April 8, 2009 Making her own Princess Crown

My little princess is modeling her crown that she made. I have recently discovered the foam crafts. I was looking at visors to make Sophia a little hat with pre-cut foam cut-outs. As I scanned up and down the row in the store, my eyes fell upon the crown. Recently, Sophia stepped on her plastic crown and cracked it. It was leftover from a surprise birthday party held for me by friends. I had given it to her to play princess with as a dress-ups hat and she played with it pretty often. I had felt bad that her little crown was destroyed so I was looking for a replacement. This was the perfect solution. I pulled out the princess crown and set the foam cut-outs on the table. I told her she could choose whatever she wanted from the pieces on the table and I would help her to attach them to her hat. She selected some stars and some princess pictures. I asked her where she wanted each piece and carefully removed the paper backing to reveal the sticky backs. I helped her a little as she put the pieces on the crown to make sure the pieces were adhering to the surface so they wouldn't fall off when she plays with them. I think for a first crown design, she did awesome! I am so proud of my little princess.

Here, she is showing me the finished product.

Putting her crown on and taking it off...

Goofing off to make mommy laugh

Placing some of the foam stars on the crown...

Silly girl wearing a mustache crown before she added the princess cut-outs. She put it on her head and it fell on her face because she didn't have it on right. She wasn't sure how to wear this hat at first, but she gave me a few laughs while figuring it out.

Dearest Princess Sophia Marie, mommy is so proud of your sense of humor and ability to entertain while we make a craft. You did very well. Mommy loves you.

April 7, 2009 Easter Chickadee art project.

Today's project was to create a paper chickadee for Easter. I cut out the pieces of this chick and showed Sophia how to glue them onto the paper. It was great to see how she could follow directions. The purpose was to sharpen her fine motor skills and see if she could follow very simple directions. She excelled as I expected. She glued the parts of the chickadee where they were supposed to go. I was amazed that it really looked great when she was done. Here she is assembling the chickadee.

She put the beak on first and the feet and then the wings. I think she did an awesome job when you consider she is only 18 months old.

Here she looks proud of her work. She was holding it up, but in the photo you can't see it because she turned it sideways when the photo snapped.

You can see the finished project a little bit better in this picture.

April 6, 2009 Easter (Cat?) Bunny with pom poms

Now, that Sophia is capable of doing more things I am planning on doing two activities every day. With the intent of providing an enriching experience for her development, I intend to do 2 structured activities a day. Up until now, we only did one a day that was experiential learning sometimes going outside and playing or singing a song. We are still going to be using experiential learning but taking it to a new level and emphasing a specific skill in each session.

Because she is not in daycare, I don't want her to fall behind in any areas that her peers are encountering in school. I have always dreamed of this and the moment is now. She is pretty good at following directions so I am going to be working on helping her to lengthen her attention span. It seems to have suddenly gotten shorter so we will be working on focusing on the task at hand.

My intent is to create a semi-structured environment where each day we sit down at her table and do something whether it be making something or learning something. I will try to vary the experiences and make them fun yet teach her how to count or learn her colors or use her senses at each session. I will choose sensory activities to expose her to different textures and shapes. We will also develop her fine motor skills development and gross motor skills. I will consciously choose activities that expose her to a variety of environments and experiences.

This was one of the first lessons we had. I was reading books about Easter to Sophia. I was teaching her about the upcoming holiday so she would appreciate the events more coming up this weekend. Then, we sat down and glued pom poms to a piece of paper to make an Easter Bunny.

I printed out a picture of the Easter Bunny here and told Sophia we were going to glue them on the bunny. I put several colorful pom poms in front of her that would be the color of the bunny. However, she chose the ones that were still in the bag. She chose the orange and black swirled pom poms. I thought okay, it is her picture, let her do what she wants. Don't curb her creativity, step back and let her go. She proceeded to glue these pom poms on the bunny as pictured. I was very proud that she could do this project and patiently helped her stay focused on the task.

When she completed her picture, I asked her what we made. She did not answer me but she brought her picture over to show the cat. I was puzzled for a moment and then as she pointed to the cat and smiled, I realized what she was telling me. She said, "Cat!" as she pointed to Brittany our cat. Then, I saw the resemblence. All along she was making a picture of our cat, not the Easter Bunny. I guess she taught me today. Here is one of our cats, her favorite below.

Septmber 26, 2008 Sophia Draws with Crayons/ Tadoodles

I just came across Sophia's first drawing with her new toy. Her friend Ayla from our playgroup gave her some really cool crayons made for toddlers called Tadoodles.  The are shaped for a toddler to hold in her hand. She likes drawing with them. This is her first drawing.

Thanks to Ayla and her mom Emily for the fun creative art supplies. Sophia seems to be enjoying this kind of stuff more and more.