Felt Fun

The past two days have been unusually windy and chilly so we have not been too apt to head outdoors :( I know the cold is not something that should keep us indoors but I feel like we didn't get to ease into it at all. It went from 70s to 50s all of a sudden. Though we haven't been outdoors much the past two days we've stayed occupied! Yesterday Mother Nature led the littles to nap lengthy naps, it was rainy and gloomy out and all the littles slept beautifully! They ate turkey and cheese and spinach wraps for lunch and gobbled up clementines like they were going out of style! I cut half a yard of felt in an assortment of colors and let the littles choose their favorite color to use as an activity mat. Mo chose green and Ez chose orange. Such predictable choices (so far these are their favorite colors). They came to respect each other's mat and didn't take materials or toys from each other's mat. Lo didn't quite catch on to the respecting other's work space but luckily being a baby gives him freedom to not follow all the rules in motion- even the toddlers excuse being a baby when it comes to many things! As for sharing and respecting each other using the mats is something I will continue to do! It also helps control what they choose to pull out. They can't fit their body and more than one activity on a mat so they are somewhat forced into returning their things back to their place before getting something more out.

Today was field trip day. We visited the library downtown and enjoyed stories and songs with the librarian. There were SO many children there today- every age from 0-5 was represented in numbers. The littles had fun playing with others, building Lego creations, reading books, coloring, playing at the felt board, reading train books (it's all about Thomas the Train lately). It was a fun outing! We returned home to eat breakfast foods for lunch- scrambled eggs topped with cheese, oranges, and whole wheat waffles with blueberries (I found a healthy frozen brand- Vans). And back to the felt play today. The littles were VERY inventive! The felt became a cape, a towel (to wrap at the waist like daddy after a shower), a playsilk type of fabric to wave and wiggle, a pretend blanket for a pretend nap, some practical life skills came into play as the littles "folded laundry" with the felt, and a game arose from the colors. The littles laid out all of felt pieces and as I watched them create their game I gave myself a role in it. I would announce which color the littles were to go stand on and they went hurrying to it. The game grew and instead of just giving them a color I gave them an action to do on a mat "give a thumbs up on yellow" "lay on purple" "hop on green"... I love how the littles created the game and I was able to help them develop it. I felt like they mixed Simon Says and Twister and made a really fun, active, and educational experience for us all! Our day finished with working with the cylinder blocks and using the color beads!

Hopefully this blog entry appears somewhat decent, I'll double check it in the morning... It is my first post from my iPhone!
Cheers.