muffin tin tuesday

In honor of Halloween (which is only next week - eeeek!!!), Elise and I filled a muffin tin with orange-colored foods for our afternoon snack.  It'd been awhile since we'd had a special-themed snack in a muffin tin, and Elise LOVED it.  Food is such a fun and meaningful way to explore colors, textures, and shapes - I need to remember to do this more often with her!

from the top left:  

chipotle tortilla wedges, sweet mini pepper, goldfish crackers, orange juice
shredded golden beet, rotini pasta, sesame stick crackers, mandarin oranges
cheddar cheese cubes, garden carrots, dried apricots, sun gold tomatoes

Did I mention Elise LOVED this snack?!  She really did.  While she's usually an eat-and-run kind of girl, this snack captured her attention for awhile.  Maybe all those little muffin tin compartments appealed to her sense of order?  ;)

Do you ever make special-themed muffin tin snacks for your little ones?  I'd love to hear your suggestions!

a simple taste test

Last night, while we anxiously waited for our dinner to cook, 

Elise and I had a little impromptu taste test.  

It was so much fun, we did it twice,

and Elise was ready to do it again first thing this morning.  ;)

I offered Elise three identical little glasses 

of sugar water, lemon water, and salt water.  

(I also filled a bottle with plain water to cleanse her palette between tastes.)  

After Elise took a sip from a glass, 

I would name the taste.  

That was sweet.  That was sour.  That was salty.  

Sweet was a big hit, with salty coming in a close second.  

Sour left little to be desired...

which was surprising, considering Elise usually sucks down lemon wedges.  

Coffee seemed like an ideal bitter taste, 

but I decided it would be bonkers to let my toddler drink coffee after 6 pm!

I can't stop thinking of more "edible tests" for us try:

texture, color, temperature...

We may be doing this for awhile!

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:  

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...