The Art Box – March 29, 2010

As many of you know, we rushed home from our trip to visit my parents and ran right into a bout of pneumonia (which thankfully is getting better), and of course I did not give the Art Box a single thought all week.

However, the week we were in Missouri M did ask to paint. His exact words were, “When can I paint? I haven’t painted in So Long.”

So I knew he had art on his mind and wasn’t surprised when he got out the art box from a couple of weeks ago the very evening we came home (before he was too sick). Here’s what he did in that one sitting…

Marble painting:

Tempera painting (darn it, there was a story that went with this one that I can’t remember!):

Some marker drawing and stamping - this was a song he wrote:

Do-a-Dot painting, “for springtime”:

By the way, to do the very cool marble painting, tape a piece of paper (sturdy construction paper or cardstock if you have it) to a pan with a small piece of double stick tape. M used a baby spoon to put globs of paint on the paper, then placed a marble on each glob (yep, technical term). Then he slowly tilted the pan around and watched the marbles make their tracks. Occasionally he stopped to look at it and decide what else it “needed”:He’s done this before with a golf ball, which, incidentally, made very cool tracks, so when I put marbles and a pan in his art box he knew what the idea was. It’s pretty mess-free, but the first time takes a little guidance so the pan doesn’t get tipped completely over. For a toddler, you could use a shoebox and secure the lid on with a couple of rubber bands, let your child shake it up a bit, then look to see the masterpiece inside!

I can’t wait to see the artwork your kids have made! Link up below. :)

Have a beautiful day! :)

Tot School – March 28, 2010

M is 42 months old.

Wellllll…… M had pneumonia this week.  So, we did not do much of anything except read books and watch tv.  My poor, poor baby.  We went to the doctor on Monday and he immediately started getting better after starting the antibiotics, but he’s still not back to normal.  (We’d appreciate prayers, if you are willing!)

The following is a smattering of this and that from past weeks that haven’t yet made it into a post, in no particular order as I’m not up to organizing anything right now…

We visited my parents who live on our family farm in Missouri.  It is more of a hobby farm now than anything (in its glory days it was a magnificent dairy farm, with horses and sheep to boot).  M loved feeding the chickens, and hearing the rooster crow!

While we were there we made a trip to Bass Pro (a major outdoor sports / hunting mall.  They had a lot of wonderful displays, including these sweet turtles:

And this grizzly bear, whom he agreed to stand next to if Auntie M would hold him:

 

I found a small foam ABC puzzle mat - the squares come apart and the letters all come out – for $1.00 at Walmart.  Here M is lining them up like a  train.  After he finished placing the letters in he “drove” it (pulled it) all around the house.

 

I took all the soft stuff out of our previous sensory bin and left the hard glass pebbles and marbles in.  I found a gumball machine at Dollar Tree and added it in.  Here’s M figuring out how it works (it was perfect for the marbles!):    (And, um, WHY does my baby look so long in this picture?)

This past week we did do one school-ish activity (later in the week, when he started improving and actually got dressed)… our egg game, which you can read about here. We played it and a couple of other games quite a bit, and although I hate for M to be so sick, I have to say I enjoyed the slower pace of our days this week.  Anyway, here we are playing the game:

And after we finished, we quickly graphed our chicks and other animals to see who had more before we actually counted them: 

Beginning next week (or the next school post I get around to writing), I’ll be linking these posts up to the Preschool Corner instead of Tot School.  I’ve been in denial that my baby is growing up, but have decided that our posts are probably more preschool-oriented now, although I do intend to keep school activities play-based and fun… no formal curriculum of any kind yet.  I hope all of you who read our Tot School posts will continue following M’s progress and our weekly activities!

Have a beautiful week, everyone! :)