Valentine Silly Slime!

When I was teaching preschool, the children loved to play with homemade goop / silly slime.  I made it a few times each school year for the kids to enjoy.  It can be a bit messy so I had the children put an over sized t-shirt or apron on over their clothing.  I also gave each child a tray / cookie sheet to keep their small batch of slime on while they played with it.

I came across this recipe for Valentine Slime.  It's the same recipe that I used but I usually added food coloring to white glue and sometimes I added glitter too.  I like the ides of buying colored glue and also adding confetti for some extra Valentine sparkle!   Enjoy!

Autumn Leaf Mason Jars & Fun Idea's with Leaves!

Although the heat of summer is still here, Autumn is quickly approaching!   I've already noticed some of the leaves on the trees starting to change.   Most of the leaves are still green but I see splashes of orange, red and yellow here and there. 

When I was teaching preschool, I took my students on a leaf collection nature walk every fall.  I gave each of the children a bag to collect pretty leaves on our walk.  The leaves were used for sorting, rubbings, our sensory tub and all sorts of fun activities.  I recently found a really easy and pretty fall craft to do with my own children.  Autumn leaf mason jar candle holders.   All you need is a collection of leaves, a mason jar, Mod Podge and a paint brush or sponge brush.   Even very young children can help collect leaves for this project.  When working with young children, the adult may want to do the Mod Podge but older children can do this with supervision.   The festive jars would be a beautiful decoration for the Autumn months.  I think they would look really pretty on a table decorated for Thanksgiving.   Put a tea light candle inside and enjoy!  Check out the link for pictures and directions.  Autumn Leaf Mason Jars.

Fourth of July Fun Ideas! Fireworks Art & Food!

This would be an easy & fun patriotic art project for preschool and Kindergarten children. You will need a fork, red, white and blue paint and construction paper to make these Fireworks!

How cute and yummy is this Fourth of July toast for breakfast?  Give it a try and find out!  Patriotic Flag Toast!

For a fun and healthy Fourth of July snack, make fruit kabobs into the shape of the American Flag.  Patriotic Fruit Kabobs!

Fun Easter Crafts & Homemade Gifts

Easter will be here soon and I found some super cute and easy to make gifts.  I'm thinking about doing a couple of these with my kids.  Cute & Crafty Easter Gifts! 

Fall Leaf Art & Animals

I  found this adorable art project today.  Another fun way to use the beautiful leaves that kids love to collect.  Leaf animal art.   I especially love the fox and hedgehog!  So cute!  Happy fall!

Outside Snow Art!

Do you have snow where you live? We have snow and plenty of it. We had a snow storm a few days ago which gave us a snow day on Friday and plenty of snow for the weekend. I filled some plastic spray bottles (I bought new bottles from a dollar store) with water and food coloring. I gave the kids some rules such as no spraying people, clothing or anything other than the snow and the trees. Then I let them loose in the yard to go make some snow art! I helped them build a snow fort earlier in the day so that made for some extra special fun. They even painted a snow chair in the fort. My kids and several neighbor friends joined in the outdoor snow art fun and it kept them all busy for a long time! Easy art with no mess / clean-up and everyone was happy.

Fall Leaf Art's and Crafts

Are you looking for some fun and easy fall projects?  Take a nature walk and collect leaves with your children or students.   Provide construction paper and glue to make leaf animals!   Here are some great ideas to get you started.  Let the children be creative and just have fun!

Leaf Animals

Here is another fun way to use some of the collected leaves.  Provide some string and beads and have fun with Leaf Threading.

Of course, you can also make leaf rubbings.  Lay a leaf between two pieces of paper, use the side of an unwrapped crayon and instruct the children to rub the crayon over the paper.  The outline of the leaf will appear.

You can also make a leaf wreath.  Provide one paper plate for each child.  Cut the middle out of each plate.   The children can glue leaves all over the plate.  Add a string to hang your pretty fall leaf wreath.

Autumn Fabric Wreath

I was searching online for ideas for a fall wreath to make with my kids.  Check out what I found!  Adorable and so easy!   Autumn Fabric Wreath   I can't wait to get some fabric and give this a try.  I happen to have wire hangers.  I'll do the hanger bending part but my kids can easily tie the fabric onto the wire.   Love this!

Fun, Easy Valentine's Day Craft.

Here is a cute and easy Valentine's Day craft to do with your preschoolers.  

Items needed:
Toilet paper tube
Construction paper
Pipe Cleaner
Glue
Tape
Scissors
Crayon or marker

Valentine Butterfly!

