Isia just turned three! As such, there's a growing interest in art that "looks like something." To help fulfill that wish, and build some fine-motor skills, we like to do some stenciling. During our last session I found some ways that make it less frustrating for her, and easier for me to help too- especially when we have friends to join in the fun.

Ah, finger-paint. We love to paint with it around here, admire our work for days, then cut it up to make other creations like these. We've learned a few things along the way too. We now know my homemade finger-paint has yet to turn out rich and colorful as Crayola's. We've also found that freezer paper can work in a pinch, but true finger-paint paper does allow the paint to move around the best. But we hadn't experimented with adding ingredients into our finger-paint until now...

Isia is a big fan of "school." She enjoys shape recognition activities and some tracing. Although we've begun integrating more Waldorf into our lives, a educational model that is not keen on this kind of book-work, I still include a few of the activities into our day. Because I think her enjoying them is quite different from me insisting on her doing them. So if she really wants to trace her numbers...