What works for me- Gift edition

I have been so busy with this goal of mine to have a homemade, handmade Christmas that my little ol' blog is suffering. Its crunch time and between preschool and baking bread and making fudge sauce and wrapping up 20+ gift bags of homemade crayons and peppermint playdough for little 3 and 4 year olds....I'm pooped! Now we've got only 7 days till the big day for me to wrap up the many projects I've still got on the table. But to quote a book I've read over and over since the boys were born...."I think I can, I think I can, I think I can..."!

So, in keeping with my handmade theme....Little J worked on his present for his brother last night. I saw this idea on a Montessori website and I had to copy it. J made his brother colored pasta. Colored pasta you may ask with a scrunched up nose? Well....there are so many things you can do with this activity. You can have the child sort the different noodles by color, size, shape. You can have the child string the pasta or just let the child's imagination run wild. It teaches fine motor skills and developmental skills that are needed at this age. I'm so excited for little Z to enjoy the possibilities and J is too.

I set J up with a big bowl of all sorts of noodles.

I then put different bowls of colored water (just water and food coloring) in front of J and let him begin sorting the noodles into which color he wanted each noodle

He then went through the whole big bowl of noodles and sorted all of them appropriately! He's such a smart guy.

We let the pasta soak in the colored water for a few hours and then drained it and put the noodles on wax paper covered cookie sheets to dry.

The noodles dried up nicely overnight and ta-da!!!! Little brothers gift is all done.

J is bursting with pride in his homemade gift for his little brother. I am too in the fact that I'm teaching my boys the simplicity of the holiday season.