Button snake

I had never shared a video before and I don't think I will do it often, but this time I've considered it the clearest way of showing our latest creation.
I was inspired by Counting coconuts to make this button snake, and well, it was actually my mother who helped me with the sewing. Well, she has more time than I do and is much better and faster with the needle. It was not our first button activity but it was more age appropriate than the one I made before. I had not planned to introduce the button snake to M yet but the other day, while moving some boxes, the snake fell to the floor and I thought "why not" present it on a tray, just as an invitation to play.
The button snake is a nice invitation to learn buttoning and it turned out to be a real hit. Not only did M get the button through the buttonhole but she spent considerable time in a state of concentration that I love to observe. She enjoyed the activity so much that we took it to the car, where it is always a bit difficult to find interesting things that she can do while seating.
The snake is really easy to make. You only need a string of cloth that you can cut out from remnants, a button -I chose a big one, like the ones winter coats usually have-, several squares with a button hole in the middle -I used felt for those- and you have the toy. Simple, cheap, and nice. And a nice way to learn how to button up.

First week of Tot school. Days 1-3

MONDAY

The idea was to throw a party to celebrate the beginning of our school, but we haven't had time to arrange everything in the way we want, plus many friends were still away on vacation. So, today tot school has started without any previous event.
By "home or tot school" I mean all the activities M and me do in the morning. Activities I have scheduled for our first trimester, that is the next 16 weeks, or until the baby is born.
Having around 16 topics in mind, I will set up the environment for M to learn as much as she wants. I try to plan inviting set-ups where she decides what she wants to do in a way that is connected with the topic that is displayed that week. I won't push her to do anything, just support her in what she decides to do, observe her and let her be.
This first morning, for instance, after getting up and having breakfast, she's been toying around with the first items that were displayed on her shelves:
After some minutes, she has realized the weather was a bit cool and we have headed for the bathroom to get dressed and groomed. Curiously, she has decided to wear a red jumper, just like the bottle she was playing with a second ago. "Red" is the color she knows best. Then comes "blue". And as for "yellow"she gets a bit mixed up sometimes, saying "purple" instead or not saying anything. We did enough activities in the past so that I can ask her now "what color is this?" Of course, here I mean only the three basic colors, although some weeks ago, when I made her rock crayons I was surprised to see that she was able to correctly associate each of the six colors we had.

Already dressed, she has headed for the kitchen on her own account and has come back with a pot of yellow finger paint. I guess something has made her associate the bottles activity with the paint. Although we often draw and paint with a variety of supplies, we have only used those pots of finger paint three times. I have set up a table and brush, glass with water and cardboard outside, and this is what she's made.
Then, we've gone downstairs to load a washing machine; activity she often wants to do all by herself. We've had a snack and we intended to go to the library to get some color related books. M was very excited about the idea of library books but since she has not been willing to seat in her car seat, we've come back home.
Quick lunch and before 12 she was napping.
Today is also my first day of work -ehem- I will be working around 5 hours a week as of now so I don't know if I should call it "work". Anyway, since I am teaching this afternoon, today we're done with school activities.
As you can guess, this week will be devoted to "colors" and I intend to display secondary colors and see how we get along. If you are interested, be sure to check back with us soon.

TUESDAY 
Notice how empty our notice board and working table look at the beginning of the week:

This is a very easy activity that took me just five minutes to put together. The wooden blocks belong to the box you can see on the right in the pic above. I took three red blocks and three blue ones from the set and placed them in the tiny basket. Then, I painted the equivalent shapes with markers, and voilà. 

 M found the activity on her table and set to work straight away. I actually didn't notice because I was in the kitchen but she had done it right and I noticed it was very easy for her. I regretted not having included yellow and green as I had first intended, but the yellow was too pale for the cardboard and when I prepare things close to midnight I am too tired to look for solutions... She liked it anyway and wanted to play while waiting for lunch.

 In the meantime, as well, I took the opportunity she was so concentrated and interested to introduce "light blue". We toyed with some light blue items and then filled in a bottle with light blue glitter and water. Wonderful activity to foster practical skills such as using a funnel. It's a pity I forgot to take a picture of our new blue light bottle.

