month of l

in february, we focused on many "l" themed activities.  except for the last week, because it was dad's birthday week so we hung out with dad.  a lot.

something new to note that hasn't been pictured that we've been doing since january, i've started focusing a little more time in having her practice making the letters.  nothing to regimented, of course.  sometimes she writes the letter with a marker, crayon, glitter glue, or paint. what ever suits her fancy.  and she seems to enjoy making the letters...maybe it makes her feel like she's in school, just like her older brother.  when the weather warms up (consistently), i'm hoping to move those practice times outside on the sidewalk with chalk thrown in with our chalk drawing/outside time.

introducing the letter l:
here are the "l" pages we did to introduce the letter of the month.

we traced different sized heart cookie cutters to represent the word love.  she was very insistent in using a pencil for the heart tracings so they look a little dreary.  maybe it was a dreary kind of day.

lion:
we made a very simple lion mask that i found from here, except we used a mix of streamers and construction paper and didn't really make them curly (can you imagine how long that would take with a 3 year old?).  we read a book about lions and talked about the distinct physical difference between a male and female lion: the mane (but i think she already knew this before).

rrrrroarrrr!


"l" things we can do:
we leaped, leaned, laughed and lunged while we listened to music.

length (long vs. short):
keeping the tot tray idea alive this month, i put a few different long and short items on a tray so that she can separate them by length.  then she glued all the short items on one paper and all the long items on another.

loud:
we discussed the difference between loud and quiet noises, and this is what emma came up with...
loud things/noises - drums, her crying (no argument here), thunder, airplanes, blue's barking.  quiet things/noises - her crying, gibson's crying, feet, whispers.  after wards, we tried to make some loud and quiet noises of our own like stomping our feet, creeping, laughing quietly and laughing loudly.

love:
we talked about God's love for us, the people around us that love us, and how we can show love to other people.  on valentine's day, daddy gave her a special heart chocolate as a way to show his love for her.  emma also drew a picture of some of the people that love her onto a giant red heart (notice how daddy got some nice, spiky hair on his arms).

and her memory verse for the month was also very fitting for the topic on love and the "l" theme in general: love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself - luke 10:27 (esv).

letter:
emma wrote two letters.  one was to aunt corrie and the other was to ibu and grandpa john.  after putting it in an addressed envelope with a stamp, we waited for mr. paul, or letter carrier, to pick it up.

laundry:
there's certainly plenty of [insert sarcasm here] this favorite activity going on in our house.  emma likes to throw the clothes in the washer and empty out the dry ones into the basket.  once her slacker mama finally gets around to it, we do a little folding time together.  folding her own shirts, pants and panties are a great way to practice those motor skills, and finding the right folded pile to place them in is a practical and simple lesson in sorting.  once we just get down to the socks, i try to have her match them, but it's kind of a pain since there are so many socks so she loses interest after doing 3 or 4 of them.  my master plan is to get her so proficient in doing laundry that i can pass on this honorable chore to her...ha, ha!

leather (the fruit kind):
we made mango-apple fruit leather following the instructions from the super baby food book.  as you can see, my daughter is a HAM in front of the camera, and she is *posing* as she purees the fruit with the chipper chopper.

the leather turned out great, except that some parts were a little crispy because i spread some of the fruit puree too thinly in some parts.

lips and lipstick:

yeah, she was stoked being able to use mommy's lipstick.  her lip gloss doesn't have quite the same luscious lips effect.

lamb:
while singing mary had a little lamb, we made five little lambs out of egg cartons and cotton.  the craft idea can be found here. 

but those poor, little lambs didn't have a little home to live in, so i used an old berry basket, stuck some ribbon on it for handles, and made a little carrying basket for them so they wont be lost.

l-hunt:
armed with a marker, i gave emma a page in the newspaper and had her look for some "l"s.  after she was done with l-hunting, she hunted for a few letter "e"s and some "o"s and then colored some of the photos in the paper.


people we know that start with the letter "l":
ms. lindsey (we borrowed this picture from aunt jenna's blog)

 mr. lane (here he is trying to show everyone else up at one of our BYOP parties by using a dremmel to carve his pumpkin)

layla (this photo is from august 2008.  don't they look so little?)














don't forget to check back again next month when we'll be sharing with you our new letter!