Christmas Sensory Box

We did a fall sensory box a few months ago and I decided it was time to pull out the box again and put some Christmas sensory items in it.

Roman had a good time trying to figure out the items.

He was confused by the little donkey from our nativity set. He thought it was a rock. :) Then the candycane threw him for a loop, but he finally figured that one out!

Christmas Preschool Practice

I found a great blog for preschool printable resources the other day and so I decided to try some of them out on my preschooler. He absolutely loved them! I only printed out 4 activities, but I will definitely be going back for more! Click here to visit the blog. I printed out some PreK Christmas Activities. She has numerous activities for every letter of the alphabet and some holiday activities.

Tracing shapes and patterns was the first activity we did. You can see little bro in the background really wanting to take part. :) I finally gave him a marker and a piece of paper and he thought he was big stuff.

The second activity was similar to the first, but it includes scissor practice.

Next up was a pattern game which included figuring out the pattern (which we have never really worked on so that was a good one!) and then gluing down the little pieces of paper he had cut out onto the right spots.

The last activity was a color key picture. It was great practice for colors and numbers. I would have him look at the color key and tell me what color was next to number 1. Then I would pull out the marker (I would use crayons next time) and give him the color he told me. Then I would help him find the number on the Christmas tree and color it in with the correct color. After we finished I let him loose with glitter glue to really make his picture sparkle. He LOVES glitter glue. Definitely some fabulous activities and all you need is a printer and some basic art supplies.

Merry Christmas everyone!

DDP

Our Advent candles. So precious to hear my 3 year old after we light each one..."Jesus is the light of the world...He is our salvation..."

DPP

Roman was so tired last night...

that he ended up falling asleep on the living room floor at 8:00 last night. He still loves to suck his fingers at bedtime.

Handprint/Footprint Reindeer

We made these simple, cute reindeer this morning by tracing R's footprint for the face and his handprints for the antlers. He did a great job decorating it.

The finished product went on our tree. I wrote his name and the date on the back. I am still trying to get Titus' done...he won't stay still long enough for me to trace around his hands. :)

We had a rare loving brother moment this morning when I was trying to snap some pictures for our Christmas card (better late than never!). It was cute!

Paper Snowflakes

Just a quick post for today. We made paper snowflakes this morning and it was a huge hit. My 3 year old loved cutting the paper. He made the intitial cuts and then I cut through the paper once it was folded since it was too hard for him. He enjoyed picking out which design we were going to do each time. Here's how they ended up...

Here's the website with the instructions on how to fold and cut your paper. Enjoy!

All I Want for Christmas is Shutterfly!

I don't want a lot for Christmas
There's just one thing I need
I don't care about the presents
Underneath the Christmas tree
All I want for Christmas is...
Shutterfly!

I have always loved sharing our MEMORIES from the year using Shutterfly Christmas cards! I've had fun over the years making gifts with Shutterfly, too! One year I made a calendar for my parents. Another year it was playing cards with my niece's picture on the back. Shutterfly is always thinking up something new and creative every year for gift ideas.

This year I plan on using one of their new cards that has a list of our "top ten things" for 2010. Of course finding out we are pregnant will definitely be #1 on our list! What a fun way to reminisce about the year behind and look forward to the year ahead!

My son's birthday comes not too long after Christmas card season, so I'm looking forward to getting his birthday invitations from Shutterfly as well. It's always fun to send his picture on the invitations!

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Thanks Shutterfly for being so generous and for always making the best Christmas cards!

All I want for Christmas is Shutterfly!

DPP

December 5 - after the church Christmas program

December 6 - Flowers given to me by my hubby last Friday...I love flowers. :)

December Photo Project

I'm now going to attempt the December Photo Project! It's what I need I tell ya. But if my preggo self can keep up I'll be amazed. :) I need to take photos of my kids. I need to take photos to expand myself as a photographer. I need to get up off my derriere!

Here's to December 4th. Titus watching a little Dora. He surprised us the other day and said "backpack" when they asked him to. :)

Veterans Day

With Veterans Day coming up tomorrow and my dad being a Vietnam Vet, I want to do something to really involve the kids and help make an impact on them. As I was sitting here browsing and thinking about crafts and things I thought that one thing we might do would be make a sign that says "Thank you for your sacrifice" and put the kids' handprints on it and then take the boys to the Lincoln VA Center and give it to them to display somewhere. I'll try to post pictures tomorrow of us doing that. I've been so unmotivated lately with being preggo...that's why I give no guarantees. :) If you know of a Vet or someone in active military duty who lives close to you make them a card or a sign to let them know you appreciate them! I wasn't on top of it this year and opted to send my dad an ecard instead of a paper card since I thought about it too late. We'll give him a call, too.

Here's a craft that I thought would be fun for my 3 year old to help make. Using a brown lunch bag they can make an eagle puppet. I thought we'd trace his handprints and use those for the wings instead of what is shown.

