Paper Punching Push Pins...Perfect!

An old mousepad gives them a soft surface for pin punching

I found these really cool maple and oak leaf outlines over at abcteach.com under their "Montessori Materials" category and decided to let our little homeschoolers try their hands at pin punching. I learned somewhere that wooden puzzles with pegs are great for pre-writing development. I'm thinking the push pin gives them the same grasp, but requires even better hand/eye coordination as they punch their way around the shape.

Both kids, ages 4 and nearly 7, thoroughly enjoyed this challenge. They were both so proud of their beautiful leaves as I held them up to the sun to see them sparkle!

We will be using pin punching with KID 1 as he creates a map of the world with the seven continents, then he can go back and punch out each country as we study it. He loves to do very careful work, so I'm betting cartography will be right up his alley.

Have preschoolers at home?

You might be interested in this book:

Write On!: Our New Writing Center

I just love finding ways to facilitate creativity in my kids. This weekend I reorganized our art and craft supplies and repurposed an old tv stand to hold everything the kids like to have free access to. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out, since I didn't spend a penny on it and I think I have eliminated one of our clutter culprits. Tons of junk always landed on the top of this table. I had to sift through stacks of school papers, artwork, old mail, and random objects thoughtlessly laid atop this tv table, but it was worth it! I hate clutter!

Here are a bunch of pics of our new writing/creativity center:

I used the baskets we already had, so they don't all match, but they work for now!

The top view: I used an old serving tray to define the mail center. The cake stand is for new mail.

We now have a "Cards and Envelopes" basket, "Sticky Notes and Small Note Paper," and an old utensil caddy that holds freshly sharpened pencils, hole punchers, scissors, tape, pens, and a variety of paper pads. A pretty clipboard holds a stack of kindergarten lined paper.

The middle section (where the dvd player used to be) holds Ikea boxes of markers, crayons, and other essentials for writing and drawing. The lime green basket is for stickers. I put a sheet of "make your own" blank stickers in there in addition to tons of little chart stickers and round tag sale stickers.

The picture labels make it easy for our 3-year-old to find what she needs, but also has the words for our 6-year-old to practice reading. These little boxes are from Ikea and are the perfect size for our art supplies.

The bottom drawers hold stencils, colored construction paper, and a basket of sight words.

The kids know exactly where to put the mail when they bring it in. When they need a stamp on their envelope, it goes in the green pot for me to stamp it. I gave them some return address labels that we got for free in the mail...they love these! The basket in the back is our "Bird Watching" basket with binoculars, sketch pad, bird book, and colored pencils, ready to be carried outside on an expedition.

So far, this writing center has inspired lots of writing and creativity! Hopefully it continues to be a good clutter-buster, too!

Felt Story Fun

This is one I grew up with, so when I had to decide which books I wanted to make into felt story sets for our 3-year-old, Caps for Sale was a definite choice.

 A peddler, who carries his wares on his head, goes for a walk in the country and naps under a nice, big tree. When he wakes up, his caps are missing - all but his own checked cap! He soon discovers the culprits: a tree full of monkeys, all wearing his caps! How will he get his caps back?

Another favorite:

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

These felt sets, along with the gilt-framed felt board, were our little bookworm's big Christmas gift from Mommy and Daddy. A rainbow stack of felt from Michael's, some wiggly-jiggly eyes, and a hot glue gun were all I needed to create these pieces.

KID 2 loves her storyboard! I'm working on adding more stories and poems for her to play with. Do you use a felt board at home?

The January Banner is Done!

I made our "Banner of the Month" for the mantle this week using snowflakes from the dollar store (packs of 6/$1) and felt. January is snow themed in our house, since this month lacks any great holiday decor. As soon as the Christmas aisle is cleared out, they bring out Valentine's Day decorations! We're not ready for that yet!

We brought the snowmen down out of the attic when we put away our Christmas decorations and I got a can of spray snow at Walgreen's 50% off after Christmas (paid $.99). Our windows are nice and frosty now here in Central Florida!

I'm beginning to lose touch with how hokey my "theme months" are, which is just fine with the kids...they love it!

Note: The quilted piece behind the banner is up on my mantle. It was created by my sweet friend, Kay, over at PrettywithRibbons.com. I love it!

Homemade Advent Calendar

This is the Advent calendar I made over the weekend using dollar store finds. I think it turned out pretty cute!

