With Saint Patrick’s Day …. tomorrow! .… I have visions of corned beef and cabbage teasing me and Guinness Chocolate Cake. Oh, and I wanted to share some craft ideas.
We made these easy, fun crackers for Mardi Gras, and had so much fun, I thought we’d do them again for St. Patrick’s Day. Mon Cœur (MC) jumped right in, filling them.
Materials:
Toilet paper tube (empty, obvi)
Tissue paper
Tape
Yarn/string
Filler
Directions:
I’ve labeled the steps with Maman (for what I did) and moi (for what MC did)
(Maman) Line three toilet paper tubes on a sheet of tissue paper. The top and bottom tubes are just “place holders.”
(moi)Tape the tissue paper to the middle one.
(Maman et moi) Roll the tube and tape the other edge of tissue paper. (Note: after trying to “pop” them previously, I wouldn’t advise rolling the tube more than twice with the tissue paper.)
(Maman) Take a piece of yarn and tie the tissue paper around between the middle and bottom tubes. Remove the bottom tube.
(moi) Stuff the tube from the top with the filler.
(Maman) Tie the second piece of yarn between the top and middle tube and remove the top tube. Voilà!
We filled our tubes with gold coins, pompoms in the colors of the rainbow, homemade confetti, some candy, and a bunny.
We made these on Sunday, and MC could not wait for tomorrow to start popping these…Although we’ve been able to save one for tomorrow!
The next craft we’ve done three different ways, so take your pick and make it!
Sun catcher with green and gold crayon shavings
I liked this version, although the way that it’s made, it’s easy for tissue paper to fall out along the edges.
Materials:
crayon shavings
tissue paper (optional)
wax paper
construction paper
scissors
tape/glue
iron and towels
Directions:
Make and cut out a shamrock outline
Prepare crayon shavings and tissue paper (if using)
Cut two square pieces of wax paper that will cover the shamrock outline
Place crayon shavings on one piece of wax paper, then cover with the other.
Cover wax paper with a thin cloth or towel
Place iron over top and melt crayon pieces
Let cool
Glue the shamrock outline on the decorated wax paper, then cut the excess wax paper along outside.
Sun catcher with tissue paper
This version holds together better than the previous.
Materials:
tissue paper
wax paper
construction paper
scissors
glue
paintbrush
Directions:
Make and cut out a shamrock outline
Prepare tissue paper (cut into small pieces)
Cut two square pieces of wax paper that will cover the shamrock outline
With the paintbrush, glue tissue paper onto one piece of wax paper, then cover with the other.
Glue the shamrock outline on the decorated wax paper, then cut the excess wax paper along outside.
Sun catcher card with crayon shavings
This version worked out the best, as I was able to enclose the wax paper in the card, and nothing fell out.
Materials:
crayon shavings
wax paper
construction paper
scissors/exacto knife
tape/glue
iron and towels (if making with crayon shavings)
Directions:
Take an 8×10 card stock paper and fold in half, horizontally (or hamburger, if you will).
Draw a shamrock on the paper and cut out the shape using an exacto knife.
Prepare crayon shavings and tissue paper (if using)
Cut two square pieces of wax paper that will cover the shamrock outline
Place crayon shavings on one piece of wax paper, then cover with the other.
Cover wax paper with a thin cloth or towel
Place iron over top and melt crayon pieces
Let cool
Place decorated wax paper inside the card, and glue down on front and back.
Write desired greeting on the front of card.
MC enjoyed learning to iron, and liked sprinkling the crayon shavings on the wax paper.
In a previous post, I mentioned one of the workbooks that I had found on our recent trip to France. People travel to France to source fashionable finery, redolent perfume, exceptional art, or any number of other things…Montessori inspired pre-school books? This might be a first…
I went a little crazy buying workbooks for Mon Cœur (MC) while we were there – partly knowing I was going to continue to be at home with her and I wanted support for teaching her en français (in French), and partly out of a crazy dream I have to one day open a Maternelle bilingue (bilingual preschool). I do miss having a classroom and working with students, so…perhaps one day…
I mainly purchased ones I could use right now with her – the 2-4 age range. It will give us a good reason to return to France, and we simply didn’t have the room in my luggage for anything else!
