Sense of Wonder

Climbing the Big Boy Ladder

2012-02-29T06:17:00.000-06:00

You hear a lot of talk about giving children freedom: freedom to play, freedom to move, freedom to trust their own bodies. This doesn't mean lazy or detached parenting. It means taking the time to play with your child, explore with your child and eventually letting go so your child can do these things with out you.

Last weekend we went to the park. My son wanted to climb a large climbing structure that led to a big swirly slide. I want to say the structure was about 6 ft high. My son is 20 months old. A boy who looked to be about a year older than my son climbed about halfway up the structure when his mother came hurrying up saying, "Oh no honey! That's for big boys."

Bug had his heart set on climbing it, and I have spent enough time with him in play that I knew he could do it. I trusted him, and he was about to learn to trust himself.

He got stuck at this point for a while, trying to figure out what to do next.

Sometimes, taking a step back is hard. Notice the hand wringing and pursed lips!

And he did it! That's my boy!

Fun with the Overhead Projector

2012-02-27T11:10:00.000-06:00

A few days ago I put out another request on Facebook. I was in the market for an overhead projector, but I didn't want to spend a bunch of money. I though maybe some one I knew might have one in storage and would be willing to part with it. Well, not long after I posted my request, I received a reply from a friend who said she had one I could borrow for a couple of months. I was thrilled and made immediate plans to meet her and pick it up.

Here are some photos of the fun we have been having.

I would like to say a huge THANK YOU to my friend Susie! This is such a wonderful addition to our learning space. We are going to be very busy over the next couple of months finding new ways to explore with light!

Baby Play Friday! We're back baby!

2012-02-24T05:25:00.001-06:00

So let me start off by saying that I am very sorry for the two week interruption! It won't happen again, I promise. So, what have we been doing the last couple of weeks? Well, the weather has been beautiful, so we have been heading outside to enjoy it as much as we can.

Bug-a-boo and Daddy playing in the trees!

Raising the Cameron Clan was busy playing with Styrofoam and golf tees. What a fun idea!

Rainy Day Mum had a happy little music maker in the house. She looks like she is having a blast!

Growing a Jeweled Rose was busy exploring colors with pipe cleaners! I bet those were fun to chew on! I'm sure they felt great on those gums.

And finally, Three Bears Get Crafty got down and dirty with a holiday themed spaghetti and meatball dinner.

Did you and your baby or toddler have a fun time that you would like to share? Do you have a post with tips or advice concerning babies and toddlers? If it has to do with babies and toddlers then we want to hear about it! Please link up below, and check out the links of fellow bloggers who have linked. They always have such great ideas to share. You are sure to be inspired!

St. Patrick's Day Sensory Tub

2012-02-23T19:46:00.002-06:00

Can I just take a moment to tell you how excited I am about this sensory tub? Because I am so excited about this sensory tub! I am forcing myself to wait until March to give it to the girls to play with, but it's killing me!

Last year's St. Patrick's Day sensory tub was one of my first sensory tubs that I made for Birdy. I chose to go green and gold. I used dried split peas as a base, and filled in with green and gold Mardi Gras beads, green buttons, gold pipe cleaner stars, and a few St. Patrick's day souvenirs left over from the St. Patrick's Day parade in New Orleans.

This year, I decided to go with rainbows! I used bird seed that I dyed in rainbow colors as the base. I borrowed the metallic gold stars and green souvenirs from last year's tub, and to them, I added a few other things. The rocks you see are actually magnetic. They stick beautifully to the gold "coins" which are actually canning lids. They also stick to the metallic gold pipe cleaner stars!

To dye the bird seed, I took six zip lock baggies and filled them each with two cups of bird seed. I then squirted the entire contents of red, yellow, blue and green food coloring bottles into the bags. For the orange bag, I used 2/3 bottle of yellow and 1/3 bottle of red. For the purple I used 2/3 bottle of red and 1/3 bottle of blue. I then added about a tablespoon of rubbing alcohol to each bag. You might be able to skip this step. I've seen tutorials that don't call for it; I've just always done it that way. Once all the ingredients were in each bag, I sealed them and began to squish all the color around. Whey they looked well coated, I poured them onto paper plates to let them dry.

Isn't it pretty? I just keep staring at it. I can't help it; I just love looking at all the colors. I can't wait to see the kids play with this one. I had so much fun setting it up, I ~~know~~ hope they will have a blast with it.

What are you up to this St. Patrick's Day? Leave a link in the comment section. I'd love to check out other ideas!

Pi Day or I'm a big nerd

2012-02-23T11:31:00.000-06:00

Here at Casa de Sense of Wonder, we find reasons to celebrate. Whether it is random holidays or made up holidays, we find that taking time to make an occasion of things allows us to slow down and enjoy friends and family and company.

An example of this is Pi Day. Every March 14th (3.14) we set aside a whole day to be...well...irrational. We make pi charts and pi graphs, and lots and lots of pie. Here are some photos of Pi Days past...

