Board Games, Blocks, & Bees- We Explored a Honeycomb! (Flowering Baby Curriculum update)

 One of the many activities suggested in Flowering Baby is playing with a board game. Here he's playing with one of his favorites, from Ravensburger. Chutes & Ladders-- great for working on number recognition and counting to 100!- is his other favorite.

 I am planning a summary of the books we've read this month sometime in the next week (next week we start a rocks & minerals theme). However, I can't resist highlighting this particular book. It's one of the books I recommend owning rather than simply checking out of the library. Beautifully illustrated, simple text. It's a delight. T asks me to read it over and over. I'm sure he'll have the words memorized soon...

 We also learned about animal habitats. One of his favorite days was when we took a long walk around the neighborhood looking for animal homes.

Safety was another area we worked on. T had our old address memorized and never quite got the address we lived in for a couple months when we first moved here. Now using the old "My name is ____" song  we're working on our new address. Flowering Baby Curriculum age 3 also recommended working on memorizing phone numbers.

I got out my phone, handed him his toy cell phone, and we practiced. Whenever he dialed the numbers correctly, I had my phone make a sound. Immediate reward for a job well done!

 One activity asked for designing and building bridges out of blocks. Oh, that was so much fun. I thought he'd never stop!

Blocks were again used for practicing sorting. I handed him a pile of wooden blocks and asked him to sort them into three piles, making sure there was something the same about each pile. He sorted by shape once (squares, circles, triangles he said) and by color another time.
 

The sorting began simply, with piles on pillows based on color...

But what preschooler can resist the allure of building with blocks? The piles quickly changed into

structures.

We also have been practicing writing letters (and saying their sounds) and numbers. A wooden box and play dough makes for good practice...

So does shaving cream on a mirror...

Finger paints are another great way to practice writing a name. Messy too. But the mess is worth it if learning is fun.  Also used the finger paints to practice making shapes.

Dip a whole side of a
 finger in the paint
and press it down
to create the sides
 of the shape.
Or use the fingertip to
create a
fingerprint
circle!


 



 








Caps for Sale was one of our books for the month. My sister had a copy at her house and read it to T via Skype. She lives across the country from us, so it was a delightful bonding time between aunt and nephew. T collected every hat he could find.




 Then he piled them on top of his own head! We only missed a puppet. Ahh, should have gotten out a monkey puppet.  I should've surprised him by sneaking up with a monkey puppet, grabbing a hat. I can picture him quoting the book saying "You monkey you! You give me back my cap!" Of course I'd only make the proper response, "Tsk, tsk, tsk!" Oh, well. In retrospect. Could've been a lot of fun. Walking around with a big pile of hats on top of a 3 year old's head is fun enough. There was a lot of laughter as it was.


But this. This was the highlight of the month for him. We went to the farmer's market and bought a tiny piece of honeycomb.

 

Gooey. Sticky. Delicious.

He really loved it. We also read a Magic School Bus book about bees with it. But oh, he loved exploring the honeycomb. Every day since then he comes to his papa or to me asking, "May I explore another honeycomb please?"