I noticed that the majority of the books were rooted in Montessori values, and stickers were used extensively to make an activity interactive, to provide a manipulative. The stickers are added motivation and MC loves them. Bonus: her little fingers working to peel each sticker are building fine motor skills.
Activities: Eighty-eight activities cover language, writing, math, and discovery of one’s world.
Sounds, initials, introducing oneself, tracing rounds, straight lines, shapes, giving one’s age, directional prepositions (up/down, behind/in front of), shapes, and counting 1-6 are just some of the activities to be completed.
Personal review: I really like that for each activity, the educational goal is given: Draw rounds, differentiate sizes, memorize a short song and its gestures, find and associate identical images, recognize a three letter word, reproduce a repetitive pattern. I also love how each activity has a short question to jump start the activity – what’s the weather like today? Today, it is [x day of week], What time of day is it? We are in [x season]. Each of these questions is accompanied by pictorial answers for the child to circle. These questions are repeated throughout the book, so that by the time we finish, these questions will have helped build an understanding of days of the week, seasons, times of day, and weather.
Extras: This book comes with a “whiteboard” page with numbers 1-10 as well as a poster with the alphabet on one side and a picture of a house (and an accompanying story) on the other.
Activities: Fifty-five activities start out with simple one letter- one sound correspondences, and two letters-one sound, and then complex phonemes. Letters are presented in a progressive order of difficulty, script (cursive) writing is introduced, and pictures are used to practice with words containing the focus letter. As the book progresses the student goes from reading and writing single letters to syllables, to simple words and even phrases.
Personal review: I am not sure if I bought this book more for MC or me! I am always looking for ways to improve my pronunciation, and this book presents letter combination and sound correspondences that will help me to (correctly, hopefully) teach MC the proper pronunciation to help with reading, speaking, and writing.
Extras: The book comes with lettres rugueuses, rough letters for little fingers to peel, place, and trace.
Fun fact: in France, they begin counting with their thumb, instead of index finger.
Age range: 3-6 years old
Activities: This book presents 85 lessons for counting and the four operations in a Montessori-style manner, with raised numbers, and images depicting math used in everyday life. There are lots of visuals to help introduce numbers, counting (one to one and counting on fingers), and writing numbers.
Personal review: Each lesson begins with a picture to make an observation. I love this starting point to begin a lesson, where MC and I can have a conversation about what we see and then relate that to the lesson. For math, at least through the number ten there is a focus on the numerical symbol, the number on the face of a die, the number as represented by fingers on the hand, as well as counting physical objects.
Extras: Stickers to use for activities as well as chiffres rugueux, rough numbers for little fingers to peel, stick, and trace.
Activities: The alphabet is presented, letter by letter, not in alphabetical order, rather in order of difficulty. This is more of a scrapbook where MC can collect pictures of friends, pictures from magazines, and stickers from the book for each letter of the alphabet.
Personal review: I think a notebook of letters could just as easily be made from scratch, using a composition notebook and pictures. It is handy though to have the stickers, and have a book with a researched order to present letters. I appreciate the guidance given to parents at the beginning of the book regarding letter order, and how to introduce the letters. This is a great ready-made book to allow us to survey the world around us (and to use the sticker inventory at the back of the book) to find and categorize people and things that begin with each letter of the alphabet.
Activities: This book presents a mix of activities, 85 total, that teach the letters of the alphabet, counting, arranging, and categorizing, and discovery and games. The letters are arranged in alphabetical order here, with math and observational activities alternating between each letter.
