Turkey Cookies

It's great when your child gets old enough to start helping out in the kitchen. It's wonderful time spent together making memories, developing skills, and it opens the door to have great conversations with your children.
Usually when it's my daughters' turn to bring a snack to pre-school, we have her take something healthy. Because that's the way we eat at home.
But, with Thanksgiving next week, I thought it would be fun to have her help me make a fun snack to take. And it involved sugar. Lots of sugar!
But,the Holidays come around only once a year, right?
We took fudge striped cookies, Nutter Butters, mini m&ms, and frosting and made these!

Cute little booger, huh?

Enjoy creating memories with your children in the kitchen this Holiday Season!

Traveling with Kids

After doing a vacation this past weekend with my kids, I was ecstatic. The vacation was wonderful! We had a great time traveling and seeing parts of Utah we hadn't been to. So, I thought I would post on traveling with kids. Here are a few things that worked for me ( my kids are 3,2, and 5 mths):

1-Plan
I made a day to day plan which included where we wanted to go, cost, contact info; what we were eating; where we were staying. I didn't put times by things because I want to be flexible enough to make changes where needed and also not feel like I had to rush from one thing to the next to meet a time constraint. It also kept all the important info in one place (ie directions, phone number to call, confirmation numbers, etc.) so that they were easily reachable. We never ran out of anything to do! With little kids, this is a must!
2-Car Boxes
I made car boxes loaded with different things for them to do ( ie. aqua doodle, coloring books, cars, books, stickers, etc.) This kept all their stuff in one place and I wasn't searching to find them something to do. PS - I found the coolest thing at KMart. It was a make your own Golden Book (those books with gold binding). The pages were blank. So I got one for CK and Alli. I let them draw pictures of different places we went and helped them write words and it became their vacation travel log.
3-Snack Sacks
I usually keep my snacks in a picnic basket in the car. Then when the want something, I lean over and pull something out of the picnic basket. But, I knew our car was going to be packed and with 3 kids, leaning over to reach anything is hard. So, I got each kid a ziploc bag. Before we started driving, I loaded their bag with snacks from the picnic basket. That's what they got til we stopped. When we stopped, I made a point of filling their bag again, so they always had something to munch on. If they ate it too fast, too bad, they didn't get anything else til we stopped (they learned pretty quick). I also kept a cooler of water in the car and filled up their drink cups with water at every stop.

Wonderful Croquet

I love a good old fashioned croquet set. Not only is is a fun backyard game in the summer, with a little creativity it can be even more! My brother-in-law took a set with us camping and we played a game of "mountain croquet". The traditional game was made more interesting when trying to navigate brush, trees, rocks, and holes. A croquet set can also be used in a homemade version of mini-golf. Use old plastic cups as the holes and bits of paper (or other markers) to show the starting positions. Then, using a croquet mallet and a golf ball (or other small ball), have everyone try to run the mini-golf course that the family has created.

Water This Week

My theme this week is water. Honestly, a lot of my ideas come from Family Fun! They are amazing!
There website is http://familyfun.go.com/

Here are some of the things I'm thinking of doing with the kids or making:



Swimming and toddler games



Whale Water Scoop



Backyard Watercolor

We'll probably also talk about water safety and do water balloons!

'Painting' with water.

Now that the summer months are upon us, I thought I would share an idea to keep the kids cool outside! All you will need is a big bowl or bucket of water, and a paint brush or two.

Let your child dip the paint brush in the water, then let them start 'painting' the fence, the water turns the wood a darker shade. It looks like it's been painted! After the sun shines on it for awhile, it dries and looks just as it did before! I let my 3 1/2 year old do this last summer, and she loved it!


She's already asked me if she can 'paint' the fence again this year! This will keep your kiddo busy for quite a while. The older they are, the more 'artistic' they can be. Also, this will work on any wood item you have outdoors, not just a fence. Let your child 'paint' your patio, planters etc.

Melted Crayons

FOR LITTLE ONES

Children need practice pinching small objects between thumb and pointer finger in an open grasp in preparation for a correct writing grasp.
So once my boy is big enough that he can be trusted not to eat the activity, I'm going to melt down old crayons and roll them into balls that he can color with and practice the pincer grasp.

To Melt Crayons:
1. Gather leftover crayons and take off the wrappers.
2. Place the crayons in a 200-degree oven in paper-lined muffin tins for just a few minutes. (Put the colors you want to melt together in the same tin).
3. If desired, pour crayons into molds (or melt them in molds).

Themes

I am a theme person! It makes planning so much easier, and I believe that some (not all) play needs to be organized and planned. So for example here is my theme for this week:

A Mad Hatter Tea Party
this is because Orem Library is having a Mad Hatter Tea Party Teddy Bear Picnic the week of June 7-12

Here is what we plan to do to get excited for the teddy bear picnic:


Mad Hatter Hats fro TLC
These are made out of a brown paper bag!






Edible Teacup from Disney Family
Totally looks simple!


And of course we will head outside for a round of croquet!

I only do one thing a day, so I plan for 10-15 minutes to do our activity.

Some wise words

I hope you will forgive me in my rambling thoughts...But since this is a blog about sharing ideas for playtime with our children, I thought I would share just a couple of quotes on playtime with you~

'Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play IS serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.'
~Fred Rogers



'You are worried about seeing him spend his early years in doing nothing. What! Is it nothing to be happy? Nothing to skip, play and run around all day? Never in his life will he be so busy again.'
~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Reading Time

Well, this is my first post, I'm a little nervous! But since we are talking about books and reading I thought I would share as well!

