Week 3 - Getting Used to It

Yes, more and more snow, but what else's new? Actually, lots of things. I think we're settling into the routine now or so it seems. Morning - I try to sleep in ('til 7:15 or so), but it usually doesn't happen, so I just pretend I'm asleep and stay in bed as long as I can. Then M helps me make the bed. Remember, it a fold-out loveseat, so it takes some strong muscles to fold it. M's muscles are getting much stronger since now he eats not one, but two breakfasts - one with his grandparents as they are getting ready for work and another one - with me after I finally get out of bed.

Then we try to do something fun - play with cans of fruits and veggies, for example. You'd be amazed at how many different games you can play with cans (full and empty) after you've stayed indoors for 3 weeks with M. For example, this is a canbot we built. M was responsible for the overall design, me - for hot-gluing it all together. M didn't want the robot to have eyes, just an alarm button to warn him of dust storms. There are also battery packs on the back and later on M wanted to add some "shooting things".

And then M built an Axiom (from Wall-E) out of all the cans from the pantry.

We've also started talking about Valentine's Day, although M calls it Balenvine Day. But I think he got the idea after making a little craft of wrapping a yarn around the heart shaped loom I made for him with a scrap of wood and some nails.

After that craft, M wanted to make me more gifts. One was a bracelet (he picked the beads for it). The other one was going to be a nice painting. M asked me what colors I wanted to see, then chose pink and told me not to look 'cause he wanted it to be a total surprise. A few minutes later he called me over and proudly showed the painting he made just for me - Pink Skeleton, complete with a rib cage!

Oh, and M also drew pictures of me, Babushka and the cat. Last time he drew pictures of people (or animals) was... never. So these are officially his first portraits. He was very happy with the result and even wanted to sign them (баба, мама, кот).

It was interesting that he drew me wearing black and grey pants and a fuzzy purple sweater. He then drew Babushka with the same colors because after all, that purple sweater is hers and I just borrow it sometimes. And then he drew our orange tabby cat. He made sure to draw the blue collar and the bright red tag Xander now wears.

So now we have another picture to add to our impromptu gallery wall.

I also started a word wall and it went well for a while. M did read the words for a while, but then kind of stopped paying attention. I think I need to remove the letters off the wall and start new word after a few days.

Oh, since this week was Chris' birthday, we wanted to celebrate (even though Chris is away). Unfortunately, we were snowed in again and couldn't go to the bakery for a dessert. So instead, Grandma and M made some cookies.

Our little backyard sledding hill is growing with all the snow.

So Babushka, M and myself went sledding there a few times, including a candle-lit evening sledding with hot компот to keep us warm. The rest of the time we were busy digging our way out of the snow. M has his little shovel and is now helping us out in earnest. Telling you, he's getting much stronger.

Oh, and today the weather was actually nice (meaning no snow or icy rain) and we ran some errands. Good news - even though I'm going to miss the huge Wake County Public Library annual book sale, I've found another book sale here, in NY. And I already went to it and got a few books. This is a much smaller sale, but it takes place in a very nice little library and all the books cost between $o.10 and $1. Can't beat that, right?

Our Fall Crafts

With Space being the theme of choice these days we don't get to do much of unrelated activities. The play stove in the play kitchen has been cold for days. The Candy Land game sits lonely on the shelf. The drum is collecting dust up in the attic (I actually don't mind this last one).

Surprisingly though, M makes an exception for holiday crafts and activities. But he definitely keeps these two types of activities separate. The family room and the hallway leading to it is where his space stuff is - rockets, shuttles, puzzles and games, and craft displays. The kitchen and the living room is where we decorate for the holidays.

Anyway, back to the fall crafts. Here's a couple we've made this far:

1. Leaf garland - I got the idea from The Artful Parent blog. The good news was that I found the silver oil pens on sale at the craft store. The bad news was that they were on sale for a good reason - they weren't writing too well, especially the thinner ones. But I gave M the thicker of the two pens and he enjoyed drawing with them on the leaves.