Personal review: We have only just started this book, although MC loves it. For the letter pages, instead of having her practice writing a letter across a whole line, I have her practice tracing the large letter. MC is three and a half, so the thought of making her sit with a pencil and make a line of A’s is not appealing to either of us. She enjoys finding the letters in her environment and in print, and we make letters with play dough and tracing with our fingers. Leaving this part of the book blank for later, it will let us go back to review the letters and then practice writing.
In order to give consistency and repetitive practice of letters, we’ll be following the alphabet order in the book reviewed just above, Mon Cahier Montessori des lettres.
Extras: Sticker alphabet and cut out manipulatives for geometric shapes (for sizing and categorizing activities).
Activities: The 19 activities in this book are fairly short, designed to go with a toddler’s attention span. Each theme has one large picture to talk about, with a question, a short fact, and then 2-3 activities incorporating simple graphics (making dots, coloring, tracing a route), math concepts (recognizing smallest and largest objects, recognizing shapes, coloring pictures that have a certain number of objects), discovery (recognizing fish from a set of other animals, animals with horns, teeth, etc, ), language (matching objects that belong with certain characters, finding the object that does not belong, circling named objects), and reading (letters).
Personal review: I’ve used this book the most so far, as it is simple to use, I can skip around, and its focus is mainly on themes for discovering the world around MC. Some themes include in the kitchen, the Three Little Pigs, the beach, at the market, pirates, the bath, flowers, etc.
This book has been great because we can complete an activity in one sitting of about ten minutes, it introduces vocabulary to MC, and she loves talking about the large picture. If we are starting a themed unit that is also presented in here, or reading a book that incorporates one of the themes, I love to use this book in tandem to reinforce concepts.
Extras: Stickers for certain activities. One sticker per page with one of two characters disguised to fit in with the activity’s theme.
What questions do you have about how MC is learning French or the workbooks we have chosen?
Read more about our France trip in the posts below:
Over the past six-ish months, Mon Cœur has been doing different activities that focus on the letters of her name. I wanted to start teaching her letter knowledge, one of six pre-literacy skills. According to the Noyes Library Foundation, the six pre-literacy skills to build with children are: print motivation, print awareness, letter knowledge, vocabulary, phonological awareness, and narrative skills.
Today’s focus: letter knowledge, specifically letters in children’s names.
When we began working on letter knowledge, I chose to work first with the five letters in her name, instead of working with the alphabet in order. I have loved watching her learn these letters. It started with understanding the letters in isolation and then combining, in specific order, those letters to spell her name. She surprised me one day when she pointed out letters on a sign and claimed them as her letters!
Why start with letters of her name instead of A, B, C?
Her name is important to her. She has a concrete and strong connection to it. So it makes sense to start with these letters for these words that she uses so frequently. The ownership and pride attached to the letters that form one’s name make it a natural place to begin.
Activities for encouraging learning letters of the name
The following activities are listed in the order that we did them, so that skills are built on each other.
Play dough name puzzle
We love to play with play dough, and one activity we can do with names and play dough is rolling the dough out, and then pressing MC’s name into the play dough using magnetic or wooden letters. Then placing the letters on the side, MC has to match the letter to the indented letter in the dough.
Color/stamp your name
We’ve done many variations using the do-a-dot markers, paint and q-tips, sticker dots, and stamps to fill in the letters of her name.
Letter hunts & name building
We worked extensively with building her name using lots of different materials
-matching individual letters on post its to names on white paper
-finding letters in a muffin tin (they were hidden under painters tape and MC had to cut/tear the tape to find the letters and then build her name)
-matching large pieces of paper with letters to brown paper bags labeled with the same letter, then placing the letters in order
-At Easter time, a fun spin is filling plastic eggs with letters. MC would “crack” the eggs to find letters, and then match the letters to her written name on paper.
Songs – remix versions
MC’s first name has five letters, just like B-I-N-G-O, so I revamped the lyrics to go along with her name: “There was a momma had a daughter and ___ was her name-o….” We used this along with building her name, she had scrabble-like letters and there was a letter or two missing from each name.
