Archive for September 2010
Are you reading to your baby? I try to remember to when I am not already doing 3 things at once. I love sitting in my rocker and reading to my daughter and she has already shown preference… ok yes she is only 3 months old so maybe it’s coincidental but she doesn’t fuss when I read her any of these books. It’s never too early to read to your babies so if you aren’t already grab one of these books and read!
Goodnight Moon
Clap Your Hands 
Moo Baa La La La
Good Night, Gorilla
Yum Yum Dim Sum 
It’s official summer is but a memory. I hope you made wonderful memories this summer but it’s time for pumpkins, acorns and changing colors. Here are some of our favorite crafts and books for my favorite season!
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I get asked all the time if I throw my son’s creations away. Most do get recycled but one we have used over and over again is our mail box. The other day my son was playing with it when I decided to capitalize on his desire to sort everything and make a post office sorting activity for him. Our letters were sorted by the name on the envelope but you could use numbers and sort it with the zip code , or for even younger kids use different color letters and sort it by color. My son loved this and it even sparked writing a fan letter to his favorite baseball player.
- Gather your materials. You will need some boxes, paper, scissors, envelopes, pen, plain sticky labels and crayons.
- Start by writing addresses on the letters. If your child is able have them help or write the addresses themselves.
- Write 44 cents ( or whatever appropriate stamp amount) on your blank labels.
- Time to decorate. My son loved coloring these envelopes. He insisted on doing it all himself.
- While they do that depending on how many boxes you have write out the letters that will go in each box on paper.
- Attach them to the boxes.
- Next add on the stamps. My proudest moment of the day came next when my son said we should purposely leave off the stamp and make a do not deliver basket for those letters.
- So I made one quickly.
- Time to play- I made a simple sign for our post office and our mail box came to play too.
- Pop your mail in.
- Dump it out.
- Sort it.
- Deliver it – we delivered it to various rooms of our house.
Book
Delivering Your Mail: A Book About Mail Carriers
Big exciting projects are often really simple , this cardboard box dream house is a kids craft anyone can make, and best of all it will get played with after too! We have officially given up nap ( can you hear me crying? ) and my little man is not one for ” Just go upstairs and play sweetie.” He needs a plan and last Friday our plan included making this super cool cardboard dream house after he read books quietly in bed, and played with his trains in his room. Having a big fun project was a great treat to do after he had alone time , which is not at all his nature and taking us some time to get used to.
- Gather your materials. You will need a cardboard box, strong scissors, a marker, tape, and crayons or markers and some toy people.
- Start by cutting the box into the shape you want. We made it into a house but you can make a castle, school, hospital…
- Next add whatever windows doors etc.. you want in marker . My son was not into this at all, he was like ” Make a few windows mom.”
- Color! He was MUCH more into this. I couldn’t get a good picture because he was coloring so quickly, and pressing so hard we broke every crayon we used. It was awesome!
- While they color ask them what furniture they want. If they are old enough have them make it themselves. For little guys I find if you make furniture you end up with better play than a plain box. It definitely sparked good imaginative play for us.
- Color the furniture .
- Cut out and add tape to the back. Stick the furniture to the walls.
- Play!
Yes this guy is blogging. It's a common theme with our pretend play.
Books
A House for Hermit Crab 
How a House Is Built
Eek! There’s A Mouse in the House
My son has been asking how to spell things for some time, but now he wants to know how to write them too. Problem is he’s not proficient in writing yet but refuses to let me help. So instead of the whole process ending in frustrated tears we made these place mats. So easy to make and for the same price as one pre made place mat you can buy a whole roll of contact paper and make a bunch. Remember only to use washable markers on them and you will be set!
- Gather your materials. You will need contact paper, a marker , some paper towels, stickers, and scissors.
- Start by writing out the words or letters for the mat. Make sure the marker you use doesn’t bleed. I used paper towels because they are a perfect size for a place mat. Paper will work just fine.
- Add your stickers. My son wanted a fire truck themed one and I made an alphabet mat for him as well.
- Cut your contact paper so you sandwich the place mat in it. Place the place mat face down to help avoid bubbles.
- Smooth and trim the edges.
- Start writing! This was a huge hit with my son and the place mat can double as a mat for play dough, art and eating too!
Letter Crafts
I have been asked about the return of our ever popular Letter of The Week craft that was published most Mondays. It will be returning next month until then browse our uppercase and lowercase crafts or for an easy alphabetically organized collection and 5 exclusive (never been or to be published on the blog) crafts check out my Alphabet Crafts eBook!
