Adventures In Crafting: Alphabet Week-Day 5

Whew, I made it through our first week of crafting and it was awesome.  It's hard to imagine I began the week stressed, overwhelmed, and scared that I couldn't be THAT mom. CJ finally played the picture letter matching board game!  What a way to end the week, my perseverance paid off.  We went slightly off schedule today with a lot more independent play time than planned, but I was o.k. with that.

My awesome husband cut the Woodsie panels, this idea I got from the Play At Home Moms blog.  We did not use this this week.

Here, my son finally started playing the picture match game.  I was freaking out with excitement and probably became overly enthusiastic as usual.  I would tell him the item in the picture and tell him the letter it started with and he would find the letter on the board and place the picture.  Some pictures he described himself, but the best part is he actually went through the board in its entirety.

Our craft for the day was noodles and the letter 'N'.  He loved pouring these ones out.

 Next week is pumpkin week and I have decided that I will just consolidate the Adventures In Crafting series into one weekly post.  It is a lot to do a daily recap with a toddler and other projects.  See I am learning time management and how to let things go.

Things I learned:  When you find the right game, they can really focus.
                                If, somehow, one manages to keep a child focused for a long period of time,
                                a break should follow immediately to give them some free time to just be a
                                toddler.
             

Adventures In Crafting: Alphabet Week - Day 4

Thursday was a day of hits and misses.  The letter of the day was 'C' and I had planned three activities.  Today was also My Gym day which I love.  It got us out of the house and I am very pleased with their program for his age and I absolutely love the instructors.  Lucky for me one of them is male so I think that is good for my son.  I am realizing now that most programs for toddlers are scheduled around the average toddler schedule because everything we do starts between 10:00 am and 10:30 am.  I feel like the stars lined up for me on that or I just happen to choose a standard schedule for my child.  Anyway, 12:00 pm is lunch and around 1:00 pm nap.  While Connor napped I set up one of the activities, "Letters Around The House". I cut out large capital letters on my Cricut (you'll probably see that name a lot with these crafting projects) and taped them to items corresponding with that letter around the house.  Once CJ was up at around 2:45 pm, an almost two hour nap which is a treat for me, his gets a snack and free/independent play.  I set up the next craft which was cotton balls that are to be glued on the letter 'C' and I made a paper bag puppet cow to add some entertainment to the day.  I have become so obsessed with the puppet idea.  When the issue came up to introduce social aspects to my son's education, I realized I can use puppets.  Well before I could get started CJ recognized the letters and I began taking him around the house to find the letters.  He went ballistic.  He loved it.  He was so excited and running to find the next one and of course I began running as well, because this seemed to be a hit and that brought me an uncontrollable joy.

As expected at craft time it was dump everything out and put back in time again.  He did seem to show some interest in the cotton balls and their texture.  He kept trying to get back into the paint container during the whole process.  Caliapi the Cow (yep I gave it a name) just seemed to weird him out so I am figuring out at this point puppets may not be for him.  This craft did not last long and he got antsy so I had him help me clean up.  While cleaning up I had come up with pretending the 99 cent table cloth is a wave of water and I go hopping around the house making waves with it.  He loves it.  Anyway, the rest of the evening went like this:

5:15 pm - Dinner
5:30 pm - Sesame St.
6:30 pm - Milk and Cookies
7:00 pm - Medicine (he has asthma)
7:20 pm - Story in Bed
7:35 pm - Sleepy time

Things I learned:  Some kids just don't like everything despite how standard some things seem to be.

Adventures In Crafting: Alphabet Week-Day 3

O.k., I am truly on a roll.  This craft day I was most excited about and to top it all off, we had an outing since I dubbed CJ well enough to be around other children (I thought he had a cold).  The day started off with the standard routine, but at 10:00 am instead of starting a craft or whatever  activity I had planned, we were off to the library for story time.  We arrived back home around 12:00 pm so it was already time for lunch.  He had free play with my phone apps.  This means, it's whichever game he likes most rather than theme of the week related.  Fortunately for me, I only have apps for him that stimulate learning.  The ones he happens to like are these puzzle apps which require dexterity, skill, and patience.  It freaks me out how well he plays them.  I do consider them along the lines of television so it is limited in the schedule.  Then it was nap time.  After nap there is independent play and then I set up for craft #2.  This was by far my favorite.  The letter of the day was 'B' so that meant buttons and his favorite, butterflies.  I cut out tiny butterflies that were to be used to decorate the letter 'B' I had printed on paper and a giant butterfly onto which he would hopefully glue buttons.

The outcome, CJ just played a game he created called "Dump The Buttons Out Of The Container And Put Them Back".  He shouted butterfly over and over again.  I got him to participate slightly by handing me buttons to glue onto the big butterfly.  I also tried a repeat of using the pipe cleaners to make the letter 'B' and decided to make glasses which I was requested to wear for a significant portion of the day.  Once again the craft lasted a significant amount of time, he helped me put the buttons away and the day just flew by with dinner, an hour of Sesame Street, and an alphabet bath (with alpha sponges) which he loved completing the day.  Yay, I really feel like I am getting less stressed and enjoying this time more than ever.

Things I Learned:  Having an outing incorporated into the day really allows me to reduce the amount of      
                                crafts and activities I have to prepare at home.  It also provides for a more balanced
                                day

Adventures in Crafting: Alphabet Week-Day 2

In the wake of Monday's failed events, I went into Tuesday with lowered expectations.  My schedule was already planned out, but as I have been noticing since I had began creating these MS Excel based schedules they serve merely as a guide and nothing more.  It keeps me focused and less scattered brained than I would be without one.  CJ woke up around 7:00 am and since the Valley is blazing hot, we try to get him outside as soon as possible.  I then decided to skip pushing the picture match game and let him play out back for a little longer.  By 11:30 am I busted out the craft box.  This was insanely exciting to me as this is our first home craft and I actually have a craft box for my son.

This day was letter A so I used the craft from an online website, I will post the link later, where they suggested making alligators by painting clothes pins green.  I thought this was an awesome idea and it was only partly because I already had clothespins in my personal craft box.  Well, to my surprise this one went well.  By well I mean I coaxed CJ into painting a little, but he was more excited about stacking the paint strips.  I had pipe cleaners in one of the boxes and ended up shaping the letter "A" and he loved that.  I took this as a win and it took up way more time than I expected and I even threw in teaching how to clean up.  Aside from letting him play only alphabet apps on my phone and playing all alphabet songs for a few minutes, those were the only alphabet activities that took for the day.

Things I Learned:  Go with the flow
                                Make up as you go along, it's more fun and organic
                                Any acknowledgement of the craft is considered
                                participation