I hope everyone has a blessed Veterans Day and don't forget to thank a Veteran!

Kaleidoscope Painting

Today we did a painting project that was fun and easy! You start out with two colors of kid-safe paint. You put two big drops in the center of a piece of paper that you have placed in a 9x13 pan (it doesn't have to be a disposable pan).

Then you place a golfball in the pan and let your child roll the ball back and forth until it makes a kaleidoscope painting! :)

It turned out pretty well. Here's the website that explains it in more detail: http://blissfullydomestic.com/2010/kaleidoscope-painting

Ours turned out nothing like they showed, but it was still fun and my son enjoyed making the ball roll back and forth.

Easy Activity-Shapes

A fun and easy way for kids to practice their shapes is to trace around the different shapes on a piece of paper. We used lids, cookie cutters, boxes of food, you name it! My son had a great time and he also had fun searching for different shapes to trace around. He liked to try to draw the shapes after he had traced them as well which is even better practice!

Have fun tracing around different shapes!

Columbus Day/Native American Day

Tomorrow is Columbus Day/Native American Day. It always makes learning a little more fun when you can do activities that have a holiday theme. I found a ton of great ideas online, but this website was the best for preschoolers:http://www.first-school.ws/activities/crafts/transportation/ship-columbus-day.htm.

Another craft I thought we would make is a spyglass out of a paper towel tube.

Here are a couple of fun songs I ran across.

To the tune of "Pop! Goes the Weasel"

All around the great wide world

Columbus sailed the ocean

To prove the world was big and round

That's real devotion!

To the tune of "Mary Had a Little Lamb"

Columbus sailed the ocean blue,

Ocean blue, ocean blue

Columbus sailed the ocean blue

In fourteen ninety-two

Columbus sailed the ocean blue,

Ocean blue, ocean blue

I enjoy making discoveries, too

How about you?

It's also Native American Day and as I've mentioned before my mom works on the Rosebud Reservation. My mom asked a Native American woman to make these for my 3 year old when he was a baby.

I am going to be sure to include the Native American side to the story as well as I tell the story about the discovery of the Americas by Christopher Columbus. I'll probably also include things like how the Native Americans made their own clothes and shoes from hides and leather. And how they are very artistic as evidenced by the beading on these moccasins.

I'm not expecting my 3 year old to have a thorough knowledge of these two holidays, but I am hoping he recognizes the name Christopher Columbus and knows a little about Native Americans and their culture.

Folders

My mom teaches Special Ed kids on the Rosebud Reservation. She has so many great ideas. Teachers make all sorts of their own educational tools. My mom made these folders for my boys a while back and I thought I'd share them with you.

You can make these using simple folders, some construction paper, and velcro. She made simple color matching, shapes, and then ones that were harder like matching expressions and numbers. These are limitless!

Starfall.com

This website is so awesome when it comes to teaching your kids letters, but the thing I love about it most is the daily interactive calendar! My 3 year old asks "can we do the calendar?" almost every day. It has taught him the days of the week and so much more. Go to http://www.starfall.com/. You will thank me. :) Here's a screenshot of the homepage. There's the calendar icon.

I haven't even explored everything yet, but my son loves the "Learn to Read" section because it tells funny stories. He really enjoys the pumpkin activity right now, too. It's not very educational, but it does help with small motor skills since he's maneuvering the touch pad on the laptop. Enjoy exploring this fun website!

I knew it, I knew it...but I blew it

So the other day I posted about the fall sensory box and how that included an overripe tomato. And also how I was asking for trouble with that. Well, I went off and left that sensory box (I did manage to take out the pear). Today my children grabbed the box off of the counter and headed for the living room to play with it. I did a quick mental checklist: leaves, acorns, sticks...can't be that bad. Totally forgot about the overripe tomato. They were playing together oh so nicely that I let them be for longer than normal. So when I finally went into the living room to check on them I found a squished tomato and seeds everywhere.

This week I've been working on an ABC Zoo Book for Roman.

I am using pictures of (you guessed it) animals and things at the zoo. I've incorporated both the Lincoln and Omaha Zoos since the Henry Doorly has more exotic animals which means more letters for our alphabet book. I mean, goats are great and all, but how about a GORILLA? Except my kids could really care less. They like the goats.

This book has been really fun to put together because we visited the zoo with lots of friends this past summer so we have pictures of Roman's friends to include in his book, too.

I'll post more pictures when the book is complete and I have it printed. But right now I have to go give my diaper-clad son a bath...I love our charcoal grill, but the ashes are just too tempting. Don't worry - they weren't hot! :)

Finger Paint Pudding

I have wanted to do this for a long time, but I knew the mess would reach astronomical proportions. Today, I finally came to peace with the mess. My son and I made chocolate pudding together and then when it had set, I dumped some onto a small cookie sheet. I had him practice making some letters and shapes and then I just let him put both hands in and get messy! Not sure if our clothes will ever recover (or my kitchen...). I took these photos right at the beginning before the real messiness began.

