Thursday, November 29, 2012

Color Chart from Magazine Clippings

I came home the other day to find this beautiful piece of artwork on the floor.  My babysitter said the kids spent an enormous amount of time on it.  



They picked things out of magazines to cut out and then they glued them into a different columns, depending on color.  I thought this was pure genius since:

A) It took them a long time and kept them busy 
B) My preschooler got to work on her cutting
C) They got to work on colors

It was a win all around so I thought I'd share with you!

For more ideas on projects and games to keep your kids busy, please check out my new book, The Happy Mommy Handbook: The Ultimate How-to Guide on Keeping Your Toddlers and Preschoolers Busy, Out of Trouble and Motivated to Learn.  It is packed full of information about keeping kids busy, but in productive ways, so that they still have the opportunity to learn while you are stuck doing the dishes!  Here is one of the reviews from Amazon:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a "Must Have" book!!!, July 9, 2012
By 

This is truly a fantastic book! I was shocked at how many activities the authors came up with - many of which didn't even require a trip to the store for supplies! The Mom who wrote this has great stories & the Teacher has valuable experiences...it's a perfect blend of unique insight. Fun (inexpensive) activities that keep my 2 kids away from the TV, what more can you ask for?!?!? This book is really helping me become a better Mom - Thank you!



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Monday, November 26, 2012

5 Store-Bought Crafts Worth Buying

Before I learned how to be crafty at home, I used to buy craft kits and I always sort of thought, "Who are they kidding with this?"  We never could quite get them to work the way the instructions described, and they always seemed to cause more frustration than enjoyment, but over the past year I have actually bought a few crafts and games worth buying.  Here they are:

1.  Alex Tissue Art: There are some products by this company that aren't worth buying, but this is a great one.  We have played with this on multiple days and even my 2.5 year old could sort of do it and my four year old absolutely loved it.


2.  Suncatchers.  I cannot tell you how many suncatchers my daughter has painted in the past 6 months.  She never seems to grow tired of these.  You can actually buy them at Walmart for less than $1 apiece and they sell the paint for them too since they take a special kind of paint.  Or you can buy this kit that comes with everything.



3.  We have bought different lacing stuff before, but this is the only one that my daughter actually enjoys.  We have taken these on many vacations and they are great because they can keep them busy and pack into a very small area.  Plus, they are great for developing fine motor skills.



4.  Hubby doesn't love these as much as we do, but we absolutely love them.  The kids can color on the windows and then they come off easily afterward when it's time to clean them up (I find this to be a great chore for the kids.  It doesn't quite get done right, but they can sure try!)



5.  I find this to be a great one to do when my daughter has friends over.  They can each get a pile of beads and they can each make a pretty  necklace.  Again, this is great for fine motor and the beads simply snap together.



If you are interested in craft ideas that you don't have to buy, you might be interested in my book!  I teamed up with Susan Case who is a former Kindergarten teacher and a passionate advocate for learning through play.  We give you dozens of other ideas on how to keep your kids busy, but in a productive way, so they are actually learning while they are also having fun!  Here is what one of my readers wrote on Amazon after she read our book:

  This book seriously saved my sanity. I've read a bunch of parenting books but this is literally the only one that actually gave me real and specific advice and ideas for things to do with my daughter. I'm a stay-at-home mom to a 2-year old and I was at my wits end trying to come up with ideas of fun, easy, creative things to do with her that will keep her busy and occupied and help her learn. I wasn't very good at following through on ideas that I heard about from friends or read in other books or online because they seemed too complicated (aka: messy!) but this book broke it down and made it so simple. I highly recommend it!   
 

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Monday, November 19, 2012

Easiest Thanksgiving Craft Ever

Extravagant Holiday crafts are not my specialty.  However, we haven't talked about Thanksgiving very much much lately, so this year, we went ahead and did one...but it was the easiest and most simple craft in the history of crafts.  I simply got a few paper plates, some construction paper, and some googley eyes.  I cut up some "feathers" for them and gave them their glue.  I even sat down and did one with them and they really enjoyed seeing my finished Turkey.  Sometimes it takes so little to impress children that it really thrills me.