2. Contact paper collage - first, we went on a walk to collect all the different leaves and flowers. That was a lot of fun on its own, kind of like a scavenger hunt. Then we dried them (all those volumes of Encyclopedia Britannica do come handy after all). Then M decided that he needed to snip all the stems with his little scissors (hard work, but he did well). But the most exciting thing for me was that M started and finished this entire collage BY HIMSELF! Usually he asks for my help just a few minutes into the project or loses interest altogether.

I think, given that it's the end of November, we'll wrap up our fall crafts for this year. Time to work on winter crafts :)

I am a Russian Kosmonavt

Ok, well, I am not a Russian kosmonaut, but that's what M says about himself now. It all started last week when we walked into a Marshall's store to pick up some underpants for M and walked out with a hot-orange astronaut costume. The following several days M spent pretty much living in this thing, taking it off only at night.

Then we read the Magic School Bus book, the one about them exploring the Solar system. We already had a small astronaut and a toy space shuttle. Then we built rockets at SparkCon. And today M said that we had to buy more astronauts 'cause the one we had at home was feeling lonely. So we bought a space-themed Toob.

Our art project for the day was white-on-black painting. M said that the big sheet of black paper was kosmos and he then painted a big planet and lots of stars on it and proudly showed the results to his "ashtronauts" (that's what he calls them in English).

What We Do When We Stay Home

Sometimes M wakes up in this peculiar mood when he simply refuses to go out to a park or a store or a museum. And sometimes he might feel a bit under the weather and then we have no choice but to stay away from other kids (lemme tell ya - this boy's sniffles are highly contagious; I know first-hand!).

So here's what we've been up to lately on our stay-inside days:

1. Baking a "lazy pie" - sauteeing sliced apples with some raisins and just a bit of brown sugar. Oh, don't forget cinnamon! My recommendation - forget about healthy/unhealthy and sautee in real butter, not in vegetable oil - tastes tons better. Then put the apples in a deep overproof dish and place Pillsbury Dough biscuits on top (I like the flaky kind). I guess it'll work with other types of biscuits as well. Or with cookie dough. Stick the "pie" into a preheated oven and wait until the "crust" bakes through. Let it cool some and enjoy. BTW, I've made mini-pies in ramekins and M loved them even more.

2. Use leftover dough from the pie to conduct all sorts of scientfic experiments using lots of salt and water. Had to take this one outside after a few big spills.

3. Making a juicing machine - at first it was for juicing apples only. But then M expanded it to lemons and oranges (hooray for the cheap-o plastic life-size lemons and oranges from the Dollar Store). M came up with the idea and most of the design all by himself and I helped him to glue and tape the pieces together. He then proceeded to decorate the machine with markers. Guess what he drew on it - an entire digestive system, from esophagus to large intestine. I mean, just by looking at it you can't tell what it is, but he provided a very thorough commentary as he was working on it. After some thinking he also drew a heart and some blood vessels on it. But no eyes or mouth because "Mama, it's just a machine".

4. Making a secret treasure box by, primarily, painting inside it and then putting all sorts of paper clippings, stickers, buttons, rocks, etc inside. Then building a birthday cake out of styrofoam piece, 3 wooden skewers, a bunch of wooden spools and balls and fuzzy sticks.

5. Drawing a picture on our giant chalkboard wall. First - a big smily sun. Second - lots of grass. Third - an airplane (ok, I helped with that one) and another airplane "electric and with no wings" (what???). Fourth - lots and lots of clouds. Then declaring that he wanted to be a pilot. And a chef. So I say that maybe he can have a plane with a kitchen in it. "Silly idea, Mama... I'm going to think about it" and then he drew a kitchen inside the plane.

