What We Did This Week

Pinky is 5 years, Chaos is 3 years, Wild One is 17 months, and Sprout is 1 month

We were blessed with beautiful weather this week so we spent a lot of time playing outside (and as I get ready to post this, it's back to rainy, cold weather). I hope you had some time to enjoy playing outdoors!

Geography
This week Pinky learned all about our state in school (in preparation for our state's birthday this past Wednesday). It tied in perfectly to some map activities. First we explored our new Usborne Children's Atlas.

This book is a good intro to maps and different cultures. Both Pinky and Chaos had fun finding the different animals pictured in each country.

For a more in depth map, Daddy printed out a giant map of all the parks in our city. The kids had a lot of fun trying to find our house based on landmarks (the lake, a big park, etc). We plan to use this map to mark all the places we've been on our playground tour.

Math
Pinky tried out a new book/game - Math Gear Addition. It's a neat book that quizzes kids on addition facts up to +12. Each page has a spinner so the child can change to first number that is being added. Once they've tried to find an answer they can lift the flap to see if they are correct.

Pinky LOVED this book. I was amazed by how long she played with it. I think it will be a great book to take on long car trips to keep her busy. There are other versions of Math Gear too, and I may just pick up the subtraction book as well.

Reading

Inspired by this post at Living, Loving and Learning at Home, I decided to make Pinky her own BOB books to illustrate. This activity combined her two favorite things - reading and drawing - so we may be doing more of this!

The books are simple to make with construction paper and plain printer paper (I'm sure you could make them much fancier too). I made two books this week: Pinky and the Cat and Dogs, Dogs, Dogs! The text in each book is simple:

"Pinky had a cat. The cat was sad. Pinky had a hat. The cat saw the hat. The cat had a hat. The cat was glad."

I made the second book to contain all of our names because Pinky loves to be able to spell and write names for the whole family:

"Pinky had a dog. Chaos had a dog. Wild One had a dog. Sprout had a dog. Mom and Dad had a dog. Dogs, dogs, dogs!"

Alphabet
I decided to start the letter of the week with Chaos. What's funny about Chaos is that he can tell you what the letters are for - he'll point to a P and say it's for Pinky, a C for Chaos, etc - but he can't actually name the letters.

We started by reading The Sleepy Little Alphabet. It's a cute book about putting all of the letters to bed at night.


Next, we made an Alligator A (from this post on No Time for Flashcards). We even gave the alligator glittery teeth! I was really happy that Choas made this (and surprised at how good his scissor skills are!) because he is not usually interested in crafts.

He's very excited to make the whole alphabet and hang it up in his room.

I also added some alphabet magnets to the fridge for him to explore. I selected A, B, and C (with lowercase magnets to match) to start with.


Finally, the most favorite activity of the week (for all of us), Alphabet Cookies!! I found this adorable alphabet cookie cutter set at a garage sale and was excited to try it out.

We had so much fun frosting and decorating these (and eating them too of course!).


Shapes and Colors
Chaos tried his hand at sorting shapes and colors this week. I printed these shape mats from Confessions of a Homeschooler and had Chaos sort plastic buttons according to shape.

He did pretty well (I was surprised that he knew the difference between a circle and an oval). The rectangles/squares confused him, but I know he'll get it soon enough. Later we tried sorting by color, but he got frustrated, so we stopped.

We also used our new geoboard for the first time this week. Pinky and Chaos had fun making shapes while I used it show the kids how to make letters. I hope to spend more time playing with this next week.


Fun With the Younger Kids
Wild One spent a lot of time playing with Chaos's Chuck E Cheese tokens. She loved to put them in the jar one by one and then dump them all back out and start over. It's the simple things, right?


As usual, she also spent a lot of time reading. I think she would be happy to read every minute of the day. I'm glad that she occasionally gives me a break and looks at books by herself too!


