Clean Mud/Play Snow

This is something that I have had the supplies for after seeing on a Pinterest post months ago.
I have seen it labeled Clean Mud or Play Snow

1 Bar of Dove
1 Roll of Toilet Paper
about 1 Cup warm Water


1. Grate the soap with a cheese grater. (It makes it dissolve more quickly) Grate it into a 9x13 pan. Makes for easy clean up and a "one pot wonder"

2. Let the kids tear up toilet paper! It's a blast!!!!

3. Pour the warm water over the soup and allow to melt for a minute

4. Put the torn up paper over the soap and water mixture and massage/kneed/mix the paper in, make sure the paper is torn into smaller pieces as it will dissolve a little quicker. 

5. Mix and enjoy! 

We brought it out after dinner so my husband and I could clean up. It was a blast. Our son then went straight to the bath. It made for a few happy campers. :)

 

Keep it in an air tight container to use later. 

Mr. Director

CP became Project Manager. 
We repainted our dining room and my husband is building the most amazing shaker style wainescoating! Well, someone woke up hard from his nap so he needed to be with daddy. I set him up in his sister's highchair (keeping him contained while paint was drying) and he had his snack. 


While sitting there, he started telling daddy where to paint and what he needed to be doing. He had a blast. I realized, quickly, that he was practicing such wonderful vocabulary and building complex sentences. We started using the "manager" game to do different things around the house. 

-  Have your child tell you where the toys go as you are picking WITH them! They have to pick up too otherwise, they don't get to be "the manager". Kids start to learn vocabulary for different places around the house and learn nice ways of telling people information without being bossy. 

- Try doing dishes together. 

- Feeding animals/pets

- Fold blankets or clothes (depending on the age)

    

- Sorting animal toys/ different balls/ blocks/ letters/ pictures/ numbers into categories. - Teach them how it looks to think about how to sort things. 

***Remember**** Demonstrate to your kid what it looks like to give information and not be bossy. No matter what the age (I see this with fifth graders daily), you need to show them what the expected behavior looks like and vocabulary sounds like. It will help create a very thoughtful kid! I promise!!!

Video Monitors

Our play group is expanding! We have welcomed three new babies so far, one will arrive any day and three more to arrive after the first of the year.  With all of us having a toddler in one space of the house and a new little one in another (attempting) to sleep, we may need a second set of eyes. 

My mommy group friends have asked about video monitors. My husband and I thought it would be fine with our original sound only monitor from Graco. We quickly found out that we were driving our selves crazy figuring out the needs of our two little ones. 

After many requests, I have come up with a conclusion on a great monitor. 

We use the Summer Infant Sleek and Secure. We have found that it works well in our home and will travel to the neighbors' yards with us (only next door). We have one camera in our son's room and the other pointed on our daughter's crib. 

  
Things we love about it:
- Can have the sound on very high!
- Can have the picture on without the sound (Motorola does not offer this)
- Can scan between cameras with the sound rotating between rooms as well
- Can see up to four cameras on one screen (we choose the room to have the sound on)
- No extra light put out that competes with the night light or adding extra unwanted light 
We travel a TON! It is extremely easy to pack, travels well, and sets up EXTREMELY easy! We don't have to reset it. Just plug it in and let it go! 

 Non Deal Breakers :
- Size of the screen 
- Wireless range

Things we wish we could upgrade:
- There's no vibrate mode like on the Gracos
- The farther the camera from the bed, the grainer the subject/picture


Overall, we really do like this camera alot! We have used it for 8 months now and have had not problem with recharging the battery or power.   I would recommend this product to friends and family.

Thanksgiving Cards

I know that I am a little late on this, however, if I posted before the holiday it may have ruined the crafty surprise to family. Now, feel free to pin this one for next year! 

  

I spent some time painting with CP and his little sis. His palm is painted brown and each finger is painted a different color coordinating with feathers on a turkey. When the paint dried, I used a black sharpie marker to draw a neck facing forward with two eyes and the orange marker to make a beak and "gobbler". It was a blast to make a full set of cards for our family.

Easy Baby Food

I LOVE making my kids baby food! It is so extremely easy! You don't need to be crafty, handy in the kitchen, or have a ton of time. It's great to have a full freezer of healthy goodies!!!

Here's the easiest set up ever: 

1. slice and dice your veggies

2. microwave in a Pampered Chef steamer until tender and cooked through

3. Puree in blender or food processor until smooth

Today, in less than 30 minutes I made 10 -2 oz jars of sweet potatoes, 10 - 2 oz jars of peas, and 11- 4oz sweet potato, apple, banana mixed pouches. 

I love these easy containers to send to school with my infant and as carrying cases for snacks and formula, when necessary. These containers were cheap and easy to clean. Since they are cheap, I don't mind if they get lost at school or not returned to me right away. They do break easily under pressure but the benefits outweigh the cons.

I bought a Freeze Squeeze system this morning and love it so far. I am looking forward to trying reusable storage for my toddler and mid-aged infant.

Thinking about how much our family loves and enjoys Plum Baby pouches, I want to see if this is a better deal than the 10 for $10 at various stores :) 

1 lg sweet potato 1.10

4 med apples 2.50

1 lg banana (paid about a $1 for 4 bananas earlier in the week)

So..... for about $4 made 11 pouches. The system costs about $30 and $17 for 50 extra pouches. 

Doing some extra math the pouches are $.34 a piece and depending of the cost of food each filled pouch will cost about $.65-$.75 each. Saving money for those families who are on the go and want homemade food for their little ones. 

Special Paint

We spent time painting our new8 dining room and of course he wanted to help paint the room. 

I gave him a cup of water and a paint brush and he painted parts of the wall that were "out of the way". 