Find out more over at MotleyMoms!

Easy Advent Calendars

I've posted some of my Advent calendar activities over at Motley Moms. Go check it out!

In the meantime, I've seen some really cute ideas for creating your own Advent calendar. You can use mini galvanized buckets, numbered 1 - 24 to hide little treats in. Hang them on a ribbon or cord to create a garland. You can even hang them out of order so the kids have to search for each day's treat.

Another cute idea is to use mittens (use mismatched or find them at thrift stores). Add numbers using felt or stitch them on and hang on ribbon or cord.

I found some really cute examples online by searching for "bucket advent calendar" and "mitten advent garland"...there are lots of ideas out there, both simple and elaborate. Have fun!

Pumpkin Pie Playdough

Happy November! I'm sharing my super-secret recipe for Pumpkin Pie Playdough to celebrate (okay, it's probably not that secret, but it was new to me and has gotten rave reviews everywhere I share it).

Start with this basic playdough recipe, but add a teaspoon each of ground cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, and ginger or use several teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice. Put orange food coloring in the water before stirring it into your dry ingredients.

Mmmmmmmmm! Everytime the kids play with playdough, the house smells like pumpkin pie!

Folk Tale Fun for Halloween

Little Red Riding Hood, The Wolf, Woodcutter, and Grandmother

The kids loved that we dressed up with them. They were fascinated by the way my powdered hair and drawn-on wrinkle lines made me look really old!

We had everything we needed for our costumes except the red cape and hood. I used the leftover gray fur from KID 1's Max costume (Where the Wild Things Are) to make ears and stapled them to his hat.

The cape and hood reverse to a green, scaly dragon...why just make a boring red cape and hood, right? ;)

Hope you had a fun Halloween (or Fall Fest) with your kiddos!

Aa is for Apple

Now that KID 1 is spending his days in his Kindergarten classroom, it's up to KID 2 and me to keep the alphabet soup bubblin'!



This week was "Apple Week" here. I only wish we had apple orchards nearby where we could go and pick fresh apples! We studied an apple and all its many colors, then filled in a big apple outline with colored tissue paper. KID 2 had fun tearing the tissue into little pieces for gluing. I watered down some Elmer's and gave her a paintbrush to apply her glue. She really enjoyed this project!





This one is MY apple project. I want to make a banner for each month so we can hang it on the mantle to mark the beginning of the new month. Here is September's banner:

How do you celebrate the month of September?

Summer Fun: Build a Teepee!

We're spending some time in the woods this summer, looking for some good, clean fun. Remember the days when your mama sent you outside and told you not to come back 'til dinner? And you just had to make your own fun. Video games, DVDs, and iPods had nothing to do with our childhoods, and I'm thinking that was probably a good thing. This summer we're going back to basics. I'm finding ways to share the fun and imagination I developed as a kid with our kids, without sending them off to fend for themselves...you just can't do that nowadays, unfortunately.

Here's the teepee they made with their Daddy this weekend and what a joyous time they had dragging all those branches out of the woods and into the back yard! KID 1 had the idea to cover the basic tripod with leafy branches to enclose it. Next summer, the base will be ready to support pole beans as a cover.

We made some old fashioned string phones for the new hideout. Remember those? I just needed to raid the recycling bin for tin cans and we were all set!

Hope you're having some good old fashioned fun with your kids this summer!

Rainy Day Art: Stained-Glass Masterpieces

Contact paper, colored tissue and a permanent marker were all we needed to make these beautiful stained-glass creations:





Even without the sun shining through, they sure brightened up our dining room window on this stormy day!

Happy Easter!

My mom raised four kids all by herself for most of our growing up years. I love finding little ways to honor her dedication (blood, sweat and tears, but also a lot of fun throughout the years!).

Here is the little Easter token of gratitude I put together for her. I also did one for Paul's mom, who had three little chicks of her own:

Happy Easter! Have fun with your little chicks today!

The Best Nest!

We got this nest idea from montessori mama's post today and decided to get right to work building our own nests. We just read The Best Nest by P.D. Eastman, so we found materials similar to the ones Mr. and Mrs. Bird used to build their nest:

stocking string (yarn)

soda straws

hay (paper confetti and basket filler)

horse hair (pink Easter grass)

We started with the rolled-down brown paper bag (I helped with this step), and they painted glue inside their nests and up the sides. Then they went to town adding gobs of nest-building decor! We'll put Easter eggs in when they are dry (they also used gobs of glue!).

