Colour Is...

Today, Colour is many things.

Colour is painting with bath paint:

 There is something...hmm, mama-ish? about me that has so far prevented her from actually using these in the bath.  I remain unable to reconcile getting clean with painting in your bath water.  Also, there are no ingredients listed on the paints, and I am not about to coat my child's skin with whatever is in those paints.  Yes, they are made for children...but there is nothing on the labelling which says "non-toxic."  So I shall remain a meanie, and confine her to using them on paper.  Which she loved, anyway.  (Just don't tell her they're meant for the bath...)

Colour is finger painting:

Not a huge hit.  It appears she can tolerate play dough on her hands, but not yet finger paints.  Ah well.  We have taken the first step, anyway...

Colour is stamping with sponges:

Colour is choosing our clothes for the day, all by ourselves:

Colour is sliding on a red slide:

And colour is riding on a red and yellow horse:

Colour is swinging in the cool air beneath a blue sky:

Sometimes, colour is just sitting and watching the world go by:

All in all, a colourful day.

Oh, and I solved our snack station problem.  An old bedside table, with drawers to keep the snacks safely away from the dogs:

She used it several times today to get out her own bowl, knife and snack, which she then took to her table to prepare.  So it works!  And I noticed she already remembers to go and close the drawer.

Sunny Sundays

Welcome back to Colour Month.  No rants today, I promise :)

The brunt of today's colour took place at the park, sans camera, which we forgot to bring along.  But I thought I'd share a few activities Niamh undertook today during those brief moments where she was actually inside.

A little fine motor activity - putting different-sized objects into a container (the buttons are tricky, because she has to twist them the right way for them to fit):

What happens when you let adults loose with play dough:

We did try to share with Niamh, I promise.

A little later, Niamh asked to cut up her own snack.  Brilliant!  A perfect Montessori opportunity.  She had been asking about knives earlier, after sitting on the bench next to the knife block while we dried the dishes.  I showed her the parts of the knives and yes, I let her handle them very carefully.  I think it piqued her interest in knife-handling, because she hasn't really been interested in cutting jobs up until now.  So, following Maria Montessori's "Follow The Child" philosophy, we set her up with a mushroom and a butter knife and away she went.  Here's how a nearly 2 year old uses a knife:

As you can see, she is being closely supervised, but she is managing very well on her own.  She then asked for some crackers and dip.  Here she is, using the knife to make her own snack of mushroom, hommus and crackers:

Using the knife to get dip from her bowl:

I love, love, love the concentration on her face.  She is utterly absorbed in her task.  Don't you just love those wonderful learning moments?  She was so proud at her own independence and her achievements.

Tomorrow, I think I will set her up with her own little "snack station" - something I've avoided until now, mainly due to the dogs being able to get at anything I put at her level.  I think I might have come up with a solution, though, so...we'll see.

In closing for today, I would like to thank you all for reading so far and for joining us on our journey.  I finally figured out how to check my stats, and I am thrilled to bits to see I have visitors from the USA, UK, Turkey, Belgium and even Lithuania!  You are all so welcome.  Thank you for coming!

Colour and Light

You know what?  I'm loving Colour Month.  We managed to pack quite a bit of colour into today, and all of it fun.

First, a little glance backwards at last night's activity - invented by Daddy (okay, well, probably not invented by Daddy, but certainly suggested by Daddy and agreed to by the rest of us).  Balloon rockets!  We have long-since introduced our balloon-obsessed child to the fun of blowing up balloons and letting them go so they fly crazily around the room.  But last night, Daddy came up with the idea of taping the balloon to a piece of straw, which we then threaded through with some string tied between two chairs.  The aim was to force the balloon to rocket along the string as the air came out the opening:

 Our balloon rocket tended to fly around the string in wild circles - which admittedly was just as much fun, or possibly more, than having it go straight.  Perhaps next time, we will make the string shorter - or weight down the underside of the balloon.  Either way, it was a fun pre-bedtime activity!