Laminated name strips
I made name strips on cardstock by drawing 1 x 1 inch squares for each letter in each name we wrote. I “laminated” them by using packing tape. I used MC’s name as well as family members names to make name strips. We have done so many activities with these name strips from finding her name to comparing lengths of names (which one is shortest? longest? how many letters are in your name?) and even find and circle “x” letter. This was an activity that I presented once, and she consistently went back to the material wanting to do again and again.
Find your name (highlighter/paper activity)
This was a fun activity once MC had been exposed many times to her written name. I wrote her name, Mommy, Daddy, and her siblings’ names and gave her a highlighter. She had to take the highlighter and circle all of her names. She “read” her name each time she circled it, and after she was done, I went back and read all of the names and asked for help every time we came across her name.
Which activity will you try with your toddler or preschooler?
I really feel this year (especially) that fall is a new beginning for us. I am super grateful for the cooler weather and the extra time spent outdoors.
Last week we went apple picking at our local orchard, Carter’s Mountain. While it was a different experience with “the Virus” this year: “Mommy, where’s the tractor for the [hay] ride?” “Sorry Love, because of the Virus, they won’t be doing hay rides.” – it was still a fun and enriching experience for the whole family.
We picked three different types of apple: Jonagold, Granny Smith, and Golden Delicious. The Jonagold we learned should be more red than green and are good as is (so don’t bake with them!). The other two are great for cooking and our family loves a good crisp. In fact, I believe a good crisp is a suitable meal for breakfast, lunch or dinner, and snack time in between. But…that’s just me.
Apple books we read and enjoyed:
Curious George: Apple Harvest
Mon Cœur (MC) loves Curious George, so naturally, we read Curious George: Apple Harvest adapted by Lynne Polvino. We’ve read other Curious George books and I really enjoy the playful, childlike aspect George brings to a theme and how he discovers different ways that the world works.
In this particular book, he helps to harvest and sort the apples, and also discovers how a cider machine works. I appreciate how there’s more than just a main picture to explain information. For example, with the cider machine, there are three different mini-pictures that sequentially explain the process of making cider. It makes for vocabulary building with sequence words as well as conversation and curious questioning throughout the book.
Applesauce Season
Applesauce Seasonwritten by Eden Ross Lipson and illustrated by Mordicai Gerstein is a wonderful book exploring different apple varieties and recounting the story of three generations of a family who come together each year to make applesauce. It is beautifully illustrated, and reads like an interactive, family souvenir recipe narrated by the grandson.
At the end is a sweet surprise of a recipe for the applesauce made in the book. I love how this book shows where applesauce comes from (not just a can in the store), and the different variations of taste that applesauce can have (depending on the varieties in season and used).
After reading this book, it’s easy to see what “eating in season” is all about, and I love how the book begins:
“My grandmother says there’s no reason to start eating apples when peaches are perfect. So we don’t eat the ones ready in August.”
Applesauce Season
The family lives in the city, so although the book doesn’t include a trip to the apple orchard, MC saw illustrations of a farmer’s market, and added that concept to her concept bank.
Seed by Seed
What apple themed reading selection would be complete without a book about Johnny Appleseed? Seed by Seed, written by Esmé Raji Codell and illustrated by Lynne Rae Perkins takes the reader back in time, away from the hustle bustle of the city to simpler, slower times.
Although much of what we may have heard about Johnny Appleseed is legend, Codell focuses on five lessons we could learn from him:
Use what you have.
Share what you have.
Respect nature.
Try to make peace where there is war.
You can reach your destination by taking small steps.
This was a fabulous non-fiction read to introduce MC to Appleseed and how he led by example. I love that these five lessons are simply taught for little readers and serve as a reminder for adults, too.
