Umbrella

On a shopping trip this morning Master 2 somehow persuaded me into buying him an umbrella! On the way home we were chatting in the car about why you use an umbrella (to keep the rain off you or to protect you from the sun) and what he would like to do on a rainy day with his umbrella. Master 2 went on in length of course, as two year olds do, to tell me that he would like to walk along the road in the gutter where the "water whooshes down" the drain. I remembered driving home that I found this book, Who Likes Rain? at a market not so long ago so we read it over morning tea as Master 2 sat under is umbrella to protect him from the sun!! It is a lovely story about a little girl putting on her raincoat and boots and walking in the rain and describing all that she sees. She meets some animals that like the rain and then joins them with a stomp in the puddles at the end. Master 2 thought that was just perfect!

Our craft activity today was around the rain and the umbrella. Master 2 and I were watching the clouds outside (he was praying for rain so he could get out in those puddles!) when he asked me why the clouds were racing? As simply as I could explain it to a 2 year old, I said that they were moving as it was beginning to get very windy and the clouds were getting darker and may start to bang together to let out the rain. From this we:

1. Put a piece of A4 paper in a foil tray and put blobs of white and blue paint on it.
2. Put 5 marbles in the tray and Master 2 rocked and rolled the marbles, mixing the paint together to create a rain affect.
3. I gave Master 2 a template of an umbrella, some cut up tissue paper in squares and some glue. He happily sat and glued this on to the umbrella.
4. When our paint had dried and the tissue paper on the umbrella, together we glued the umbrella on the rain!