My favorite pi plate!

My favorite pie (cherry)

One of my very favorite people, making a silly face, and holding her own handmade cheese and basil pizza pie.

Here are some of our favorite pies for Pi Day...

Savory pies

Pizza pie (with fresh herbs from the garden)

Homemade chicken pot pie

Individual meat pies made in muffin tins

Tomato and zucchini tart

Dessert pies

Apple pies

Cherry pies

Chocolate pudding pies

Pecan pies

Lemon icebox pies

Some ideas for celebrating Pi Day with your family...

Have a Pi Day scavenger hunt

Take the first few digits of pi (3.14159265) and print them on index cards. Hide them around the room and see if your children can find them all. Once you have them, try to put them all together in order.

Play with the numbers

There are lots of sites that have the first million or so digits of pi. Print them out and make a paper chain

Circles

The circumference of a circle is slightly more than three times as long as its diameter. The exact ratio is called

pi. Use a hula hoop and a piece of string to show your kids how this works.

Use circular shaped cookie cutters to make circles out of play dough!

Eat Pie!

Find your favorite pie recipes or just go get some frozen pies and start celebrating!

I hope you all have a fun (and filling) Pi Day! Let me know if you plan on participating!

Alphabet Matching

2012-02-21T10:13:00.002-06:00

Birdy has been VERY into reading and writing lately. However, she was having trouble with her lowercase letters, so I threw together this ~~little~~ big matching activity for her. I strung up a clothesline which stretched around the room. On this line, I hung the entire lowercase alphabet. The girls were then given cards with the entire uppercase alphabet printed on them and they worked together to match them, with their lowercase counterparts.

CC has found a match!

While Birdy has become very interested in reading and writing, she has very little patience for sitting and "working". She prefers to be up and moving about, so activities like this are great for her learning style.

The clothes line stretched all the way around the room. The girls thought it was exciting, but I think my husband was happy to see it go!

Poor Birdy was exasperated with all my picture taking.

"Ugh..Mom! Leave me alone!"

The other part of this activity that I love is the collaboration that takes place. The girls worked together to match up all the letters. They would look at a card and discuss where it went. Working together to achieve a goal is what project based learning is all about!

I linked this post with Tuesday Tots.
and with Family Frolics

President's Day Science

2012-02-18T08:43:00.000-06:00

President's Day is coming up and we thought we would honor the day with a little science experiment. This activity used to occupy me for many an afternoon when I was a kid. We would go to Taco Bell, load up on burritos and hot sauce, and use the packets to clean pennies. The acidic hot sauce would eat off all the dirt and grime from the pennies, leaving shiny new pennies in their place. I wasn't sure how it all worked, but I loved to watch the brown dirty pennies get all clean and shiny.

Now I can show my kids the same cool trick. We started out with a handful of dirty pennies and a bowl of vinegar and salt. We placed our pennies one by one in the vinegar solution and then rubbed the grime off with q-tips.

So what's happening? After a while the copper in the pennies begins to react to the air to form copper oxide. When pennies are new the copper is bright and shiny, but the copper oxide changes them. It gives them a dull patina. The acid from the vinegar dissolves the copper oxide and makes them shiny and new again!

Here you can see where the vinegar has started to clean off the copper oxide. The brown parts are where the vinegar hasn't touched yet.

We experimented with other forms of acids to see how well they cleaned the pennies. We used lemon juice and salsa. Both cleaned the copper oxide off the pennies, although, I have yet to find something that cleans as well as the Taco Bell hot sauce.

Once all the pennies were clean we took them out of the vinegar and rinsed them off. Then we had bowls full of vinegar with copper oxide floating around in it. We rummaged around in the garage until we found these nails. We soaked the heads of the nails in our vinegar and after about 10 minutes we had copper plated nails!

Happy President's Day!

Criss Cross Applesauce: Cross Lateral Movement part 2

2012-02-17T06:55:00.002-06:00

Cross Lateral Movement

In the first part of this series, I told you about cross lateral movement and why it is important. To sum up quickly, movements that cause the arms and legs to cross over the mid-line of the body cause the left side of the brain to work together with the right side of the brain. This is important for activities such as reading and writing which require the hand and eye to cross the mid-line.

Babies begin to do this naturally when they learn how to crawl, using their right arm in time with their left leg to move across the floor. As children get older, there are many different activities that can encourage arms and legs to cross the mid-line.

What can we do?

Here is a list of activities from this blog and from other wonderful blogs of various activities you can do with your children at home or in the class room to encourage cross lateral movement.

Play Pirate

Give your child an eye patch and allow her to follow an object from one side of her mid line to another.

Stirring

Stirring is a great way to get the left and right side of the brain working together. Invite your child to bake with you and allow them to to stir the mixture with a spoon.