Today started with our usual inspection of the vegie patch.  We have broccoli!

 And peas!

 Niamh made short work of some pea stalks and freshly-pulled carrots for breakfast:

Then, she decided to tackle a little Montessori-inspired tonging job I made for her a while ago.  I hadn't really intended for her to also sort the different items out into separate bowls (I just thought it would be more fun to have some different things to practice picking up with the tongs), but she did anyway:

You can see in this picture that she has already separated out the little purple pompoms from the buttons and beads.  Here's another, showing her progress (she had switched to using her fingers at this point, which is fine, too, because the small size of the beads etc require her to practice her pincer grip):

A bit later (though you'll notice still in our PJs, cough, cough), Mama got her act together enough to make some of that most thrilling of childhood play-stuffs - play dough!!  I should have thought of it earlier, but I admit it had fallen off the radar because Niamh is a bit...well, let's just say "thingy" about having dirt on her hands.  (I can't say "neat freak" because I have only to look at her play area to know otherwise.  And also, she is MY child, so neatness is not her in her genes.  But she definitely likes clean hands!)  Anyway, I was reminded this morning of the joys of play dough by another wise mother, so I thought today might as well be the day.  The recipe, by the way, can be found HERE.  It has a really soft consistency once you start working with it, and I will definitely be using it again.  I made half the quantity, and added the colouring at the end, once I had divided the dough into four.  It made for a nice, marbled effect in the dough, until you worked the colours through by squishing it.

So, how did my non-sticky-hands-loving daughter like her play dough?  I'll let these photos speak for themselves.  Making play-dough biscuits:

Squish it up!

Making a rainbow serpent (you can see it in front of her):

Using a child-sized rolling pin to make some pancakes:

All in all, I think we spent nearly 3 hours just playing with play-dough.  How old must I have been the last time I did that, I wonder?  And more importantly, why haven't I done it sooner?!  It was so much fun.  And you know the best part - that lovely, nostalgic play-dough smell!  Boy, did it take me back.  It's amazing how powerful the sense of smell is when it comes to triggering memories.  I so hope Niamh made some happy, happy memories today.

A bit later, it was time to bake.  I had been promising Niamh for a few days that we would make more cupcakes, after she enjoyed helping me with the last batch so much.  So I asked her, "What kind of cupcakes would you like to make?"  Silly Mama.  I thought she'd say, "Chocolate."  Or heck, even, "Plain."  No.  My child says, "Purple cupcakes."

Hmm.  As it turned out, she only wanted the outside to be purple.  The insides had to be yellow.  (Hello vanilla!)  But they had to have sprinkles.  And crunchy balls (aka cashous).  Hello Colour Month!

I didn't have enough hands to take photos of her cracking the eggs, helping me chop up the butter or pour out the sugar.  I definitely didn't have hands free to take photos of her doing the old patented, "one for you, one for me" routine with Fionn the dog and the spoon she was supposed to be using to get the batter into the patty pans.

Here's how they turned out (not purple enough, really - I'm a bit disappointed):

And here's how my kitchen turned out:

In case you are wondering - as one friend put it this afternoon - whether or not I have the patience of a saint...no, I do not.  I'm afraid I drew the line at the icing stage when she refused to stop shoving fistfuls of sprinkles and cashous into her mouth, and then back ONTO the cupcakes, and evicted her from my kitchen.  She didn't care.  She had already consumed enough cashous to fuel a small country, and was away to burn it all off.

Luckily Daddy was home soon after, and the prospect of an early birthday package gave her some focus. We have been desperate for a table for her play area for some time now, so it was a nice surprise when Farmor's present arrived at the door.  Here she is, helping Daddy put it together:

Using an allen key:

And using the table for the first time!:

Thank you, Farmor.

