Letter L Day

We had such a busy week this past week.  It always gets like that the week before I do my freezer cooking.  More on that later, but needless to say, not a lot of Montessori work got done.  We did have one good morning of work before we had to rush off to the library and dance class on Friday.  The highlight of E's Montessori work this week was all of the knobbed and knobbless cylinder work she chose to do.  I finally got around to making some cards for the knobless cylinders, and she really enjoyed using them. 

Our really fun day was Thursday, when we hosted another of our "Letter Playdates."  This week was Letter L.  We read Is Your Mama A Llama? by Deborah Guarino.  Then we moved to the kitchen to make our fridge letters.  I had a few options for the kiddos this time around:  leaf stickers, fabric leaves to glue on, or real leaves (from last year that I saved) to crumble over the glue.  I think ALL of the kiddos chose leaf stickers.  Their Letter L for Leaves turned out really nice!  And I was impressed that all the "big" girls could peel the backs of their own stickers. 

Then, for snacktime, we enjoyed some lovely "L" treats: lemon bread/cake, longjohns, and ladybugs!  E and I assembled the ladybugs the morning of the playdate out of strawberries, grapes, and mini chocolate chips.  They turned out really cute and E had a lot of fun making them! 

I am going to continue our letter L theme into this week with a few more L books (Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney and Leaf Man by Lois Elhert).  We are going to do a nature-collecting walk to get some leaves, and hopefully we will make our own leaf pictures like the Leaf Man book.  Has anyone done leaf preserving with Mod Podge?  I tried contact paper last year and wasn't impressed.

Friday's Book Basket

Ok, so I'm posting this a bit late this week, but I haven't done one the past couple of weeks and we read a few really neat books that I wanted to share with you!

We love Jan Brett books around here.  I had a few when I was little and my Mom got some for E a while back.  This week we read Annie and the Wild Animals.  Annie can't find her cat anywhere, so she is looking for a new pet.  She makes corn cakes and leaves them at the edge of the forest.  A moose, a bear, and other forest animals come to eat the corn cakes, but Annie doesn't want them for a pet.  E loved this story.  She kept asking to read about the corn cakes.  Jan Brett uses the border illustrations to tell you what is coming up next, so I showed that to E and tried to get her to guess what animal Annie would meet next.

Another favorite this week was Max's Dragon by Kate Banks.  Max is looking for rhyming words, which E loves to do.  His wagon becomes his dragon and then it takes of into the sky as a cloud.  After reading this book we went outside and looked at the clouds.  Finding pictures in the clouds is a fun activity that really helps to develop imagination.  After that, E has been finding pictures in everything: leaves, her dinner, dust bunnies . . .

The last book I have to share with you is There Was an Old Monster by Rebecca and Adrian Emberly.  This is such a cute book, in the style of "There Was an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly."  E wasn't sure she wanted to read a monster book, but once we got going and read about how she swallowed ants that had him "dancing in his pants" she was hooked.  I think there is a musical version of this book as well, but we haven't checked it out yet.

Happy Reading!

A Trip to the Farm

Last week we got to make our first (of several, hopefully) trip of the season to a farm.  The farm we visited was definitely geared toward children - there were lots of kids activities, not a lot of pumpkin picking or produce.  We went with my mom's group; and since the farm is in Grandma's town, Grandma got to come too!

There were goats, sheep, and a llama or two to feed

Giant legos to build with

A huge chicken coop - turned corn crib to play in

Swings of all kinds and a kid-friendly zip line

A hay-bale maze to play in, with bridges to cross

Hammocks to laze in

And LOTS of other animals: turkeys, chickens, pigs, donkeys, horses, and cows!

E had such fun playing at the farm with her friends!

We Play: Little People

I recently re-organized our toys and ended up bringing some of E's Little People up to our living room.  This has ended up making them her most-played-with toys.  And the best part about it is that she is starting to play with them independantly.  I still get constantly baraged with "Mommy, play with you [me]" requests, but now when I tell her to go play on her own for a little while, she will usually pull out some Little People.  Or sit and pout on the couch.  It's not all roses around here!  :)

She likes to line them up and create scenes with the Little People.  I thought that was only something little boys did with their trucks.  Nope, little girls get in on the action with doll figures!  It's that "sensitive period for order" I keep reading about in my Montessori books.

The other day she got out Noah's Ark and had a grand time pretending that Noah and Mrs. Noah were the Mommy and Daddy and they went on vacation in their boat with all their animal children.  The great part about this was that it was all initiated by E.  I loved how she got out a playsilk and used that for the water! 

