Fine Motor Practice: Clothesline Play

After talking about line drying clothes I thought I would share one of the fun things I do with Jack. While hanging clothes up one day he asks "what you making mommy?" (his question for anything I am doing) After explaining to him what I was doing, he wanted to help. I decided to make him his own clothesline at his level so he could help mommy. 

I strung up a small line, and filled a basket with fabric scraps and clothespins. 

I started out by showing him how to open a clothespin. Then I showed him how to clip the fabric to the line. 

He was a little confused at first. But soon figured out how to work the clothespins. 

This activity required a lot of concentration! 

He hung up about five or six pieces before getting tired. He ran around the yard and played for a while before coming back to it. I gave him a few of his own socks this time to practice hanging. This required a bit more hand-eye coordination since the socks were smaller, and he could not just lay them across the line and then clip, like he had been doing with the fabric. 

This really seemed to be hard work for him. I mean that in a good way. It was great hand-eye coordination practice and required a lot of concentration. It is not something that he plays with for an extended period of time, but he does like to play with it while I am hanging our clothes out. 

So give it a try...it is wonderful fine motor practice for you little one, plus it is fun pretend play! 

Linking to Weekly Kids Co-Op

Treasure Basket

My little guys love to discover new things. Especially Luke. He is at that age where he is curious about everything around him! I can't even open the dishwasher without him crawling as fast as he can to it, and then trying to take everything I put in it, back out. He wants to touch and chew on everything within reach.

I recently found The Imagination Tree blog via Pinterest. It has loads of wonderful ideas for sensory and heuristic play. I instantly loved her idea for Treasure Baskets. You fill a basket with every day items from around your home or outside. Items such as...different fabrics, wooden objects, kitchen utensils (safe for baby of course!), pine cones, ribbon, sea shells, beaded necklaces, etc. The idea is to find objects that are safe for your little one to explore. Items with different colors, textures, and patterns that will peak their curiosity and interest. The concept behind this is known as Heuristic Play. If you want to learn more about Heuristic play check out this post from Little Acorns To Might Oaks.

I knew this idea would be a huge hit with Luke. He has a basket filled with various rattles, blocks, and other baby toys that he loves. He sits next to it, takes one toy out at a time, looks it over, shakes it, chews on it, then tosses it aside and proceeds to the next toy.

These are a few of the things I put into Luke's "treasure basket"...

various fabrics

piece of scratchy velcro

brightly colored chunky necklaces

measuring tape

empty thread spools on a shoe lace

ribbon

2 wooden hearts and a car

large sea shell

3 clothes pins

large metal kitchen spoon

bean bag

foam shapes

All of these are objects we have either found in our home or on a nature walk. No cost whatsoever!

(Don't forget to make sure when choosing items for your basket, that they are age appropriate and safe for your little one. I would also suggest supervising them while they play with their basket to make sure nothing gets lodged anywhere!)

It was a HUGE hit! Luke loved it!

 

The funny thing is, Jack loved it more. Luke sat there for a good 15 minutes, inspecting several of the items. Jack sat there for almost 45 minutes! He wanted to touch and feel everything in the basket. Once he had that out of the way, he began to figure out how each item "worked". His favorite item...a retractable measuring tape. He would pull it out, let it snap back quickly, and laugh hysterically. This would make Luke laugh as well. It was so adorable!

Luke's favorite part of it all...

...sticking every item in his mouth!

After a while I put the basket away. I pull it out once a day and allow the boys to play with it. Jack discovers new ways to play with the items each time. Luke watches him very closely and often tries to mimic Jack. I switch out half of the items every few days to keep them interested and excited. I may even try to do a few "themed" treasure baskets in the future. It has been a wonderful way for the boys to discover and learn to be more creative in their play.

What We Did Today

Today was a Snow Day!
We slept in, ate some home made pancakes, stayed in our pajamas and watched Caillou most of the morning.
It was wonderfully relaxing!

This is what it looked like today where we live...






Looks lovely right?

Wonderful deep, powdery snow...perfect to spend the day playing in and building a snow man!





yah...not so much!!!
While the picture looks like it is a perfect day to play in the snow, the reality of it is much different! The high today was right around 8 degrees! And the wind chill made it feel about -17! In addition to the freezing temps, the wind just about knocks you right over when you try to go outside.