I introduced PlayDoh to her for the first time this week. She did so well! Much like the coins, she liked to dump it out and put it back in the jar, but she also had fun tearing it into little pieces. I gave her a stamper to try and was surprised that she had enough strength to make the stamp (a fish) show up!


Sprout has been spending a lot of time on her play mat these days so I made her her own felt board to look at (the instructions can be found at this post on Made by Joel) . It was super quick and easy to make and the kids had fun switching out the shapes and colors for her.


What fun activities did you do this week?

Linking up to:

Travel Bags for Kids

I realized I never got around to posting the activity bags I made for the kids this summer. I found the tutorial here at Moda Bake Shop. I love, love, love the way they turned out! The fabric is Love U by Moda and works perfectly for a boy and girl bag.

I thought these bags were quick and easy even for a novice sewer like myself.


Front of both bags


Inside Pinky's bag


Inside Chaos's bag

Felt Crayon Rolls

I posted earlier in the summer about the crayon rolls I wanted to make from Skip To My Lou. They were SO simple to make that I ended up making extras and giving them out as gifts to Pinky's friends.




I managed to wrangle one back from the kids so I could take a picture of how they turned out. This one belongs to Chaos. I chose to skip the applique on the front (for time constraint reasons) and just added a simple looped ribbon with a button for closure. These would make great stocking stuffers this Christmas!

You can check out the tutorial HERE.

Travel Bags

Every summer, the kids and I take a trip to see my family for a few weeks. This year, our trip will include a stop to see the in-laws and a giant family reunion.

Oh...did I mention the trip will tally over 3,000 miles (with our dog in tow too) and will last about 5 and a half weeks? Sounds a bit crazy to be called a vacation, doesn't it?

The kids are good car travelers at this point, and I'll be honest, the dvd players definitely help. We have lots of other fun travel activities for them too. Let me show you what I've been working on....


First, and most importantly, I'm sewing up two of these adorable Child Activity bags from Moda Bake Shop

I plan to stuff these bags full of goodies including:


Felt Crayon Holders from Skip to My Lou (and yes, I realize the Child Activity bag also has a crayon holder, but I thought these would be great for when we stop at restaurants along the way).


I Spy quilts using this fabric


Using this Favorite Things Caddy tutorial from Kojo Designs I plan to make a car caddy for Chaos and...


...a My Little Pony Roll up featuring 5 new My Little Ponies for Pinky inspired by Smashed Peas and Carrots. I think I will make a castle/rainbow scene will be more in line with Pinky's interest.

The infamous felt Mr. Potato Head from Make It and Love It (she was asked to remove the tutorial by Hasbro, so unfortunately I can't share it's awesomeness with you).


Finally, cool Scavenger Hunt cards from Saltwater Kids of things we're likely to see along the way.

I also have some non-handmade goodies for the bag including mini magnadoodles, magnetic playsets, travel bingo, coloring books, hidden pictures for Pinky, new movies, and Pinky's latest obsession - her Leapster.

Don't worry, I didn't forget about Wild One. I have something fun planned for her too. I'll be sure to post pictures as I finish!

Travel Surprises

Since we do a lot of car trips with our kids, I am always looking for ways to keep them entertained during the ride. A friend recently suggested a "surprise bag" for long trips. Every hour of the trip, you announce it is surprise time and the kids get to pick a goody out of the bag. The first thing I thought was that a 14 hour car trip with 2 kids could get expensive pretty quickly. Then I started to get creative.

First, there is no reason it has to be every hour. It could be every 2 hours or even just randomly. We have DVD players in the car, and we always buy a new movie or two for our trips. No reason the movies can't be one of the surprises. I started to think of more ideas for low cost surprises for my kids (and ideas that don't involve tv for those without dvd players). Here's what I've come up with, please feel free to add some!

