Click below on duck counting,

Duck Counting 

Happy SMARTboarding, 

Book: Monkey With a Tool Belt and the Noisy Problem – Chris Monroe

(The kids were quite engaged with this, despite it’s length. I did clip some of the busier pages together. Fun story!)

Activity: Matching game

Each of the professions was introduced, and placed on the flannel board. Then I would bring out a tool and have the kids tell me which person needed it for their job. It was fun, and having actual tools seemed to generate greater interest. Painter-brush, Construction worker-hammer, Doctor-Bandaid, Chef-Pizza Cutter, Postal Worker-Letter. I also thought about having a superhero with a cape, but didn’t manage to get the prop I needed.)

Book: Toolbox Twins – Lola M. Schaefer

(This was a replacement because my original choice failed miserably! It certainly worked better, though I feel it’s still a bit tedious)

(the biggest book flop I’ve had. No one was engaged, so I replaced it for my second storytime of the week.)

Activity: Construction song

 The backhoe scoops the dirt.
The backhoe scoops the dirt.
Hey-ho! Look at it go!
The backhoe scoops the dirt.

(Act out the motions, and continue with:)

The dump truck dumps the dirt…
The roller rolls it flat…
The cement mixer spins…
The crane lifts up and down…

(This was a nice get up and move activity. We cycled through the list twice.) 

Book: Machines Go to Work in the City – William Low

(This was well received, though I stretched the theme a little. Nice fold outs add interest.) 

Activity: 5 Little Nails

Five little nails

Standing straight and steady

Here come a builder

With a hammer ready!

Bam! Bam! Bam!

The nail goes down

And now there are Four nails left to pound!

(continue with remaining nails)

(Sometimes I think props aren’t the best choice, a finger play version of this might have been better with the fingers of one hand as nails, and the other fist pounding them down. Ideally you could do both!)

Book: The Magic Toolbox – Mie Araki

(A nice simple story with bright illustrations. A great way to finish.)

Activity: Toolbox Craft

(I had the kids identify the tools in my pre-made box, then let them make their own. [two sheets of paper, one folds to make the toolbox, the other has the tools and handle to cut out])

Book: Dinosaur Vs. Bedtime – Bob Shea

(Bob Shea is fantastic, the kids like roaring along. Great interactive potential.)

Activity: No More Room

4 huge dinosaurs Sleeping on the cave floor

Woke up and started to roar

“There’s no more room, there’s no more room

there’s no more room on this floor!”

Well, they tossed and they turned and they pushed galore

Till one poor dinosaur was pushed out the door!

-repeat with 3,2,-

 (last verse)

One huge dinosaur Sleeping on the cave floor

Woke up and started to roar

“Come back, come back, it was better before

It’s more fun together, crowded on the floor!”

(We’d count the dinosaurs each time, and do some basic actions. Was well received.)

Book: Stomp Dinosaur Stomp – Margaret Mayo

(A nice introduction to different dinosaurs. I had the kids say the names with me as they were introduce, did skip a few pages.)

Activity: We Are The Dinosaurs – from the CD Whaddaya Think of That by Laurie Berkner

(A jolly good rollick where we get to act like dinosaurs. What’s not to like!) 

Book: Edwina the Dinosaur Who Didn’t Know She Was Extinct – Mo Willems

(This is one I think the parent’s appreciate a big more, but it held everyone’s interest.)

Puppet Song: Dinosaur Round – from the CD Rhinoceros Tap by Sandra Boynton

(This was quite simple, the dinosaur wants to eat more and more, and I was surprised how much everyone loved it! Some of the food stuff fell on the floor, and there were eager children ready to feed the dino. At the end of the song I have all the food gone and the dino gulps down the boy! 0.0)

Book: How Do Dinosaurs Eat their food – Jane Yolen

(After the last activity, we learned how dinosaurs are Supposed to behave with their food. A fantastic series.)

Activity: Streamers

(Got out streamers for the kids to play with, not theme related this week. They had a blast, and once the streamers were passed out the dino puppet came out to nibble on brave children’s fingers.)

Book: Dogs – Emily Gravett

(The kids quite like seeing the different dogs, and even identified some of them as we read the story.)

Flannel Board: Five Little Mice

 Five little mice came out to play,
Gathering crumbs up on their way;
Out came a pussy cat
Sleek and black, Meeoooww!
Four little mice went scampering back.

(continue counting down remaining mice)

(The cat would come out and snag a mouse, it was well received.)

Book: What will Fat Cat Sit On? – Jan Thomas

(How can anything Jan Thomas not be fantastic! It transitioned well from the mice flannel board.)

