Spring is finally here! It does not yet look or feel like it, but it’s here and brings with it all kinds of activities you can do with the littles. While you are waiting for warm and dry weather, you have an opportunity to get the little ready. You can talk about flowers, weather changes, springtime clothing by recreating the experience through crafts or experiments.

Last spring, Aaron and I explored gardening. This year, we took a more focused look at gardening. In March, we learned about various spring vegetables and created a spring vegetable quilt.

As always, we start our craft journey by reading relevant books. Some of the vegetables we explored included asparagus, artichoke, broccoli, radish, corn and onions. We also talked about which vegetables grow above ground and which vegetables grow below ground. 

In our project we covered the following learning/skill areas.

1. Language/Literacy
   • Reading, reading and more reading of course. We focused on two books this month.
   • I asked Aaron comprehension questions about the books we read. For example: “What vegetables grow up and what vegetables grow down?”
   • We went over the spelling of each of the vegetables we discovered as he practiced his writing and tracing skills.
2. Art & Fine Motor Skills
   • We practiced scissor cutting skills to cut and trim the vegetables and the pieces of our quilt. This is a skill that must be nurtured as it also brings in coordination as he holds the paper with one hand and cuts with the other hand. 
   • Building the quilt required some stringing skills as we pieced the sections together. This is an awesome fine motor skill to practice with your little because it also builds coordination.
3. Science
   • We talked about the parts of various vegetables and how they grow.

Join us in the video below to watch our process and venture into a project with your toddler.

HAPPY TRAILS!

Normel Smith

Wife to an amazing husband, mother to an exploring toddler and an MPA graduate aspiring to impact the world with encouragement in mothering and in social entrepreneurship.