Happy Monday Migration

I hope your Monday has been as fun and full as ours. Grandchildren 3 and 6 were here for the day so it was cousin bonanza! We played outside in beautiful mid 70's weather and the leaves were falling by the tree full. It was windy, warm, and smelled like autumn.

After introducing our calendar songs and routine to 3 and 6 the kids wanted to play outside in the sand tub. This is always fun if we can do it under grandparent supervision only. Parents have a tendency to get nervous about sand spilling even though its outside on the deck and then they worry about sand tracking. I try to remind them this is why I have dirt colored floors all through my house and a really good vacuum. It's just easier for everyone if parents are somewhere else.

While we were playing in the sand I told the kids that some creatures do not like snow. They were flabbergasted! The three of them are firm believers that snow is awesome! I explained that not everything can survive the winter so they make new homes in places where it never snows. I found puzzle pieces of a bird and butterfly and brought them outside to play. 3, 5, and 6 took turns digging nests and homes for the pieces to stay warm. 

They also decided to bury the letter N. Why not?

I remembered the animal pictures I found in the Day 18 materials and brought those outside too. These creatures don't Migrate but they do Hibernate which is something we all learned about last week. That's one of the great things about Mother Goose Time materials, they are so versatile. 

Once the majority of the digging was over and we were down to only sand tracking we switched activities to an inside, but still messy, painting one. I thought it was time to break out an oldie but a goodie, coffee filter butterflies. It was a lot of fun. We used water color paint and paint dabber markers. 6 decided to also paint dab her face but that's pretty standard for a year and a half year old. I forgot to take pictures of the finished product but you all know what they look like. After naps and after we waved good bye to 3 and 6, 5 and I decided to play with her butterfly before her daddy came to pick her up. She held it by the clothespin and I said, "It's about to snow!" She ran away, flapping the butterfly up and down and yelled, "Fly to Mexico!" 

Fun, fun day.