Crayon resist painting is a classic children’s art project and this is how we turned it into an alphabet activity. Our spin on the classic crayon resist is a fun way to learn letters by magically making them appear when painting the paper. We may know it’s not magic but I dare you to tell a squealing toddler that its not. To them it’s alphabet magic. This is the 6th installment of our Alphabet For Starters series, posts dedicated to introducing and playing with letters for beginners.

1. Gather your materials, you will need some water colors, water, a paint brush, white paper, white crayons and scissors.
2. Start by cutting plain paper in half. I found that making them a medium size was just the right size for her to paint and not lose the excitement of discovery.
3. Write letters in upper or lowercase in white crayon. I went over the lines a few times to make them nice and thick. Do not try to do every letter in one sitting, it will take a fun activity and make it daunting for many kids. Instead have the materials on hand to make more in a jiffy if they are super into it. My daughter kept asking for the letter R so we made a few of those.
4. Mix the paint. Now The best paint is watery so it beads off the crayon easily. I mixed the paint brush in water color and riced it in the water a few times then used the water as the paint.
5. I am often asked what my kids do while I prep or if I prep the night before ( you overestimate my competency if that’s what you think) – no I set something out for her to play with like these instruments and then invite her to play when ready.
6. Time to Paint. She was not sure at first.
7. “What is it ?” ” A!”
8. Let’s do more!
9. O! She had fun and later while playing in the playroom she sat at the table and re-did the activity with a dry brush and the dried paintings. A sure sign that it was a hit.

It’s gooey , it’s gross and it’s green! It’s a swamp and this sensory play idea was a huge hit with both my 5 year old and my toddler. It was surprisingly easy to make and a great way to spend some chill time outside. Sensory play is so much more than squishing things it’s about discovering with all your senses and pretend play as well. My kids spent a good about of time simply making sounds with the goo, sounds like glurp, goop, glug, squish , slip , slurp. It was fun to see how they both narrated their experience and the giggles were amazing too.

1. Gather your materials. You will need some gelatin ( I used plain because I had it on hand and added kool-aid for color but plain jello without the sugar should work too). You will also need a large container,  pool noodle, some plastic swamp creatures, water and a large tub or water table to play in.
2. My daughter helped me make the gelatin. I followed the directions on the back for fruit jellies doubling the recipe.
3. I love that by using kool-aid the gelatin smells awesome and is so tart even if kids do taste it , they spit it out. Also I used this old animal cracker container because it was a perfect fit for a space I had in my fridge. And it had a lid which was important since it was at kid level too.
4. We cleaned the water table ( it had dirt and rocks in it from our last play adventure) – this was an activity all on it’s own.
5. Then the next morning I filled one side with the gelatin and the other with water – added sliced pieces of pool noodle for lily pads and just enough creatures to invite play.
6. And play they did.
7. My son loved flopping the gelatin into the water side and it was neat to see how it would sink  to the bottom.
8. My daughter loved squishing and squishing and squishing . I just kept taking pictures and soaking up the giggles. Did I mention it smelled amazing too, much better than a real swamp.
9. In the afternoon the sun melted the gelatin and my kids were bummed but we covered it and sure enough the next morning it was all congealed again and they had an absolute blast pulling the creatures out of the goo, and we noticed the imprints they made too.  We’ll see how many days we can keep it going!

I know I am not the only one that loves Target but one of the reasons I love them is their commitment to education, especially early literacy. As you may know Target is committed to helping get the nation’s children reading proficiently by the end of third grade and one of the ways they are reaching this goal is to make over school libraries. Since 2007 Target has redone 118 school libraries with  32 school libraries slated to have complete makeovers this year. Thanks to Target and The Heart Of America Foundation 150 school libraries will be made over into a great place to read by the end of 2012. I remember loving going to the library at school and I was lucky enough to attend schools with beautiful spaces filled with books and inviting places to read. Not every child is so lucky. Target is trying to change that.

The school library makeovers include new furniture, carpet, shelves, 2000 new books to put on those shelves and technology including iPads. In addition to that each child at the participating schools will also receive 7 books to take home.

Check out the list of schools that will be getting transformed thanks to Target in 2012.

To spread the joy of helping others and early literacy Target isn’t only making over school libraries, they want to give you a chance to make your own amazing reading space at your house.To do that they put together an amazing prize package for one lucky winner.

 At-Home Library Prize Package

• One Nook Color
• Ten New Age-Appropriate Books
• One Bookshelf
• One Blanket
• One $50 Target Gift Card
• One “Fatboy” Chair

Do you think you could find a corner to turn into a crazy cool reading nook with all of that?

HOW TO ENTER SWEEPSTAKES

Leave a comment on this post answering this question ” What would your dream at-home library have in it?”

So many of you that participate in Link & Learn by sharing kids’ crafts, homeschooling lessons and tips, and fun activities for kids are moms. You parent through play, teach your kids, and never fail to amaze me when I click a link and see what you have added to Link& Learn. Thank you so much for taking the time to write about the fun you have with your kids and even bigger thanks for sharing it with us!

For all you do for your kids and every child that learns something new because of something you blogged about, thank you.

Happy Mother’s Day

If you follow me on Instagram you will see these candid shots of my family playing sports, hiking, making dinner and more. I take these pictures because this is what we do day in and day out. We don’t live an exciting life but we are active. Another thing we focus on is having dinner together. Not only does it give me a chance to make sure everyone has a balanced healthy meal, it’s our weeknight together time. The kids help cook and as soon as my husband gets home from work we sit and share our day while we eat. Those few days that my husband has to work late he’s missed. Dinner for us is a family activity and unless the whole family is there it simply doesn’t feel right. We aren’t naive; we know that as our kids grow it’s only going to get harder to get everyone in their spots to eat a healthy dinner and share our day.

That is why I am so excited to be a part of Together Counts as a blog ambassador and help promote a great message.  Eating as a family, being active as a family and being healthy as a family is what Together Counts is all about. It’s a nationwide program that promotes healthy living through energy balance, the simple idea of calories in matching calories out. Together Counts was started by The Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation a coalition that brings together more than 200 retailers, food and beverage manufacturers, restaurants, sporting goods and insurance companies, trade associations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and professional sports organizations. Their main goal is to get families making healthier lifestyle choices with a goal of reducing obesity by 2015 by focusing on two major parts of family life – the family meal and family together time.

To learn more about how they are doing this check out Together Counts website as well as Together Counts on Facebook , Twitter , Pinterest and their blog.