Puppets: Stop Kissing Me! (from the book by Ethan Long, idea by Liesl Johnson)

Essentially, dog keeps licking cat, even though cat doesn’t like it. Finally dog say’s it’s just because he likes her, and cat attacks dog with licks, then suggests they just hug in the future.

(The kids adore this! They love the crazy licking by the dog and the cat’s disgusted reactions. )

Book: Bertie Was a Watchdog – Rick Walton

(This was loads of fun, the kids got to help with the barking and police siren.)

Flannel Board: Oh Where Oh Where has my little dog gone?

 Oh where, oh where has my little dog gone
Oh where, oh where can he be
With his ears cut short and his tail cut long
Oh where, oh where can he be?

(I hid the dog before introducing the different things in the house he could hide behind [blue cabinet, white chair, green plant, black TV, red doggy bed], then we sang the song between each item we looked under. The kids were very enthusiastic about this, we played it twice!)

Book: A Cat and a Dog – Claire Masurel

(A simple cute story with a lovely ending. Some good talking point opportunities as well)

Activity: Bubbles

(Then we were kitties that popped bubbles with our claws! All in all a lovley program =])

Book: Plumply, Dumply Pumpkin – Mary Serfozo

(A cute book that gradually introduces the Halloween theme. Fun words and rhyming.

Song: Six Little Pumpkins (inspired from the book Dragons Halloween by Dav Pilkey)

I wanted to find a pumpkin as Big as a house to make a really scary jack-o’-lantern, but all I could find were a bunch of little pumpkins. (The kids help count as they get put on the flannel board.)

I decided I’d carve them anyway, and took them to my yard by the old dead tree.

(put tree on flannel board)Then I started to carve my scary pumpkins. (Pull off orange pieces, showing the glowing yellow!)

Do they look very scary? No?! Well, I guess I’ll stack them all up against my tree anyway.
So I stack 1-2-3-4-5-6 little pumpkins. AAaaaghhh! I guess six little pumpkins can be pretty scary after all!

(This was quite fun, the kids were engaged, and the parents enjoyed the surprise ending too!)

Book: Just say Boo – Susan Hood

(A good interactive and empowering story, cute illustrations!)

Activity: If you’re a ghost and you know it

If you’re a ghost and you know it wave your arms! (Woooo)

If you’re a ghost and you know it wave your arms! (Woooo)

If you’re a ghost and you know then you really ought to show it,

If you’re a ghost and you know it wave your arms! (Woooo)

(Also did: Witch ride a broom, skeleton shake your bones, wolf give a howl, Superhero strike a pose, jack-o’-lantern give a grin)

Book: Mouse’s First Halloween – Lauren Thompson

(Another good interactive book, the kids are pretty good as guessing what’s scaring little mouse)

Shadow play: In the Dark Dark Woods

(Click the image for the full story! I ask the kid if they want to go in the house, open the box, etc. They enjoy doing it again and predicting the next step.)

Book: Little Old Lady was Not Afraid of Anything – jp Williams

(Super fun book to act out! A lot of the kids already knew the story and were excited for it.)

Craft: Lollypop Ghost

(We used tootsie pops, wrapped tissues around them, wrapped a bit of pipe cleaner to form the head, then drew the face! Simple and fun.)

Opening: Shake My Sillies Out – Raffi

Book: 999 Tadpoles – Ken Kimura

Song: Five Little Frogs (my favorite version is from the CD Five Little Monkeys by Five Little Monkeys)

Book: Toad – Ruth Brown

(Such great gross illustrations, a good talking book as you can point out the hidden lizard in the pages as it stalks toad.)

Puppet Story: Foo the Flying Frog of Washtub Pond (from the book by Belle Yang)

(I incorporated the blow up frog when I read this book before, and it transitioned very well into a full puppet experience!)

Book: One Two Three Jump! – Penelope Lively

(I didn’t have a very actiony activity, but the kids stayed very engaged! I had the kids jump along with the frog in this book to make sure they weren’t getting too restless. I love the squiggly frog when it’s in the water!)

Song: Raindrops Fell All Around (w/ flannel board)

(Do in call and echo style with kids.)

 There was a pond, a little pond. The bluest pond, that you ever did see.

chorus: (sung all together)

And the raindrops fell all around all around. The raindrops fell all around.

And on that pond, there was a lilly pad, the greenest lilly pad, that you ever did see.

Chorus: The pad on the pond and the raindrops fell…

And on that pad, there was a flower, the prettiest flower, that you ever did see.

Chorus: The flower on the pad and the pad on the pond and the raindrops fell…

And on that flower, there was a frog, the slimiest frog, that you ever did see.

