Art playdate

 We hosted an art playdate for our friends and it was a hit!  I pulled out a bunch of our art materials, along with some art trays purchased here, handed out smocks from IKEA (LOVE these!) and let them go to work!

I'm looking forward to more art playdates in the future!

Water play

I found a set of inexpensive ketchup and mustard bottles and thought we could use them as water squirters.  It took a bit of practice, but A was able to figure out how to squirt the water out of them.  I think we'll try painting with them next.

Ocean Sensory Bin

I put together the ocean sensory bin from Playing House and was really excited for A to enjoy it.

First we tried it without water.

Next, we added the water and tried using the fishing net.

Finally, A decided it was best used as a teeny tiny pool!

This turned out being more of a flop for us, mostly because A just wanted to swim in it and throw the rocks all over.  We'll try again next year and maybe she'll enjoy the "fishing" aspect of it then!

Tot school organization

I finally organized my tot school bins!   I have five bins total.  Two of them are put away because one contains seasonal items and the other contains activities for when A is older.  Here is how I organized the three that are always within reach:

I organized all of the little manipulatives into baggies and placed them into a bin I labeled, "materials"

I used another bin to hold my containers.

The final bin was used for my ready-made activities.

Here is my lovely shelf that hold all of our tot school bins as well as our art/craft materials.  It's in the garage and I love having these things organized and at my fingertips!

The bins I use can be found here.

Summer teas

Yesterday I canned sweat tea concentrate and Passion tea concentrate.  I've been wanting to do it for a while and decided on a whim to do it.  The Passion iced tea bags I got from Starbucksstore.com and brewed the concentrate according to the directions.  My sweet tea (which actually isn't very sweet...just sweet to my taste) was made this way:

-boil 4 1/2 cups water
-place 3 family size tea bags in water
-let sit for 10 min.
-add 1/3 cup sugar
-pour into jars

I then put them in a water bath for 15 minutes.  I'm so exicted to have this tea on hand!

*another thing I did was to make a simple syrup out of sugar and water so that others can sweeten the tea to their liking:
simple syrup:
-2 cups sugar in 1 cup water, boil until dissolved

Bubble Wrap!

Daddy gave A some bubble wrap to play with yesterday.  It was the kind with tiny bubbles and they were a challenge to pop!  A worked patiently and was so proud every time she got one.  This was a perfect exercise in patience and fine motor skills.  Thanks, Daddy!



Summer Tot School

(The first three activites were taken from the archives of The Shafer Family Blog)

Spooning beads from one bowl into another

Lacing beads onto pipe cleaner (develops fine motor skills and patience!)

Matching foam cubes to colored dots (cubes are from the dollar section at Target)

This activity was too easy for A, but I've found that if she's bored with an activity, all I have to do is turn it into a relay and she loves it!

Number Bingo (free printable from The Moffatt Girls)

Number Mail

I have numbers 0-10 and will change them up and possibly add more.  A will deliver the mail by placing the small numbers in the big number envelopes.

(small numbers printed from Little Piles Everywhere)

Linking up here:

1+1=1.blogspot.com
No Time for Flashcards