Music and Movement

Song and dance is another great way to get children to cross their mid-line. Check out these music and movement activities from The Nurture Store

and Rainbows Within Reach

Build an obstacle course

Obstacle courses are another great way to mimic the crawling action done by infants. If you happen to have a child who skipped the crawling phase, creating an obstacle course which requires getting on hands and knees to move through it would be an excellent way to introduce these skills. Check out this winter obstacle course by The Golden Gleam.

Yoga

Have you ever considered doing yoga at home with your little one? Not only can it be very calming and relaxing, but there are poses which require the arms and legs to cross the mid-line, so it is also brain boosting! It is a win all the way around. Check out these great posts from Carrots are Orange!

Go BIG

Any projects done on a large scale will encourage cross lateral movement. Here we see a large scale activity from Play Activities done with glue and a card board box. As the child traces his fingers across the glue he is crossing the mid line.

Another example of this would be to draw a maze on a large white board and let the child move their arms back and forth, crossing their mid-line as they work.

Go Vertical

Using an easel to paint vertically also encourages children to cross their mid-lines. If you want to mix it up further, you can give the child two paint brushes so they will be working with both sides of the brain together.

Sort it out

If you are looking for some fine motor practice that also involves cross lateral movement, try this sorting exercise. Here you see that as she sorts the colored pom poms into the appropriate baskets, she is crossing her arm in front of her.

Hug of War

The last activity on my list is my favorite! Big hugs! Find someone you love, pull them close, wrap your arms around each other and squeeze! It's good for the soul and it's good for the brain!

I would like to thank all of the bloggers who helped me with this post. If you have a chance, check out some of the amazing blogs mentioned above. I would also like to thank Melissa from Imagination Soup and Gwyndolyn Jones, for all of their behind the scenes help. You ladies are awesome!

Criss Cross Applesauce: Cross Lateral Movement and the Brain

2012-02-16T06:11:00.001-06:00

What is Cross Lateral Movement?

You have heard me say that children learn through play, but did you know that children’s ability to learn is actually strengthened through specific types of play? Activities that encourage children to move their arms and legs across their mid-line (cross lateral movements) actually have a dramatic effect on learning.

Imagine an invisible line that stretches down the center of your body. This is your mid-line. The left side of your brain controls the right side of your body, and the right side of your brain controls the left side of your body. When your right arm or leg crosses over to the left side of the body or vise versa, it forces the left and right side of your brain to work together. The part of the brain that connects these two sides is called the corpus callosum.

Why is this important?

The right and left side of your brain are responsible not only for controlling the left and right parts of your body, but specialize in processing different types of information. The left side uses logic, facts and rules. It governs language and words, math and science, pattern and order. The right side uses feeling, it sees the big picture, it recognizes symbols and images. The right side processes spatial perception, and object function. The right side allows us to imagine possibilities.

By strengthening the corpus callosum, we are bringing together the dreamer and the doer. We are strengthening the part of the brain that will enable children to do activities which require crossing the mid-line like reading and writing. More and more educators in preschool and elementary class rooms are incorporating activities that encourage cross lateral movement and strengthening the corpus callosum.

What can we do?

Most infants begin to do this on their own by 6 months. When they reach across their highchair for a Cheerio, or when they follow you with their eyes as you walk across the room, they are showing examples of cross lateral movement. A surprisingly important developmental stage for brain development is crawling. When an infant crawls, he uses his left knee together with his right hand to propel himself forward. He is using his corpus callosum.

As children get older, there are many ways we can encourage these types of movements. Stay tuned for part 2 of this series which will include a roundup of activities you can use at home and in the class room that encourage cross lateral movement and brain development.

Let's Play Dentist

2012-02-15T11:48:00.002-06:00

To help you cope with the endless amounts of sugar and candy that inevitably comes with Valentine's day, we have Dental Health Month. Any holiday that comes with an upsurge of candy and sweets gets me worrying about cavities so this is a perfect opportunity to bring out some activities to help teach the kids about taking care of their teeth.

Today the kids took turns playing with tooth brushes and floss. These giant molars are made with soda bottle bottoms. They practiced brushing all around the tooth. They had to try to get the front, back, and sides of the tooth.

Then, we used this model of a mouth to show what happens when food hides where the brush can't get to it. The girls used floss to clean between the egg carton teeth to get the bits of "food" wedged in.

If you want to take your dental heath unit a little further, try dressing up like dentists. The girls had fun looking the part with hair caps, medical masks, and gloves.

Are you doing any thing with your kids to learn about dental health this month? Leave a comment and let us know what you are doing. And thanks for stopping by!

Heart Project Giveaway Winner

2012-02-13T15:20:00.001-06:00

Ugh, so my desktop has decided to to completely crap out on me just in time to announce my winner,so I am doing this from an IPad, and it is really turning out to be a pain. Anyway, on to the winner... Kensey! You are the winner of the light box accessory kit! Congratulations!
I'll be getting in touch with you soon. Check your inbox!

