May Day Basket Healthy Goodies

I don't know about you, but I love doing May Day baskets with my kids. However, May Day being the week after Easter you're probably like me and don't want any more candy in your house! So I've been thinking about alternatives to the candy and here's what I've come across.

Mini Granola Bars: these bars are a healthy treat and I was thinking if you cut them up into mini bars and wrap them in Saran Wrap you can stick them into your little May Day baskets. A healthy treat and most kids like granola bars, right?

Trail Mix: there are so many options to how healthy you can make this. Try adding yogurt covered raisins to your dried fruit and mixed nuts.

Mini Raisin Pecan Oatmeal Cookies: these look good and even though they are cookies, they are somewhat healthy.

Baby Bananas: Have you seen these in the stores? So cute and the perfect size for a May Day basket.

That's all I have for now! I hope that gives you some healthy ideas for your kids' May Day baskets. I have little kids with young friends so I think these ideas would work. With bigger kids who know that May Day baskets are usually filled with candy, these ideas might be a total bust. :)

Picture Chart

My mom uses these pictures with the special ed kids she teaches. They are great to use for kids before they can read or as they are learning how to read. This is basically a chore chart, but kids can figure out what you want them to do by looking at the picture.

Here's what you need to get started: a piece of cardstock, velcrow (or magnets if you are putting this on your refrigerator), little pictures (you could probably find them online or draw them yourself), markers, tape and scissors. This is velcrow above that I cut into little pieces to stick on the back of the pictures and on the chore chart itself.

I put a little envelope on Roman's picture chart so as he accomplishes something he can pull it off the chart and put it into the envelope.

Here's the finished product. If you're wondering what all these cards mean I'll explain them.

The first row is "Morning" and from left to right they go like this:

1. Wash hands (my son sucks his fingers and they smell terrible in the morning...yep, he's 4 and still sucks his fingers. I swore he would be done at 3).

2. Clean up table - this translates to taking his plate, fork and cup to the sink after breakfast

3. Make bed - this means folding his blanket and putting it at the end of his bed

4. Get dressed...a constant battle with my 4 year old boy

5. Brush teeth

"Afternoon"

1. Book - this means either I need to read to him or he needs to look at books himself sometime during the afternoon

2. Pick up toys - we have to do this a couple of times a day

3. Fold clothes - Roman loves to help me fold washcloths if I'm doing laundry that day (and let's face it, I SHOULD be doing laundry everyday to keep on top of it) :)

"Evening"

1. Wash hands - this means before suppertime

2. Set table - Roman likes to help me set out the plates, silverware and cups (love it that now that I've dug out my fun, plastic plates for summer! Eases my mind a bit that he isn't going to break the nice plates)

3. Clear off table - just taking his plate, fork and cup to the sink

4. Pick up toys - again!

5. Put shoes away - we always have a pile of shoes by the front or back door

6. Laundry - when he strips his clothes off for his bath he needs to put them in the dirty clothes basket

7. Brush teeth - I help him at night

In a perfect world all this would happen every day, but as it never will be I'll be happy if we get half of these things done in a day. :) But I don't want to end up with boys who don't know how to help or don't think it is expected of them. Can I get an amen?! :)

Rain Art

I posted about making "rain art" the other day and wanted to show you how ours turned out. First, I had them both draw pictures using Crayola washable markers. Then I put them on cookie sheets before I placed them outside so they wouldn't get soaked from laying on the wet porch. We left them outside for probably 10 minutes. It really just depends on how hard it is raining and how much you want your pictures smeared. Above it Titus' picture along with a sticker from Super Target that he put on there. :) Below is a picture I drew with the kids. Roman's picture! This was a fun thing to do on a rainy day. The boys kept running to the door to check their pictures.

Ideas for a rainy day...

I wanted to post some ideas that I have running through my brain for tomorrow (supposed to be rainy all day). We have been outside enjoying the nice weather lately so I haven't posted much! And then when it turned cold again I was too depressed to post anything. :) So ONE rainy day doesn't seem like a big deal! Especially when the forecast for Saturday is 82 degrees! Woot!

Here are some ideas to do with your little ones tomorrow:

1. Rain Art - get some heavy duty paper (cardstock or some good construction paper), let your kids draw pictures or shapes or just scribble on the paper with washable markers and then set it out in the rain for a few minutes to make rain art.

2. Go to this fun new website I found and learn all about rain! Be sure to scroll down to the experiments section.

3. Grab a bunch of books and curl up under a blanket and read and read and read!

4. Go on a rainbow scavenger hunt. You can tell your kids a color and then have them search the house to find something of that color. Be sure to include all of the colors in a rainbow! If they gather enough items you can make a rainbow with everything when you are done collecting.

5. Have your kids write a letter or draw a picture to send to grandma and grandpa (who cares if they live in town? They would love it!)

6. Play follow the leader around the house.

7. Cover your table with freezer paper or big pieces of paper and let your kids paint with rollers, brushes, stamps, whatever! If you have some alphabet stickers put their names on the paper before you start and when they are done peel the stickers off so their names are on their artwork!

8. If you child is old enough give them a dry erase marker and stand them in front of a mirror to draw their own self-portrait. See how detailed they get!

9. And I can't leave out putting on some rain boots and going outside to splash in some puddles!

Happy Rainy Day everyone!