WEDNESDAY

However sick and hopeless I felt yesterday, I guess you would call today a "very successful day". Well, M has dropped her nap, but for the rest she has been fine. I had prepared three activities but she has only had time to explore one, which is fine, since the rest will be there ready for her to use if she chooses to tomorrow.

As you already know, if you have been reading this Tot school journal of ours, this week we are exploring colors and doing color activities. It might be an obsession with my profession, but I was a bit worried we don't own any books about colors, so a visit to the local library was a must this week. I really wanted to make one of those books where vegetables, fruits and other items are grouped by color but I haven't had time at all.

We attempted to go to the library on Monday but M didn't want to get into the car. We were far too busy yesterday, and I wasn't feeling well, so we have attempted it again today and it's been a great hit. Both car rides were fine; among the six ore seven color related books we've borrowed three which are quite beautiful; M has enjoyed the kid's space, painted a bit, given her painting to the librarian, gotten her library card, played with the colored cushions.

In the afternoon, after no nap--- we've gone to our favorite park, where we had a date with M's two friends, and both car rides have been fine, which is incredibly good, given the state M can be in after a whole day of activity, no nap and her absolute dislike of cars.
(Sorry for the quality of the shots. For practical reasons, I only use my cell phone.)

Homemade blocks

Here is the other novelty this week. After saving square and round boxes for a while, I have turned them into huge blocks. I had planned to make square, round, and triangle boxes and then wrap them in colored glossy paper. The square ones should be blue, the round ones red, and the triangle ones yellow. I was thinking ahead a matching activity to be done using Dick Bruna's book "I know about shapes", which you can see in this older post.
You can find square boxes anywhere, round ones are a bit more difficult to get and that's why I have only made one block out of a tin box of Danish cookies -another one on its way. But the hardest to find are triangle boxes. Although the idea was reusing, I dropped by a dime store looking for a triangle box. There were none but I stopped at Schlecker afterwards and unexpectedly found out a triangle box of tissues. Well, it was actually my niece Alba who saw it -thanks sweetheart-. It couldn't be more practical. We are all sort of cold... so we will use the tissues and then make the box into our first triangle yellow block.

To make these you only need:
boxes (you can reuse all kind of boxes)
scissors
glue (to glue the glossy paper)
glossy colored art paper (I would rather have one single color blocks but you can use any paper you like)
sticky contact paper (to make the blocks more resistant and water-proof)

You wrap the box in glossy paper, line it with contact paper and voilà: your homemade blocks.

Homemade huge dice

Hey!! This is our latest (although not new at all) novelty. I made this dice many years ago and for some reason had completely forgotten about it. Now I realize my passion for homemade toys is older than I thought. Should you want to make your own dice, it is very simple. I made it with a piece of foam and a remnant of light blue velvet. I adore this color! My mother was getting rid of a mattress at the time and I cut out a cube of the foam, wrapped it with the velvet and sew it -not very accurately, btw- and sew buttons (=dots) to the surface. The result could be neater but I didn't think my dice would last so long as to be passed on to my own daughter... I must have been 14 or 15 when I made it!! M likes it very much.

Homemade materials and toys

Some of the homemade materials and toys we've recently made have been dictated by the kind of activities M is interested in but there were some that are either timeless, see discovery bottles, or planned for the near future.

 A simple box and toilet paper roll for coordination skills. M found this way too easy so I am currently doing another one with three cylinders -small, medium, and big.

 Bottle caps and handmade box. We used a small box, strengthen it with construction paper and covered with sticky contact paper. The interior of the drawer is lined with purple velvet. It was very easy to cut a slit with the paper cutter, and voilà!

 This sensory bottles are merely bottles filled with water and (red / golden) glitter. Easy, cheap, and very nice. M likes them a lot.






Having dressing skills in mind, I have designed a sun with detachable rays. M is not ready to button her clothes yet but she is always willing to help me dress her so I feel it won't be too long before she starts noticing buttons, hooks, zips, and so on. This activity is intended as a motivation. For the ball I used a knitted ball (thanks, mum, for helping me with that). The rays are made with felt. The buttons were removed from an old jacket before trashing it.