This was a fun and easy project!

Fun Little Bunnies

This cute little book reading bunny makes a

sweet centerpiece on our Easter table! ($10 at BIG Lots!)

We've filled his basket with our special decorated eggs. It could also hold a small potted plant.

KID 2 uses the captain's chair, so I had to modify the bunny cover to fit.

KID 1 really likes his special chair!

The bunny covers turned out really cute! I used Elmer's bonding spray to adhere the pieces. If you let it dry for a few minutes, the bond is repositionable. This means we can make other holiday/seasonal pieces for the same covers. When Easter is done, we'll put these bunny pieces in a zip bag for next year! I like the Birthday Throne cover idea at Family Fun!

Spring Planting Project: Upside-Down Tomatoes

A fun and easy spring gardening project to try with your little ones involves repurposing your plastic 2L soda bottles. Cut off the bottom, turn it upside down, punch holes around the top for twine or string (we reinforced ours with colored duct tape), and put a small tomato plant upside down through the neck of the bottle. Fill with soil, then water and hang in a sunny spot.

Enjoy watching your tomatoes grow upside down!

An Easy Easter Project and Fun New Resource!

We recently opened a fresh new stack of colored construction paper (a BIG event around here!) and KID 1 was anxious to make something. I did a search for "construction paper crafts" online and came up with a cool site with alphabetized paper crafts:

http://www.dltk-kids.com/type/paper.htm

They also offer thematic materials, such as the Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? link with printable templates for coloring or making feltboard characters (there's a brown bear, red bird, yellow duck, etc.). They call this collection of resources the Book Breaks. Check out the Nursery Rhymes section, too! I wish I had known about this site sooner!

For those of you working on letters or numbers of the week, this could be a great resource for hands-on projects!

We started with the Easter Chick and added some fluffy yellow feathers to his wings. KID 1 liked cutting all the basic shapes and then putting them together to make something new. I wonder what we'll make next...hmmmmm...

Playdough Resurrection Cross

Favorite Lent Activity: The Resurrection Cross (in playdough!)

Homemade playdough, small cookie cutters and white birthday candles are all the supplies you'll need to create this countdown cross. Each Sunday we light one less candle leading to Good Friday (when our Light went out). During Sunday dinner or devotional time is a good time to incorporate this activity. Turn overhead lights off for good visual effect and note how it gets darker each week as you light fewer and fewer candles.

Do a special lighting on Good Friday and let the kids blow all the candles out. Light them all again on Easter Sunday, symbolizing Jesus's resurrection. His sacrifice enabled his light to shine all over the world and right into our hearts.

Note: It's not too late to create your resurrection cross. Just pick up with this coming Sunday's lighting and blow out all but one.

Favorite Homemade Play Dough Recipe

1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 tablespoon cooking oil or baby oil
1 cup water

Mix ingredients together. Stir constantly over medium heat until play dough consistency is formed. Cool and knead. Store in a tightly covered plastic container. Add food coloring to the water before adding it to the other ingredients, or knead in colors at the end while still warm (kids enjoy this part!).

We love this recipe and use it for playgroups and projects all the time! A triple batch makes enough dough for 6-8 kids.

Lent for Preschoolers: A Hands-On Activity

We love making our faith a more hands-on experience for our children, especially during important seasons of the religious calendar. Lent can be a tough one to explain in a tangible way, but most kids are familiar with the phrase "Jesus is the light of the world."

Building on this concept, last year I gave my 4-year-old a batch of white playdough and a few smaller balls of colored dough to create his Resurrection Cross. You can read about it on my MotleyMoms post and see a couple of photos of this easy project.

Have fun!

Old Jeans + Quilt Binding = Cute Apron!

This is the apron I made for my niece (age 9 1/2) for Christmas. She is very fashionable and loves to do cooking projects, so I knew she needed a hip little apron.

I save old jeans for various uses. These were my husband's old Gap jeans. I cut one back pocket for the top of the apron and used the front of the jeans as the skirt. Black quilt binding finished the edges and I used some cute polka dots for the sash. I also handstitched her first initial onto the front bib pocket, but didn't get a picture of that.

It turned out so cute, and she really liked it! Now I want one for myself!