Bunny Face



At Story-time at the Library this last week, we did a Bunny craft.
Take a paper plate and draw a bunny face on it. (LM chose to draw the face with an orange crayon, so it's a bit hard to see....but somewhere on that plate there are 2 eyes and a mouth!)

Then you glue on bunny ears cut out of construction paper!


Spring Blossoms


I saw this idea over on The Wonder Years. As a way of giving a warm and long-awaited welcome to spring, we made these pom-pom flowers. Extremely simple and fun.

First, we wrapped the yarn around LM's hand.


Then we took it off, tied a piece of yarn around the middle, and cut the loops.


We went in our back yard to find a few sticks that we could attach the blossoms to, then put them in a vase.

When they were all done, we thought they bore a striking resemblance to the world of the Who's. So we are taking good care of them.


This would be a fun craft to go along with the book: "Horton Hears a Who," by Dr. Seuss.

FHE: Resurrection

 If you'd like to do something similar with your family, 
you could copy and paste the following into a document that you can print.
Prayer

Scripture: Mosiah 16:7-8
Activity: I printed out some pictures of a caterpillar, a chrysalis, and a butterfly that I found on Google Images. We will talk about the process of a caterpillar turning into a butterfly and relate it to the resurrection. 

Treat: Strawberry Banana Roll-ups. (I found this recipe here.)

Prayer


Strawberry Banana Roll-Ups

flour tortillas
Peanut Butter
Jelly
Bananas


Place tortilla on paper towel. Microwave 10 seconds. Spread PB & J on tortilla. Place banana on top. Roll up!

Organization

I am a fan of organization. And as such, I also happen to be a fan of little tabs on olive green hanging folders in a big metal drawer that easily show me where to find something I need, or where to efficiently put something away that I may need to find later. More succinctly, perhaps I could say that I'm a fan of this:

(excuse the turkey. I took this picture after we first acquired this file cabinet last November.)

The bottom drawer hold our files. The next one holds my coupons. The 3rd one holds paper of all kinds for crafts, file folder games, and other preschool games, etc. The top one holds our craft supplies.
Seriously. If I could, I'd have a whole room full of these big black wonders.

Mini Memory

 I saw this idea over on Little Hands, Big Work a while back and thought it was a fun & easy way to teach LM how to play memory. We used the cards from the classic Memory Game, and made a "game board" to play on. I outlined 8 cards so that each card had a spot. LM is learning this 8 card version pretty well, so I think soon he will be ready for the 12 card version.

FHE: Obedience


If you'd like to do something similar with your family, 
you could copy and paste the following into a document that you can print.



Prayer

Scripture: Alma 37: 35

Activity: Sing the song Do As I’m Doing (Children’s Songbook, #276). Each round choose a new action that everyone follows. Talk about the importance of obeying Mommy & Daddy.

Prayer

Treat: Mini S'more Pops - Put a toothpick in a mini marshmallow and dip it in melted chocolate, then in graham cracker crumbs. Mmmmmm.....



St. Patrick's Day Clusters!



So, I have been meaning to do some St. Patrick's Day stuff for the past few days, but just haven't done it. Today was my last chance, so we made St. Patrick's Day Clusters!

I found this green sugar on clearance at the grocery store....probably left over from Christmas, but perfect for St. Patty's Day!

I knew we had marshmallows, but no rice krispies. I wondered how it would work to use a different type of cereal with melted marshmallow....so we tried Kix. Once it was all mixed, we sprinkled on some green sugar, and rolled them into little clusters. And the best part of all, was that St. Patrick's Day was a good excuse to eat a yummy treat. (Not that I really need a good excuse, let's be honest.)

And lest we devour them all, I thought it best to bag them up and take some to Daddy, and some friends.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!


Framed Autos


 Here is a fun project we did a few days ago:


It all started with a little painting:


After it dried, we then cut out a small car shape and a small truck shape. Then we we crumpled them up into little balls:


Next, we un-crumpled them, and put glue on the back:


Then, we glued them on white cardstock, and put them in a couple of old frames:

Next, we found a few black buttons and glued them on too:

And in the end, they turned out like this:




FHE: Message of the Restoration


If you'd like to do something similar with your family, 
you could copy and paste the following into a document that you can print.
Prayer
Scripture: James 1:5

Activity:Mommy & Daddy teach a 5 minute lesson on the Message of the Restoration.

Prayer

Treat: Graham cracker & frosting sandwiches 

Easy File Folder Game: Sticker Matching


LM loves to play with his file folder games, and I found the easiest way in the world to make some: use stickers!

Most of the time when you buy stickers, they come with at least 2 sheets that are the same. Put one set directly on the folder, and the other directly on some cardstock. Voila!

And you might not even have to go buy stickers! I used some that I got in the mail with an advertisement.

Independent Sorting

It's the neatest thing to see your child do things on their own, using the skills that you taught them. The other day I came home from a baby shower with a bag full of yummy candy. LM found the bag, and did this:

He is a sorting maniac!!


A Sweet way to say Thanks!


Here is a sweet way to write a Thank You Note: Bake cupcakes! 

