Solving the Winter Time, Cheapskate Blues

Here's some more honesty. I'm not really a cheapskate, but I'd like to be one. Frankly, I'm lousy with the whole money managing thing, but unfortunately, it's largely my responsibility. Since I don't want our family in financial ruin thanks to me, I'm determined to figure things out and overcome my weaknesses. To do this, I came up with a list of cheap/free activities to do with my kids. These winter months can be unbearable, especially when the need to be cheap binds you to your home. But there must be some things you can do outside the home during winter time that don't cost a million dollars? Well, my brainstorming told me there are. Plus, it's so easy to forget the simple but fun things to do at home to brake the monotony, and my brainstorming reminded me of those as well. Here's what I came up with:

1. Library (my goal is to keep this free by not getting any more late fees!)
2. Make something using things already in the house
3. Explore the house, finding lost things; look for specific things, like the sounds different objects make when tapped with a stick, etc.
4. Go to the FREE zoo (the pet store)
5. Dance
6. Sledding (we're so lucky to live right next to an awesome sledding hill!)
7. Make a fun snack or treat
8. Play games
9. Have a friend/cousin over
10. Visit Grandma/cousins
11. Have a picnic in the living room
12. Build a fort
13. Have a read-a-thon
14. Write letters to people
15. Visit Dad at work
16. Write your own book by taking pictures of things in the house and making a story out of it
17. Write an "All By Myself" book using your kids as the main characters (i.e. "I can brush my teeth...I can make my bed...etc.)

What are some things you could add to this list? Where else could you go to get out of the house in the winter time without spending a ton of money, hopefully spending none? What else did my itty-bitty brain fail to come up with?

Good Ideas

I heard three good ideas today that I thought I'd share.

The first comes from Dr. Laura, whom I love. I agree with almost everything she says, and her voice is always at the back of my head, helping me be my husband's girlfriend and my kids' mom. Her advice she gave today was given to a woman in regards to her husband, but I thought it could easily be changed around to involve your kids. Here it is:

If your house is a mess, give everyone some jobs. Whoever finishes their jobs first, can decide what game you all get to play or you could do movie to watch or book to read. I thought this would be a great way to get the job done and have a little fun at the same time. The house is sure to get clean quickly with that kind of motivation.

I learned another clever way to get the house clean in a flash. This was from my sister, Kim. She sometimes has her kids do a 15 Minute Pickup, where everyone cleans up everything can in just 15 minutes. She said it works great- it's amazing how much you can get done in only 15 minutes.

The last good idea I heard today was about Christmas gifts. It's called The Three Wisemen. You only give your kids 3 gifts:

1. Something they need
2. Something spiritual/meaningful
3. Something fun

This is similar to what my sister-in-law does but even more condensed. I thought this would be good if you have older kids. It would take the stress out of gift giving and help you stay focused on the real reason for the season.

The Color Orange and A Big Round Squash

Today I had a moment of creativity. I pulled out my construction paper, glue and scissors, brought my kids to the kitchen table where we started making jack-o-lanterns.

I started cutting out a bunch of shapes: triangles, squares, circles. I told the kids that we would be using shapes to make the pumpkin's face. Noah knows his shapes, but Clara really doesn't, so I thought this would be a fun way for her to start learning them. Even though does know them, it was still fun for him to see how you can create different things using shapes. We did use some ovals, which was a shape he didn't know very well, so he still learned something new.

As we made them, I'd ask Noah, "What shape do you want to do for the eyes? For the nose?" etc... One time I told him he didn't have to do the same shape for both eyes. He liked that idea and did a circle and a square. After that he started to get more creative.

Clara had fun rubbing the glue stick all over everything for a while, but her attention span quickly ran out, so I had to entertain her with some stickers. But Noah LOVED it! He loved gluing and creating, and he even cut some of the shapes (like, the huge stems). He made pumpkin after pumpkin, even getting really creative and doing a pink, a blue and a green pumpkin. Who cares that they don't exist in real life! Being a kid is about being imaginative. I loved watching him create a different jack-o-lantern each time. Each one was unique- just like him!

Here are some of our pumpkins we made. I love the green one and the one with the humongous stem.

When we finished cleaning up, Noah helped me hang up our pumpkins all around the house as part of our Halloween decor. I know displaying his artwork always makes him feel so good, and I love seeing them around. Every time I see them I feel warm and fuzzy all over.

When the activity was over I didn't really want to stop playing with my kids. I was having just as much fun. Plus, I wanted to do something that Clara would really enjoy, since she didn't get as into the pumpkin thing.