Phew.  What a day.  And as all perfect days should, it ended, not with darkness, but with light:

Lazy Saturdays

I love lazy Saturdays.  I know I should feel guilty - a whole day wasted when the garden needs doing, the house needs cleaning, etc, etc...  But you know what?  :-P~~~~ to all that.  :-P~~~~, I say.  Sometimes, the world needs lazy Saturdays.

It wasn't too lazy.  I think a load of washing or two went into the machine (and amazingly, even got hung out to dry AND brought in again), the garden got watered and the crumbed lamb cutlets and cauliflower-potato puree we had for dinner were made from scratch.

Niamh also got a new job (mostly because I had made some more coloured rice, and needed to justify it).  So here she is, playing with her new pouring job.

First, she needs to use a spoon to get the rice into the funnel:

The funnel had a very narrow neck, so if it was over-filled, the rice wouldn't pour through.  But you could use knock the spoon on the funnel to help unstick the rice:

The yellow funnel has a wider opening, so you could spoon more rice in at once:

Bah - just use your fingers:

I love this photo because it really shows her concentration:

 Then pour it all back into the container:

Then, some reading from our old favourite, Where is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox.  She reads it herself, these days:

Later, we made music with Daddy:

 All in all, a quiet, lazy Saturday.  Just how I like em.

So many ideas from such a simple thing

For some time now, I have been toying with (warring with, might be a better turn of phrase to decribe the turmoil of my thoughts) the different educational options available to Niamh.  I was decided before she was even born that she would never, ever attend a state or public school.  I hold with neither the curriculum, nor the methods of teaching.  I won't go into why now, as it will no doubt be the subject of many future blogs...as will the two main methods we are exploring, Montessori or Unschooling, and which of those we eventually choose.  Whatever we choose, the path will be one of natural, non-invasive, child-centred learning.

To that end, Niamh has been attending a Montessori pre-school (0-3 year olds) once a week for over a year.  She loves the jobs, and has a blast going from shelf to shelf to see what is there each week.  For all my dreams of setting up a learning environment for her at home along similar lines, however, I have to admit, I have been a bit lapse.  We do have a child-sized area with shelving at her height, where all her toys and books are stored for her to use at will; we don't allow battery-operated toys and prefer natural, beautiful toys made of wood; we encourage her to do tasks herself (eg clean her own teeth, wash her own hands and face)...and I have made a few brief and rather pathetic attempts to provide her with Montessori-inspired tasks, manipulatives and puzzles.

Here she is with a basket of  number cards (1-20) I made for her to explore.  She is ball-obsessed, hence the theme:

(You'll notice the very non-Montessori mess in the background...)


The last few days, mama-guilt has taken over a bit.  So today, I got my act together and made her a pouring job - two small glasses, one filled with rice, one not, on a tray.  Frankly, it didn't go well.  She has never really gone for the pouring jobs at playgroup (kind of my reason for wanting to try it), and this was no exception.  She poured the rice a few times, then ran off to do something else.

Right, thinks I.  How do I make this fun for her?  Some pink food colouring and some pink and purple beads later, my little glasses of rice looked quite inviting (bad photography aside - it was very dark and the camera just wouldn't focus):

Well!  I am proud to report that it was a big hit!  She sat there for probably half an hour (not bad for a nearly 2 year old), pouring and pouring and pouring.  Then, she asked for a spoon.  And without prompting spent another few minutes spooning the rice from one glass to another:

From the look on her face, you can see how much fun she was having. At one point, she was shouting with excitement, "Oh, THERE'S a pink bead!  THERE'S a button!  THERE'S a purple bead!  I found FOUR!"

Then, she spent another good twenty minutes exploring all the beads inside the rice - and to do so, she had to use the pincer grip in order to extract individual beads from the glass!  Then, she happily sorted the purple beads into a small pile, and the pink beads into another pile.  (No prompting or intervening from me at all, other than to take a few photos).  Here she is holding her favourite pink bead:

Her hunger for learning just AMAZES and humbles me.

Who knew so much learning could come from a little glass of pink rice and wooden beads?

Montessori Monday - One Hook Wonder