I LOVE reading! I always have! I think it's because my MOM read to us for as long as I can remember. My mom home schooled all 6 of us kids. WOW! I have no idea how she did it! But we would start each day with a devotional. We would sing a hymn {maybe a future post on that}, read out of the scriptures and then my mom would read us a chapter out of a book. She read us children's books like ' Mrs. Piggle Wiggle', 'Stewart Little', older children's books like ' Chronicles of Narnia', Harry Potter, and then books like ' Lord of the Rings', the classic 'Robin Hood' and 'the Black Arrow', among many others.
So you see, at a young age we had been exposed to great literature, and now all of my siblings and I LOVE to read. I thank my mom for instilling that love in us!
Now that I have a young daughter, I have been reading to her from when she was a newborn. A newborn? Yes! You can never start reading to your children too early. As babies, they will just love to hear your voice, even if you are just reading your magazine articles out loud to them! When babies get older and you start reading picture books to them, let them turn pages. Even if they skip a few pages, just read whatever is on the page they skip to. At that age, they won't really notice what you are reading anyway.
As they get older, they can start to turn individual pages and recognizing the sequence of the story, so they will know if you've skipped a part or not!
Anyway, reading to babies and young children is sooo important! It helps with their language development, helps them to learn to focus and listen,is great bonding time, and provides wonderful 'quiet time'. Now-a-days children can get sooo over stimulated!
So read away to your children, young and older. They will grow and learn from it, it provides a great bond between the two of you, and they WILL remember the times when their mom read to them!

Pop Up Books

Making pop-up books is easy. Get a piece of construction paper. Fold it and cut slits in tne paper. Then fold the slits so they bend inside the prior fold. It should look like this:

Then get out more construction paper and draw some small pictures on it. Cut them out and glue them to the folds you made previously. Glue several sheets together to make a pop-up book.

Foreshadowing

Reading to children is beneficial at any age. One of my favorite books to read aloud is "Rosie's Walk" by Pat Hutchins.

In this book, Rosie the Hen goes for a walk around the farm. Unbeknown to her, she is being followed by a fox who would like nothing more than to eat her for his dinner. This is a great book to help your child build prediction skills by drawing on the author's foreshadowing. Tell your child that foreshadowing is when an author or illustrator gives you clues as to what is going to happen next in the story. Then read the story, asking him/her to tell you when he/she sees foreshadowing. Prompt him/her by asking "What do you think is going to happen to the fox? What clues do you see?"
from a lesson by Linda Hoyt

Sunday Centers

FOR YOUNG AND OLD!

For those hours before church or after where you just don't know what to do - Sunday Stations. Set up areas in your house with things for them do. They can go to all of them or just a few. Here are some suggestions:

Listening Station - Listen to scriptures on tape/CD
Coloring Station - Color different pictures ( the Friend has one in each edition)
Writing Station - this could be journals; letter to family, friends, missionaries, etc.; writing a talk
Reading Station - we keep a separate pile of board books that are church related
Music Station - this could be singing hymns together(or children's songbook), listening to children's songbooks cd's, practicing primary songs for program
Game Station - memory games (prophet version) and any other church related game
Scripture Station - for those who can read to read their scriptures
Acting Station - complete with props to act out scripture stories
Award Station - where older kids work on Faith in God, YW/ YM awards

The possibilities are endless.

Original idea from The Friend

What Should We Play?--Sunday Edition

FOR THE VERY YOUNG
Tell your children that you have a very important person inside your special box. Have the children take turns guessing who it is. Then allow them one at a time to look inside the box. (Inside the box you put a large mirror, so when the children look inside they see themselves.) After they have all had a turn looking inside the box, ask them the question again. Explain to them that they are each important because they are unique/different and that there is no one else in the world just like them and that each one of them is a child of God.
from sugardoodle.net

FOR OLDER KIDS
Set up a small tent in the living room or make a fort out of blankets and chairs. Climb inside with your child, a set of scriptures, or scripture story pictures. Have a "reading campout" as you share the scriptures together.

Let the fun begin!

I want to be like my friend Meredith. She's always planning fun, enriching things for her kids to do. The problem is, where do such great ideas come from? Well, if you're willing to help out, they can come from us! Post ideas of fun things you can do with your kids, labeled by the appropriate age and the resource it came from (if applicable) and let the fun begin! If this works out, we can get a lot of Moms involved and end up with some great ideas. So lets get started!

FOR THE VERY YOUNG
Just as she loved peek-a-boo as a baby, your toddler will love to play simple games of hide-and-seek. First thing in the morning take turns hiding under the bed sheets; at bath time, use a big towel. For extra fun and giggles you can gently prod her as she hides. "Hmm, is this a leg? Or is it an arm?" Games like this help teach your toddler that just because she can't see something, doesn't mean it isn't there. For a change, while she's wrapped up in the towel, carry her into another room. She'll be delighted when she pops her head out to discover she's in a new spot.
from babycenter.com

FOR OLDER KIDS
House of Cups
What to do with those pesky, unrecyclable disposable cups? Save them, wash them, then break them out for a stacking game. Stacking cards may be fun for some, but stacking cups is sometimes a better bet when it comes to keeping young hands and attention spans engaged. The game is great fun when two or more play, but it can also be a great solo diversion. Perhaps you and your child can take turns placing the cups on top of one another. If your child gives in to a sudden desire to seize the bottom cup, that's okay! How high can you make them go before they tumble on their own? Can you stack different types of cups without causing an avalanche? Can you make a replica of a familiar building? Only time, patience, and a good chunk of table space will tell.