This week in review...

Musical Monday - Not too much in the way of music today... Just some time spent seeing what different bags of rocks sound like when shaken. Big rocks, little rocks, shaking, dropping... We played with sound. She played her recorder some, too. Mostly we just spent the morning at the park playing with Caedmon, though.

Tactile Tuesday - Puzzles. Lots of puzzles and shape matching today.

Wordy Wednesday - Played Starfall and did a really good job with it! She's learning to push the correct letters when asked and has now learned to hit the right arrow key to advance to the next page. It's great!

Theatrical Thursday - Dress up. Lots of dress up. Hats, sunglasses, and purses. A toddler girl's dream! Oh, and we spent a good chunk of the morning at the park playing with Zach and Kat. There was quite a bit of imaginative play going on with Ellie in the afternoon, too. She climbed up on the furniture and told me she was climbing on rocks, and she'd "look" for birds and then tell me when she "saw" one - all imaginary, of course!

Fun Friday - Finger paints outside and water colors inside. It was a painting day!

Week In Review...

Musical Monday - We spent some afternoon time clapping out rhythms and counting our claps. Clapping our hands, clapping on our laps, and clapping on our bellies. Ellie got a big kick out of it, though she didn't repeat the pattern more than once in a set. (e.g. Clap hands twice, clap belly twice, hands twice, belly twice - she would just repeat by clapping her hands twice and then her belly twice and stop.) Still, I thought that was pretty good for her and better than she has done in the past.

Tactile Tuesday - We spent the morning picking raspberries, which I think is good exercise in fine motor skills! =D Though she wasn't fond of getting poked with the thorns and stayed to the edge of the bushes, Ellie was pretty good at picking (and eating!) the ripe red berries. She took a nap after being out in the sun for so long and when she woke up we did a couple shape matching and color sorting activities. I participated in a toddler activity swap a couple years ago and this was the first time I've used any of the activities! But she did great with both and I know we'll use them again!

Wordy Wednesday - We started the morning out by reading books together, and we worked on finding letters a little later in the day. It wasn't too word-intensive of a day, but it works.

Theatrical Thursday - We spent the morning at the Children's Museum (including some dress up and role playing) and had playdate time (including a tea party!) with Zoe in the afternoon. I didn't do anything specific with her because she was pretty shot by the time we got home, but she had plenty of imaginitive play time.

Fun Friday - Ellie made a piece of artwork on Friday! Nothing too fancy, but I gave her a sheet of cardstock, a gluestick, and some tissue paper squares. I demonstrated once what to do (put the glue on the paper and then stick a tissue square to it) and after that she had a blast glueing colorful squares to the paper! She told me what colors she was using and repeated the steps over and over while she did it ("glue... now stick a square!"). I'll have to take a picture of her art, but that will come later. Right now it's hanging on the fridge. =D

This week in review...

Musical Monday - we played the piano (We would sit together on the piano bench and she told me what songs she wanted me to play (mostly the ABC's) and we'd sing together or she'd sing alone and she "played along" at the high end of the keyboard) and I got out the guitar for her to play with. We did a little bit of guitar playing where I held the chord and she strummed. That was sort of fun, I just have to figure out how to play some children's song on it. Most of the guitar songs I know are praise and worship songs from college.

Tactile Tuesday - I have to admit that I didn't do much with this this week. I had ideas, but she mostly wanted to play the piano and guitar again, so I let her. Maybe next week we'll pull out the playdough or something. Leif did try to teach her somersaults today, so I guess that counts.

Wordy Wednesday - Leif (who is home from work this week) played starfall with Ellie, and we did an alphabet puzzle on the floor. It is a new puzzle for her and it might be above her skill level, but it was good practice at matching up letters.

Theatrical Thursday - I didn't do anything specific with her today, but she spent a good deal of time at the Children's Museum playing with the other kids, including dress up. So I count that as good imaginative play.

Fun Friday - No art projects today, just a couple hours spent at the splash park with the Danielson and Morales kids! She was pretty worn out after that so she actually took a nap today!