Happy Playing!

Some Finished and Almost-Finished Projects

Now that summer is pretty much over, I finally finished the Shades of Summer Dress for E.  It took a lot of time to make that twirly skirt!!  But she loves it.  It is made from cotton yarn and is SUPER soft!  As with most of the things I make for E, it is too big right now.  I'm going to put a ribbon in it to cinch up the waist.  If I'm going to spend so much time knitting clothing for E, I want her to be able to wear it for more than a month!  Hopefully, she will still be able to wear it next spring.  Maybe it will be her Easter dress.  I think it will also look cute with a long sleeve t-shirt underneath it on cold, dreary winter days.

My almost-finished project is my FIRST pair of socks!  They are made with some neat Ty Dye yarn from Knit One.  They are a little too small for me, as I intend them to be a gift, but I did try them on.  Oh My Goodness!!  I can see why people can get obsessed with hand-knitted socks.  They are like little massagers for your feet!!  :)

What have you finished recently?  Any works-in-progress to share?

Our Week in School

We are finally settling down into a routine!  Hopefully that means I will find a bit more time to blog about what we've been up to.  Right now, we are doing school time Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings.  I am trying to make at least two of those days work time in the school room, Fridays are sometimes work time in the school room, and sometimes other projects to go with our theme. 

I have dubbed this week "the week of towers."  E chose to work with all the sensorial materials that she has been avoiding.  She built stairs and towers with the pink tower, brown stair, and yellow and green knobbless cylinders.  First, she built each material as a staircase, and then she stacked them up to make a tower.

Other sensorial work she chose this week included the geometric solids - doing a card sort of sphere and cylinder, shape tiles, and the sound jars.

E is still into all the language works I have put out.  This week, I changed up her begining sound sort.  Now she's working on /t/ and /f/.  She gets it in three ways: our alphabet box (if she asks to do the alphabet box, those are the drawers I pull for her), the sound sort cards, and our alphabet BOB books (I leave STU and EF out for her on top of the box).  I also changed out the Laurie CVC puzzles, now she's working on car and pig.

E also learned to put together the whole continent puzzle on her own this week!  That's quite an accomplishment for her - puzzles on the whole are not her strong suit.

As far as practical life activities go, E has been helping me in the kitchen quite a bit.  This week she helped me make Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Muffins.  No pictures of that, cooking with a 2 1/2 year old is enough - I don't need the camera, too!

On the shelf, she worked with the clothespin color wheel, as well as tonging apple buttons into an ice cube tray (she ended up using her fingers instead), and our spooning material.

This week was one without art projects!  I know, I know, how could I let the week go by!!  We've been playing a lot of games instead.  E's favorites right now are from our Leap Frog game box: Alphabet Go Fish and Dominoes.  She's getting pretty good!

Outdoors time this week was a visit to a farm.  This was such a fun trip!  I'll have to do a separate post on that, because I used the film camera and the pictures are all still being developed.

Linking up to Tot School and Toddler Tuesday.

Homemade Holidays

I know, Christmas is still a little less than 100 days away, but I feel like I'm WAY behind.  It's easy to get that way when you try to make most/all of your Christmas gifts by hand.  Plus, E's birthday is a week and a half after Christmas, so I have get get started on things early.  I thought I'd share a few ideas that I had for handmade gifts that I am loving right now!

The Montessorian in me LOVES this soft globe.  I had been wondering how to make a globe without spending a fortune or spending a week meticulously painting.  The continents in this globe are the regular Montessori colors.

E would adore this card table play house.  It looks like the seller even has room for a few more orders before Christmas.  I will be making E's, though.  Most likely using the tutorial from Sew Much Ado.    Now, where can I find pink felt on the bolt?

Sally the Eco-Fairy has been on my to-make list for more than a year.  She's so cute.  I actually have all the body parts finished, I just need to sew her up.  And make some clothes - I decided to go with wool felt clothes instead of knitted, should be quicker that way.

The newest edition of Living Crafts Magazine has an adorable doll house felt board that I just love.  I'm hoping that it will get a rave review from the munchkin, as well.

Speaking of Living Crafts, I just love their tablecloth and napkins set with crocheted edges.  Now, if I just knew how to crochet.  I'm strictly a knitting girl.  But they might still look really neat with just the blanket stitch edging.

12 Crafts Till Christmas has a super-cute doll bassinet and diaper bag play set that is totally calling E's name.  Last year was the "year of the felt food."  I think this year is going to be the "year of the dolly."

Enough talking, time to get started!  Do you think 100 days is enough to get all this done??