Easter Fun

Since this is our first grand child it is a year full of firsts, 

especially around the holidays.

It's the time that as a family you introduce your traditions, customs and beliefs to the newest members of the family.

My daughter talked about having an egg hunt and if I thought the little one would be old enough to be interested.

One way to find out was to do a bit of play around eggs before the hunt happens.

We set up a sensory table with shredded blue paper and plastic eggs.

It included eggs that looked like chicks, rubber ducks and a couple of chicks that were dressed as rabbits (but when you held them they made a 'cheep' sound).

Her dad grabbed an egg carton which was great for some incidental one-to-one corresponding.

She liked filling the carton, taking the eggs in and out.

Then she learned that she could crack the eggs open.

Some of them had little fluffy chicks inside.

She opened and closed so many eggs that she perfected her ASL sign for egg.

She loved this book and finding all the eggs hidden under the flaps.

As Easter drew closer we brought out some bunny ears and had fun hopping around.

 

Easter morning and they hid about a dozen plastic eggs in their backyard.

She loved finding them so much that they kept re-hiding them.

When Opa and I arrived a couple of days after Easter she was excited to have a pretend egg hunt in the house.

Her signing vocabulary is growing really fast.  In this video she amazed us by signing 'where' for the first time.

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Practicing Styling Hair

Putting Out the Fire

This morning at school this little guy came up to me and asked for something 

that looked like water.  As he stood there he twiddled with his fire helmet.

At first I didn't understand what he was after until I looked over to 

where his mom sat by our fake fireplace.

She held up the black hose and pointed to the end of it.

Ah, he needed water for his fire hose.

We found a piece of tissue paper and he stuck it in the hose and

proceeded to put out the fire.

Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of him putting it out

but when he was done he left the hose there.

A little later another child came along and 

pretended the same thing.

Our fireplace has provided quite a variety of imaginative play.

A Roaring Fire and Toasting Marshmallows

My latest find at the thrift store is this fake fire.

 I set it on stones with several tubes for logs

and turned it on.

A mantel was made by covering a few boxes with paper

and voila we have a cozy, inviting spot.

The little ones were intrigued.

It's like watching the fire on tv.

Some of the older children asked if it was real.

We held our hands in front of it - does it feel hot or cold?

What does a real fire feel like?

Several times in a morning I'll see a parent and child 

sitting together on our 'couch'

in front of the fire.

I think I'll add a basket of story books.

I imagine it may feel like being home for some families that have an open fire.

By the end of the first morning a few children made marshmallows

and were roasting them.

Pretending they were hot and blowing on them to cool

them off.

This morning I put out strips of paper and a stapler and

encouraged families to make paper chains to decorate.

It reminded me of a childhood memory of making lots and lots

of paper chains to decorate the house.

The children worked hard to make the loops and staple them

together.

When one chain was long enough we hung it on the mantel.

What other decorations could we add?

Fascinating Frogs

Another creature that we raise at this time of year

is the frog.

This year we've had great success with watching tadpoles

grow into frogs.

Back at the beginning of May we visited a new pond

where we found these tadpoles.

The children have been watching them closely waiting for back legs to appear.

It didn't seem to take as long this year. 

Not sure what was different but we now have several fully formed frogs.

And some that still have a bit of their tail left.

While we watched I set up a frog pond on the floor for the children to play in.

There is water in there as well as rocks, lily pads and frogs.

Even a tadpole and froglet could be found.

This child spent time lining all the frogs along the edge of the pond.

This one rescued all the frogs from the water.

Tomorrow the children will that I changed the pond.

Can you guess what song we might be singing?

Dino Antics Day 12

             
     The silly dinosaurs were found in the house area enjoying some food.
         
            Confusingly triceratops was eating a meat sandwich,
                     
                     and T-Rex was munching on strawberries!
                   
                            Just bread for Long Neck.