Apple Activities:
As we read these books, we completed various activities involving apples, including:
A visit to an apple orchard. We try to visit the orchard each year, and especially this year, we wanted to get out and enjoy the fresh air and get some apples. I was impressed that MC remembered the orchard – when we arrived she asked, “Is this the orchard we visit last year with O?” and “Where is the tractor? I want to ride!”
It was a great experience to get out as a family, pick apples, and see how they grow.
Apple washing: Yes. This sounds silly, but those apples needed to get washed before they were eaten or cooked. I could have done it by myself, but that would have taken less time, made less mess, and been less fun and educational! So I cleaned the sink and MC pulled up a chair to stand on. For the next fifteen minutes, she enjoyed splashing around and using a rag to wash the apples.
Apple sorting: We bought three different kinds (all fairly easy to distinguish – red, green and golden varieties), so I decided MC could complete a breakfast invitation where she sorted the apples by kind and counted. I counted to see what was the largest quantity of apple we had, then I created a graph that went as high as that quantity. In the morning, MC took each apple out of the bag and began sorting it into the graph. Afterwards we counted each kind to practice one to one counting.
Apple cake and apple crisp: MC loves to bake, so naturally we had to make some fall treats to eat. A friend shared her family’s apple cake recipe (delicious!) and an apple crisp is a Fall tradition in our house- one sweet treat that all of us enjoy!
RELATED: Apple craft: Last year, we ended up with some apples that weren’t quite ready….what to do? We cut them up and did some apple stamping.
RELATED: What’s a breakfast invitation? Read this related post about our new morning activities we do that are either created or inspired by Days with Grey.
Fall books we read and enjoyed:
Hocus Pocus, It’s Fall
Written by Anne Sibley O’Brien and illustrated by Susan Gal, this was a fun little book to get in the mood for Fall. MC loved the “magic words” Alakazam, Abracadabra, Shazam, among others, as well as the fold out pages. We loved reading and relating to all the fall fun festivities – back to school, milkweed seeds floating away, changing and falling leaves, apple picking, and pumpkin patches. The rhyming and spellbinding words kept MC tapping her hand and smiling as I read. it was a great book to remind us of all the enchanting changes happening as one season ends and another makes its dramatic entrance.
My Leaf Book
This was the perfect book for providing general leaf and tree identification information. Written and illustrated by Monica Wellington, it provides just enough information about trees to spark a kid’s curiosity and interest in identification. The simple shapes and illustrations together with a “think aloud” show readers how easy it is to identify trees. Many of the various trees mentioned in the book- sweet gum, honey locust, oak, cherry, sassafras- are trees that we have at our house, so it gave us a springboard for scavenger hunting.
Scattered on each page is a quick, fun fact about each different tree, and at the back there are many different suggestions for leaf projects involving leaf rubbings and prints.
J is for Jack-O’-Lantern, A Halloween Alphabet written by Denise Brennan-Nelson and Illustrated by Donald Wu
This was a great book for us to continue talking about letters and the alphabet in general. It touches on many different Halloween topics – jack-o’-lanterns, witches, pumpkin patches, skeletons, and scarecrows.
Although what I read to MC was just a four-line poem for each letter, in the margin of each page, the book included background information or an idea for a craft or a recipe for each Halloween word. Bobbing for donuts, ideas for unusual costumes, deviled egg eyeballs, popular symbols for Halloween were just a few of the margin notes that I found interesting.
Pumpkins
This summer we had good luck with our citrouille (pumpkin) harvest, a French heirloom variety Rouge Vif d’Etamps, also commonly referred to as Cinderella’s pumpkin.
We planted them a little later, around the Fourth of July, and that ended up being perfect timing for harvesting early October. We have enjoyed watching the vines sprawl across the yard, claiming ten, 15, 20 feet of land. We’ve watched the blooms open, the fruit begin growing, and then change to a vibrant red-orange color.
