Growing Tomatoes - Finding the Mysterious Worm

Just about everyone is growing tomatoes as well as other things these days! Turn it into conversation pieces. 

You and your children can have a blast looking for the flowers and talk about how the bees and other insects pollenate the flowers so they will produce fruit. Also, this is how all fruit start out. 

We have one plant making tons of little fruit! We go on a hunt to find all the growing fruit and look at the different colors. It's really exciting to watch the kids realize the food is growing and changing. Patience is hard for young ones, and adults sometimes, too! 

Watch as they turn from green to yellow to orange to red! 

It's fun to find the hidden fruit on the plants. 

We also talk about the size and look for ones that are smaller, bigger, smallest, largest. It is really neat to help them find ones of the same size (matching). 

Another opportunity for giving your child vocabulary is providing them with the words stalk, base, leaves, shoots, etc. 

Now, we have a mysterious worm. (I got one last week and now there seems to be another one!! yuck!) I'm still on the hunt for this one!  

 We discuss the different ways we can tell we have a worm. Some of the fruit has been eaten, holes in the leaves where is has been eaten away and......

worm poop (fun to give them the word scat also for poop). Be honest with yourself....it's fun to talk about poop! 

Each day we water our plants together. 

Once a week we fertilize our plants and talk about how it is helpful to the plants and harmful to us. 

Hummingbird Feeders

After being in the beautiful Rocky Mountains of Colorado with my family, I realized that I was missing a HUGE opportunity for my kids to be a bit closer to nature here in the Chicago burbs. Why not let them help me fill the hummingbird feeders!!!!!

Awesome opportunity to give them an understanding of how birds find food, give them new vocabulary words with meanings, and let them practice colors, mixing, watching sugar dissolve, and of course helping our local bird population!



There were so many little birds dive bombing us, it was amazing. If you were patient enough you could get one to perch on your finger. My husband's amazing aunt has my daughter showing her the hummingbirds up close!!! So Cool!!!!

I use a 4:1 ration. 1 cup of water to 1/4 cup of sugar.
We heated the water in the microwave for about a minute - not boiling - just hot enough to dissolve the sugar.

I let one kiddo add a few drops of red food coloring and the other got to stir. They loved watching the drops take over the entire container.

I showed my two kids the funnel. Now that's a fun word to get a 2 1/2 year old and 15 month old to say. We giggled more that got it out but it was fun! I let the little one hold the funnel and asked my son to pour the red sugar water into the feeder.  We talked about how red and other bright colors attract birds and bugs as well as what birds eat. It was a great conversation!


       

We have the most amazing bay window that the kids can sit inside. This is the best place to watch our little feathered friends. Now its not the best place to attract them so I need to get a few placed around our garden. We do have amazing flowers planted by the previous owners to attract hummingbirds, so we have a good start!!!

I made a second batch to keep in the fridge as a refill - this is what I could take photos of as my hands were helping prevent spills the first go around :)

Homemade Crayons - Reuse Old Crayons

Need a way to use the nubs on crayons or maybe your little one decided to break every crayon your household owns? Here's a great way to make 'new' crayons and have a blast!!!!

We started by sorting crayon into similar colors and a few with mixed to make some funky crayons.

We then placed the muffin tin in the sun. Normally on an 85 degree day they would melt in an afternoon. However, it was only 72 here this day and it was taking a bit long. Our crayons were soft  and started to melt but we wanted to be able to use them that afternoon.

We decided to pop them in the oven, which is what I remember trying as a child. - oh growing up with a crafty mom was AWESOME!! 

 

Try to get your oven as low as you can go. I was able to set mine to 100 degrees.

 We left them in for about 20 minutes, until they were liquid and glossy on top.


 

Make sure you let them cool completely or you will have finger prints and dents.



To get them out, we had to turn the pan upside down and bang on it a bit. It also helped to try and lightly twist the muffin tray like an ice cube tray.

Use this as a conversation starter to talk about the sun. You can discuss how the sun heats the Earth, warms the water in pools, lakes, etc, warms the soil so plants can grow. Have fun talking about color sorting, matching light blues and dark blues or opposites on the color wheel (blue vs orange). Anytime you can help build your child's vocabulary, you are only helping them be more successful!!!! Give them the words and let them practice what those words mean. When they get to do - they learn!!!! 

I am not sure about no stick spray and the wax in the crayons. If you try it, let me know what you think.

Letter Races - Letter Practice

First, If you don't own letter mats, get some! I found mine at the consignment shop - super cheap! They are a blast. 

