Our first Monday at home was a busy one! Last week was technically our first week, but since Monday was a holiday, it didn't really count. Daddy got to be home with us, so it was just like an extra Saturday! Today, however, we did our best to stick to our "schedule" and be somewhat productive in our play. FYI, Mommy still has to work out some kinks in this schedule thing...like changing my alarm clock. Baby steps...
We started our day with a trip to the Dollar Tree. I've been itching to get my hands on some materials to start learning playing with! We left the store with a pretty decent load, but I'm already planning my next trip. Naturally, as soon as we got home, Lorelai was DESPERATE to open EVERYTHING! I wish I could have videoed her while we were shopping. She was absolutely mesmerized by all of the goodies on the shelves! I'll have my camera ready for our next trip.
I managed to hold Lo off until lunch was eaten and Trek was napping. After that, I just couldn't say no anymore. So we broke open the pom poms and muffin tin. I got 160 pom poms for $2! Score! Lorelai loves to sort, so she immediately started using her "alligator fingers" to move her piles around to different muffin cups.
We purchased some tweezers today, too, for fine motor skill practice. I decided to go ahead and give them to her. Honestly, I didn't anticipate much success. It's a difficult task to undertake, and the girl is only 2! But, as per usual, she proved me wrong! I only had to show her once how to hold them correctly, and she was hard at work, resorting her mixed-up colors.
This task kept her busy until Daddy got home for lunch, and then she was quite distracted. I anticipate that, if left alone, she would sit and work with these for 30-45 minutes!
While Lorelai was busying herself and perfecting her fine motor skills (thanks to her sneaky mom), I was working on making sensory bags for the kids to squish and squeeze when they need some cool-down time. All I needed was baggies, hair gel, and random things to mix into the bags. Cheaper is NOT better where the baggies are concerned. Lesson learned! I'll spare you the pictures, because they didn't really turn out as well as I had hoped. But I have high hopes for my next attempt, thanks to my fab sister-in-law!
After nap and a quick Creation art project,
we headed outside to play with our Ivory Soap Experiment! Let me just say, my family and I LOVE Pinterest! They may not know that they love it, but their bellies know. And my kiddos know because they're learning playing constantly! I found this idea here. It was ridiculously simply. Microwave a bar of IVORY (it has to be Ivory brand. I don't know why...just go with it) soap on high for about 2 minutes. You can watch it and stop it sooner if need be. The consistency of this stuff is crazy cool. I think next time we play with it, we're going to make it snow in the bathtub! Outside, I let the kids mash and squish this blob to their hearts' content. The plan was to then have them add a little water and food coloring, reshape the soap, and use it in a few days in the tub. But Lorelai had other plans! Once we started adding water, she decided that all of the globs needed to be put into our pitcher. And it just went crazy from there. My natural inclination was to correct her, but I restrained myself and just let her play. It was totally worth it! The girl entertained herself for nearly an hour, stirring and pouring and mixing and mashing. I count this sensory play a HUGE success!
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