October activities

The weather has turned cold and we aren't playing outside nearly as much as we usually do. It's been chilly and windy and the girls have come down with a mild cold. How to keep them occupied?

During Bean's nap, I made a cardboard loom from a cereal box. I gave D a big plastic needle and a length of yarn. I was really surprised at how well she did on this activity. I would do a row and then pass it to her to do a row. Once, I lost track and started doing 2 rows. She gently reminded me, "Mom, you're not sharing."

Pasta necklaces. I dyes some pasta and gave the girls a length of yarn to make their own necklaces. Bean, who is now 2, thought this was the bee's knees.

Pumpkin patch. I bundled them up and hauled them around a pumpkin patch. This is the pumpkin patch that Hubby and I have been going to for years. It's a little bit of a drive, but the prices cannot be beat. There were lots of little things throughout the fields to entertain the little ones, such as this haybale spider. As a funny coincidence, while we were there, we bumped into my sister-in-law. She was there with her preschool class that she teaches. The girls loved seeing their aunt and it made the day even more fun.

Color mixing. I found this one on Pinterest. D has been interested in color mixing, asking me questions like, "What color does yellow and black make?" Now how do you answer that? I wanted to reinforce the secondary colors, ie: yellow and red make orange, red and blue make purple, and yellow and blue make green, along with one example of all three primary colors making brown. Hopefully this tactile activity helped the lesson sink in, plus it's no-mess! Win-win!

Another nap time activity just for me and the big girl. She wanted to paint her face and she chose a butterfly. This time I consulted the web for a better design and we were both pretty happy with how this turned out. I used Crayola watercolor colored pencils. You dip them in water and they glide on like a paint stick, but with a finer point. They also wash off really easy with a little soap and water and they're not heavy on her skin.

I told her she looked like a butterfly flying over the flowers on her shirt. She loved that and needed to do a "flying" pose.

And finally, this is a snapshot of a typical night for me. Folding laundry, paying bills, looking up some unique recipes, planning my grocery shopping list and trying to unwind with a mug of tea made from lemon balm in my garden.