Animal theme activities - week 3

We've started Gymboree art classes and also have lots of art and craft activities planned for at home. One of our art activities this week was stamping. We used some kangaroo and koala stamps. See this post on art activity trays.

I have rearranged the kitchen and made it possible for Little Bean to safely access the kitchen bench. I'm not able to buy a Learning Tower (Santa?) or to make one at the moment so I had to improvise. We still have LB's old cot sitting in the dining room area. We used to use it as a bed - play pen when he was a baby. I was going to get rid of it but realised I had a new purpose for it. A make-shift helper platform. I pushed it up against the kitchen bench and LB can stand in it. Problem solved. The existing height settings are either too high or too low, so I'll have to drill some more holes to give us some better options. More on that project another day.

 This was his first time helping me cook and he loved it. He was in charge of the mixing bowl and stirring. He also helped sift flour, pour in the liquids and added the eggs after I cracked them into a cup for him. On the first day, we made banana cake for morning tea. We also made the almond milk to use in the cake. Another day, we made bacon and vegetable egg slice. He wanted to taste everything, which was fine for cake batter, but a bit weird for raw egg slice. He also cut capsicum and carrot sticks using this awesome crinkle cutter we bought from the How We Montessori shop. It was only AU$3.95

 

Animal recognition is happening. After our art activity was packed away the other day, Little Bean went and got a rubber ducky, pointed to the picture of ducks on his table and put them together. Happy dance.

We added some new animal figurines. He is now learning African animal names and sounds too.

I made Little Bean this activity board. For more details, read the full post here.

Instead of putting the dolly pegs in the pocket of the activity board as I had planned, LB often threaded them onto the front piece of fabric. This gave me the idea for this next activity. Putting dolly pegs on a tin can.

This week I added a spooning activity for the first time. He is using an Asian soup spoon with animal counters.

LB is using tongs for the first time too. These are a small pair that I found at the supermarket for a couple of dollars. He picked it up within a few minutes and really surprised me. I didn't think that he'd be able to do it and just wanted to see how far off he was. Instead, I am now planning more tong activities for next week. I gave him animal counters to see how he went with hard objects. I think I will try something soft like pom poms next.

I have been meaning to try this next activity for a couple of weeks but never found the time. Well, this week, our shell washing activity will happen. We will do it at LB's hand washing station. This red tray is actually for drying dishes on and includes a draining rack. I got the two wooden brushes from the fruit and vegetable section of IGA supermarket in Australia. They're for scrubbing potatoes. I bought both so that I could see which shape would suit little hands best.

We haven't had a discovery basket for a while so I thought I'd make one up with the new containers I've been collecting for another opening and closing activity. It has a small gift box, pill box, lunchbox, cardboard box, plastic container and a drawstring bag.

Travelling with a toddler

Each trip we've taken during Little Bean's short life has been very different. I think that the first was the easiest. He was two months old and slept most of the time. We met so many lovely people that helped with bags and at customs checkpoints. For the next trip, he was 12 - 13 months old. He was able to sit in our seat while I stowed our overhead luggage. Very convenient. He toddled around a little but was light enough that I could carry him. On this latest trip, last weekend, Little Bean was 16 months old. He will often play independently now, so he was easily entertained. He loved saying hello and bye bye to everyone on our plane and at the airport. He's definitely a Leo. For the first time, he was interested in looking out the window. He really likes to be Mummy's Little Helper, so giving him small jobs when he was restless worked well. This time, it felt like I was travelling with him, instead of just taking him along for the ride.

We flew from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam to Perth, Australia. We always fly with Singapore Airlines via Singapore. (More on why I love Changi airport later.) If you have small children, I find that Singapore Airlines makes life much easier for you, especially if like me, you usually travel with only one parent. They will let you take your pram to the boarding gate and will load it just before boarding. They also have bassinets on board that can be used for children up to 14kg. We usually take red-eye flights so that most of our travel is done done during Little Bean's natural sleep-time. I love the inflight entertainment system with movies, TV shows and games. You can even play games against other passengers. A great feature for siblings travelling together. Flying is one of the rare times that I get to see a current movie, as I haven't been to the cinema since Little Bean was born.

Now that LB can walk next to me and hold my hand, I got this cute monkey backpack - baby harness combo. I wish I had practised with it before we travelled because he keeps trying to run off and sometimes falls when he reaches the end of the lead. We'll be practising a lot before our return trip. It will make all those customs checkpoints much easier if I know he won't be running off. I bought the harness in a pack with a neck pillow and safety mirror from Target in Australia. It was only $17. Bargain!

