A Cold Fall (Winter's) Day

Winter is still a few weeks away, but you wouldn't know it by the temperatures outside. A cold front has swooped in and left chill in the air. My kids love nothing more than to craft. So we spent a morning crafting away this past week. Paint, glitter, glue, pom-poms, and markers. What's better?

 Cooper is all about scissors these days. He's too hardheaded to let me show him how to hold a pair correctly, but he'll figure it out soon enough. We made wreaths last year, but the kids wanted to do it again. Marlee did an awesome job cutting out squares to glue down. Cooper tried but gave up and opted to rip the paper instead. No wreath is complete without glitter glue for an added sparkle. I've decided I should just buy stock in Hobby Lobby or Michael's. I can't wait for the days when the kids are independent enough for bigger art projects.

Fall Crafts

We had a few crafty materials left over after Halloween. So one day I let the kids just craft away with no direction. They did pretty well. The follow directions well and just really seem to enjoy all things crafty.

I decided to make some cute hand turkeys. (only pic I have. I've already packed the finished products up)

It's hot, hot, hot!

Friday was a HOT day here. I think it hit 90 degrees before 10am. I wasn't in the mood to take both kids to the pool, so we crafted again. We painted paper plate watermelons. They did pretty well with following directions. They dabbed their fingertips in black paint to make the seeds. Then I let them free paint, which turned into glitter and glue x3! After the glitter was cleaned up, they asked to play with the play doh. Good thing those craft messes don't bother me too much. It was fun none the less. The kids really enjoy getting their hands into stuff. (I guess since Cooper is paci free now, his tongue just automatically sticks out.)

Keep 'em busy to keep 'em happy

We took a timeout this morning from our crafts to go do something fun with our neighbors. So when we got home we continued with our crafts to keep busy and happy. I had some colored tissue paper that I cut into different shapes. So I gave the kids contact paper and the cut out shapes to lay on the paper. They did great and covered the contact paper pretty well.I placed another piece of contact paper over the top, the kids hung them on the window to see how the light shines through. We talked about the colors and shapes and how layering them over each other made them darker and changed the shape up.



The kids had plenty of shapes left over, so I gave them glue bottles and construction paper and let them go to town. They did great with their designs and placing the paper over most of the glue. Thankfully after that it was time for lunch. I just hope the kids take good naps, so I can replenish my energy.

Out of the Box

Thankfully the kids has preschool on my two worst days this week. Yesterday I was functioning at about 75% and today I'm back to 100%. I'm still a little leery of lots of activity, so I intended to stick around the house and work on laundry. Well by 8:45 the kids were driving me crazy. I pulled out the craft box and threw some fun things together. Last summer I dyed the noodles for fun projects for Marlee to work on. I figured Cooper was ready for them this time around. They each got a bowl full of noodles and a muffin tin. I asked them to separate the noodles by color. Then I gave them shoe strings to practice their fine motor skills. Cooper did great with the big noodles. I held the string for him while he put the smaller noodles on. They both really seemed to enjoy themselves.

All smiles for the camera!

Smirk smile while sorting his noodles.

String those noodles like a pro!

Concentrating so hard on stringing those noodles.

He's so proud of his "neck-a-lace" as he calls it.

Cookies and Crafts

We have had a wonderful fourth of July weekend. It all started Friday, when our friends Amanda, Eli and baby Reese came over for cookies and crafts. While the cookies we baking we made flags, and painted fireworks" and added glitter to make them sparkle in the night sky. Then we just played in glitter and glue for fun. The kids had a great time decorating the USA and star cookies with yummy vanilla icing and festive sprinkles. Cooper was not in the best of moods, so he didn't make a flag, but he did do the rest. (Thanks Amanda for taking pictures!!)

Patiently waiting for the paint. They did such a good job.

Marlee and Eli showing off their flags!

Worth a Look

Have you been stuck inside with your kids due to the crazy weather lately? I know we have played with every toy in our house too many times to count. I enjoy reading TeachMama's blog and saw this great link for indoor activities to do with your little ones. Many of the ideas aren't new, but it never hurts to share with others. Be sure to search through the rest of her blog for great ideas!

Merry Christmas!!

We hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday!

Holiday Fun

With the cold and rainy weekend we decided to stay in and played around the house. We made a gingerbread train. The kids really enjoyed placing the candy on it, and they even sampled a few pieces when I wasn't looking.

Today we made snowmen. They do such a great job with the stencils I create. Plus, it leaves the art pretty neat.




Then they colored holiday pictures. Cooper spent more time taking the tops off the markers than really coloring. Whatever makes him happy, makes me happy!

Paint is Great!

Marlee asks to paint almost daily. I have to mentally prepare myself for it! It's messy and stressful for me. Marlee does fine, but Cooper tends to try and "taste" the paint. But the Holiday season offers so many fun and crafty things to do.

After a rainy Wednesday, we tried to play outside this morning, but it was in the mid 40s at our house. So that didn't last long. I decided to venture into the paint and glitter. The kids had a great time!!! Usually I let Marlee go crazy after we do a project. I haven't let Cooper go hog wild until today.

Here's some of the fun we had.

ABC and 123

UPDATED!! I forgot some pictures in the original post.
Here's some pictures of the activities we have been working on over the last week and this week.
Marlee knows her colors very well, so I challenged her to find the color of beads to match each number from her number puzzle. The we went back and said each number and counted each bead. She really liked the file folder game. She counted the number of animals at the zoo and found the number card that matched.


Here are the A and B pictures from last week. They painted apples and A's. We made the A's into alligators. M colored and glittered 2 B's and we cut them out to make a butterfly. We added eyes and an antenna after I took this picture. I stopped C's activity with just coloring and adding glitter.

I got the idea for this scrap paper activity from here. Marlee really enjoyed making different pictures and then gluing them down.

For the letter C, we made a caterpillar and clouds and read The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Little Cloud by Eric Carle. The other picture is of some books we read last week and are still reading this week. We've been talking about feelings and sharing, too.

I ordered 3 books off of Amazon.com last night. I had seen the Animal ABC book in stores and saw it reviewed on this website. I know that M and C will enjoy all of the pictures. This phonemic awareness book had lots fun stuff that I think will fit in with our daily routines.

I actually bought this book instead of the one above. Oh, well. I think it will work, too. If I like it, then I'll go back and buy the other one.

I used Chicken Soup when I interned in Kindergarten. I loved the flow of the book. It will get stuck in your head.
I also got a subscription to Family Fun Magazine. I had a few moms suggest it. It is full of fun activites for your family. You can get a year subscription (10 issues) for only $10. If you're interested, you can access the online order here.

I forgot to add these pictures in the orginal post. M and C love to do puzzles. So we spread a bunch of puzzles on the floor. I found my magnetic letters and numbers in my school stuff. I got two cookie sheets and they went to town. I didn't do anything formal with them. I just let them explore. We'll probably just start with letter and number recognition.