What We Did This Week

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Pinky is 6 years, Chaos is 4 years, Wild One is 2 years, and Sprout is 11 months

After a very long hiatus, we're finally getting back into having some "fun stuff with Mommy" (at least that's what the kids call it).

While doing some organizing, I ran across the Hooked on Phonics sets (Letter Names and Letter Sounds) I picked up for a steal at a garage sale a few years back. I had intended to use them with Pinky, but they were a bit too young for her. I packed them away for Chaos and completely forgot about them.

We've been having a lot of fun reviving our Letter of the Week and adding in Hooked on Phonics. We started this week with a review of the letter A.

We added our Alligator A (I posted about it here) to a new alphabet binder. We're going to use this binder to keep track of all of our alphabet crafts.

We used a simple 3 ring binder with sheet protectors inside. The front cover I created in Publisher and printed out. Chaos loves his book!

One of Chaos's favorite things to do (at the moment) is to make crafts. So, following his lead, I aimed to make learning the letter A a crafty endeavor.

Some of our letter A crafts included:


1. Animal A coloring sheet from here at Education.com
2. Tactile A (aluminum foil). The idea for this craft is here at The Active Toddler and the letter sheets were printed from Quality Kids Crafts.
3. Color by number picture from here at 1+1+1=1
4. Ant thumbprint art page. The idea for this page came from here at Kidscount1234.com

We also made a handprint alligator like the one in this post at Snails and Puppy Dog Tails.


We jammed to the music on the Hooked on Phonics software while we made our crafts. Pinky and Chaos both seemed to love it despite there only being 2 different songs for each letter.

We also played some fun letter A games:


We went on a letter scavenger hunt. Equipped with a picture of "A" and "a" Chaos went in search of the letters around the house. We kept track of which we found more - uppercase or lowercase (lowercase won in case you were wondering). Chaos surprised me by wanting to write the letters that we found. He has just recently expressed interest in writing.


We played alphabet bingo. These cards are from the Hooked on Phonics set, but you could very easily make your own. (Sorry, this is upside down - I took the picture from the wrong angle.)


We checked out Starfall for some fun, online games (love that site!).


Inspired by this post at The Princess and the Tot and using the playdough mats we found Sparklebox, we added teeth to the "alligator" (he's really a crocodile, but we're okay with pretending).

We did some letter hunts using the Letter Hunt worksheets from COAHS and the nursery rhyme pages from Education.com.

I printed out the pages and laminated them so we could use them again. Instead of dry erase markers, Chaos used dry erase crayons.

Finally, we played Ants in the Pants. Always a fun, classic game!





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Homemade Playdough with KoolAid

**Just a quick note - I welcome any pinning from my blog as long as it does not include pictures of my kids. If I credit the idea from another blog, please be sure to pin from the ORIGINAL source so proper credit can be given. Thank you!**

We tried our hand at making homemade playdough this week (after realizing that the store bought stuff had dried out). We tried a few different recipes - both cooked and uncooked - and finally ended up with a version of our own. Here's what we found to work the best:

Playdough Recipe

• 2 cups water
• 3 cups flour
• 1 cup salt
• 1 T veg oil
• 1 1/2 T cream of tarter
• 2 packs of KoolAid

Mix all the ingredients together over low heat. Stir until it takes on a playdough consistency, adding more flour if needed. Right at the point where I was certain I had messed up the recipe (the dough was just a big sticky mess) it started to come together. Let it cool on the counter and then enjoy! The best part of using KoolAid is that it smells SO good when you make it and play with it.

The color doesn't show up well in this picture, but the playdough is actually a semi-bright orange. This was all made in one batch - plenty for my 3 oldest to play with together.

To go along with our new playdough I printed some playdough mats and laminated them. I found a great list of printable mats at Planet of the Apels and also at SparkleBox.


The kids have been having a blast with their new playdough and mats! Do you have a favorite playdough recipe? What's your favorite way to play with playdough?

K5 Learning Review

While searching out options for enrichment for Pinky, I discovered K5 Learning online curriculum.

K5 Learning has an online reading and math program for kindergarten to grade 5 students. I've been given a 6 week free trial to test and write a review of their program. If you are a blogger, you may want to check out their open invitation to write an online learning review of their program.

This is our first time trying an online program of this nature. I will be sure to report back what we think of it!

A little motivation

Are the months going by faster than normal? Seems like time just keeps slipping away from me. I'm still here, in a little of a crafting rut. I threw together this sign from an old picture frame and some scrap fabric for a little inspiration. I used a dry erase marker to write the message. I think it would be fun to make these for the kids' bedroom doors and leave them messages each morning.

Happy New Year!

As I sat here tonight, it occurred to me that this is the first time in 4 years that I haven't posted my "Year of Crafting" list on New Years Day. It's partly because my life since Sprout was born has been so darn busy and partly because I feel like Pinterest has taken away my need to make long lists! I much prefer the visual element anyway.

However, I do need to update my sidebar with the last of my completed craft projects for 2011. I'll admit, I didn't accomplish anywhere near what I set out to do. I did try some new things though and hope that the coming year will bring me more time to craft and more time to post about the fun stuff my kids and I have been up to.

Enough rambling though. Here is my final finished project for 2011 - a wool penny rug that I gave to my mom as a Christmas gift.



I bought the kit (pattern and wool felt) from One of the Flock on etsy. Can I rave about her customer service for a minute? I totally messed up right off the bat - totally my fault for trying to take a short cut - and ruined the white felt. I contacted her about buying a replacement and she told me not to worry about it. She had a replacement piece in the mail the next day, free of charge. How cool is that?



The pattern was easy to follow and I have to say that it came together much faster than I expected. I worked on it in short bursts and was finished in about 3 or 4 days. With dedicated time you could easily finish this in one day.



What surprised me the most is how much I really enjoyed the embroidery work. I had never tied a french knot before or really used any stitch other than a blanket stitch. I had fun learning some new stitches and hope to do some more embroidery work this coming year.

I want to wish all of you a wonderful, blessed New Year. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for taking the time to stop by my blog. I look forward to another fun year!

Crafty Christmas Ornament Exchange

For the second year in a row I participated in a crafty ornament exchange on a message board that I frequent.

Here's the adorable ornament that I received. His body is made of a light bulb!


This is the ornament that I sent to my secret draw:

It's a felt ornament that I embroidered and jeweled. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Next time I'll add colored crystals though instead of clear. I think that would make it pop a bit more. The tutorial is from here at BHG.

Paper Gingerbread Men

Today's December Fun activity was a Christmas craft - paper Gingerbread men!

I cut large gingerbread men from paper shopping bags (I got the pattern from Chaos's preschool teachers so I'm sorry I don't have it to share).



The kids went wild decorating with buttons, felt, yarn, sequins, foam shapes and crayons. I think this would have been even more fun if we had gingerbread cookies to snack on while crafting!

Linking up to some of these great parties