April 12, 2009 Easter at Great Grandma's house

Sophia is playing in her house and enjoying a laugh with her Grandma.

Here is a cute pose of her in her Easter dress sitting on her Princess stool made for her by Great Grandma

Whoa! What did the Easter Bunny bring? Let me see that basket Grandma!

Sophia and her Grandma are reading her new puzzle book.

April 12, 2009 Easter Egg Dyeing and Decorating

The Easter Bunny came and hid plastic eggs all around our house for Sophia. When we were done finding them, I decided we need to dye and decorate the real hard-boiled eggs. I started dyeing the eggs and looked up to find that Sophia had reached out and cracked one open and was eating it. It was pretty funny to see her peel an egg all by herself and dig right in. I showed her how I was coloring them to make them pretty and she didn't steal anymore. However, when I was finished coloring them, she enjoyed putting stickers on them and placing them in the cardboard holders as shown in this photo.

She also decided because they were so pretty, she should try to eat them with the shells on as pictured here. I then proceeded to show her again how to crack and peel an egg. She tried it after I did it. She thought the colored eggs were even better. She exclaimed, "Yummy Yum!"

Here she is putting little stickers on the eggs.

I love the intense concentration on her face as she places the sticker on the egg.

April 12, Easter Morning finding her basket from the bunny

Yeah! The Easter Bunny came and brought some baby dolls.

Wow! Playdough!

Sophia trying on her headbands.

Sophia pulled everything out of her basket. There was some candy but mostly toys.

April 11, 2009 Grandma and Sophia at the Easter Egg Hunt

Grandma and Sophia visit with the Easter Bunny at the Dardenne Prairie Easter Egg Hunt

Hunting for eggs

Two Easter Baskets, I guess she was planning on finding lots of eggs.

 Sophia received a Mickey Mouse basket at the Egg Hunt to go along with her Elmo basket that she brought.

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.

April 4, 2009 Eggs Eggs Easter Egg Hunt

Sophia went to her first Easter Egg hunt this past weekend at McNair park in St. Charles, Missouri. I liked this egg hunt because they divided the kids up into age groups. Sophia was in the group from 1 to 3 year olds which was perfect for her based on her speed and ability in hunting eggs. From the smiles showing on her face, I am guessing she enjoyed it. Here she is picking up Easter Eggs and putting them in her basket.

Oh, look there are a few more. She really only found one egg but somehow more kept popping up not far from where she was. She ended up with about a half dozen eggs. Maybe someday I will share the secret with her of parents bringing extra eggs in their pockets. Thanks to my parents for that bit of advice. Egg hunts are much more fun when a child is not screaming that she didn't get any eggs. Yes, there were a few around us that screamed, but Sophia just walked along proudly with her treasure.

Scott and Sophia had a quick hug and kiss for the Easter Bunny.