Baby Play Friday

2012-02-10T08:09:00.000-06:00

Really sorry, Baby Play Friday is going to be put on hold for a couple of weeks. We will be back up very soon after I work out a couple of technical issues. Stay tuned to my Facebook page for more info.

Keep playing!
Kristin

Valentine's Day Science and Sensory Fun

2012-02-09T05:43:00.000-06:00

Have you ever wanted to watch a rock melt? Have you ever wanted to see a liquid crumble? Then you need to get your hands on some cornstarch, and start blurring the lines between liquid and solid.

For this experiment we used an entire 16oz box of corn starch. We added the cornstarch to the mixing bowl a quarter cup at a time, slowly mixing in water until it was well mixed. We ended up using around a cup and a half of water. We used food coloring to dye the water red before adding it to the starch to give it that nice pink color.

This mixture behaves so strangely that you don't really know what you are dealing with. If you hit it, the mixture resists. It feels like smacking something hard and impenetrable. But, if you try to pick it up it just oozes out of your hand.

The girls experimented with scooping it, cutting it, and letting their hands sink in to it then lifting up really fast to pull the tray up with it.

A few words of warning if you are planning to make some corn starch goo:

DON'T dispose of it down the drain. It will clog and really confuse your plumber.

This isn't for the faint of heart. While goo does clean up with just a swipe of a wet rag, it gets everywhere! Just check out what my kitchen looked like afterwards!

In addition to our pink Valentine's day goo, we also have put together a lovely new Valentine's day sensory tub.

This tub contains pink paper "grass", felt hearts, pom poms, and Valentines themed erasers to hunt for.

February is turning out to be a touchy feely kind of a month after all. Thanks for stopping by.

Heart Project Give Away!

2012-02-07T06:05:00.002-06:00

Today is the day! Today is the day! What am I talking about? The Heart Project giveaway of course! There were over 70 bloggers who participated in The Heart Project and many of them are hosting giveaways! You can find a complete list of the giveaways and more information about The Heart Project here.

I am WAY excited about this give away for a couple of reasons. The first reason is that this is my first ever give away! The second is that this give away has to do with one of our favorite items in the house: the light box!

Ever since we made our DIY light box it has gotten a lot of use! I am constantly on the look out for things that might be fun to play with on it.

Our entry in to The Heart Project was also a light box activity, and so for my giveaway, I'd like to share with you some of our favorite light box accessories. If you have a light box or you were planning on making one, then this is the giveaway for you!

This give away includes:

A magnetic wand and colorful magnetic discs

A set of 18 color paddles

3 sets of valentine themed window gel clings.

To Enter: The purpose of The Heart Project is to raise money for the American Heart Association, however, you are not required to donate in order to enter the giveaway.

There is no limit to how many giveaways you may enter. If you would just like to enter today's give away leave a comment and tell us about why you love the AHA or tell us about someone you know who benefits from the AHA.

For extra entries, comment that you did these:

Check out the AHA and(if the spirit moves you) donate!

Did you buy the Heart Project ebook? Comment to let us know that you did.

Share this link of Facebook (leave a comment that you did below)

Share this link on Twitter (and comment below)

This giveaway will end February 13th
Open to U.S. residence only.

Winners will be selected at random using random.org.

Once a winner has been selected they will be contacted and have 72 hours to respond or a new winner will be drawn.

What can you do with a paper bag?

2012-02-06T07:32:00.020-06:00

When my brother and I were little we spent a great deal of time outside. When the weather got bad and we were sentenced to an evening indoors my father would pull out a special bad weather treat: a paper grocery bag. We would get out the scissors, glue and crayons and make, what he called, Sack Headed Dudes. I have therefore known for some time about the creative uses of a simple paper sack.

So when Rachelle Doorley from Tinker labs came up with her paper bag challenge, I was thrilled! We decided to stray away from the Sack Headed Dudes however and focus on my daughters latest obsession, unicorns. Birdy has been drawing unicorns on every piece of paper she can get her hands on! When I looked at the drawings they reminded me of cave art. They had big bold lines and were usually floating in the middle of the page. Some times there is a family of them in all sizes. I thought, "That's it! Cave art!"

We began by unfolding our paper bag and taping it to the table. Birdy used a black crayon to begin the out line of her unicorn. We later went over in in oil pastel. She then used water colors to fill it in.

We had been online, looking at images of cave art and she was fascinated by one we saw of hands. It was a whole wall covered in hand prints. She decided her cave art need a few hand prints.

Bug got in of the fun too! I have never seen a look of such utter joy and delight that when he is allowed to make a huge mess.

After her unicorn was all finished, we took the paper bag and crumpled it up to give it that rocky look. I think it should be in a museum!

Do you have a paper bag project to share? Link it below and pop on over to Tinker Lab to find out about the Pinterest contest that is going along with the linky!

