Caterpillar

No, I didn't mean Caterpillar the truck manufacturer. These little wind-up toys by Toysmith are interesting to watch wiggle upside-down in your hand. The little boom circles around and around making the bug try to crawl. It is quite simply a marvelous toy for a preschool engineer. These caterpillars give your child practice with fine motor development when they wind them up. They are also along the lines of "baby's first robot" and your preschool engineer can see what automation looks like in its simplest form. I like that it offers an opportunity to step outside machines and look at living creatures.



Two Books
"The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle is likely not a new discovery for most of my audience. "The Very Hungry Caterpillar's Favorite Words" might be. Mikey and I discovered "The Very Hungry Caterpillar's Favorite Words" when we stopped at Barnes and Noble in Grand Junction, CO. We were in the middle of a road trip and needed to stretch our legs in a familiar place. As book junkies, a book store was a perfect place for us.

Mikey chose "The Very Hungry Caterpillar's Favorite Words"  because it is a funny shape. A small 2"x2"x2" cube, this is the first book of its kind on our shelf. Each page spread has a single word and single picture. Mikey and his one year old sister are too young to do "real" reading but this is a wonderful little book to learn about symbols. They take turns flipping the pages and reading, "strawberry," "apple," and so on all the way to "butterfly."


Fun Food

This is a silly little compliment to the world of caterpillars for preschool engineers. I found the picture of grape caterpillars on Pinterest and made them for a playdate. They were a huge success! The children gobbled them down. Depending on the age of your child and their eating skills you may have to do some cutting. I cut each grape in half, then skewered them onto six-inch sticks. The eyes are miniature chocolate chips held in place by frosting. Instead of buying a giant container of yucky frosting at the grocery store, I just mixed powered sugar into plain yogurt until it had a nice thick consistency. Then I dipped the chocolate chips into the frosting and smooshed them onto the end grape of each skewer. Admittedly, glueing the eyes on was the hardest part...there was a lot of frosting all over my fingers at the end. Mm mm good.