Tag: Kid Fun

2 Ways We are Celebrating Advent

Our "Stocking" Advent Calendar

I have been looking around the web for ideas to celebrate Advent. In addition to a cute book we purchased a couple of years ago, I wanted another way to add some more fun.

The book is the Usbourne Advent Nativity Book. It features 24 really detailed cardboard cutouts and a story. You read a page a day and take out the corresponding days cutout and add it to the 3-D.

Days 1-4

Our 3-D Display

Christmas Advent Calendar idea from The Rusted Chain blog, she got it from this adorable blog, that has many more ideas from other sites that are way too cute. All the ideas are fantastic and a great way to count down to Christmas. Each day, remembering and focusing on the true reason for the season. The birth of our Savior!

I loved this the moment I saw it! Since we do not have a mantel or bureau I decided to use our white board. I picked up 8 pairs of socks and a pack of 9 suction hooks from the Dollar Tree. I had an extra hook so I added a Paper Treat Cone to the first day we will start counting down with the socks. I think I will add some chocolates, some gold dollars, and some other little items from Target Dollar Spot.

Our "Stocking" Advent Calendar

December 9, 2010
Fun with Lunch – Muffin Tin Inspiration

Lunch. Lunch can become boring for kids and they become uninterested and picky. At least that is what has happened to my kiddies. While browsing blogs I came across 2 really cute blogs FULL of ideas on making fun lunches. They are:

Muffin Tin Mom and Lunch in a Box; Building a Better Bento

Inspired by other blog moms once again, I set out. I had cutters so I didn’t need to get any. I did pick up the muffin tins at the Dollar Tree and then some cupcake liners at my local grocery store. I picked up 10 packs of fruit leather (.50/each), pretzels, crackers, cheese, almonds, turkey and cookies.

Our Muffin Tin Lunch:

Cut Fruit Leather into Rectangles

use small cutters to punch out shape

Oliver helping out

fun muffin tin lunch

3-Cheese Cheese Slice, cut out with extras chopped up… Fruit Leather cutouts… Almonds, Turkey Rolls on fancy toothpicks… Goldfish and Mini Oreos

lunchtime

**In this last picture I show my 2-year old with fruit leather – MISTAKE! Do not give to toddlers, trust me**

It was fun and the kids were so excited when they came to the table, that is a first! Thanks for the inspiration ladies!

September 30, 2010
The Best Boy Toy Ever!

On a recent field trip to, we visited a new children’s garden play and discovery area. It has fantastic stations all around to encourage interactive play and learning. 2 stations caught my eye and more importantly, caught the boys eyes and kept ’em too!

Wood blocks, real wood blocks only they aren’t the kind we are all used to. These are more rustic and authentic and fun for boys. One set had big tree rings cut into chunks, the other set was Aspen tree trunks chopped into different thicknesses to stack. This gave me some great ideas for gifts and toys for my boys. The possibilities are endless.

It was like really being out in the woods.

September 28, 2010
Charlotte’s Web Lapbook

This year we are using Sonlight Core 1 for my first grader, I absolutely love the emphasis on literature and reading. We are currently reading Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White, what a pleasure it is! Preston is really enjoying the story as am I. I wanted to try and come up with a Charlotte’s Web lesson, I also wanted to try lapbooking so I created this and thought it would be the perfect lapbook to make first. It’s designed to be interactive and a helpful learning tool, not just the book and characters but includes other animal facts and stuff like that too.

The Cover, Preston wrote the title across the top sheet and his version of the cover on the bottom left (took picture before)

Bottom right: Questions from each chapter, library sleeves

from the right hand side, cards from each category, match each card correctly, I cut these down after I took the picture, they were too long

Inside Center, What do Spiders eat, Spider Diagrams, What do Pigs eat?

more from inside center

top right – Animal Parents and Babies

Match the Animal picture with their name

Since Charlotte’s Web has the chapters in Roman numerals, Sonlight uses it to teach the numerals, here is a flip book I made up to ten (X)

Charlotte’s Web Lapbook Download

I thought this was pretty good for my first time although I did need to make some adjustments. There are many other children’s printables, lessons and activities I made if you would like to use them visit my Children’s Printables Page. Make sure and come back and let me know how it goes, share your blog. Please leave a comment, your suggestions and input can be very helpful. Feel free to use the material in a different setup I would love to see the results. Have fun and enjoy!

It turns out that Lapbooking is really a lot of fun. I have some other projects we have worked on with other homeschool friends, I just need to get them posted!

some coloring pages courtesy free coloring info.

