Singing and Signing, What Fun!

Here's a video of my grand daughter and I signing the song

On Top of Spaghetti.

She is 19 months old and communicates through voice and signs.

You may notice that some of her signs do not match mine and that is because her fine motor skills are still developing.

One example is the sign for 'spaghetti'.  It is made using both baby fingers but she uses her thumbs.

As your baby begins to use sign you will recognize how they sign each word.

Memory Matching Game

A new card game.

I took pictures of items around the house.  

Items that the Little One are familiar with.

I took pictures of eight things and made double copies.

The game is just like Memory or Concentration.  You turn over one card then pick a second if they are the same you keep them.  If they don't match you turn them back over.

 Signs that we worked on were same, different, your turn and my turn.

 The first time we played we used four matching pictures, so eight cards.

Then second time we played we used all eight pictures for a total of 16 cards.

 Opa joined in the game.

She was pretty excited to find two the same.

Cloud Dough

I was excited when I was given a batch of cloud dough.

It's made from coconut oil and flour.

This batch also had raspberry extract added.

The little one got right into it.

Trying to transfer it from one container to another.

Then she discovered how it felt and that she could clump it together.

Which made it easier, somewhat, to transfer.

It depended on how hard she squeezed it while transferring.

Oh and then the pouring and dumping started.

Did you noticed that I tied up her dress?

The cloud dough tends to stick to everything.

If it gets on the floor we have a solution,

get out the little broom and dust pan and let her try cleaning it up.

I decided that using cloud dough, in the kitchen, while mom was getting dinner ready wasn't the best time.

SaveSave

Good Night Gorilla in the Grass

We love this book, "Goodnight Gorilla" by Peggy Rathmann and have been reading it almost everyday for the past month or so.

I dug out the literacy bag I had put together years ago for StrongStart and strung a clothesline between two chairs in the back yard.

Each animal was behind their 'cages'.  The cages were hung, on the line, with clothespins (which she loved helped taking off when we were all done).

I gave her a set of coloured paper keys that matched the cages.

She knew all about the keys from the book as well I had found some extras at a thrift store for her to play with.

As she opened each cage she played with that animal.  Inspecting them. Getting to know them.

She wasn't in a rush to get each of them out.

The animals were lined up, like in the story, as she removed them from the cage.

Once the story was done she continued to play with the animals.

And her poor baby doll got locked up too.

Twist Off, Twist On

A simple, new, homemade toy that helps build her eye to hand coordination and fine motor abilities.

I cut out the top of puree food bags and stuck them through a cardboard box.

It sticks through enough to put the screw top back on.

Unfortunately it doesn't go through enough to screw it all the way on.

Some of the lids just sit on the posts.

We practice our colours too.

She loves puzzles like this.

Scrambling Eggs

I started making scrambled eggs with the little one several weeks ago.

She loves sitting on my lap and doing it together.

This is a wonderful way to teach her how to cook.

As I said we have been making scrambled eggs for a few weeks and pulling the shell apart has been the hardest thing for her.

So one time when we were playing with play dough I shaped some dough like eggs and gave them to her to crack.  We went through a lot of 'eggs' that day.

This morning, after two eggs I moved her over to her chair and started on a fresh bowl, in case there were any shells in that first batch.

We were making extra eggs this morning for her Opa.  Here she is signing for Opa to come and watch.

After the first video I showed her how to hold the fork a bit differently to make it easier to 'whisk'.  Next time we make these I'll have to remember to bring her small whisk, from her play kitchen, to use.

 In this video she is signing egg (she signs it with one finger on each hand, instead of two. Remember she is a baby and still developing that fine motor) and cook.

Yum!

A great, quick meal and maybe the beginning of loving to cook.