Art table: Part 2

I set up a new activity for H's art table. I am not sure it is as successful as the crayons and paper but H was definitely interested. The idea with this project is that H opens the box, takes out a piece of paper, tears the paper and puts it in the bowl.

Sometimes H will tear the paper but most of the time he rolls it up and puts it in the bowl or rolls it up and carries it around. Perhaps we will wait a bit until we bring out this activity again. It may just be a little too early for him. But it was still fun to put together.

Morning hike

One of the amazing things about being in CA is the beautiful parks and amazing weather. We decided to take advantage of these facts and headed out for a hike this weekend. I must admit, hikes are much shorter and slower now that H is walking. He loved being outside and exploring the new terrain.

Making friends with the potty

So, H is not quite ready for to learn how to use the toilet yet but we are getting acquainted with the potty. We went to a toilet learning talk at H's school a few weeks ago and although H is not showing all of the indicators that he is ready for toilet learning it was suggested we make a potty available and a couple of pairs of training pants to explore. H thinks the whole thing is very interesting and fun.

what's up?

The sweetest thing

Yesterday afternoon when J came home from work H was putting around the living room minding his own business when he came across a large book of children's poetry. As opposed to keeping it for himself and flipping through the pages as he normally does, H carried it over to J to read to him. It was so cute to see H lugging this enormous book (relative to H's size) over to J, babbling all the way. Then the two of them settled in to read some poetry. Sigh. So cute.

For the record...

...the kitchen is spotless (for now) and I am headed to bed. This small miracle was made possible by the help of J, trusty husband and dish washing champ.

New art space

The kitchen needs some serious attention tonight but I am avoiding it through blogging. As soon as I write this post I am off to clean dishes and scrub the floor, I promise. I figure blogging is for a good cause, right? Saving memories? Maybe telling a few people about a fun thing you can do with your kids? Helping remind myself of fun ideas for future brown trout babies?

Today we set up an art table for H. In keeping with the Montessori method I tried to keep the space simple so as to not overwhelm H. The idea is if you give a young child too much, i.e. 50 crayons, they won't be able to focus because the choice of colors are too overwhelming. So, I found a little box that I have had for at least a decade and placed in on his art table. Inside there are three crayons, purple, orange, and green. (I can be very OCD with these things, so I will rotate out the colors initially in groups of primary, secondary, or tertiary colors to help H begin to organize information (colors) in meaningful groupings.) Also, on the table is a pad of sketch paper from my art days long gone.

Once the table was set up, I showed H how to take out a crayon, draw on the paper, and then put the crayon back in the box. He was thrilled and spent the next ten minutes taking the crayons in and out of the box. It was only at the end of the ten minutes that he made some marks on the paper.

Now the challenge will be switching out the art materials every couple of weeks. Ideally, I will have a few different art activities for H and I will rotate them out so that he does not get bored. Now I just need to come up with a few more art activities...


We helped H right the box of crayons after his excitement in the video
and then he was ready to make some marks on the page.