From 2 Weeks Ago

No, I haven't dropped off the face of the Earth right after turning 32. It's just now that I'm older and wiser and more responsible, I decided to devote more time to work and less time to frivolous activities such as blogging. Wait 'til next year, when I turn 33 (although I just might win lottery by then and get filthy rich).

So anyway, where was I? Ah, right, 2 weeks ago, right after turning 32, I decided to be a bit more diligent in homeschooling M (you see, I get these moods now and again). So I drew up a very flexible plan for the following week that included all sorts of activities for gross and fine motor development, arts and crafts, pre-reading and pre-math, etc. The theme was supposed to be SPACE. Yes, we were even going to build a rocket out of cardboard boxes. And I was going to finally make use of my land-water globe that I recently made.

Except, of course, M didn't care for any such thing. We still ended up doing lots of stuff, but if I was to try to pull it together under one theme, it'd be something like Farm-Kitchen-Anatomy (which, come to think of it, is weirdly logical).

Here is M playing with the shaving cream "snow" and making a fine mess out of it. The nice thing is he actually helped me to clean up by washing all the toys and utensils he used in the process (and that was lots and lots of stuff).

We also drew this cheerful dude. Yeah, body tracing seems to be catching on since M also did lots of chalk drawing and hand- and foot-tracing. You see, I was thinking that we'd do body tracing and then M would draw an astronaut (remember - SPACE). Instead, he wanted me to draw all the internal organs and various body parts. We split the work with me taking care of the heart, veins, lungs and digestive system and M drawing the brain (most important), facial features, arteries, hair, and muscles.

In case you don't know - ever since last winter M's been fascinated with various body parts and internal organs. It started of right after the Halloween (think - skeletons) and blossomed after we got him "Uncover the Human Body" book (he really-really wanted it). Since then we've read it to him countless times (we have to skip some of the longer explanations since the book is for ages 9-12). So he knows all his organs and "systems" by now with digestive system being his favorite (poop - funny).

Moving on now... After the body trace was thus decorated and labeled, including the content of the stomach, it was time for the kitchen play. Yes, he still plays with his toy kitchen that Chris made a while ago (truth be told, the blasted thing has never been finished which doesn't seem to deter M). He also did some art work, finger painting and using different size bottle caps to make prints.

I also gave him a new open-ended activity that I read about in one of the Mary Ann Khol's books. Mine consisted of a large piece of florist foam, 3 wooden BBQ sticks, a bunch of wooden spools, and a handful of fuzzy sticks (have no idea of what they are really called). I put the BBQ sticks into the foam and then let M invent. He came up with a structure that he called a Big Birthday Cake for Eeyor. And we had to sing the birthday song too.

Oh, and we've been reading tons and tons of books - Tales from Fern Hollow, Жили-были кролики, Именинный пирог Финдуса, The Big Pumpkin, Cloudy with Chance of Meatballs, the already-mentioned Uncover the Human Body book, Кит и Кот, and a couple of others.

Three Little Clouds

Last Friday M refused to go to his preschool. That was the first. He's been going there one half-day a week for almost 2 years (wow, really?!) and this is the first time he said "No" instead of "I want to go "в детский сад". Go figure!

I don't push this issue since it's not exactly critical. I did have an important phone call scheduled for Friday, but I was able to keep M. busy and, most importantly, quiet with some cartoons (Pingu and Ну, Погоди!). I do feel a bit guilty since I don't like using cartoons as a baby-sitter. But hey, he left me little choice, right?

Anyway, the reason for this post is to tell about a super-quick and simple art project we did last Friday. M. painted some clouds with thinned-down white paint. The technique is very simple - just pour a bit of paint onto colored paper and then lift the sheet and move it this way and that so that the paint runs. On the last one, M. added some toothbrush work (with his old toothbrush) to create what we decided was a snow storm.

The most fun part (at least for me) was to ask M. what each of these "clouds" looked like. He said the top one looked like skeleton's lungs. Hmm... My suggestion of "butterfly" was totally disregarded. In the end, he settled on calling it the Octopus.

