Showing posts with label toddler activities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label toddler activities. Show all posts
Monday, August 27, 2012
Easy Craft for Kids: Paper Plate Snails
Snails are the latest obsession at our household. The pet snails often go for a ride in the baby stroller, so it's only fitting that we create a craft for the pet snails. In fact, I can hear her right now, talking to "Rosita", who is the one snail that has survived our crazy household. Rosita is getting a lecture about why she needs to stay in the stroller and not jump out. I'm sure Rosita is listening intently.
Anyway, back to our snail craft. First we painted paper plates. My kids love to paint so much that Little Buddy often shakes with excitement when I just get the paints out of the closet. After we got finished with the plates, we had to let them dry. Then I cut a snail head from the outside of the plate. the kids helped glue the eyes and for the antennae we used small pipe cleaners:
Then we used scissors to cut the paper plate around and around to make the snail shell. Munchkin Girl helped with this a little, but I had to finish it for her. Little Buddy, of course, was off playing golf inside the house by this point.
Then, once we got everything cut out, we just had to staple the head and tail on and voila! Our own little snails!
If you need more easy crafts like these, please consider buying my book! I co-wrote it with former Kindergarten Teacher and best-selling author, Susan Case. We worked together to give both a Mom and a Teacher perspective and we give hundreds of ideas on ways to keep your kids busy, but in a productive way, so that they're actually learning while you cook dinner in peace! Here is what a reader wrote after she purchased our book:
I'm about halfway through your book, and it's a true gem in my quest to figure out how to yell less and enjoy my boys more. I'm glad I found your blog. ~ Prickly Mom
You can purchase a copy on Amazon or B&N. The Kindle version is $3.99 and the Paperback is $9.99. Thanks so much for your support!
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!!
Monday, August 13, 2012
Here is a hose, kid. Now Wash My Car!
I know child labor is wrong. Of course it is. But when its your own kids, and they beg you to do it, does it count? I mean, they love the hose, and my car really needed to be washed so I figured this was a wonderful toddler activity. I love it when I find something that keeps the kids busy for awhile and this killed almost an entire hour! Of course, I had to stick my feet in the baby pool to keep from melting in the heat, and my magazine got all wet from the water flying around, but hey, I'm used to sacrifice!
The only problem was that they lost interest before it was finished so then my car looked worse than it did before we started! But that's what husbands are for, right?
If you liked this post, you will LOVE my new book (which is currently ranked#4 on Amazon in the category of Motherhood!). If you have ever asked yourself questions like, these, then this is the book for you!
"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!"
If you liked this post, you will LOVE my new book (which is currently ranked#4 on Amazon in the category of Motherhood!). If you have ever asked yourself questions like, these, then this is the book for you!
- Why do my kids drive me so crazy sometimes?
- Why do they just want to watch TV all day long?
- How am I ever supposed to get anything done when my kids won't stop pestering me?
"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!"
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Easy Craft: Tye-dye Coffee Filters!
There are lots of uses for these, but a favorite around our house is tye-dye coffee filters. We took the coffee filters and folded them over a bunch of times and then used the dabbers to make different designs. It was pretty good for strength and patience too, because we had to really press down to get the color to bleed all the way through the coffee filters. As an aside, in case you're wondering, that is marker on Munchkin Girl's arms. I'm not sure why, but she and Little Buddy thought it was funny to color on each other with markers. This has nothing to do with the color dabbers so don't be afraid.
Normally Munchkin Girl gets bored with stuff eventually, but this time, she would have kept doing them all afternoon. I finally had to put a stop to it before Daddy ran out of coffee filters.
I'm sorry to repeat myself so often, but I wanted to say thank you again to all of you for your support on my book! I have been humbled by the response and so thrilled that the book continues to rank high on Amazon in the categories of Motherhood and Babies and Toddlers! If you haven't seen it yet, I hope you will take a minute to read the reviews...you can even download the first chapter on your Kindle before you buy it!
If you have ever asked yourself questions like, these, then this is the book for you!
- Why do my kids drive me so crazy sometimes?
- Why do they just want to watch TV all day long?
- How am I ever supposed to get anything done when my kids won't stop pestering me?
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!!
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
20+ Ways to Make Caterpillars With Your Little Ones
I've been a Mom now for four years and sometimes the things I don't know amazes me. For example, I only found out about squeezable applesauce about six months ago. Little portable applesauce packages that don't need to be refrigerated!?!? I don't know where I was living for the first 3.5 years of Munchkin Girls' life, but clearly I missed out.
A similar thing happened not too long ago when someone mentioned the author Eric Carle. Now clearly, as a Mom and a blogger, I should know this person. Everyone is always talking about him. Yet I didn't and as usual I felt worried that I was depriving my kids of an important and education opportunity that would likely stunt them for life. Harvard was clearly out of the question if I didn't do something fast (Don't worry. If you're new to my site, you will realize that I'm mostly being sarcastic). Still, I rushed out to Barnes and Noble that day and bought The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
I proudly presented it to my kids and started reading in my most animated voice. Now I'm going to admit something that will make most Mom bloggers cringe....My kids really weren't interested. Their eyes glazed over and they wandered off for something more fun to do. I'm not sure what that means. I was pretty surprised because most days we read at least 10 books. They usually adore book. They just don't seem to like Eric Carle books. They seem really smart in other ways, but they will never be appraising fine art, because from what I have heard, Eric Carle is truly the fine art of kids books.
To be honest, ever since we introduced the magnifying glass, my kids are much more interested in this book. Why? Because it came with 10 little fake bugs that they carry around the house to scare people. And they also like to look for bugs and caterpillars outside.
Still they do really love to make caterpillar crafts so the other day we got out some beads and pipe cleaners. First, I strung one bead around the end and secured it for Munchkin Girl:
Then she spent thirty happy minutes stringing the pipe cleaner with the beads
In the end, she really loved her little caterpillars almost as much as her outdoor caterpillar friends. I felt like it was time well-spent because she worked on her hand strength as she laced the beads, which will help her later when it is time to learn to write. Not only that, after we spent this quality time together, she wandered off for an hour and played happily with her dolls. I have found that after we do a project, she feels fulfilled and it really allows her to open up her imagination and feel secure enough to play alone, giving me some much-needed time to pay bills, do laundry or whatever I need to do. To find more simple ways to keep your kids buys in productive ways, 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.
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