on the shelves - 15 & 16 months (in action!)

stacking trucks

One of Elise's older friends loaned her these trucks when he heard how much she likes to stack rings on posts.  ;)  While she doesn't necessarily put them back together (yet!), she loves pushing them around and taking them apart.

(stacking trucks - Melissa & Doug)

pounding balls with a hammer

We've been using this material for months now, but I just recently introduced Elise to the hammer. 

What's old is new again!

(punch and drop activity - Plan Toys)

peeling clementines

I'm so excited for citrus fruit to be back in season!  Pulling the peel off this juicy snack is a great way to strengthen fine motor control, as-well-as develop organization and problem solving skills.

 sorting and stacking rings

Elise continues to explore this intriguing stacking activity.  While she occasionally rebuilds the cone to its original form, she seems to prefer taking it apart and creating her own combinations!

  (cone sorting activity - Plan Toys)

"bear!"

It's been a signing explosion around here lately! Elise loves reading this book, which features illustrations and photos of children signing familiar words. Bear, wind, book, and all done are some of our favorites!

dropping a cube into a box

I made this imbucare box a few months ago, but Elise has only recently showed an interest in it. 

Now, she thinks it's so great, she hauls it all over the house.  Seriously.  

Oh, how I love this girl!

hot and cold: a toddler experiment

Elise is fascinated by hot and cold lately.  She loves watching the fireplace, and "hot!" is one of her favorite words to say.  We've also woken up to snow on the ground a few times, and Elise is beginning to sign "cold."  I decided to put together a simple hot and cold activity, so she could explore these two very different temperatures in a safe way.

I filled two identical tubs:

one with ice and one with hot water.

To get the ice, I poured water in the bottom of a tub, 

and popped it in the freezer overnight.

Elise was very cautious about touching the hot water!  

I didn't want it to be so hot it would hurt her skin,

 but I wanted it to be a little steamy and uncomfortable to the touch.

After her initial observations of the two tubs,

Elise started experimenting...

At first, it was fun to pour hot water onto the ice:

it made loud cracking sounds and broke into pieces.

Then, Elise dropped pieces of the ice into the hot water.

It was a challenge to fish them out before they melted!

We left the tubs out all morning, and checked on them every once and awhile.
It was interesting to see the ice melt and to discover that the hot water
was no longer hot, but actually kind of cold!

Have you done any hot or cold experiments with your kids?  Elise enjoyed this so much, I think we'll do something similar again soon.  Maybe ice in the bathtub?  I'm open for suggestions! :)

e and her shadow

Shadow, shadow on the wall

Sometimes you're short, sometimes you're tall.

Either way, I love to see 

My good friend Shadow following me!  

Elise discovered her shadow a couple weeks ago, and it has been so much fun watching her interact with it! I constantly catch myself looking around to see who she's waving at, only to realize she's just saying hello to her shadow!  They're getting to be pretty good friends.  ;)

Usually, we just explore our shadows as they occur naturally, but we were up very early the other morning - thank you time change! - and needed something to pass the time before the sun came up.  I put one of Hubs' very bright shop lights in our darkened dining room, and gathered some items with good shadow-making potential.  I also set up a mirror, so Elise could see her reflection at the same time as her shadow.   We ended up having a really good time experimenting with shadows and reflections - even Rosie the dog! Ha!

Here's hoping you and your shadow have a great week!
     

pink tower vs. rainbow stacking boxes

As soon as Elise started to show an interest in stacking blocks, I began to debate which of these two materials to buy for our home.  Some may say this is a bit like comparing apples to oranges, but here we go...  

the stats:

the verdict:

The pink tower is a beautiful Montessori material that isolates the quality of size, and prepares children for many mathematical concepts.  No Montessori preschool classroom would be complete without it, but I decided that it wasn't necessary for our home environment - yet!  I ended up purchasing the rainbow stacking boxes because they seemed to offer more opportunities for exploration and play.  While they aren't as precise as the cubes of the pink tower, they can offer a similar experience.  Both materials support the development of visual discrimination, and can be used for matching and language activities.  In addition, the rainbow stacking boxes can be nested together, and can hold or hide small objects.  As E begins to play more imaginatively, the boxes may become houses, nests, or caves. Call me crazy, but these boxes are lovely enough, I can even imagine them holding pencils in E's college dorm room one day!  ;)

Although we love our rainbow nesting boxes, I haven't completely ruled out the idea of buying a pink tower,  too. We'll just have to see where this Montessori homeschooling adventure takes us...

halloween recap

E's first Halloween experience

as a trick-or-treater

was a HUGE success!  ;)

We mostly people-watched and checked out decorations,

but Elise did some actual trick-or-treating, too.

She figured out the routine pretty quickly:

Find the person with candy.

Take a piece.  Drop it in the bucket.

Repeat.

As it turns out, 

Elise LOVES candy.

Ha!

Here are my tips for making a confusing holiday like Halloween fun for a young toddler:

• Try on costumes with friends and family before Halloween.  I set up a costume corner for Elise a couple weeks before Halloween.  She tried on costumes with friends and family, and had lots of fun. She also went to a Halloween party the day before Halloween, and played with other children wearing costumes.  On Halloween night, Elise didn't seem at all surprised or frightened to see people in costumes.  Occasionally, she squealed in delight when she saw someone whose look really struck her fancy!
• Choose a costume that your child can relate to.  Next year, Elise will choose her own costume, but at 15 months, it was up to me and Hubs.  One of Elise's first animal sounds was a monkey, and she always gets really excited when she sees monkeys in books, so "monkey" seemed like a fairly logical costume choice.  
• Include your child in the costume-making/ buying process.  Elise participated in putting together her costume from start to finish.  She went to the craft store to pick out the pattern and supplies, and she tried on the costume as my mom and I sewed.  If you're buying a costume, invite your child to go shopping with you, and if possible, let them try on costumes in the store to check fit and style. 
• Give your child time to get used to wearing the costume.  As soon as Elise's costume was finished, it was available for her to wear throughout the day for a week or so before Halloween.  By the time the big day rolled around, it was covered in food (!), but she was also really comfortable wearing it.
• Look at Halloween decorations in the daylight.  Not all Halloween decorations are as cute as my owls!  On Halloween morning, Elise and I walked our trick-or-treating route, and watched people putting up decorations.  Many of our neighbors explained to Elise what they were doing, and invited her to come by to trick-or-treat that night.  I was also able to see which houses would be too scary to walk by in the dark (i.e. the house with zombies crawling out of the yard).  
• Take your time packing up the decor.  This applies to all holidays!  As an adult, I'm usually ready to put away the holiday the day after it's done, but I learned as a teacher, it's better for kiddos to do it gradually.  There's so much build-up before a holiday; putting things away over the course of a week can prevent children from feeling totally letdown.  Elise is still playing in her costume corner, and our jack-o-lantern is smiling at us from the nature table in our living room.  

Do you have any Halloween tips?  I'm looking for some suggestions on what to do about all that candy - scary!  It was out-of-sight, out-of-mind this year for Elise, but I have no idea how we'll approach the sugar rush next year...