News from the Twos

The kids enjoyed gluing foam dinosaurs and ABC's last week. We tried using white glue and large Popsicle sticks (to dab the glue onto the paper) this time, instead of glue sticks. It was a lot easier for them. 

Noah, who is usually not too into the arts and crafts, spent longer than the others at this activity. At first I was a little bewildered. I soon clued in that it was the 'letters of the alphabet' aspect of this activity that hooked him. He loves the alphabet, and has known all his letters for some time now! (A mommy can brag, can't she?)

Aidas awoke from his nap before the others one day, and assisted me with taking their paintings down from the wall. I have to admit, these finger paintings were hard to send home. They were beautiful! Aidas had done one that looked like a sunset. L.'s paintings reminded me of waves in the ocean. Anyway, Aidas was just too cute in his dungarees...I had to snap a picture! 

We took out the colour matching activity from Valentine's Day. This little video shows them busy doing their toddler work!

We also did the shape matching activity (using a shapes poster, and shapes from both puzzles and shape sorters). They are all very good at matching the basic shapes. They can also name most of the simple shapes. Identifying the square remains tricky for them, and they often call it a rectangle. It is difficult to explain the difference of these two shapes to 2-year-olds. I usually just point out that the rectangle is longer.

Beading is one of our special activities. It is great for helping kids to improve their fine motor ability. What I'm really liking about this activity lately is that the kids are quite skilled at it, and the focus has turned to sharing. There are two strings for them to place beads on, so 2 or 3 kids usually have to take turns. Because they are getting so good at beading, it doesn't take long before each of them gets a turn. They can wait this brief period of time without getting agitated or losing interest. It was fantastic to see each child pass the string to a friend after taking a turn.

And then there was crazy painting day. And it WAS most definitely crazy. I had the kids paint boxes that I had wrapped in white paper. (See the previous post titled "Jumbo Building Block Painting Craft"). I put a tarp down before we began painting, but it wasn't quite big enough. And, of course, kids this age can make it bunch up just by walking on it.  

So, although the above picture is deceiving, (it was early on in the activity), it got messier than I ever expected. They stepped in the paint trays, rested their elbows in them as they painted, and at one point, L. even went so far as to paint his sister. In short: they had a blast! But in their minds, the painting activity paled in comparison to the "crazy bath"!

Rub a dub dub - too many kids in the tub! They loved it! I did it partly to clean them up, and partly to shake things up a bit. They were so excited to play with Noah's bath toys, and they just thought it was hilarious; as did I! And yes, they got fully shampooed and washed. What a frenetic pace as I took them out of the bath one by one: diaper, brush hair, lotion. Then they got a chance to run around for a moment in their diapers (another highlight for them), before getting some clean clothes, and lunch. 

This was one incredible day I will always remember. Hopefully, somewhere in their two-year-old minds, they will too!