It's a Colorific World!

I spent a few hours last week searching for some different homeschooling supplies. While I was out, I decided to collect a bunch of paint samples form the store to work on an upcoming project. I am going to work with AJ on his alphabet now that he is showing an interest and can verbalize more "real" words. I found these cool Aphabet paint sample cards on the Craft Bits blog and thought I would get started right away. It didn't take much time at all, but I need to get my new laminator out of the car before I hand the cards over the AJ.

Anywhooo. I will post that project soon. What I also came across while looking for paint samples were these cute paint sample cards. AJ loves Mickey Mouse, so, he was enthralled as soon as he saw them. A thought popped right into my head...We could play with matching colors!

I put them all out on the coffee table and tried to get AJ to match them up...

AJ had other plans. I am not sure if the concept of only pickup the 2 matching cards one at a time was too advanced or if AJ was just to much of a nut that day to stay focused. We will have to try it again. In the end, I would ask him to hand me a color card and then have him search through the pile to find its match. He was definitely struggling to slow down and focus, but it is something we will absolutely do again.


I also love this because we can use these cards to identify other things in the house that are the same colors and inevitable work on spelling once we get the colors down. There is a lot of potential! Plus, they are super cute! I am going to laminate them with a blank card on the back. I may right the color name on the back, I haven't decided yet!

Meanwhile, AJ decided to drag a chair over and explore our school stuff. (I have not found a great organized way to keep all our new stuff. We have a small house with only 2 bedrooms and it is really open. So, it seems like everything else AJ can get into and having to keep everything in the garage isn't ideal!) I am really rambling today...

AJ came around the corner with a bag of transportation beads I just bought. Mr. Unfocused suddenly slowed down and was completely captivated!






He was so proud of this transportation string on his pipe cleaner, which he strung all by himself. He even left the beads on it the rest of the day. He was so excited to show Daddy when he came home. He went running to the door to show his amazing creation!

After beads, AJ took a late nap. Just in time for Mama to clean up the days mess and get some work in. It was already time to start dinner. I had a baking project ready to go when AJ awoke....PITA Bread. I let AJ mix the ingredients and kned his own little pita. He had a blast and for some reason kept trying to eat the dough. It cannot have tasted good, but he continued to nibble.





And... while AJ played, Mama cooked! Chicken Souvlaki Dinner with homemade Pita and Tzatziki Sauce is served!!!!

(Notice: AJ had to bring his transportation beads to the dinner table. He even put them on his dinner plate...talk about obsessed!)

G is for Giggly Green

Things have been going really well, but extremely busy. We have done a lot of fun activities lately. I am really working on getting these posts together. I never realized how much work having a blog was...between getting prepared for the activities, taking pictures, getting the post written and then getting the pictures onto the blog...it takes a lot of time, especially considering I am ALWAYS online for work! I have found getting the pictures has been the most frustrating part because for some reason my silly IE won't open the picture box.... so, I pound away and wait...and count sheep...and pray...and every once in a while it pops open. I have started using a different browser, so this time consuming waiting game ends! So, enough about me, on to AJ...

Green was the color of the day. AJ is still struggling to say the names of the colors. He understands how to sort them, but everything that is dark colored he calls blue. So, we have really been working on that!


We started off the day with our colorful green breakfast. I started with green eggs because I had the book Green Eggs and Ham. Now, ever since having AJ, eggs and I have not been good friends. So, the moment that food coloring entered those little baby eggs, the gagging began. I know it is so silly, but I started to turning green at the thought of what I was doing. I kept trying to tell myself...It is just coloring. What is the big deal? Needless to say is was not a combination that was going to make it to the pan, let alone the table. I am not even sure why I was so ambivalent about it because AJ has never eaten eggs before! So, I went back to the basics...a waffle, apples and applesauce. To dress up the applesauce I mixed in about 1 1/2T of Odwalla's Superfood's Juice. I really wanted to puree some Spinach, but it was frozen and this being my 2nd attempt at breakfast, time was of the essence. I added a dot of coloring because the juice did add to much. AJ was pleased, I could tell if he like what I served more or the fact that it was on the table!



After breakfast, AJ started to get giggly! We recently moved one of the couches under the window and AJ is a totally fan of the move. His new hobby is to stand on the couch and play with his trains in the window sill. Yet, while I was cleaning up breakfast, he decided he would play in the curtains...something I frown upon, but he was so cute I had to snap a few shots!



Then, we moved on to our green theme. I pulled out Green Eggs and Ham to start our day off. We read it together and he enjoyed pointing out all of the colors. He got so excited that as soon as I turned the page he started pointing and screaming...much to my ears dismay! Once we finished, I asked him to go find something green and low and behold he insisted on the green lego box. So, we worked together to pull out all of the green legos (we talked about light and dark because there are 2 tones of green legos in our set). Then, while Ante built a new Green train I pulled out yesterdays yellow train. He had a great time with the legos until it because to smash them on the floor!



As we cleaned up, I asked Aj to bring me all the block in a specific color. So , we started with green and then blue because those are the colors he is most confident with. He was able to collect each of those with no trouble at all. Then, we worked on red and yellow. He still refuses to name those. Then, mommy had to finish cleaning up the other colors because that was the end of AJ's attention span. He moved on to his trains and blocks.

It was interesting to watch him with the blocks because it was the first time we was able to unzip the blocks on his own. That took a lot of concentration and tugging to get it open. Yet, once it was open, he wasn't so much interested in stacking the blocks at first. He stopped to examine each block as he removed it. He would get really excited when he saw something he knew and would scream..."Mama, mama, hand..." We went through each block and he named what he knew and I named what he didn't! I was amazed at the amount of items he could name! On some he couldn't remember the name of the animal he would make the sound. It made for one proud mama!