Scrabble Letters Coasters

Months ago, I participated in a link-up party in which someone posted an idea for using the letters from an incomplete Scrabble set to make coasters. Silly me, I did not bookmark or pin the idea, I merely kept it tucked away in the back of my mind for later use. Once I did make the coasters, I could not find that particular link-up party, nor choose from the hundreds of similar posts I found on Google to give the person who inspired me their deserved credit. I do thank that blogger, though, for helping me know just what to do with my own incomplete Scrabble set and for helping me provide a few fun coasters for my family.

To make these coasters, I used only two materials: letter tiles and Mod Podge. After my Google search, though, I wish I had thought to use a cork board backing as some of the posts suggested. Using a triple layer of Mod Podge made our coasters pretty sturdy, but not sturdy enough. Two of them broke after Baby Bear stepped on them. We three bears have had a lot of fun with these coasters, though!

Because I placed the letters in no particular order, Papa Bear and I have enjoyed the challenge of trying to make as many words as possible on each of the coasters. It's like playing Boggle every time we pick up our drinks! Baby Bear has also found these coasters entertaining, even going so far as to pack them with his things to take to church and playing with them during car rides! He knows a couple of letters and points them out to Papa Bear and me when he spots them. He also likes when we name other letters for him. Even though we are not specifically teaching him letters yet, these have provided many teachable moments for us to introduce him to some of the letters of the alphabet. Who knew coasters could be so entertaining?

You're playing Boggle right now, aren't you? ;)

Books and Songs for an All About Me Unit

As mentioned in previous posts, Baby Bear and I spent the first two weeks of September doing a unit called All About Me in which we learned the names of external body parts and talked about some of the things we can do with those parts. Last night I realized that I never shared any of the books or songs we used to go along with our unit. There were SO MANY to choose from! We only needed eight books though (we go to story time once a week for our reading time), so I went with what we already had at home. I also limited our song list to the songs I thought Baby Bear would enjoy most. Here are our reading and music time lists for All About Me:

Books

• All of Baby, Nose to Toes by Victoria Adler
• One Foot, Two Feet by Peter Meloney
• Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? by Dr. Seuss (for things you can do with your mouth)
• Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb by Al Perkins
• The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss
• Pat the Bunny by Dorothy Kunhardt (tactile)
• I Love You Through and Through by Bernadette Rossetti-Shustak
• So Big! by Anna Jane Hays

Songs

• "If Your Happy and You Know It"
• "Hokey Pokey"
• "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes"
• "Where is Thumbkin?"
• "Father Abraham"
• "Do Your Ears Hang Low?" 

Although I sometimes buy books to go with our homeschool studies, most of the time I use books we already have around the house or books from the library. For songs, I highly recommend purchasing the Go Fish album "Party Like a Preschooler" because the lively, contemporary-style songs encourage movement and dance, which adds an element of physical exercise to music time. Not all of the songs from this list are on the album, so I often use the YouTube app on my phone to find the rest. We had a lot of fun during our All About Me unit, and we are having a lot of fun during our current weather unit as well. I can't wait to share our next books and songs lists at the end of this unit because there are some great ones on there as well! 

Painting on Foil

Baby Bear really enjoys painting, so we paint often. To try to mix things up a bit, sometimes we try new paint recipes, new tools, or new canvases. It keeps things interesting. Our latest painting venture involved testing out a different canvas... aluminum foil.

Call me excessively frugal, but when the sun was blazing on yet another 100+ degree day, I put aluminum foil over the window on my front door where the most heat was coming in. It may not look pretty, but it only cost pennies to perform the same function as a thick shade or a new door with an energy efficient window. Anyway, the weather has been much nicer these past couple of weeks, even allowing us to turn off the air conditioner and open the windows, so I finally removed the foil. It came off in great shape, and it seemed such a shame to just throw it away without having a little fun first. So, I gave it to Baby Bear to paint on!

At first, Baby Bear liked to just sit and stare at his reflection in the foil. Once I told him he could pour his own paint, though, that ended quickly! I gave him a paintbrush to use, but Baby Bear seemed to like the smooth yet wrinkled feel of the foil under his fingers. He had a blast pouring all the different colors onto the foil and then mixing them up with his hands. Then, he drew pictures of faces in the muddy-orange color that was left. I have a feeling we'll be using foil as a paint canvas many more times to come.

Potato Stamps

One of the basic maths concepts Baby Bear and I work on at home is naming shapes. Baby Bear gets so proud of himself when he correctly finds and names a circle, "tine-gull" (triangle), "scare" (square), "tangle" (rectangle), "owall" (oval), heart, or star. It makes me quite proud as well. :)  One of the activities we did recently to practice a few of these shapes was potato stamping. To make the stamps, I cut a very long potato into thirds. I left one piece alone to be the oval. Then, I used a knife to carve the end of one piece into a square, and another piece into a triangle. Voila! Stamps!

Just dip...

...and paint!

Dish Soap Paints

I'm always looking for new fingerpaint recipes to try because I love introducing Baby Bear to new sensory experiences. So far, each paint recipe we've tried has had a different texture, consistency, and what I like to call"goop factor." Our latest fingerpaint recipe came from Tipnut, and it consisted of equal parts water, dish soap, and flour. The texture was smooth, the consistency was medium-thick, and the goop factor was high. Dish soap paints hold their color well, are sticky, and work very well for fingerpainting. Although these paints are easy to wash off (and probably leave surfaces cleaner than before you painted), I don't recommend telling your child that these paints consist of soap. He may just decide to rub them all over his body to "wash!"

All About Me

Since Baby Bear and I finished up our All About Me unit last week (aka the parts of the body), I thought I'd share a few of the smaller activities we did. These activities helped us learn the names of the external parts of the body and what they can do.

Play with Mr. Potato Head

A pretend visit to the doctor for a checkup

Paper dolls

Paint on reflection in tall mirror

Make playdough men

Make playdough faces

Make a butterfly using 4 hand tracings and 1 foot tracing

Chocolate Playdough

Baby Bear and I just wrapped up our home preschool unit on All About Me, AKA the external parts of the body and what they can do. For one of our sensory activities (repeated several times because Baby Bear loved and requested it so much), we made little playdough people. Even though we already had a batch of no-cook playdough on hand, I really wanted to make something new. So, while Baby Bear was working on a playdough man, I set to work on making some chocolate playdough.

I started with a familiar recipe, and then I adjusted as needed. Although I didn't measure, this is the most accurate account I can give of how our successful batch came to be:

• Mix 1 1/2 cups flour (I used all-purpose), 1/2 cup salt, 1 1/2 T cream of tartar, and 3T unsweetened cocoa powder in a bowl.
• Add 1T vegetable oil and mix.
• Add 3/4 cups boiling water and mix. Dough will likely be sticky.
• Slowly, stir in more flour and knead until dough is no longer sticky. I ended up adding about another 1/2 cup.

It smelled wonderful!

For days, Baby Bear kept asking to play with his "choco paydoh." He just loves that it's chocolate, even though he can't eat it! I think this is a new family favorite!