Little Lessons

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Toddler Reading

Miss Mega (21 months) reading/signing a page from a favorite book...
http://signingway.blogspot.jp/2012/05/mullberry-bush.html

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Cutting Veggies

Zilla is 4 years old

One of Zilla's recent interests is helping out with cooking. He can be a very good helper when he's in the right mindset.

We recently acquired a plastic knife - the kind used for cutting lettuce - which Zilla has claimed as his. The texture of mushrooms is perfect for him to practice safe chopping!

Rather than chop up all the veggies I sometimes "make" work for him by having him use cookie cutters to cut shapes out of veggie slices. Daikon sliced thin works really well.

After a while Zilla wanted to try cutting using the cookie cutter with 2-3 slices at a time. He quickly figured out how tough that was so with a plate over the cutter and a bit of elbow grease he made it work!

More Yochien Things

It seems that there is a great number of things Zilla needs for yochien (preschool/kinder) which means there are many things that I have to keep track of. We now have a dresser drawer dedicated to all the bits and pieces!

This is a head covering to be used in the event of a disaster. The things folds up into a nice square to become the kid's seat cushion. Once a month or so it gets sent home so we can wash the outside of the cushion and the kids and practice putting on the inside part.

Here is one to the two exercise uniforms.

This is the other excercise uniform. It goes over the shorts set.

There are specific days when they are asked to wear this to school so I have to keep track of those... as well as which days are hot lunch, which are bring a bento... which are full days of school, which have early dismissal... and a million other things!

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Painting

Zilla is 4 years old

Mega is 1 yr. 9 mo. old

I enjoy doing art/craft projects. However, I have very little patience when it comes to doing them with kids. The mess... the possibilities they miss... the short attention span... you get the picture.

Out of all the art forms perhaps my least favorite to do with kids is painting. Since we live in a small space and don't own the place I am very hesitant to do major painting projects indoors. Also, putting paint into the hands of a 1 yr old is just asking for trouble!

Here is the first page. Things were pretty simple as they started out.

After a while of brush painting we shifted to shaped sponges. They quickly figured out that the same sponge stamped in the same place but with 2 different colors looks pretty cool!