Camp Mommy: Cowboy Bug and Galloping on Shapes

It's my first day off, and what better way then to spend it with my two boys, bringing to life some fun learning. We've been recently learning more about shapes, so I wanted to incorporate some shape education into this week's Camp Mommy. Bug also enjoys his stick riding horse, and watching him play with it gave me an idea of making Bug a cowboy for the day. Michaels sells a play cowboy hat for $5 that you can dress up, and I also purchased a wooden star to make into a sheriff badge for my little cowboy. I just hot glued a pin to the back of the star, and some felt and feathers to the cowboy hat to complete the look. Look at how adorable my big Bug was!

I prepared our back cement pad by taping painters tape in the form of different shapes. I didn't make any shapes that had curves as it would be too difficult to create a smooth curve with pieces of tape and I didn't want to confuse Bug's learning by making a circle that had mild points. But this was okay as we focused on shapes that required us to count sides and look at angles to determine the shape name. Bug would get his horsey, and I would tell him to go find one of the shapes. Once he correctly identified the one I had asked him about, I got him to "gallop" on his horse around the outside perimeter of each shape...this helped with gross motor activity, shape recognition and some silly cowboy fun.

Once he finished walking the shape lines, we spelled out the name of our shapes with chalk, as well as counting the sides and labelling them. We spoke about the difference between similar looking shapes too (square and rectangle, or hexagon and octagon).

Then, to finish off our Camp Mommy activity, I gave Bug something he loves immensely...his own lasso (a $1 skipping rope from Dollarama without the handles). He lassos everything that has length...Mommy and Daddy VDV aren't too thrilled when what he finds are our phone chargers. He tried to lasso our puppy, but in the end he loved just swinging it around his head.

Bear, once again just sat around observing and eating.

This was just one other cute shot I got of our Cowboy Bug...a little artistic flare on my behalf.

The VDV four truly enjoy reading books together, so I try to incorporate some new books into our Camp Mommy activities. It sort of gives me an excuse to buy things for the boys, and they aren't toys. Bug (Bear is too young to fully grasp this) gets just as excited for a new book, so it's a win-win for me! I try not to purchase too many new toys for the boys; but books are always something I try not to convince myself out of buying. These three books were super cute, and there actually were a few wonderful little lessons for the kids to learn. The Cowboy and his friends go through some everyday friend conflicts; and by the end of the book, they resolve them and realize that the most important thing is not to only do what you want, or to think only like you think, or that you are better than your friend...but rather to share your day and likes with your friends and to openly embrace each others differences. Really cute read, great pictures and Bug openly laughed at some of the imagery!

Another lovely Camp Mommy day with my munchkins. Nothing beats getting over the sleep deprivation of shift work (and night shifts) like laughing, cuddling and enjoying your children's active and wonderful imagination. It was a great day!

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