Self Feeding

Can 3 years old feed themself independantly? Yes and no. I'm so tired of feeding them but I'll be more tired cleaning up after them if I let them feed themselves.

This is the dilemma between letting them feed themselves, takes longer, eat lesser, more mess vs feed them, finish faster, eat more, just more effort on my side. Mess is always on a greater magnitude when you have twins. The thing is, if I don't let them practice and bear with the mess, we'll never get there. Or we'll eventually get there but maybe much later. One thing for sure, if you let them eat something they love on their own, like Yogurt, the mess is very manageble.    

Well, no pain, no gain. Until I'm ready to counter the mess, it's just Yogurt for now.

Glittery Bottles

Y was in the middle of a meltdown when I carried him to my study room and while he was struggling, he hit the mouse and this page appeared on my screen.

It was god sent.

Me: hey, look at this, let’s make a glitter bottle!
Y: Glitter bottle?

starts to wipe his tears and slowly calming down.

Y: Mummy… what’s a glitter bottle?
Me: Oh! Hrm… It’s a bottle… with glitter! Let’s get some glitter!

As I rummage through my craft shelf, ops…. no glitter. I think we have used it all up during our last messy painting session. 

Me: Oh… we have run out of glitter.
Y: I want glitter bottle.
Me: There’s no more glitter, let’s do other activities…
Y (starting to cry again): I WANT GLITTER BOTTLE!!!!

BIG OPS.

Me: Oh I know! It’s not going to be a glitter bottle, it’s a glittery bottle!
Y: I want a glittery bottle.

Great.. So I went round the house to look for something for our glittery bottle and thankfully he waited patiently. Here’s what I found. 



What You Need:
Glittery paper/ribbons cut into small pieces
Empty bottles (I used mineral water bottle)
Beads
Paint
Water
Oil
Masking Tape/Duct Tape (to tape the bottle cap)

Method:
Just pour everything in and add water and oil. The water and oil ratio can vary. I find that 1/3 water and 2/3 oil is great. So you get the lava lamp effect. Don’t let your kids mix too much paint. The boys wanted so many colors and we just got ugly brown bottles. 

Luckily I remember I have some shimmering ribbons for the bottle. This add a nice effect to the bottle.

They can practice their pouring for fine motor skills too.

Y, exploring his glitter bottle. He wanted to make more but we don't have any more empty plastic bottle.

Sensory Play: Shapes Rice Bin

I was slacking a little with their activities. I have been feeling lethargic and they did mostly worksheets and coloring. But yesterday, Y came running to me and asked for "activity time"! I was pleasantly surprised and of course it gives me great motivation. So, I took out the Green and Red rice we colored the previous week. I had wanted to do a Christmas sensory bin but haven't got to gathering the materials. With this request, I had to whip up something fast, so I poured the rice in the bin and threw in some shapes. I like the colors! They were supposed to scoop the shapes I asked for in their respective bowls. It was a lot of fun and they moved on to explore the bin on their own for a long time.

Y, concentrating on his scooping.

He calls this "Rain"

K, mixing the rice.

It look me a while to gather the bin and the boys waited patiently for me, following me in and out of the room, looking curiously at what I'm doing, shouting "activity time" from time to time. I can never associate the word Patience with a toddler so I can see that they really wanted their "activity time". They even let me take a picture of the bin before they dashed for it. There are many times when I feel like stopping the learning activities I'm doing with them and just switch on the box. But they never fail to stop me.

Fine Motor Skills Activity - Scooping Beans

Scooping is a Montessori inspired activity. This is a very easy activity to put together to keep your children occupied for at least half an hour. It was 45 mins for mine. You can let your children practice scooping with all many materials available at home, rice and all sorts of beans, etc. But keep a close watch, though my boys have out grown tasting, they still attempt to put the beans in their mouth.

What You Need:
2 Containers
Spoons
Beans (I got those big red beans)

Y, practicing his scooping but he soon got impatient and just poured the beans over the other container.