Letter K and Letter L - A Year of ABCs

Math: K is for keys
We sorted a group of keys into large and small and then had fun pressing them into play dough.  This was very entertaining for both kids; they loved feeling the key impressions.

Science: K is for kinetic energy
Kinetic energy is energy pertaining to motion or characterized by movement.  It was funny hearing Little Lady pronounce this word but she did it!  
Using a diaper wipes box, a plastic storage container, a puzzle tin, and our little step stool, we played a game of toddler step-aerobics and made kinetic energy.  We said, "up, up" then "down, down" as we stepped up and down.  Fun - and a good workout for us all!

Art: K is for kisses
My plan was to put some light lip gloss or colored chap stick on our lips so we could kiss a paper and make a kiss imprint, but I have nothing at all resembling lip coloring in our house and I forgot to buy some.  So, we put a little Vaseline on and made greasy-looking kiss marks.  Little Lady still thought it was hilarious and would kiss the paper and say "kiss kiss".  

Movement: K is for Kick
Little Lady loves to kick - the air, the water, her brother....  So we put that energy to constructive use doing the kick ball game Mini Me and I did a lot last fall (read here).  We got all our balls out, lined them up, and kicked!  She has good aim and this was another game that was good for all of us.  
Next time we're going to talk more about the sizes of the balls - big, little, and medium.  You can also talk about colors as you kick. 

Music: K is for Kookaburra

I love this little song and for K week I finally learned the other verses so we can belt it out at any time.  Here is a link to the lyrics.  The song talks about the kookaburra bird laughing, eating, counting monkeys, and crying so it's fun to get really dramatic with it.  Now I'm singing it in my head again.....

Letter L

Art: L is for lines

We practiced drawing lines on our paper and used cooked spaghetti, and tried to arrange it in a straight line on the counter.  That was temporary art but to get really messy you could dip the noodles in a color and do some kind of throwing paint art. 
We also sorted blocks by color and arranged them in lines.  Little Lady loved this activity!

Literacy: L is for lacing

We did not get this done, but I was going to poke holes in the shape of letter L onto a Styrofoam plate and have Little Lady lace it with yarn and my help.


Movement: L is for Loopty Loo

This is a great song for movement and we have two versions of it on CD.  Listen to the lyrics and get your bodies moving!


Science: L is for lava

This blog post was our inspiration to make lava lamps with water, oil, food coloring, and Alka Seltzer tablets.  It was so much fun to watch and experiment!  

Both kiddos really got into it.  Dropping in the tables at the beginning was really fun, but the little lava lamps are continuing to entertain after I sealed them off.  We have them on the table, where we tip them around and watch the bubbles settle while we eat.  It's calming.

Spanish: L is for libro

Given how many books we read daily, this new word was easy to fit in, and Mini Me already knows it so he said it a lot, too!

Word sticks to practice word families (video)

When he turned three, Mini Me got a set of BOB Books (at my request).  I thought he was ready to start using them but I was wrong.  He wasn't that interested in trying to read them himself and just wanted me to read to him.  I figured that would eventually lead to him memorizing the books, which he does so well, and that would defeat the purpose.  I pulled the books out to try on occasion throughout the year and it's just in the last month that he is extremely interested - and so excited - to really read them on his own.  He knows all the letter sounds and simply loves sitting with me to read his books.  I  get giddy lumps in my throat watching him read.  What an amazing skill!


Long ago I saw this post on a little game to practice word families.  When I saw Mini Me getting so excited about reading his BOB Books, I thought it might be the right time to give the game a try, too.  Our word sticks are not as fancy as the post I read, but Mini Me put them together with me and I think that is more meaningful to him - he made them himself.


We gathered paint sticks, paper towel tubes, yarn, crayons, and markers.  Daddy helped us drill a hole in each paint stick.  Mini Me decorated the paper towel tubes and wrote some of the word family letters on each one.  

Our word sticks are double-sided and we can practice the -ig, -ug, -at, -ack, -ot, and -et word families.  As soon as we get more empty paper towel tubes, we're going to make some more.  This is so much fun for Mini Me.  


Here is a video of him in action:

Making colored pasta - again!

About a year ago, Mini Me and I made colored pasta and we have been enjoying it regularly since then.  It was still completely play-able but I was ready for some new shapes and colors, so we set out to make some again.  

With 20-40 drops of food coloring (depending on the color needed) and about 1/4 cup of rubbing alcohol per gallon Ziploc bag, the kids and I sat on the patio and mixed and shook.  

I let our bags of pasta "cure" longer this time and that resulted in some deeper colors.  According to the color mixing chart on the back of the food coloring box, we made:

red

orange sunset

yellow

green

teal

pretty purple

dusty rose

Which, by accident (because our teal is a bit blue-ish and dusty rose is more purple and less pink) turns out to be all the colors of the rainbow!  What a great and unintentional thing!

