"V" Is For Valentine's

Anytime I can do something with Ava in the kitchen I'm all for it! Tomorrow happens to be Valentine's Day and although we consider every day "love day" we decided to bake a cake. And yes, it was from a box and not from scratch. It's all about the time spent together. Of course the frosting had to be PINK because it's Ava's favorite color complete with sprinkles!

The finished product!

Snack Preparation

Ava enjoys helping prepare snack for Lucy and herself. On this particular day we were going to have Strawberries. I asked her if she wanted to prepare the snack and of course she was eager to. 

Ava got the strawberries out of the fridge, washed them using her colander, cut the stems with a knife on her cutting board (from dollar tree) and shared with her sister. 

Sidenote: Before Ava was able to use the knife we had a "safety" talk. Our littles are very capable and it's our job to guide them. When giving a safety talk you don't have to go into too much depth. An example would be,"This is a knife. We use knives to cut food. We need to be careful while using a knife because it is sharp."

So proud of her work and ready to eat!

I think Lucy approves!

Lucy And Her Pegboard

The pegboard is a great transition work for your little one. It takes great concentration and hand-eye coordination to place each individual peg in a hole. The pegboard allows for practice grasping and building fine motor skills. I found this particular pegboard at Lakeshore.

 

You can use the pegboard for sorting, patterning and color recognition as well. 

I love the concentration on Lucy's face.

February Practical Life

My mom, Chris and I have been busy organizing all of my Montessori Bins over the last few months. I am finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel HA! I'll share in another post how I organized my materials and a look at the girls new room/playroom once I'm finally finished.
I said that to say, I found some of my February/Valentine's practical life works and put them out for the girls. Hopefully, theses pictures will spark some ideas for you!

Use of a baster:

You will need 2 glass heart containers (from Michaels), baster, tray, color water, and a sponge for spills.

Tonging:

You will need a tray, tongs, heart glass beads (from Michaels), container for beads, and a heart candy mold (from Target).

                                      

Scooping:

Tray, 2 heart bowls (from Michaels), glass heart beads (from Michaels), and spoon.

Lucy tried her hand at scooping.

Her infamous "cheese" face. hehe