Color Sorting

 

I already had these muffin tins. Tongs and pompoms are from..where else but Dollar Tree!

They had to use the tongs to pick up the pompoms and put them in the correct row to categorize. This works on motor skills as well as color sorting!

    

After a little bit, we decided the tong look like alligators, so we(..well I!) hot glued some eyes onto them, and they went around chomping everyone!:) They had fun with it!

This is another motor skill / color sorting activity. I picked up a few paint swatches.. 2 of each color, and some clothes pins (~dollar store) I cut one paint swatch to fit on the clothes pin, and the other I left.. I cut them down a bit though.. they were about 7 shades long. The kids have to match the green to the green..but then have to decide between shades too..it is a wonderful activity!:)

    

Gel Bag Writing Practice

This is a ziploc bag with Hair Gel in it..f/Dollar Tree of course! I squirt one whole bottle/bag.. added some food coloring, and some glitter to each. The kids can write letter/numbers/whatever they are working on..then erase it and do it again! LOTS of fun!:)

         

    

I know.. a LOT of my ideas lately have been coming from Pinterest! It’s just that GREAT!!

If you haven’t heard of Pinterest check it out! You don’t know what you are missing!

Munchkin Monday ~3

I made this weather chart a couple weeks ago. I used Pelon for the fabric, then I just used colored, fine tip sharpies to draw with. A button in the middle holds the arrow on so they can rotate!

We had a few BIG snowstorms. When it finally stopped snowing, we played in it!

Building snow castles, and Snow heads!

Then we enjoyed some Hot Chocolate to warm up!

Munchkin Monday 2

Little Minions

Remember warm fuzzies? Well, we added an extra eye and called them little Minions! hehe..my son loved it!

Pom Poms, googley eyes, and felt feet. (I think you can get it all from the Dollar Store.)

I tried a few different glues.. Elmer’s, FabriTac, and Hot Glue. The Hot Glue worked the best, so work carefully!

DIY Shoe Lace Cards

I made these Sunday before church. Needing something to keep my kiddos busy during the first hour, but I wanted the pictures to be something reverent, to remind them of church, so I googled some LDS Clipart. Saved them to Word, and printed them out. Colored, and cut them down and laminated them! (I love my laminator! –purchased from Wal-Mart office section)

Here they are laminated

I cut them out and punched some holes around the edges. If you have a hole punch like a “Big Bite” you can get further in, but my little “Cropadile” worked pretty well (Scrapbooking tools). This is a eyelet setter..and I thought about even putting the eyelets in. I still may later, that may make it a little more quiet when they are stringing the shoe laces! (about 14” shoelaces are good length)

If you have any to share, please leave the ideas or blogs or websites in my comments! Thanks a bunch! Hope you enjoy!!

 

Back to Munchkin Land

Munchkin Monday 1

I know it’s TUESDAY! So, this is a day late this week..but,

I’m going to start a “Munchkin Monday”. This will just be an idea or two or three of things to do with the kiddos! I’m getting ready to start participate in a little mom-run preschool group, so I will be looking for and needing a lot of ideas! Here is a place I can share ideas I like so I don’t forget them, as well as share some that we do in our group as well as just me and my kids at home!!

HOMEMADE PLAY DOUGH

Playdough is a must for any toddler’s! This is the best recipe I have found for making your own!!

2 C. Flour

2. C. Warm Water

1 C. Salt

2 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil

1 Tbsp. Cream of Tarter (helps w/elasticity)

Combine all ingredients over low-med/lo heat and stir with a wooden spoon until it starts to thicken like mashed potatoes. KEEP stirring (–use those muscles you didn’t know you had ~at least, I didn’t!) until the dough starts to pull away from the pot (looking like bread dough) and starts to become dry and feels like playdough.

When it feels like playdough, remove the pan from heat and allow the dough to cool enough to handle.

TIP: If it is still sticky, you just need to cook it a little bit longer..it WILL work!

Once it is cool enough to handle, you can divide the dough and carefully add a few drops of food coloring at a time, kneading it into the dough, until you reach desired color. Use gloves if you like, my hands are currently yellow! ;) I made a divot in the dough, added a few drops of coloring and carefully (reason my hand is yellow!) turned the dough over, kneading it until the coloring was all incorporated. I made a double batch in this picture, but had already given a little away, and my son had already been playing and mixing colors with it as well!(hence the first bag of dough!) I store them in individual Ziploc bags, and then in a covered container. My last batch lasted almost a year before I threw it out, but it could have gone a little longer!

(will start out looking like this)

SENSORY BOX

This next one is a sensory “Bean Box” that my son LOVES to play with! He pours the beans back and forth, sorts them by size and color, and just plays. I have thrown some measuring cups and spoons I got at the dollar store in, w/a couple little play kitchen toys. The other container has a stove coil I drew on the bottom with a permanent marker..needs to be redrawn, but he can use it to pour, or pretend to cook. and a few other little toys. He loves this box! I had a bunch of beans in my food storage that were expired, so that’s what I used. I’ve also seen this done with popcorn kernels, as well as rice!

I spread out a mat (shower curtain actually, also from the dollar store) under the box and he knows to keep all the beans on the mat. So he can dump them out and play but they have to stay on the mat!

If you have any to share, please leave the ideas or blogs or websites in my comments! Thanks a bunch! Hope you enjoy!!

Back to Munchkin Land

Painting the Snow

I’m not sure where I saw this idea.. but I just got a couple spray bottles from the Dollar Tree and put some water and food coloring in them. He had a blast painting the snow!

Chores

“ HaHaHa!! It’s like printing my own money!” –Toy Story 2

Gid and Ella get dollars for obedience, and doing their chores. Then, with those dollars, they can choose to spend it in my store, or save up for something bigger. I haven’t quite worked all the kinks out yet, but so far, G is LOVING it and ASKING/BEGGING me to do more chores. E is still a little young, but G makes sure I give her dollars too. I am still working on my chore chart as well as a ton of other stuff, ..like a bed! This ..program.. is helping him learn money management as well as incentive for obedience. I am loving it too!

Dollars came in a pack from the Dollar Tree. I laminated them for longer use.

Aprons

A couple aprons I made for the 'Joy School'..or since it's just my son..these will be for anytime he has a friend over and we want to get dirty!

Joy School

When I was little I went to 'Joy School'. It's a program that has been around more than 30 years, and my sisters and I LOVED it! Growing up, I always knew that I wanted to do it with my kids! It is for 3-4 year olds to help them get ready for kindergarten. It is twice a week and ran by the mom's! My mom would take it one week, another mom the next, another mom the next, etc. Similar to a pre-school I suppose! You can read more about it on valuesparenting if you would like to learn more! . Anyway, my husband and I decided that it would be a good idea, and with part of our tax return I have started into it. For now, it's just my son, as he is almost 3, but in the future, I'd like to add a few more kids. It didn't use to be, but now with all the technology, after you enroll, everything is PDF from their site. You can even listen to the music there, though they do still send the CD's. I love that each week, the lesson, activity, everything is all written out, minute by minute to keep the kids actively listening and entertained! Here is some of the prep stuff I've done.

Weather Chart
Joy-boy and Joy-girl puppets