For the plane ride, I made up a special Discovery Basket to keep him amused. It included a numbers board book, two Mr Men paper books, a couple of teething toys, a toy phone, a wooden car, an X-Box controller and a face cloth for playing peek-a-boo.

Little Bean found the X-Box controller when he was rummaging through some drawers last week. He's never seen anyone play video games, so he has no idea of its intended use. He's just fascinated with the various button and toggles. It was a big hit during the plane ride. He has recently started to play pretend phones with us. I have lost count of the number of fake phone calls he's had me make in the past two weeks. 

The basket was a great way to store everything. It fit perfectly on the seat between his legs so his toys didn't get spread all over the place. It also made it easy for him to carry around and kept his little hands occupied at customs checkpoints.

This week's discovery basket

This week's basket is all about interesting textures. I chose items that were smooth and shiny, smooth and dull, and varying degrees of roughness.

The basket contains two smooth shells, an engraved shell, a slightly rough wooden pestle, a wire sieve, a plastic juicer, a rainbow shower pouf, a plastic scrubbing brush, a bamboo placemat and a drink coaster made from carpet.

What we're doing this week

This week Little Bean got some Christmas presents early. I ordered them in Australia and didn't think they'd be delivered in time for Daddy to be able to bring them back to Vietnam. They arrived just in the nick of time and I couldn't wait for Christmas to check them out. I guess I'm going to have to do more shopping for something to put under the tree.

About a week ago, Little Bean started chewing on everything. It's actually worse now than when he was teething. I'm stumped as to a cause or a cure. Little Bean can only use anything made of cardboard or soft wood under strict adult supervision. So I can no longer leave his jigsaw puzzles or these new alphabet blocks on his Montessori shelf. I really, really hope he grows out of it soon.

I bought these Melissa & Doug alphabet blocks from the Parent Direct online store. They can be stacked or nested. I  only use every second block as it makes it easier for Little Bean to distinguish between the sizes.

This tent and tunnel combo was also bought from Parent Direct. Little Bean loves it. He actually started using this last week. I put his pretend bed in the tent and we had lots of snuggles in there. Unfortunately, he jumped on the tent and bent the plastic frame within the first few days. It's been packed away until Daddy has time to see if it can be repaired. He been using the tunnel flat-out. His room has a wooden floor, and from downstairs, it sounded like elephants stomping about when he was racing up and down the tunnel. I ended up buying some foam matting to go under it to help reduce the noise. I tied the tunnel down to the matting to stop it sliding around. I must admit that I've been having a ball racing alongside the tunnel while LB crawls through it. This racing game has given us the opportunity to practice the commands stop and go. Crawling through the tunnel myself is a bit of a tight squeeze but loads of fun that usually ends with us both laughing hysterically. We've also been rolling balls through the tunnel and playing peek-a-boo.

Another purchase from Parent Direct was this cute Melissa & Doug peek-a-boo barn. The doors make a cute clacking noise when opened and closed.

I made this chopstick threading activity. For instructions, go here.

We've kept the fine motor skills activities using the icy pole trays and ice cube trays from last week.

This week's discovery basket

This week's discovery basket was created by Little Bean. I bought some plastic tubs to store our growing collection of Montessori materials and craft supplies in. While I was tutoring my ESL (English as a Second Language) student, I let Little Bean play with the tubs. He climbed in them, made them scoot across the floor and generally had a great time. Then he wandered off to find stuff to put in them. Before long, he'd raided our recycling bin, the bookshelf, the laundry and the living room for objects of interest. He found toys, clothes pegs, coat hangers, bottles, boxes, comic books and heaps more. Whenever we're downstairs now, he heads straight for the tubs and pulls stuff out, puts in back in and finds more to add to it. I tied the tubs together so he can push and pull them around the floor like a train, which he loves to do.

I'll keep the opening and closing discovery basket in his bedroom for another week also. He is still showing interest in it and is getting the hang of getting the lids on and off his milk can sorting toys.

This week's discovery basket

We've all been sick with a cold these past couple of weeks, so I've been a bit slack about new activities and discovery baskets. Little Bean was too sick to really care anyway. This is the basket we've been using for the past few days.  Little Beans is currently obsessed with taking the the lid of his baby milk bottle and putting it back on again, so I was inspired to create the theme "opening and closing". I gathered up some practical life items with a range of methods for opening and closing.

