This Is For the Birds! Part 1

I have a friend we met while travelling to China to get our girls.  She and I have been messaging each other each week with ideas on different structured/fun activities to do with our children.  It has been such a great way for me to stay intentionally focused on doing something with C and FL each day.  Having such a structured day may seem stifling to some, but to me, having a plan makes me feel secure to the point where I know I have a plan and I can change it at any time. : )  

My friend also has some really great ideas that I can't wait to work into our plans!

We spend each afternoon with nap, snack and farm chores, so the morning is left for fun time and household chores that we do together (I've almost got the girls trained to do the laundry!!  If only they were taller! ; ) ).  The day gets filled up quickly, so I'm glad we share this time as Mama and daughters.

This week's theme was "Birds."   C and FL enjoy talking about the birds we see and putting birdseed out for them in the feeders that face the kitchen window.  I thought they would really have fun creating some of these crafts.  Others, I was just curious to see their reactions!

Day One we made birdseed pinecones.  This activity required the use of fine motor skills and was more of a sensory experience than I realized!  the girls had to work with prickly, sticky and whatever texture birdseed is! : )  Here's our basic set up, for any that want to try this in the future:

C dove right into this activity once I explained and modeled what we would be doing.  I did one pinecone in front of them first, then walked them through their own.

FL did better than I thought she would.  She likes to keep her hands clean!  I did a lot of hand over hand teaching with her (not her favorite - she's quite independent!).

C enjoyed rolling the pinecone in the bird seed the most!

At first we did one pinecone completely at a time, but it was hard work cleaning peanut butter off of four little hands each time they rolled the pinecones in the seeds!

Here we are with our completed bird treats!  Can you tell that someone got caught doing something they weren't supposed to?! ; )

I thought they turned out very nice and I think the girls enjoyed making them.  They did get covered in peanut butter and one child required a change of outfits, but that's life with two year olds!

We didn't ang them up until the next day, as we were expecting a good bit of rain.

They especially enjoyed playing with the leftover birdseed in the sensory bins!!!  Yes, there is birdseed ALL OVER my house, but that's ok, too. : )

As C says, it was "so fun!" : )