Letter C

Letter C

Week 3

21 months, 22months, 3, and 4

On Monday I had an errand to run in the downtown square at the post office. I decided not to let an opportunity and day fly by without talking about the letter c. So, we went on a scavenger hunt through the city for letter C's. This was right up L's alley. He could point them out everywhere and would pose for me at each and every one. So proud of himself for finding them! The other kids may have just wanted to kill me for having them walk. ;)

These are all the ones L found through the city which I thought was a pretty good job. We also passed by construction work being done on a road and we talked about how C is for construction and caution when coming to yellow blinking lights.

C is also for creek, which the children naturally took to and played in for the afternoon. They loved reaching in and finding colorful leaves, rocks, and sticks. They would see who could make the biggest splash with a rock.

We did a tiny bit of our normal routine for the week and I did get a letter C sensory bucket together. Inside I placed a cape, cow watch, letter C puzzle piece, crane for construction work, crown, crayon, cup and letter c magnets. I went over the items in the bucket going over what the sound C makes. They were allowed to play with these items any time they wanted.

C is for castle. The children played in a bouncy castle most of the week. I have to say this was Andy's favorite for the week. He'd say, "jump! jump! jump!" clinging to the door to go outside and play in the castle. Thanks to the wonderful sun coming out for us this week we actually made it down to one of our favorite playgrounds, Castle Park. We talked about how different C verbs- climb and cross. They played in the wooden car and we even got to review our letter A with the airplane and alligator the children love to play on. At home I did centers with them one day. I pulled out cars and a castle and had them play for 30 minutes with these items. They have never really taken to toys very well but for some reason on this day they went the whole thirty minutes playing.

 I set this center out for clothes. Clothing the magnet doll. Sometimes this center is a hit and sometimes it's a dud. I never know what I'll get.

I cut left over fabric from other projects into shapes like clothes-- shirts, pants, dresses, and even a baby onesie. I hung it up on their coat racks like a clothes line. The activity would just be hanging the clothes up and maybe folding them. Anything. I thought J would at least really love this activity but I could only get her to do it once and she even cried "nooo" when I asked if she'd tried that activity. L did it once without being asked but he didn't seem to really care for it either. Maybe your kid would enjoy it? L's sister loved pointing out the clothes and I'm sure if she had stayed with me that day she would have played with it. She's eight. Oh well, it was another dud to the little ones.

However, these snap-n-learn counting ladybugs that I got from Goodwill for only a $1.50 was the biggest hit of the week! It went over colors and counting which is what I focused on the most this week with the kids. I sat with W and went over colors. He knew to match the colors together to make his ladybugs. I had J and L put the ladybugs in order from smallest number to largest number which was a challenge. First, they had no clue was the number "0" was and where to put it. When I explained it was none and that it would go before one it really upset them. In fact L insisted it did not belong anywhere and would hide it under his legs. 

We painted letter C's that I cut out of construction paper with cars. The kids dipped the cars in their choice of color and went to town driving their cars all of their papers. I learned this activity at Puddle Jumpers where I would take J and her sister last year. It's a free program offered in coweta county for kids 2 and 3. It's a mommy-and-me kind of class that you attend together once a week for maybe three months and the kids focus on their shapes and colors. It was fun and I recommend anyone who has an upcoming 2 year old to try and sign up!

I got this micro cactus on clearance at Michaels awhile back but thought it'd be a perfect little project and maybe something we could keep up with. It might teach them a tiny bit of responsibility to water the plant once a week with a spray bottle. It may end up dead or it may not even sprout with my luck and plants but they enjoyed planting it anyways.

 The children baked chocolate chip cookies this week. I didn't get a picture of the final product as we ate them too quickly. ;) They enjoyed baking and being in the kitchen. They will never pass up the opportunity to bake or cook.

