More Shapes!

Hey lovely faces, 

We are still working on shapes. I know Sarah knows them so well now but the variety of the activities doesn't give her the chance to get bored. I am also somehow following her lead and interests. For example, Sarah is currently very obsessed with clowns. She is even planning from now to her coming birthday party and she has decided to use the clown theme. I used this obsession to help us with shapes. It was something I saw long ago on Pinterest. We made a shape clown. Sarah also used pipe cleaners to create shapes.

Both Sarah and Farida played with shapes and play-dough. We did some dot-a-dot on shapes. I also drew the shapes with white crayon "wax colors" on a sheet of paper and then both Sarah and Farida colored it with regular markers to reveal the shapes.

Sarah did some cutting practice too. Farida also gave it a try :D

I have started a photo-dictionary that we are going to build ourselves. All the vocabulary words we are going to encounter are going to be put in this dictionary. The shapes were our starting words. Here:

All the sheets used are taken from this great source: 3 Dinosaurs.

And these are just recent taken images taken on the sea shore.

I don't like the new collage pictures I have used, they don't show the details and they are way too distracting. I promise I amnot going to use them again.

Also, I forgot to share with you an error I have done in the last post here. Thank God, a lot of people liked the ideas in this post an it was even featured on Sunday Showcase but what I forgot to mention is that I forgot and left the whole sensory tub untouched for a couple of day. Guess what happened? Mold grew on everything :( Yikees! I of course had to throw the water beads and deeply clean the shapes with Detol and other stuff. So, this is something I have learnt in the process.

I need to consult you, my friends, in something. Farida doesn't seem interested in any of the prepared activities we do. She wants to throw anything or disturb Sarah and take her things away. She screams and cries as if we are torturing her. The only thing she seems to enjoy is the sensory tubs. I know there is a 2-year- gap between both girls but I really don't know how to overcome this knowing that I currently don't have anyone to help.

That was all for today. We will continue some more with the shapes in our twisted ways following Sarah's leads. Thank you for visiting. Please, come back and check soon.

Love, 

Crafty Mama!

Hello my friends,

I don't know what happened to me but I decided out of nowhere to be crafty, lol! Yes, I am that crazy ;) Maybe what inspired me is that I re-arranged/organized/cleaned my home and decided to add a simple but magical touch to it. Decor in Egypt is way expensive whether it is ready-made or the materials needed for it so I thought about doing my personalized cheap and classy version of crafts (using some of the materials I had on hand from before). Thank you Pinterest for the inspiration. 

First, let's see some before/after or just after pictures of my cleaned rooms:

before (kitchen)

After (kitchen)

kids room

In the bathroom, I made this heart frame using pebbles, my mirror was frame-less and ugly. I used sea shells and pebbles to frame it and what a huge difference. A flower here and there made a huge difference.

Bathroom

Yes, I glittered these glasses (God, I love them)

Mod podge + glitter 

I also made 2 wreaths, one for the girls room and one for our door. I couldn't believe how easy and simple they were and also, cheap. This is what I used:

and this is how they turned out to be:

Needles to mention that the girls love them and my husband is proud of me :)

Thank you for visiting.

Love,

Merida!

Hi,
I told yesterday I would prepare something "Brave" themed. If you knew how crazy I am in real life, at least mentally, you'd have guessed I wouldn't have slept without doing it. Sarah also is obsessed with the movie, she wants to buy her dress (I couldn't find it in our stores:( ). And yes, I would go to the extreme to get my kids the things they love, it is not spoiling, it is called "childhood". At least, Sarah knows when mommy/daddy tells her she doesn't have money to get something to wait until some other time when mommy/daddy has it.

Anyway, thank you CountingCoconuts, you are an inspiration as always. Mari-Ann did an awesome "Brave" sensory tub, please go and visit. I didn't have anything in hand to do this sensory tub so I had to begin from scratch. I took the girls & headed to Toysrus and bought this kit so yes, this is the most expensive sensory tub I've ever prepared. It cost $24.99. However, if you are looking for cheaper options, they sell princess Merida and queen Elinore with a bear, a bow and arrow set for $19.99 and even better, they sell princess MErida alone (mini) with her costume for $6.99 which is awesome.
Let me tell you that this is one of the closest sensory tubs to my heart, the movie is inspiring and I feel I relate to this sensory tub. The movie was like a wake up call to me as a mother, go and watch it and you'll know what I mean.

