|
| Brielle enjoying the sunshine...and showing off her shirt just for Aunt Elise who gave it to her! |
It was a gorgeous day outside, and Ty was restless. I sent him outside, but all the outdoor toys, etc. had been put away for the coming winter so when I went to check on him, I found him digging in the mulch/dirt with his fingers. Trying to protect our landscaping, I suggested Ty try a rice box, and idea I'd read about in a few different places. We still don't have a sand box (on the must-have list for spring 2011) so I dumped a bunch of rice in a shoe box and told Ty to dig in that instead of the dirt. We even pulled out some cars to bury and drive in the rice. He had a blast playing with it out on the deck!!! Unfortunately, while I was vacuuming the living room, he decided he wanted to play with the rice box
inside the house, so he carried it in all by himself. Tysen actually did a fairly good job of getting it in without much of a mess, but while he was playing with it indoors, rice began flying. Fortunately, I had the vacuum out and was able to clean up the mess without too much fuss, but the rice box is an outdoor play idea, or if it is indoors it needs to be used in an area where the "flying rice" can be easily cleaned up. (Just an FYI -- I had packed the rice away but needed to pull it out again when Ty asked to play with the rice box the following two days...he really enjoyed it!)
 |
| Blowing bubbles |
After spending at least 30 minutes digging in the rice box Ty went out to blow bubbles. This activity usually takes Ty less than three minutes simply because he dumps out the bubble solution. Today was different! He blew bubbles for at least
five minutes before he dumped out the bubble solution. He's been getting better at blowing bubbles as he gets older and it's fun to see his excitement and joy at being able to create beautiful bubbles!
I decided to start another observation activity, too. I'd used an avocado to make soup and kept the seed because one of my idea books, 365 Days of Creative Play by Sheila Ellison and Judith Gray, included an idea of growing an avocado tree. All you need are:
Avocado seed
Sharp nail
3 toothpicks
Small water tumbler
|
| Ty places the toothpicks in the holes. |
Make three holes in the avocado seed with a sharp nail. Insert a toothpick in each hole and make sure they are secure. Fill glass tumbler with water and balance the avocado seed on top using the toothpicks, The tip of the seed should be in the water. Place on a window ledge. Soon a root and a shoot will appear. As soon as the shoot has leaves, snip off the top. This will let the avocado tree branch out. Pot the little tree when roots are thick. Continue to snip off the top growth to make a thicker bush.
In our experience, it's been 4 days and there's no growth yet. We'll see...
 |
| Our avocado seed in water. |
With my parents living in Holland, MI, I've driven past Deanna's Playhouse numerous times, but never really noticed it. I wasn't aware of what it was until I discovered the link on grkids.com (one of the best sites!). Deanna's Playhouse is a FANTASTIC place! Grandma Smits met us there to explore the 15,000 square feet of toys, music, crafts, snacks, and so much more. I was so impressed with the different areas of play and so were the boys. They even had an area for infants/young toddlers with age-appropriate toys. Of course, my boys immediately found the trains, but shortly after we arrived they had a story time. The book, Mouse Paint (I think that was the title) was about three mischievous mice mixing paints to create different colors. Koen and Brielle were the lone listeners (Ty was playing trains), and Koen received his own book to create at home (which he did soon after we arrived home). 
We were one of two groups there that morning which was so nice. The kids could run and play wherever they wanted and I could easily keep tabs on them. Of course, the staff said the weekends and winter days tend to be much, much busier. 
