Fingerpainting

Made some fingerpaints for the girls and stuck them outside with a strip of butcher paper. Avy was so ready to make messes - this is probably her new favorite thing. Ellie distinctly dislikes messes, so she stayed away until I finally brought out some paintbrushes. Our stairs were red and green by the end of it :)

Cute Avy

Title sez it all.

Washing dishes

Another Montessori activity is washing dishes - in a typical school, children as young as 2.5 are responsible for preparing their own meal and cleaning up after themselves (including washing dishes!). We're gungho - I want the girls to be fixing me meals by the time the babies arrive.... - so we gave it a shot.

First time was definitely eventful - pretty sure the counter/floor got washed as thoroughly as the dishes. The girls weren't quite sure what to do with their sponges and they loved the bubbles. Practice makes perfect though!

Fine motor practice

Stringing beads is great fine motor practice, and the girls love the game. They're just getting the hang of pushing the string all the way through the beads; soon they'll be making patterns into necklaces!

Sensory play

I'm constantly searching the internet for activities for toddlers, both indoor and out. One suggested filling a bin with rice krispies and letting the kiddo experience the crunchiness. So we filled up a bin we had outdoors (because I'm not crazy) with some off-brand krispies, and let the girls figure out what to do with it. They got the idea pretty quick...

Sit, eat, and crunch with your toes. What could be better?

Plum jam

We had a banner year for plums from our tree this year (banner harvest really all around), and turned most of the surplus into jam. The girls approve ;)

Cutting our own bananas

We got some "safety" knives and let the girls go to town on some soft foods... supervised of course!