SO... we started a little (or very) late this month, but for what's left of it, our theme is "Halloween". Here's just a little peak into what we're doing with our Halloween theme. I started by clearing all the junk out of Riley's toy shelf, and replacing it with things I picked to go with the theme, as well as some of her favorite non-Halloween related toys. Here's what her shelf looks like when she wakes up in the morning:
Now for the fun stuff. HALLOWEEN THEME!!
BOOKS: All centered around Halloween. Riley usually prefers to read the same old books over and over, so I wasn't sure what she'd think about these, but she actually liked most of them! Here's what we got (from the limited selection at the library this close to Halloween) Normally I would get more, but there's only a few days left in the month, so I only got 6:
SONGS: I'll be honest, I didn't know a single Halloween song. But thanks to the lovely internet, I now have quite a few. Best part? The ones I learned are basically just new lyrics to common tunes, so pretty easy. And since she knows the tune, she likes the songs!
POEMS: I have a bunch of Halloween poems/rhymes to read to Riley. She's generally not really that interested in poems and nursery rhymes, but I want to get into the habit of reading her rhymes and it's a pretty easy thing to do, so we'll see how it goes. Reading nursery rhymes and poems to your kids is great for language development, so in the future I'll share some of what Riley likes just in case anybody is interested. She likes them a lot better if they have some sort of action to go along with them. Here's an example (you can use your fingers as the "pumpkins":
(1) Halloween "treasure basket." This is meant to be a Halloween themed sensory basket, so lots of things that are fun and different to touch- includes leaves, spider web, Halloween erasers, ribbon, spiders, tomb filled with confetti, mini pumpkin pencil toppers, rubber skeleton, a random pine cone or two... She LOVED the spider web, and loved trying to get all the spiders out of it.
(5) Orange balloons! Good for learning colors, and for comparing sizes (4 different sized balloons), but mostly just good for throwing and kicking and shouting "boons boons boons" over and over again! Also, very good for covering with stickers! (please excuse the pants-less baby, it was almost bath time).
(1) Halloween Day at the zoo- SO excited for this one, we're going on Saturday!
(2) Trick-or-treating! There's an awesome neighborhood by our apartment that has great decorations and lights and is super kid friendly, so I can't wait to check it out with Riley.
(3) Halloween children's parade on Monday- hurray for another excuse to put on her Halloween costume!
(4) San Jose Children's Museum- tomorrow with Grandma (not Halloween related I don't think...)
(5) We carved pumpkins once already, and we'll be doing it again at a pumpkin carving party on Sunday!
Also? Riley turned 16 MONTHS OLD today, so stay tuned for 16 month update coming tomorrow.