Farm Play

The girls are interested in farm animals.  

The twins are beginning to sign cow and say 'moo'.

 I made a felt mat for the floor to encourage that language.

It was simple to make with just felt and a glue gun.

I did use blue drawer liner for the pond.

 A problem that we encountered was that it's slippery.

When the twins crawled on top of it, it would scrunch up.

We laid a blanket underneath and it helped a bit.

 Here are the cousins looking at a cow and the big cousin is signing it.

 The barns are made from cardboard boxes that I painted then covered with modge podge so the paint wouldn't come off on their hands.

The animals I found at the dollar store.

They are from wooden inlay puzzles.

 The twins soon flipped the boxes over and put the animals inside.

Then dumped them out and did it again.

The older one thought it made a great blanket.

What's the Tub Tuesday?

More instant mashed potatoes and water.

 We started with feeling the dry potato flakes.

 Then added warm blue water.

Of course the one year old wants to taste eat while the two year old is enjoying the warmth.

 The little one in the brown shirt was initially interested but after that didn't touch it at all.

 This one continued trying to eat it, even off of my hand.

We have been singing Pat-a-cake a lot lately so it fit in well with this dough.

 She had a great fine motor work out this morning.

I was surprised that more mashed potatoes didn't end up on the floor.

Probably because the twins weren't interested.

Ramp Play

 One day last week when the sensory tub was full of their loose toys, I decided to build a ramp.

 A simple ramp using a box of diapers and a booster seat.

 We started with using cars since they have wheels they go down easily.

Opa suggested there be something for the cars to land on so we tried a pillow first then changed it for the basket.

 For the older little one this was also an opportunity to share and be the role model.

One of the twins was very curious and tried to participate.

 This was a great moment of the older one offering her younger cousin a car.

 After having lots of success with the cars I encouraged her to try other items from the loose toys.

 Here is a great example of perservance.

"If at first you don't succeed, try try again."

This would be an easy and fun rainy day activity for you to try with your little ones.

Exploring the Playground

Every morning we take the girls for a long walk.  Most days we pass by this big, beautiful playground.

The older one always wants to stop and play.

Opa and I weren't quite ready to try it with the twins till this past week.

For a couple of reasons we held back.  

One they are not walking yet so how would they like being on the ground but mainly because with three they would go in all directions.

The first visit we let them explore a little then had a break by putting them together in this swing.

 On the second visit they were more adventurous.

When we needed a little break we gathered them together on this merry go round.

It will be exciting to watch as they grow and become more confident each time we visit.

What's in the Tub Tuesday?

This week I didn't have a chance to go home and restock materials,

so I used what they have on hand and that is their loose toys.

They played with them the same way they do from the toy box.  And that is taking each out and throwing them on the floor.

A few they would hold and play with it.

Overall they didn't play with it too much.

Oh well!

Book Play - Brown Rabbit's Shape Book

 It is so much fun exploring books with this little one.

She loves books and I love bringing them to life, a perfect match.

 There have been lots of birthdays lately so I thought this would be a fun book as it has a present to open.

The present is a square box with a container in it.  The container has a circle lid and it is full of balloons.

 A big red round balloon, like a circle.

I had fun letting the balloons fly around, she didn't like it so much.

There is a purple pear shaped balloon, an orange oval balloon, a long rectangle shaped balloon and a multicoloured balloon that we thought looked like a caterpillar.

But she did like trying to blow up the balloons.

 After playing with them for a while, and letting the air escape, we finally left them expanded and tied them closed.

What is your favourite book to share with little ones?

What's in the Tub Tuesday?

Dry instant mashed potatoes was in the tub this week.

The oldest grand daughter got to play with it first.

She watched as I poured it into the tub.

It looked like snow falling.

The the twins woke up and joined in the exploration.

Of course one or two of them had to taste it.

There was lots of pinching, grabbing and releasing.

Making it snow all over!

But having it fall on the floor gave them another experience, how does it feel on their feet?

Also gave them more exercise of getting up and down.

If they started to crawl and away I was busy sweeping up after them.

Overall it was a fun experience to do and watch.