Here is my daughter's Turkey (Age 4)


And here is my son's (Age 2.5).  You have to use your imagination a little bit and as usual, he went a little overboard with the eyes, but he sure likes having it hanging up for the world to see!


For more easy craft ideas, please check out my new book! The Happy Mommy Handbook: The Ultimate How-to Guide on Keeping Your Toddlers and Preschoolers Busy, Out of Trouble and Motivated to Learn has been out for a few months and people seem to be really enjoying it!  And if you do get it, would you do us a big favor and leave a review?  The more reviews, the better!  

Thank you so much!!

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Tuesday, November 13, 2012

That is the strangest craft I've ever seen

I see a lot of themed art and crafts on Pinterest and I do generally think that's the best kind, but last weekend we made something genuinely unique (and by that I mean bizarre) and we had a lot of fun.  Here's how it happened: It was raining, and it was cold, steady rain, the kind that is sure to last all day.  We knew that Daddy would be gone all day so it was a series of musical rooms while I tried to entertain the kids all day long inside the house.

At one point, I decided to make sheep out of paper plates and cotton balls.  We've done this before, so the kids were familiar.  However, the sheep soon turned into something entirely strange.  First Little Buddy starting glueing eyes to the cotton balls.  


Then Big Sis saw what he was doing and thought she would join in.  Pretty soon, we weren't making sheep at all and they kept asking for me to get out new things for them to glue on.  Honestly, there is a time in my life that I probably would have said, "No, we're supposed to be making sheep.  You only need two eyeballs for sheep."

However, in my old age, I have a totally different philosophy.  Now, I figure if it keeps them busy and they are being creative, I get the heck out of the way so that I can keep doing dishes!  Haha


This really did keep them busy for about 30 minutes, maybe a little bit longer.  As usual, once this was done, they scampered off to do some imaginary play by themselves for awhile, which is the real beauty of these projects.  


For more ideas on projects and games to keep your kids busy, please check out my new book, The Happy Mommy Handbook: The Ultimate How-to Guide on Keeping Your Toddlers and Preschoolers Busy, Out of Trouble and Motivated to Learn.  It is packed full of information about keeping kids busy, but in productive ways, so that they still have the opportunity to learn while you are stuck doing the dishes!  Here is one of the reviews from Amazon:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a "Must Have" book!!!, July 9, 2012
By 

This is truly a fantastic book! I was shocked at how many activities the authors came up with - many of which didn't even require a trip to the store for supplies! The Mom who wrote this has great stories & the Teacher has valuable experiences...it's a perfect blend of unique insight. Fun (inexpensive) activities that keep my 2 kids away from the TV, what more can you ask for?!?!? This book is really helping me become a better Mom - Thank you!


Did you enjoy my post?  Don't forget to vote for me by clicking the banner below.  You can also enter your email address below to receive all my updates!  I really appreciate your support!!
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Monday, November 5, 2012

Out of My Element: Painting my Own Canvas

I have a lot of talents.  I can speak French, I'm pretty organized, and I can definitely sell stuff.  Painting, and art in general, however, are not my special talents, so when I learned that I had to go to a baby shower and paint my own "canvas", I was nervous.   You might be saying, "But you have a blog about crafting!" Yes, that's true, but I'm not the one actually doing them, and we don't care how they look in the end.  This painting would be different, because the idea was to paint canvases for the new Mom and her plan was to decorate the nursery with all the assorted paintings. 

I showed up at the shower and ten blank canvases were set up for us, along with all the primary colors. The girls were chatting and several of them seemed really excited.  We settled into our seats and I selected to paint an owl.  I picked up my paintbrush and suddenly I literally felt a wave of almost panic.  I was so out of my element, I didn't even know where to begin.  