The following bloggers are participating in the creative challenge:

Paint Cut Paste, Imagination Soup, Hands On: As We Grow, Child Central Station, Putti Prapancha, Irresistible Ideas for Play-Based Learning, Teach Preschool, The Chocolate Muffin Tree, Nurture Store, Small Types, The Imagination Tree, Toddler Approved, Red Ted Art, Sun Hats and Wellie Boots, Come Together Kids, Mommy Labs, Kids in the Studio, Rainy Day Mum, Glittering Muffins, Sense of Wonder, Mom To 2 Posh Lil Divas, Come Together Kids, Kitchen Counter Chronicles, A Mom With A Lesson Plan, Angelique Felix, The Golden Gleam, Share and Remember, Clarion Wren, Living at the Whitehead’s Zoo, Let Kids Create, De tout et de rien, PlayDrMom, Rainbows Within Reach, No Time for Flash Cards, Creativity My Passion, Messy Kids, The Outlaw Mom,Glitter, Mud, and Duct Tape A Childhood List Kiwi Crate, Tinkerlab

So, you want to give your child some homework?

2012-02-04T06:57:00.000-06:00

I was at the park the other day with my children. Birdy, my 5 year old, had made friends with another little girl who was about the same age. The little girl was being watched over by her father and the two of us began chatting. Both girls are scheduled to begin Kindergarten next year.

"Where does your daughter go to preschool?" the father asked me.

"At home." I answered, "Where does your child go?"

He gave me the name of a new preschool that I had seen open up the road. It is a beautiful new building with green grass, brightly colored immaculate play grounds which look like they have never been played on.

"Do you like it there?" I asked.

The father went on to tell me how wonderful the school was, and how much his daughter is learning there.

"What we really like are the academics," He said. "They even give her homework! She is going to be so prepared for Kindergarten."

I thought about Birdy, and what she and CC had done while at my house that day. They dug in the dirt. They found a worm. They made play dough. They climbed a tree. They played with dolls. They collected interesting rocks from the front yard. They worked together, they took turns, they argued, they made up, and they had fun. They are going to be so prepared, not just for Kindergarten, but for lifetime of learning. And all with out any homework.

In the 1940s a psychologist named Donald O. Hebb took home some laboratory rats and kept them as pets. These rats were let loose in the house. They were free to roam and play most of the day. Dr. Hebb observed that these rats seemed to perform better at problem solving than the rats from his lab which were kept in simple cages with no enrichment. Many studies were done afterwards based on Dr. Hebb's observation. They discovered what most preschool teachers know. Free play makes us smarter.

When our children have to get hands on with the world around them, their brain makes leaps and connections it would never get from a worksheet. They learn to problem solve, observe, calculate, hypothesize, and experiment. They can't help but learn, and their learning is self motivated. It is not out of a desire to please a teacher or adult, but out of a desire to please themselves.

So, you want to give your child some homework?
Here are my suggestions...

Dig a hole
Climb a tree
Plant a flower
Jump in puddles
Use a hammer and nails
Take apart a stereo or VCR
Make playdough
Paint (let them mix colors)
Make mud pies
Make a fort
Go Fishing
Stare at clouds
Dance in the rain
Swim in a creek
Watch birds

Now, doesn't that sound like more fun than a worksheet?

Baby Play Friday

2012-02-03T07:13:00.002-06:00

Looking for some fun ways to play with your baby? Well, we got 'em!

Check out these roly poly books for baby made by Latina Country.

Or this awesome pillow fort from Getting Messy with Ms. Jessi. (I love how he's chilin' with one sock off! My son would have a fit!)

Raising the Cameron Clan is playing with salad tongs and pom poms, building those fine motor skills.

You all know how much I love blocks! Rainy Day Mum was building and stacking with her little one last week. Great fun!

If you were featured please grab a button from the side bar. Let me know if you have any trouble with it. Fiddling with code makes my brain hurt and I'm not sure I got it right. It should look like this and link you back to all the Baby Play Friday post! Thanks!

I get so excited to see all the ways folks are playing with their babies and toddlers! What have you been up to this week? If you have a post about babies or toddlers I would love for you to link it up!

The Heart Project

2012-02-01T00:01:00.009-06:00

Dear friends,

I would like to tell you about an amazing project that Sense of Wonder, along with 70+ other bloggers, have come together to create! Jamie from Hands On: As We Grow has organized this project and has a very personal reason for it. She has worked tirelessly to bring this to you.

The Heart Project is a collaborative group consisting of over 100 heart themed projects by children and for children. There are craft projects, cooking projects and much more, brought to you form all over the world. An e-book, which includes all 100+ projects and links to the blogs from which they came, is your gift with your $5 donation to the American Heart Association.

Here is a sample of some of the projects you will find in the incredible book:

If you would like to make a donation and receive your gift, click here:

This book will only be available during the month of February! It will also come in a beautiful printed copy. The Heart Project book is 8.5 X 8.5", full color and paper back and the cost is $20. Proceeds from the sale of this book will go to the American Heart Association.

