Learning letters and numbers

N. has been interested in learning her letters and numbers for a while now. She likes the notion of sitting at the table and doing to "work" - how often during the day do I hear "I want to work Mummy!".

She now has a set of three working boxes:

 I found some material online on French pre-school websites. The first and smallest of the boxes contains the alphabet printed on paper and plastified:

I like that the letters are written in different ways, that there is a corresponding word as an example along with a small image.

The second box is for counting:

I have always been terrible with numbers and maths, and I am hoping to help my children love this particular subject (my husband being a scientist, he probably will be helpful too :-p ). I like the visual: the number, how it shows on a hand and the dots.

And finally the third box, the biggest, contains hours of work on my part! I made N. a felt colourful alphabet that she can manipulate at will. Most letters are at least double, some are even quadruple! Only the Q and X are single. I based myself on how often I think letters come up in French words (language I use with N.).

 N. and her little brother are big fans of the felt letters. She can identify the A, P, and O quite well, but the other letters are still a blur. I guess it is normal at her age. She finds it fascinating though when I use the letters to form words and tell her what is spelt.

I would be interested in other ways of making learning fun for children. So do not hesitate to share your knowledge with me with a comment please! :)

 

Birthday card

Before I registered on Pinterest I used to find my ideas browsing from one blog to the next, looking at the comments and the recommended links. This is how I found a recipe to make scratch-off lottery tickets (here). I have been wanting to test the recipe for a couple of years now but had not got round to it... until last month! My in-laws had their birthdays and we wanted them to see one of two exhibitions which we thought were to be visited. So I made up this scratch-off card (in German sorry ;) ) and glued a small coin to it.

 

It was a lot of fun to make and apparently to scratch off. Unfortunately I did not think (where was my brain then?) at all of making a picture of the picture being uncovered! Next time ;)

Are you fed up with felt yet?

For a small girl and her soon to be born brother or sister

Spring is coming and this heart went to an aunt of ours

I cannot keep my hands off my needles for very long! I always have new things to make! In the next months though I will  have to be stricter with myself and just make what I am supposed to be sewing! With my sister's wedding coming up in three months I have to focus on our clothes (dresses for my daughter and me and some sweet clothes for my son) as well as on a sleeping bag for N. and some travel toys for both N. and T. for the trip. So I might be less prolific in small things.

More felt food ^^

I have two nieces, aged 3,5 and 1,5 yo. They are growing so quickly and unfortunately I live too far away to see them regularly. I do miss them but making things for them knowing that they will be delighted in getting a parcel always makes me smile.

Part of the work was an order from my sister, part was a present for L. and M. 

So let's see what we have:

Small embroidered handkerchiefs. L. got sick several weeks ago, and M. kept wanting to use tissues to do like her sister, so I made them some handkerchiefs to save a bit on the tissues ;)

The beans, tomatoes and four meringues are my presents for the girls. The rest was ordered by their mother who was fed up of the girls arguing about who would play with what...

Meringues

And then I made some small bundles just for the fun of it. Children usually likes unpacking very much. Little N. was happy helping me preparing presents for her cousins. She kept babbling about how nice it was and that the girls would be delighted to get something from us, blablablablabla :) it was sweet really!

I had an article already about the two hairpins and the small owl, but I had forgotten to show you the set of hearts that I made for my sister's photos (Christmassy I know, they are planned to be used in winter), and the small cakes were a present from her Photo Challenge of last month.

Travelling doll pouch reloaded

I did it again! And I will be sewing this pouch thrice again this year ^^ . A few little girls have their birthdays coming up, mine has a long traveling holiday to look forward to, so my hands are kept busy sewing. I also found how to make the pouch very neatly and rather quickly.

For the next three pouches and the one bellow, I have been "allowed" to be more girly than for the first one. Meaning: I can use PINK!!!!

So here is number 2 (number 1 here):

The teddy bear is white this time, I find it rather sweet ^^. How do you like the whole thing?

Photography

Here is the picture that won me a prize with Méo-photos' Challenge!

What was best about that picture was the look on my daughter's face when she saw me pouring the water on the ground! "Oh no Mummy, don't do that!" She was truly shocked :)

Spring is coming! At least in our home. My mother-in-law brought us some cherry tree branches and after a week or so observing the buds open, we had the delight to find those beautiful flowers. N. was amazed to see them at breakfast.

Crocuses are coming out too, that was early in the morning.

It is nevertheless very cold at night and the tiny bird bath was completely frozen.

I thought I'd share a few pictures with you. It has been a while since I last did it. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Little hands

N. is very keen on learning to sew and she loves using needles and thread. She used to play with a shoe-lace and some large plastic buttons, but now she prefers to leave that game to her brother!
It was lovely the other day to have a sort of "sewing party", each of us (N., T. and myself) was busy sewing.

N. and T. playing with the dice she got from her Grand-mother.

I love the sight of those small hands ever so careful with the needle.

Mermaid pouch

Here we are, my children's new toy. Well not really new, the two mermaids and the sea-horse were mine as a young child and the seashell came from a sweet I ate looooong looong ago! I didn't want to give N. and T. just my old toys, so I made a small pond with fish that can move underneath the surface.

There are three layers: the cotton fabric, blue fleece and blue organza fabric. In between the fleece and organza are the little fish and above a small lily-pad.

This toy is meant to be taken around, during our summer trip to France for instance, so I also made a small pouch for it. I was also a good excuse to use my KAM again ;)

What do you think?

Accessories for a photograph

My sister is about to officially become a photograph. She is doing a lot of pregnancy, newborn and family pictures. Having children coming around, she needs to attract their attention and smiles to get the sweetest pictures she can :) - while browsing on Pinterest, I found some lens scrunchies made by Madeleine and I loved them. I sent a message to Madeleine to ask if she'd have a pattern to share, but never got an answer... So set out to make a copy and ended up changing a bits here and there. The head is smaller, the wings are larger and it does not have feet. In the end I much prefer mine ^^. In the next months I will try to make some more for my sister (you can check out her blog there)

Still for her photo-sessions, I made two hair-clips for the little girls. They were test flowers and will need improvement, but hopefully they will still be useful.

I can be pretty girly and I LOVE pink! So the pink one is my favourite. I made the blue thinking of my sister though because it is HER favourite colour ;) 

Have you seen the Disney Sleeping Beauty? 

 

For many many years we argued about the very last moment of the film: does it end on a pink or on a blue dress? Getting the DVD helped me prove that I was right! It does end on PINK! Yeah!!!!

Anyway, not really that interesting is it? :-p What do you think of the little owl and the two hair-clips?