Archive for November 2009
Guess Who’s Coming to Santa’s for Dinner?
Cock-A-Doodle Christmas
Latkes, Latkes, Good to Eat: A Chanukah Story
A Confused Hanukkah: An Original Story of Chelm
Bear Stays Up for Christmas
Sent In By You!
This game wa ent in my Aimee at The Mommy Trade. I think it’s a perfect fit for No Time For Flash Card readers because a variety of ages can have fun with it. Thanks Aimee for such a cute idea!
The way this game work is that together with your child you make this adorable pine cone turkey… but don’t hot glue the feathers in.
See this turkey has a habit of loosing his feathers and it’s up to your kids to find them. It’s a feather hunt game! Isn’t that a brilliant idea? I love it. Kids will love it for sure and you can use this craft to teach textures, colors and counting too.
For the full craft instructions check out The Mommy Trade
Books
A Plump and Perky Turkey
**Edited for 2009** Much of the humor is still above my wee man’s head although I was reminded how much this book’s dark humor makes me giggle. He was a little off put by the idea of the towns folk eating the turkey and was relived when he escaped before they shoved him in the oven. I like that he is starting to understand that the meat he eats is actually a cooked animal, we take that for granted but for many young kids this is a huge realization!
by Tony Johnson was a classroom favorite, it’s about as silly as a book gets and the kids had no clue they were actually learning about subtraction while listening to the crazy rhymes. This won’t explain the pilgrims , or talk about the Mayflower, but it will make your kids laugh! Very cute!
Twas The Night Before Than
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Candy Cane Scrub
This is an easy make at home Christmas gift that your child can help make and have fun doing it. Salt scrubs are awesome for dry skin and exfoliating, I have followed many recipes for oil and salt ratio but found the best is to simply add the oil slowly enough that you get the consistency you want. We have many more Christmas crafts on the way.
- Gather your materials. You will need some kosher salt, vegetable oil, peppermint oil ( or extract – which contains alcohol so it can be drying, I used it but oil would be ideal) , a cleaned recycled glass jar, some material , ribbons etc.. for decorating the jar.
- Start by pouring the oil in a little at a time.
- Mix
- Add more until you are at the consistency you like.
- Add your peppermint, for this large jar I added 1/2 a tablespoon. If you are using essential oil, start small it’s very potent! This step should be done by an adult!
- Scoop into your jar.
- Add some fabric and ribbon and you are done!
I sent out a call for readers to send in their crafts, activities and book recommendations. I am struggling through bad morning sickness and just being a mom is wearing me out. But my readers have come to my rescue and I have been overwhelmed by the community that No Time For Flash Cards has become! This awesome acorn craft was sent in by Kim Young from Mom Tried It! A great blog you need to check out, thank you Kim it’s perfect!
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I try to encourage creativity with my children. Sometimes I find myself thinking in very uncreative ways to be creative. We love to do arts and crafts projects. I try to experiment and expose them to different mediums such as play-doh, flubber-style goo, moon sand, floam, etc. We paint on different objects as canvases such as balls, vegetables, windows, concrete, etc. While some of those things are kind of thinking outside the box, one thing remains constant. We use brushes, markers, crayons, etc. I have got to be more creative than this! So I introduce the acorn. You read that correctly, acorn. Today we are using plain old paper, ordinary paint, but we are using them with acorns. My son was a little taken aback by this. He wanted to use a brush, but after some coaxing he really got into it!
You will need a few acorns (with the tops taken off), 2 pieces of paper, scissors, paint, a plate, and tape.
Draw a picture of an acorn on a piece of paper. Make sure to leave space in between the top of the acorn and the acorn bottom. Next, cut out the design to make a stencil. To make this project easier for a preschooler, tape the blank paper to a placemat or table, then tape the stencil over the other piece of paper (also to the table or placemat). This will keep everything from moving and frustrating your little one.
Squeeze some paint onto a plate. I used red, yellow, orange, and brown for beautiful fall colors. Now let your child experiment with the parts of the acorn. You can suggest they use the pieces like stamps. After a few minutes of “stamping”, my son covered an entire acorn bottom with paint and rolled it across the paper. I didn’t think of that. Imaginations can run wild without ruining the picture. The stencil will ensure the picture looks like an acorn no matter how they paint it.
When you are all finished, simply take off the stencil and let it dry. While it is drying, you can read this great book about – what else – acorns.
Pay no attention to the date on the pictures. I forgot to reset it after I charged the battery. Oops.
Acorns Everywhere by Kevin Sherry
“Bonk! When an acorn hits him on the head, a chubby squirrel takes stock. And what does he see? ACORNS EVERYWHERE! With a jolt of hilarious manic energy, he gets to work—Gather! Dig! Bury! Readers will know, even if the squirrel doesn’t, that “gather” does not mean prying acorns from the mouth of a scandalized mouse, the beak of an unsuspecting bird, or . . . well, you’ll see. Will this squirrel get what’s coming to him—or will he get something even better?”
My son really liked this book and laughed along with it. It really showed him about hard work and doing it the right way.
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This post was written by Kim Young from Mom Tried It !
Match The Nut !
Before I inundate you with holiday crafts for all the wonderful holidays in December I didn’t want to ignore Thanksgiving or skip right over the end of Autumn. So today we made an easy fall themed memory game that is easy to make , easy to play and best of all, easy to adapt to different ages. When kids make their own games it creates such pride , my son was so excited to tell his dad he played match and made the game too!
- Gather your materials. You will need some card stock ( I used 2 plain note cards) , some crayons or markers ( they will want to play right away so paint slows you down), scissors, a pen or fine tip marker and cookie cutters or stencils.
- Start by tracing your squirrel and acorn.
- Have your child color each pair one color. I told my son to cover all the white, he did pretty well. With really little guys give them a tick crayon or marker, or unwrap the crayon so they can use it’s side for easier coverage.
- Keep going… and going!
- Cut the shapes out. Can you tell how stormy it was today my usually light filled kitchen was a dungeon all day!
- Play
- we played match. We put all the pieces down so that you couldn’t see their color and flipped them over one at a time, taking turns to make a match. It didn’t take long but we played a few rounds. 
With a younger child I would have all the squirrels laid out and put the nuts in a bag and have the child draw the nut out and find the color match. With older children I would make more sets, and include a letter or number that would also have to be matched to challenge them. Told you it’s easy to adapt. In a classroom I would have each child color one pair to make this a group project!
Books
Dot & Jabber and the Great Acorn Mystery
Scaredy Squirrel at the Beach
Scaredy Squirrel Makes a Friend
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