Our pasta shapes are:

campanelle

 jumbo macaroni

rigatoni

bow tie

penne

Play possibilities with colored pasta:

Make patterns with colors (older kids can use tongs for a greater challenge)

Make patterns with pasta shapes

Make all kinds of art and/or jewelry using paper and glue, chenille stems, or anything you can be creative with.

Play a tube-drop game with an empty paper towel tube

Fill and empty containers.
 
Use the pasta to make shapes on the floor.  Use all orange pasta to make a triangle, all purple pasta to make a square, etc.

Have "picking races" - set the timer for a minute and see how many green rotini (or blue bow ties, or whatever) can be sorted from the pile in that time.




Bury and search for items - a huge favorite at our house.

Sort into piles by color or shape

 

Scoop and dump.

Rub hands and feet through it - a great sensory experience.

Practice making a rainbow with the colors.

Use it in play with other toys, such as a toy kitchen.  Mmmm... boiled purple rigatoni!

Practice color recognition and/or matching with other objects.

Line it up to make car or train tracks or walking paths for toy animals.   

Practice counting.

Our colored pasta never gets old and it never earns a "no" when I ask if the kids want to play with it.   So cheap, so easy, and so pretty to play with!

A tearful goodbye

Our family is complete and we are very happy with that.  The baby years are gone but so much excitement lies ahead and we are immeasurably blessed.  Plus, we get to do a serious de-cluttering of our baby gear.  I have strong feelings about too much stuff as I've written about before (here) so it's a good feeling to simplify our life a little more.


I had planned on having a get-rid-of-the-baby-stuff sale this summer.  I did not plan on selling our super awesome, wonderful, cute, fun BumGenius 4.0 pocket cloth diapers (that I wrote about here) in the process, but since Little Lady took it upon herself to potty train (here) already, we can add our diapers to the sell pile. 


The morning that I assembled all the diapers for one last wash, my heavy heart surprised me.  I was sad!  I even had tears in my eyes!  Who gets sad at not having to change and spray out and wash and stuff cloth diapers?  Me, I guess.... even though I had done those things daily over the course of four years (with a short break between Mini Me's potty training and Little Lady's birth).  


Maybe that was the problem - saying goodbye to those soft, colorful diapers that I had seen day in and day out for so long.  Using and washing our cloth diapers was a daily chore.  Funny, though, I never saw it as a "chore".  I still can't figure out why the cloth diapers never made me feel annoyed and I never once thought, "Sheesh, I am so darn tired of washing and stuffing and putting these things away."  I feel annoyed at daily chores like brushing my teeth or tidying up the kitchen, but those diapers full of stinky stuff....?  They never annoyed me.  I am weird.  


I loved our diapers.  We bought two sets (the second set came after selling the first one) and with each purchase I was really, really excited.  I loved opening the packages and feeling how soft they were.  Both my husband and I bragged about our diapers a lot.  To everyone.  Once my husband was bragging them up at work to some retired men, who I'm not sure really cared, but my husband loved talking about our diapers.  


Cloth diapers have a great resale value and I'm sure we'll get at least half of what we originally paid back.  It will be a nice addition to the college funds but I'm not even excited about that.  Our diapers are gone.  Replaced by Mini Mouse underwear.  


Of course it's a happy thing to see your children growing and thriving and putting everything directly in the toilet that needs to go there.  But silly me, sad about saying goodbye to the diapers.  A tiny part of me feels like I'll be picky about the person I sell them to.  Will you wash them the right way?  Will you sun bleach them if they get dingy?  Make sure you use the right snap size!   Maybe I need a diaper buyer application form.  


I saved one diaper to keep - a purple one that for some reason always stayed softer than the rest of them.  Someday when we reminisce I'm sure I'll get some eye rolls as I touch that soft, beautiful diaper and remember how many times I fastened it on a little bottom, took it off again when it was dirty, tossed it in the diaper pail, washed it, hung it to dry, and stuffed it to use again.  


Bye, bye diapers.  Bye, bye days of having a little one who needs you.  All those days were cherished and yes, even those stinky diapers will be fondly remembered. 

Self portrait tracing

I got this idea from an exhibit at our local children's museum (where I had a ton of fun doing this).

First, I printed some photos I have of Mini Me.  I did 5x7 but you could also do an 8x10.

I taped the photos to the window and then taped a sheet of thin drawing paper on top of it.

Mini Me chose his marker color and started to trace.  He concentrated very hard.

He got frustrated when he got to the facial features so I helped him a little.  Here is our finished product.

Hilarious!  And so fun!

....but Mini Me was still reeling from frustration about tracing his face, so I thought the activity was done.  I started coloring with Little Lady and he must have still felt intrigued by tracing his picture.  I saw this.

He announced that he wanted to draw his face again.  We tried a different window - more toward the sun  which was helpful but it was just so bright, Mommy!

 We thought the cowboy hat would help.  But it didn't.  We needed a different hat.