 

This basket contains a white plastic container with a press on lid, two small blue containers with snap on lids, a baby bottle with a tight fitting snap on lid (Little Bean's current favourite), a textured vinyl purse with a zipper, a pencil case with a zipper and a blue container with a screw on lid. I also added a fabric bag that has a velcro fastening but didn't get a picture of it.

What we're doing this week

This week, Little Bean was delighted when his new wooden trolley that I ordered from Win Win Toys arrived. It's shaped like a dog and has ears that swing as he pushes it along. He spent lots of time just swinging the ears round and round. It came at the perfect time as it helped to distract him from his new favourite pastime of pushing the furniture around his room.


He filled the trolley with his new wooden cars and plastic balls. I quickly learnt that he had very particular ideas about what could and could not go in the trolley. I tried to put his little bear in there and it was unceremoniously tossed across the room.

Little Bean decided that it would also be fun to sit in his trolley. It was a tight squeeze so he soon found a more comfortable place to sit. My washing basket. He didn't even let me finish taking the washing out first. It still had some spare cloth nappies in it, so I decided they could stay put as it would give him some cushioning. He has spent many hours just sitting in it and playing with the handles, putting things in and out of it, and trying to get it to move along. He loves it when I push him around the room in it.

Little Beans's new wooden cars are also from Win Win Toys. These inspired this week's discovery basket theme of Push & Roll. Visit here to see the discovery basket. He's really got the hang of pushing them along now and can make them zoom across the room at crazy speeds. Every now and then, he gets a little too enthusiastic and they just fly through the air before smashing into a wall. I guess he's still working out the levels of his strength.


We have also been playing with his new plastic balls. They each have a small bell filled ball in the centre. I have discovered that this makes them really good for spinning. The little ball inside seems to make them spin for longer and if you spin them a little off centre, they spin for ages whilst travelling across the room.

This week's discovery basket

This discovery basket is actually from last week. I just realised that I forgot to post it. The theme was  Push & Roll. It was inspired by his new wooden cars and plastic balls.

The balls included in this basket were a set of small wooden balls, plastic balls with bells inside, a velvet ball and a red rubber sensory ball.  There were also some wooden cars, a plastic truck, a plastic rattle and some plastic cylinders with bells inside.

This week's discovery basket

 At the moment, Little Bean is into wearing hats and mimicking what I do, so this week's discovery basket is all about hats. I got all of his hats out and a few of my own too. I didn't realise just how many hats he had until now. He's got over a dozen. We've been playing a game where I put my hat on or take it off, and he copies me. He loves putting hats on my head too. The brim on my big white hat is so wide that we can play peekaboo under it.

How to make a discovery basket

A discovery basket is a basket, box or tub filled with carefully selected items that your child can play with and explore. I've also heard them called treasure baskets. Items can be tactile, interesting or thematic. I usually choose a theme based on Little Bean's current interests and go from there. They are a great way to stimulate the senses, introduce new concepts and to practice skills.

I have a big box filled with loads of interesting items for discovery baskets. It's actually getting a little crazy. I have so many ideas that I'm going to have to get a bigger box soon. Maybe even a room.

Recently we've had discovery baskets for the following themes:
Round
Soft
Things that roll or can be pushed along
Sound sensory bottles - go here for instructions on how to make them

Round - metal sieve, metal baby food jar lid, sauce dipping bowls,
plastic lid with embossed stars, flexible clear plastic lid,
plastic jar lid with grooved edges.

Sound sensory bottles containing plastic straws, rice, chickpeas,
mung beans & lentils, kidney beans and bells.

Roll or push - sensory ball, plastic balls with bells inside,
velvet ball, small wooden balls, plastic rattle, plastic cylinders
with bells inside, plastic truck and lots of wooden cars.

Some other themes I'd like to try in the near future are:
Shiny and smooth
Metal
Spin or turn
Kitchen tools
Opening and closing
Rough or smooth
Wood

Here are some of the items I have put aside for future use:

Beautiful sea shells

Wooden chopsticks and
bamboo placemat

Metal sieve, silicon cupcake pans, plastic juicer, metal beaters,
metal ladle, textured plastic rice spoon, plastic curry puff press.

Sometime you can make the basket itself an interesting
feature. I like using plastic sieves and baskets
with different textures.

Texture - vinyl coin purse, shower loofah, woven handbag,
scrubbing brush.

A variety of scarves and shawls