Wordless Wednesday : Preachooler Amazed by Art Museum's Garden

We went to the art museum, which is surrounded by beautiful formal and informal gardens and long winding trails. T was enthralled.  Everything was in bloom. Just beautiful!

Making Lemon-Scented Play Dough!

I'm having fun experimenting with our play doughs. I don't know about you, but sometimes I find the smell of playdough gets to me. A few months ago I enjoyed making a whole wheat, cinnamon scented dough. It had a gritty texture that was rather interesting to touch. The cinnamon smell was very pleasant on a cold wintry day.

When we recently made a new batch of dough I was inspired to try for yet another scent. Something springy. There sitting in my pantry was a nice bottle of lemon extract. I grabbed it. Mixed it into the dough. The result was lovely. Is lovely. Every time my son opens the tub of playdough and rolls that dough around there's a very faint, pleasantly lemony scent. I'm really pleased with lemon-scented play dough!

Mix flour,water, salt, cream of tartar, oil, and a smidgen of lemon extract.

Cook until thickened over low heat and cool. Knead and play. Store in airtight container.

Lemon Scented Play Dough Recipe:

1 c water
1 c flour
1/2 c salt
2 tsp cream of tartar
2 Tbls oil
splash of lemon extract

Highlights from our week: Apr 16-20

Stamping activity: 

Working with a sponge:

Bible Story:

Here is his recreation of the story of Adam and Eve's creation, and the naming of the animals.

lol, it must be before the fall- the people are riding the lions!

He can now recite Genesis 1:1  and is working on Psalm 1:1-3.

                                                               Letter/Shape Practice:

 His attempt at an H

Hiding behind an M

 Building letter puzzles

Exploring with pouring:

oops, this doesn't work...

maybe...

Now, how about getting water through these holes in the empty salt shaker...

 Didn't work...removing lid...

More Motor Skills

Using tweezers to move rice    (he loves this!)

Cutting

Sweeping

Language practice:

 Putting the objects on the picture when he hears the phrase...

 Listening to a book on CD...

 

Sorting and Matching:

 By Size

 By picture

  Letter matching activity, from Confessions of a Homeschooler

 Day/Night sort inspired by Hubbard's Cupboard

Wordless Wednesday: Preschool Water Fun

 Water activity. How much water to fill up the containers? Let's see...

First Few Days of "Preschool" activities

Ok, so T is now three as of March. And yes, it's April, not August. But he is so used to having educational toys and activities around, and he'd finished our old toddler binder. He's been begging for more. I decided to go ahead and start him on the newest binder and other activities I've collected. You can see some of the resources I'm using for preschool on the right hand sidebar.  

Here are some highlights of this (short) week! 

 

T working on the creation story from our Bible Treasure Chest.

T reading books, "George Shrinks" and "Peter Rabbit", in our reading & music corner. 

Preparing to practice cutting.

Continuing his cutting project from the previous day.

Making lemon-scented play-dough. Yes, I'll be sure to post about that one. It smelled great!

Knobbed cylinders. This set is changes by width from skinny to fat, but the same depth.

Building with blocks. Oh, by the way, that mat? Yes, that's his work mat. He unrolls it whenever he wants to do an activity.

Alphabet puzzle

 

Pouring activity with rice. He spent most of yesterday doing this actually. 

While I didn't get a picture of it, my personal highlight happened yesterday. We were out in the back yard (as we are many hours of the day despite my allergies) when he came and sat down under a tree with me. We sat there, watching the birds. Suddenly he jumped up. Dashing off towards the house he called out "I need to get the bird book!" referring to our state bird field guide. :)