Holy Week

We have spent this week reading Easter stories and talking about why we celebrate this holiday. The children crave "activities," so I planned several different Easter-themed things for them to do. And by crave, I mean that they ask for them constantly! :) Here are just a few...

{Tower of Bunnies}

I found this game at Kroger for a little over $2. And it has proven to be a hit with my kiddos. I set it up for them each time, and it's played by rolling a dice with different colors on each side. Whichever color is rolled, they are to use their carrot stick rod/hook to pull a matching bunny off the tower without making the entire thing fall down. This game keyed into color recognition, counting, and LOTS of wonderful hand-eye coordination. VERY fun...even for the 2-year-old.

{Easter Egg Tic-Tac-Toe}

(another VERY inexpensive game)

{Mazes}

He's getting really good at these!

{Alphabet practice with Wiki sticks}

They really loved this new one!

{Matching upper and lower case letter eggs}

Not necessarily one of his favorites, but these things took me FOREVER to make!

{Making bead sculptures}

{Following directions}

I put an egg (with designs on it) in front of them. I engaged them in a listening exercise by giving them step-by-step directions. Naomi needed a little guiding, but Isaac did very well with this. I started with, "Please find a green crayon, color ONLY the BIG circles on the TOP of the egg green, and then put the crayon back in the box." I gave three or four more simple directions like this, and they followed them very well. We finished by cutting the eggs out. Isaac is getting VERY good at cutting things with great accuracy! Though I must share that when I asked him to cut it out, he complained saying, "I don't want to...my hands are too tired." I encouraged him to finish strong, and he did. :)

{Playing War-Fight}

This was something that made me totally nervous, but is absolutely one of Isaac's most favorite games. He calls it "war-fight" and it usually takes place in the playroom. We set up our "forts" to hide behind. Then we gather lots of small, light-weight, plastic balls as our ammo. Then one of us declares WAR!!! We then begin pelting each other will LOTS of balls. Naomi hides as she proclaims, "Don't get me...I'm the baby!" I was afraid that I would hurt him at first, but apparently the little sting of the ball hitting him doesn't even faze him. He laughs hysterically in between his grunts and "HI-YAH's" and little explosion noises. :) I am laughing the entire time as well. And it totally wears me out. If it were up to Isaac, we'd be playing this game all day, every day (when he's not riding his bike, that is). Super fun!

{Tanagrams}

They aren't crazy about this activity, however, when I put it out they are usually pretty excited to give it a try. They understandably get frustrated when the pieces don't match right up, and then never stay in place. So after completing one puzzle, they enjoy pretending that they are baking or cooking. :)

To follow up from last week, Isaac now has our phone number memorized!! I knew it wouldn't take him too long. And it feels good to know that if he were to ever get lost somewhere, he can just have the person call me! :) Also, on a side note, I've had several people comment to me about being amazed at how much I seem to do with my kiddos. I think taking photos and documenting things makes it look more than it really is. Each of the activities photographed above probably took an average of 3-5 minutes. So that would total 30-40 minutes over the past three days!! Not all that impressive anymore, is it? ;) I have cabinets filled with different, fun, colorful things for them to play with. I try to rotate things and swap things out regularly to make it engaging for them. Really, they spend MOST of their days playing, making messes, and of course arguing with each other. :) And I spend half of my day with my arms taken by a certain little baby, while they are having to entertain themselves. Anyway, I just wanted to make sure y'all know that I'm not some sort of super mom filling my days perfectly with amazing, fun things for my children to do all day. Nope...it's five minutes here and five minutes there...whenever the troops are getting restless and I actually have a minute to engage with them. :) Hope that helps!! :)

This is the one who takes up most of mommy's time. :)