Summer Crafting

These two really are best friends and there are few things that make me happier.  It is SO fun to do things with them.  Maddie constantly encourages Grayson and he just soaks it all in.

Love these two (and they LOVE when I say, "Want to do a craft?")!

Chalk and Sunshine

Nana bought us new chalk so we took some outside, along with cups of water and a baby brother.  :)

Dip the chalk in the water and draw.  The colors are so much brighter!

 Grayson wanted them so badly that he even almost attempted to crawl.  Almost.

 But all he wanted to do was eat it.

Onto the grass he went (where he spent most of the time trying to eat the grass).

 Maddie drew and wrote and mixed colors.

 Look at that long hair! 

She detests having her hair brushed and has started hinting that she may want it cut.  Sniff!

 Love his little cowlick  :)

Such a nice day outside... followed up by a bath for two chalky kids!  :)

St. Patrick's Day Crafting

Maddie and I have had fun with some St. Patrick's Day crafts and activities so I thought I'd share!

She loved this one!

We got out the finger paints and I would paint her hand in each color.

Then, she'd make prints in the shape of a rainbow.

I cut out some pots and we cut out gold circles together.

She glued all of them on at the end.

It's such a colorful (and big!) decoration for our house. :)

Since we had the finger paints out, I showed her how to make shamrock thumb prints.

She added stems.

Use your imagination. :)

The following activities are all from HERE.

This was a cute book that has a fun little twist at the end.

It uses a lot of sight words that she knows so it was fun for her to read to me!

She colored this in and then added a yellow dot stamp marker to count 12 coins.

And finally, we did a phonics activity with the sounds /sh/ and /s/.

We had to finely tune our ears so that they were sensitive enough to hear the sound differences. :)

It's hard to see, but this paper is folded in half and she sorted/glued the pictures on the correct side.

She did so well with this and really didn't need me too much!

We have some more ideas but have yet to get to them. St. Patrick's Day falls on a preschool day and she is so excited! Nana even bought her a special green shirt! :)

Grayson's Art Work

I wanted to share the art work that will be going in Grayson's room.

It's been a family effort. :)

Obviously, I love this book. :)

I wanted to incorporate the cover in his room, but wasn't crazy about the author's name or other writing.

So, my super talented husband scanned it, worked with it in Photoshop and...

It's perfect!

I slipped it in a frame and leaned it on the ledge around his room.

I had this shadow box from Ikea and added some scrapbook paper in the back.

I picked up this wooden G at the craft store for $0.99 and Maddie and I painted it black.

Then, I used some mounting squares to attach it inside.

And finally, the most awesome piece of artwork. :)

I had this frame and cut some butcher paper to fit inside. Then, Maddie wrote his name.

I love it. :)

Now... to hang all these frames!

Maddie's Work Space

If it's just Maddie and me at home, there's a 90% chance that you can find her at her table, working, creating, stamping, drawing or painting.

Of all the things we've bought her, I think this table and chairs (from Ikea) have been the greatest, most long-lasting of all.

She has an area in our family room, tucked neatly behind our sectional. It's kind of "her space."

Ikea tubs were hung on a rod and they hold her markers, crayons, glue bottles and scissors.

We also use our cubby system in the family room for her. The baskets hold all her figures and toys (I can't stand to see toys out!) and the doors hide her boxes of stamps, stickers, glitter glue and pads of paper. She always has access to all her materials and she uses them ALL THE TIME.

This weekend, we were out and about and I gave her the option of getting a smoothie or going to the craft store and getting new tubes of glitter glue. She hardly had to think before answering, "Glitter glue. I'm getting a little low." :)

I love that she's so interested in crafting and she comes up with some very interesting collages and creations! :)

DIY I Spy Pages for Little Ones

I have stayed up way past my bedtime for this project, but once I get an idea in my head...

Well, this is probably why I don't get a whole lot of regular sleep. Ha!

But, I am so excited to share these DIY I Spy sheets!

Lately, Maddie has become really, really into I Spy books. Thanks to my sisters' childhood, we must own every single I Spy book. We even have a ton of the soft cover, simpler ones. But, I thought it'd be super fun to make some pages with her toys...

Hence, the DIY sheets were created!

I just grouped a ton of her toys, figures, or tiny objects (okay, they were mostly from our shop; another great use for tiny objects!) and took a picture.

Then, I simply printed and laminated.

The longest part was arranging the toys. :)

I put this out on a tray with a bowl of large glass pebbles so that as she finds a specific item, she can cover it (and the pebble makes a cool magnified image!).

I think we'll start off by playing where we take turns having the other person find a specific object. If I get another bee in my bonnet, I'll stay up late and make cards that tell/show her what to find.

Anyway, I hope she'll love them! They were super easy to make and maybe she could even help me make the next batch!

Valentine Tot Trays

I hesitate to call these "Tot Trays," since I don't really consider Maddie a tot anymore. But, these are our Valentine-themed trays that I thought I'd share. I've gotten so bad about taking pictures so today, I made a point of documenting this week's work.

Phonics and Letters

I wrote some phrases on paper and put out sparkly sticker letters (I think they're from Oriental Trading). She matches the sticker to the letter and then decorates.

Math

I got this super cool printable (just this morning!) from RockerMom. I can't wait for Maddie to try it out!

