Garden Variety Vocabulary Cards - Upcycling Seed Catalogs

I think I'm about to become a lamination monster!

It's seed-catalog season and before I consigned all the poor unloved things to the recycling, I decided that the pages of the High Mowing Seeds catalog were particularly well-suited to becoming veggie vocabulary cards. If nothing else, it's good for the kiddo to see that plate veggies were once plants, and I also kind of like introducing him to slightly odder vegetables like fennel bulb and okra. I also liked that the High Mowing Seeds catalog had the scientific name for the plants, which is just interesting and shows the alert reader that we eat a quite a few cucurbits and brassicas!

So, last night during RHOBH and Gossip Girl I cut out the veggie pictures (including scientific name!) and pasted them to index cards. This morning I realized that (a) the cards were curling from the glue, (b) they would last about five minutes near a toddler in paper-only form, and (c) I'd put the hole and ring in exactly the wrong place for him to read the words, so I unhooked them and took them to Lakeshore to check out this "laminator" about which I've heard so much.

Suffice it to say, laminating stuff is awesome. I wish it were free, which it isn't, but I can afford .30 a linear foot and it is so much fun. Anyway, he likes the cards quite a bit--he seems fascinated by "corn" in particular, and he remembered "garlic" from when we planted the cloves a few weeks back!

DIY Texture Tablets - Much Cheaper Montessori!

Inspired by this post and by Montessori's fancy texture gradient tablets, I decided DIY texture boards were in order for the little one. (A set of "rough gradation tablets" goes for $47!)

Why do these? Well, I'm hoping to provide the kiddo with some touch-sense stimulation, practice matching, preliminary puzzle-solving skills and some new vocabulary words, but also because I like having as many outlets as possible for recycled goods around here. Not every Diapers.com box is going to be upcycled, but a girl has to try.

These are 10 cm x 10 cm cardboard squares, with 8 cm by 8 cm textures. The textures, so far, are a nubbly orange washcloth, smooth parchment paper, a soft cloth (formerly striped socks someone gave me), rough sandpaper, bumpy contact paper, bubble wrap, slick aluminum foil, and rough mesh (formerly a potato bag). So far he likes petting the textures, and we'll see what else comes of having these around.

I'm planning to add some other sandpaper grits and fabrics as I can find them, but any suggestions for other readily available textures that he might like to play with? Inspire me!