Out on the range and making rainbows

We're on our visiting spree which may sound hurried and whirlwind, but we are definitely stopping to smell the roses (and the sagebrush)! Aa.'s Grandpa J's girlfriend needed to collect some sage to decorate the front porch of the General Store on the ranch where she works.

Aa.-girls first foray onto the rangeland. We were enveloped in a warm fragrant wind and accompanied by cattle dog Ricky. It doesn't get any better than that!

After a few days on the ranch which were predominantly spent outdoors, we made it to Grandma and Grandpa T's. Being in a town (and having access to a computer that wasn't on dialup internet; the ranch is wonderful but it has it's downsides too) meant I could go to the dollar store and create some activities. We colored some rice (highly recommended by Jen from Montessori beginnings so we had to try it out!) using primary colors only. This was Aa.-girl's first (I think) (maybe she has done something similar at preschool?) exposure to what color components make up different colors. I made up a chart of the three primary colors and then the combining of the primary colors to produce the secondary colors as well as the order of the rainbow colors. We ended up with 6 colors of the rainbow (we didn't make magenta) and then followed in Jen's footsteps (we do that alot!) and made a rainbow bottle by layering the rice. I extended the activity later by giving Aa. playdough balls of the three primary colors of playdoug and getting her to match them up to the chart I had made.

We then squooshed and squished the dough colors together to make green, orange and purple. She then matched them up to the chart as well.

We finished by lining up the colors according to the rainbow.

Both the "colored rice activity" and the "making playdough colors activity" were great as they required all aspects of Montessori philosophy: sensorial (looking at the different colors), motor (mixing and squishing), cognitive (understanding how colors are made as well as matching up colors) practical life (clean-up was extensive with the rice; I shook a rice bag too vigorously and made a mess! That's OK Aa. loves to sweep!) Language (naming the colors) social (we had to work together to create our colors) We loved these activities and we're looking forward to making more colored rice to use in craft projects.

A few more days here at Grandma and Grandpa T.'s and we'll be off camping. First time putting Aa.-girl in a real heavy-duty hiking carrier. I can't wait to be surrounded by the calming energy of the forest trees while we hike along together. Every day with Aa. is better than the next. Her language skills are blowing me away and we have extensive conversations now. Bedtime gets longer and longer because that is when we have our most intimate chats. It used to be that I'd want the routine to be fairly quick so I could get everything done so that I could move on to finishing household chores and then relax with my husband. I now soak up every precious moment while Aa. recaps with delight what we did that day and who she is grateful for. Sigh... my little love!