Rock Collecting

Z has been collecting rocks sense he was 2 and not until now he began to show a deeper interest in the rocks he has gathered through time. Lately he's been asking simple questions about the rocks, "Why are they different colors? Where do they come from? Why are they hard?". Heres a little activity we did one afternoon with his encyclopedia of rocks and minerals.

-  We looked up about 5 rocks from his collection.

- Matched the pictures to the rocks as we named each rock. 

- Read only about two facts from each rock.

- Played a fun recap "memory game" about the rocks we researched.

This activity ended up being a fun way to extend his on his rock collection! 

Flow

My son Z and I went to a yoga class at the park this morning. In the beginning he was very much into the class within 10mins of it he "checked out". He started to wonder his eyes around the park, stretch his body in his own way, then play catch with one of his shoes. As I contuined switching poses along with the class my focus became keeping an eye on him wondering how to get his attention back into joining the class he was doing so wonderfully in 10mins ago. Then I asked myself  whats the big deal? He was doing his own thing enjoying the yoga class in a different way that I was, and that should be expected and accepted. Why did I allow myself to break focus within my commitment to stay with my breath during the yoga class and internally blame him for it? There was no reason to, he was not doing anything harmful to himself or others or disturbing the class and he was within eye distance, so it was no biggy. I reminded myself to stay with the flow of the present moment enjoy the yoga class while he enjoyed flipping around the grass,  and people watching. At the end of the class he saw a boy join the instructor he wanted to join and somehow found his way along side of her to lead the class with a closing OM. What a beautiful class it was.

Beans and play dough?

Heres a simple number activity for your little ones to do at home.

Steps:

1. Write a number on a sheet of paper with a black maker. Try to use one sheet of paper per number for visual clarity.Make about 3-5 numbers before starting. 

2. Show your little how to shape the play dough to the number then place it over the outlined number on the paper. Work on one number at a time, this is great for strengthening fine motor skills and number recognition. 

3. Count the number of beans then place them under the paper to represent the quantity .

We worked on tens but this can most certainly work for any smaller or bigger numbers. For example, ages 3-4 you can start with numbers 0-9, then keep on going!

Happy counting!