Discovering an Ocean

During the Canada Day long weekend our daughter, son in-law and grand daughter came home for a visit.

It was the first time we could take Our Little One to the beach. 

Not just a sandy beach but an ocean beach where we find crabs, fish, barnacles and more.

We found little crabs, hiding under rocks, as soon as we got closer to the water's edge.

Then we found the waves and the sandy shore.

These little waves were a challenge for her little legs.

Good thing she had help from mom and dad.

Time to explore the shore.

The sand is so much fun to grab with little fingers and transfer to the bucket.

And fun to splash it all off.

Dad found a little fish as he was combing the edge of the surf.

Opa found our Little One as she was running across the sand.

Back at the Little One's home I created an ocean discovery bin for her.

I started with real and toy shells, fish, snails, crabs and more.

I covered those with strips of blue and green, thin vinyl tablecloth.

I stuck in these little plastic trees, that look a bit like floating seaweed, and more shells, fish and shiny flat pebbles.

Time to explore.

Her favourite was the shiny flat pebbles.

The bin is fun but nothing compared to the real live ocean and tide pools.

Caterpillar-Butterfly Play Tray

For the month of June I transformed our bin from the Tall Tall Grass to a bin full of...

leaves and flowers,

eggs on leaves,

caterpillars,

and chrysalis for the caterpillar to go into

and a butterfly come out.

Playing with the Twins

 Our youngest daughter gave birth to twins in December and it has been wonderful to watch them grow.

 They borrowed some of the ideas that was used for our older grand daughter.

Like this PVC pipe stand to hang rattles, and such, to attract their attention, or accidentally hit and make noise.

We started reading books to them early too.

A mirror was set up for tummy time so they could look at themselves and each other.

And of course we sang lots of songs to them.

 And lately I introduced play trays.

Simple cookie sheets placed in front of them to hold items that may be easily grabbed.

At first they just looked at the items,

but as they developed more movement in their arms they brushed against the items and watched them move.

Items were added, like the tin foil plate, to add more sound when it was hit or moved.

As they continue to grow their coordination improves and they begin to grab some of the items.

Birds Expanded

In a past post I shared my grand daughter experiencing her 

first play tray.

 This week I changed it up a bit.

 I moved the wooden pieces out of the tub and onto the floor to see how she would interact with them.

 Having them on the floor made it a lot easier for her to reach 

 and spend a bit more time exploring each piece.

  

After giving her some time playing with the small birds I switched them for

bigger stuffed bird toys.

Most of these make bird sounds when you press on the back.

It took a lot of effort on her part to make the birds sing.

She preferred to hand them to one of the adults to make it happen.

A few of them are finger puppets

and she was particularly interested in the crow.

Here she is flying like a bird.