Archive for January 2011
If you are a regular reader you may remember that my son stopped napping and we started doing quiet time instead. Most days we still use the 1-2-3 approach but some days we mix it up to keep things fresh. One of his favorite things to do is to turn his bedroom into a museum. What I love about it is he is coloring on a vertical surface which is important for wrist development all the while he is also developing a love of museums without ever leaving our house! Here is what we do.
- Gather your materials. You will need some color wonder coloring pages.
I use both blank and coloring book ones.
You will also need some painters tape and color wonder markers. Now feel free to use regular paper , markers and / or crayons but I am not that brave when I am not supervising. Remember this is for quiet aka “Mama is downstairs working out and watching How I Met Your Mother reruns” time. - Tape the pages up around their room. You want it all over the room because after they are finished they are going to give you a tour of the gallery.
- Let em’ go.
- Workout, read, go to the bathroom in peace .
- Time for a tour. He cracked his dad and I up with the names he gave his paintings. My favorite was ” Splish Dot Squash” .
- After the tour we add the new creations to a permanent collection.
Books
Touch the Art: Brush Mona Lisa’s Hair
Action Jackson 
Hugo and Miles In I’ve Painted Everything
It seems like it’s snowing almost everywhere lately. I love doing activities that use what’s going on around us to keep things interesting and fresh! This snowflake craft is simple enough for preschoolers to do with a little direction , and don’t forget you can add in lessons about counting and estimation too!
- Gather your materials. You will need a sheet of construction paper, white glue, mini marshmallows, and glitter.
- Start by designing your snowflake. You can just use the glue or draw it with a pencil first. I did this one to show my son how to draw with glue.
- I encouraged my son to do this himself by reminding him that all snowflakes are unique.
- Add the marshmallows! I get asked all the time how do you avoid him eating them all? My main strategy is that I let him eat a few but only after he adds them on. I tell him to count to 14, then eat one, then add on another 20 and eat one etc.. interestingly enough this time he didn’t eat a single one, but he still counted.
- Add glue for glitter
- Add the glitter. I LOVE these little glitter tubes. They only hold a small amount of glitter so the mess is minimized. I wouldn’t use them with toddlers/ kids who still put things in their mouths though, the tops pop off and could be a hazard.
- Let dry. His is proudly on display in our front hall.
Books
Holly’s Red Boots
Stella, Queen of the Snow
Tacky the Penguin 
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My house has been taken over with Angry Bird fever (the app, that is). I have it on my iPod, my husband has it on his iPad and his smartphone. It was bound to happen that my son caught the fever, as well. He has many educational apps on my iPod that he plays, but he wondered over to Angry Birds and got stuck.
So I decided to make it come to life, sort of. I grabbed various manipulatives that we have at our house.
I also grabbed some farm animal toys (to take the place of the green pigs).
Then I grabbed a toy to use in place of the Angry Birds (Mr. Potato Head Spuds worked great).
We created a scene constructed of different building materials.
I talked with my son about the differences between them. We discussed “flimsy” and “sturdy”. We also talked about chain reactions.
My son let the birds potatoes fly. The target was annihilated.
He made his own structure all by himself. He told me all about why he put animals in certain places. Some got their spots to protect themselves, while others were put there to use a throw (to get only one animal, instead of multiples). He talked about spots he wanted to hit that could cause a chain reaction, too.
I was so happy! He was listening. He was learning. He used his logic to make a video game come to life. He now asks to play his real life version more often than the app version.
I have to admit, the app version is a lot easier to clean up. 
Do you let your kids play on your iPod/iPad/smartphone?
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Kim is a contributing writer for No Time For Flash Cards, a mom to a toddler, a preschooler, and a foster parent, too. She juggles her day by trying out fun activities and crafts with the kids. After all, she is just a big kid herself. See what she has been up to over at Mom Tried It.
Letter of the week has been a popular feature on our blog for a few years now, but it’s not so popular at my kitchen table anymore. My son has known his letters for what feels like forever so to get him interested it takes something special… like a map. He loves maps, and will often ask us ” How do you get to Nebraska? How do you get to Paris? ” So we find the map and we decide if we should fly, drive or take a boat. I capitalized on that love to do this simple cutting and letter activity.
- Gather your materials you will need an old atlas or map ( you will be cutting it ), kid scissors, a marker, piece of construction paper and glue.
- Start by looking at a map .
We looked at a map of the US since my son is into learning about states right now. Choose a state or country to check out. He chose Utah, we don’t know why but he loves Utah, like a lot. - Flip to it if you are using an Atlas.
If you just have one map to use, take some time looking at it with your child, look for different points of interest . This activity is as much a lesson to familiarize kids with maps and geography as it is one for the letter m. - Tear out the page and write an M, if your child is able to have them write it. It’s easy to turn it into a block M by adding to theirs.
- Cut it out. This will take time.
- Encourage them when it gets tricky. This was the most line cutting my son has ever done, honestly I was pleasantly surprised he did it all.
He was pretty proud too. - Add glue
- “Slam Utah down” His words. Let dry.
It’s an easy project but the cutting takes patience and builds skills , the exploration of the map sparks discussion and the letter recognition comes along for the ride!
Learning at Snack Time Too
While my son flipped through the atlas I fixed him a snack. I knew which state he was looking for and was just thankful it was Utah, I didn’t have enough ham for any other state.
Alphabet Books
ABC USA
All Aboard!: A Traveling Alphabet 
This weekly link up has become my crutch to reading all the fantastic activities,crafts and insightful thoughts on parenting. Your posts spark conversations with my husband and projects with my kids. If you have never linked up before all you have to do is link up to your best post of the week using the permalink ( that’s the link to the post not your blog) and leave a comment too. Visiting other blogs and grabbing my button for your site is optional ( but really great karma!). Have a great week, I can’t wait to see what get’s linked up today.