Chorus: The frog on the flower and the flower on the pad and the pad on the pond…

And on that frog, there was a tongue, the stickiest tongue, that you ever did see.

Chorus: The tongue on the frog and the frog on the flower and the flower on the pad…

And on that tongue, there was a bug, the tinsiest bug, that you ever did see.

Chorus: The bug on the tongue and the tongue on the frog and the frog on the flower…

And on that tongue, there was a dinosaur!, the biggest dinosaur, that you ever did see!

Chorus: The dinosaur on the bug and the bug on the tongue and the tongue on the frog and the frog on the flower and the flower on the pad and the pad on the pond and the raindrops fell all around all around, and the raindrops fell all around.

Book: City Dog and Country Frog – Mo Willems

(The kids seems a little less engaged during this story, though I adore it. Maybe they were just exhausted from all the awesomeness!) =P

Craft: Frog Hat

(Then I did a craft! [I hardly ever do] Paper plates cut in half for eyes attached to a strip of green paper around the head and a red ‘tongue’ that had been rolled tightly around my finger. Simple but very popular.)

Even Joe, my sometimes overly-cautious (and rightfully so) husband, agrees now that our pool was a pretty good idea. We literally use it every. single. day. An added bonus: we got it at a discounted price because we bought it so late in the year. Same with the pool chemicals – super cheap. But the absolute best part of having a pool? Kaiden loves hanging out in the water, so his newfound love of throwing mini-temper tantrums is at a minimum. Have a crabby kid? Throw ‘em in a pool (not literally, of course). Some kids love the water, some kids don’t. Thankfully, mine does. It’s fun for both of us, breaks up the day to day monotony, and is a good opportunity for fun learning activities.

One of Kaiden’s favorite pool activities is fishing for letters – within minutes of being in the pool he’s asking for them. I throw his foam letters into the pool, give him the pool skimmer, and we go ‘fishing’. We name letters. We call out the color of each letter. As of recently, I name 3 or 4 words off the top of my head that start with the corresponding letter. Some are silly, some are not. Some words he knows, some are new to him. Our game usually lasts 30-45 minutes, or until he gets bored and moves on to something else.

This is a great open-ended activity, and it leaves room for your child to lead the discussion. If Kaiden picks up letter A, I tell him that apples, ants and alligators start with A. If he points to an airplane, I tell him that airplane starts with A. We spell words. We count how many letters we can collect at one time. Like I said, the possibilities really are endless.

Turns out I was wrong – once he got the hang of it he LOVED it! You should have seen Kaiden’s face when he put the pasta necklace on for the first time [and you will, once you get to the last photo!].

I separated the pasta by color, then tied a smaller piece to the end of the yarn to prevent the pasta from falling off the end.

“What do I do with this?!”

After about 5 minutes he started to get the hang of it.

Kaiden enjoyed naming each color as he beaded.

After about 15 minutes Kaiden decided to take a break from beading. He mixed, counted and sorted the pasta instead.

Admiring his work.

Time to clean up!

Kaiden was so proud of his work!

You can also…
-turn this into a color-naming, counting and sorting activity
-create patterns with the pasta
-paint the pasta or color it with markers

And last but not least… If you’ve never dyed pasta, this is how you do it – super easy!
-fill cups or bowls with rubbing alcohol and food coloring [liquid food coloring is ideal, but the gel works also].
-put pasta in the alcohol/food coloring mixture and let soak. Like Easter eggs, the longer they soak, the more vivid the color is.

1) Addition by Toni Jordan

Grace Lisa Vandenburg counts. The letters in her name (19). The steps she takes every morning to the local café (920). The number of poppy seeds on her orange cake, which dictates the number of bites she’ll take to eat it. Grace counts everything, because that way there are no unpleasant surprises.

Seamus Joseph O’Reilly (also a 19) thinks she might be better off without the counting. If she could hold down a job, say. Or open her cupboards without conducting an inventory, or leave her flat without measuring the walls.

Grace’s problem is that Seamus doesn’t count. Her other problem is . . . he does.

As Grace struggles to balance a new relationship with old habits, to find a way to change while staying true to herself, she realises that nothing is more chaotic than love.

This is the first book that I came across which talked about counting as a form of OCD. I read it when first diagnosed and enjoyed it, although I don’t really like the ending… no spoilers though!

2) OCD and Me by Ben Gander

OCD & Me is a semi-autobiographical tale which tells of one man’s suffering and the long path to recovery.

I really, really loved this book – it’s a great insight into how debilitating OCD can become.

3) Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

When Elspeth Noblin dies she leaves her beautiful flat overlooking Highgate Cemetery to her twin nieces, Julia and Valentina Poole, on the condition that their mother is never allowed to cross the threshold. But until the solicitor’s letter falls through the door of their suburban American home, either Julia nor Valentina knew their aunt existed. The twins hope that in London their own, separate, lives can finally begin but they have no idea that they’ve been summoned into a tangle of fraying lives, from the obsessive-compulsive crossword setter who lives above them to their aunt’s mysterious and elusive lover who lives below them and works in the cemetery itself.

The best thing about this book is the fact that OCD is not the main story – it’s a sideline in a very complicated plot. It’s very sensitively covered and well researched.

This was a really fun workshop, we made frogs that jumped really high!  To do this you will need:

• craft foam (it comes out better if you have a few colors)
• 2 googly eyes
• 2 empty yogurt pots or plastic cups
• 1 or 2 rubber bands
• a pencil
• colored pens (Sharpies) work the best, but may not be appropriate for smaller kids)
• scissors
• a hot glue gun (to be used with the assistance of an adult)
• an awl (or something to poke holes into the cups- this is quite dangerous, so this instrument should be used the an adult)
• frog stencil

1. Print off a copy of the frog parts onto thick paper.  Cut out each part.

2.  Trace the frog’s parts onto craft foam with a pencil and cut each part out.  Glue the parts together to form the frog, including the googly eyes.

3. Use the Sharpies to draw on a mouth, a nose and don’t forget to draw on some speckles.

4. Have an adult poke 4 holes, equal distance (more or less) into the cups. Cut a rubber band in half and make a knot at one end.  Thread the rubber band from the outside to the inside of one hole and then thread again through the opposite hole and tie a knot.  Make sure rubber band is a little bit taut. Do the same thing with the other half of the rubber band into the remaining two holes.  Your rubber band should make a cross at the open end of the cup.  5. Glue your frog onto the cup (bottom side up).  Now you are ready to make your frog jump!

6.  Take your other yogurt cup and put it onto the ground (bottom side up), now put the frog cup on top of that, push down and let go!

(This would be a fun project to do for Easter with a rabbit too, let us know if you try it).

Thanks tobkids for this project.

Be sure to print out your some snowmen to storyboard your song:

Play lots of different counting  games here. Have fun!

Or why not learn some number facts here?

Don’t forget about the fantastic counting games on the iboard player  too.

    Can you mend the 100 square?

Book: Edwina the Dinosaur Who Didn’t Know She Was Extinct – jp Mo Willems

Activity: All Around the Swamp (see at end)

 (The Wheels of the Bus tune with Dinosaur actions)

Book: Harry and the Bucketful of Dinosaurs – Ian Whybrow

flannelboard: No More Room (see at end)

 (A countdown flannelboard. I used little puppets and a cave made out of paper bags.)

Book: How Do Dinosaurs Say I Love You – jp Yolen

Song: Mean old Dinosaur (see at end)

 (I’m a little teapot, dinosaur style)

Book: Dinosaur Vs. Bedtime – jp Shea

Song: We Are The Dinosaurs – from the CD Whadda’ Think of That by Laurie Berkner

(prefaced by reminding the kids the different dinosaur actions we used earlier [in All Around the Swamp] and we used those actions for the marching, and acted out the rest! A fantastic song.)

The Parts:

All Around the swamp

(tune of “The Wheels on the Bus”)

The dinos in the swamp go

stomp, stomp, stomp,

stomp, stomp, stomp,

stomp, stomp, stomp.

The dinos in the swamp go

stomp, stomp, stomp,

All around the swamp.

-The Pteranodon’s wings go

flap, flap, flap…

All around the swamp.

-The Tyrannosaurus teeth go

chomp, chomp, chomp…

-The Triceratops horns go

poke, poke, poke…

-The Apatosaurus neck goes

stretch, stretch, stretch…

-The dinos in the swamp go

stomp, stomp, stomp…

No More Room

5 huge dinosaurs

Sleeping on the cave floor

Woke up and started to roar

“There’s no more room,

there’s no more room

there’s no more room

on this floor!”

Well, they tossed and they turned

and they pushed galore

Till one poor dinosaur was pushed out the door!

-repeat with 4,3,2,-

 (last verse)

One huge dinosaur

Sleeping on the cave floor

Woke up and started to roar

“Come back, come back,

it was better before

It’s more fun together,

crowded on the floor!”

I’m a mean old Dinosaur

(to the tune of I’m a Little Tea Pot)

I’m a mean old Dinosaur (Make a mean face)
Big and Tall
Here is my tail, here is my claw.

