I am very behind in posting this, but we had a big snow storm in the Midwest so we had to take advantage of it and have SNOW WEEK!! This week was a little different. Instead of having a variety of activities prepared, we did one activity a day.

1. Cooking with Snow: For this activity, I gathered up some real pots, pans, spatulas, spices, spoons, and bowls. Carter had the best time pretend cooking with the snow. He would add a little snow, add some rice, add some beans, and stir stir stir. He hums when he stirs! So cute! I am so proud of him too! He can use his tongs with one hand now! Yay, Carter!

2. Playing Outside in the Snow: Playing in the snow is a little hard for a little toddler with short legs. It worked best running around on the shoveled driveway watching it snow. Of course we had to get bundled up which was a chore, but was well worth it. We both needed a little fresh air and exercise after being cooped up in the house. We had so much fun and ended the fun with a yummy cup of hot chocolate.

      3. Colored Ice Cubes in the Snow: The day before I made some colored ice cubes with water and food coloring. I threw them in with the snow and used those tongs like a pro searching for colored gems in the white snow. I also added some glow sticks that I had tucked away for a rainy day. 

4. Colored Water in Various Squirt Bottles with Snow: For this day’s activity, I dug through the recycling and closet for any type of squirt bottle I could find. I filled the bottles with colored water for Carter to squirt on the snow.

5. Snow Ice Cream: Last but not least, we made snow ice cream.

Stir together: 1 gallon snow, 1 cup white sugar, 2 cups sugar, and 1 tablespoon vanilla. Enjoy! (we added “strbry” syrup too)

More playing in the snow on a warmer day:

My other little cutie (future student) having some tummy time.

Sometimes I just look at Carter and can’t believe how old he is getting. Twenty months is old (hehe). He is talking more and more, playing pretend, and so much more. We watched some of his old videos this week; they made me think about him growing up and just how bittersweet it is. We have so many great memories already,  but there are so many more to come. I am definitely going to be one of those moms who is the one crying when their kid starts kindergarten. It is so easy for me to see God knew what he was doing when he designed us.  With each milestone mastered, come new challenges, but the challenges only last a short time before we are on to something new. Looking back at the memories I wish Carter was tiny again, but then again not really.  I guess I just realized this week to appreciate even the difficult moments.

Here is a peek at our week at Carter School:

1. Homemade Drums: I found this homemade drum idea and gave it a try. I used old tin cans (lid cut off with no sharp edges), cut the bottom off of a balloon, put rice or beans in the cans, stretch the balloon over the can, and use a rubber band to hold the cut balloon in place.  My goal was to make them yellow until I ran out of yellow balloons. I thought the bigger cans made a better sound. Carter loved banging on them with the dowel rod. I can see him as a drummer when he gets older.

2. Cutting Bananas: When planning yellow activities to add to our theme, I thought of bananas and combined them with a skill Carter needs to learn which is cutting. Of course this is beginning knife skills with a toddler knife, but if I want him to learn how to cook me supper, I need to get him started early on learning some chopping skills.  This was his first experience cutting, and I quickly realized that we need to practice this more often. It was much more difficult for him than I thought it would be.

3. Lemon Stickers: When we are shopping for groceries, Carter has to hold the whatever produce we get and peel the sticker off. It is a little annoying, but it led to this sticker game. We used lemons and some stickers from the craft stash. I stuck them on and he peeled them off over and over. I was trying to give his little fingers a work out, and it worked.

4. Baking Soda and Vinegar: This squirty bottle may have been my best purchase ever. We just did the basic baking soda  and vinegar experiment. I added yellow food coloring to the vinegar; he squeezed and stirred and oooed and awed.

5. Rubber Duckies: One of Carter’s first words was duck. He loves his ducks, and I love hearing him say duck. I splurged on 5 yellow rubber duckies, filled a container with a little water, and he fished the rubber duckies out and put them in bowl.  This game had loads of learning opportunities and kept his interest for a long time.

