TP Necklace

Look: Today I cut up a few cardboard toilet paper holders into rings. Then I got a big pretty piece of ribbon. C took her time putting one ring on at a time. At first she found it sort of hard, so I held the ribbon for her. After watching me do this, she wanted to do it herself. So she held the ribbon with one hand and put the ring on top, then grabbed the ribbon and pulled it through. She has been wearing the necklace for most of the day.

Learn: Lacing is a good skill to work on. I wasn't sure how to try it with her until I saw this craft in my library book. Because the rings were big she was successful, which is a great way to introduce a new skill. I'll definitely use this idea for a toddler playdate, but maybe color or decorate first.

Love: The necklace turned out great and will go into our dress up cabinet. I love watching C's skills grow right in front of me. Its neat to see her little mind work!

Sticker Fun

Look: We are always getting stickers in the mail from charities. Sometimes they are return address stickers or different stickers for envelopes. So today we used some of them up on a bit of a craft. I handed them one by one to C. She had to ask for them each time saying..more stickers please. I usually got either more stickers or more please, but it was worth a try. She enjoyed sticking and resticking them and was very proud of her final product.

Learn: In just the course of the few minutes it took to do this she learned that once the stickers were really down she could get them back up. At first she asked, but then she caught on. She also put one on each hand (learned that at Gymboree from stamp time) and put one on her jammies.

Love: I love this was a free craft. Usually I just recycle those stickers with the rest of the junk mail, but this time we got good use out of them. We get tons, so no need to save yours for us. It was fun!

Valentines

Look: We've spent about 6 of our special times making our own valentines. C is going to sned them to our family and her usual playdate buddies. She had a big part coloring the pieces, playing with stamps and loving the circle cut out machine. When we put them together she took teeny, tiny hearts and stuck them to the tape strips.

Learn: Some of the activities that are the most fun are the ones that incorporate one of my hobbies. I knew this would take a few days, but I learned to get her coloring whenever I could..especially a big project like V-day! Also a big thing I learned is that my scrapbooking stuff is invaluable for making prizes. I gave C a circle I cut from the newspaper and she acted like it was a trophy for most of the day.

Love: She was so proud of each step. She took interest in everything from the shapes and colors to the stickiness of the tape. I love how observant she is. Hope the recipients love their cards!

Crafts

We're going to working on crafts. I'm going to make a list of all the types of things I'd like to do with C and eventually G. Some of them are ideas from books, the internet, others from teaching and the rest from all over. I won't get to all of them, but it will be nice to go back and get ideas when I'm all out. Like I said this is my brainstorming page.
Crafts
Scrapbook pages
Making Cards
Sticker fun
Finger painting
placemats
roll necklaces
formula can piggy banks
paper bag clothing
surprise picture book
dot painting
painting w/toothpicks
Making Puzzles
Bottle magic
basket weave
Mud paints
Rainbow Crayons
Puppets
bubble wrap prints
Iron crayons
pasta jewlery
Play dough
sponge painting

Trying Something New

We've had a really busy few weeks. Two sick babies and some cold weather added to the mayhem. We've done lots of special things, but I wasn't blogging very much. So I thought I'd give myself a new purpose for the new year. Every week (or two weeks) I'll focus on a different type of play, give all my ideas for play, then post about what we did with it. I'm going to be using the blog to collect my ideas and share my memories.
Thanx

Just for fun

Love this shirt!

You can see in this picture that Gavin is smiling under his binky. Here are a few pictures of the kids that are just fun!

After Naptime

Look: C and G both took 2 hour naps today. It was a slice of heaven. I heard G wake up first, went in changed his diaper and then we heard C. When I went in she said "in, in, in" and pointed at her mattress. There were tons of binkies there and I thought she was trying to tell me something about them. But then she pointed to G, said "in" and then pointed into her crib. I got the point. The two of them played so nicely while sitting in C's crib. First they took turns hugging the bears, then C kept trying to put G's binky in his mouth. Then they laid down on her new pillow. I didn't do a thing for this activity, I just watched!

Learn: C is so good with babies. I feel so fortune to have such an awesome daughter and son. Although I still keep a close watch when they are playing together, it feels so good that I know they genuinely like one another.

Love: I loved watching the interaction. Gavin watches Chelsea with such a great amount of admiration.