We attempted to play outside this morning. We got all bundled up with heavy coats, hats and boots. We even made it out to the front of the apartments when Jack fell face first into the snow and started crying. It was so incredibly sad!
The snow was way too deep for him to play in, let alone even walk in. His face was beat red from the freezing temps, and the wind made it hard to see.

We immediately went back inside!

Jack was very happy to be back inside, but very sad that he couldn't play in the snow.

Our solution...

We brought the snow inside to us!!

We played in it with our bare hands at first, and talked about how snow is cold and wet.



Jack liked the cold and wet feeling for just a bit...

But he soon wanted gloves!



Then we made some snow balls. You can tell from the pictures he is concentrating very hard...hehehe



He loved playing with the snow!



After playing with the snow for quite awhile, we put the bowl in the sink and I showed Jack how the snow "disappears" when you put water over it.

This was such a fun activity, and a great alternative for those days that aren't very good snow days!

What did you do today?

Learning Our Colors

So I am sure it is pretty obvious by now that I LOVE making fabric books! I would almost say that I love making them more than Jack enjoys playing with them (well eating right now- he is teething after all!)

I love the idea of children playing and learning all at the same time. And I truly believe that it is never too early for a child to start learning!

So I decided to make him a book to help him learn his colors (hopefully he isn't color blind like his daddy). I also wanted him to be able to learn concepts like shades of colors, pattern, texture, and shapes with this book. Each page is devoted to a different color. I used different patterned cotton fabrics, felt, ribbon, silk, ruffles, fake leather, stuffed shapes, and some fuzzy fabric.

So here it is...Jack's COLORS book...

If you would like to make a fabric "Quiet" book here are a few blogs you should definitely check out....

How to Make a Quiet Book

Homemade By Jill

and Hippos and Dinosaurs has an adorable ABC quiet book...that I definitely see myself having to make in the near future!

It Is Never Too Early To Start Learning...

My son Jack is only eight months old...actually I say only but I can't believe he is already eight months old!!!!! Time is going by so fast! He is already crawling, pulling up on the furniture, attempting to "cruise" around while holding on to the furniture, has his first tooth, and can say Mama, Dada, and Baba!

I love each and every stage! Every milestone he accomplishes is so precious. One of the best things is to watch Jack accomplish something new...and to see the look of pride on his face! It is so cute that he just knows he did something great.

It also makes me and my husband so proud when we are the ones who teach him how to do something new. Like how to put his ball in the top of the castle so that it rolls down and comes out the bottom. It only took him one or two times of watching us do it to steal the ball out of our hands and try it for himself :-)

I am very much a pro-homeschooling person...I'm sure this has a lot to do with the fact that I was homeschooled through out most of my jr. high and high school years. Now, don't get me wrong, I think the public school system can be good, even great. I am actually almost done with my elementary education degree so that someday I can be a public school teacher. However, for my own children I am leaning toward homeschooling them. This is an issue my husband and I are still praying about.

With that in mind I want to start working with Jack to prepare him for preschool, kindergarten, and beyond. (Of course I would do this regardless if he would be homeschooled or attend public school) Now with Jack only being eight months old it is very hard to find any kind of book or curriculum that gives lessons that you can do with a baby or even a very young toddler. Most of the books out there would be way beyond his ability to perform or even comprehend.

Tonight I am extremely excited to say that I have finally found a book that I can use to start teaching Jack NOW :-)

The book is Slow And Steady GET ME READY by June R. Oberlander. This book is WONDERFUL! It has 260 weekly lessons that are for birth-5 years old!
I had heard of this book mentioned on another mommy's blog, and had seen it when I was working at Mardel. So after hubby and I sold a ton of our movies this past weekend I finally decided to go buy it.

And I am so so so glad I did!! I cannot wait to start doing each of the activities with Jack starting first thing tomorrow.
Whether you are planning to homeschool, or send your child to private or public school it is so important that we help our children discover a love for learning. To help them discover what their strong points are, and to help them in their weakness. Plus, we as parents get the bonus of that wonderful feeling of pride and joy we get from teaching our children how to do something. Like I said before...I love that feeling!

So tonight I will leave you with this last image of total cuteness!!!