My Perpetual Calendar

Two of my grand children will be moving to our city and I will be looking after them part time.  I have set up my front room as Nana's Preschool.

I have been doing on line story times with them for the past year.  They have been interested in time and counting down the days so I created a calendar that they can use to explore days of the week, months, numbers, seasons and the whole year.

Here was my process.

 I started by painting peg dolls for the days of the week.

I found the holder at a thrift store.  It's for votive candles.  Perfect with seven holes.

I started with a round that was cut out of a table.  The table was used for a sensory bin for the little ones.

I cut the tree from a pressed board using a scroll saw.  I also cut an extra top so I have enough for all the seasons.  I had originally planned on using pegdolls for the months but you'll see later on that I changed my mind.

The round was painted and I sketched on my tree roots.

The round is split into four sections for the seasons of the year and painted with slightly different shades of blue.  Spring being the lightest and winter the darkest.

I painted the tree trunk next.  It will sit in the centre of the board and be able to turn as the month go by.

The tree tops and matching roots were painted next.  I chose pink blossoms for spring, green leaves for summer and coloured leaves for autumn.  The branches are left bare for winter.

I found a big bag of these little door knobs at the thrift store and decided to use them for the months.

Here it is all finished.  Sorry I didn't take any pictures of painting the numbers on the blocks.

The months are held on to the wood with magnets.

My little weather gnomes are placed around the calendar. 

All ready for the little ones to arrive.  Just a few more weeks and they will be living with us for about a month and a half til they can move into their own house.

Peg Dolls

 For the past couple of years I've been having fun making toys for my grand children.  Here are some of the peg dolls that I've painted to go with our favourite books.

 

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

                                                                    Room on the Broom

The Three Little Pigs

Owl Babies

Caps for Sale

Five Little Monkeys

Grumpy Bird

  

  Pete the Cat

I Love my White Shoes

and His Four Groovy Buttons.

Plastic Cups

I brought some plastic drinking cups for the girls to explore.

First they pulled them all apart.

They looked like they were wondering what do you do with all these cups.

Then they started to pretend to drink from them.

Next they tried to put them on different body parts

and discovered that they fit well on their hands.

So we sang a little song and used them as musical instruments.

They discovered that the cups are fun to kick, they don't hurt their toes and they make noise.

They also discovered that this size can be hard to pick up.

Once they mastered that they begun to try to stack them.

It was easier to stack them when they are upside down.

And they were worked so well together building a tower.

And sometimes carrying more than one cup at a time.

I left the cups on the speaker for them to go back to.

Which they did and kept stacking and unstacking.

Another simple item you wouldn't think of a toy but offers much fun and exploration.

Goldilocks and the 3 Bears

The Little One was excited to see a new story set up for her to play with.

Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

 I painted peg dolls to look like the characters in the story.

An old door knob works for the table with 3 bowls painted on it.

Wooden spools are their chairs and I used foam for the beds.

Everything can be packed away into the little suitcase.

Goldilocks walking through the forest.

Two of the trees are hand painted and the other three were simply made by hot gluing a dowel between two pieces of felt and stuck in a spool.

After reading the story to her she went through it herself.

Then started to use the props to tell a story.

The bears getting the porridge ready and sitting on their chairs. 

Then they went to bed.

Love that she created her own way.

More Plastic Egg Play

Today I brought out the plastic eggs again

because the twins parents had these flat cardboard boxes that are perfect as ramps.

Love watching their excitement and

 figuring out what happens when she let's go of the egg.

 Doesn't matter how high up they let go of the egg it will still roll down.

Our crawler found another way to play with the eggs.

Oh how they love to dump!