Letter of the Week- W

We are moving right along, in reverse of course.  I originally started this for two reasons, to teach him the ABCs and to give our day some structure.  It has worked out very well except he is learning the letters faster than I am teaching them.  But that's totally OK, he is part genius you know.  We will still continue on because he loves the activities and I love having to use my brain.

So onto this week....  We made our obligatory W, for watermelon.  Those "seeds" are actually colored foam circle stickers that I colored with a Sharpie to make them black, ha.  I needed him to make dots and knew that if I gave him any type of writing utensil he would scribble and not dot.  So this was the perfect solution and he got to do stickers, which he loves.

We actually started the week with my favorite activity yet.  I used painters tape and made a W.  As you saw in a previous post he LOVES, LOVES, LOVES lining up his cars.  So I told him to line up his cars on the W and he went right to town.  Instead of doing it the way I imagined(boring...just putting them on the line in order), he made up his own way which was starting at one end and "driving" them to the other end of the W.  He was so anal about getting those cars on the line, which wasn't at all surprising, but loved this activity.  We actually kept the W on the floor until the next day (when he got stuck to our feet and pulled up) and he used it to drive his cars along.  We will be doing this again, for sure!!

I have been looking for a cute lacing kit to buy as a pencil pouch activity to use while we are somewhere waiting (like the beads).  I couldn't find anything that was cheap enough or enough of a variety so decided to make my own.  I bought foam rectangles in a jumbo pack from Wal-mart (which we have lots left over for some other crafty fun), used a letter template, and an Exacto knife.  I can't believe I have lived this long without owning an exacto knife, it is so much fun!  How sad that a super sharp knife makes me giddy these days, but whatev.  I then punch holes in the letter, obviously I made a W first, and he laced them up.  It took him a while and some guidance because I was a little overzealous with the hole distribution (read: I punched WAY too many).  When he was done he asked for another letter and he picked X so I quick cut that one out.  I have them all done so we have them for each week now, and for pencil pouch activities.  And now I am left with a stencil for each letter so its a win win for this crafty loser.

Another day we made jello watermelons.  So cute, fun, and yummy.  Notice I didn't say easy, that's because peeling the life out of the limes was serious work which involved standing at the sink for a long ass time for, which is hard for this large pregnant lady.  But worth it I would say.  This is the first time I made jigglers and I remember my mom hated making them, not exactly sure why, but I think she said they took too long to make.  Mom, you are a liar, they took me like 6 seconds to make not counting waiting for the water to boil or for them to solidify in the fridge.  Do you even remember saying that?  They turned out awesome and were a huge hit.  He was a bit skeptical, but like most things if I tell him its candy he will try it.  He ate quite a few pieces.  Note of advice, don't forget to set a timer and get right up after 30 minutes to drop in the chocolate chips, I forgot to get up even after remembering to set a timer and instead of sinking into the jello like seeds, my chocolate chips floated on the surface because the jello was already too firm.  Oh well, he liked picking the mini chips off each one and eating them. 
This is what they looked like coming out of the fridge, I then cute them into quarters so they were easier to eat.  I am not going to lie, they were weird because you could taste the lime on your lips when they touched the shells and it was just hard to avoid licking your lips.  And watermelon jello doesn't come in red, only green, so this in fact strawberry jello. 

Contemplating whether or not he could fit just one more.

We used the leftover jello jigglers to make Ws.  They were really really yummy and Brady and I went to town.

Lastly we made a wave bottle.  We had originally planned on going to the beach on Friday for the waves but since stupid old Earl messed with the forcast I was nervous and we bagged at the last minute.  This was one of those blue water and oil things.  Very easy and we put sparkles in there so it was even more of a hit.