Photo Nature Scavenger Hunt

One of the things I want to do this summer is let Maggie play with the camera more. We did a photo scavenger hunt outside today. She was too busy holding her binoculars to use the camera, but she did obligingly push the button.

Our list included rocks, leaves and flowers of different colors, a clover, a bug, a feather, a bird, a seed, a nut (had to count the coconuts being sold on the street), a shell (the sand in the playground is actually from the beach...) etc.

Halfway around the building, as we were examining the sand brought up by some busy ants, Maggie exclaimed, "I know! There's sand at the playground!"

Goa: Park Hyatt Resort

Pirate Ship Playground

Pool

Dalton drinking a poolside pina colada.

Restaurants

Goa: The Arabian Sea

From above!

Here are some of the shells Maggie and I collected. We kept the top half and threw out the rest (plus dozens more).

Parasailing!

Sensory Box Theme Ideas

Here are pictures of the sensory boxes the kids and I have played with. I usually set a shallow box on an extra sheet for easy cleaning up. My favorite sensory boxes, as far as clean-up goes, are beans and water.

Here's Dalton sorting pinto beans into mini ice cube trays.

Scooping and pouring rice.

Birthday sensory box! This sensory box contained:

• white rice
• orange and green lentils (sprinkles)
• silicone cupcake cups
• birthday candles
• spoons and scoops
• yarn poofs
• small boxes wrapped as presents

Dinosaur Sensory Box: pinto beans, dried peas, white limas, rocks, shells, and some blue construction paper for a lake.

Two farm sensory boxes. I was not a fan of the oatmeal. The powder got all over Maggie's clothes.

The second farm theme we tried was dried corn, rocks, beads and toothpicks for fences, pumpkin seeds, and hay bales made from yellow and gold embroidery thread.

Here's the St. Patrick's Day sensory box.

But the best sensory box we've done was with water and ice.

Good-Die!

To go along with all the other words Dalton knows, here is a video of him saying "bye!" He waves enthusiastically and yells "Die!" to Daddy going to work, passersby, and empty elevators.

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If You Give a Mouse a Cookie Activities

This week we read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (a gift from Aunt Pat for Christmas a while back) and did some related activities. We made Peanut Butter Balls.

Maggie ate the remaining sugar and gave herself a Santa Claus face.

She wore her Cookie PJs.

We had an If You Give a Mouse a Cookie muffin tin meal.

We made some paper cookies and Mouse finger puppets to do some basic math with.

The highlight of all the activities was the book Sheep, authored and illustrated by Maggie.

Click to enlarge.

Sheep by Maggie. If you give a sheep a chocolate chip he might eat a coconut. Then he will run and he will eat a rock.

When it rain he need an umbrella. The sheep will eat leaves and flowers and fishies.

He will eat a marshmallow and then he will be all full. After the sheep is all full, he has to climb a tree. And he will fall off the tree. Maybe next time he needs to climb a shorter one instead.

The End.