Thursday, September 29, 2011

spider match...

a little bit of learning...

a little bit of fine motor...

a little bit of halloween...

and, of course, a little bit of fun.






Tuesday, September 27, 2011

a monster...


it all started with this...


and a request for some "silver tape".

to make this, a monster tail...


but then, monsters need big feet, right?




and the look is complete...



monsters do need a snack, too...


Thursday, September 22, 2011

little parachute...


start by gathering the following...
  • fabric scrap
  • yarn or embroidery thread
  • masking tape
  • hole puncher
  • something sharp to poke a hole with
  • small cup



cut the fabric into a square... i did a 7" x 7" square...


place a piece of tape at each corner, and fold it under so there's tape on both sides of the fabric...


punch a hole in each corner on the tape...


cut four equal lengths of string, about 12" long...


tie one string through each hole...


poke four holes, spaced evenly, along the top of the cup...




thread string through each hole of the cup...


tie each string, so they're as even as possible...


and you have a completed parachute!


now, climb a good set of stairs...


add a firefighter...


and let him drop!




repeat...


and keep repeating...






Wednesday, September 21, 2011

broken crayons...

to some people, little bits of crayons might be reason to throw them out.

but for little hands, they're better than full size.  

they encourage grasping a writing utensil with a tripod grasp as opposed to some of the earlier stages, like a fist grasp...

with smaller crayons, there's no room for a whole fist, so a more compact grasp is necessary...

see the difference?

here's with a full size crayon...



or...



and here's with a small crayon...


so, rather than getting rid of all those little bits, get a bunch of crayons...


and start breaking...


go a step further, and use those fine motor skills to peel off all the paper...


so satisfying for little hands...


just find a good spot, and get in the zone.


Monday, September 19, 2011

dirt party...

the little man loves dirt...

so, the birthday party... all about dirt.  

we played with mud dough using the recipe from here (plus brown food coloring)...



(idea courtesy of fairy dust teaching)

we made seed necklaces...


(idea courtesy of shivaya naturals via playful learning)

built with mud bricks...



(idea courtesy of family fun)

for a take-home bag, had a dirt dig for treasures and filled our bags with them...





and for dessert, we dug into some delicious mud pies...

 (idea courtesy of martha stewart)

happy 3rd birthday, little guy :)