Archive for December 2009

cozi-logo

This week I had the chance to pop into the Seattle offices of Cozi and check out how they do what they do and chat with Robbie the CEO all about social media, family life and how both of our sites fit in to both.  If you don’t know what Cozi is , it’s a free online family organizer that has saved my butt more than a few times. My favorite feature is that it emails me reminders about appointments, duties at my son’s preschool and more.  That’s just the tip of the iceberg as far as the organizer goes. The site itself has great resources of all families and wonderfully written blogs. A recent blog post  The Truth About Santa by Martha Brockenbourgh made me tear up ,  I was so pleased to hear the New York Times had picked it up! So if you haven’t checked out Cozi.com you should, it really does simplify family life!

Holiday Style

Salad Spinner Art

I love doing spin art and my $5 salad spinner is perfect for it. To give it a Holiday twist we drew holiday shapes on our paper first then did the spinning. My son begged to turn these into ornaments but they would be just perfect as is. Smaller bits of paint would make a a cool effect but when a 3 year old is the artist you go with the flow.

  1. Gather your materials. You will need a salad spinner, some paint( thin it a little if you want), glitter glue if you wish, a marker and card stock or my favorite recplacement for cardstock plain paper plates. They are already round so it’s easy to trim for the spinner. Salad Spinner Art
  2. Start by drawing some holiday shapes, whatever you wish!Salad Spinner Art
  3. Trim the paper and place in your spinner.Salad Spinner Art
  4. Add paint.Salad Spinner Art
  5. Pop on the top and spin!Salad Spinner Art
  6. Keep going until all the shapes have had a turn.
  7. Let dry.
  8. Cut outSalad Spinner Art
  9. Punch a hole in the top and add ribbon if you are making it into an ornament.Salad Spinner Art

Nest Christmas OrnamentMy original idea for this was to have it closed and have jingle bells inside , but I was concerned that if it broke the jingle bells could be a safety hazard. So I went back to the chalk board and decided to cut one side open and make a home for one of my favorite little bird ornaments that is getting old and needs a comfy place to rest. This is not nearly as hard as it looks but it’s finiky and would frustrate young kids, which is why it’s a naptime creation for older kids or adults to do while preschoolers snooze!

  1. Gather your materials. You will need yarn, glue, a dish, water, a balloon, some cotton balls , scissors , ribbon and your ornament of choice.Nest Ornament
  2. Start by blowing up your balloon a little, and tie it.Nest Ornament
  3. Mix your glue in a dish with some water. It’s about 4/5th glue 1/5th water.Nest Ornament
  4. Cut your yarn into manageable pieces.Nest Ornament
  5. Drench your yarn in the glue and wrap it around your balloon.Nest Ornament Nest Ornament
  6. Let dry- I clip it to a wire hanger and hang it over my utility sink.  I dried mine for a few days.
  7. Pop the balloon and pull it from the yarn .Nest Ornament
  8. Cut an opening in the yarn.Nest Ornament
  9. Add cotton balls.Nest Ornament
  10. Glue your ornament on.Nest Ornament
  11. Add ribbon.Nest Ornament
  12. Hang on your tree.Nest Christmas Ornament

Books

chicken

One Little Chicken: A Counting Book by David Elliot was a great library find. You count chickens as they dance all different styles, my favorite being the chickens who dance the hula ! The rhyming text is really fun and the pictures will make you giggle, I mean there are chickens in leotards doing ballet! Totally tickled my funny bone. The best part though is that it gets the reader involved after counting to ten, the chickens turn the tables stare at the reader and implore them to dance!  One of my new favorite counting books.

Birds by Kevin Henkes , illustrated by Laura Dronzek is stunning. I love this author but this book is absolutely about the pictures. The cover is beautiful but there are pages that I just wanted to look at the way I look at paintings at a museum. The book is perfect for toddlers and young preschooler, it’s non fiction , simple and has a great flow. The colors are so vibrant I would bet that infants would dig it too! Awesome awesome awesome!

Owl Babiesby Martin Waddell was an instant hit with my son. I knew it would be, much like little Bill the smallest of the three baby owls my son is fond of saying “I want my mommy”. The three birds are distraught when they discover mama owl is not there. I love how they huddle together, and think a lot before mama Owl returns non- challant about the fact that she’d returned. The illustrations of the owls are so expressive , which with very few facial features is impressive. Patrick Benson did a wonderful job bringing all three owl’s personalities out visually as well as making the setting ominous without being frightening to young readers. Great book!

logofull

I had the great pleasure of being interviewed for Raising Playful Tots  a podcast and my whole interview was posted today ! We were chatting about keeping kids busy while we are so busy during the holidays.   Check it out!

Also like in 2008 this year we are going to feature the top 7 posts of 2009 in our Best of 2009 series that will go live December 26th- January 1st! So if you have a fave you can leave a comment here or  on our Facebook Fan Page ! Get your vote in !

snowflake garland

My son loves “sprinkles” also known as glitter, and I love them when they are being used correctly. The other day it was “snowing” in our kitchen aka my son was dumping large quantities of glitter on the floor while running away from me.  I haven’t been able to completely de-glitter my kitchen since so I thought what the heck it’s already a mess let’s make these snowflakes.  I love using cupcake liners for snowflake crafts because for the life of me I can’t make pretty circle snowflakes any other way. This is a great winter craft but you can also use clothes pins between the snowflakes to clip holiday card on!

  1. Gather your materials. You will need some cupcake liners, scissors, blue ribbon, glue, glitter and a good dustbuster.snowflake garland
  2. Start by folding your liners into triangles.snowflake garland
  3. Make cuts into them to make snowflakes. My son got the hang of this after a few tries, one liner he simply demolished but he made 3 really cool ones, I made the rest.snowflake garland
  4. Lay your snowflakes out and add glue. snowflake garland
  5. Add your glitter. I love the flexible plastic place mats I have for this because I can bed them and pour the extra glitter back into the jar easy peasy.snowflake garland
  6. Let dry .
  7. Thread your ribbon through the cuts.  The paper is so light that they will stay in place on your ribbon without slipping.snowflake garland
  8. Thread the rest of the snowflakes on and hang up!snowflake garland

Books



Animals in Winter by Henrietta Bancroft is part of the Let’s-Read-And-Find-Out Science series and it doesn’t disappoint. I love this series and when I find stage 1 books I am always excited. Non fiction books for 2-5 year olds are hard to find but every single book in this series has been a gem. This book explains hibernation, seasonal migration and why some animals don’t do either of those things! Great illustrations round out this great read!

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Un-Brella by Scott Franson is such a cool book. There is not a single line of text in the book , and it’s not missing a thing! The illustrations are so vivid, so layered and tell the story perfectly. A little girl has a magical umbrella that brings sun on a snowy day and snow when her yard is green and sunny. My 2 year old was beside himself laughing and saying “No no” to the little girl wearing her swim suit in the snow. Grab this book and enjoy!
Stella, Queen of the Snow by Marie-Louise Gay is my kind of book. If I were to quote all my favorite bits of this book I would write out most of it. I just love the writing, it’s simple but doesn’t talk down to the reader. The characters are sweet but not saccharine and I love how inquisitive Sam is . Stella is a know it all but not bratty about it at all! Sam has never seen snow before and Stella tells him all about it as they explore the first snow fall of the year.

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