Lima Bean Sensory Play

My two year old loves to help in the kitchen.  He loves to pour and mix.  With the weather getting colder I've been trying to think up some more indoor activities to keep us happy and busy inside.  I remembered this activity I used to do with my daughter when she was much younger and thought my two year old would love it now too.

A $1 bag of dry lima beans is the perfect medium for playing with indoors.  Much cleaner than sand or water!  I pour the entire bag into a large bowl and my two year old can mix and pour and play!  I always lay out a blanket and the rule is that the lima beans have to stay on the blanket.  The last thing I want is a bunch of beans all over the house.

When we're done we store the beans in a zip lock bag to play with another day.

If you choose to do this activity with your toddler make sure that they're mature enough to not stick small objects in their mouth.

Is your weather getting colder?  What do you do to stay busy indoors with your small children?

Teddy Bear Summer Party

Is everyone having a fun summer?

Ours has been great so far.  Swimming lessons, play dates, bowling, movies, shopping, splash park, library, playgrounds, reading, children's museums.  And schools only been out a week and a half!  

I've been trying to keep my kids happy and busy and doing some fun stuff we don't normally do.  My two older kids play great together and are always coming up with all kinds of creative ways to entertain themselves but my daughter isn't used to being home all day and the, "Mom, I'm bored" has occasionally popped up just like I thought it would.

To solve this problem I decided that we would have occasional parties this summer.

Here's how they work:
* The parties are low key. Just the kids and me.
* My kids are in charge of the parties.  They get to do all the planning.  (Just like our letter parties.)  It's the perfect thing to suggest they do when "bored".
* I'm happy to help in anyway asked but try to keep my ideas to myself and let the kids use their own creativity and original ideas.  They get to do what they think is fun.

Our first party was a teddy bear party.  Every time I heard "I'm bored" I suggested to my kids that they go work on planning their party, to which I always got an excited response of "Oh yeah!" and happily they went to work.  It's worked well so far.  After a week an a half of planning we celebrated on Friday with our teddy bears.

 My daughter worked all week making invitations for those that were invited.  I thought we'd have a room full of teddy bears but I guess only the select few who received invitations got to come.  Fine with me.  The kids are in charge.

We started off with a gummy bear snack.

Then it was time to play teddy bear games.  Games such as duck-duck-goose and tag, but with a teddy bear twist.

We then played hide and seek. 

Those sneaky teddy bears found some good hiding spots.

 More treats . . .

And then a little teddy bear art on the computer.

I think these kids had a few more activities up their sleeves but were exhausted at this point and ready to relax.  They changed their plans and watched a show while cuddling with their bears instead. 

It was a fun afternoon and so rewarding that they planned it all themselves.

After envying their cousins Spy Party it looks like that's what we'll be planning next.  I can't wait to see what my two cute kids come up with for that one.  Should be fun!

Summer Schedule

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This week we're finishing up the school year.  I can't believe how fast it flew by.  I'm super excited for summer though and having my daughter home with me all day long. 

I want to have a fun flexible summer but still stay organized at the same time.  To help us with that I made up a chart so my kids have a visual of what their week will look like.

I read a study several years ago that said when children anticipate events they create better memories of them.  So don't spring a trip to Disneyland on your kids the night before.  Let them anticipate it for weeks or even months ahead of time.  It will make it more exciting and they'll remember that event so much more in the years to come.

Hopefully our little weekly chart will help my kids get excited about the things we'll be doing each week.

I printed off a bunch of free clip art of reoccurring activities we'll be doing this summer, but also weekly chores and errands that need to be done.   I covered each picture and our chart in contact paper.

The pictures are removable with tape and the column on the right is for any pictures we're not using that week.

We hung our chart up in the kitchen where it's easy to see and the kids can reach it and help plan out the week.  I think it's so helpful, especially with toddlers and preschool age kids, to have a visual of what they're going to be doing for the week.  I'm sure we'll keep using our chart come fall and add some pictures to mark what days preschool will be on for my son.

