!

Baby Play : Munari Mobile

Little M is already 3 weeks old. It is amazing how much she has changed since we brought her home from the hospital. She has really become alert and interested in scoping out this new world of hers over the past couple of days so it seemed like a good time to introduce her to her first mobile.

This one is a simple, homemade, black and white mobile inspired by the Munari Mobile (the first in the Montessori Visual Mobile Series).  Here is a picture of a real Munari Mobile. As you can see, mine is and extremely simplified version, but it was free, easy to put together, and (in my opinion) serves the same purpose.

M has really enjoyed this mobile so far. She is not the biggest fan of laying on the floor (she prefers to be nestled in someones arms), but if you catch her in the right mood she will happily lay and observe this mobile for quite some time.

Your Invited

I used to consider taking a break a failure - as if I had somehow dropped the ball if our days weren't chock full of activities. Little by little though, I am finally starting to realize the importance of those down times. We need the quite and the slow to rest and refresh, to refuel our creativity. As my favorite blogger, Kelle Hampton from Enjoying the Small Things always says, we can't be "on" all of the time. There is a natural ebb and flow to life and learning to accept that has made me appreciate the different seasons of life all the more.

That said, I have thoroughly enjoyed my time off with the girls. We have taken advantage of our free schedule to just lay low and go with the flow, but I am finally starting to feel like I have enough of a handle on things to ease back into some fun activities. I have been following Anna at The Imagination Tree's daily invitations to play on facebook for a while and think this is just the thing to fit our lifestyle right now - creative, easy, and fun!!!

Our first "invitiation" was one she shared a couple of days ago, foam shapes with water on a window. E has really been into building things lately so I knew this one would be a hit.

She was thrilled to discover the assortment of shapes on her tray when she woke up from her nap and even more excited that the activity involved spraying water!

Every time she made something with the shapes she would yell "super shapes"! I couldn't figure out where she was getting that from until we were watching Team Umizoomi later that night. This activity really is just like Geo and his super shape powers. If your kids like that show they are sure to like this activity. 

She had such a blast that we actually kept this out for a couple of days, creating everything from monkeys and houses to spiders, people, kitties, and more. It really captivated her imagination and tapped into her creativity. Mommy had lots of fun playing too and my windows are the cleanest they have been in months!!!