Some of Avery's recent drawings from last month. This is what she said about the first one: "That's a dog. He has a nose. See, you just draw one right there."
nod blocks
Every child needs a block set or two. Blocks are one toy that my kids return to again and again. They are wonderful for constructing, but they are also good for creative play. There are many benefits to creative play. Creativity helps contribute to good problem-solving skills. Creativity is an outlet for energy. Creative opportunities allow children to test out their ideas by trial and error. They experiment and learn by doing.
Here are Land of Nod's Nod blocks being used as food, an example of symbolic play (one aspect of symbolic play is when a child uses an object to represent another object, e.g., pretending to use a banana as a phone).
A road of blocks.
Nod Blocks are great because on the face of each block is one of the following: an upper case letter, lower case letter, number and a word that begins with the letter showcased on the block and an illustration to go with each, e.g., whale, wrench and Walt. Blocks like these are a versatile toy that provide opportunities for play and learning! Thanks to Land of Nod for sending us Nod Blocks to try out.
crayon resist easter eggs
Today we dyed Easter eggs using Glob's Natural Easter Egg Coloring Kit. The kit comes with 3 colors (yellow, purple and blue), 3 compostable mixing cups and 3 small bamboo brushes. The dyes are made from herbs and plants, in this case, annatto, radish and cabbage. The dyes can be mixed to make other colors as well. We drew with a white crayon on the eggs before dyeing them, a technique called crayon resist (which happened to be one of the suggestions in the kit). Another example of crayon resist can be found here. Many thanks to Glob for sending us an Easter Egg kit to try out!
valentines for all ages
Our Valentines this year are simple: little treats in glassine bags sealed with red hearts and a Valentine's message on the back. The bags are from the former online store Nice Package, the heart stickers are from Shop Sweet Lulu and the round labels are from Paper Source, in their peacock color. I typed our Valentine's messages using Paper Source's free template and ran the labels through our printer. We gave away three different treats: Little Flower Candy Company sea salt caramels for our friends, assorted stickers for Avery's friends (mostly preschool-aged) and Whole Foods animal cookies for Nate's friends (mostly toddler-aged). What's great is that you can put anything small and cute in these glassine bags, like these little Japanese erasers. Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!
i like fruit
Avery likes the different colors and textures in I Like Fruit and I love all the collage artwork in it.