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January 24, 2012
It's been snowing like crazy here but it wasn't the right kind of snow to make a snowman so instead we made one inside.
This is an easy but really cool painting project that kids of all ages can participate in.
You will need some contact paper, white construction paper, water colors and brush, scissors, a star paper punch and some salt!
Start by drawing an outline of a snowman on your contact paper and cutting it out. Peel it off and place on your construction paper.
Cut out stars - he was trying so hard. Contact paper is tough to cut.
Add the stars to the paper.
Paint! My son...
January 23, 2012
Check out these awesome paint projects! Think your kids will like them, I know mine will!
I adore the painting above made by pouring and tipping. You have to see the whole tutorial at Housing A Forest, you will be adding it to your to do list for sure.
This easy color mixing shamrock project from Mommy And Me Book Club is perfect for kids 1-6 who are still eager to finger paint and get messy while learning about color mixing.
This is an oldie but a goodie from Frugal Family Fun - bottle flower prints. I am guessing most of you have a bottle of two ready for it's second life as a craft...
January 22, 2012
One of the biggest hurdles for children learning to read is building confidence in their abilities. As parents and teachers we can't see them wobbling , knuckles white on a handle bar like we can as we prepare to take training wheels off a bike but for many children the fear of failing at reading is as real as the fear of falling hard onto the pavement. You don't need a degree in education to provide a safe and supportive environment for your beginning reader.
Here are 5 ways to give your child who is starting to read more confidence to keep going and trying more challenging words...
January 20, 2012
My daughter is a baby hoarder. She can spot an old raggity doll in a church nursery from 30 feet away, So of course we asked Santa to bring her lots of babies, and he did. This activity wasn't a planned post instead it was playroom fun that was going so well I grabbed my camera. The best kind of post in my opinion!
You will need some babies ( call me if you are short we have a few extra), a laundry basket, something to pretend to be water like a blue blanket, some bath toys that are familiar to your child, wash cloth ( or old dried out baby wipe), and a towel.
Go through the...
January 18, 2012
My son loves Star Wars so for a fun read and spell lesson we did this!
You will need some small poker chips ( dollar store! ), puffy paint , velcro dots, a marker and sentence strips.
Write out character names and other words for the theme you are doing. I actually spelled Anakin wrong and my 5 year old caught it. Place a velcro dot under each letter.
Puffy paint is tricky so use a little pressure to write the letters on the poker chips. I Also made a letter match element by making all the chips uppercase and the words on the sentence strips lowercase. That way there are a number of...
January 15, 2012
Have you found and got lost in Pinterest yet? It's such a great place for inspiration and here are 5 great snowflake crafts that caught my eye!
It's a Star Wars fan's winter wonderland over at Matters of Grey where you can find not just this Stormtrooper snowflake how to but also Yoda, Bubba Fett, R2D2 , Darth Vader and many more. Even if you aren't a fan or a parent of one like me you still can't deny the genius of these snowflakes!
Parents.com 's colorful snowflake wreath caught my eye, it's not just super cute it would also be a fun group...
January 12, 2012
My kids love building things and I am always on the look out for new materials to build with. Putting velcro on tongue depressors and popsicle sticks is a classic classroom material but when I saw a big old pack of emery boards at the dollar store I knew exactly that's what I wanted to do with them.
By using emery boards we added another level of sensory exploration to a shape activity.
You will need a pack of emery boards and self adhesive velcro dots .
Add the velcro to the ends Make sure the pairs all match up.
Add your builder! My son was shocked at first not expecting...
January 10, 2012
My daughter eats everything. Well she tries to eat everything- we have a lot of things put up high, in locked cabinets and my son's Lego is behind a big door she can't get open. So crafting with her has been limited to big , non toxic things... until we turned her favorite snack " FEESH FEESH!" into a lesson in color recognition.
For a similar activity for older kids check out this fun graphing using goldfish over at Oopsey Daisy .
You will need some multi colored goldfish crackers or you could use multi colored cereal too. Also some coordinating construction paper, a...
January 8, 2012
Staying active in cold rainy weather isn't easy, well not is you want to stay dry. Here are a few family favorites of ours to get some energy out while keeping your house in one piece.
Bubble Wrap Jumping.
Tape some bubble wrap to the floor, set a timer and see how many pops you hear in a minute. Jumping non stop for a minute even for little kids full of energy is really tiring. This is my favorite burn off some energy trick .
Hide and Seek - spy variation.
I am sure you know how to play hide and seek. In this variation as soon as the seeker says "ready or not" you need to...
January 6, 2012
Pretend play is a great way to teach lessons and I love using any sort of buying or selling for teaching about money or math.
We had some extra lollipops after a party and so we made a lollipop shop!
You will need a tray that will let your child sort the coins, some jars, paper, ribbon, a hole punch, and lollipops.
Start by making tags for the jars denoting the cost of each color of lollipop. We made each color a different price ( 1, 5, 10 and 25) I used the same color marker as the lollipop and attached them to the jars with ribbon.
Then my son sorted the lollipops by color into the jars...
10 Ways to Deal with Temper Tantrums
Aliki
Jessica Efird
Family Education Staff