Handmade Bubble Blower

Here is an idea for a bubble wand made out of straws. It worked pretty well. We used bendy straws and were able to send the bubbles off in all different directions.

Thanks to Chasing Cheerios for this great idea!

Here are the bendy straws after I bundled them together with masking tape.

My How You've Grown!

This is Mena's sunflower that she grew from seed! It is so big now. I wonder if I should leave it in the pot or plant it in the backyard? I so don't have a green thumb! She loves to water it every day and my oh my does it need a ton of water! There are always dead leaves at the bottom that need to be "taken care of"!

Awesome blog!

I just stumbled upon an awesome blog, Chasing Cheerios! It has a ton of great ideas for homeschooling/activities to do with your children. I love her newest post about plastic page protectors for preschool activity books. That way they can be used over and over again. While your there, check out her rain gutter bookshelves. I am planning on having Dom's dad over to help me make these. There great!

My (husbands) Best Friend's Wedding.

Dom's best friend Rob got married last weekend. It was such a beautiful wedding and the reception was wonderful too. It was held at his parents new house that they built. GORGEOUS!

New recipes...

I absolutely hate cooking!!!!!!!! Now that I got that out of the way, I was wondering if anyone had any recipes to share. I am especially looking for some seafood recipes for Salmon and Talapia, but anything would be helpful. I have never cooked fish before and I know there healthy. Any favorites???

Mena-ism: Bridal Shower

We were getting ready to attend Cia Cia Grace's Bridal shower yesterday and Mena says to me, "I hope they'll be potty's there!" and "I hope they'll be snacks there!" You can tell what is on this child's mind. She is doing fantastic with potty training lately. She has stayed dry for 5 days in a row and two days of dry naps AND dry during the night. I never thought this day would come!!! Hooray!

Montessori activities

Here are some of the activities on our shelf right now...

Materials: Clothespins and paper plate

I showed Mena how to open and close the clothespin and attach it to the rim of the plate.
Materials: Two bowls, one filled with dry noodles or equivalent item on the left hand side of tray. One spoon for scooping and transferring.
Allow the child to scoop noodles into the bowl on the right. Always work from left to right as that helps to prepare them for reading and writing later on. Encourage the child to try the activity with both hands. I asked Mena to use her left hand and she said, "It's not comfy" and wouldn't do it with that hand. Maybe she's right handed!

Materials: Two baskets of bowls and small balls or other object.

I used ten small rubber balls for this activity.

Have the child transfer the balls from the basket on the left to the basket on the right one at a time. Variation: Count as you go.

Materials: Ice cube tray, child size tweezers ( I found these at Ikea for very cheap) and a bowl of pom pom balls. I used ten.
Have your child tweeze one pom pom and put it in the top left compartment moving left to right. Then do the second row.

Materials: One bowl filled with water and ice cubes and an empty bowl, Spoon, sponge to wipe up any drips.

Have your child scoop up and ice cube and transfer it to the bowl on the right.

I realize that these activities can seem very tedious or juvenile, but it is in the repetition and the concentration that the learning happens. All of these activities have a higher purpose than what it seems at first glance. Try them and see what your child might learn. We are having a lot of fun and are changing the activities quickly on our shelves as Mena masters each one.

Our Classroom

Here are a few pictures of our basement converted into our Montessori classroom. It is still a work in progress as I am expecting more shelves and actual Montessori materials in the next couple of weeks.

This is the Prayer Corner. We have a kneeler, prayer table with statues and prayer book, Mena's Bible, and Rosaries. We also have the vase with flowers for flower arranging.

This is the library area. We have her bean bag chair for relaxing in while she looks at her books. We also have her puppet theater and puppets in this area also.

This is her art area. We have table and chairs, easel, splat mat on the floor, and a shelf full of art materials and play doh. Some of her materials are upstairs at the moment, since she is very interested in coloring right now.

Block area and shelf full of hand made Montessori activities that Mena is interested in at the moment. I will post individual pictures of these in another post.

Wordless Wednesday!

Mena all ready to go to Daddy's best friends wedding. She was such a beautiful princess!

(This is the first time I ever curled her hair! I loved it!)

Itch! Itch! Itch!

Oh my! I had like 20 hives on my feet this morning! They itched so bad. At first I thought they were mosquito bites but they itched constantly and didn't get any bigger as I touched them. They just kept popping up all over my feet and a few on my hand and legs. Ridiculous! I took two Benedryl and am so tired now. I need to go to sleep! Nap time should be soon. Here's hoping!
How do you like my new bog layout? Just curious.