recyclable parking garage

F received a great parking garage for his 2nd birthday. However, it doesn't hold his (or H's) interest for very long. Before he got the multi-level parking garage complete with elevator we would make our own with boxes that were going to be recycled. As it turns out, both H&F still prefer the recycled box structures. They can be as simple or complex as you like, with tunnels, trapdoors, hidden places to park, etc.

What you need:

• A box or two (or more if you'd like!)
• Strong tape (duct or packing)
• A pair of scissors that will cut through the cardboard (better if you do it unless you have an older child)

Here are some we made a couple of months ago:

This was one of the more elaborate ones we've made.

tunnels are fun

trap door

As you can see, dinosaurs also get involved, as do marbles, and anything else for this little "world."

spring birds

A pair of robins decided to build their nest underneath our deck this year and we were able to watch them hard at work building the nest for several weeks, and then watch the baby birds grow from featherless sleepy things into hopping and flying robins. What a fun thing to be able to watch with the kids.

Here is a baby robin as seen from above through the deck boards:

They were quite hungry a few days later and for about two weeks, we got to watch both the parents bringing the baby birds food.

Then they started vacating the nest one at a time. Here is a look when there were just two left.

One about to hop out of the nest:

It was so cute watching them hop around and learn how to fly. The first flight of this bird was up on top of our play house:

 

The kids really enjoyed checking in on them daily. We then got a chance to look at the nest after all of the birds left.

gardening time

We've been busy preparing garden beds, and harvesting our june strawberry crop!

metamorphosis

We recently purchased Insect Lore's Butterfly Garden so that we could watch the transformation from caterpillar to butterfly. What a fun and easy kit! The caterpillars ship with food so you basically just have to watch them for the first week or so. They grow visibly each day, so it is something easy to observe. When they change to chrysalides, you just have to pin them to the butterfly habitat and wait. The most exciting part is seeing them emerge as butterflies! Three of ours emerged on one day, and another the following day. The one chrysalis that didn't stay attached to the side tried to make its way out but didn't make it, so we talked about the life cycle length and how, even as butterflies, they will only live a few weeks.

A classic book to go along with this is The Caterpillar and the Polliwog. We also have this great life cycle puzzle, which continues to hold interest for H even though he generally prefers to do 200+ piece puzzles. The layering really adds an element of challenge. F loves it as well.

I would highly recommend this kit! It would be great for a birthday gift or as part of a homeschooling curriculum, or just to do for fun. 

painted lady butterfly

day 1: caterpillars arrive

day 3

day 5

day 9

day 12: before transferring

day 12: transferred

day 18: note two have emerged, two remain in this picture

 day 20: released next to our strawberry garden

homemade wool balls

This is a task for either an adult or an older child due to the sharpness of the needle. You will be cursing if you poke yourself with a felting needle! These take a bit of time but the result is a nice homemade ball that is completely customizable. You can get needles and roving of your choice either locally or online. Basically all you have to do is stab your ball repeatedly; the more you stab the tighter it gets. There is a great tutorial on you tube that might help you decide what kind of needles you'd like to use. You can get as creative as you'd like and even make cute little animals. Here are a few balls I made:

N.B. If you have pets, you will want to make sure you keep these out of reach! We have dogs and although the kids' toys are generally quite safe, these are definitely not!

encouraging imaginary play

Imaginary play is not my forte. I don't know if H&F just didn't fall far from my imagination-less tree, or if they would just generally rather do other things, so I try to encourage imaginary play but am always looking for more ideas. One thing that kept them both happily occupied for an hour recently (which is basically unheard of in our house!) is the creation of a small town. We have this really cute play rug from IKEA, which you would think would get lots of imaginary play time. However, it rarely does. This is basically the same idea as a play rug, but with kid input, and it can be recycled later and a new one made another time.

I helped get them started but they really took off with it and it was so nice to see them playing together so well and creating all these different scenarios for their animals, cars, and trains. There are gardens, houses, parks, parking lots, lakes and pools, an airport complete with a helicopter launchpad, some train tracks, a dinosaur island, and a strawberry lake, which has strawberries instead of water. With how many pounds of strawberries H&F consume each week, I am not surprised they would come up with a lake made entirely out of strawberries!

I got them started and then became a quiet observer.

They really got into adding their own details.

Small animals that come in a tube have found more uses in our house than I ever would have thought!

They even wanted to add a landing strip!

Done!

What was great about this was that since I used heavyweight paper, it has held up really well!

cornmeal lettering

Blogger had a bit of a hiccup the other day and lost this post so I'll do my best at reposting what I'd written. We have been very busy this spring and spending much time outside, so although I have a lot of posts half-written, I haven't had longer chunks of time to sit down and finish them. 

This activity arose after glancing through a Montessori Services catalog and seeing this cute tray. I knew H&F would like to try it out so I put a cornmeal lettering activity together for them.

What you need:

• Tray (I used the tops of cookie tins)
• Cornmeal or sand
• Letter cards, a letter chart, or sandpaper letters (which you can make; ours were purchased through Kid Advance)
• A small scoop/measuring cup

Have them trace the letter first on the sandpaper or letter card, and then make it again in the cornmeal.

The materials.

Older kids can swish, but we used a small scooper to smooth out the cornmeal.

While trying it out, I found that less cornmeal is actually better.

H tries it out.

We used both lower- and uppercase letters.

F gave it a try, but just liked scribbling in it as well.