When I get all hungry
I just growl ‘grrrrrrr ’
Look out kids I’m on the prowl.

Rawrrr!

Per la versione italiana, clicca qui.

We had to go to the grocery store today for typical staples like bread and milk. I decided to keep this cake activity simple today and do store-bought. We walked down the cake aisle to pick out a mix. Hmmm. What kind of cake would the president like? Funfetti. Definitely Funfetti.

Yum. Funfetti.

Zach has done the cooking and baking thing a bunch of times. He really likes to help. So, I thought I’d try talking about some simple math with him today. I didn’t expect him to really understand at this point, but talking about it can’t hurt. So, rather than just counting the 3 eggs we put in, I asked him how many eggs we had left after each addition. So, after the first egg was added I said, “OK. We put in 1 egg. How many more do we need to make 3 eggs?” He said 2. Now, I think that was just a fluke, but hey, I congratulated him on the right answer! That’s how he learns.

Other things I talked about as we baked: where we live, the country, the leader of our country is the president, the president’s name is Barack Obama, it was Barack Obama’s birthday and that’s why we made this cake. By the end of the night if you asked him who the president was, he could say, “Brack Oh Mama!” Pretty close!

Cracking eggs, he's gotten good at this

Stirring

Nothing says "Presidential Birthday" like Funfetti cake

Once the cakes were baked is when the “Torture of the 2 1/2 Year Old” officially commenced. He wanted to eat it right away. But first, the layers had to cool completely. And then I had to frost them. And then we had to add sprinkles. And then he had to eat his dinner first before he could be allowed to eat any dessert. You’d have thought we were pulling his little fingernails out one by one they way he acted. But FINALLY it was time to eat.

I cut us each a slice and put a candle in Zach’s. And just like every birthday party he’s ever had, he began to cry hysterically. At first I thought it was because he was impatient and just wanted his cake. But now I think he might be scared of the candle! I’m not sure. We did manage to sing Happy Birthday to Barack Obama though.

What's a birthday cake without a candle?

Sobbing during the birthday song

Digging in

Now we're happy!

What did Zach learn today? Some simple math (or, at least I introduced him to the questions of simple addition and subtraction). He also learned who the president is. And patience. Oh patience. Waiting for cake is HARD. And tasting cake in all it’s stages is sensory learning (powder vs. batter vs. dry baked vs. frosted baked).

What did Mommy learn? Toddler patience is a hard-fought battle. He did surprisingly well, considering! Also, we need to figure out this birthday candle thing before his 3rd birthday!

I know, I know. I said I would write. I said I would write EVERY day. And I intended to do that. And then, well. You see, I got BUSY. And I bet you can hardly imagine that, as a mother of now nearly 7 month old twins and a 2 1/2 year old, I might be busy. But I was.

Sorry for neglecting you, my precious blog. Sorry for abandoning you, my handful of faithful readers! I am back. And that’s the thing about journeys right? You may get off course, but it takes just one step on the old path to get back on it again. So. Here I am.

And never to fear. I may have been too busy to write (and boy do I have the list of excuses, but I’ll spare you), but not too busy to be keeping my children busy!

To fill you in on the past almost 2 months, I’ll just do a sneak peek here. Then, as I have time, I will update these sneak peeks with posts and tutorials. But I will simply move forward as I do that, so as not to create an even FURTHER backlog as I try to catch up.

So, since we last spoke. Here is what we have been  up to.

We….

Wrote our own songs & lyrics

Went on quite a few road trips to Michigan and Minnesota

Got to ride on Grandpa's tractor

Got to see our G.G. when she came to visit

Made a fort out of blankets in the living room

Painted picture frames for all our grandpas

...and for Daddy

Painted a t-shirt for our cousin, Ethan, because it was his first birthday

Made the wrapping paper for Ethan's present

Celebrated Father's Day

Learned to use a train whistle

Went to a BBQ at Uncle Chris' and made new friends

Went out for ice cream

Flew remote control toys with Daddy (this is a helicopter)

Painted the letter D

Made a Chinese "Dragon Kite"

Made thumbprint art

Killed time at the Dr.'s office by practicing shape recognition

Made an entire orchestra's worth of paper plate and cardboard instruments, like this Paper Plate Violin

and this Paper Towel Tube Flute

and these Paper Plate Cymbals

and finally, a cardboard box "Color Piano" (I think my kid is going to be a musician one day)

Had to go in the basement and hang out because of tornado sirens

Made thunder noises with a big sheet of paper and talked about weather (so it's not so scary next time there is a big storm)

Did 4th of July themed activities like hand print fireworks with Mommy

and lit up "snakes" with Daddy (insert Mommy "eyeroll" here)

Got our first set of golf clubs at Grandma's house in Minnesota

Went to the splash park (and the beach, and played in our sprinkler, and played in our kiddie pool)

Started solids

Found our feet

Went to Aunt Ciana's graduation party in Michigan

Made an awesome race car out of a big, cardboard box

Played "house" and "restaurant" and "this is where the puppy lives" with a big, cardboard box

Painted whatever we wanted with brushes

Made scribble drawings

Played with Easter Eggs (again)

Pretended to be a puppy (a lot).

