pink grapefruit play dough

In honor of Valentine's Day (which is only 11 days away!), we decided to whip up some pink, sparkly play dough!  We used a recipe from The Imagination Tree...

4 Minute Play Dough:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup salt
2 tablespoons cream of tartar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups boiling water

First, mix the dry ingredients together.  Then, add the wet ingredients.  Anna, from The Imagination Tree, suggests adding the hot water in increments until the play dough seems to be the right consistency.  She also says that vigorously kneading the dough is key.

At this point, Elise and I added a few special ingredients:

6 drops red food coloring (actually, I added this to the hot water before mixing it into the dry ingredients)
1/2 teaspoon rainbow glitter
1-2 drops grapefruit essential oil



I'm not much of a glittery, pink kind of person, but from the looks of it, Elise might be...  ;)



Elise played with her new play dough for over an hour - the only reason she stopped was because it was time for lunch!



If you're curious about how we have play dough set up on our art shelf, it basically looks like this.  ^^
Elise is really conscientious about getting out the vinyl mat and setting everything up - she still needs some assistance putting it all back, though...

I asked Elise to "smile," and this is what she gave me - oh, how I love her!  After we added the glitter, I told her she couldn't eat any more because it wouldn't be safe.  She cried for a moment, and then carried on with mixing the ingredients.  I never saw her eat any of the play dough after that.  I worried that adding the essential oil  would tempt Elise into having a taste or two, but I think it actually provided more of a good distraction - instead of nibbling, she was too busy sniffing!

Have a great week, friends!

for penny...

It never ceases to amaze me that this life which can offer us so much joy can also, in just the blink of the eye, hand us a giant serving of sorrow. This happened to my dear teaching friend Bethany two weeks ago when she lost her friend and coworker at Maine Mountain Children's House, Samantha Wright, to a tragic car accident.

This is the message Bethany sent me:

Hi Annie,
I have been thinking about you and I wanted to share something with you. My dear friend and director of my school passed away last Monday in a fatal car accident. It has been very sad and hard for our community as a whole (as you can imagine) but the saddest part is she is leaving behind her husband and her beautiful little girl Pennelope Quinn, who just turned 1 in November. The reason I'm telling you all this is that I introduced her to your blog after Penny was born and she has been an avid follower ever since. She creates new lessons for Penny each week and a lot of them are based on what you are doing with Elise. I don't know if you want to mention her on your blog or maybe come up with a neat lesson that a 1 year old would like, but if you do I would create it for her and bring it over to her house. Also, I will continue to follow you and make lessons for little Penny using your fabulous ideas and creativity. I just wanted to let you know just how far you reach and how your work effects a lot of people. Miss you annie. xoxoxo

I never had the chance to meet Samantha, but after hearing more about her these past couple weeks, I am sure she and I would have been good friends. My heart aches for her friends and family, especially her daughter, Penny. Good teachers like Samantha touch a lot of lives, so I am hoping that there is a strong community of people out there offering each other support. All my loving thoughts are with them! As per Bethany's request, here are a few lessons inspired by Penny - if you have any other suggestions of comforting activities for little ones, please share them in the comments!

 1. "I spy" tub:

Elise loved looking for objects hidden in our Halloween-themed "I spy" tub.  Include laminated photos of the objects, and this can be a matching activity, too!

Here's what you'll need:

2.  a box inside a box:



This is a special activity that Elise and her papa have been doing together lately.  Every night after she's gone to bed, he hides a tiny object inside the smallest box - a feather, stone, or some other little trinket.  Of course, the first thing Elise does when she comes downstairs in the morning is open all the boxes!  At first, she only opened the boxes; now, she is starting to close them, and nest them back together, too.

Here's what you'll need:

3.  smelling bottles:

Elise is always sniffing things - maybe it's because her big sister is a dog?  A drop or two of an essential oil like lavender or grapefruit on a cotton ball is fun for a little one to smell, and can lift up his or her spirit.  Place the cotton ball in an empty spice container to preserve the scent and strengthen fine motor control.

Here's what you'll need:

We love you, Penny!  You too, Bethany!!!  :)

the mystery bag

Did you know that around here we can actually

"see" with our hands?!

No, we haven't been practicing magic tricks;

we've been using a mystery bag to develop our 

stereognostic sense! 

Materials: 

• a bag - a basket covered with a cloth napkin would work, too
• a few objects that are both familiar and interesting to the touch

Presentation:

1. Invite the child to take the objects out of the bag and name them together.  
2. After exploring the objects, put them back into the bag.
3. Explain that this time, you are going to see with your hands instead of your eyes.  Model reaching into the bag, and describing what you're feeling.  I feel something smooth... and cold... and long... hmmmm... I think I feel the spoon.  
4. Take the object out of the bag.  It is the spoon!
5. Invite the child to see with his or her hands and choose an object from the bag.  
6. Repeat!

*We started with three objects, but feel free to add more depending on you child's ability.  Also, an older child may enjoy wearing a blindfold or closing his or her eyes.  

Here are a few of the mystery bags we've explored so far:  

e's new shelf: before & after

Oh, how I love a good before and after!  Those of you who have Montessori-inspired homes know tricky it can be to find child-sized, attractive shelving - especially those of us who live hundreds of miles from the nearest IKEA (452.67 miles for me - I checked).  When I found this top portion of a hutch on the side of the road for free a few days before Christmas, I nearly did cartwheels down the snowy sidewalk.  After dragging it home, Hubs tinkered with it a bit to make it more sturdy, I slapped on a few coats of cornmeal yellow paint, and - voila! - it's now quite possibly the coolest piece of furniture in our house!  

Hope you're all having a lovely week so far!  :)

eat like a bird!

Inspired by Jen's Birds of a feather post on Montessori Beginnings, Elise and I decided to snack like our feathered friends this afternoon...

fruit - both fresh and dried,

seeds,

and peanut butter 

(The birds outside our window have been eating their peanut butter off pine cones; we ate ours on crackers!)

We also pretended that chopsticks and tongs were our beaks.  

This was fun, but challenging - especially picking up sunflower seeds with chopsticks!  ;)

Tweet, tweet!