Jello Dig Sensory Tray for Babies (Taste-Safe)

This is turning into a Sensory Summer for Zoey because she loves sensory trays so much! She had a blast with her first ever tray, a water sensory tray, and then loved her baby food sensory tray. This time it got even messier - and way more fun! 

Zoey is 8 months old and puts everything in her mouth, so my number one rule for her sensory trays is that it must be taste-safe and choke-free for a baby. All of the sensory tray ideas I give will be perfectly safe for a supervised baby under a year old. 

I love this plastic tray that I’ve been using for Zoey’s activities. I got it from the Target dollar spot for $3.00 about ten years ago, and it’s still in perfect condition! I have seen similar on Amazon. It’s about two inches deep and very sturdy, which is what I recommend for this activity.

Make three packages of Jello according to the package directions. I used lemon flavor because it seemed the least likely to stain her hands, mouth, and clothes! I set several of her silicone toys in the tray and then poured the jello mixture over the toys about halfway up the tray lip. It sat in the refrigerator for about four hours before I pulled it out for Zoey to use. 

When she first touched the Jello, she wasn’t sure what to think! But she dug right in, digging for her toys. 

When she finally got one out, she thoroughly enjoyed sucking the Jello off of it! This was her first taste of Jello. I've been trying to introduce more foods to her - baby food and solid food - and she hasn't shown much interest. I'm hoping by having taste-safe sensory trays she will be more open to trying some foods.

She started squishing and squeezing the Jello between her fingers and rubbing it on her legs. She was having the best time with this! 

Even Zeke got in on the action. He doesn’t like getting sticky, but he did dig one toy out. He immediately went inside to wash his hands but came back out to watch Zoey play! 

This was really an easy activity. And clean up wasn’t bad - I doused the porch with a pitcher of warm water and stuck Zoey in the bathtub! Porch sensory trays are my new favorite thing! 

Have you done a Jello dig before? Would you try it?

The Little Rabbit: BFIAR

I decided to make this summer a Before Five in a Row summer for Zeke. He does so much better with structured days and predictable routines, and I love BFIAR and FIAR! I decided to start with The Little Rabbit. Having an eight-month old who just started crawling has limited me a little bit. Instead of creating my own worksheets (which I love to do), I pulled together lots of free or inexpensive resources. I'm trying to link everything for you. 

Monday

The book and our go-along books! I just grabbed the first couple of rabbit books off our shelves.

We read the book for the first time today, and he really enjoyed it. I think he liked the photographs as it was a change from the illustrations in most of his picture books. I kept it simple today. We talked about the photos and about his cousin Laylah's pet rabbit, Bad Bunny. 

Zeke did a tracing worksheet with the letter R. He is getting pretty good at tracing, but we need to add handwriting in much more.

He also colored, cut, and labeled the parts of a rabbit. I read the label, and he glued it in the appropriate spot. 

We then talked a little about the life cycle of a rabbit and completed a life cycle worksheet.

Lastly, he used our lacing strings to lace up two beautiful watercolor rabbit lacing cards. I printed and laminated these and then punched holes around the edges. He really enjoyed this activity.

It was preschool in pajamas morning.

Tuesday

We started out today with a Pet Homes matching worksheet from Teacher File Box. We talked about where pets live, and which pet he would like to have from the worksheet. He said he would like to have the bird as a pet!

We then did a Mother and Baby Animal matching worksheet. He loves cut and glue activities, and cut and glued this entire activity on his own.

Then he put together our Animal Family matching puzzles. We have had these for a while now, and he enjoys doing them. I picked them up from TJ Maxx for less than $5.00!

Wednesday

We read a book called Hop, Bunny, Hop. He did a counting and clip card activity. I printed and laminated these and used some mini-clothespins I picked up on the clearance aisle at WalMart last week. He loved clipping! He asked to do this again, so he did it twice.

Then we did a foldable about pets. He colored the pets and then drew a green check mark under the pets he would like to have and a red x under the pets he would not like to have. He checked a dog, cat, and fish (all pets we have) and put an x on the snake, hamster, and bird. He loves to feed Silas's fish and Silas is kind enough to let him do it often.

He made a cut and glue bunny craft. 

I printed, cut out, and taped a bunny template to a sheet of cardstock. Then Zeke used dot markers to dot all around the template. When we pulled off the bunny template, we had a white bunny! This was very cute and easy.

Thursday

Today we just did a few simple activities. I wrote the names for the rabbit family (buck, doe, and kit) in highlighter and he traced them with a pencil.

He colored the foods a rabbit eats.

He made a book about a pretend pet rabbit. He named it Shep (we have a dog named Shep), it eats grass for fun, and is very multi-colored!

Saturday

We skipped school yesterday and instead did the rest of his activities today on the porch! First we did a counting activity. I printed a carrot template on orange cardstock and cut out 12 of them. He rolled the dice and fed the rabbit that many carrots.

We have been working on the days of the week this week, and he can sort of say them with me. That is one of the things on our list to learn this school year. I found this worksheet and he traced the days of the week, cut them out, and we glued them in order. 

I had several more activities planned this week, but I didn't get to them all. This was such a sweet book and theme to begin our BFIAR Summer!

Next week - Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear?

Thinking About Homeschooling?

