Pumpkin Science

 This by far has been one of the cheapest, most fun activities I have done with the boys thus far. At a total of  47 cents for this little pumpkin at our grocery store, my only regret is that I didn't purchase a ton to decorate with. One of my very favorite types of activities to do with the boys are the ones where all I do is set up and watch the show.

First of I set up their small work table in the kitchen. I cut the pumpkin in half and gave a half to each of the boys. Wolf only stayed at the party for  a little before he had to take his nap but I am so happy he got to experience this.

Bear got right in at first and I helped describe the texture using words like "squishy, slimy, sticky, yucky" he wasn't totally sold about the texture so I gave him a spoon to help him keep playing. He began sorting out all the pumpkin seeds so I gave him a few small bowls to sort out the guts and the seeds. And like any toddler with a spoon of course he had to taste test it. Apparently not a big fan of the taste but I believe that may be the only thing he disliked from this whole experience.

Pumpkin Fun Day 1: shapes and colors

Our first day of our Pumpkin Fun theme is complete and  I am pleased with how well Bear took to this. Actually he seemed to love the whole idea of spending this time together in the morning. Plus he got to paint, which probably rates in the top 5 favorite things he like to do. 

Here is what we did:

1. The night before I cycled out his toys. I added a few shape stackers and shape sorters and I added a ball (circle) basket I also placed a handmade card with an orange circle in the basket to reference when we are playing with the balls.                                                        
2. We read Duck and Goose Find a Pumpkin and a simple shape book. The main thing we focused on was a PUMPKIN, CIRCLE, ORANGE
3. I wanted to see if he could identify a circle already so I placed three of the same type of items in different shapes in front of him to see if he could pick out a circle. He was able to do that. 
4. Secondly I places different types of items in different shapes in front of him and see if he could pick out the circle. He was able to do that as well. Then he decided to name all the shapes after Thomas characters. Typical. HA!
5. We moved to painting. Just a simple art project I drew a circle and he had to paint  it orange. It was a mix between finger painting and a brush because this little guys likes to have options. I was impressed by how well he stayed in between the lines. And like any proud mama it is hanging on our fridge as we speak. *fyi he has also named his painting after a Thomas character, Sir Handle to be exact and when he showed papa that is exactly what he said. *

Conclusion: He seems to recognize circles pretty well so I will be adding another shape to go over. He hasn't mastered colors yet so we will be going over them a bit more. 

Week 2 Theme: Bees bzzz bzzzz

Week twos theme started off pretty spontaneous with a trip to Bush Park on Monday.We introduced the baby bumble bee song and looked at a few bumble bee pictures online. Both B and W took a liking to the song and Bear loves the extra "ouch and yucky" add ins. He will clap his hands and say "uck" which is my cue to start singing :)

Tuesday: We started this project. Our version of it at least, we skipped the masking tape and used dot art paint instead. I wanted it to be a bit more personalized and less precise being that a 21 month old was making it. 

He liked hiding the dot paint in the toilet paper tube

Wednesday: We watched a youtube video (can't find it now sorry no link) on how bumble bees drink nectar from flower to flower. I decided to make my own "nectar drinking hopscotch" outside.

I drew three flowers in sidewalk chalk and placed a sippy cup in each of them. B had to run and jump to each of them and drink from the cup when he "landed". Not sure if he totally got the concept but he had so much fun running around drinking from all his cups. 

drinking with water "nectar"

Then we counted the cups. He is really starting to understand it better. 

Thursday: We finished up our bee art project. He is becoming a big fan of gluing.

please note his yellow and black outfit to go with the theme

I didn't have wax paper for the wings so I cut some clear contact paper and stuck two pieces together to make the wings. 

The finished product. Yes I did make the face myself. Cute right?  Friday we took a break and went to a nursery and did some research about vegetable gardening. I am super excited and really scared. I am not in any way a gardener and have never really had much of an interest but I think B would love it and so many people around here claim that it's super easy and fun. So when in Rome? I might as well try, wish me luck. 

Ladybug week

We started our first week of "school" with a ladybug theme.
 Day 1 was a quick introduction. We sang the ladybug ladybug nursery rhyme and looked at some pictures online of ladybugs. I quick explanation of the fact that they are red with black circles. And that was that. Pretty easy. Throughout the day I would sing the nursery rhyme to both the boys so that they would become familiar with it.

Day 2. Repeat day one and in addition this was messy art day, and red finger panting was part of the agenda. It was a simple craft. All we did was paint a paper plate red. (Red like a ladybug is what we were focusing on) This surprisingly took a lot of time. Bear was really loving it. I let it run it's full course which lasted about 20 min. I assumed he was done when he attempted to through his plate on the floor. :)

Day 3.  Repeat day one.Now to put the finishing touches on our ladybug. I pre cut six black circles. Three for me and three for him. The main focus here was to learn 1 to 1 correspondence. Meaning the ability to match one item to one number. (1 black circle means 1, 2 black circles means 2 ect.) I would pick up a circle and tell him to put "one" circle on the ladybug. Then pick up two circles and say "put  TWO circles on" then I would have him take some away "take all THREE circles off" and so on. 

This did not go over super easy. At first he was not into it at all. He finally sat back down and followed the instructions but was really only able to grasp the numbers one and two well. Which was a really great start and now I knew where to put more focus from here on out. 

From there we moved on to gluing the same circles on the ladybug. I pre cut and glued on the head myself but let him glue down the rest.

At first I was pre gluing the circles (the one above) but he really liked the idea of putting the glue on himself

Don't forget to cut two antennas

Here is the  finished product. I really tried to be hands off as far as placement of dots and antennas although I did tell him they went on its head.

Once we were done he wanted to continue gluing so I quickly cut a red oval out of construction paper and some black circles to continue the activity

He did a pretty good job gluing if I do say so myself

Day 4 was pretty uneventful as far as the theme went due to this

 Day 5 Okay nature red hunt take two. I asked B if he wanted to go for a walk and he said "no". He always likes going for walks so we got ready anyways and he started getting excited. We walked out with W in the Moby, my camera in hand and his red wagon. We were going to look for red things if it killed me (remember that perfection thing I suffer from again. HA!) Well we made it about a 100ft from the house when B turned back around and headed up the stairs and towards the door. Ummm... I guess he really meant it when he said he wasn't in the mood. 

"mom are you coming? Because I'm going inside there are a ton of trucks I still need to slam into each other"

Well both days of our walks didn't work but we tried and that's what counts..... right? 

Day 5 (cont) after our quick walk to the front of the house it was time for our ladybug snack

I got the idea here and I think it turned out cute despite not having everything needed. 

Two slices of apples, a few raisins and a little almond butter to stick them together and you've got yourself a ladybug :)

B ate it up. The workout from earlier must have really fatigued him . :)

Well that's it our first week of "school" day by day. It was fun and overall pretty easy. I learned a few things along the way that I will be sharing in a later post. I am feeling a lot more confident about my ability to do this and am really looking forward to next weeks theme. Bees