Four hats later, here is what we got.  (sorry.... won't let me fix the orientation)

This was a great activity that is on our repeatedly-requested list!

Toddler game cards

One afternoon I whipped together a set of game cards for Little Lady with felt (still left over from the felt house and felt faces) and clear contact paper.  I made a variety of shapes and colors and made sure to have some exact matching sets.  You could also think this through further to make matching sets for colors, numbers of items, and shapes. 

These are fun for her because they are squishy and bendable and no harm is done to squeeze and bend them around.  They are fun for me because we can do a wide variety of activities with them.  


This is a versatile and enjoyable activity with dozens of ways to play.  We can....


Match shapes:  I usually pull out a set of 2 or 3 matches to do this - I don't use the entire pile.
*  I lay a few cards in front of her and hand her the matches.  She puts the correct card on top of its shape match.  
*  I lay all the cards in front of her and have her pick up both matching shapes and give them to me.   
*  I hold a card and have her tell me the name of the shape.


Match colors:  Again, I usually pull out a set of 2 or 3 matches to do this - I don't use the entire pile.
*  I lay a few cards in front of her and hand her the matches.  She puts the correct card on top of its color match. 
*  I lay some cards in front of her and ask her to show me a certain color.
*  We use our new colored pasta to make matches: a red pasta and a red card.
*  I hand her a card and see if she can name the color (Currently, she can't.  Everything is "geen" but she is still willing to play the game.)
*  I find random objects like a purple plate, lay them on the floor, and have her put the color cards on the item with the matching color.  


Numbers and counting:  
We don't do much with this yet other than randomly count the number of shapes in each card.   She can "count" by saying "one, fee, one".  In the future if she's still interested in these little handmade things, we'll do some number matching and ordering games with them.  

In addition to these more formal games, we just mess around with the cards.  One day she sat in my lap and we sang silly songs about the yellow diamond and the blue heart.  I often see her just putting them in and out of the little bag they are in. 

My preschooler enjoys them, too.  I give him the entire set and have him match shapes or match colors or arrange them in number order.

What other things can we do with our felt game cards?

Belly laughs and mile smiles

I think one of the funniest and most fun things I have ever watched is preschool t-ball.

This is Mini Me's first year playing and he is in a small-town organized league.  Each team gets matching team t-shirts and a hat (each team is named for an MLB team).  Games are two innings long.  Everyone bats and gets on base.  Everyone runs all the bases (advancing one batter at a time).  No one gets out and of course there is no score.  I have yet to hear or see one of those crazy, uber competitive parents, and hopefully we won't see that at all.

It is awesome.  Some of my favorite moments include:

A coach on the other team carrying off one of our base runners yelling, "Parents!  He says he has to go potty!  Which ones are his parents?"

Mini Me playing second base by standing with his toes touching the bag.  Each runner must be asked something like, "Does it hurt when you smack your head like this?" because we saw every runner that stopped on second base smacking his hand against his helmet as Mini Me simultaneously smacked his hand on his hat/head. 

The free-for-all "herd fielding" the kids do.  No matter where the ball is hit, all the kids run for it.  Recently, a player had a good whack that rolled to right field and half the kids on the team ran (some from as far away as third base) to dive - yes, dive - on the ball.  The mere thought of it still makes me laugh.

Sometimes the coaches assign a kid to the pitching mound position and only that kid is able to field the ball and throw to first base.  Then they rotate kids with each batter, so everyone gets to field.  But sometimes, with the "herd fielding" and resulting football-like tackles, I'm never sure if I should be proud of when Mini Me emerges victorious from the melee, covered in dust with the ball in his hand.  Should I cheer for that?  He beams like crazy about it.

The kids are learning to field the ball and throw it to first.  One inning the first base player ran toward short stop to, of course, get the ball.  He grabs the ball then turns to throw it to first base and we could see on his face the realization.... "Oh... I should be on first base!" 

It's hilarious.  And so sweet.  And good for Mini Me to play and learn and have fun in a relaxed way.  What a blessing!

Paint stick Fourth of July flag

I saw this idea here.  Our paint stick flag was very easy to make, and everyone helped!


Supplies:
several paint sticks or wood shims
wooden stars
red, white, and blue paint (we used acrylic)
a string for hanging (I used jute)


First, we painted.  Mini Me did all the red sticks and Little Lady did most of the blue stars.  Mommy did the white sticks.  What teamwork!  The white sticks needed two coats. 

After everything was dry, I glued it together with E6000.  I'm just too messy with a hot glue gun, but that would work, too.  On the back I glued little strips of cardboard for added security to hold all the sticks together.  I glued the jute rope down and also glued cardboard strips on top of the ends for added security.  I used a lot of glue and was happy I had the windows open for ventilation.  Whew!

We had enough paint sticks to make two flags of different sizes.  

I think our flag is beautiful!  The "rustic" look means we didn't have to be perfect in our painting or gluing.  

Happy Flag Day!