6-5-09 Rainbow Week

This week, with all the rain, we've been talking a lot about weather and rainbows. Ryan has been loving checking the radar with Eric every night and seeing "where the green is". We've talked a lot about why it rains (so plants get water) and that plants need sun and water to grow. We've done a few coloring sheets and rainbow activities. We have not made it outside to "make a rainbow" with the water hose yet - but that will hopefully be in the next week. Every time I tentatively plan it, IT RAINS. Oh well...but, our "style" tends to be to do a few activities/crafts to introduce a subject and learn a little and then move on so it doesn't bore the two year old - but, bringing it back up time and again over the following months (usually his choice, sparked by a question). Such as, next time it rains, we'll pull out another fun rainbow craft or activity. Or, if we see one in the sky, we'll do another one if he's interested.

We read a couple of books, but he really liked What Makes a Rainbow. We made our rainbow chain through each page (with the stapler).


We "practiced" finger painting - I say practiced b/c Ryan is not always one to enjoy it. He's finally learning that it's ok to get paint all over your hands, mommy will clean them later. He hasn't liked getting his fingers "dirty" with paint until recently. Whew... So, we made rainbows with our finger paint...

And then we practiced (haha) making rainbows on his arm...


Back to the paper...

And finally to the brush (his choice of instruments usually)...


We even had a rainbow lunch!

I think we'll work on manners next, haha...

We even pulled out an activity from the archives (see St Pat's Day activities) and did the rainbow pot of gold one again. Although, I think he enjoyed shaking the m&m's in the jar more than putting them on the paper, so they are all crumbled at this point. But, they DID make some fun music!


And let's not forget the rainbow felt board - I got him started on the colors and he started putting them into rows. It wasn't his favorite activity, but he sort of enjoyed it for a bit.


We, of course, did quite a few other activities that I don't always take pictures of - many out of the archives, some new ones. Our trays are always filled and waiting for the fun to begin - just whenever we have time or whenever he decides it's time to do "Tray time!!!"

4-4-09 Painting in the sun

(posted 8/19) Ahhh, the sunshine...we've missed you. Ryan wanted some outdoor time (so did we)...he had a ton of fun "painting" with water and scraping the chalk. It allowed us to get some garage cleaning done. Does that ever end?

3-16-09 Number Circles, Fine Motor Skills, Painting

Today was a day taken from Tot School - I even used the same sugar shaker from IKEA (which was a great place, btw - wish we had one closer than Charlotte). Anyway, he had so much fun with "Learning School" today (that's what he continues to call it). He also continues to ask to do "tray time" multiple times a day. I don't always get to pull one out and play every time he asks - nursing, showering, making food - but try to comply as much as I can. He is having so much fun with it all.

We stayed in this morning and he had a blast doing 'extra' tray times.

This one was a hit. We played with this for quite awhile - we are in Cassada's room so I could play with her and some of her 'other' toys while we played with the rocks and circle numbers. He put the numbers on the dots, counted them, told me what the numbers were (without counting the dots), dumped in the tray, dumped on the floor, gathered them all together, put them back on the paper, played a game of "turns" with me (my turn, now your turn, now my turn, now your turn), etc. etc. etc. This was a great one.







Another one he really enjoyed today - putting pasta in the sugar shaker. He did all the longs ones - he was very diligent about wanting to fill every single hole, then we took them all out. He wanted to put some medium ones in there, so we did a few of those. Then he wanted to put small ones in there - so we did a few of those. He wanted to break the pasta (which I let him do some), but every time he did, it would go FLYING across the room and send us into a load of giggles - even more giggles as mommy tried to find the pasta. Lindy (our "lonely" dog) found some of it for me. So after breaking it some more, we did small ones and shook the shaker for awhile.







Painting was a big hit today as well. He doesn't seem to be too keen on fingerpainting, but loves to paint with the brush. We'll do more painting tomorrow - time was limited today with it. I cut these out earlier this evening after they dried and maybe tomorrow we'll add glue and other things. We'll see!

2-25-09 Today's Activities

I didn't picture the first activity, but Ryan thoroughly enjoyed it. I gave him a tray of popsicle sticks, tooth picks, straws and a water bottle. He spent around 45 minutes playing with these items - putting them in the bottle, dumping them, sorting them, etc. He really enjoyed it.

I got that idea and a ton others that we do from:
Tot School - I love that site! She has a lot of great ideas and I like the style.

The next activity (later that day) we/he painted the popsicle sticks to use for later. He really likes painting with brushes, but not so much with his fingers. Once again, he'll get there...





We also did a coloring/activity sheet out of one of our Elmo books. I don't like to do a lot of worksheet type stuff, but he really enjoys them, so I guess I'll just follow his lead on that one.