Snowed in and loving it!

 

You would never know it was snowing outside the way Lu is dressed. 

But snowing, it was! We had a great day of playing in the snow, hot chocolate, baking scones, card games, dress up and this... It started out as a lentil tray and has gradually grown into a mix of beans, noodles, oatmeal... Basically an "end of the box" soup of fun! We also moved up to using the water table. Much better for two kiddos. 

 

We went out bright and early yesterday and built this little snowman. Look at him after about 6 hours...

  

Oh no!!! Help! 

  

Got to cut the grass... 

Have a great day! Off to play in the snow :-)

Coffee Sleeve Collage

I have posted once before about my love for coffee-to-go and how I used to find coffee sleeves in my car, stroller, bag... Click here for a post on reusing a coffee sleeve to make a cute crown. I have been trying to cut our latte factor (save money) lately. I recently treated myself the other day. I decided to reuse the coffee sleeve in some lame attempt to stop from feeling guilty for purchasing it. The sleeve was corrugated on one side. Lu cut it into pieces with help from Mama. I asked her what she wanted to make and she said a house and sun. I put the glue down in the shape of a house. Obviously older kids can do this step themselves or you can let younger kiddos make an abstract collage. Lu glued down the pieces. I trimmed a couple of her squares into triangles for the roof. I also cut out the sun shape. We let it dry. Originally I thought she would do a rubbing with her collage. Well the art director (Lu) had other plans. She just wanted to color directly on the cardboard. I think it came out lovely. It was a good idea in that it helped her color within boundaries. She could see and also feel the edges. Lu really enjoyed how bumpy it was to color on. It made for a fun tactile sensory experience. I think this might be useful for kids with vision or sensory integration challenges.

Projects This Week: Sensory Book

Sensory Book
I have been wanting to make my daughter Emme a Sensory / Touch Book for some time now. I found this blank canvas book last weekend. I have no excuse now. I am just gathering bits of fabric and other material to make it. I'll post the finished project when I'm done.

Lentil Tray / Sensory

You can use lentils, oatmeal, rice, pasta... Lulu loves playing with the lentil tray for long stretches of time. She listens to music while scooping, pouring, burying her counting bears, pretending she is cooking... This is a wonderful sensory activity and excellent for practicing her pouring and scooping skills.

This is may not be for you if you mind a mess. We do it in the kitchen and Lulu helps me sweep up afterwards. Obviously you know your child better than anyone...so if they are prone to eating the contents of the tray or making a mess rather than playing...than this is not the activity for you. We store ours in a Gladware tray to ensure it doesn't attract rodents. Plus it makes it easy when she asks to play with it -- it is ready to go. I place the tray on a rimmed cookie tray to catch some of the overflow spills as she works. Make sure you give your child a variety of cups, spoons, and small toys to play with. As always, use this time to talk to your child and ask them questions about what they are doing or what they think may happen if you do xyz.