Spotlight on Child’s Play Music

Ordinarily, I wouldn’t think that playing outside with water in late January was a good idea. But since the daffodils in my yard are beginning to bud, clearly the weather is positively springlike. Here’s a link to some Very Fun ideas for playing with sound and making music using normal household items and some water. So if you’re looking for something to do outside in this unseasonably warm weather, check it out!

This post by Child’s Play Music is not only well-written and chock-full of great information, it even includes a video at the end so you can see and hear the sound possibilities that he suggests! Further exploration of the site turns up instructions for creating your own crazy-fun instruments out of recycled materials! So awesome!

I can’t wait to have some musical adventures with our kiddos!

Piano Lessons

Umpires

Isaiah showed me this picture and said, “Look, it’s an umpire.”

I sat there looking at it for a bit, tilting my head to get a different angle, trying to see the umpire. Finally, I said, “Zay, what is an umpire?”

“You know!” he laughed. “They’re scary and have big teeth.”

Ah. Vampire.

Let There Be Light

We recently became the proud owners of a light panel.

It’s added a whole new element to our play, as we figure out what fun things we can do with it. The boys enjoy just driving cars around on the table, but it’s also neat to use objects that specifically let the light shine through.

The boys enjoyed using their Squeezer Tweezers to fill a bowl with glowing gems.

I told them the story of when JP and I looked at engagement rings, and how jewelers have loose diamonds and they look at them with special tools to see how beautiful and valuable they are. We pretended they were jewelers trying to sell me a new ring. A fun way to strengthen hand muscles and hone fine motor skills!

But it was just as exciting to just slide those gems around the light table, feeling the smooth-yet-bumpy texture and watching them glow!

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Zay build the Great Wall of China with these awesome magnetic shapes. (Can you tell he’s recently watched Mulan?)

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And our “water beans” took on a whole new sensory dimension when combined with the light table!

Rob the Builder