US $20.00

Order the Printed Version

If you would like to make a donation but are not interested in the book, you can do so here:

We would like to thank our Sponsors!

Craftprojectideas.com will be contributing $1 for every e-book sold during this month!

Giveaways

There will be a whole slew of giveaways starting now and going until the 14th, including givaways from Fudoo Boards and Craftprojectideas.com.
Bloggers from the Heart Project have signed up to donate items from their projects or something related to their projects.

Be sure to check out the giveaway schedule below:
Fundraiser Auctions:

♥ All proceeds of each auction will go to the AHA ♥

Melissa & Doug - 4 Trunki with Teddy Bear Auctions!

Fudoo Boards - 3 Fudoo Board Kits for Auction!

Fudoo Board Kit, ends Feb 10
Fudoo Board Kit, ends Feb 10
Fudoo Board Kit, ends Feb 10

Below you will find a list of the bloggers who are a part of The Heart Project. Please stop by and give them a peek!

hands on : as we grow	♥	A Little Learning for Two	♥	Among Many Blessings
Angelique Felix	♥	At Home with Ali	♥	Broken Treasures
Busy at Home	♥	Busy Kids Happy Mom	♥	Carrie Saindon's Photo Journey
Child Central Station	♥	Classified: Mom	♥	Classroom Magic
Creative with Kids	♥	Creativity My Passion	♥	Critters and Crayons
De Tout et de Rien	♥	Dilly-Dali Art	♥	Dinosaurs & Octopuses
Excited 2 Learn	♥	Hand Over the Cookies	♥	Handprint & Footprint Art
Happy Hooligans	♥	Heart Journey	♥	Imagination Soup
Jamie's Jumble	♥	Kitchen Counter Chronicles	♥	Kreative Resources
Let Kids Create	♥	Little Illuminationss	♥	Living Montessori Now
Loudness of the Lambs	♥	Love and Lollipops	♥	Mama, hocemo nesto da pravimo
Mama Pea Pod	♥	Mama Smiles	♥	MemeTales
Messy Kids	♥	Mindful Meanderings	♥	Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas
Mommy Labs	♥	Mommy Perks	♥	Mum Paints Lives
Mummy Mummy Mum	♥	My Creative Family	♥	NurtureStore
One Artsy Mama	♥	Peace Love & Rainbows	♥	Play Dr Mom
Putti Prapancha	♥	Rainbows within Reach	♥	Reading Confetti
Ready. Set. Read!	♥	Red Ted Art	♥	Sense of Wonder
Share & Remember	♥	Stacy Molter	♥	Sun Hats & Wellie Boots
Teach Preschool	♥	The Artful Child	♥	The Chocolate Muffin Tree
The Craft Barn	♥	The Educators' Spin on It	♥	The Golden Gleam
The Imagination Tree	♥	The Iowa Farmer's Wife	♥	The Joy of My Life
The Kids Fun Review	♥	The Outlaw Mom Blog	♥	The Preschool Toolbox
The Seeds Network	♥	Toddler Approved

Pipe Cleaner Critters

2012-01-31T06:50:00.001-06:00

Our pipe cleaner Valentine's started a pipe cleaner obsession around here, so we had to find more fun things to make with our piles and piles of chenille sticks. Birdy decided she wanted to make caterpillars. They turned out so cute!

To make these little guys you need to start off with one pipe cleaner folded in half. Take another pipe cleaner and wrap it around the first so you create a little ball.

Next, take a pencil and wrap your remaining pipe cleaners in to balls around it. They should slide off the pencil, leaving a hole in the middle large enough to thread the first pipe cleaner through.

Keep threading the puff balls until you have just about an inch and a half (around 4cm) remaining. These are your antennae. Just take these and curl them up any way you like, and viola! Caterpillars!

I think next we are going to try bumble bees. :)

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Bored?

2012-01-28T14:28:00.001-06:00

This trick has been entertaining children in my family for generations. It's great for doctors offices, standing in line at the grocery store, or waiting for a table in a restaurant.

It goes like this...

Stand near a wall and while you are blowing on your finger, press backwards against the wall. When the bill of the hat hits the wall it will pop off your head.

Guaranteed make your child giggle!

Happy Saturday!

A Light Table Valentine

2012-01-28T10:03:00.001-06:00

Ever since we made our do it yourself light box, we have had a lot of fun coming up with ideas for how to play with it. We have used magna tiles, slides, x-rays, and color paddles and it has all been great fun.

This time we tried something a little different. We used salt. Birdy loved seeing the wonderful shapes and designs left by her little fingers. She swirled and pinched to create lovely marks in the grains.

With Valentine's Day fast approaching, I had already begun to stock our art bucket with activities for Valentine making crafts. I thought it might be fun to add some of the little paper doilies from the bucket to our salt and see what happened.

We laid our doilies out, covered them with salt, and then carefully lifted them up, leaving this beautiful lacy pattern behind.