The bottom left one he called Бяка-Закаляка Кусачая. That was funny, especially since it's been a while since we read that particular poem. But between that time and the time I found a marker (about 1 minute), we both forgot what it was. So when I asked M. again, he said that it was just a little tiny cloud.

I Am Thankful for Corn Cobs

Last week we ate corn on the cob. Nothing remarkable about it. Except that I washed and saved one of the cobs. You're thinking it's not remarkable, just weird. Well, I was going to use it for one of the art projects (cover the cob with paint and let the little one stamp the designs or roll it on paper).

Yesterday I asked Mr. M if he wanted to paint with a corn cob. He was excited (has to do with a particular episode of Word World where Chef Pig gets stuck in a pot). And so he painted and stamped a bit with the cob and, of course, got some paint on his fingers.

And that's when things started getting remarkable. He didn't insist on washing the paint off right away. Instead, I showed him how to do hand prints and he loved it! He got so into the project that next thing I knew he was covering his hands with thick layers of red paint and requesting more paper.

Yes, my little sensory Mr. M was finger-painting and LOVING it for the first time in his life! Nor did he mind some paint getting on his clothes. I have some more corn in the fridge and you bet I'm saving the cobs!

All Is Sort Of Well - Week 3 Wrap-Up

It's been a roller-coaster week, including the weekend. Mr. M must be going through some kind of phase that's especially trying. I have some ideas, but I'll save those for later. I'm not too worried since I've heard many times that terrible 2's are nothing compared to the horrible 3's.

The great thing was that Mr. M had terrific sessions with both his occupational therapist and physical therapist. He was such a joy, doing pretty much everything he was told to do and loving it. And the big news here, of course, is that he now jumps. Ok, he's been jumping straight up for some time. But now he does the broad jump, even without holding my hand. Hooray!

Monday and Tuesday weren't so bad. We did pretty much all activities, except for the leaf rubbing mural. Mr. M tried it, but didn't care much for it. What he did love was to play with birdseed. The weather was great and I took the birdseed container, plastic critters, and all sorts of measuring spoons and funnels out on the deck - fun, fun, fun!

Then again, we had some pretty bad moments. The worst was probably on Wednesday when I tried to make the turkey wreath with Mr. M. Not only Mr. M didn't want to join in, but he hated that I continued on with the project without him. Things got so bad with all the crying and whining, that I had to cancel all other plans for the day and instead get us both out of the house for the rest of the day.

As a matter of fact, the only art project we did this week was the pumpkin boat. And it came out splendidly! First, I had Mr. M make the sail - sprinkling cut-up bits of magazine pages on Contact paper. Next, I attached this sail to a wedge of pumpkin (good ol' Jack-o-Lantern got recycled). And we both decorated the sides with some stickers.

On Thursday I tried doing some math with Mr. M - sorting building blocks by color and size. That didn't work out well. He doesn't really care much for sorting. It's not like he doesn't know colors, shapes and sizes. So I modified the game into building a block tower with different-colored levels. It's kind of like sorting, right? And then we spent the rest of the day at the Kids' Museum.

And Friday was split between making a cookbook-tionary, pretend cooking and reading about and listening to classical music.

Simple Placemat

I'm all about teaching Mr. M some self-sufficiency skills. I know a little girl his age who uses a potty all by herself, properly washes (with soap!) and dries her own hands, dresses/undresses by herself, and stays busy with puzzles and little self-directed QUIET games for hours on end. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not comparing Mr. M to her (or to any other kids). I'm just being very envious of the little girl's mom, that's it!

And so, the little thing that I'm trying to teach Mr. M now is to set his table for each meal. To help him out, I wanted to get some kind of placemat with simple graphics showing what goes where - plate, cup, utensils.

