S is for Sophie

Sophie is really becoming interested in learning. She can spell her name and does a decent job for a 2 1/2 year old writing it. I do try to do different learning activities with both the girls randomly but never get too structured. Since Sophie's interest has heightened I thought I'd get a bit more structured. We started with the letter S because that is the letter she struggles with the most while writing her name. Tracing sheets are okay but Sophie is such a sensory-type girl that I thought we'd try shaving cream. She loved it and it helped because later when she was tracing she did a much better job. Of course there was time or play and getting her hands gooey!

We fixed broken snowballs by matching the appropriate number to the dots.

Playing a snowball game with number cards was a big hit...especially since she won 2/3 times.

Sophie knows most of her shapes, including the rhombus....it's not a diamond, folks. So we worked on constructing the square with marshmallows and the letter S. we did have to pause for a few snack breaks!

Finally, we worked on sequencing and built a snowman.

Blogger and I are not getting along at the moment and I'm having to do this on my iPad because I can't upload pictures from a file and I don't k ow how to move them in the app version so they're all stuck at the end....grrrr. If anyone knows how to fix this, let me know, please!

Peanut butter

I made my own peanut butter...and it is good! I found the recipe on, yep, you guessed it, Pinterest. Between peanut butter sandwiches, apples dipped in peanut butter, smoothies, oatmeal, and the occasional cookie which doesn't happen very often (but it is my go to cookie if I need one to take somewhere because I always have peanut butter), we consume a lot of peanut butter. I thought maybe I could save a little money and make my own. Turns out I really can't buying peanuts at the grocery store. Did I mention that's all you need? Peanuts and a food processor. I need to look into bulk peanuts and then see if I will have significant savings. Today I made honey roasted peanut butter. Yummy! It's a little gritty but I like a little texture. Chunky peanut butter is my favorite. I'm excited to use it in my oatmeal tomorrow morning! Here is the recipe: http://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2012/07/homemade-peanut-butter.html. They suggested adding other favors in also. I see chocolate peanut butter in my near future!