Some other items you can use with a light box are sand, water beads, transparent plastic cups, transparent plastic lids, mirrors, clear colored beads, bubble wrap or dry erase markers.

Stay tuned for my first ever give away coming February 7th, which will include lots of fun light table activities. If you are thinking about creating your own DIY light table, you will not want to miss this!

This post is part of The Heart Project. To learn more, click on the button below.

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Baby Play Friday!

2012-01-27T02:00:00.002-06:00

Last week we had some wonderful examples of ways to tailor sensory exploration to meet the needs of very little ones. Pinto beans are great for 3 and 4 year olds, but they can be dangerous for babies and toddlers. Here are some baby and toddler approved projects.

Dirt and Boogers shared a rice cereal sensory tub. I can just hear the snap, crackle, pop now!

And Happy Little Munchkins gave us an excellent example of a heuristic play with this treasure basket.

Three Bears Get Crafty shared this recipe for edible finger paint with us and it looks like it was a big hit!

Thank you so much to every one for linking up last week. If you are looking for activities for your little one, please check out all the bloggers who linked up with us. If you like what you see, don't be shy! Bloggers love comments!

If you have a baby or toddler activity you would like to share with us this week please link it below!

If you have been featured, grab a button from the side bar.

Child Led Valentine

2012-01-26T06:47:00.001-06:00

I keep most of my craft supplies in places where the kids can access them easily. From my years in a classroom, I know the importance of having materials available not just when I have something planned, but also when they have random surges of inspiration. I love seeing what they come up with all on their own.

The other day, I was busy working on something and I heard the drawer to the chest where I keep most of the craft supplies open. When I came to investigate, I found that Birdy had gotten in to the pipe cleaners and was using them to decorate her little car.

After a while she decided to make valentines. Birdy knows valentines day was coming, but I had planned entirely different activities to do. Birdy came up with this little heart bouquet all on her own. Aren't they lovely? Once she was done she asked me for a vase to put them all in. They are now proudly displayed on our mantel.

What other items do we keep available?

-paper(white and colored)
-scissors
-glue
-tempera paint
-paint trays
-water colors
-brushes
-markers
-playdough
-pipe cleaners
-pop poms
-crayons
-Popsicle sticks
-recycled materials such as toilet paper tubes, cerial boxes, newspapers, and egg cartons
-a broom and dust pan
-a spray bottle(with vinegar, baking soda, and water)
-a few rags for clean up

Having access to these materials allows children to feed their creative whims with out having to wait for an adult to set everything up. It gives them a feeling of responsibility and accomplishment.

Seeing what the kids come up with when they have no artistic direction is always fun for me, but it is so much more than fun for them!

This post has been linked with The Play Academy

A Rainbow Art Party

2012-01-21T22:01:00.001-06:00

When some women are pregnant, they fantasize about nurseries. Some fantasize about names, some even fantasize about colleges. I fantasized about birthday parties. Before my first child had even been born, I planned out at least a half a dozen birthdays. I love birthday parties.

This week my Birdy celebrated her 5th birthday with a rainbow art party. I tried to get as many photos as I could, but unfortunately my camera picked today to start giving me problems. Some of the photos just didn't turn out. (sad face)

I started out with bright colorful decorations. We used balloons, rainbow colored tissue flowers, crepe paper, and bright colored table cloths to fill the space with lots of rainbow fun.

We invited a small number of her friends over to play at our house. I like to keep a manageable sized group if I'm going to be planning something super messy. We had about 8 kids show up and I think that was really perfect.

I set up several different activities for the party.

We had spin art...

We made "big" art using some unusual items to make prints with, such as potato mashers, plungers, rain boots, barbeque brushes, and loofahs...

We used a funnel to make pendulum art...

We also had a tub full of water beads, and we had a necklace making station with rainbow fruit loops...

And a face painting station...

Even with all the art activities we had some who were more interested in digging in dirt or in balloon volleyball. Go figure!

When it was time for cake, I let the kids do the decorating. I gave them a plain white sheet cake and small tubes of gel icing.

This is one of those pictures that I really wish had turned out. The inside of the cake was a beautiful rainbow of colors. Here is an example of the rainbow cake from another blog. To achieve the rainbow effect, simply separate your cake batter in to six bowls and use food coloring to dye the separate bowl fulls of batter in to different colors. Then pour them all in to the pan. Viola! Rainbow cake!

Birdy loved her party. She got to play and paint and make the BIGGEST messes! I think all of her friends had a good time too!

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Baby Play Friday: What's Cookin?

2012-01-20T05:21:00.000-06:00

Have you ever tried making your own baby food? I used to love doing this for my little ones, and it is so easy. Bug is way past the baby food stage now, but I thought I would share with you some of his favorite meals from back in his baby food days.

