L's Magic Word Box

L (38 months) is getting better at sounding out CVC words, but she goes through periods where she resists reading so I have to be creative with reading activities and cater them to her interests.  In the girls' many creative dramatic play sessions, L often likes to pretend that she is "Magic L-" as she waves her wand and casts magic spells.  This gave me an idea for a very simple reading/writing game we've been doing -  L's Magic Word Box....

Wordless Wednesday

Nothing cuter than dancing baby feet!

Homemade Counting Game from Catalog Pictures

I'm starting to get piles and piles of catalogs in the mail ('tis the season!).  Instead of throwing these directly in the trash, I decided to cut out some of the photographs to create a seasonal counting game.  It was really easy to put this homemade math game together, and the girls (3 years old) loved it...

Going on a Bear Hunt: Making Maps

I've been doing the "Going on a Bear Hunt" chant with the girls (3 years old) since they were tiny babies, and it's still a favorite.  Even Baby H enjoys doing it with us.  If you don't know what I'm taking about, watch the dramatic reading of Going on a Bear Hunt by it's author, Michael Rosen, on YouTube.  I'm trying to reinforce what we've been learning about maps with the kids before we go on a road trip later this week, so I created a map for us to follow on our bear hunt.  Then L and E drew their own maps of our journey...

Little House on the Prairie Cooking: Making Butter and Cheese

L and E (3 years old) love the My First Little House picture books (based on the Little House on the Prairie chapter-book series by Laura Ingalls Wilder) .  For our Cooking Day last week, we made two items inspired by these books:  butter and cheese.  This was the first time making butter and cheese from scratch for me too, and I think I had as much fun as the kids did.  I'm very proud to say that the results were quite successful.  Here's how we did it: