Archive for April 2011
One of my biggest concerns about publishing No Time For Flash Cards is that all the content could give readers the impression that we are advocating strict, structured learning day in and day out for the very young child. Does this look strict or structured?
When readers see our children make crafts, dig in tubs of beans and participating in adult driven activities daily on the blog it can give the impression that we are all doing this all day but really what our kids do for the majority of the day is what kids should be doing, playing.
Today I am devoting this post not to a tutorial of any craft, tips for sneaking adult directed learning in to a game or activity instead it’s just pictures of my kids at play. No mom directed agenda just kid directed ( sometimes mom RE directed though) fun and learning. Learning? 
Yes learning! Children are always learning and you don’t need to have a strict agenda all the time, take time to just play.
I admit having taught and lead children through directed and facilitated play for so long I revert to teacher mode a lot ( especially if I have an extra kid at my house) so I have had to chill out and just follow. It’s awesome. We do mama directed activities most days , sometimes we do 3 or 4 but then sometimes we go days and days without, but we play every day. Remember that play is their job! Let them get to work .
So I ask you: What did you play today?
I am so excited to share this amazing eBook with all of you. It is a collaboration of many bloggers hard work and 26 favorite Spring crafts and activities all in one FREE printable download! I had a wonderful time working as a community on this with 15 wonderful bloggers especially the mastermind behind this project Mandi from Life…Your Way .
This craft is the perfect spring craft for when the weather is not cooperating.
Grab some construction paper, scissors, glue, cotton balls, marker, and bowtie pasta. I bought the mini version and they worked perfectly. I honestly think this company makes these just so moms can do crafts, but my kids enjoy eating them.
I drew some triangles on construction paper and the outline of the kite on the blue paper.
I had my son cut out the colored triangles. For younger kids you can just have the triangles already cut out for them.
Then he matched up the shapes to the corresponding empty spaces and glued them down.
He squeezed some glue on the tail of the kite and glued the bowtie pasta onto the spots.
After the kite was completed, I just told him to put clouds wherever he wanted. He really loved it when I told him he had to use a lot of glue to make sure the cotton balls stuck. He squeezed an excessive amount out, but who really cares. 
Here is the happy boy with his kite. It didn’t even matter that it was 36 degrees and snowing outside (and it’s officially spring – hah).
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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.
When I think of all the things I look forward to as the days get warmer and the flowers start blooming butterflies are at the top of my list. They are a fantastic spring theme for teaching life cycles, about bugs ( especially for those kinds not interested in creepy crawlies) and art lessons about mirror images. Oh and butterfly crafts are just fun and beautiful to make!
The Band Aid Butterflies were such a hit last year we made them multiple times, they are quick, low mess and kids get a kick out of using first aid supplies for a craft.
This butterfly offers lots of opportunity to use fine motor skills and makes a cute keepsake too.
Ok so this one is a dragonfly but it’s so pretty! Make a few adjustments and bam! You have a butterfly.
Ok another technicality these are actually lightning bugs but they could pass for butterflies!
Also check out these simple Butterfly Puzzles from my other blog on FamilyEducation.com
Need some books to go with these crafts? Check out our children’s book reviews.
If you follow us on Twitter or Facebook you may have heard we are prepping to sell our house, this is possibly the least fun adventure I have ever had and I once ended up in Belgium by accident at 5am… long story. I have to keep the house spic and span while we are selling so get ready for some low on mess but high on fun activities like these play dough bugs . If you want to make your own play dough we have recipes even a gluten free play dough recipe!
- Gather your materials. You will need some play dough in a few colors, some large googley eyes, pipe cleaners, straws and other things you might have on hand like tooth pics, popscicle sticks, buttons… no rules ! Also to protect my table I use an old cutting board as the work space.
- Sometimes kids need a guide when they are given a buffet to create with , sometimes they don’t. So I sat down and made this bug as an example of what he could use the materials to make not what he should make , explaining that there was no wrong way to create.
- Start creating!
- Hard at work
- A trio of bugs!
Get outside and turn over rocks to find creepy crawly bugs. On our bug hunt we kept count to add some math to our outside learning.
A Few Favorite Books About Bugs
Ace Lacewing: Bug Detective
Bob and Otto
The Very Quiet Cricket