Even little brother got in on the fun! This kept them entertained for all of 10 minutes, but it was worth it! I wish I could say that was chocolate pudding on my son's forehead, but it is a perpetual bruise from him falling down and smacking his head on pavement.

The kids loved this activity. Probably due to the fact that they got to eat chocolate pudding! You could use the same idea using sugar or cornmeal for a fun way to have your kiddos practice their letters.

Fall Sensory Box

I have heard about and seen the sensory tables they have at many preschools and they have always intrigued me. I had thought that turning our train table into a sensory table would be a good idea, but somehow I think no one would like that except me. :) So to achieve this on a smaller scale I decided to do a sensory box instead. All you need is a shoebox (I had one that was already wrapped - thus the reason for the pink!) and then just walk around outside and try to find things to put inside. I recruited my son's help even though he didn't know what I was doing.

Here's what I ended up putting inside: a pear, leaves, a rock, a stick, an overripe tomato (I am definitely asking for trouble there), and some acorns of various sizes.

THE VERDICT. He really enjoyed it and did much better than I expected he would (shining mom moment there). He thought the tomato was an acorn and REALLY wanted to eat the pear, but otherwise he was able to feel each thing and identify it correctly. Then I let him pull out each item and look at it so he knew if he was right in his identification. We'll definitely keep this box around and try it again with different objects soon!

Game Review

I just picked up the game "Hi Ho! Cherry-o" this past week. What a great way to teach your kids how to count! I would highly recommend it. It's very simple and involves a spinner, so it keeps my 3 year old entertained. It's for ages 3+. Definitely keep this game away from the babies though. We started out with 40 cherries and are now down to 39...unless I can find it after it passes through my younger son's digestive system.

A New Season

It actually FEELS like fall today. Since yesterday was officially the first day of fall, I decided some fall activities were in order. We collected some leaves (tried to find various shapes and sizes) and made rubbings of them. Just put the leaf under a sheet of paper and take an old crayon that doesn't have a label anymore and started rubbing over the leaves. Everybody has crayons like that, right? Right?

So then we tried to label the leaves. Uh...beyond pine needles I was kind of at a loss. So we looked them up (I knew we had oak in the front and was fairly certain we had some type of maple tree in our back yard) and found out it is kind of difficult to "name that tree." Especially just from the leaves. There are so many varieties of trees out there. Oh yes, and how do I know our oak trees are "pin" oaks? Well, that comes from the simple fact that when we moved in 6 years ago that was the worst year for "pin oak mites." Those little suckers were everywhere. So much so that we couldn't even be outside. Another story.


Another fall activity is a little fall poem I came across. My boys love anything with actions and this poem isn't lacking.

Red and yellow, green and brown
(count off colors on fingers)
Leaves are falling to the ground
(wiggle your fingers as you drop your hands to the floor)
We pile them up OH SO HIGH
(pile pretend leaves with hands)
Then we jump in
(pretend to jump)
My dog and I!

Just a little fun for your preschooler. We don't have a dog, but as this is just pretend anyway, no biggie! :)

I'm going to try to put together a fall "sensory box" this weekend and I'll blog about that soon. Basically, you just take a shoe box, cut a hole in the top, fill it with bits of fall (acorns, small apples, sticks, anything you can think of!) and your kids can have fun by sticking their hand in the box and trying to guess what they are feeling. I know that my boy is going to immediately pull out whatever he grasps in the box, so it might take a few times to get the hang of it. :)

Have a great weekend!

Beginnings!

Right at this second I have oodles of ideas for teaching my son running through my head. I need a place to get them out! And I need a place so that I can go back and remember the ideas I once had. :) I figure a blog is just the place. If I give you some ideas in the process...*cue Hallelujah Chorus.* I love searching the internet for homeschooling ideas. And there are so many it is hard to narrow it down sometimes. I am just starting to do some preschool activities with my 3 year old boy. So even if you're not homeschooling, most of these ideas are going to be super fun to do with your preschooler on a rainy day!
I was looking online the other day for a weather graph idea and came across this little ditty. Super easy and super cute! And effective for a preschooler. And bonus! I already had everything to make it.

My 3 year old has totally loved it. We have it hanging by our back door and every day he sees it and wants to put the arrow on each of the forecasts before settling it on the one that is actually for that day. I just cut an arrow out of construction paper and glued it to a clothespin.

I cut the sun and umbrella out of contruction paper and the cloud is a cotton ball. The snowflake was something I had in my scrapbooking supplies. I did the cutting and writing, but let my son glue everything. So grab a paper plate and make one today!