Messy Fun Learning

So I decided that we needed to have a little fun that wasn't linked to playing "The Princess and Her Mother". That, friends, is a game that Claire has created that involves us sitting on the floor in the playroom as Claire says over and over, "Mother, what shall we play?" and then I have to come up with idea after idea until I am ready to pull my hair out. Not so much fun. Not really sure why my darling is insistent on playing it around the clock.

So I saw a neat idea on another blog and decided to give it a try. It incorporates making a mess with learning. Both things Claire loves. The mess, I don't love, but don't mind too much either. So as soon as Sarah was tucked safely into bed for nap time, I pulled out our supplies. A cookie sheet and some flour. We made our own homemade etch-a-sketch.

We had fun drawing pictures, letters, numbers, etc. When we finished each little drawing, we simply shook the pan a bit and had a clean slate ready for more drawing. It really was fun. Then I decided to let Claire have a straw so she could play around with "wind". The wind blows quite fierce here on some days and creates some interesting looking snow dunes. Teachable moment right? What a mess.

Least you think that I've lost my ever loving mind, the mess really did clean up easily with a quick vacuum. And that would have been the end of it had Claire not decided to reenact one of her favorite scenes from The Lion King. You know the one where Rafiki paints the stripe on little Simba's forehead? Check it out:

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing


Yes, a fun mess for sure!