What we did today

After I saw this post on Artful Parent, I immediately went to the bathroom to get my husband's shaving cream. At first, Bear didn't want to touch the shaving cream, but in the end, she thoroughly enjoyed the activity.

Then we did puzzles. It amazes me to see her improved puzzle skills. When she first started puzzles at 12 months, she needed a lot of help. Now, she does them completely on her own. We also do a nice sensory variation where we hide the puzzle pieces in a tub of rice or lentils first and as she finds each piece, she places it on the puzzle board. Unfortunately, I don't remember the name of the blog where I found that idea.

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A Day With Bear at 18 months

What we did today:

Played with buttons. Tried to sort blue ones and yellow ones.
Tried to get her to "count" by placing one button per number square. (1-6)
Played with baby doll.
Shape sorter - bored of it after 3 shapes.
Climbing boxes and jumping
pushing pipe cleaners into an empty spice bottle
stickers
Snack
Washing her dish in a large plastic bowl on the floor with a sponge
Playing with balls outside for a bit
Sidewalk chalk
Nap - 1 hour
Lunch while listening to Classical music
Painting with tempera paint and then cleaning up
Crayons and more stickers
dice in the empty orange juice jug
stacking and size sorting the Gerber jars
dropping marbles into the Gerber jars.
"counting" the marbles (1-6)
beading
walk in stroller - stopping to gather rocks and throw them in some puddles
snack of bread (which we bought on the walk), mango, apple juice, chamomile tea, and cheese
self-entertained with face stickers - sticking them on the backs of her hands.
she asked for a nap - I think she just wants some pacifier time - I left her 10 minutes then went to get her
dinner
music time
more climbing
puzzles and books
bath
more books
7 pm sleep

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Taking Painting Outside

After drawing outside, we tried painting out here. The wind was a bit of a challenge. We used a LOT of tape to hold things down. I find Bear gets more into painting when we are outside. She gets to stand and move about, whereas when we paint inside she gets strapped into the booster seat and works at the table. It really makes a difference.

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Taking drawing outside

B's favorite activity is drawing. She sees a pencil or a crayon and will come looking for me to give her paper. So, I decided to take her outside with the sidewalk chalk to see her reaction. It entertained her just as long as drawing on paper.

B's favorite activity is drawing. She sees a pencil or a crayon and will come looking for me to give her paper.

I decided to take her outside with the sidewalk chalk to see her reaction. It entertained her just as long as drawing on paper.

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Intro

I've been so inspired by the blogs I am following that I have decided to start one of my own. Bear is 18 months and I am always on the lookout for ways to stimulate her.

I was an elementary school teacher before Bear was born, but now I stay at home with B. I have a passion for anything artistic and also enjoying sewing crafts. My goal with this blog is to share some of my own ideas and show how others' ideas worked in our house.

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