Cut a piece of construction paper to size and let your child roll it around the toilet paper tube (covering the entire tube).  Glue to secure.  Precut the heart shaped wings and let your child glue them to the back of the tube.  Cut one pipe cleaner in half.  Tape pipe cleaners to the inside of the tube.  Provide small cut-outs or markers / crayons for creating a face and decorating the wings.  You could also write a note on the wings and use this as a Valentine "card" that your child could give to a special family member or friend.

Fun with Boxes

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.  We enjoyed the holiday's very much.  We did a lot of online shopping for Christmas presents this year.  What this means is that we have an abundance of boxes.  I think my kids enjoy boxes as much as the gifts inside (and sometimes more).  They get so creative with boxes.   Houses, cars, puppet theaters, doll houses, store fronts, treasure boxes, boats, drive-in- movie theaters, etc.   These are just a few of the fun things my kids enjoy creating with boxes.   I wonder at what age kids stop being entertained by boxes.  If you have some fun ideas involving boxes, please share!

Toilet paper Tube Turkeys and Scarecrows

I meant to post this project several days ago but I got busy and forgot. If you need a last minute fun craft idea to keep the kids busy tomorrow, give this a try. They also make cute table decorations.

Supplies Needed for Scarecrow:
Toilet paper tube
Muffin tin liner cup (for hat)
popsicle stick
yellow construction paper (for hair)
Wiggly eyes
Markers
Glue

Supplies needed for Turkey:
Toilet paper tube
Construction paper
Wiggly eyes
Glue
Markers

Fabric Pumpkin Craft

I discovered this adorable fall craft today. These little fabric pumpkins are so cute. Although an adult or older child may have to do the simple sewing, small children could help gather sticks from outside. They could also help stuff the pumpkins/squash. Enjoy making these Squash Softies.

Where I've been...

We had several requests for showings on our house in December which kept me very busy and then a week before Christmas, we received and accepted an offer on our house.    The first weekend after the holidays we took a trip to Wisconsin for a wedding.  On the way back, we took the kids to Chicago for some museum fun.    A few days after we returned,  in the wee hours of the morning on January 13th, my family was faced with much sadness as our wonderful American Eskimo dog Cazzie died very suddenly.   He was a great dog, full of energy and love.   We were blessed to have him for  12 years but I wish it could have been even longer.   He was such a good boy and we all still miss him terribly.   

I spent the next few weeks packing and house hunting.   We ended up having a double move as we had to be out of our old house before our new house was finished.  We spent our transition staying at my moms house and my kids especially loved that.  In fact, they tried to convince us to just forget about buying our new house and live with nana permanently.  Nana does love to spoil them!    We finally moved into our new home just before Valentine's Day.   Moving was a ton of work and I'm so happy to finally be in our new home.  I still have a lot of unpacking to do but we are getting settled and have all of our essential things unpacked now.   

A couple of fun tips that I want to share with you:   My friend Kelly (who is an Army wife and experienced in moving) gave me a great idea to help keep the kids busy while I packed.  She suggested letting them decorate the moving boxes.  My kids had a blast with this and it kept them busy for a few hours.  Great idea Kelly!  It worked out much better than me trying to pack while they unpacked the things I had already packed :)

Another fun thing that I did with our boxes after we moved into our new house:  I let my kids make cars out of boxes.  I gave them paper plates, markers, crayons and tape and they had a ton of fun creating their own special car.  When they were done, we pretended to have a drive-through restaurant and they placed an order at "Mommas pancake house".  After dinner, we had a "drive-in movie" night.  My kids loved it and the next day, they wanted to do it all over again.   I think it made a fun new house memory for them.  I have to give my friend Sarah credit for the drive-in movie idea.   In a phone conversation, she told me that she did that for her son's birthday party and it was a huge hit.  I knew my kids would love doing that too.  So, if you are moving or just have some boxes around the house, have some fun and make some memories with them!

Countdown to Christmas

Tis the season to get started on holiday crafts.  The last two years I have made a Countdown to Christmas chain with my kids.   Everyday, starting after Thanksgiving they asked "how many more days until Christmas?"  The paper chain made it easy for them to figure it out on their own.  We made a paper chain on December 1st with one loop for each day until Christmas.  Everyday my kids would tear off one loop of the chain and count how many were left.     I was reading a friends blog and I loved her twist on a Christmas countdown chain.  She is doing a gratitude chain with her little girl.   Check out her idea and enjoy browsing her blog at Finding Calm in the Chaos.

Fun Easter Crafts, Activities and Ideas (Christian and Traditional)

We were healthy all winter but Spring brought us a round of sickness. Tonsillitis and ear infections for the kids and a cold that turned into a sinus infection for me. The kids are now better and I will be on the mend soon as I finally went to the doctor and started my antibiotics yesterday. I've been sick for almost two weeks and the sinus infection is pretty bad. I was looking at some old blog posts and crazy enough, this time last year we were just getting over being sick too. You can find some True Meaning of Easter Ideas by checking my Easter blog post from last year.