• Coloring pages to reflect the trip - a map of the state you are visiting, pictures of what you will see along the way (cows, cars, trees, etc.).
• A bingo game. You could very easily make this yourself. Print out a grid with pictures (and words for readers) of things along the way and give the kids a bingo dobber (or marker or crayon if you're worried about mess) to mark off what they see.
• Books. Thanks to Pinky being in some preschool classes we have been able to order from the Scholastic book club - great books and great prices! For our next trip, I ordered her a Littlest Pet Shop I Spy book. I think that will keep her busy for a little while!
• Happy Meal toys. I'm not kidding the little trinket toys keep my kids entertained forever. Pinky loves to play with miniature Barbies, My Little Ponys, or any type of little figurine.
• Magnet play sets. We love these! There are a lot of different types out there (I know WalMart had some for under $5 last time I was there), and it's easy to keep track of pieces when they're magnetic!
• Shop the Dollar Store for other toys/games that will interest your child. I can always find some neat stuff at our Dollar Store.
• Music CDs. Our local library allows you to digitally check out music CDs and burn them to disc for your own personal use. We've gotten quite a few kids' music CDs this way (and all of them are educational - Spanish language, learn the alphabet, Dressing Do's and Don'ts)
• Eye Spy bottles that I made in a previous post.
• Snacks - either a healthy snack or something that is a "treat" for your child (our favorite around here right now is animal crackers).
• ColorWonder books and markers. Okay, not exactly inexpensive, but with Pinky, these buy us hours of quiet time, and there's no mess!
• Crayola Dry Erase Activity Center. Again, not inexpensive (around $15), but great for preschoolers. Here is a link to check it out: Crayola Dry Erase Activity Center. You can also print out more activity sheets online. I just bought this for my niece and know that Pinky would love it too.
• A journal or scrapbook to keep track of your trip. This could be as simple as a spiral bound notebook and crayons or as elaborate as blank board books, stickers, embellishments or anything else you can dream up.
• Lacing toys. You could even make your own with simple cardboard shapes and a shoelace.
• For smaller kids, make your own touch and feel book. I made one for Pinky when she was small and Chaos loves it now too. I took items from around the house (a piece of an old towel, aluminum foil, sandpaper, corrugated cardboard, etc) and glued pieces of them to my own homemade book (cardboard pages tied together with string).
• Puppets. Again, you could make your own or buy them.
• Musical instruments for an in car band. This is another item that you could make yourself to save money.
• A great idea I found on Familyfun.com - a toy bib. Their description: "If you often find yourself searching for far-flung objects, try making your baby a toy bib. To create one, snap 2 or 3 pacifier or mitten clips (available at suspenderstore.com) to the bottom of a bib, then attach a couple of small diversions to them. The toys won't stray from a little arm's reach -- and you can leave the bib on for snacktime. "

Whew. That's what I've come up with so far. Please comment if you can think of other fun things to do in the car. I will add to this list if I think of more (and I'm sure I will). Happy traveling!

I Spy Bottle

For reasons too boring to get into, I had a large amount of trinkets and beads that I couldn't decide what to do with. I've seen some really cool I Spy pillows at craft shows (they look like this to give you an idea of what I'm talking about: Eye Spy Bags), but didn't really want to break out the sewing machine right now. So, I created an I Spy bottle for Pinky. While I think that she is too young to really search and find all the items in the bottle, I thought it may keep her busy for awhile just looking at all the neat stuff. It took me less than 10 minutes to put together. All you need is a clean, empty 2o oz plastic bottle, rice, trinkets and a way of securing the lid (I chose duct tape). Here is the result of my efforts:

My hidden trinkets included various beads and sequins, a rubberband, a screw, a pompom, a penny, a button, a googly eye, a broken crayon, a glass marble, a flower eraser, and a dry wall anchor. Make sure when you make this that you take a picture of your trinkets or make a list of everything you included so you know when you've found everything. Try to mix lightweight items (like the beads and sequins) with heavier objects (the penny and screw). Light items tend to float on top of the rice and could be used to make the game easier for younger kids, while heavier items sink to the middle and add a challenge to the game.

As a bonus, Chaos also thought it was a great music maker. This would make a great toy for an older kid and would be wonderful for long car trips.