Mon Cœur (MC) loves the pumpkin patch, and anything pumpkin…except jack-o-lanterns…There is something about a face on a pumpkin that she does not like…No, it’s not natural, but it’s classic Halloween…So we chose a couple of pumpkins to save and carve, hoping that will take any mystery out of jack-o-lanterns and making them a little less intimidating. The others we processed into a purée and canned for bread, pie, and soup.
Pumpkin books we read and enjoyed:
How Big Could Your Pumpkin Grow?
Pumpkins as boats? Giant pumpkin balloons? Seriously? Yes! Author Wendell Minor wrotethe book, How Big Could Your Pumpkin Grow? around the theme of giant pumpkins and monumental American sites. We learned that in Vermont, people actually carve out giant pumpkins to make boats for Regattas and festivals. In Wisconsin, they hold giant pumpkin contests each year, where pumpkins weigh in around one ton each! In New Mexico they host a hot air balloon festival where there are many amusing and non-traditional balloons in shapes of animals or insects, in Fall shaped themes, and even a Jack-O-Lantern balloon.
This was a fun, silly book to introduce the idea of giant pumpkins and to show them superimposed with scenic views across the United States, such as Mount Rushmore, Kennedy Space Center, the US Capitol, a Paul Bunyan statue, and the Grand Canyon.
I like how in the very back of the book, each place is labeled with the location (State) and a little history. I really didn’t believe people made boats out of pumpkins until I saw the back of the book. It was fun to discover these places, events, and facts with MC.
Pumpkins
From a gardener’s perspective, I really enjoyed Pumpkins, written by Ken Robbins. Beautiful photography accompanies the story of a pumpkin’s lifecycle from seed to farm stand or pumpkin patch.
Even though we had our own pumpkin patch to observe, it was nice to have a book that illustrated and narrated the growing cycle of the pumpkin.
And at the end of the book, there is a quick jack-o-lantern how to. The different carvings allowed us to talk about the faces we liked the most and the faces we liked the least and why.
Pumpkin activities:
As we read these books, we completed various activities involving pumpkins, including:
Pumpkin faces: We have been bouncing back and forth between fall and all about me themed activities. One morning for her breakfast invitation, I cut out simple orange circles and some eyes and a mouth. Before I could even get out of bed, she already had the top off of the glue stick and was making faces. Love!
RELATED: What’s a breakfast invitation? Read this related post about our new morning activities we do that are either created or inspired by Days with Grey.
Pumpkin-themed oobleck: Susie at Busy Toddler frequently posts pictures of oobleck on her Instagram. I really loved her Halloween-themed oobleck, although our stash of holiday themed knick knacks was lacking…we used what we had on hand: pumpkin seeds, ping pong balls, orange dice, and googly eyes.
Oobleck is a “non-Newtonian” substance, meaning it’s neither solid nor liquid, and yet exhibits properties of both. It is made by mixing two parts cornstarch to one part water. You can use food coloring to dye the water and make your oobleck any color you want. We made ours orange!
It took some getting used to at first- MC didn’t like the texture or the mess. I sat there scratching my fingers through it, picking it up, letting it ooze and drip from between my fingers…I was astounded…It eventually grew on MC, and we were able to save and reuse the oobleck for a few days before having to trash it. She experimented moving it around with a scoop, a ladle, and a funnel. It was so fascinating to see how differently the oobleck reacted to a scoop (it was more solid, and crumbled) versus moving through a funnel (it acted more like a liquid, dribbling out of the funnel).
Pumpkin baking:
It was a family effort to process two pumpkins, and we were able to purée and can 12 fifteen-ounce jars of pumpkin. That’s a pretty impressive quantity for us, and we’ve been sharing with friends and trying new recipes. We’ve tried a pumpkin bread and muffin recipe so far, and have pie and soup on the list to try next. The pumpkin muffin recipe came from Smitten Kitchen, and made me completely forget about the pumpkin bread we made the week before. It was perfect for a tray of 6 large muffins, and made a great breakfast treat for us…I found them to be so amazing that I ended up eating two this morning! The cinnamon sugar is a perfect topping for the muffins and gives it a satisfying crunch. I love that these can be frozen – I am going to try to make some and stash them for later, when I won’t have time to make them.