I looked for it at a couple of local toystores and at Toys'R'Us, but couldn't find anything (although there are wonderful placemats with shapes, colors, dinosaurs, cars, maps, etc). I would've searched online, but I kept forgetting.

To make the long story short, I simply traced Mr. M's plates, utensils and cups on sheets of construction paper and glued them (the cut-outs, of course) onto a large sheet of white paper. I then drove over to the nearest Kinko's and got the whole thing laminated. Took a total of 30 mins and cost me about $4 for a two-sided placemat.

Mr. M absolutely loved the idea. He not only put the plate, the cup and the fork in the proper places, but asked for a knife and a spoon to "complete the picture". The unexpected benefit was that Mr. M ate at his table (instead of while running around the kitchen) and was much neater than usually - almost no mess. Hooray! Now let's see how long this novelty will last.

An Hour of Paint Dough

I love MaryAnn Kohl's art books! I love that there are no fancy photographs of carefully assembled end products (ours NEVER end up looking like the pictures, not even close). I love how simple most of the projects are - no fancy supplies or involved prep-work. And I absolutely love the sheer number of ideas in each of her books.

(Here's a great interview with MaryAnn where she mentions her upcoming book)

Having lots of easy-to-prepare art projects is very important to me since I never know what Mr. M will like on any given day. Yesterday he asked if we could make a scarecrow and today he couldn't care less about it.

So while he was playing with his trains, I picked up MaryAnn's Preschool Art book. I randomly opened it on the page with the Paint Dough project.

It sounded very simple. We had all the ingredients and supplies - flour, salt, water, paint. Ok, I didn't have poster board or matte board, but I used a roasting pan with some wax paper over it.

Mr. M got totally into it - mixing salt and flour. Then I distracted him with some 'toons, added water and paint to the mix, poured into a squeeze bottle and it was ready! Mr. M absolutely loved it! First he drew by squeezing the dough, but then got a bit tired and used the brush to make some cool designs. And if you're wondering what he drew - apples.

And now I'm off to update my Amazon Wish List - to add MaryAnn's latest book.

Our Pre-Harvest Season Scarecrow

This simple scarecrow project I did with the Drummer Boy a month or so ago. I felt really inspired by one of my favorite blogs, Filth Wizardry.

The only problem was that unlike the super-mom over at Filth Wizardry, I am a newbie. And so I don't have a secret stash of empty containers, scrap paper, leftover wood, and other odds and ends and leftovers from previous fun projects (but guess what - I'm working on it).

So I had to make some substitutions:

• Instead of scrap wood for scarecrow's frame, we used dry branches and twigs from trees that my hubby cut months ago and that still litter our backyard.


• We didn't have any paper to shred to use as stuffing and I couldn't think of any other convenient stuffing material, so we skipped this step.


• And as fun and freaky as it would've been to use Drummer Boy's photo for the face, we had to make do without it.

Of course, I could've used a photo cutout from a cover of one of the magazines. But then I thought of a better idea - I took a small paper plate and let Drummer Boy draw a face on it (ok, he's only just learning to draw stick figures, so the result looked nothing like a face).

I also traced Drummer Boy's hands onto sheets of paper, cut them out and used as scarecrow's hands. DB thought it was a hilarious idea - he loves tracing.

Finally, we used plenty of duct tape, scotch tape and twine to hold the contraption together to DB's sheer delight and complete freak out by our cat. Reflecting on this project now, I think duct tape was the most critical component!

First Collage Art

This simple and free collage project was perfect for us. I did it first with my 2-year old Bee Bop Drummer and then again with his 5-year old pal and both times the kids loved it. And in only took me a couple of minutes to set up.

First, I went through my stash of old magazines and tore out the most colorful pages (usually the full-page ads). I then cut these pages into narrow strips and further into small rectangles and triangles. The DrummerBoy doesn't use scissors yet otherwise it would've been a great add-on activity (will keep in mind for the future). Also, next time I might try shredding some of the pages.