 

This led me to an amazing idea!!! I taped construction paper to the dishwasher while I made dinner and TaDa!! An awesome canvas with  "special paint". It kept him busy for a good 20 minutes!

Displaying Children's Work

Ikea has some great finds!

  

Here we used a wire curtain rode and a few "s" clips to display kids' work. 

 

 Now to add a great quote above the wire rod. I believe that I may use Pablo Picasso's "Every Child is an Artist" We'll see! :)

Homemade PlayDough

This is one of the best play dough recipes that I have found. It has a great texture. I have tried the "no bake" or no cook doughs and I think the doughs that require heat last longer in young hands. 

 

We had a blast making play dough this weekend! We chose to make orange and green for Halloween fun. 

It's a blast and EASY! If you have 5 minutes, you can make cheap, fun! 

1 cup flour

1/3 cup salt

2 teaspoons cream of tarter

1 cup water

1 Tablespoon vegetable oil

food coloring

 

Add flour, salt, and cream of tarter to a warm pan on the stove. Have your heat on medium low. Once mixed add the food coloring. It is easier to mix in at this point. Stir until mixture comes together in one large lump. 

 

Pour it out on to wax paper and let it cool. 

Painting with Toys

 

Cut sponges into pieces and allow kids to feel the different textures as well as what happens when they get to use different sides and textures to paint with. 

 

Try using scrubbing sponges as a paint brush. Kids will love seeing what happens to paint as it is dotted and smeared. 

 

We are using a small textured basketball to roll in paint and roll around the paper. It was great to talk about the bumps on the paper and then had fun washing the basketball off to use to slam dunk in our mini hoop. 

 

Try dipping cookie cutters in paint and making different sharps and stories. 

 

One of our favorite! Use a car or truck that you can run or race through paint and then "race" across the pages. Have fun with it!! 

Try This: 

Use animals to paint tracks across the page

Borrow some craft stamps and practice stamping

Cut an apple or potato in have and use as a homemade stamp

Baseball

Hand-Eye coordination is so important for kids.

 Allow your kids to practice various types of sports. Here we purchased a basic tee and bat for CP to practice. We demostarted to him out to set up the tee with the ball. It's now his job to put the ball on the tee.

 

We spent a bit of time showing him out to hit the ball of the tee instead of hitting the tee itself. This took time since he likes to do everything by himself. 

 

Now he does everything by himself and loves 'running' the bases in the background.

Singing our ABC's

 

A few years ago, having the privilege to teach kindergarten for a year, I created felt letters cards. I used a bulletin board stencil to draw on scraps of felt and then glued the felt on to foam boards.

We pull the cards out frequently. We lay them out to find different letters, colors, sounds. We sing the ABC song over and over. It's an awesome activity to share with those who want to play with the kids but don't want to get messy.

Lacing

Fine motor skills are crucial as kiddos grow into writers and crafters. 

Here is an easy (and SUPER cheap) homemade lacing activity!

Cut out any shape you want from construction paper, we have an apply. Use a hole punch to put a few holes around the edge of the shape. Use yarn to lace through the holes. (Extra shoe laces work well, although, I not sure who have a ton of those around:) )

** one trick to help with lacing: wrap the end of the yarn with tape to make it more similar to a shoe lace***

Color Collages

CP is one smart little man but needs so practice with his colors. We have a ton of books, coloring books, crayons, markers, and toys that we use to teach color. (Basically, everything we see) 

Today, we had a wonderful day where mom and son could send a few quiet hours just playing and being crafty together.

 

We chose a few pieces of construction paper together and decided which colors we would focus on today. I used an old house decor magazine that we could rip apart, or destroy without hesitation :) We turned the pages together to find yellow, blue, or green. 

*** Be sure to stick with one color at a time in the beginning to secure each color.***

We would rip then glue and repeat. 

 

Ripping pictures and letters out to match was a blast. We used a nontoxic glue stick that I use for scrap booking so really who cares how messy we got! So much FUN! 

-For me this craft was TOTALLY free!!!-

Stacking

We have a ton of cars and trucks. Some of our favorites are the wooden ones from Melissa and Doug. Instead of running them around his race tracks, he realized that they can be stacked on top of each other. Very clever. He was so proud of himself!

We also have a set of Melissa and Doug road signs. He quickly realized that he could stack his signs. We talked about the shape of each sign and if it could be stacked. We also talked about which is the best for the base and which could go on top. We saved the triangles, circles and rhombus shaped ones for on top.

Window Markers

I loved the moment I found these! Rainy day activities....here we come........ 

Crayola window markers that wipe off with a baby wipe, windex, whatever works for you!!!!

This was an activity that kept daddy and CP busy for several minutes while I made dinner.

Open and Close

Jars and Lids

Let your child practice motor skills by opening and closing lids that snap or screw on. Tuberware, plastic containers, or old baby food jars are easy to hold. 

Your child's fine motor development will help with writing skills later. This activity lets your child practice screwing lids on and off while developing hand muscles and eye/hand coordination. Place several empty baby food (or other) jars and lids in front of your child. Have your child practice opening and closing the jars.

For the older kids or advanced children try a few variations:
Collect small unbreakable bottles and caps from empty bottles of shampoo and lotion you have used when staying in a hotel. Put the jars in a basket for your child to match.

Pops of Color

Moving into a new house has been WONDERFUL, however, new spaces sometimes call for new colors. The family that lived in our home prior us, left an entire cabinet of vases. I decided to take left over paint from various projects and give them new life.

 

I pour a bit of paint into the inside and swirled it around. I allowed the paint to drip out for a bit. It is OK to have a bit extra in the bottom. I did find an issue that if I didn't allow excess to drain out the paint didn't really dry out. Even after two weeks on the shelf. I now have them scattered around the fire place mantle and bookshelves. 

The cost to me......absolutely NOTHING!