D is for

D is for drip. We did a fun art activity with eye droppers.
Materials:
paper towels
paper or Styrofoam plate (if it's paper it needs to be a higher end one that repels water not soaks it in)
3 bowls with water
red, yellow, and blue food coloring

This has 2 parts to it. Put a few drops of food coloring into each bowl. First set up the paper towel on top of the plate and let your toddler squeeze the water onto the towel, it makes a pretty cool painting. Then once he or she is done with that then just let them squeeze water directly onto the plate. The colors will mix to create new ones! As you show them how to squeeze use the word drip as you drop stuff onto the plate and talk about what colors are on the plate.

Just a side note- If you have leftover eye droppers from an empty liquid medicine bottle use that instead of real ones. Why? Because they are plastic. If you have to use the glass ones just make sure they get put away so your toddler doesn't get a hold of one the next day unbeknownst to you and proceed bite and chew the end off while you're not looking...What's that you ask? Why no this didn't happen to us why would you assume that?....okay maybe it did happen.

...and a p.s. I know she looks super unhappy in this picture but this is her concentrating face-it really was a great activity.

D is for dinosaur. We checked out a few dinosaur books and colored some pictures of them. I think some great books are the "How do Dinosaurs..." series M* paid the most attention to them. We also went to the dinosaur museum where we got a dinosaur puzzle to put together. M* hasn't ever really been too exposed or had much of an interest in them but she picked up the word about 30 seconds into the museum. I found a dinosaur egg at dollar tree that you got to dig at and find dinosaur bones. It was a little bit hard for M* but she still had fun with it. I saw a recipe at perpetualpreschool.com that was edible that you can make eggs out of too but we didn't have time to try it this week.

D is for digging. We dug in the dirt and made mud pies this week too. M* loves Snow White so we sang the "dig dig dig dig" song while we dug.

D is for dressing up and dancing. M* put on her tutu and cut a rug. She loves dancing and our letter this week was "D the dancing dinosaur" so we made the sound that D makes while she dances (ddd) while we danced!

A if for

We worked on the letter A and our colors this week.

For colors I took the bottom of an egg carton and colored the pockets each a different color. Then found things for each color for M* to sort out into the cups. She did the "sort the colors" thing for about 10 mins and then she just played with the little things and had a good ol' time. When your child masters the 6 colors then you can add 9 then 12 etc. A is for...
Airplane- we flew paper airplanes around the house on Monday. Make 4 or 5 for your toddler to throw some where and pick up.

A is for...animals. It is currently 2 dollar Tuesday at Thanksgiving Point so I've been planning our letters around what we can do there. We went to the petting zoo and looked at all the animals.

A is for...apple. This was super simple. The tree is just construction paper taped together with small pieces of velcro glued to it. The apples I just cut out of felt and wrote "A" on some "a" on some and "apple" on others. M* then picked them and put them in her basket. Also check out http://www.perpetualpreschool.com/ for some fun apple songs and crafts.


A is for... Alligator. I didn't take a picture of this one-maybe one day I will and I will get it up here. I just painted and Alligator with an "A" on his back on a piece of cardboard and cut out a hole for his mouth and the center of the A. Then I made some quick bean bags and had M* play a toss it in game. Just for the record it looked more like a lizard with a shark fin on his back but M* humored me and called it an Alligator anyway.

We also did our rice pit with the letters in it. Remember when you are doing these activities to emphasize the word that starts with the letter.

F is for...

We are starting doing things using the Amazing Action Alphabet book. You can check our their products at http://www.seeheardocompany.com/ The idea is to do their flip book and then do activities with the letter. You introduce a letter every 2 weeks or so. Along with all these activities we always looked at the flip chart before we started them to review the letter and the sound.

The first thing we did with the letter F is a rice pit. You make a rice pit by buying a small container with a lid I bought a 16 quart and pour a bunch of rice in it. I used 3 bigger bags. I also used beans but I would recommend just using rice. We started with things that are the letter F or start with F, like magnets, cookie cutters, frog, farmer, feather, flag. As your child digs things out say the name with emphasis on whatever letter you are doing it with. After we do the letters M* likes to play in it with spoons, bowls, and measuring cups.

F is for feather.
In the morning we did a craft with feathers. I drew a bird on a paper and then M* glued feathers on it and painted it with water colors. That afternoon we visited the aviary and I pointed out all of the feathers on the bird.

F is for fort and flash light.
We built a blanket fort and played under it all morning. We played with flashlights under it and read books.

F is for fish.
In the morning we did a fish pond. Tie string onto a small dowel or pencil and then glue a magnet onto the other end of the string. Cut out fish shapes and place paper clips on them. On the back of the Fish you can write things like, "jump up and down 10 times" or "sing wheels on the bus". You can spread the fish around the room or I put them in a small basket to keep it a little contained and easier to catch a fish. That afternoon we went to the aquarium. If you don't live by and aquarium you can head to the pet store to look at fish.

F is for face.
I drew different eyes, ears, noses, and mouths and taped them on the wall then had M* move them around to create different faces. Another way to do this would be to put them on flannel or Velcro and use it on the flannel board.

Road Trip

Well vacation season is upon us. We took a nice vacation to the west coast and here are my tips for what they are worth.



