Rocks and brushes

We stayed over at grandma's so Grandma School started early. J is still recovering from her throat infection and we did not go to the parks nor grocery shopping. I wasn't expecting any activities to be done but today turned out to be pretty fun. 

My mum read the story of the clever crow to J and I thought aloud about how nice it would be if J can experience it for herself. The change in water level, I mean. Not drinking from the pitcher. My dad heard my thoughts and volunteered some of the rocks and stones he had collected. I used an elastic band to mark the original water level so that J can observe the rise in water level. I don't think she got it, so I pretended to be the bird instead.

After the story telling with props, J continued putting in and taking out the rocks for a while. I cut the activity short because she's is still recovering and we all don't think she should play with water for too long. She did continue playing with the rocks for a while. The difference in texture of the rocks provides a good sensorial experience. I did not introduce textures like "rough" and "smooth" though. I'm saving it for another day. I want her to just feel and familiar herself with the rocks. It's, after all, her first encounter with them.

This activity lasted about 10 minutes but it should be able to last J for quite a while if I hadn't cut it short.

My sis came over later and since she bought J a little apron, we did a some painting. It's J's first attempt at painting. My mum came up with the idea of a makeshift "easel". J picked out the colours. We used our old palette and my dad's brush.

Here's her final piece before she declared that she wanted a change of paper. Thank goodness she decided to stop before she paints all over it because I think it looks a little like a llama. This is definitely going up on the wall!

The painting activity lasted about 15 minutes. We ran out of paint and it was starting to get a little messy. J tried to paint standing up and the strokes turned out more artistic.

Pretty sure that she had a wonderful morning because the little one is sleeping soundly beside me. And no sounds of phlegm. Thank goodness!