So, I found my Halloween CD and stuck it in the CD player. Clara immediately started dancing and kept saying "more" when a song would end. She loves music, and she loves dancing. She twirls, kicks, wiggles, bobs her head to the beat, shakes, and laughs. I had fun dancing too to all the silly kid-friendly Halloween songs.

After the kids had lunch, I grabbed some pumpkin/Halloween books to have a little story time to help wind them down for nap/rest time. As I was getting ready, I realized there was a theme emerging from all my last minute play time ideas. The pumpkins were orange, the leftover mac and cheese they had for lunch was orange, the blanket I grabbed for reading time was orange and came with a small round orange pillow that looks like a pumpkin, and the books I grabbed were all about orange pumpkins. I pointed this all out to Noah, asking him what color everything was. He was very excited to see the similarities in everything. And when we read our books, I let him hold the pumpkin pillow.

At the end of all this, Noah collapsed onto my lap. I told him how much fun I had, and he said, "Me too, but it made me tired." Mwuah-ha-ha! My evil planned worked!

Websites You'll Love

I've been introduced to some awesome websites with the cutest, creative ideas for activities to do with your kids (once again illustrating that pretty much everything I put on this blog is NOT my own, original idea). Here they are:

Children's Learning Activities

No Time For Flash Cards

Fall Crafts for Kids

DLTK's Sites

I think these websites are very useful because the ideas are simple but fun. I think you'll really like them. They have so many cute things for this time of the year. Have fun with your kids this week!

Do you have another site you really like? What Fall activities do you with your kids?

I have one more website I want to highlight, and it's for you moms. My friend and her sisters started this up, and it is so cute! I am amazed at how creative they are! They update everyday, so there's always something new.

Keep the Juices Flowing

Rained Out

Today the rain ruined our plans, but it turned out to be a very fun night. We were supposed to go camping, but, like I said, the weather had plans of its own. Noah was so excited to go camping, and I didn't want to disappoint him, so we had a campout in the kids' room.

We fashioned a tent by attaching a blanket to the crib and the dresser. I layed out blankets and pillows and Noah's sleeping bag for a little bed. But I didn't want to stop there. I didn't want Noah to miss out on the things he was so looking forward to doing.

While Dad distracted them, I taped pictures of animals to the wall that I'd printed off the Internet or drawn myself. Then I told Noah that even though we didn't get to go see the animals in the mountains, they came to our house! I turned off all the lights and had him bring his flashlight on our animal hunt. He had so much fun searching for the animals I'd hidden throughout the upstairs. Once he found them all, he wanted to find them again and again. Clara loved it too, especially the owl (she loves owls!). I was a huge hit, and I think I will laminate the pictures so we can have those pictures around for another rainy day.

After the animal hunt, I hurried and drew a picture of a campfire and cut it out. Then, I made s'mores in the microwave (recipe at the bottom). I took the fire and s'mores to our campground, taped the fire to Noah's dresser and we ate s'mores around the campfire. Noah said, "I love rain." I think what he meant by that was, "I'm glad it rained so we could have a campout in my room." I am too!

After that we got ready for bed and gathered again "around" the campfire and sang songs like, "If Your Happy," "Popcorn," and "Itsy Bitsy Spider." Then we read a whole stack of books by the firelight (flashlight). Then we had prayers and said goodnight.

In theory, they were supposed to go to sleep, but the excitement was too much for Clara. She was quite silly, but it was fun. I let them be silly and play for awhile, until a little while later I had to take down the tent just for tonight so that Clara could sleep without fun distractions.

This ended up being so much fun! We would not have had this much fun in the mountains. Or, maybe we would have, but it would have been a different kind of fun. There's something about sleeping under a homemade tent at home when you're a kid. Seeing Noah experience that was pure bliss. We wouldn't have had this experience if the weather had cooperated the way we thought we wanted it to. I hope we have more campouts that get rained out.




Microwave S'mores

Large marshmallows
fudge striped shortbread cookies

Place one marshmallow on a cookie. Put in microwave for about 15 seconds. Immediately place other cookie on top to make the sandwich; press hard. Eat! (Don't stop at one, either!)

Cupcake Day

I know that cupcakes are the rage right now. There are so many cute ideas out there, and they just look like so much fun that I want to try my hand at them. But they're not something I want to do all the time because first and foremost, I'll "blow up like my Aunt Roberta" and second of all, they just take too much time. So, drawing from my sister's "cookie day" idea, I thought I could do a "cupcake day" once or maybe twice a month. The kids can help decorate and we can share our goodies with friends and family in order to avoid the whole blowing up part.