What do you do to stay organized during summer break?

Exploring Magnetism

I've seen a lot of ideas over the years for discovery bottles and have always thought my kids would love them but I guess I've never had enough gumption to make some up.  When I ran across this idea from Pre-school Play I couldn't pass it up though.  It looked like too much fun! (And there are many more great ideas over there.)


I gathered up an empty tennis ball canister, some cut up pipe cleaners, scissors, and a couple strong magnets from off the fridge.

My kids had a great time maneuvering their magnets around the bottle to pick up the pipe cleaners.

After a while they took off the lid and discovered there was more fun to be had.

They took turns using their magnets to maneuver the pipe cleaners up the side of the jar and out.

It was easier said than done but after discovering the right technique they got quite good at it.  The pipe cleaners were then sorted into colors and they had a great time seeing which color was in the lead.

I don't think we'll get tired of this one for a long time.

Kid Art Heart Garland

Once again I was inspired by pinterest!  I had thought about making a heart garland to decorate for Valentine's Day--something with hearts and felt probably.  And then I spied this sweet idea!

I didn't have any good water colors on hand (the boys had dirtied up all the colors that last time they used them.  Why did I even keep them?!)  so we pulled out our pink, red, and purple crayons and markers. We even got a red ink pad out for fingerprints!

When we couldn't stand to color any more I cut their art into hearts to hang on some pink bakers twine in the kitchen.  The boys love it and so do I!

Groundhog Day

Did anyone watch the groundhog this morning?  I was dropping W off at school but we listened on the radio--6 more weeks of winter.  Maybe that means we'll actually get some winter weather around here this year!

I decided to work on a little Groundhog craft with my boys.  I remember doing this as a kid and knew that it would be fun.  I know this post is coming a little late in the day but if you need a last minute craft this one is really simple!

Supplies: 

disposable cup (styrofoam would work best but we used plastic and it worked)

popsicle stick

image of groundhog (I used this one)

tape,crayons, scissors

Just color your groundhog, cut it out and tape to the craft stick.  Then you'll cut a slit on the bottom of your cup big enough to insert your stick.  Now the groundhog can pop up and check his shadow!

Gifts Kids Can Make: Memory Game & Stick Puppets

My kids love Star Wars.  I'm not even sure how they learned about it in the first place, and they haven't even seen the movies until recently but have loved them just the same. 

I really like how Jeanine has her kids make each other gifts for Christmas (see last years here, here, and here) and decided that we would start that tradition in our family this year.  When I saw this adorable Star Wars preschool pack I knew it would be the perfect thing for my daughter to use to make my son a gift for Christmas.  When I shared the idea with her she was super excited.  We decided that we'd use some of the images to make a memory matching game and also some stick puppets.

We fist picked out some card stock and then printed the images on the reverse side.

After cutting out the pieces . . .

we laminated and cut them out again.

Perfect little matching game for any Star Wars lover.

A little jewelry box is just right to store the cards in.

And we've already had fun with the stick puppets (shhhh, don't tell).  My daughter insisted on putting on a show for me before we wrapped them up.

My daughter is so excited to give her handmade gift and I can't wait to see the excitement on my son's face Christmas morning.

And for all you Star Wars lovers out there here are some other homemade Star Wars crafts I've seen around:

 Finger Puppets

 Cookie Cutters

 Peggies

 Pool Noodle Light sabers

Otter Pop Light saber

Itsy Bitsy Spider

You know all those little spider rings that you get at Halloween time?  The ones you secretly can't wait to throw away as soon as your kids aren't looking?  This little activity will want you keeping them year round.  They're perfect for singing the itsy bitsy spider with you're toddler or preschooler.  All you need is one of those little spider rings and a bendy straw and your child can make their spider climb up the water spout all by themselves.

See . . .

The itsy bitsy climbed up the water spout.

 Down came the rain and washed the spider out.

Out came the sun and dried up all the rain and the itsy bitsy spider climbed up the spout again.

Happy Halloween!