The car ride:



First of all I think everyone with kids should have a car vacuum, vacation or no vacation. They are small and they plug into your cigarette lighter. On a vacation where you are in the car a lot it's so nice to be able to get rid of all the crumbs from snacks.



Pack lots of snacks. If you are taking fruit cut it up and put small portions in small zip lock bags. We put all of our cold food in a insulated grocery bag with some frozen water and it worked really well. Make everything able to just be able to grabbed and passed out. Take plenty of wipes for cleaning up the snacks.



If your budget will allow buy some new toys and books and put away until the day of the trip. If you can't do that put some toys away about a month before the trip so that they have a newness about them. You can grab books your child has never seen at the library. Pick interactive books, like the simply look and find books, books with flaps, turny wheels, fold out pages, etc. I would recommend "Curious George Discovery Day" my daughter loves any of the Curious George board books (the board books not the regular books) and "Pat the Bunny Hide and Seek." Also sticker books are super good. I bought some at the dollar store and also bought a vinyl sticker book that worked well.


We bought a car seat tray because there were rave reviews about them. M* wouldn't have anything to do with it and we got along fine without her using it. So I would say save your money.


Break up the drive. Plan on stopping about every 3 hours. We even broke it up bigger by stopping halfway and staying the night.

The Hotel:

If you have you or your partner go upstairs to the room before your kid and childproof what you can. For example we were in our room for 5 minutes and M* broke one of the coffee mugs they put out, almost crushed herself with a table lap and called china with the phone (alright maybe a little exaggeration but not much of one).

Bring the toys in from the car. Subconsciously I thought we would just relax in the hotel room but reality said, "Hello! Have you met your daughter? She doesn't know how to relax." So take something to entertain in the hotel room.

If possible take a pack and play. Especially if you plan on staying in more than one hotel. Having a little consistency in where they sleep will be a big help. Not to mention that hotel cribs look like something out of a horror film.

Places:

You know your toddler best, if they aren't the type to wait patiently for something don't plan on going somewhere where they are going to have to wait a lot unless you are willing to deal with the tantrums that ensue.

We bought a harness backpack. This is one thing that I saw before I was a mom and scoffed at but M* is a runner so we bought one. People pointed and laughed a little at it but I say it's worth the peace of mind.

I had trouble deciding whether to take our big stroller that folds down so M* could take better naps and our cheap umbrella stroller. Due to space constraints we took the small umbrella stroller. M* only slept for 1/2 hour in it and there wasn't really ever a time I was glad I had the small stroller so I say if you can pack your nice one with the basket and fold back seat.

Speaking of nap times bring the lovey with you everywhere if it's small it'll help your little one fall asleep better.

A Website

Whilst surfing the Internet I cam across this super duper site. It is geared to pre-schoolers but they have some great stuff on there that under 3 could definitely have fun with. When you get there you may want to check out some of the stories but you should for sure check out the parents activities they have for each theme.
www.storyplace.org/preschool

And for those of you interested they have an equivalent for elementary school age.

The Little Gym & Gymboree

Both of the mentioned above have a free class offer where you can go try their class out without any obligation to sign up, (of course they want you to sign up else they wouldn't offer it, lets not kid ourselves this is a marketing ploy).

We went to a trial class at both these places and we had a lot of fun. They both have tons of locations across the United States for kids of all ages.

Gymboree has a different theme every week. The theme for the class we went to was "on and off". So while we played with the equipment, balls, parachute, and bubbles the instructor emphasized "on and off". The pros about Gymboree is that they are just a bit cheaper than the little gym, they offer different types of classes (Ex: music, play and learn, art), and they have an open play that you can go to at certain times. The cons about Gymboree is I felt like we were just at an indoor play ground and was glad I hadn't actually paid for it because I can go to the park for free. Here is the website where you can schedule your free class www.gymboreeclasses.com

The Little Gym is different in that they let the kids play but they incorporate basic basic basic gymnastics. Rather than being an indoor playground it's pint size gymnastics equipment padded to the nines with fun little niches made everywhere. Which when I went I was thinking, what can they really teach my little girl who just learned how to walk but wow! they really do teach them some great stuff. And it's not like a gymnastics class with older kids where you stand in line and wait your turn to do something, your child gets to wander and then throughout the class your instructor shows you how to use the equipment and how to spot your child and let them do it when they are ready. They also do the group activities like bubbles, balls, parachutes, etc alternatively every week. Here is their website where you can schedule your free class
www.thelittlegym.com

I only compare the two because these are the only parent-child classes I could find in my area. We signed up with The Little Gym, I had every intention of signing up with Gymboree because they were cheaper but after going to their class it was obvious to me why it was cheaper. Different people like different things though so maybe Gymboree is for you. Even if you don't want to sign up for a class, the free class is still a nice 45 mins away from the house.

Playdough and Shapes

M* got Playdough in her Easter eggs. She loves to have play with it but doesn't quite grasp the concept as to what you are supposed to do with it. So to make things more interesting for me and perhaps a little educational for her I quickly drew out this...

Then she can match the shape the playdough is in to the shape on the paper. I think she mostly likes picking the playdough up and then pounding it back down on the paper but hey, one day those triangles will match up.