Decided that THIS is how you play with a bouncy seat (and there's no stopping us)

Started trying to CRAWL (Mommy says, "AHHHH!")

Played with textures like crinkly newspaper

Made an elevator on our living room wall

Painted with noodles. How silly!

Decided we should do things, "All by ourselves"...like put on our sunglasses.

We went to the park, and on playdates. We pretended to be puppies and frogs. We developed an imaginary tiger as a friend.We colored and painted and cooked and made things…like I said…we were BUSY.

And there you have it. Whew!

(please check back for individual posts on these projects as I get time to update them. I will link the posts to the pictures.)

Zach, Emily, Isaac and I went to the park for a playdate with some friends. As we were leaving today, I was discussing our weekend BBQ plans with one of them. Upon asking, she suggested that I might bring a dessert or a side dish. Her 3-year-old piped up that I should definitely bring a dessert. How could I argue with that? After promising that I would bring some cupcakes, we all went home.

After Zach finished a marathon of a nap and we had dinner, we baked some Cherry Vanilla Cupcakes together. I’ve never made them before, so prior to feeding them to other people, I decided to test the recipe.

I used THIS recipe.

First of all, look at all of these cherries! Cherries for the cake. Cherries for the frosting. And cherries for the garnish. Cherries. There. I just wanted to say cherries one more time.

Lots of cherries

Then we dumped the ingredients.

Dumping the flour, we counted 8 "dumps" (or 2 cups by 1/4 cup scoops)

Then we stirred them.

He always says, "Stir, stir, stir" as he does this

Then we lick the beater.

Pretty much the entire reason he is so excited to bake with me

Don’t worry. We were done with the beater. Toddler spit will not be an ingredient in these cakes.

Then, we bake. Then, we eat.

Yum!

What did Zach learn today? Nothing new really. Though as always we like to count, count, count while we bake.

What did Mommy learn? Pitting up 30 some cherries is a lot of work.

Verdict on the recipe? It was good. Though I decided not to make the icing. Basically, to me, they were more muffin-like than cake-like. Probably because they are dubbed a “healthy” cupcake recipe. I will more than likely make a more traditional vanilla cupcake batter and just fold in cherries for the real deal. Though, these do make delicious “muffin-cakes”. You know what that means, right?? I’ll be eating one for breakfast tomorrow!

I mean, look at what you can do with them.

You can put them in water and catch them with your net:

You can group them by color:

You can make them sink by pouring water into them:

You can push them around and roll them:

You can sit in a tiny tub of water like it’s a swimming pool and count them:

And you can even eat your lunch out of them:

Cherries

Carrots

Cheerios

I stopped at putting the peanut butter in the eggs, so it's on spoons

Cool, right?

See, no need to hold out for Easter!

What did Zach learn today? How fun using non everyday objects can be to do everyday things. And we talked about the principles of sinking or floating (and colors..again).

What did Mommy learn today? I think kids just don’t eat their veggies if they don’t want too. I’m losing this battle big time. I mean, I put the carrots IN and EASTER EGG. Fun, right? Nope. Not eaten. Those cherries were gone in 2 seconds though!

Also, I’ve been doing some sensory stuff with the babies. They got to feel soft and silky when I gave them some Lovies. And splashed in the water today too.

Emily and her Lovie

Isaac says, 'Grr...I'll eat you up Lovie!"

Chunky Isaac feet splashing in the water

Emily feet in the water

Today’s supplies:

Cereal with holes (like Cheerios or Fruit Loops) and pipe cleaners

I admit that I bought the Fruit Loops solely to do this project. We don’t normally serve them here, so needless to say we all went crazy with cereal eating and 2 days after I bought them, they are GONE. LOL! What a treat. But, I managed to save enough to do this. Cheerios work just as well, skills wise, but the Fruit Loops just make it look so much more festive and colorful (and teach color). I could have used string instead of pipe cleaners for this, but I wasn’t sure how easily Zach would be able to get the cereal on the string, so I started off easy. Next time, I’ll use string or yarn, he did pretty well with this today. I read about this activity HERE. It helps him with his fine motor skills. As I mentioned, the Fruit Loops can provide a lesson in colors. And you can count each piece as you put it on. We didn’t, but if you wanted too, you could also teach pattern (Red piece, blue piece, green piece. Red piece, blue piece, green piece, etc.). It’s also a nice after nap snack.