Fine Motor Skills

I taped a ribbon's end to create a "needle" and put out a strawberry basket. She can "sew" through the basket and then we'll put a Valentine present inside!

The pitcher holds tiny heart beads that she can pour between the three cups. She loves to play restaurant so I thought she'd like this one. :)

This is a simple tweezing of foam heart beads into the ice cube mold. I got those chopsticks at the Goodwill for a nickel, brand new!

She can also sort the beads by color or size (there are three sizes).

Crafts

These are little foam crafts that I picked up for $0.50 at Michaels.

I put the picture on the tray so that she has a guide.

Our Setup

And finally, just a picture of how we keep it all organized and accessible (in our kitchen). If it were up to her, we'd do all the trays in one day. Ha! But usually, I have her pick one or two, and some of them can be repeated multiple times throughout the week.

Winter-themed Sensory Ideas

To extend what she's learning in preschool, we've been doing lots of winter-themed activities at home, too.

These are some of her favorite sensory ones we've done this month...

Snow

I know I've talked about it before, but this insta-snow product is such a hit that we end up making a fresh batch about once a week. I usually give her a bowl of tiny objects to play with and hide in the "snow," but on this day, she thought it'd be funny to hide her figures. :)

Iceberg!

This has been one of her favorite activities for well over a year.

I take tiny objects (buttons, marbles, tiny animals, smooth pebbles) and freeze them in a bowl of water.

Then, she gets to use the hammer (yes, a real hammer) to crack them out of the iceberg.

I also give her other instruments, just to see what works best (a fork, tongs, a washcloth) but she knows by now that the hammer is the best. :)

Model Magic Snowmen

I had a bag of Model Magic that was about to be completely dry, so we used it to make snowmen.

She rolled them out (with help!) and we talked about how they need to be spheres (which she insists on calling, "atmo-spheres"). :)

I gave her a bowl of some decorations and after stacking them, she added eyes, buttons, arms and a nose.

Didn't they turn out cute?!

All these activities were so easy to put together and she loved each one!

Winter Mini Unit

January's theme at preschool this month is all about Winter. They're learning about penguins, snow and snowmen, igloos and the weather.

Quick side note: I feel (and I know Mike feels the same way!) so blessed to have Maddie in such a nurturing, loving preschool. I got to work in her classroom on Tuesday and almost didn't want to leave after my hour because it was just a fun environment. Her teacher is gentle, there is such a sweet little group of girls that Maddie plays with and I know that this time is so invaluable for her.

Anyway. :) It's a big thing for me! I went for quite a while thinking that we'd skip sending her to preschool all together and now my heart is just so happy with where she is. Now I can't imagine her not going!

So to build off what they're learning in school, we've been doing some extension activities at home.

Crafts

I drew some snowflakes on paper and put out Q-tips, a paint dabber, white paint and some glitter.

She dabbed the paint along the lines and then sprinkled glitter over all the snowflakes.

They turned out great!

We did this one last year, but since it was fun, we repeated it this year!

I covered some paper with painter's tape and then gave her big paint dabbers and white paint.

She stamped paint all over and the sprinkled more glitter.

Then, we worked together to peel the tape off (it comes off really easily) and marveled at the "magic" snowflake left on the paper! :)

Sensory

*One that I don't have pictures of (even though I really thought I did) was when we made snow, using THIS product. This is a really fun sensory AND science experiment. I always find the snow at our local teacher's supply store, but add in small trinkets and tiny winter objects to make it a hide and find game. Maddie and her friend Mya played for quite a while with our giant bowl of snow we made!

For this one, I also grabbed an old dish and together, we sprayed shaving cream (Dollar Tree!) inside. We pretended that this was snow, too and Maddie had a BLAST smooshing and squeezing and spreading it all over.

Look at those snow monster hands! :)

It's such a great time to talk about textures, temperatures, sounds and smells.

To make bath time educational fun, we learned about icebergs and simulated lots of small icebergs by ice cubes in the bath tub.

She loved this and I think I finally drew the line after I'd refilled our ice bowl six times. Ha!

It was fun to hear the cubes crackle as they were dropped in the water and she loved watching them (sometimes helping them along) dissolve and get smaller.

Literacy

These next printables are from Making Learning Fun.

With this one, I'd call out a letter (this page was all lowercase letters) and she'd peel off a sticker and cover the correct letter.

*And no, she can not write her name. She did make the letter M, but the rest was done hand-over-hand.

We also read and colored a book about a melting snowman. :)

Fine Motor and Logic

This started off as a simple fine motor skills practice with objects, an ice cube tray and chopsticks.

She had fun transferring the objects from the bowl into the tray.

But, then I decided to try something new and it was a major hit (major as in, we played for a solid 30 minutes and the minute Mike got home from work, she made him play, too!).

Her job was to match the winter objects side by side in the tray. Then, she'd close her eyes and I would make an error. We started off with her having to open her eyes and correct that one error, moving all the way up to her having to identify and correct up to six errors at once.

I know, it doesn't sound huge but she loved the challenge and it was a great logic activity. She'd have to move several of the pieces around to get them all back to their matched state.

So, that was our mini-unit and I think she had a blast! I love that I'm able to tie her preschool curriculum into our home learning because I think it just makes everything so much richer!