fun with a non newtonian fluid

She's playing with cornflour, water and natural green food colouring. I like to call it 'gloop'; pinterest will tell you it's called 'oobleck'; our resident physics teacher tells me it's 'an example of a non newtonian fluid' (don't you know?). Whatever it's called, its great fun! A solid under pressure but a liquid most of the time. Ivy trying to pick up balls of it I made in my hand and put it in her mouth was hilarious. She had a good time playing with it outside.

I was looking up sensory activities last night, which led to looking at Montessori toys. I think my approach to Ivy's toys and the way our rooms are arranged is very Montessori in style, but on the cheap. A montessori room would have wicker baskets of wooden toys at child height- I have the same idea but using cheap cloth boxes and plastic objects. Not that I don't love wooden toys: I found a rainbow last night that may be the most beautiful toy I've seen. She's got a wooden bead maze and wooden jigsaws and stackers- I'm sure she'll acquire more over time.

We said goodbye to Granny Grant this morning- though we'll see her in less than a fortnight because despite hurrendous delays in the UK passport office, both Euan and Ivy now have passports so we can go on our family holiday to Italy in July!

In the afternoon- I let Ivy roam the house and followed her about doing stuff in whatever room she happened to go into. She's very funny- she will go from one room to another to do various things and seems to very much know where she's going and what she wants- like she sets off with a goal in mind.

I know i'm obviously biased- but I think Ivy is getting very clever. She can play tunes on her desk bells rather than just single notes now and Euan was very impressed with her 'experimenting' at lunchtime: She was sitting in her high chair outside examining a flower, when Euan gave her a stick and showed her that she could hit things with it to make sounds. Ivy took it- then leaned over to deliberatly hit the flower to find out what noise a flower makes.

Weather was glorious today- I got THREE loads of washing done and on the line, and washed the windows. Hope it continues.