Toddler Tuesday June 21, 2011

Bitty Bug is 2 years 5 months old

Lately, it’s become very clear that Bug has her own very distinct personality.  She’s not one to follow the crowd, that’s for sure!  And she’s perfectly comfortable voicing her opinions, likes, dislikes, and desires.  The first one that’s pretty obvious from the pictures is clothing.  Bug will now only wear 2 things…what she calls “princess dresses” (long flowy dresses that twirl) or nothing.  And she doesn’t want to get the princess dresses dirty, so if she thinks something will be messy, she decides she’d rather wear nothing at all.  And this princess dress thing has become an obsession…she will not put anything else on.  It *must* be a dress, and that dress must be able to twirl.  Complete with silver sparkly shoes.  And at night, it *must* be a “bedtime princess dress” (nightgown).

Now, contrast that with what you see below…she might be obsessed with looking like a princess (and her favorite line is “But mama…I a princess!  I the BOSS!” said in a very matter of fact 2 year old way), but she is also one to get down in the dirt (sans the dress of course) and play with bugs.  Or paint.  Or food.

I love 2 year olds…they are full of personality, and full of contradictions!

Bug loved to work with the dot markers this week. Here, she's putting spots on the ladybug picture.

 

Playing with the birds' nests in the sensory table.

 

Bug *loved* this work...painting ladybugs on rocks.

 

Observing the butterfly display with a hand lens.

 

Bug also liked this craft (do you sense a theme...she loves crafts just like her big sister!). The jars have diluted food coloring in them. Using the eyedropper in the jars, Bug had to transfer the colored water to the coffee filter. Once she was done, we let the filter dry, and then used a black pipe cleaner to help make a butterfly.

 

The finished butterflies!

 

More dot art...

 

Observing the bugs in acrylic with the hand lens.

 

Pouring glass beads into the small dishes.

Montessori Monday June 20, 2011

 

Monkey is 4 years 4 months old

Monkey was really excited to get back into the school room this week.  She also seemed to gravitate towards the craft works (which, I suppose most kids would! 😉 ).  It does seem more difficult to get her to try any of the sensorial…she loves practical life, art, and writing, but really seems to avoid sensorial.  I wonder if her history of sensory processing disorder plays a roll in that?

We did a lot with ladybugs and bees this week. Here is monkey using tempura paint to make ladybug rocks.

 

I found this counting exercise at kidssoup.com. On each page is a ladybug and a number, and I had Monkey draw the number of dots on the ladybug as the number represented. To help with self correction, I drew the correct number of dots below the ladybug.

 

Lifecycle of a butterfly tray

 

Using the dot markers to decorate a butterfly

 

Ladybug puzzle

 

Life cycle of a butterfly cards

 

Making father's day cards out of collage materials

 

Pinching clothes pins onto a basket

 

Using the numerals & counters

 

Monkey with the feather she found outside

 

Playing with wax sticks (we were learning about bees, and the two main products from bees--wax & honey. That morning, they had honey on their toast too! 😉 )

 

Making a honeycomb

Outdoor Hour Challenge: Butterflies September 9, 2010

This week’s nature study was supposed to be on raccoons and skunks, but our we decided to do a unit on butterflies since our butterflies emerged.

Over the past month, we raised 10 painted lady butterflies from caterpillars to butterflies. 

Five caterpillars arrived in two separate containers. Each container was filled with caterpillar food.

After about 5 days, the caterpillars climbed to the top of the container and started hanging in a J shape.

After 24 hours of hanging in a J shape, the chrysalids formed. The interesting part is that when we moved them into the pavillion or if a breeze happened to hit them, they'd start vibrating!

After a week, they emerged as butterflies, with their wings all scrunched up.

Then they climbed up the pavillion to stretch out their wings. As they were stretching their wings, some red meconium came out.

A closeup of how a butterfly eats--the thicker line on the orange is the black tongue of the butterfly. It unrolls from the butterfly's mouth during feeding.

After keeping them for a week, we released them in honor of our other son, who passed away 5 years this week. Every year we raise butterflies to release on his birthday.

Discovering the new world around it.

Bitty Bug watching the butterfly walking through the grass.

Jedi helping the butterflies out of the pavillion

Every year, he gets a butterfly or two to rest in his hands.

Closeup of the butterfly

Another closeup

This butterfly had a broken wing, but Jedi helped him land on a flower.