Train Stacker

About a month or two ago my mother-in-law offered to buy Olivia a few more age appropriate toys.  This was in response to a conversation about how quickly she is picking things up and how I am frantically trying to keep up with her love of knowledge and impressive memory.

I spent a night researching online some educational toy ideas.  Then I took my list and went to Amazon looking for what would best suit our needs.  I joked with Michael that I wish there was a "library for educational toys".  It seems like we just need things for two week around here (or less) and it is mastered.

One of the things I was wanting is a geometric type sorter.  I was either coming across things that were too easy and she already knew how to do, or I was finding things that I thought would be a little too hard for her current age.  That's when I decided to go with the Melissa and Doug Train Stacker.  Trains aren't just for boys!! :)  Olivia loved it right away.

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I'm sure you have all already caught on by now, but I love toys that can be both fun and educational.

The suggested age for this toy is 2 years to 6 years.  I'm not sure if she'll play with it for that long, but I plan on getting years of use out of it.

Her favorite thing to do is to just take the pieces off.  She's pretty good about putting them back on correctly.  Some pieces, like the front of the train, have to be put on just right in order to work--so that gives her a little bit of a challenge and makes her think.

I think this part is kind of funny--the pieces on the back of the train came with the colors mismatched, so that is how I always put it together.  When Olivia plays with it she always takes the tops off and then replaces them with the coordinating color.  I guess she wants things to match. :)

All matched up

Taking the pieces off...

And then putting them back on...

It's a great toy for practicing motor skills, problem solving, and using your imagination!

Choo choo!!

A Toddler and Toothpicks

I'm not sure where I first heard of this activity.  I probably saw it on a blog years ago.  I'm sure it's probably all over Pinterest--along with sticking pipe cleaners in an upside down colander.  But anyway.  I decided to add it to our rotation.

I gave Olivia a bowl of colorful toothpicks (that I actually had from my teaching days), and a little cheese shaker.  I demonstrated once and she went to work.

She jabbed around on the lid a little bit with the first one, but then had it figured out.

Obviously this is to help with fine motor skills.  So far I don't think she has a problem with this, but it's always good to practice.

She would actually grab a few, hold them in her hand, and then one by one put them in the container.  She used both her right and left hand to put them in.  She wasn't better at it with one hand verses the other.

She would fill it up until it started to get a little cluttered.  Then she'd hand it to me and ask me to open it.  We'd dump them out and she'd start again.  We ended up doing this 3 times.  She spent between 10 and 15 minutes on it.

She's so serious when she's working on things.  So focused.

And then when it's all done... she cheers for herself and is all smiles! :)

 Note: I tried buying salt and pepper shakers from the dollar store.  The toothpicks wouldn't fit in the holes.  I couldn't find toothpick holders with holes in them, so this was my improvising.  I got the shaker at Target for under $3.

Pinterest Finds

White Chicken Enchiladas

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I think this was one of my first food pins.  Probably because the picture of the melted cheese looked yummy to me.  I've been cutting down on my dairy, but I'm a sucker for ooey gooey melted cheese.  I finally got around to making these.  I was slightly distracted in the food making process and put double the amount of chicken broth in the pot that I was suppose to.  Then I had to dump some out and try to rescue the meal.  I'm not sure if I got the exact ratio or not, but it still tasted good.  We enjoyed it.  It wasn't knock your socks off good, but it was easy enough and had a good flavor.

Pumpkin Smoothie

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I love pretty much all things pumpkin... so when I saw a pin about a pumpkin smoothie it was a no brainer.  Ok. So when I pinned it, there was a recipe in the little tag line.  But if you go to the actual blog the recipe is different.  I made this the other day.  First I made the blog's recipe--minus the protein powder.  Um, GROSS!!!!  I knew there was a problem when it was asking for so much cinnamon and pumpkin spice.  I dumped the whole thing.  I tried again and followed the recipe on the actual pin.  This actually looked like the smoothie in the picture.  I'm not a huge fan of greek yogurt.  It's a little too tangy for me. That's all I could taste.  I realize it's meant to be a healthy smoothie, but I didn't love it.  Olivia did. :)

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Pancakes

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I got this recipe from my cousin Sonja.  She had it pinned on Pinterest.  Our girls are only a few months apart and she already has two boys.  So when I was looking for some food ideas for when Olivia was younger, she passed this one along to me.  I make a batch and then freeze them in individual servings for Olivia to have for breakfast.  

Sandpaper Flashcards

Sandpaper flashcards have been around for a long time.  I know that my mom use to use them in her special ed classes years and years ago.  These days they seem to be known as a "Montessori" activity.  I have no idea what their origins are, but I decided to make some for Olivia.

You can buy them--for about $30.  Or, you can just be resourceful and make them yourself.  I found sandpaper at the dollar and we were in business!

Until I realized that I recently got rid of all of my letter patterns.  Don't you hate it when you hold on to things forever and ever for that "just in case" and then when that time comes you don't have it?!  I remember thinking "no one uses these anymore... between Ellison machines and personal paper cutters". UGH!

I was trying to do this on the cheap, so instead of paying $5 for a set of letters to trace, I had Laurie bring me some of hers.

It probably would have been better to use more square type letters, but it doesn't matter too much.  Like most things with Olivia, I'm a little late to the game.  She already knows all of the letter names and most of the sounds.  Either way, this will be great for reinforcement.  I also made numbers since she's not great with those yet.

I showed her how to trace the letters.
(Sort of hard to do while taking pictures)

We made it through about 10 cards and then she just wanted to talk about the names and sounds.

