Rainy Day Distractions: Lacing with beads and hearts

Today was a lot of fun! I have to admit while I was making the lacing tray up last night I was really excited for the kids to do it. I had planned on doing it this morning, but the sun was trying to come out so we went to the park by the water instead. We ended up spending the entire morning out there! The park also happens to be right by the water, so there was a lot of fun to be had. We found the swan (we knew it was there but it was still exciting), Little Monkey ran into some friends from preschool, and lastly we threw rocks in the water. This has to be one of Little Monkey's favourite things to do. I didn't put too much thought into it when I suggested it to the kids, but Little Princess has never really done it before. Both kids love water, so when we wondered down by it, she got all excited and tried to go in full blast. After I brought her back to shore and she had a little melt down about not being allowed into the water, she had so much fun throwing the rocks in the water! We are lucky enough to live right near the ocean, so I anticipate this being a regular activity for a very long time! While we were looking for the perfect rocks to throw in Little Monkey exclaimed, "Mommy, I found a heart, I found a heart!". He had found a heart shaped rock, so we took a picture!

Now onto lacing. Little Monkey has done quite a bit of lacing and I know he likes it, I wasn't too sure about Little Princess though. She woke up from her nap with a bit of a runny nose, so I wasn't all that optimistic about the results, but she really seemed to like it! Little Monkey got to work right away.

Pipe cleaners for Little Princess, string with tape at one end to keep it from fraying for Little Monkey. Heart shaped beads and foam with holes punched in it.

After we had laced for a little while Little Monkey started sorting the beads into colours. This was a great learning activity for Little Princess. We haven't done too much with colours lately so it was a prefect opportunity. It took her a bit but by the end she had gotten the hang of it. I would put the tray with 2 colours facing her and give her a bead (one of the colours that was in front of her) and she had to find the right spot. By the end she was picking beads off the floor and putting them in their right spots!

I also took this opportunity to do some sequencing with Little Monkey. He did great with it. The, orange, green, purple, yellow one he had memorized by the third sequence! He also made me a bracelet and insisted he be the one to take the pictures of it. :) How could I say no?!