The last thing we did this week is really an act of kindness. I wanted the kids to cook but for a family that needed it. I was able to find a family with a newborn who needed a dinner so I planned on making something easy the children could really do most of the work. We chose a penne pasta bake. The children crushed up the garlic and even diced up the onions using a chopper. Too bad the onions made our eyes burn and the children ended up crying that they would never come near an onion again. Me neither! I'm not a cook, I leave that to Derek. Anyways, the kids love stirring and mixing. They even loved adding the cheese on top. Hopefully it tastes great and the family will enjoy not cooking tonight and being with their newborn. :)

C is for Camping

On Monday while making breakfast I had a great idea that I would take the kids on a camping trip for 'C' week. Luckily I'm married to a guy who loves camping and has a few supplies that he didn't mind if we used. He also let me use one of his tents that he insisted was "one of the easiest tents to pitch" as he knows I've never pitched a tent or been camping. I mean the one time I was supposed to go camping as a child the trip was cancelled. If I remember correctly the camp site got flooded out the week before we left. I've only slept in a tent during one of my best friends birthday parties as a child. But that's it. I probably haven't been in one since I was twelve. So... here I was yesterday with the "easiest tent in the world," which I never fully got the darn thing right. Oh well!

First, I pulled the tent out of the bag and staked the tent to the ground which I guess I don't have the strength to pull tight enough across each way as my poles were always needing more room. Also, I had no idea if the poles went in the inside or the outside of the tent. I had to make a phone call to Derek. As he walked me through my questions the children were also on their cell phones calling their moms or Derek for help. Haha.

We made some progress but I learned that I had to make sure the rods were touching and none of the string was showing. Because well this was my first final product.

Somehow I made it look more like a teepee than a tent. Good thing there is FaceTime as I was able to show Derek what in the world was going on instead of just trying to describe the parts, plus how do you describe THAT? Besides HOT MESS.

J didn't seem to mind the teepee. She HAD been waiting and this was perfect for the few minutes it lasted.

In the end, after maybe 30 minutes of sweating and trying my hardest to figure this easy tent out here it was! Derek says the tent looks sad but it finally looked like a tent! I learned I will probably never go camping. Tents are a pain and too much work. Maybe if i get to lay out and drink lemonade by a waterfall while Derek pitches the tent and watches the kid I'd be more willing. Anyways, the kids LOVED the binoculars that Derek let them use. They would try and spot birds and squirrels that ran by and spy on each other.

 

Exploring all the items. J took to the egg holder while L took to binoculars and the carafe. The babies just decided to watch.The had gathered leaves and sticks into a pile in front of the tent and pretended it was their camp fire. They had canteens, a coffee carafe, an egg holder, compasses, binoculars, and a camping frying pan to help with their imaginative play. I also gave them cowboy/girl accessories like a hat and a bandanna. They loved the cowboy/girl dress up and most of the time pretended they were out in the west. They called each other "partner" and greeted everyone in the tent with "howdy!"

J and L gathered sticks for the campfire. Since counting is a 'c' word I tried to make sure we counted the sticks they were collecting.

In the 'morning' L made everyone coffee. (It was really mud and grass)

Somehow my cowboys/girl turned into magicians and were pulling items out of their hats. Haha. It was great to see their creative juices and silliness through out the afternoon. It was good to forget about staying inside and doing trays and actually getting out and enjoying the sunshine while also reinforcing letter 'c' with camping. Since the eldest is only four right now this is exactly what kind of learning they should be doing. They grow and learn so much just by imaginary play.

What kind is a camping trip if you don't tell scary stories? L told us a scary story about a girl who heard a noise and hid under Derek's bed. She then heard the front door open and BOO! It was L dressed up a ghost. I was apparently the girl. (when i was little, last year. Or so L says.) J told a story about marshmallows.

S'mores were made and enjoyed of course! How people eat these in the woods is beyond me as they are a MESS! Baby wipes really helped but I felt like they all needed a bath. All of them returned home painted in Hershey's chocolate so of course it was a great day! 

If you can't tell we had a pretty good day camping. Soaking up the sunshine, learning to pitch a tent, using their imaginations, running around, climbing up a play house, building their campfire, cooking their pretend dinners, eating s'mores and telling scary stories. I feel like they at least got the experience of camping and had a fun day together. I hope to be able to think of many more ideas for different letters which has them use their imaginative play in different settings. We'll see what I can think up during breakfast. :)