I couldn't sleep tonight (hence the late night post), so I skimmed through Betty Crocker's cupcake ideas. I found some really cute ones. These ones are my favorite. They're called Surprise Cupcake Cones. They're so stinking cute and look easy peasy to make too. I think I'm going to make them for Clara's birthday. The cupcakes at the top are called Dalmatian Cupcakes. They look yummy!

If any of you have any favorite cupcake idea sites let me know. Here are some that my friend has on her blog:

Bake It Pretty

Cupcake Swirl

Thursday Activity: Playing with Jell-O!

I know it's Friday, but I have a fun activity to share that I've been meaning to blog about but haven't done. I haven't been in a huge blogging mood lately, which is very weird for me. Anyway, here's the fun activity. Enjoy!

The activity is another one from The Toddler's Busy Book by Trish Kuffner. It's on page 138, and it's called Jell-O Jumping. Here are the EASY instructions:

• 4 large packages of Jell-O


• baby bathtub (or any kind of tub or big bowl)


• Prepare Jell-O according to package directions. Place it in a bathtub or small basin and let your child stand in it, sit in it, run his fingers through it, or paint with it.

This was so much fun! Clara was a little skeptical at first, but she loved it. She was very girly about how she played with it, while the boys (Noah's best friend also joined in on the fun) dug right in just as boys do. They all had fun smooshing the Jell-O between their fingers, standing in it, eating it (Oh, well. What can ya do?), and I think the boys even threw it at each other. We had the sprinkler on so they could easily clean off, although they all definitely needed a bath. That in itself was fun because the red Jell-O turned the bath water pink.

Some tips:

• take the Jell-O out of the fridge and let it warm up a little before you let your kids play in it. Ours was quite cold.
• 4 packages was oodles! If you only have one child, 2 packages will probably be fine.
• do this on a day when you have nothing to do and don't care about making a mess.

Hope you try it! It was a lot of fun!

Please feel free to share any of your favorite summertime activities. Thanks!

National Tap Dance Day

Did you know that yesterday (May 25th) was National Tap Dance Day? I didn't until today. I took the kids to the library and had picked out a bag full of books. When I thought I had enough, the title of one more book caught my eye. It was "Rap A Tap Tap Here's Bojangles- Think of That!" by Leo and Diane Dillon. I grabbed it and on thumbing through the pages decided it would be a fun one to take home. I'm so glad I did! I sat down with Clara to read it and loved the short, rhythmic lines of each page, but I also loved the fun artwork.

When I came to the last page I found a biography of the real "Bojangles." I learned his real name was Bill Robinson (1878-1949) and he is known as the greatest tap dancer of all time; it was said "he talked with his feet"; his rhythms were so complex and fast it was impossible for other dancers to mimic some of them; he shared his wealth with less fortunate friends during the Great Depression; he performed on Broadway and several films, including four with Shirley Temple.

At the end of the biography I learned that on May 25, 1989, Congress declared that day (which was his birthday) as National Tap Dance Day in Bill Robinson's honor.

When I realized the special day was only just yesterday, I got to my feet and excitedly told the kids. They didn't find it near as exciting as I did, but I didn't care. I turned on a fun song so I could "tap dance" (in my flip flops) in the kitchen. Both the kids kinda looked at me like I was crazy, but I didn't let it get me down. I am no dancer, but I've always had great aspirations to be one. I know I looked silly but I was having fun. Eventually, however, Clara wanted to join in too. But Noah was still embarrassed to know me. I knew he'd love seeing real tap dancing, so I rummaged through our old videos to find my copy of "Singin' in the Rain". It would have been nice to have it on DVD because it took me forever to fast-forward and rewind my way through the movie to try and find some tap dancing. But, finally I found some really good dancing in "Good Mornin.'" Watching that kind of stuff can't help but make you smile. Noah was finally convinced that tap dancing was fun. He really enjoyed it and wanted to watch other fun dances. He LOVED "Make em' Laugh!" He probably would have loved Gene Kelly in "Singin' in the Rain," but he conked out from a fully day of playing, not out of boredom.

Anyway, it was a really fun, spontaneous moment (possibly more for me than the kids). I'll have to rent one of Bill "Bojangles" Robinson's movies so I can see the master in action. You can honor his special day too, and you could probably have even more fun with it than I did with a little more planning. Go check out this book and show your kids real tap dancing by him or any of the other masters like Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire (I really wanted to show Noah Fred Astaire dancing with firecrackers in "Holiday Inn" but I don't have that one). Then turn on some old music and be silly with your kids by showing off your own tap dancing skills.

