Skip to main content

Keeping a toddler entertained

The night before last I was haunted by visions of a Regency Era dress for maternity wear and when I saw the flat bedsheet Miss M was using to make a tent, it told me it wanted to be that dress. So yesterday, when I was supposed to be working on my SWAP, I cut out a dress for myself instead. It turns out, a queen sized flat sheet is perfect for the Regency dress pattern (especially since I needed to hack off 5 inches in length).  I cut out the whole thing and the rest of the garments for Miss M...good thing too 'cause I was having a few contractions bent over on the floor like that. I'm listed as "high risk" for pre-term delivery (Miss M was born at 36 weeks), so I don't need to be having contractions at only 6 months pregnant! Now that all the cutting out is done, I won't have to get down on the floor like that anymore!

It seems I woke up one morning, turned around, and my baby girl had morphed into a sponge, soaking up every bit of information and stimulation she could find. She's completely outgrown her baby toys and is in need of new things to do. Just about every day last week I came up with a new activity for her. One day it was a "sand" table consisting of my 9x12" cake pan and some old (uncooked!) rice.



Another day she asked to make pizza, so we she did. I really didn't do much other than premix the spices and even up the cheese at the end.



Her lola (grandma) had a birthday this weekend, so little Miss M made her very first greeting card. She even put the stamps on the "envelope" all by herself.



Miss M has always had advanced fine motor skills for her age. Even before she could walk, she'd crawl around and pick up the tiniest pieces of debris from the carpet -- amazingly, they didn't usually go in her mouth either!  So I've been wanting to get her some lacing cards since she first turned 2 -- even though they have "for ages 3-6" on the box. The cheapest ones I've seen are about $10 (Disney princesses, ick!) and they go up from there. I just couldn't bear to spend that much and it suddenly dawned on me to make my own!  I used a double-layer of cardstock, clear contact paper, a 1/8" hole punch, and some lanyard for the laces.



After I finished the first one, I was a little concerned that the holes were too many and too small.  Oh how wrong I was! All it took was showing Miss M once how to "find the next hole" and next thing I knew, she laced up a whole card!  I'll definitely be making more of these! In fact, I think I might make up a tutorial while I'm at it. These would make great gifts for a huge range of ages...both boys and girls.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Cocoa Krispie Sod House: a model you can eat

Ahh! I just realized I haven't blogged our Adventures in U.S. History since Week 26!!  What happened?!  We've just been plugging away contentedly at our work and are nearing the end of our school year.  So, while I go get myself sorted and whip up the rest of our weekly reviews for you, I thought you might like to see our latest project. A Cocoa Krispie Sod House Ingredients: 6 tablespoons butter 6 cups miniature marshmallows 9 cups cocoa krispies 3/4 cup fancy shredded coconut ("fancy" looks more like grass, but any shredded coconut will work) green food coloring extra butter or cooking spray Also needed: large sauce pan (or large microwave safe bowl) wooden spoon jelly roll pan or cookie sheet waxed paper small glass bowl fork knife clean scrap of cardboard popsicle sticks kitchen shears Directions: Melt butter in a large sauce pan over low heat. Don't let the butter brown!  When melted, add in the marshmallows and s

Getting Ready for Creation to the Greeks and 1st Grade

The past several days post-Christmas have been spent prepping for our upcoming school year. We school year-round from January to December. This year our schedule is blocked off in 5-week chunks.  We will have five weeks of school followed by a week or two (or sometimes three) break. There are many, many reasons we keep this sort of schedule, but I'll save all that for another day. Since I am doing both Creation to the Greeks and First Grade from My Father's World this year, I had a little more work than usual to get ready. I Printed or Copied grid pages from both the CTG and First Teacher's Manuals to make my planner pages listed in the Teacher's Manual from Drawing with Children Science in the Beginning Notebook ( get it under Downloads from Berean Builders ) Proverbs cursive copywork for my girl to tagalong with her little brother English from the Roots Up worksheets ( download here ) 100 chart from back of Singapore Math 4A Home Instructor's Guide

Fall SWAP progress

I finally have some progress to report on my Ottobre SWAP.  There are actually six garments finished, but I only have pictures of four of them so far. You can see that the brown Maya blouse is lacking buttons. I didn't have anything suitable in my stash, so I'll "have" to go find some at JoAnn's.  I'm thinking something to match the medium pink in the trim, but we'll see. I almost never buy buttons...I usually always make do with what I have on hand. The cream Maya blouse is made of a vintage pillowcase I picked up at Goodwill a while back ($0.50).  It carries that oh-so-fresh smell that I love on my pillows and is super soft. I have a bit left that I'm going to hoard until just the right project comes up. I'm delighted with how dressy the little skirt came out! It's made of chocolate brown stretch velvet.  Miss M thought it was great fun to pet it like a kitten. Modeled by the lovely Miss M...and just before naptime (what was I thi