Play and learn with JJ

Mixing colors in milk.

This was a simple little activity that JJ and I did. It was a great way for us to work at patience and following directions. Of course there is some fun visual color play in there as well.  JJ thought the results were pretty "wow".  2 year old wonder is certainly a great bonus. 

I laid out the things we would need.
Some powdered milk in a bowl.
A small pitcher (creamer) of water.
Red, yellow and blue food coloring or dye. 
And some mixing tools. In our case a spoon and a whisk.

As soon as everything was laid out JJ wanted to dump everything in the bowl. I made him wait and I had him follow my directions step by step.

"Pour the water in the bowl."

"Whisk the milk." 

"Give me the blue dye. Give me the yellow dye. Give me the red dye."

This is when I would add a few scattered drops of each dye and have him wait before mixing them.

"Slowly stir the colors together and see how pretty they look." 

Halloween costume.

I love fall. I love the changing of the seasons. The red, orange and yellow foliage. I love the crispness in the air. It just seems like it is so much more pure. I love the fall festivals and going to the pumpkin patch. I will gladly admit that Halloween and Thanksgiving are my favourite holidays. Rather odd for someone that never grew up with either. This is a post about Halloween though. I spend all year wracking my brain for ideas to make the perfect costume for my son. In fact the conception of my sons first Halloween costume occurred when I was still pregnant. I knew that he was going to be a koala. A little tribute to my Aussie side.I will include some pictures of the costume that I made back in 2010. But the rest of the pictures will be about the costume that I made this year. Warning... this will be a picture intensive post.

Firstly JJ's first Halloween as a koala. I designed and sewed this costume in 1 day. Turned out perfectly. He was warm and cuddly. I was a tree..... get it?

This year was a lot harder to make a decision. I went back and forth on many things. I figured this would be the last year that I would have all the say in JJ's costume. And it was only after we were playing amongst the trees in the yard that I realised he looked very much like a woodland fairy flittering around and playing peek a boo.  So this year JJ (yes, my son) is a woodland fairy. I designed and sewed the costume and I think that JJ pulled it off remarkably.

And of course the little woodland fairy needs to enjoy his spoils....

And.... because I was doing a little reminiscing I thought I might as well share JJ's first pumkin carving. There is such a narrative. He did not like the feel of all that icky stuff and had a complete meltdown. However after a nap and was more willing.

 

 

Week September 19th ~ 26th 2011

For a few months I have been collecting preK workbooks that I find on clearance and for good deals. Last month I bit the bullet and got some of the dry erase crayons that crayola released. I had read mixed reviews and I was hesitant to buy them. Not anymore! As far as crayons go they aren't cheap but they are a great investment.
I remove the pages from JJ's work books and slip them all into plastic sleeves and place them in a three ring binder. This works remarkably and instead of using pages once; I am able to wipe them off and let JJ try them several times.

Today was the first day that I let JJ loose with a crayon on his work book pages. For the last few weeks we have just been pointing to, discussing and learning about some of their concepts. I believe he did remarkably well. You can see for yourself below.