Jumping fun

Jr S is not so keen on gross motor activities, So we created this jumping fun activity by having her jump in the squares and triangles ( also circles but it is not pictured) She still just goes on her tip toes and sort of bounces , no real jumps yet . But as a fellow mommy told me, enjoy while she cannot jump because after that there is not stopping.

Clothespin fun

Jr S loves to do this activity with clothespins , I got the idea from Chasing Cheerios. I love this blog, and have used many many ideas from her blog. I had colored the pinching ends of the clothespins with markers when Jr S was about 15-16 months so that she would be able to identify the place to hold her fingers . But now she can do the task without cues.

Update on Kumon Books

After using just the sticker part of Kumon books we finally ventured to cut and paste and it was great. She finished about 8 pages in one sitting. I liked this activity , it focuses not only on fine motor but uses texture (glue) and analytical skills (while orienting the piece to be pasted) and gives a fun end product which can be proudly displayed on the Art Wall.

transfering rice grains

Another Montessori inspired activity, finally Jr S graduated from using bigger beans to using rice grains. She loves this task and is quite meticulous about clean up too. I adapted this using small  Anchor measuring cups.

Paper collage

We practiced tearing paper, what a great re-use of all my magazines and then pasted the pieces . Just a fun open ended activity.

pattern activity

I found these circles on a box of Kleenex during the back to school sale days. I cut up some of them and left some intact in groups of 3's. We had fun trying to create a pattern out of the cut up circles to match the one which was intact. It was a little challenging for Jr S but she seemed to like it for a brief session. Maybe I should stick magnets on them and have her do it on a cookie sheet.

one to one correspondence

For fall, we tried a one to one correspondence activity with silk leaves and plastic spiders. Jr S initially just wanted to put all the spider rings on her fingers but when she saw me doing the activity, she joined in and went on to do this twice in one sitting. A good lesson for left to right and one to one . Next time, I will try to do this with leaves we collect during our walks.