Invitation to Build: Create a Dam

As Big Brother is getting older it's really interesting to see both his interests and skills develop into more specific skill sets. Lately he's been really interested in the building of things (mostly stemming from a love of Legos, Magnatiles, and our wooden railroad track.) As he leans that way I'm finding myself looking for other creative ways to develop those interests and skills.

A few weeks ago he had the chance to observe a beaver dam up close with my husband on one of their nature walks. This lead to some great questions. A few days later I followed up with a drive to a local man made dam which he was able to inspect from a distance.

When we came home I set up this building investigation in the yard. It was inspired by a great tinfoil river activity we did last year from the amazing book 101 Kids Activities That Are the Bestest, Funnest Ever by the team over at Kids Activities Blog. 

Homemade Dinosaur Bones

We've definitely been feeling a little frazzled here between the hot and humid weather, a sick toddler, and several days cooped up in the house. Luckily, kicking off our dinosaur week is proving to be a great distraction.

Dinosaur books are something I've been collecting for a while now, so we officially kicked off the week by reading several different dinosaur books. Later this week we'll be creating a dinosaur bone excavation, and while I had planned on creating the bones, I realized it would be much more fun to get Big Brother involved.

Homemade Dinosaur Bones

These homemade dinosaur bones were easy to make and are proving to have more than one way to use them.

Busy Boxes (Part 2)

This week both boys were pretty under the weather, which made for a long "vacation" week here at home. Both kiddos are such high energy guys, that sometimes one of our biggest struggles when they are sick is how to entertain them without a lot of movement and "on-the-go" play.

It seemed like the perfect time to create some new busy boxes for Big Brother. He was able to use them first when he was feeling sick, and needing some new quiet activities, and also later in the week when Little Brother was the one who was feeling more under the weather and needing more of Mama's attention.

This round of box ideas are probably best suited for preschool aged kiddos. As always, I tried to use materials we have around the house.