Clip the Squares

I thought I would share this little activity because it is great fine motor practice that you  could pull out at anytime. It definitely surprised me how difficult this was for my 3 year old. This activity bag was given to me as as part of my preschool activity bag swap.
First we sorted the paper clips by color and then I told him he had to put them back on the appropriate colored square. His little fingers had a hard time doing this, but he eventually started getting the hang of it. But then he decided he was done and so that was that!

To make your own bag
-Cut squares of colored construction paper out and laminate for durability
-Get multicolored paper clips (my Dollar Tree has them)
Then have your kiddo clip the paper clips onto the appropriate color square

Heart Window Decor

G-man is 3 years, 1 month old

I’m loving tissue paper after we did the Mitten Suncatcher and so I thought we’d try a similar idea to make a heart for our front window.

What You Need:

colored tissue paper (we used red and pink)
contact paper

What to do:

1. Cut the tissue paper in 1 inch squares.
2. Cut contact paper to whatever size heart you want to make
3. Have your child stick the tissue paper squares onto the contact paper

4. When done, cut a similar size contact paper and press it onto the top of the other one
5. Fold it in half and draw a half heart shape

6. Cut out heart and hang in window. An inexpensive window decoration that your child can be proud of. While making this my 3 year old said “Mom, this is so beautiful”.

When he gets a little older, I think it would be fun to do several of these in different sizes and colors and decorate the whole bay window!

On a side note-today the kids got Valentine’s from Grandma and Grandpa in the mail and just in case they check this, here they are opening them. They were so excited to get their own mail. My 18 month old took 5 minutes to get the envelope open and he would NOT let me help him. :-)

Translucent Hearts

It’s been a crazy few days around here and we just haven’t been around to do anything. Now we’re snowed in AGAIN and so here we are.
This little craft was fairly easy and yet kept his little fingers busy for a few minutes.
Supplies:
wax paper
vegetable oil
cotton balls
red tissue paper
What We Did:
1. I cut a heart out of wax paper
2. I had them tear the red tissue paper into little pieces.



3. I put the vegetable oil in a shallow bowl and had them dip the cotton balls into it and rub oil onto the wax paper heart.

*tip-be generous with the oil as it takes a lot of oil in order for the tissue paper to stick.

4. Press tissue paper pieces onto heart.
I assume it will somehow dry and we’ll put it up somewhere to admire :-)

Conversation Hearts

There are so many things that can be done with these little hearts…other than eat them that is. First, I had him sort them by color with this little tray that I got from the Dollar Tree. I put one of each color in each slot, but then he wanted to do all of the colors so we added those in too.

I found this candy heart counting mat at Totally Tots and even though I’m not too concerned about him knowing his numbers at this point, I just thought I would see if he could actually count out the hearts. He did pretty well up until 5.

 

Next, he glued the little hearts on to a heart that I drew on construction paper. And of course, he ate a few along the way…(and one got away as you can see)

 
Finally, I cut up a heart into puzzle pieces and hid them around the room. After they found all of the pieces, they attempted to put them together to form the heart. I say attempted because I made the puzzle way too hard. Next time I would do only a 4 piece puzzle.  Here are a few pics of them looking/finding the pieces.

Now this puzzle doesn’t look THAT hard does it? My husband wouldn’t let me take his picture, but he was the one who ended up finishing it after the kids and I gave up. :-)

My Favorite Things

I thought I would comment on a few baby/kid related things that I have fallen in love with. Maybe something will strike your fancy and you will love them as much as I do.
1. Halo Sleepsack

This is by far, my most favorite thing ever. My kids have been wearing these to bed since they were born, and now the oldest is 37 months and we just upgraded to the “big kid” sleepsack because he insisted. It is worn in place of a blanket and it zips top to bottom. They can never kick the covers off and stay warm and cozy all night long and it reduces the risk of SIDS. They come in fleece or cotton and go from size NB to 4/5.  A genius invention!
(you can also get these at Babies R Us, Amazon, One Step Ahead)
2. Clock with set wake up time

This has been a HUGE lifesaver and really, is the reason that I’m still sane (well, mostly anyway). We were having big problems with my oldest waking up at 5 a.m. and thinking it was time to get up for the day. This went on for a good month, one day getting up at 5, the next 6…I just never knew. And of course he didn’t understand when I said to go back to bed and so he would start bawling…and then surprise, I would have TWO kids up at 5 a.m. Sometimes I wonder how I survived that. And so when I saw this at One Step Ahead and knew I had to have it.
It WORKED! We set the wake up time for 7 a.m. and by golly, he faithfully waits until that little clock turns green to get up. It’s yellow all night long (hard to see from the pic above) and then magically turns green at whatever time you set it for. It also doubles as a nightlight.
Note: I just went to One Step Ahead’s website and can’t seem to find it anywhere…but I did just see it in Sensational Beginning’s catalog too.
3. Preschool Activity Bags

Last summer I found this website and held an activity bag swap with some friends.  As a result, I now have lots of activity bags that I can bring out at any given time.
These have really come in handy now that my 3 yr. old is in a big boy bed. When he wakes up in the morning (while waiting for his clock to turn green) he can do some of these activities by himself to pass the time. I just make sure to rotate them every 3 days or so. I’m kind of become addicted because I’ve made about 30 more on my own so I should be set for a good while :-)
4. Firefly Toothbrush

Santa brought these and you can’t tell from the picture, but there is a light that flickers on and off for 1 minute. This has come in handy because I just tell him to brush until the light goes off, and  then I press it again and help him for another minute. No more arguing about how long we have to brush! BTW-“Santa” got them at Wal-Mart.
5. The Laurie Berkner Band DVD

Another blog (sorry, I can’t remember who) recommended this DVD and I have to say my kids love it. The first time I watched it I thought it was 3 crazy people jumping around and I didn’t think they would like it at all…but there is something that is VERY catchy about these songs.  And I’m not embarrassed to admit that I find myself singing them all day long. It’s just super cute and if you live where I live, it’s at our public library!
Have you discovered something that would make your favorite list? Please leave a comment and tell me about it!

The Tiny Snowflake

Today was all about snowflakes…and it it fit perfectly as it snowed a little today. 

This is a sweet little book about Lacy the Snowflake who doesn’t think she is special.  She later learns that she was created to be a sparkle snowflake and that God created every snowflake to be special.

After we read the book we talked about how each of us was created by God to be special, no matter what our differences.  I dowloaded this  little book below  from 1+1+1 to read after the story.  G-man was tickled to see his picture on the last page.



Then we did these cute little snowflake puzzles, again from 1+1+1.

 

Finally, I drew a snowflake on white paper and had him use his do-a-dot markers to make a snowflake. (btw-these markers are at Michael’s and if you use the 50% coupon, only about $7)


Is it too early to say I’m getting tired of the snow???