Wednesday, January 21, 2009

WFMW - "S" Crafts

We've been having subliminal school lately, with all the traveling I've been doing. But we decided we need to get back on track and tell you all the "S" activities and crafts that have worked for this 21-month-old...

Scotland. We spent a week around New Years in Scotland - that was the best "S" activity of them all! It was cold cold cold, but I didn't mind it at all. We got to see lots of castles and sheep, but I never did make it into any dungeons. We've got tons of photos to show you of the trip, but for now, here I am with Daddy in front of Blair Castle.

Subway. We spent a couple of days in London after our Scotland trip, and I got to be an expert at riding the subway (aka underground and tube)! We got Oyster cards so we could ride around as much as we wanted all day. And I got to be an expert at going up and down the escalators to the platforms. Here I am fitting right in by reading the free newspaper excerpts they pass out by the stations. (Note that this photo is at one of the few places the subway was actually above ground... :)
Sick. After we arrived in the US, Daddy got sick sick sick, and he passed the flu on to Mommy and me, too. So we were pretty much all out of commission. But at least I learned all about how to take care of sick people. Here I am taking my doll's temperature.

Sleep. One of the bad things about traveling around the world is your clock gets all messed up and you're never sure when to sleep. So I've been struggling with this a little, but I still have managed to get SOME sleep in once in a while.

Slide. I have really been enjoying the playgrounds on my trip. Even in Scotland, I got barefoot, much to Mommy's chagrin, and climbed up the slide so I could slide back down! Here is a slide at Stewart Park in Roseburg, Oregon.

Swing. My second favorite thing to do at the playground is swing on the swings! This photo is also at Stewart Park.

Songs. Mommy is working on a songbook for me with the words and related pictures for songs I like to sing. So I'll be able to page through the book and pick out the songs I really want to sing, like Itsy Bitsy Spider (instead of Mommy playing 20 Questions and naming songs for me while I say "Nope!").

Shapes (Squares). Mommy made a couple of shapes for me out of paper - a triangle, circle, and square. She put them on the floor and then she gave me some objects in those shapes, and I had to match them to the right paper shape on the floor. Simple, really...
Plus we went through the house doing a scavenger hunt - looking for objects in the various shapes. Here I am with one of my favorite finds - Oatmeal Squares.
Scissors. I got to practice using my scissors - Mommy took a sports magazine and we cut out all the "S" things we could find. There were lots of things, like shoes and skiing and surfboarding and soccer and strawberries and gas stoves and sunglasses. My favorite part was making the pictures sticky with a glue stick and pasting them all together. (The glue wasn't really a planned part of the activity, but that's what I love about school - I get to be creative myself sometimes.)
Stickers. I have a book of velvet stickers that I colored and stuck all over my shapes.
Sand & Shells. OK - this one goes all the way back to our time in South Africa in December. I spent lots of time at the beach, and I collected lots of shells that I brought back to Ouma's house - we sorted them by size and type and counted them and made them into doll hats. There are LOTS of things you can do with shells!

Snow (Men & Flakes). While celebrating Christmas in South Africa, Mommy and I made a snowflake chain and also a snowman out of white paper circles. Though I spent more time tearing them apart than helping make them. I DID like making a virtual snowman at http://www.starfall.com/.

And we really did experience a little snow in London - it was flurrying around us when we were at Buckingham Palace.

Here I am with snow rice. It wasn't as sticky as Mommy wanted it to be, so the snowman didn't turn out really well, but I sure enjoyed eating it! I also ate spaghetti, but didn't like strawberries so much...

Shopping (Shoes & Sunglasses). What "S" week would be complete without shopping?! Especially for shoes! Here I am checking out sunglasses near St. Paul's Cathedral in London.
And then we went to Camden Town - where all the really cool shoppers go. They had some incredible bling to choose from...
And SHOES! Oh me oh my - those shoes were wonderful! Mommy checked out a bunch of metal-heeled boots. And I saw me these colorful plastic shoes and sat right down on that cold hard sidewalk floor and took my boring old Nikes and socks off and tried these on. Funny, though - they only had one of each color on display, both for the same foot. So I had to put one on the wrong foot...
Statue. We saw TONS of statues in Scotland and London, so I know all about them. Here I am pretending to be one - standing on my "pedestal" bowl!
Soccer. I am an awesome "football" player! I'm a pro - I even got myself a pro outfit in London! Here I am resting up for a game...
Stairs. Speaking of exercise - I love climbing up and down stairs. Here I am climbing the stairs at our hotel (Grosvenor Kensington Hotel) in London. Fortunately they did have elevators, too - those are pretty awesome, especially the see-through kind!
Snake. Here I am at the tail end of a snake at church in Roseburg! (If we had play dough, I would have had fun rolling snakes out, too, I think.)
Alphabet. I got this cool new Leapfrog toy this week - I love pressing the buttons. It tells me all about how to write "S" and what "S" sounds like...
Smile. Gotta include "smiles" in "S" week - those really work for us. Here's one of mine!
There were lots of other "S" ideas Mommy had, like shaving cream painting, string art, glowing stars, pipe cleaner spiders, and stuffed stockings. But we kind of ran out of time, and I think we did quite a bit as it is...

So that's what worked for us. Getting back on track with "T" this coming week!

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8 comments:

ShEiLa said...

All of those [S] things are pretty cool... with the exception of the [sick] one. Stay away from that one for awhile. You have had your turn...

Esmé you are a doll. Not sure which photo is my favorite.
either the swing or the statue.
But they are all [S]pectacular. Ü

ToOdLeS.ShEiLa

Jennifer said...

I am so glad to see you back with another letter post. We have a LONG way until we catch up to you though!

Andrea said...

You're definitely the cutest statue I've ever seen! ;)

Anonymous said...

Aw, so very many cute shots! Looks like there have been some good times.

Anonymous said...

She is SO CUTE!!! This brings back so many memories... my oldest daughter (now 14!) LOVED to swing and color and cut and paste. She was happy for hours, it seemed, cutting paper into little tiny pieces.

And my boy? Scissors hold no attraction for him - unless they are being used to cut up his costumes in the hopes that he can make them look exactly like they should in his imagination. Grrr.

Scotland and England look COLD - but wonderful. I long to go.

Damselfly said...

Wow, you and your family really went all over the place! I'm so amazed and impressed. And you still managed to do S crafts!

CC said...

All those /s/ activities are awesome!!!!

Anonymous said...

Totally adorable. Love her checking her dolls temp. :)

Nell