So that's what we did..... I finally got it on video after trying for 3 weeks!

Making the best of it...

Olivia LOVES to be outside.  She always has.  Even as an infant, she could be screaming her head off, and we'd walk outside and she'd stop in an instant.  My boss always use to walk me to the door because she thought it was so funny.

Now as a toddler she loves to play outside.  She loves to have the freedom to run.  She loves to just be outside.  I am trying to take advantage of the warmer days, but even we Texans have had a cooler spring than normal.  (I'm hoping this also means a cooler summer, but I'm not sure.)  It's not always convenient to go to the park, so we are biting the bullet and have been play on our (very loud) patio.

She got the water table last year for her birthday, so we already had that out there.

Then I was able to score a ($50!) sand table for $15.

Cutie!

We have the bubbles out there

And the bucket full of sidewalk chalk (from my teaching days!)

We have our two Ohio State lawn chairs out there for us.

We have this cheap, plastic Adirondack chair for Olivia...

...and this cute fold up chair from her grandma.

(We keep this inside when not in use, so it doesn't get ruined.  This will be perfect for parades and parks and anywhere we need to bring lawn chairs to!)

Michael and I would prefer a quiet, peaceful backyard for her--filled with slides and swing sets and all the outdoor things kids love.  But we're trying to ignore the insane amount of motorcycles that drive by and suck it up for our child.  Olivia doesn't mind the loud noises, small space or lack of grass one bit.  We're trying to take a lesson from her here. :)

Bluebonnet

In keeping with Texas tradition, we headed out to take bluebonnet pictures this weekend.

This is a busy time for local photographers.  Everyone was offering bluebonnet mini sessions!  I saw prices ranging anywhere from $75 to $375 and everything in between.  That's not in the budget, so we took our little point and shoot and tried to do the best we could.

One of the best fields in the area is outside of the JCP headquarters.  We pulled up last night and there were HUNDREDS of cars.  Professional photographers had their perfect spots picked and had props, lighting supplies and one even brought a pony!

Let me tell you--it's tricky trying to not get people, buildings and/or cars in the background.  We tried to work around it as best as we could.

Unfortunately, the people/cars/buildings were the least of our worries.  Olivia was being a RASCAL.  She didn't want to sit in the chair and she pretty much refused to smile.

She did think the flowers were pretty.

I had a pretty good feeling ahead of time that this is exactly how it was going to go down.

Another reason I'm glad we didn't pay for them.

I've decided that next year (when she understands), I am bribing her with ice cream--or whatever treat it is that she likes at the time. I will have one photo shoot go the way I want! ;)

She was actually trying to get up, but the position of her body reminds me of a senior picture for some reason. :)

I am not kidding--I took 90 pictures and this is the ONLY one where she was smiling.

It was towards the end.  Michael and I had tried everything--animal noises, yelling "hi elmo", singing songs.  Finally we sang the Veggie Tales theme song and we got a smile.  It was brief, but it's the one that counts.

Bear Counters

Wednesday was a LONG day for us.  It was cold and rainy out and I had decided that we were just going to stay in.  Usually this is not a problem.  Olivia enjoys staying home and can entertain herself really well.  Generally speaking, she is a very easy toddler.  I know that I am blessed in this area, so I'm not complaining. :)  Wednesday was a different story.  I don't know what it was, but she just wanted my attention non stop.  Not only that, but she was whiny (not the norm) and just kept asking for things over and over and over.  I sent Michael a text at 11 o'clock listing all of the things we had already done together and complaining commenting that I was ready for a break.

So midway through the day I got the bright idea to run down to the garage and get some bear "counters" that I had.  (They aren't actually traditional bear counters.  I think they were suppose to be necklaces or something?)  I was totally flying by the seat of my pants, but I was hoping that it would amount to at least 10 to 15 minutes of play.  It did!

She saw me bring them upstairs and then watched me dump the baggie into a bowl.

She ran to the middle of the living floor and plopped herself down, knowing that it was time to do some sort of activity. :)

I gave her the bowl and just let her explore for a minute.

She picked one up and immediately said, "Teddy Bear!"

At first I was just going to see if she could count them.  

But as I sat there, I did a quick scan of the room and saw her flashcards.

I didn't want to get too complicated, so I just stuck with numbers 1 to 5 (even though she can count higher).

I was just going to put the regular number side up, but then I realized that on the back of the cards there were dots corresponding with the number.  I thought this would be GREAT for working on one to one correspondence.  I showed her how to do number one and then number two.

See the bears on the dots

After I demonstrated how to do number one and two I encouraged her to do number 3.  Instead, she decided to go straight to number 5.

I just let her go with it.

Then she went back to number 3.

Note--I like to use a glass mixing bowl for these types of activities.  The plastic bears clinking on the glass bowl adds another element of learning... even if it's just using one of the 5 senses.

As soon as she was done with number 3 she decided it was time to clean up.  I tried to encourage her to do number 4, but she wasn't having it.

That didn't end the activity though.  I started by flipping one of the cards over and talking about the number on the card.  She then flipped the other cards over and talked about the number and the objects shown.

We do work on other, more obvious, one on one correspondence.

We count the stairs as we go down them.  She counts her fingers and her toes.  But I plan on doing more activities like this with her soon.

At this point, most of the areas she is "advanced" in have to do with her (freak of nature) memory.  Memorization is great and it does help with learning.  But at some point you have to be able to apply the things you are memorizing.  That is my goal. It's great that she can count to 13 and recognize every letter of the alphabet.  Now we need to make sure she can apply those skills to other areas of learning.