We have the out and about most of the time. My children work best when we rotate toys in and out of our playroom/family room. I got these back out when grandma came to visit - any extra back up activities are always appreciated. 

Kids LOVE jumping! I asked if he wanted to jump/stomp (as a dinosaur) on letter tiles - of course that was a YES! 

 

I started by throwing tiles on the floor and asking him to find the letter and jumping on it. It was a good refresher to call/drop them on the floor in order and let him jump on them right as they fell.

We called a few of his favorites several times so he could really stomp.

Send the kids on a hunt for certain letters and let them call letters out to you. He loved telling me to find various letters then saying, "Good Job, Mommy"!!!! Kids love to teach also, give them the chance! 

When people get the chance to teach, they learn 90% of what is presented to them!!!!!!

Let them teach you!!!

We created our letter race track. He and I would find the letters and connect them in order. We took turns so he wouldn't burn out.

Even, little lady and our pup started racing and having a blast!

I started calling letters as he ran. CP would run up and down until he found it and jumped/stomped/sat/squatted on that tile. He was ecstatic when he got it correct. He's normally very good with his letters, so this was hysterical!

 

 

Finally, he started jumping and moving his legs out from under him, landing on his bottom. Hysterical!

 

Have fun with letters, make things a game, and always talk to your child giving them the words to communicate with you!

Window Blocks - Window Clings

I loved finding this idea!!! I wish I could remember which blog I saw it on first! - Totally snagged this one and it's a KEEPER!

I found foam sheets in rectangles and circles at the dollar store. I picked up one pack of each totaling $2. 

I know an expensive activity ;) 

This is going to be my next busy bag contribution at our next exchange (not scheduled - but too easy to pass up!!!)

When foam is wet it sticks easily to windows and walls, like window clings. We have two little ones that LOVE their water table and playing in the kiddie pool. Dipping and splashing in water is always a plus. I set them up outside, let them dip and splash all they wanted and it didn't matter if they were getting the windows or themselves wet. 

We call this Window Blocks. 

Cut into various easy shapes. I did this during nap time one day in about 4 minutes. I didn't worry about making cuts perfect or look beautiful. Didn't think it matter very much.

Use a small container to dip the foam pieces in to get wet and make the stick to the window.

Have fun! Build towers, castles, houses, trees, etc....

Sort by shapes

Sort by colors

Just stick them on and build. It doesn't matter, have fun!

Practice giving your little ones words to add to their vocabulary. Talking with your kiddos and explaining what they are doing and with what they are working will always help your child grow.

Store them how you wish, zlip-loc, a sak, a plastic container. They dry VERY fast in the sun. I leave them out for a minute and then gather them up for the day.

Painting Pasta

This was an AWESOME and cheap activity to do with the kids. It was so easy to put together and little man loved creating painted noodles with me.

I found a box of noodles on sale.  I didn't think it mattered if the noodles were nasty as we were only going to be silly with them. I think I ended up paying $.78 for the box.

We talked about cold water and boiling water. "How do we know when the water is boiling?" It was a great intro to steam and evaporation. Now little man talks about my coffee being hot when he can see the steam.

Cook the noodles until al'dente. This way they suck of the color and don't fall apart in your little one's hands.

drain - use right away! pasta as you know can get sticky and not as easy to work with

The kids and I (really my 2 1/2 year old) decided with what colors he wanted to play. I split the pasta into four bowls.

Add some oil to keep the noodles from sticking together. '

I only added a splash to each bowl.

Use your favorite food coloring and get creative.

I wanted brightly colored noodles and have an abundance of food coloring so I opted to use quite a bit. Use what you have.

Use a fork to get you started mixing the colors, because the noodles are still hot. You can rinse them in cold water first to make mixing easier, HOWEVER, it stops the cooking process and then they don't suck up as much coloring.

Because we love noodles in our house, I found little man eating them several times. Nothing wrong with it - other than a blue and green mouth afterward :) Use a cookie sheet to keep your table a bit cleaner and the oily pasta in one spot.

Have fun playing with textures, picking out only certain colors, practicing dexterity - one noodle at a time, and just spreading them around and mashing them together. 

We made little birds' nests, then talked about the types of birds that we have in our yard that may use our colorful nests.

Squish!!!!!

If you have ever read "I love you Stinky Face", then you may recognize the "slimy swamp monster that CP turned himself into. If you haven't read the book, it is a must in our house! It's super adorable and just sweet to read at bedtime.

Get a few days of life out of the pasta by keeping it in an airtight container. Since it's only in oil, it's ok to keep on the counter but it will spoil after some time.