Moon Phase Matching

It seems that young children love nonfiction books, but quality nonfiction books for preschoolers and toddlers are hard to come by.  That is why I was thrilled to find a great nonfiction moon book at the library.  It is so new that Amazon doesn't have a picture.  It is short, informative, and interesting.  The book is Space Watch: The Moon by Chris Oxlode.

In the final section there is moon phase matching to night sky pictures.  Ladybug and Mister love to match the pictures, so I made our own set.  It took a few attempts to find good night sky photos, but I found an informative moon site with good pictures.  On the back of the cards, there are colored dots for the cards that match.

Our Prepared Environment

I have been busy setting up our new prepared environment.  This is our favorite room in the house because it gets such great light and faces our little vegetable garden.  This room was our storage room and then my office. When Ladybug and Mister turned one, we made it into a playroom.  It was fun and perfect.  Unfortunately, as they grew the space became cramped. 

Playroom



After looking into Montessori preschools, which were more of a daycare than a preschool and not wanting to drive 1 hour to get to preschool, we decided to do a little mommy school.  As I have been reading and researching Montessori on my own, I decided we must have a dedicated room for our learning. 

I have tried to make a beautiful and organized space.  Ideally we would have more room, but I am thankful we have a spare room for their learning.  I am awaiting a few items, need to find a larger table, and dress the window, but it is essentially finished.  Let me know if I missed anything. 

Moon Phases

I am a stickler for bed times.  I believe that a well-rested child is a happy child, so when I let the kids stay up to see the supermoon it was a big deal.  Of course, it clouded up right before sunset and stayed that way.  We couldn't even see the moon’s glow through the thick clouds.  I hope those of you who saw it enjoyed it.

Anyway, I put together this moon phases activity.  I started with 4 moon phases to keep it simple and the activity is self-correcting. They choose a moon phase and make the night sky scene with the felt pieces.  On the back of the card is a drawing of the moon.  They activity isn't their favorite, but maybe somebody's child will like it.

Baby Stuff

My Disneyland has to be Target and on particularly rough days, I escape to Target for a little retail therapy.  When I came across these I had to have them.  They are nonslip tub decals for about $5 and I can see us using them for multiple activities. 

I put them in a little fish basket for the baby and as you can see they were a big hit.  Well maybe not a big hit, but they could be if she wasn't crawlin.  She was really midly interest in the texture and colors and listened while I pointed to the fish and starfish, but it only lasted a minute because the door stop was more intruiging. I'll keep them on her shelf and maybe she will come back to them.

St. Patrick's Day Goodies

We had one of those days recently.  You know the one where you just can't get out of your pajamas because it's rainey and ugly out.  It was an unofficial pajama day complete with Ladybug's mismatched pajamas.  Apparently mismatched is the new thing.

I revisited putting coins in a container after more than a year.  It was a difficult task when they were 18 months, but as predicted it was cake.  I was surprised at how much they enjoyed the activity.  In fact, Ladybug does it everyday.  The coins and the green pot are from the St. Patrick's Day goodie bag and the container is from Isla's puffs.

Shamrock Braclet

My mom brought over a bag full of St. Patrick's Day goodies for the kids a few weeks back.  While we were oohing and aahing over the finds, I scooped up the shamrocks, punched a hole in them, found some pipe cleaners, and they used them to make St. Patrick's Day bracelets.  Ladybug was so impressed she took her bracelet to share at preschool.

Letter N

We have been doing the letter N forever.  At least it feels like forever.  We took a little mini vacation, I started a new big project, I have a few many unfinished projects, and then there is the house.  Who wants to clean when you have a million projects in progress?

For the letter N I wrote numbers on labels and had them peel and stick them to the letter N.  My son gets frustrated with stickers, so this was a good activity to build his sticker confidence because they come off so easily.  After they stuck on the numbers, they made night pictures.  It was hit because glitter glue was involved. 

Something for the Baby

I have really been thinking that the wee one needs to be in on our learning fun, so when Ladybug received 12 scarves as a gift I knew the littlest one would love playing with them too. 

I took an empty prune container I had squirreled away, cut a large hole in the top, and added a bag with some rice for stability.  Then I  knotted 6 scarves together (Roy G Biv, minus the i, style) and voila a new game. 

Sorting M Pasta

On Thursdays G and H go to a preschool class, my mom stays with the baby, and I get some free time.  It usually involves grocery shopping, going to the library, and running other errands.  Sometimes I make it over to Goodwill and that is where I saw this plate.  H loves the color purple and I love sorting activities, so I had to spend the $.99 on it.  It was as if the stars were aligned just for me because there was also a sale on pasta. 

I placed a lot of pasta on the tray because the dog kept eating it and sometimes they can sit and sort for a long time.  On the tray are mostacholi, mafalda, medium shells (a bit of a stretch), and macaroni.

The Long Car Trip

Okay maybe a little over 4 hours isn't that long of a car trip, but with 3 kids it had the potential to feel like a lifetime.  We are in the small group of holdouts who don't have a DVD player in the car or a handheld one for the kids.  Not to mention all three of the kiddos are rear facing still, so a built in player wouldn't do us much good.  I was bored in the car and you can be too, right?  Right. 

Anyway G is very interested in the moon and stars and I found a Magic School Bus Lost In The Solar System book on tape (my age is showing) CD at the library.  In one word it was perfect.  It was so perfect we listened to it 5 times on the way home.  The Friz and I are like BFFs now.  So, if you have a car trip coming up you need this. 

And just because a picture of the wee one experiencing her first water park.

The Baby's Stuff - Part 2

I have been reading Montessori books like crazy and when I came to the section on a Treasure Box I realized that was my baby's Box of Crap.  This time when I put together her Treasure Box I put a little more thought and made a sound and textures box.  G and H enjoy exploring her treasures too and keeps them all occupied for some time.

• Salt shakers - large and small beads
• Babyfood jar with coffee beans
• Bells - 2 types
• Wooden rattle
• Metal measurrig cup
• Basting brush - 2 types
• Ball
• Beanbag
• Lavender bag
• 6 different kinds of fabric
• Sandpaper
• Boxes with beans - 2 kinds

March Sensory Box

I had a crazy Saturday night dyeing macaroni the colors of the rainbow for our March Sensory Box. 

Building an M

Building an M was pretty difficult for G and H, but they were able to do it with a lot of help.  They glued mafalda, macaroni, and mostacholi on it.  The glue puddles reminded me why I love glue sticks and the glue puddles reminded them why they love school glue.