It didn't take long...

...for my 2yo niece to lose interest in the transferring activity (spoon lentils from one bowl to the other). She did it a few times the first day, then once the following day, and that was it!

So, I went searching for more activities for her and ended up at Winners sometime this week and found this geometric stacker made by Melissa and Doug

as well as this little Bear Dress Up activity (also by Melissa and Doug):

which has provided both girls with something new to do things with.

I also decided to show pouring to my niece today. I haven't bought the typical little creamers that are used in a Montessori classroom, so just used some Corel cups. She was actually fine with the pouring; the tough part was to get her to NOT try to pour both cups at the same time! I don't think I showed slowly enough, even though it felt crazy slow and my movements were exaggerated to put the empty pouring cup down, pick the other one up and pour, and repeat. She kept trying to pick both up and pour them into each other. I ended up providing a little more structure and held down the empty cup while she picked up the other one. I'd like to find some cheap little creamers, if I can, this weekend. I've looked for sometime and usually only find the metal ones (if I can find any at all), and I don't want those.

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A week and a half left of study time and exams!! We will be able to breathe a sigh of relief and get into a better routine once Feb. rolls around. I ought to make a point to do some "teacher prep" (gosh, it's been so long, I can't even recall what Maria Montessori called it, but there was a term for it), in reading and reflecting.