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!