About our blogger: jenn0324
I'm a WAHM to a 7-year-old boy and a 2-year-old girl. Left the full-time work field in criminal justice and mental health to be at home with my children. Haven't lost my sanity yet! :-)
May 22nd, 2012
I decided today would be the day we made the barn to house the sheep we made the other day. I figured that we’re going to need a home for all the animals we’re going to make this month anyway, so it made sense to make the barn today rather than wait until the weekend.
We started with a standard cardboard box turned upside down:
Then I got the paint ready. (You could use whatever you want, such as markers, stickers, stamps, but paint is what The Younger wanted to use). I use an old veggie tray container from our grocery store to help keep the paints somewhat separated. It works great!
Then she got to work painting the side of her barn. Read the rest of this entry »
May 16th, 2012
This month I’m focusing on mothers and farm animals. Strange combination, yes, but I have lots of opportunities to be around animals with The Younger in the next few weeks, so I wanted to create some leaning activities centered around the animals we are going to see. I also want a chance to talk about mommies and do a craft or two that we can give to the grandmothers on Mother’s Day this year.
Yesterday we made sheep! It was a lot of fun, and The Younger’s creativity really shone as we went through the steps. Supplies are easy to come by: cardboard or construction paper, cotton balls, glue, black marker. Optional supplies are googly eyes and ribbon.
First we traced her hand. (I love projects that trace body parts, because I enjoy having things that I can compare the kids growth to. I date all of these sorts of projects and store them so we can hang them on the Christmas tree later this year). Read the rest of this entry »
May 7th, 2012
I have family in from out of town, so I thought I’d revisit some of my older posts this week. The weather is getting nice, so I’m going to focus on more outdoor activities you can do. Have a great week!
The afternoon of the water balloon day, we decided it was time to set up shop and work on an experiment. I wanted to teach The Older about how different substances create different things entirely, so we got some more balloons together and gathered up the rest of our supplies as well.
The first step was to add baking soda to a plastic bottle (about 2 tablespoons or so). For that, I had him use an ice cream scoop (for entertainment purposes, we used my pig one), and we used a funnel so he could get the baking soda easily into the bottle.
Read the rest of this entry »
May 1st, 2012
I have family in from out of town, so I thought I’d revisit some of my older posts this week. The weather is getting nice, so I’m going to focus on more outdoor activities you can do. Have a great week!
We’ve been living in the house of sickness. I have, unfortunately, caught the bug as well, and the past few days I have not had any energy to do anything creative with the kids. They’re lucky I was even up for getting them dressed to go outside!
Today I knew I needed to do something with The Youngest because there is only so much Dora the Explorer one child can watch, so I decided something low maintenance would be great. I gathered a cookie sheet, some shaving foam from my husband, and set her up at the dining room table.
At first she wasn’t too fond of the idea of putting her hands in it. I decided to “help” her along a bit with some friends.
We added some Little People/Little Animals to the fun.
It went a lot better from there. Read the rest of this entry »
April 11th, 2012
The weather was beautiful, and I knew I needed to catch some vitamin D with all the sickness moving through this house! So I whipped up a batch of sidewalk paint, and off we went.
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| Equal parts corn starch and cold water (I use 1/3 cup) and a few drops of food coloring. Easy! |
I remember when I could stretch like that! Read the rest of this entry »
April 2nd, 2012
Well, making money look like new anyway! Today we did an experiment using copper pennies and vinegar. The Older loved this because he likes his coins shiny (and in proper order according to size, edges, and pictures on the coins, but that’s a whole other post).
Part of the fun was having the kids look for dirty pennies. It was like a scavenger hunt for them, and they really got into it! I even found The Older hanging upside down in the washer. Wish I had a picture of that, LOL!
We started with: Read the rest of this entry »
March 28th, 2012
This was by far my favorite easy science experiment that we’ve done! The kids both had a blast, and their smiles and laughter did my heart a world of good after the week we’ve had.
There are 2 different ways I found to make “slime,” so I thought we’d do both and see which we liked best (and why).
The first slime consisted of:
- 1/4 white craft glue
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup liquid starch
- Food coloring (optional)
- Bowl
- Spoon for mixing
First we Read the rest of this entry »
March 20th, 2012
I’ve been trying to find a use for the red plates I bought for our hanging valentine craft, and I finally decided to do something ladybug oriented. The Younger has been really interested in ladybugs lately, so I thought I could combine a craft with some learning.
First I gathered:
- Red plates
- Glue
- Black construction paper
- Scissors
- Pipe cleaners
- Googly eyes
I sort of pushed the plate outward so the rim of the plate was then lower than the middle section, and that created an okay shell to start with. Then, I cut out a few black circles for the spots.
I let her decide where she wanted the eyes and spots, and I even Read the rest of this entry »
March 14th, 2012
Since The Older is still sick and we can’t go out and do anything, I pulled out my science experiments for kids binder that’s full of stuff I’ve collected for days such as this. The Older voted on Make Your Own Lava to start with, so that’s where we began.
First I gathered what we needed. (I love this experiment because it’s done with things 99% of households already have, and there’s very little prep time to it.)
Oil, a clear glass filled 3/4 of the way with water, 1/4 cup oil, table salt, and food coloring. Yup, got that!
First we put 5 drops of red food coloring into the glass, and then The Older poured the 1/4 cup of oil into the water.
After that, we added Read the rest of this entry »
March 13th, 2012
I love finding treasures on the internet! Today, in fact, I found a great one for free books online, and The Younger has been ‘reading’ for over an hour. I stumbled onto this site when I found out our local library does not carry downloadable audio read along books for kids, and I am beyond thrilled with it.
As you can see, KOL Jr is a site that has genres you can choose from, and the format is easy for little ones to understand. In fact, while The Younger was reading along with this story, I went to switch a load of laundry, and when I got back she had figured out how to move the mouse, click on the next story, and find the star that said ‘play’! I like the way the stories are read as well, because they highlight the sentences as they read so kids can follow along.
There’s more on the site, including games, music, printable, and other things for preschool-aged children. I’m so excited I found this! It doesn’t take the place of snuggling on the couch and reading together, but it’s a great addition to our day.
