More Imperfect for Winter

I have a ton of planning and activities going on that I realize are not getting recorded in this blog. I think it's time for me to get a little less "edity." I want to begin thinking of this blog as less a place for perfectly formed essays and more of a place for journaling my thoughts about what we're learning in this house.

Today it's nasty weather outside and we're inside doing a variety of games. God help me, I taught my two year old how to use a pair of scissors. I did this the day I was cutting snowflakes to decorate for her birthday party. Of course she's closely supervised, but they're just the big kitchen scissors, not safety scissors or anything. Now she begs for scissors, saying, "Would really like to cut!" So I sat with her for a bit while she chopped up some construction paper. I'm actually impressed with how quickly she's caught on. I'm filing this in the "fine motor skills" category instead of "irresponsible mother." ;)

Also for fine motor skills, I've set up a playdough space. That means I taped wax paper to the floor. Works great. This morning I ran across two cookie cutters, so Bug has been cutting dogs and horses out of the playdough. Later this week I hope to make gingerbread cookies together that we can bring to church on Christmas Eve. Last week she had a blast doing all the dumping and pouring for a loaf of pumpkin bread. I've requested Gingerbread Baby from the library; we'll see if it gets here before Christmas. I'm deciding to not be a perfectionist and make the cookies together whether the book arrives or not.

Two books have arrived from the library and we're enjoying them. The first is The Three Snow Bears by Jan Brett. It's gorgeous illustrations and wintery fun. The storyline is Goldilocks and the Three Bears, polar bear style. Makes me glad I introduced the classic three bears story a while back. Also makes me wonder what other basic fairy tales Ladybug would like/needs to hear. It seems that there are so many variations and fun retellings of the standard fairy tales that the point of the originals is almost just to appreciate the new spin when you encounter it.

The second book we got from the library is Winnie the Pooh.  I wanted to try out a longer read-aloud. Pooh has a lot of text for a two year old, but it's essentially a set of short stories. And with such gentle, whimsical content, I figured it was a good one to try out. Ladybug really likes it and clutches the book to her chest. I've noticed that for the first several stories there were plenty of pictures which kept her focus during the longer passages. We hit a wall this morning when I finally reached a page with no pictures. So we stopped mid-story and will try later. I figure this book is probably a big stretch for her, the way I might feel reading Crime and Punishment, so we'll go slow. But I never lovingly clutched Crime and Punishment, so I don't think I'm pushing too hard.