I've been homeschooling for more than fifteen years, and there are so many things I wish I could tell parents who are considering homeschooling their children. Oh sure, you need to know the laws in your state and ensure that you are following the requirements to homeschool legally, but that is not the only (or the most important) thing I would say. Here are four truths I want every parent who is thinking about homeschooling to know.

Homeschooling takes commitment. Lots of it.

There will be days when you don't want to "do school." There will be days you feel like quitting. There will be days, or even weeks, when you fantasize about the yellow bus picking your kids up in the mornings. 

You have to work through that.

You have to be committed to your child's education. As a homeschooling parent, you are in complete control of making sure your child receives the education that is appropriate for that them. Waking up in the morning and getting into the routine of schoolwork is vital. Teaching your child that school is not optional, it's not a "if I feel like getting to it today" type of task, it's not going to be hit and miss each day - homeschool work is going to be a non-negotiable.

You will have to be committed to more than just teaching your child each day. You will be committed to finding social outlets for your child, such as homeschool co-ops, sports programs, or clubs. You will be committed to spending money on your child's educational needs (more on that below). You will be committed to stay the course when your child is struggling with phonics or math facts or handwriting. But even though you will need to have dedicated hours to complete your schoolwork, especially as your children get older, homeschooling is not just a three hour a day job. This brings me to my next point:

Homeschooling becomes a lifestyle - it's not just another project.

Your house will start filling up with books, books, and even more books. You will have boxes of math manipulatives, science equipment, art supplies, maps, and pencils. If you don't have a dedicated room for homeschooling, and even if you do, your house will definitely showcase that you are a homeschooling family. There will be salt-dough maps and craft stick creations on your dining room table, timelines hanging on your wall, and pencil sharpeners on every flat surface. Instead of a beautiful vase of flowers on your sofa table, you will have a bucket of colored pencils.

More than that, you will learn to take every situation and make it an opportunity for learning. Playing outside becomes an informal nature study - "Look at those nimbus clouds, Mom!" or "Cool! Watch this spider wrap up this fly he caught in his web!" Simple questions from your child become a jumping off point for deep discussions. Vacations become field trips. Car rides can become the perfect setting for drilling - math facts, states and capitals, scripture. You will read books and then watch the movie and compare which one was better (always the book, by the way). You will cook together, clean together, run errands together, read together, and spend the majority of your time together.

And it will be beautiful.

Homeschooling is an investment - money and time.

You don't have to have all of the newest, shiniest curriculum out there to homeschool well. But it will take some curriculum! You will have to buy math books, grammar workbooks, lots of science and history books, as well as science equipment and counting bears and pencils and paper and ... the list goes on. Homeschool curriculum isn't cheap, either - especially if you're buying for multiple children. I do like to buy curriculum I can use with several kids at one time, but it still takes quite a bit for a large family!

It will seem like every week you need to buy something! A book that the library doesn't have, new playdough since yours dried up, more paper for the printer, copper wire for a science experiment...making allowances for these surprise items in your budget in a good idea! Anything I buy for homeschooling purposes is an investment in my husband's mind - an investment into our children's future.

You will also be investing your time into your child each day. Time spent teaching them new concepts, discussing the books they're reading, counting dried beans, sorting counting bears by color, subtracting with borrowing, and diagramming sentences. 

You will invest time into finding homeschool groups and taking your kids on field trips. You will spend more time at the library than ever before. You will spend time researching the perfect curriculum, pouring over samples and syllabuses. You will spend time re-learning algebra so you can help your freshman with their lessons. 

You will invest in your child - talking to them, answering their questions, asking them questions. You will learn so much about your child because you will spend so much time with your child.

You will learn so much right along with your child.

You have to know something to be able to teach it. Sometimes homeschool moms don't know what they're teaching before they teach it, and that is okay. You will learn as you teach! I have learned so much from teaching my kids, things I should have learned as a child but was never taught. I have had so many "a-ha!" moments with my kids. They love seeing me with a lightbulb moment! It shows them that learning is life-long and always enjoyable. I get really excited when I learn new things, and my excitement spreads to my children. I can't tell you how many times I've been reading our history lessons aloud to the kids and stopped and said with excitement, "I never knew that!" or "Wow! That makes sense. Now I understand ..." 

Let your children see you learning. Let them watch you learn a new hobby or read a book on something you don't know much about or follow a YouTube tutorial to complete a new project. Children do mimic what they see. If they see you learning new things as an adult, and having fun with it, they will be more likely to want to learn new things. Model a lifestyle of learning for your children.

Homeschooling has been such a blessing in my family's life. It takes commitment and investment, but the returns on both are outstanding. 

What would you tell to a parent considering homeschooling?

Baby Food Sensory Tray

We did a simple, no-mess water sensory tray for Zoey's first sensory tray last week. This week I decided to go ahead and set up a messy tray for her - baby food!

I stripped her down to a diaper and dumped some pureed bananas, carrots, and green beans on her tray. She went to town with it! 

She had no hesitations at all to get her hands messy. 

She rubbed the food all over the tray.

She squeezed the food. 

She sucked it off of her fingers.

She slapped and splattered the food everywhere.

Clean-up wasn't so bad. I just took her diaper off and stuck her straight in the sink for a sink bath. Then I washed the tray! Doing these messy activities on the porch instead of inside takes a lot of the anxiety off and makes me much more likely to do them.

Have you done a baby food sensory tray before?