Activity Monday - Dominoes

So this Monday was a little hard. After spending several hours at the hospital with a somewhat sick Mini Miss on Sunday night, I had no time to prepare our activity. 

So, a spur of the moment decision to pull out one of my old toys (yes, I still have somethings from when I was a kid....yes, I guess you could say they are antiques...), Dominoes.

At first I was a little lost as to what to do with them. Then I thought we will start with some sorting. Having a domino set in 5 different colours made this easy. I just got a large muffin pan out of the cupboard, placed one domino of each colour in each muffin and showed Mini Miss how to sort them.

We talked about the different colours, we matched different colours. So, suddenly, what was a simple idea had turned into an opportunity for sorting. 

Once we had sorted them for a while, Mini Miss decided to make up her own game. This involved her purposely putting a colour in the wrong spot and seeing what I would do. It quickly became a funny game, where Mini Miss would put it in the wrong spot, I would notice "oh no, thats not right! Where should it go?", followed by her putting it in the right spot and shouting "we did it!" (again, Dora, you have so so much to answer for!). So, the activity also encouraged Mini Miss to think outside the box and make up her own game rules, and gave her a chance to show her awesome sense of humour! (she really loves to make me laugh, which I also love)

Then we decided to count them. Mini Miss loves to count everything, so this didn't take much persuading. Just because she can already count one to one doesn't mean we shouldn't practice this skill regularly, and try to extend it further! She can currently count one to one up to about 10-12. There were differing numbers in each section, with one going up to 15. With a bit of encouragement, and fumbling on 13, (what is it with that number? Miss Teen used to always just skip it when counting, Mini Miss seems to get stuck on it too....must be unlucky or something) I'm proud to say she got there. 

Once all the "learning" fun was done, I decided to show Mini Miss what I, as a 10 year old, used to do with my Dominoes. I was given them to set up in fancy tracks, then knock them down and watch them fall. After setting it up about 100 times (I'm not as steady with my hands as I used to be) I finally set up a fun little track, and Mini Miss was more than happy to set it off! She cheered and clapped her hands in absolute delight as they fell down one by one in about 15 seconds. She then wanted to set it up over and over and over again. Sadly for her though, my patience was shot. After having her knock them down too soon, or knocking them down myself with my old person shaky hands, I decided to give up! Happily though, she went back to sorting, grabbed a measuring container and "poured" them into the individual muffin sections, and generally amused herself.

So, although I was completely unprepared for Activity Monday this week, it worked out well! The dominoes are still out and I will leave them out until Friday as Mini Miss still isn't 100% well and will be home from school all week! 

Now, what else to do to keep her amused........