Winomino & A Young Author

This game is awesome.  It just is.  Definitely one of our favorites.  Sophie is particularly in love with it and pretty good at it too!  So great for building math skills and problem solving.  I love playing with her.

It's kind of like Tetrus but without the falling pieces.  You're racing each other to fit a certain selection of pieces (defined by your card and then by each round winner's choices) into a small, measured area. 

You did it, Soph!  Way to go! 

Meanwhile, I finally let Will break out his "Create Your Own" blank, white books to write his own story.  I wanted him to wait long enough for his drawing and writing skills not to make a waste of these cute, little books.  He chose to write about Transformers and his book was titled Transformers Galore (after one of his favorites Dinosaurs Galore). 

Lots of focus.  He poured over this at length and immediately wanted to make a second book.  A set of these will be on his Christmas gift list if anyone is interested! 

I almost cried when I saw these next two pics.  His little profile and the way his mouth/lips look is just how he looked as a baby.  I can think of several pictures with that same little face/profile only five years younger. 

Tot School Weekend Play

We've had several super-relaxing, no-plans weekends lately.  And we LOVE it!  Both kids battling some school-exposed germs, tired from the over-stimulation of the school week and craving some time at HOME without scheduled commitments, has lead us to keep our calendar pretty much wide open.  Our time at home has been mostly unstructured - free play without television, except for the occasional library movie - and they've even gotten into helping me more with a little cleaning if kept in brief periods.  I'll take it!  On this particular weekend, however, we broke out some new and old Tot School materials in the morning and dug in. 

A butterfly matching file folder game:  one half of each butterfly is taped down to the inside of the folder and Sophie had to match the laminated other half to it's appropriate spot.

Will worked with math flash cards and Unifix cubes.

Sophie threaded pony beads onto different colored chenille stems poked into a styrofoam disc.

Beginning letter sounds: letter magnets placed on different images on top of a cookie sheet.

A "Hot or Cold" file folder sort.  She did awesome with this.

A digraph sort for Will.  "Ch", "Sh" and "Th" bags to sort various images that begin with those digraphs.

"Building" shapes using labeled popsicle sticks and templates drawn onto card stock.

Diamond and square: 

Pentagon:

Rectangle:

Parallelogram:

Matching fruit - half to whole - file folder game.

Leaf matching game:

This was originally Sophie's, but Will took over and "guided" her through it.  ;-)  Upper and lower case letter match.

We didn't get outside this morning but a little physical play to get their bodies moving is so helpful in making nap time easier.  So I remembered some silly stickers that came with our last helium tank for birthday party balloons.  I blew up two balloons and let the kids pick some silly facial feature stickers to decorate them with.  Then they got really into a stimulating game of don't-let-the-balloons-touch-the-ground.  :)

And yes, it worked.  They both conked out for naps.

 

On Sunday, the kids made birthday cards for Craig while he was outside working.  Will's cracked me up with all the goofy wording he chose for his card.  What a nut.

Making homemade (felt) pizzas before bath time this evening.

I've been meaning to break out the puzzles again soon.  I miss doing those!

Play Time with Sophie

Last Monday, Soph and I had another 30-ish minute one-on-one time during karate class.

We got out the peg board and she pushed pegs into each hole.

Then she used very careful hand movements to place a marble on top of each peg without disturbing any others.
She enjoyed this and was very focused with it.

Next, we removed the pegs and she placed the marbles on each hole in the board. This task is just a bit harder to avoid disturbing other marbles.

After our peg board play, we read our new Mo Willems books from the library. Sophie and Will (but especially Sophie) are huge fans of Mo and ALL of his books. Knuffle Bunny, the Pidgeon, Gerald & Piggie, etc. They are all good. These three were instant favorites for the week and we are on a mission to read just about everything he's written now. Will cracks up at the humor cause he really gets it. I think Sophie understands some of it, but is more drawn to the easily-read emotions that the illustrations present in the elephant & piggie series. I love them for both reasons. :-)

Next up, she requested this honey bee hive game. It's similar to a game I played as a child, except mine was just a simple cylinder with plastic sticks and marbles. Here, we were placing all the leaf-tipped sticks through the holes in the hive. Please excuse her mismatched ensemble. She came home from the sitter's in a pair of spare pants this day and I just didn't bother to change her.

Filling the hive with bees once the sticks are there to hold them in place.

Then we took turns pulling one stick out at a time. The real way to play is to avoid letting any bees fall down the center of the tree. The person with the fewest bees wins... Well, Sophie and I played the exact opposite since she always got so excited whenever she heard the sound of any bees falling.

Counting up all her bees at the end of the game. She "won". ;-)