Continuing with the theme of “All about me,” we’ve been reading and expressing the emotions we see and feel. Mon Cœur (MC) and I experience a range of feelings and moods throughout the day together, and I have always tried to express myself:
“I am so happy to see you cleaned your room like I asked.”
“I am so sad you did not take your nap.”
“I am frustrated you are not listening.”
“I am so excited to see you reading a book by yourself!”
And MC is practicing explaining her feelings too, when she is upset. Mostly I hear, “You hurt my feelings!” and I have to ask for a reason why. I made her do something, I said something in a stern voice, I delivered a consequence that was promised if she did not change her behavior. “If you don’t stop drinking the bath water, then I will drain the tub for the evening…Okay, I’m draining the tub.”
Way Past Mad
Right before I snapped this photo, MC declared, “Nate messed up my room,” and gave her best sad face.
A recent library find, Way Past Mad, written by Hallee Adelman and illustrated by Sandra de la Prada allowed us to explore emotions some more, as well as have some meaningful conversations about emotions and how to handle them.
RELATED: I mentioned one conversation we had which stemmed indirectly from the book in this previous post.
The story is about an older sister who is upset by all of the things that her little brother messes up. She finds herself way past mad. So mad, that she lets it out and it rubs off on her friend who tries to help her.
I love how Hallee describes the emotions as being contagious in a way – the mad is like a rash that spreads and swells. Later when she is able to process her feelings and talk it out with the friend, she turns her emotions to happy, which is like a smile that spreads and swells.
It talks about our mad making us say things we don’t mean, how emotions can be contagious, and how we can turn around our mindset and our moods.
Happy Hippo, Angry Duck
Another emotions book we read is a fun little book by Sandra Boynton, which touches on a whole spectrum of moods, Happy Hippo, Angry Duck. It gave us an opportunity to talk about synonyms (angry and mad), look at facial expressions to determine feelings, and talk about how feelings can change over time and day to day.
Feelings Activities:
Way past mad?
Worried as a rabbit
Happy as a hippo
Sad as a chicken
Completely confused
Facial expression photos: As a fun activity afterwards, we took pictures of our facial expressions for different moods. At first, it was hard for her to show anger, although after a few moods, she got into making faces! We could have made faces in the mirror, and she would have enjoyed it just as much.
Big feelings discussions: I always try to take opportunities as they come, so whenever MC is having a moment and stuck in a (negative) feeling, we talk about it. Likewise, if I am not happy, I like to express my feelings in the simplest way possible for her, so she understands.
Bedtime daily wrap up: At the end of the day, I always like to ask MC, “What was the best part of your day?” We are still working on the time parameters of a day, so sometimes she will tell me it was visiting or playing with family or friends that we saw weeks ago…So then I will tell her what my favorite part of the day was…If I ever forget to ask her, she will say to me, “What was the best part of your day, Mommy?” which always makes my heart melt because a. she remembered; and b. this is important to her, too.
I stole this idea from Randy Pausch’s The Last Lecture, where they would go around the dinner table and ask what was the best and worst part of your day. Since we spend our days together, we try to sort out the worst parts and talk through them as they come, and then accentuate the positives of the day right before bed.
Pumpkin faces: We have been bouncing back and forth between fall and all about me themed activities. One morning for her breakfast invitation, I cut out simple orange circles and some eyes and a mouth. Before I could even get out of bed, she already had the top off of the glue stick and was making faces. Love!
What’s your favorite book for exploring emotions?
RELATED: What’s a breakfast invitation? Read this related postabout our new morning activities we do that are either created or inspired by Days with Grey.
Read our other book reviews and activities for the theme “All About Me” below:
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