The weather here has been gorgeous. We enjoyed an outdoor Easter Egg hunt last weekend and today we are decorating Easter eggs. I also filled a large basket full of plastic Easter eggs and the kids are having a blast hiding them around the house today and filling them will little toys. I filled our themed book basket with some of my favorite Easter books for the kids to look at and read. About the book basket: I keep a large basket in the living room that I fill with special themed books. These are books that don't stay out all of the time but I bring them out for a week or two and then swap them out for the next theme.

If I can gather enough energy (this sinus infection is the pits!) I am also going to cut out a couple of large Ovals from construction paper (for eggs) and let the kids paint them and tear little pieces of tissue paper to stick onto the painted eggs. An easy but fun last minute art project.

I hope that you all have a wonderful Easter!

Homemade Baby Food Jar Snow Globes and Christmas Goody Bag Ideas

I'm a Kindergarten room mom this year and I'm in charge of party planning. I have a small budget to work with and I was trying to think of some inexpensive but cool gifts to put in goody bags for the children. I was able to "go green" a bit by recycling some baby food jars that were given to me. The friend who gave me the jars also gave me the idea to make snow globes with them (thanks Carrie!). To prep the jars, I soaked them in hot soapy water and the labels came off quite easily. I dried each jar and lid and then got to work on my project.

I bought some small evergreen trees to stick in each jar. I had envisioned using snowmen but the craft store didn't have any on the day I went so I went with the trees as they were only $1.99 for 12 count packages. I used floral clay to stick the trees to the inside of each lid. The finished snow globes will sit lid side down. Next, I filled the jars with about two teaspoons of glitter. Then I filled the jars with cold tap water stopping about a 1/2 inch from the top. I used a hot glue gun to seal the lids. I put the glue around the inside rim of the lid and then twisted it back onto the jar. Once this is done, let the jars dry lid side up overnight. Resist the urge to shake them or turn them over before they are dry. I did not resist the urge (I'm very impatient sometimes!) and as a result I ended up having to redo the seals on about 75% of my jars due to leakage. Not fun and quite messy! The finished product turned out cute and I think the kids are really going to enjoy these. I will wrap them in newspaper (another "green" move) to help prevent breakage.

I will be putting the snow globes and Reindeer Food from my previous post in the goody bags along with a few dollar store finds (Christmas Pencils and Christmas Erasers), a candy cane and homemade cookie treats. I'm pleased with my budget friendly goody bags. The goody bags themselves are also going to be homemade. The kids will each decorate their own goody bags ahead of time using a plain paper lunch bag and some Christmas cut-outs, crayons, markers and glue.

Making Easy Advent Calendars for Kids

I remember having fun with an Advent calendar when I was a little girl. I can't remember exactly what the calendar looked like but I do remember that each day we opened a little numbered door on our "calendar" and found a small surprise hiding in there. We received something little (like a sticker or piece of candy) each day until Christmas.

If you are looking for an advent calendar to do with your kids, I found a few that you could easily make or print. My favorite is the baby sock advent calendar because it's absolutely adorable.

Bubble Wrap Advent Calendar from Family Fun

Printable Advent Calendar from The Toymaker

Christmas Tree Advent Calendar from DLTK

Baby Sock Advent Calendar from Martha Stewart

Kids Countdown to Christmas Activity

We put our Christmas tree up over the weekend and now each day my kids ask me "mom, how many more days until Christmas?" They are so excited! Does this sound familiar to you too? I've decided that we need a fun and easy way to count down to Christmas. I'm going to cut strips from red and green construction paper and have my kids help me make a festive paper chain. The chain will have one link for each day until Christmas. Each day they can remove a link and count down the days left until Christmas.

Handprint and Fingerprint Turkey Craft

I love doing hand print turkey's with my kids each year (and of course I save them to look back on later). Most of you have probably seen or done hand print turkey's. Palm side facing up, the thumb is painted brown and the fingers painted in various colors. Press down on paper. When dry, have your child draw eyes (or glue on wiggly eyes) a beak and a gobble on the thumb and then draw legs onto the turkey. These are always a nice keepsake.

I recently found a cute fingerprint turkey craft that is also really easy so I wanted to share it with you. You can find the fingerprint turkey here on the DLTK site.

Edible Thanksgiving Craft - Pilgrim Hats

Check out this how-to video for a cool Thanksgiving treat: Marshmallow Pilgrim Hats.
http://familyfun.go.com/how-to-videos/familyfun-marshmallow-pilgrim-hats-762347-v/