I know it's been a while since we've had an installment of One Dollar Wednesday, but I've been pretty busy chasing around a 15 month old who has traded in walking for running!
I really want to get back on track with quality, hands-on learning activities for Camp, so today was the day to start. Several weeks ago (that's how long it took to gather the energy for this), we picked up this 10 pack of sponges from The Dollar Tree. I love that for one buck you can get the quantity as well as a three color selection.
I decided to get even more bang for my buck by cutting each sponge in half. I only used three whole sponges for this little trial, so Camp has 6 mini sponges to play with, and I still have 7 for other projects or <gasp> cleaning.
Put the mini sponges in a clear, plastic shoebox with a lid and
ABRACADABRA: SPONGE FUN!
First, I just gave the box of sponges to Camp so he could explore. I showed him how he could stack them like blocks. We (mostly I) talked about the colors. The main concepts I wanted to work on with the sponges today were wet and dry. I described the sponges as dry, and Camp enjoyed squishing them. Then, I added just a little bit of water in the dishpan and let the little guy dip the sponges into the water. Not much stayed dry for long. Just as he does in the bathtub with the washcloth, he immediately wanted to suck the water out of the sponges. Maybe we should hydrate more!? I showed him how to wring out the wet sponge and make it almost dry again. He attempted (and was eventually successful) to spill all the water from the pan onto the towel. I continued using the vocabulary "dry" and "wet" to talk about the sponges, his pajamas, and the towel we sat on for our exploration.
This activity was very easy to prepare and clean up (luckily I chose to only put a bit of water in the pan). Looking back on it, I would have given Camp more time with the dry sponges before introducing the "wet" factor. He seemed to enjoy the experience overall, but I was pretty much done with it after about 10 minutes. Part of that might be because of the whole eating the sponges thing that was happening. We'll definitely be pulling out the sponges and water again, especially outside this summer so we can cool off!
*P.S. Thank you, SherBear, for these super safari animal pajamas!
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