We wrote "Thanks" on them using the ziploc baggie trick:  put frosting in a ziploc baggie and cut off one of the corners so you have a small hole. Then write your message! We also used another baggie to place some yellow polka-dots on top.



Highway Shapes


A couple weeks ago when I was posting about different car activities, The Activity Mom, told me about this website called Making Learning Fun where you can print out letters, numbers and shapes that look like roads. I knew it would be a big hit with LM, so I checked it out. I decided to print the shapes version, and then I put them in sheet protectors and tied them all together with yarn to make a book. (After I took these pictures, I put them in a 1/2" hardback binder that would give them a more solid surface to play with in the car.) LM loves them! Thanks Activity Mom!


 


Letter Snowflakes


During the summer, I found these snowflakes at a yardsale.  I put them away and just recently remembered that I had them! Though we haven't gotten much snow in our neck of the woods, I figured we better use these now, while it is still considered "Winter."

LM knows his letters pretty well, but mostly Capital letters. I thought I'd write all the lower case letters on the snowflakes so we could start learning and practicing these as well.


We started with  a - e  and put the others aside. We took turns throwing the snowflakes up in the air and watching them land. After it "snowed," I had LM look at the snowflakes that had landed face up, and tell me what letter it was.


Variations:
- If you don't have packaged snowflakes like these ones, you could maybe just cut out white circles and call them snowballs!
- If your child knows all the letters well, use all 26 snowflakes and have a real blizzard!
- You could write anything on the snowflakes: letters, numbers, shapes, words, colors....whatever it is your child is learning.
- Add some fun to your letter blizzard! Put on a beanie and some mittens and then drink hot chocolate afterwards!

FHE: Family History


If you'd like to do something similar with your family, 
you could copy and paste the following into a document that you can print.


Song: I Have a Family Here on Earth (Hymn Book #300)

Prayer

Scripture: 1 Nephi 1:1

Activity: Talk about the importance of keeping family records and write letters to ourselves using a revised version of the form found in the January 2005 issue of  The Friend (p. 39)

Treat: Caramel-dipped snacks (I bought some caramel dip on sale this week. I don't know what we'll dip yet....maybe apples, or pretzels....Whatever it is, it's sure to be yummy!)

Prayer



 A Letter to Myself (revised):

Dear ___________________________,

Today's date is __________________________. I am_________ years old. I measure __________ tall. Right now we live in _______________________________________. My favorite thing about where we live is _________________________________________________________________.
I really like to ________________________________________________ with my family! 
This past year, my family and I _______________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________.
Some of my friends are ____________________________________________________.
Here are some of my favorites:
Song: _____________________________________________________
TV Show: _________________________________________________
Movie: ____________________________________________________
Game: ____________________________________________________
Toy: _____________________________________________________
Book: _____________________________________________________
Food: _____________________________________________________
Place to visit: ________________________________________________
Hobby: _____________________________________________________
One new thing I have learned to do lately is: _____________________________________________________.
If I could have one wish it would be: _______________________________________________________.

Well, see ya later!
Love, ______________________
P.S. I forgot to say that __________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________





Counting Plates


Here is a simple way to get to know numbers, and counting. I just used 10 paper plates and wrote numbers 1-10 on each one. I found a packet of these paper rockets at the dollar store (pack of 25 in the school section). LM loves these rockets so this is all we've used so far, but you could use these plates to count just about anything!

We took one plate at a time and counted that number of rockets as we placed them on the plate.
We also laid out all the plates and would practice number recognition as I said a number and he found that plate. (We also used the beanbags to place on the number I would say to him.)


Button Threading


In December, we did a craft where we made Button Candycanes.
Well, the large-button candy cane went missing and didn't get packed up with the other Christmas things. I found it in our car one day as we were waiting to pick up Daddy at school. So I handed it to LM and he stayed very occupied while he took off the buttons and then put them back on. I decided that this might be a good thing to have around when he has to sit still, like in the car, at church, etc. so I put it all in a baggie and threw it in the diaper bag!

Yellow Pages

I'm trying to read to the boys everyday before naptime. I usually let LM choose 3 books and we cuddle up together and read. He usually chooses books about cars, trucks, trains, etc. but lately he has chosen a quite unexpected naptime read:



At first I kept telling him that he needed to get one of his books, but I finally gave in and we read it together. And I must say, it was quite fun! We flipped through and on quite a few pages we saw a picture of a car or truck or tires or something similar. I had no idea that there were so many auto-related things in the Yellow Pages. Quite a lucrative industry.

So, next time you're looking for a good read, go for the yellow!

Chore Sticks


To help LM (and myself) be more motivated to clean around the house, I made chore sticks! I used these colored Popsicle sticks I got at the dollar store and wrote places or areas of the house on them. Each day we choose a stick, set the timer for 10-15 minutes, and get to work!


Right now my main purpose is to get some areas of the house clean that often get neglected, and have LM help out when he can. Therefore, I have some sticks that require a bit more of Mommy's attention. If you want your focus to be more on teaching children to clean, then you might want to only write things on the sticks that they can easily do. For example, your sticks could say things like:
  • Pick up toys
  • Sweep floor
  • Straighten up Bookshelves
  • etc.
Or you could do a combination of both! Either way, it's a fun way to get some cleaning done, because each day brings something new!

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