When he began eating solid foods, I kept things pretty simple. I pureed yellow squash or peaches. I mushed up banana or avocado. But as he got a bit older, I had fun coming up with new tastes for him to try. One of his favorites was steamed carrots and beets and chicken broth. It was sweet and savory at the same time and Bug just gobbled it up.

take
3 to 4 medium carrots
1 medium beet
2 cups of chicken broth
cup of water

Wash and peel the carrots and the beet and cut them in to small cubes about 1 inch thick.
Steam the carrots and the beet together in the water and chicken broth for about 20 min. Save the left over liquid.
Place the carrots and the beet in the food processor along with 1/2 cup of your liquid.
Puree until it is smooth. You can add more liquid until it's smooth.

Another recipe that Bug ate up was a yummy blend of kale and banana. I carefully washed a full bunch of kale by dunking it in to a tub of water to get any grit out, then tore the leaves off of the stems and in to small pieces. I steamed them for around 6 or 7 minutes. After steaming the leaves I added them to the food processor. I added some of the liquid left over from steaming them in to the processor until the puree was smooth. I then added 1 ripe banana and continued to puree.

I know this sounds strange, but the sweetness of the banana really complemented the strong taste of the kale. He loved it.

Do you have any tips for babies and toddlers you would like to share? Link them up below. Any post about babies and toddlers is welcome. And be sure to check out some of the great post left by other bloggers.

Add your link below and please link back to my site so your readers can check out everyone's ideas.

Chinese New Year Dragon

2012-01-18T22:31:00.000-06:00

The Chinese New Year is next week and to get ready the kids and I made this dragon from paper plates. This was one of our more ambitious projects and definitely required some adult help, but it was well worth it. Once the dragon was finished they paraded around the living room showing it off.

Here is how we made our dragon. We started off with plain paper plates. The kids used reds and golds and oranges and yellows to paint their plates. The girls used brushes, but I thought Bug would have more fun with the little bath loofah. (I know his apron isn't very manly, but it did the job!)

While the girls worked on the body, I used some of their painted plates to start on the face. To make the nose, I folded the plate in half and folded the pieces in on each other. Birdy attached blue horns, button eyes and a fuzzy nose.

These are the shapes I cut out for the horns and feet. I also cut out a forked tongue but it didn't make it in to this photo for some reason. The girls painted all these pieces blue. I'm not sure why but they felt very strongly that the dragon should have blue feet.

Once all the plates were dry the girls and I glued them together. They scooped beans to fill the insides up (like a tambourine) then we sealed the two plates with hot glue. This caused the dragon to rattle around when we danced with him. This step could easily be skipped. We also used hot glue to attach the dowels which we used to hold our dragon while we danced.

Once we finished our dragon dance, I hung our new creation from the ceiling using hooks. I think he is a wonderful addition and may bring a little luck to my kitchen! I could use it!

What They Wore

2012-01-14T11:30:00.001-06:00

Do you ever read fashion blogs? You know the ones. An adorable girl puts together a series of adorable outfits and takes pictures of what she wears everyday. It is an endless line of colorful tights, peter pan collars, and sky high platform shoes. The posts usually have a title like "What I Wore" and then they will list where they found everything and how much it costs. These blogs are not ones I regularly read, but I do occasionally peek. It's my little guilty pleasure. I live vicariously through them. If I took a picture of what I wore it would be an endless line of colorful aprons and fuzzy slippers. I may be in kind of a rut.

My kids are a totally different story. A mom and fellow blogger asked a question on facebook a couple of weeks ago. She asked, "Do you pick out your kids clothes, or do you let them dress themselves?"

I enjoyed reading all the answers and they were all very different. Some moms picked out every last detail. Some moms gave their children a choice between two outfits. Some moms let the child pick out the top and then they would find bottoms to match.

When it comes to what my children wear, I am pretty much as laid back as a mom could be. My children are free to pick out what they want for the most part and I have witnessed some very creative outfits. I have included, for your viewing pleasure, some of the more creative things my kids have put together. And for the record, yes, they do go out in public like this.(well, maybe not topless!)

My rules are:
1. No sweat pants with words across the butt. They are tacky on grown ups and tackier on children.
2. Pantyhose are not pants. You have to wear something OVER them.
3. Tennis shoes must be worn at the park. How else can you run and jump and play?
4. Nothing overly sexualized. This mainly applies to my 12 year old although, I am amazed at the things that clothing companies seem to think are appropriate for little girls.
5. Mommy gets to pick out clothes on family picture days and at Easter. Mommy also gets to do hair on these days too. Other than that, it is pretty much up to them.

All of their clothes are where they can get to them. All of their hair clips and bows are where they can reach. They get to choose socks, shoes, hats, etc. and I don't really care if anything matches. There is just so much more in life that is worth worrying about. I'm not going to waste the calories fussing about clothes.

What are your rules on clothes? How do you avoid power struggles? Do your children care if you pick out clothes or would they rather make their own fashion statements? Leave a comment. There are no judgments here!