Carter Rating: 8/10

Blue week was a hit. I think I went a little crazy with it though. My mind kept thinking of more and more blue things to do as the week went on. I started out by looking around the house and filling up my blue bowl with blue things that we have. Then my imagination went wild thinking of how he could use different blue things to work on his age level skills. We started out the week with the basic set up downstairs then I kept adding stuff as I thought of them. Be warned, I went a little blue crazy!

1.Blue Rice: We used dollar store rice dyed blue, two containers, a spoon, a laundry detergent scoop, a funnel, and a clean coffee creamer container. He would transfer the rice from container to container. I taught him to use the funnel, and he continued to fill and dump to his hearts content.

2. Blue Marble Drop: Marbles again! This time I cut some holes in an empty container with plastic lid. Carter plopped the marbles through the holes over and over and over. I am finding the recycle bin as a good place to find new toys, and they are FREE!!!

3. Cheerio Pour: In my searches through the house for blue things, I found a blue protein shake bottle and filled it with Cheerios from the pantry. Cheerios+bowls+spoon=pouring, scooping, stirring fun

4. Blue Stuff and Light Play: We explored our bowl of blue things with a flash light and lantern.

5. Blue Shaker and Water Play: BEST thing ever! Water play is a go-to activity at our house. I filled a pie plate with water and put in some blue beads and glitter. I had some blue Gatorade powder in the pantry so I filled a shaker with it and he used it with the water and pretended to cook. It was a bit sticky but not too bad.

6. Blue Jello: Carter was not very interested in the Jello this time, and for some reason it was a huge mess.

7. Blue Lava Lamp: This was so awesome! All you do is fill a bottle with 2/3 way with water; then add any kind of oil (I used canola) and some food coloring. To make the bubbles, you add alkasetlzer tablets and blue bubbles worked their way through the oil. Very cool and, I think, Carter liked it too because he kept signing, “More.”

8. Blueberry Smash: Simple. Carter hammered some blueberries for some hand-eye coordination while I cooked supper.

And somehow (wink) he has learned to say, “BLUUUUUUUUUUE!!”  It was a great week.

Carter Rating: 9/10

We have started Carter School! I had just been trying to plan one activity a day with no real structure. Some days we would get to it and some days we wouldn’t. Some days the activity would be a huge score and others would be a waste. Too many days were slipping by where I had run out of time to prepare an activity. After realizing I needed to become more organized, I started planning thematic weeks. On Sunday, I do a little research for ideas, plan out at least four activities, and set up everything ready to go for the rest of the week. (I don’t think I will ever lose the teacher in me.) I love this so much because everything is ready to go for the whole week, and there are a variety of things for Carter to choose from.

This week in Carter School we did Green Week:

1.  Spices and Aloe Vera: For this activity, I squirted some green aloe vera on a tray and let Carter explore his little heart out. I also whipped out some old green spices for him to shake into the mix. He loves to stir, stir, stir and pretend he’s cooking. He really enjoyed this.

2. Green Homemade Play-Doh: I made Carter some Play-Doh with lime Jello and added some green straws for poking fun.

3. Oatmeal Sensory Bin: Carter’s favorite thing in the world might be tractors. In our house, tractors are John Deere Green which led to this activity. I printed off some little tractors, covered them in contact paper, and hid them in the oatmeal. He dug and dug through the oatmeal to find the hiding tractors.

4. Green Marbles: There is something about marbles that Carter cannot resist. He used a spoon to transfer the marbles from a little glass bowl to the ice cube tray and back again. This was serious business for Carter; he likes things a certain way sometimes.

5. Green things: For some reason, I didn’t get a picture of this. It was pretty simple but very successful; I set up his new tent with a green bowl with lots of green things from around the house. He played in the tent and used daddy’s lantern to look at all the green things.

All of these activities seem so simple, but for some reason I can’t wait to see him exploring new concepts or practicing different skills. It is too much fun watching him grow and learn. He is one special little guy; I love him so so much.

Carter Rating: 9/10