Homeschooling - Week 1 | 26 Months

You may have noticed that things are a bit fishy here the last couple of weeks, it seems to calm her to do fish activities and we continued with it. 

I made Mouse some Craft Foam Fish activities, we are busy with basic shapes and this game worked great for us.  I cut out some fish shapes from Craft Foam and drew some basic shapes on them with a black marker.  She then had to sort them in pairs and name the shapes for me.  Mouse loved the fact that they were on fish shapes.

I started with emotions as well, she can name certain emotions like afraid and sad, but I also drew faces on the fishies that was happy, surprised, angry and sad.  This one didn't keep her attention for too long, but I will give it a try again.

I'm busy teaching her to not only count to 3, but that the numbers also means something, that a value is attached to them.  I made this set with the fishies as well as craft foam numbers 0 - 3.  On each fish I drew a dot / s for the appropriate number.

For a craft we made a big goldfish.  Georgia, my friend from Love and Lollipops, gave us a stack of these great pizza plates and I thought that it will make a great base for our goldfish.  I gave Mouse a bingo marker, with the idea that she should dot on scales, but she prefered to squeeze the paint out and paint the plate.

When she was done with the painting, I cut out the mouth of the fish, glued on a eye and promptly glued on the tail upside down...*sigh* silly mommy...:)

Still turned out sorta cute though!

She also practiced puzzle building skills with her new Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Puzzle.  She loves Mickey Mouse and this puzzle was a huge hit.

I bought it at Checkers for about R30.00, well worth it!

 

I glued some old fridge magnets onto pom poms and showed her how to trace the letters with the pom poms. We started with the letter M for Mouse and Mickey Mouse!

I have wanted to do this project with the shape beanbags for a while, and finally got round to it. I cut out some basic shapes from felt, stitched them and filled them with some old lentils and beans I had in my cupboard. She loves these beanbags!

I would ask her to hold up a specific shape and she did so good!

Just some of the fun things we were up too.  I also made a felt set for The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.  I'll post some photos on that soon!  Have a blessed week!

My Little Girl...

I just love this little girl so much.  I love her super curly hair, her big blue eyes, the way she laughs from the bottom of her belly and her wonderful sense of humour.

I cannot imagine my life without her, love you my little girl! Forever and ever..

These super cute pics were taken by my dear friend Georgia from Love and Lollipops.

Soothing a broken heart...

Last week our goldfish, Ross, died.  Mouse really misses him, yesterday she saw a big fishtank filled with beautiful fish and she cried all the way home for a new fishie.  At this stage the last thing I want is a new fishie, Ross was my pet for 9 years and I cannot imagine replacing him at this stage.

Mommy decided to do the next best thing and make a new fishie for Mouse.

First gather your supplies:

Orange Craft Foam, Green construction paper, Blue Crinkle Paper,  Black marker, Scissors, Glue, Cotton and an empty Coffee Jar.

I used the Blue paper to add to the bottom of the jar, now your "tank" has water in it!

Take the inside plastic seal out of the glass lid.  Make a little hole in the centre, thread some cotton through and glue it in place.

Now you can cut out a fishie from the craftfoam, add a small hole {I found it is easiest if you thread the other piece of the cotton with a needle through the fish} tie the cotton and attach the plastic liner to the lid again.

Add some green construction paper plants and you are done!

Now your little girl has a fishie again...

She was super excited about this project and she loves it!

Glass Painting

I found this cute little craft kit with paints, the framed glass picture and a brush.  Mouse loved doing this and she did most of it on her own, I did help her a bit, I just couldn't resist a bit of glass painting!  There is still loads of paint left over, and I'm already thinking of some great ideas on jars for christmas and birthday presents...

Giveaway Time!

The kind team from the CSN stores is sponsoring a $50 gift certificate to one of my lucky blog readers!  CSN has over 200 online shops, you can buy anything from cookware to lights to furniture!

I just visited the CSNstores.com website and found this stunning art furniture!  I want....

What do you need to do to enter this fabulous giveaway?  Easy, leave me a comment - any {nice} comment!

This giveaway is open to US and Canadian postal addresses only.  Closes 1 September 2010, winner will be drawn using Random.org on the 2nd and notified via email.  You will have 2 days to respond to email, otherwise a new winner will be chosen.  I didn't receive any free products or payment for this giveaway - I'm doing it just for you!

Goodbuy Ross..

Our Goldfish, Ross, died last friday.  He was 9 years old and I really loved this little guy.  So friday morning we had to have a little funeral.  Mouse was so upset about Ross.  I tried to explain to her that Ross is sleeping now, forever and that he is with Jesus. 

She kept saying that Ross is supposed to be in his tank, sleeping in his tank and not in the garden.  It broke my heart to see my little girl so upset.  Since then she also went to bed with a plastic bath fish for a day or two. 

I cleared the tank away, but when she passes the place where it stood she will stand still for a moment and I sometimes hear her say that "the fishie is dead". 

How do you handle a situation like this?  I need to teach her about life ending and the wonderful life that awaits us in heaven, but she is only 2 years old and losing a pet really impacted her so much.  She loved standing on her little step in front of his tank and watch him swim.  It is better already, but she still asks me about Ross sleeping in the garden...

Shapes, shapes, shapes!

We are busy learning our shapes and I find that she will try and draw the shapes we learned, this is super cute!  

Here's her drawings:

After she drew them she told me what picture was what shape.  I marked it to remember it forever. 

Mouse's Art

We have been having the most gorgeous wheater in Cape Town, you will never say that it is still supposed to be winter in Cape Town!  I snapped some photos of Mouse and Daddy over the weekend.

Such a cutie! 

 

Yesterday I was busy with some work and Mouse asked me if she could paint something, I thought that I'll give her just one paint, a brush and a huge piece of paper.  Leave her to paint on her own {crazy, I know! :)} and quickly finish what I was busy doing.  I was still busy typing when she called me to say that she was finished, I got up with some idea of total chaos waiting for me, but to my surprise she closed the paint, took the dirty brush to the sink and was waiting for me in the bathroom to wash her hands.  She is really getting so big now!  She didn't paint the floor or anything else "illegal".  Here is the painting she did totally unsupervised and on her own!

 

I love you my little girl!

Muffin Tin Monday - No Theme

For this week's Muffin Tin I used my beautiful new Heart Shaped Muffin Tin that my friend Donette from The Journey gave me during the Muffin Tin Swap.  I am just so in love with my new tin!

Mouse is on a "I hardly eat anything phase"  I added all her favourites of the moment to this tin:

Rice, Cheese, Olive and Avocado - funny combination, but at least she ate it!

Visit Muffin Tin Mom for more awesome Muffin Tin Meal ideas and to join in the fun!