I Spy in the Neighborhood

I almost always have my camera with me.  Yesterday, R and I took Kelly for a walk around the neighborhood and I took pictures of random things.  My plan for these pictures is to make color copies for C and R and take them out for a neighborhood scavenger hunt.

Here are just a few of the things that will be on the list (I have 33 items):

Why should you do this?  There are so many opportunities for learning here: 

• they have to pay attention to their surroundings, keeping their eyes open and looking for specific items
• I photographed a few street signs, and they will have to match the letters on the sign to the letters in the picture
• We will be counting - they might find the specific flag in the photograph, but for our purposes, we will keep track of every flag, every white fence, every sewer cover, every fire hydrant, etc. and make a tally mark on our papers for each one we find.  When we are finished, we will add up the tally marks.
• This is also a great way to learn about flowers or trees.  Take pictures of specific flowers, trees, etc. and count how many houses in your neighborhood have those specific varieties.  If you don't know what they are called, look them up on the internet.
• If your child is working on colors, you can make a sheet with patches of color and track how many red, orange, or blue houses, cars, flowers, or whatever you find in the neighborhood. 
• You can also use this for letter and number practice.  Type the alphabet or numbers on your page and keep track of letters or numbers you find in the neighborhood.  Which letter or number is found most or least?  Depending on the age of your child, you might want to start with just a few letters or numbers, or you can have a letter and number of the day and just look for those.

This will be fun for the whole family!  Your children will not even realize how much learning you are sneaking in during their play time!

I am linking this post to the Get Outdoors Challenge at 5 Orange Potatoes.  Head on over there and check it out!

Counting Colors in the Morning

Our routine has been a bit chaotic this week, but we have found a way to have a little consistency each morning. I recently purchased Counting Colors: A Seek and Find Book by Roger Priddy. Every morning, after everyone is dressed and ready to go, C and R pick a page in the book. Each two page layout features a different color. The color word is written across both pages (great way to work on spelling color words) and it is surrounded by many different items of that color. There is a list of things to find, for example: "1 big scaly lizard, 2 tree frogs, 3 farm tractors"; there are ten different items to find in each color. We take turns finding the items, and sometimes we continue looking for items of that color around the house.


This is a great book to use for teaching colors, counting, and sorting. I love that this book can be used in so many ways. The youngest child will enjoy looking for items while older children can add or subtract items from each group and spell the color words. Most importantly, C, R and I are finding time to sit together each morning for a little bit of I Spy book fun.

I Spy

C and R love I Spy. I have wanted to make I Spy bottles for them since I first heard about them. So, why did it take me so long? At first I wanted to have a theme, but I had so many ideas that I just couldn't decide what to do. Then I wanted to color the rice and just kept forgetting. Finally, I just grabbed a bunch of tiny toys and other little things around the house. I placed them on the copier and made copies of the contents for C and R. I did color some of the rice, but I would have liked to color more. Are they perfect? Who cares! C and R had a lot of fun with them.
Do you see that big wet spot on C's shirt? He chews on his shirt constantly and nothing I have tried will make him stop. By the end of the day his shirt is completely disgusting.

This is not the best picture of R. I was trying to prepare lunch while they played and I only took a few photos.

They played with the I Spy bottles for a long time today. I'm so happy that I finally made them.