"Can I have the pink paint please?" I asked.

The nice woman smiled.  "You have to mix for pink.  Just add a little red and white together," she said kindly.

"Oh," was all I could think of to say.

I decided to just plunge in and get the whole thing over with.  I began with the outline first, then went on to my green background.  Suddenly I felt very relaxed.  There is something very exhilerating about painting a blank canvas with anything that I wanted.  If I didn't like the color, I just mixed up something new and painted over it.  I couldn't believe how much I enjoyed painting, and even more how much I enjoyed watching everyone around me create something.
Don't get me wrong.  Mine was by far the worst and I feel really badly that my friend will fee obligated to hang it in her baby's nursery.  I might just have to stage a robbery of it so she can have an excuse not to scare her poor child with my owl that looked like it had see-through wings.  But I learned a lot about myself that night.  I learned that it's good to force myself outside of my element every one in awhile.  I learned that I can still enjoy myself even if I'm not the best at everything.  And most of all, I learned that green and white don't make lime green, no matter how many times you re-mix it.
 Here is one of the girl's canvases.  She coped this painting, isn't it incredible?

And here is a "Daddy" Owl, with his arm around his "Little" Owl.  So creative...


And here is mine.  I ended up adding legs and it helped a lot.  Well, a little anyway.
 



 
 
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Thursday, November 1, 2012

3 Easy Steps for Home-Made Leaf Wreath

I love trees, but I never can believe just how many leaves fall from those beautiful trees.  And I can't ever believe how long it takes to clean them all up.  I keep telling myself it's good exercise.

Anyway, during clean-up this year, the kids started collecting their favorites.  They like the ones that have a special shape or color so I went and got a bag to collect them.  Ever since then, we have kept our eyes out for leaves when we go on walks and we have spent several weeks collecting our most favorite leaves from around the neighborhood.  I really wanted them to be able to create a wreath for us, but it turns out that the idea of a leaf wreath is much easier said than done.  After much trial and error, here is how the kids created a wreath that they could do all by themselves:

1.  I bought a letter "O" from Hobby Lobby to use as the starting point.  There are many different options for wreaths and this isn't exactly what I originally envisioned, but I didn't want to have to use a hot glue gun.  I really wanted them to be able to create this all by themselves and this turned out to be the best surface for glueing those delicate but heavy leaves. 


2.  Next, I was able to give them Elmer's Glue.  They simply took the leaves and glued them to the wooden "O".  They were able to glue leaves on top of leaves over and over again.  They really loved this whole process.  They got to pick out their favorites it took them over 30 minutes to get all the leaves attached:



3.  After we let it dry for a few days, we simply took down a picture and hung it up!  Originally it was supposed to go on the front door, but the Elmer's Glue isn't the strongest bonding agent around, and I didn't think the wind would do nice things to this delicate kid-made masterpiece. This isn't the prettiest wreath around, and certainly doesn't look professionally made, but the kids are very proud of their wreath!



For more ideas on projects and games to keep your kids busy, please check out my new book, The Happy Mommy Handbook: The Ultimate How-to Guide on Keeping Your Toddlers and Preschoolers Busy, Out of Trouble and Motivated to Learn.  It is packed full of information about keeping kids busy, but in productive ways, so that they still have the opportunity to learn while you are stuck doing the dishes!  Here is one of the reviews from Amazon:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a "Must Have" book!!!, July 9, 2012

This is truly a fantastic book! I was shocked at how many activities the authors came up with - many of which didn't even require a trip to the store for supplies! The Mom who wrote this has great stories & the Teacher has valuable experiences...it's a perfect blend of unique insight. Fun (inexpensive) activities that keep my 2 kids away from the TV, what more can you ask for?!?!? This book is really helping me become a better Mom - Thank you!
 
Did you enjoy my post?  Don't forget to vote for me by clicking the banner below.  You can also enter your email address below to receive all my updates!  I really appreciate your support!!
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