Some Other Activites

These are a few other random activities we've been doing while I've been planning our "totschool" schedule for the rest the winter and the spring.

Matching with Calendars
I wasn't sure how A1 would feel about it, but this idea from Chasing Cheerios was a huge hit with her.
We cut out the small pictures on the back of a calendar and put them out in a bowl or a tray.  Then we took the pages of the calendar and laid them out on the floor.  A1 goes through and matches the tiny picture to the big picture.

Matching a calendar of kittens.



Bees and Butterflies calendar.  She did this one completely on her own to my surprise.

 The only downside to the "calendar game" is that it has to be done while A2 is napping.  She goes straight for the big papers if she's around.

A2's First Time Painting
I bought a lot of poster paints at Michaels during their after Christmas sales and some new paintbrushes and spongest for A1.  We spend sometime painting one day and decided to give A2 the chance to paint as well.  She only tasted it once and throughly enjoyed spreading the paint around and squishing it in her hands.

In & Out
We got a large cracker container from a family member to use for games with A2. 

I filled it up with various toys and she enjoyed putting them out and in, as well as transferring them to another container.  We also used this to try and build her vocabulary by talking about the names of the items that we pulled out.  I threw in a couple of letter blocks as well, so that A1 could tell us what letter was on the blocks that she pulled out (good practice for her letter identification).

Hiding Beads in Playdough
I bought some beads recently at Michaels as well.  One night as I was cleaning up, A1 wanted to know what she could do with them, forcing me to think of something quickly.  I said she could hide the beads inside the playdough and then find them again (which was the best I could come up with on the spot).  To my surprise she loved this and played independently for at least 15 minutes.

I've since realized that this is a great activity for strengthening finger muscles (especially when working with kids who are beginning to write).  When the kids get older, I'll use hard modeling clay instead of the softer playdough.