terrible 2 here I am!

The prophecy has become tue! What awful behaviour M. has having these last few days....it seems they are waiting for their second birthday to completely transformed themselves from little angels to terrible toddlers! Not a baby anymore but not quite a child...stuck in between and just becoming frustrated. Oh dear oh dear and I am the one who has to deal with this! It is getting quite tiring: all day moaning, crying for any stupid little thing, not wanting to play with her usual friends and refusing anyone. On top of this she is not sleeping enough during the night, going to sleep late and waking up early, and every mother knows how difficult a tired child can be!

Nonetheless I managed to keep her amused with some activities.

5 SENSES

I have finished the "smell" section. To the mixed dried herbs, pepper and coffee beans, I added chocolate powder, mixed spices and fennel seeds.

She tried the different smells and I hope she will go back to the box from time to time.

The "touch" section is under construction.

ANIMAL PROJECT

M. got interested in snails and their behaviour. She wanted to understand how they go inside their shells. We have a couple of books that feature snails in their tales, so I read them for her and explain to her that the shell is the snail's house and that it retreats inside when it is scared and as a defence from other animals that may want to eat it.

I drew a snail for her and she coloured that in for our wall poster.

ART AND CRAFT

We did some painting using the wheels of a toy car. Just going with the car on top of a big drop of paint and then make it run on top of a paper. This will result in lines across the whole paper.

M. liked this simple activity and played with the car and the paint for a long time.

We also made play dough from a recipe I got from the childen centres. It is really easy and M. could help me made the dough without much mess. The dough is actually much better than the one you buy because is softer and little hands can model it easier; you can also add some drops of food coloring to give it the colour you want or add essence to give it a nice smell. We had some chocolate powder to give it a yummy smell.

M. liked adding the ingredients to the bowl and mixing with a spoon. Later she had fun cutting with a plastic knife the sausage dough shapes I made for her.

Recipe

1 cup of flour

3/4 cup salt

1/2 cup water or more if needed

1 table spoon vegetable oil

Mix all the ingredients and knead until smooth. It can be covered and kept in the fridge for 2 weeks.