September 10, 2010
A is for Animal

Oliver with his Dinosaur

After checking out a ton of homeschool blogs this summer I was looking for an alphabet activity for Oliver to do, I came across an idea at totallytots.homestead.com. It is called Now I Know My ABC’s and it shows pictures of animals made from each letter in the alphabet. Here is what Oliver has made so far:

A is for Alligator

C is for Crab

D is for Dinosaur

Oliver's ABC Book

He is keeping them inside of clear sleeves in his very own ABS’s book… he likes it so much!

September 9, 2010
Legos, Who Knew?

I have to admit I had no idea about this phenomenon we are embarking upon. Since my oldest is now 7, he has graduated to new toys. In particular, he has gone completely, crazy-overboard over LEGOS! He can’t get enough, he builds and builds and then builds some more. I love to see his imagination stirring, the things he has come up with are so inventive, I love the outlet LEGOS provide. Creatively, scientifically, they are awesome. After he got his first set and loved it, I set out to find used Legos. I am a huge believer in buying toys on craigslist, eBay, etc. However, it seems that this has proven to be not as easy of a task as I thought. Before, any toy, really anything the kids wanted I have been able to find used at an awesome price. No so with Legos. If you can find any used they are only slightly less than retail. It’s really intriguing. Talking with other moms who have boys, they have all chimed in with their Lego stories- BOYS LOVE LEGOS!`

I also just found this way cool organizer, holder thingy-bob … Definitely on the wish list! It’s called Box4Blox, it’s a fantastic idea.

Pizze Delivery Spaceship… all the square pieces are boxes of pizza

Starfighter complete with door for the Pilot

August 21, 2010
More Homeschool… Manipulatives, Centers, Calendar

After looking at this site and her ideas for a Calendar board I was completely inspired. Thank you Homeschool Creations for the wonderful ideas! Here is our Calendar board:

Our Homeschool Calendar ideas from Homeschool Creations blog

We have: Todays Date, with different ways to write the date, make the date in money, color of the day, weather for temp. (1st grader will fill in daily), weather for the 4 year old to use picture cards. We also have letter of the day and verse of the day. I will also be adding the skip counting pages.

For calendar I plan on having all 3 boys participate in one way or another. I have also been looking around for center ideas, things to keep the 2 little ones busy when I need to work with my 1st grader. Carissa has so many excellent ideas on her blogs. One of them is Tot Trays. I loved all her ideas and will be using them and creating more inspired by what I have seen. Here are some things we have so far:

Basket #1 (white) – for the 2 & 4 year olds, basket #2 – Base Ten set – 1st grader

basket #1 – Pompoms for sorting, pouring, gluing, scooping, measuring, tongs, ice cube try for sorting, clothespin centers (see below), poker chips to sort and stack, pipe cleaners, eraser center (see below).

I cut a square in the lid of a take n go container, then added erasers

He puts them and then tries to retrieve them

Different games to play with these both toddlers and preschoolers

Beads, funnels and bowls

Pasta, glitter and glue

Foil, Pasta and glitter

Still on the lookout. Excellent places for centers: the Dollar Tree, Walmart, Big Lots. You don’t have to spend a lot and your children will learn, play and love it!

August 9, 2010
Fun with Glitter

I have always, always loved glitter! Don’t think I am one of those girlie types either, pretty much a tom-boy. However, I have always thought glitter was so pretty. So sparkly and shiny. In the past, whenever I would craft with the boys I pretty much played dictator over the glue and glitter, not wanting any uncontrollable mess. Well let’s just say since I have been “blog walking” I have been super-inspired but several different blogger moms/bakers/photographers. This blog post sparked an interest in me to see glitter all over everything and not freak out about it. I knew my boys would be more than happy to let loose with those 3 big, tempting shakers full of glitter. We gave everyone their own glue, construction paper, and glitter… SUPER FUN! And yes, there is still glitter on my floor and specks keep showing up in the weirdest places – but, like the other blog said- what a great reminder of letting loose, getting dirty and having fun.

March 2, 2010
Snow Much Fun

I have been following a super-cute blog and have been completely inspired, an old flame has been re-light I used to love to do so many creative things but I pushed all that aside at some point… After seeing what this blogger did with a little food coloring and snow – I knew my boys would love it and they completely did!

My husband bought the spray bottles, he bought 2 each of 2 different kinds (we found that the full action pump sprayer is better than the one finger pump)… the first time out we mixed red and blue to make purple, red and yellow to make orange, then had blue and the last bottle with red.

Oliver found squares that another child must have made with a snow mold, he filled those in with different colors. We also made footprints and then colored them. Samuel couldn’t manage to get any color out, he would throw the bottle in the snow. I guess he was hoping that would get the color out. When Oliver was finished I took all the tops off and let Samuel pour it on the snow, he really liked doing that – looked like a slushie!

When Preston came home from school he was thrilled at the idea. He headed just as a fresh layer of fluffy snow fell. Perfect day!

February 24, 2010