So, basically, I just had him slide the cereal onto the pipe cleaner. It was a little difficult to convince him to not eat the cereal first, but as soon as I did one as an example for him and showed him he could eat the cereal later, he was in.

Showing Zach how to lace the cereal onto the pipe cleaner

After doing a few pieces for Zach, I held the pipe cleaner and let him slide the cereal on.

Figuring out how to get the cereal on the "stick", as he called it

Then, after we filled the pipe cleaner up, I tied it to his wrist and let him eat from the snacklet. He thought this was pretty fun.

Tying the bracelet to his wrist

What a fine looking bracelet, I mean, snacklet

Yum!

Then he decided he was confident enough to do the next one himself.

Doing it all by himself

And, if you’re wondering why his face is so messy, it could be because he decided to eat his lunch like this today:

Eating like a puppy

Talk about an imaginative kid! He was pretending to be a puppy this afternoon. And uh, no, I didn’t clean his face before nap. Oops.

What did Zach learn today? He worked on fine motor skills, counting and colors. And he got to eat some yummy (forbidden) sugary cereal (notice I also included some healthy Cheerios too though!).

What did Mommy learn today? How fun it is (however messy) to watch my child pretending. He’s so silly!

Zach's new "toy"

According to the New World Encyclopedia (whose website looks suspiciously like Wikipedia, so take this definition for what it’s worth), abaci have been “in use centuries before the adoption of the written Hindu-Arabic numeral system and is still widely used by merchants and clerks in China, Japan, Africa and elsewhere.” In other words, a really long time.

I basically bought it because I knew that Zach would have fun sliding and rolling the beads under his hands, so it’s a sensory toy. I also knew he’d like to count them. The beads are colorful, so I can use it to teach him colors. They are also grouped in 10′s, so we can learn to count by 10 (up to 100). It’s all sorts of usefulness. It also looks like part of the playscape at our local playground and Zach loves to play with that.

So, when I got home from the Ikea-fest, I unwrapped the abacus and put it in front of Zach. He took to it immediately. He slid the beads back and forth. He took the palm of his hand and spun them around (this made him laugh because it kind of tickles). He counted them one by one. And he even told ME the colors of some of the beads. Yellow and Green specifically. On his own. Yay Zach!

Moving the beads over one by one

No. We have STILL not painted that wall. It'll happen. Someday.

Of course, you know that we can’t do anything here without enlisting the help of the front loader and/or dump truck. Zach said, “Yellow tractor. Here tractor, yellow.” I assume the last yellow as for the beads. And then he made the tractor play with the abacus.

Tractor + Abacus = Fun

What did Zach learn today? The abacus was good for all kinds of things: sensory play, color learning, counting practice, imaginative play (with the tractor) and motor skills.

What did Mommy learn? Occasionally I hit the nail on the head in the toy department. And this is great for long-term use as he gets older and learns more math.

All kids focus on different skills at different times and excel at certain skills above others. Zach is a kid who has mastered his gross motor skills. He can jump using two feet, instead of hopping from one, and gets some good air. He can run, and run FAST. He climbs up everything. His verbal skills are OK. He’s certainly talking more and more these days (it’s kind of amazing actually). The area we have never really spent much focus has been fine motor skills, like writing. Or using utensils better, I have never really given him the chance to eat something like soup, for instance. I always feed him foods that have the option of using his hands if he wants. Or foods that stick to the spoon without running off of it, like yogurt.

The other reason, besides being necessary, to work on fine motor skills is that we’re doing a lot more crafts these days. If I’m going to have him help me more with these, he’s going to need to learn to use scissors. Right now he just can’t. So today’s activity helps with this skill. It will also eventually help his hand dexterity and he’ll have an easier time learning to do things like hold a pencil properly. I learned about this super simple activity HERE.

Here are today’s supplies:

2 mixing bowls, tongs, cotton balls

The directions are simple. I put 10 cotton balls in one bowl. I showed Zach how to hold the tongs like scissors. And then I told him to pick up one cotton ball at a time and move it from the small bowl to the big bowl (bonus lesson on sizes and opposites there, oh and counting too!).  I demonstrated first, then asked him if he wanted to try. He was very into it.

