Bonding Time: Tent Time

A few weeks ago, my husband celebrated his birthday. Unfortunately, he was out-of-town and could not celebrate it with the family. During this time, my daughter was crazy (and is still is crazy) about DreamWorks Animation's The Croods and so I decided to build her a 'cave'. We also call it a tent because we paired this activity with making S'mores.

She was really excited about this activity and when the time came to build her a cave/tent, all she could say to me is "I love you, mommy". I let her help me by getting the pillows and arranging them on the floor. When it was up, she just went inside and was very happy.

Don't be fooled if you think that we always study (hahaha) we also try to have some fun. I let my daughter watch cartoons, she loves watching animated films over and over again. This day was a marathon of her fave animated films. We watched "Toy Story 2" and "Tangled". I know this activity was based on "The Croods" but I had to ask her to watch other films because we have seen "The Croods" the other day.

While watching, we enjoyed making S'mores. I spent at least Php95 for all the ingredients. If you have some ingredients at home that will be awesome, you can save a lot for this activity. I prepared marshmallows, a bar of chocolate, Graham crackers, barbecue sticks, a candle and matchsticks, and some receptacle for our "bonfire".

It was a fun activity, she enjoyed putting the marshmallow over the flame. Mommies, let's be careful when working with open flames, I made sure that there were no flammable materials in the area. I also had to watch Z closely because if you put the marshmallow to long it will really  burn! It was cool but a bit scary. Hahahaha!

Z liked the cave/tent so much that she did not want to pack up. She even kicked me out of our cave/tent! The S'mores weren't enjoyed that much but Z enjoyed eating the leftover chocolate!

You just need to be attentive when spending time with your kid. Know what he/she is interested in and try to add some new experiences for him/her. Z did not enjoy eating S'mores that much but I know she enjoyed the time we spent together. I know this because she kept saying "I love you, mommy" throughout the activity.

Wrapping Up the Sense of Hearing Lesson...

The sense of hearing lesson was an interesting topic because you will see how kids are so into music. I am no singer and not really musically inclined but my daughter just loves the idea of playing with musical instruments and singing. She gets excited with the idea of playing with a guitar and exploring sounds…we’ll explore more when she starts her pre-k lessons in three months.

For now, here are three more activities that we did to finish the sense of hearing lesson:

1. We made a shoebox guitar

2. Paper cup telephone

3. Listening outdoors with eyes blindfolded

I can tell that Z had a lot of fun. She always asked her dad to use the paper cup telephone with her. We were all amazed that the paper cup telephone worked! Every time we will make something and her dad is at home, we encourage him to join in the fun; that is one way to involve daddy in our study time.

Aside from activities about the sense of hearing, we did other activities as well like telling stories using our felt board, spray painting, and camping (will be posted soon)!

The sense of hearing was a lot of fun. There are a lot of things to explore for this lesson but we will continue in her pre-k days…next lesson is the sense of touch. I’m still prepping materials for this part so posts will be a little late.

SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES:

1. Exploring wind chimes

2. Sound Safari

3. Book: “Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you Hear?” by Bill Martin, Jr. and Eric Carle

4. Making a shoebox guitar

5. Paper cup telephone

6. Exploring sounds outdoors

7. Mystery Bag

8. Egg Matching Sounds

9. Cooking Time: Pancakes, Egg Salad Sandwich

10. Art time: Spray painting

The summer season has begun so activities are a bit difficult to do in our place. But it will not stop the Preschool Mommy to spend some educational and quality time with Z.