                                                before                                          after

This is the place where I hid it so that it surprises Sarah!

I want to capture her first reaction when she sees it!

Here's what's inside:

• green & blue gems
• green & turquoise glittery pom poms
• Green water beads
• The castle (included a bed, a table, a chair and their theme revolving photo)
• A box (that contained a picture of one of the the 3 brothers)
• Merida
• The Magic cake (bought it in a rubber set from dollar tree)
• bow & arrow
• Angus (Merida's horse)
• a panda/bear (I colored all of it black to look like a bear ah and we had it from McDonald happy meal)
• Trees (some came with the set and some I had)
• a crown (taken from a cheap doll we had in hand)
• a magic pot (had it from the miniature items we bought before travelling)
• Ps & Qs (P for princess & Q for queen) You can scroll down and see how we used these ;)

 Here are the after they got to see it, I made Sarah search for her surprise :p Sarah spent more than an hour playing with it. I tried not to guide her to any direction, she made Merida ride her horse, sleep on her bed, climb the stairs, sit on her chair, ...etc.

To go with this theme, we had to do both girls a crown. I know that it would mean nothing to Farida but making Sarah prepare it for her sister has a meaning, I love to see her doing something for her sister, taking the time and the effort to do it! She'll remember it one day!

Sarah's crown!

Farida's crown!

Sarah already knows all the alphabet letters upper & lower case but more practice won't hurt, still Brave-themed ;)

Simply cover the Ps & Qs!

The last one took her some time 

but I was determined she would do it before moving to something else. 

I want to enhance her attention span. 

I had to absorb her frustration and she did and was proud of herself.

We had to do some magic, simple, short, cheap & fun! A simple experiment. Here's all what you need:

bowl, water, pepper, dish soap. spray the pepper on the water, put your finger in the dish soap and into the peppered water, it forms a star. Sarah kept her finger for too long and that's why you probably can't see it but Sarah could :)

This was unplanned but Sarah asked for it and I went with her, she asked for a bear mask, one for me and one for her so we did it. It is not about the final product but the process. She was so happy I was sitting with her doing my own mask.

Ah, and I put "Brave" book on hold from our library so probably we'll have it in a week or so.

I hope you had fun with us. Tomorrow we are off to the doctors so probably nothing. Thank you for joining us.

Love,

All About Me!

Hi,

I have been talking about "a theme" for a long time, I think it was time. Our theme this week(s) is "All About Me". I have so many ideas that fit under this theme. Who am I? Am I a part of a family? Am I alone on this place? on Earth? or Am I a group of functioning organs?Is it my brain or is it all about my heart? Or am I all of these? See, how many things can fit under this them So today, we got to know we are a part of a family. Some members of this family have passed away but they are still an important part of our family. We did a little family tree. I only got to cut the leaves. Here, simple and fun:

I loved her lines & coloring today!

Isn't it a lovely piece of decoration?

Stay tuned for more "All About Me" projects. Thank you for joining and come back soon!
Love,

Spring is Here

Hi,

Don't you love spring? I wish the whole year would be just spring. We went out to have some fun, we observed the baby flowers, we played in the gardens and it was so relaxing.

I had a Spring sensory tub prepared for Sarah,  it cost me only $2 since I had most of the items already. I only bought a wooden bird's tree house from the dollartree store and the Easter grass. 

Here is what's inside:

• Trees & palm trees
• flowers (foam, crystal, artificial, plastic, bracelet)
• plant pot & seeds
• pine cones
• ladybug, worm & grasshopper
• butterflies 
• A bird & a wooden bird tree house

I covered her eyes, I wanted her to use her sense of touch to guess what the item was. She tried to peek some looks and after less than 5 minutes, she told me that she doesn't like playing that way so we removed it.

Can I shower in the grass mommy?

Then of course, we had to get messy and color the wooden bird house.

Finally, some red!

Here are some more pictures form our days out:

Farida's first time on the swing, 

she loved it.

Sarah was taking very good care of her little sister, 

telling me to be careful with her and to slow down not to scare her.

How did she get that big?

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed.

Love,