Trying out the tongs

We quickly learned though that he is not quite ready for the one-handed, scissor-style tong actions yet. So I did a few with him. And then we just focused on using both hands. Even using two hands required a lot of concentration and coordination on his part to get each cotton ball individually, pinch it and move it over. At times he got quite frustrated (but lots of cheers and encouragement helped).

Two-handed tong action

Eventually, once he got pretty good at getting the cotton balls back and forth between the two bowls, he started getting fancy. He spaced the bowls out and sat in the middle of them. He’d pick up a cotton ball from one bowl, do a spin move, and then put the cotton ball into the other bowl. Kind of like a cotton ball dance. Silly kid.

I was actually quite surprised at how into this activity he was. He jumped right in and moved cotton balls for a good 20 minutes. We’ll have to do this one again and see if we can master the tongs with just one hand. But for now I am quite pleased with the results we achieved today.

What did Zach learn today? He worked on some fine motor skills. Hopefully someday soon he’ll be able to cut paper when making his own crafts. He also got a little lesson in patience. He’d get frustrated with the tongs when he would “forget” how to get them to close. He’d start getting angry and I would have to say, “Think about it. Do you push out or push in to close the tongs?” and he would calm down and think, and then get it right. That is a big step for a 2-year-old.

What did Mommy learn? That again, stuff in bowls is fun. And that Zach does have a desire to learn. He showed me a lot of determination today.

King David once counted his army. His purpose? No reason was given in the Scriptures. The result? His action angered God and led to a blight that killed 70,000.

I’ve been to pastoral fellowships and many pastors’ conferences and often the small talk had been “What’s your church?”, “Where does your church meet?”, and “How big is your church?” Lately, I went to a local pastoral fellowship (that I used to attend) and the talk was about how a number of local churches had built buildings worth millions of pesos!

Recently, I also attended a house church conference and an issue came up about counting the number of churches networked by different leaders. The participants decided unanimously to avoid empire-building and comparing numbers of churches within networks.

House churches are quite new in this era in the Philippines. Therefore, I believe it would be important for the future to make my small contribution now on this topic to help set the proper foundation for this move in the Philippines and elsewhere.

Here are some reasons why we should not count:

1. It is impossible to count His Church. In the book of Acts, we find God adding daily to those who were being saved. Three thousand were baptized on Pentecost (Acts 2:41). Then their number grew to 5,000 (4:4). But the counting stops there. If people were being saved daily, you would quickly lose count.
2. We are looking for brothers and sisters. Our desire is to look for our brothers and sisters who are being birthed in the Spirit. We are not hard-selling or convincing people to accept Christ. This is not a corporate project and the Gospel is not our product. Our mission is one of love to bring in our siblings in Christ.
3. God is the one who draws people to Christ. Not us. He sends His Spirit and works on individuals. We come along at appropriate times in a person’s life journey and inject whatever message or influence God has sent us to deliver. We only water a bit and harvest only when ripe. How can we count Someone else’s miraculous and mysterious work? How can we count people when each one has a unique journey slowly progressing towards the light?
4. The NT Church baptized new disciples immediately. Pentecost, where 3,000 were baptized, was a one-time event. Samaria was also a one-time event. Mass baptisms were not the ordinary. But immediate baptisms of entire families was the norm in the NT. If every disciple were authorized to baptize new disciples immediately, we will never be able to count all disciples in any given territory.
5. Churches were geographical, not organizational. In the NT, they considered only one church in every city or town. Churches then were divided only by geography, unlike now where churches are divided by doctrine, organization, vision, and personalities. In the NT, there was no spirit of comparison and division (except in Corinth). Without the spirit of comparison and division, there was no need to count.
6. We are looking for changed lives, not numbers. If we are truly just looking for changed lives and genuine followers of Jesus, why do we need to count? If there is only One Church, why do we need to count? Do we do a better job at our mission because we are reaching our annual goal? Or do we faithfully fulfill our mandate because we love Jesus and His body regardless of the number? Is Christianity more successful than other religions because there’s more of us? Or is Christ’s Kingdom growing because people are actually turning away from darkness into the light?
7. Real tsunamis can’t be organized. Organizing a movement will sooner or later kill the movement. You can’t catalyze a movement through organizing. Every genuine movement is a phenomenon. (No one could have planned People Power 1.) Spirit-led movements are a miracle that we can only study from hind-sight. Only God could have planned Pentecost.

It’s good that the house churches in the Philippines have unanimously decided against building another empire. No army-counting here.

Jesus said, “I will build My Church.” Let Jesus build the only true church. And let’s follow His lead.