Illustration Friday

Even though I already posted today, I am just so excited to share two things with you all. One day while enjoying the blog Bookie Woogie, I noticed the cute family had another cute blog- Chicken Nugget Lemon Tootie. It's a blog where the three kids display their wonderful, creative works of art. Their stuff is really impressive! You really need to check it out. It gave me some fun ideas to do with my kids.

The other thing I wanted to share I discovered on Chicken Nugget Lemon Tootie. It's Illustration Friday. I went to the website and found a blog for amateur and professional artists, and every Friday they give out a theme for everyone to portray in their art. If you want to be sent them theme every week, you just give them your email address, and you can participate too. Chicken Nugget Lemon Tootie bloggers participate in many of the themes. Click here to view their very creative takes on the themes given. Some of their entries blew me away.

This was the first week Noah and I participated. I was nervous to do it, as if ten professional artists were standing behind me, critiquing my very amateur work. But that's the cool thing about this whole thing- no one has to see it. You can just do it for fun. This week's theme is Contagious. That's a new word for Noah, and a big one too. I wasn't sure if he'd understand it or not. I tried explaining that's how people get sick, but from the vacant expression on his face I could see that didn't work. So, I went to smiling and laughter, and that's what our pictures are based on. I started drawing mine, and Noah got inspired. Here is his first:

I call it "A Contagious Smile"

His second I call "If You Chance to Meet a Frown"

This next one is a little embarrassing, but I don't care. Just don't laugh.

I call it "Catching."

Kind of a fun thing, huh? I do think this might work better for older kids, like kindergarten or first grade and up. Noah's mind didn't focus on this as long as I hoped. It was on more important things, like spiders outside that needed feeding. He likes to help spiders get food by putting poor, defenseless bugs near their webs. I don't know how spiders have survived all these years without Noah to help them eat. I'm hoping he'll have more fun with this on weeks that the theme is more understandable for him.

Check out both websites and let me know if you start participating in the Illustration Friday and what you think of it.

Food-Coloring Painting

Since Wednesday is Recipe Day, I thought I'd make Thursday Activity Day. I'll try to post a fun activity every week, and if you're a contributor, feel free to post something as well.

Here's another fun activity from The Toddler's Busy Book by Trish Kuffner (in a previous post I mentioned how I'm going to try to do one of her activities a week with my kids). For those of you who own a copy, it's on page 239 in the Arts and Crafts section.

Food-Coloring Painting

You need:
Food coloring
Water
Paintbrush
Paper towels or coffee filters

Make your own paint by adding food-coloring to water, enough to get the color you want. Brush the mixture onto a piece of paper towel or coffee filter. Use several colors. When the paper towel is soaked, remove and let dry. Then mount on construction paper to display.

I mostly did this activity for C because I haven't been very good about letting her experiment with art, like I was with N. I thought she'd like this activity, and I was right. She loved watching the paper towel absorb the liquid paint and seeing the colors quickly spread on the paper towel. N also enjoyed it, and they each went through about 3 paper towels. I taught N a new word too: absorbing. I'm pretty sure he won't remember, but it's always good teach them something new, even if they might not really get it. Although, I'm always surprised at the things N does understand that I think he won't. Anyway, both my kids really enjoyed this activity, and their work is proudly displayed on the refrigerator.

I liked this activity because all the supplies are things you have on hand and it was easy to do and clean up.

Tips:

• beware that little ones might try drinking the "paint." In the two seconds I turned to help N, C tried to drink her pink paint. Luckily, this paint won't hurt them at all if they drink it.
• have little ones where a bib. N wanted to wear his apron, which was a good idea too. This activity can get a little messy with kids drinking and spilling the paint.
• beware the surface you let them do this on. It might be a good idea to put something under the paper towel to protect the surface. I might have stained C's high chair tray. I'm not sure yet, though. I'm going to try a magic eraser to see if it gets it out.

*If you'd like to be a contributor, leave your email address in the comments.

"Cat, Cat, Dog!"

I've had "The Toddler's Busy Book" by Trish Kuffner for a couple years, but I don't use it as much as I should. I always forget I even have it. But today I remembered that it was on my shelf collecting dust, so I thought I'd flip it open and see if I could find something fun for N and I to do. I turned to the Outdoor Adventure section and found a game called "Red, Red, Red" (on page 139 for those of you who own the book). It sounded like something N would enjoy, so I thought I'd give it a whirl, but I modified it a little. I call our version "Cat, Cat, Dog!"

Here's how to play:

• Have players stand next to each other behind a starting line
• The leader calls out three animals- If the animals match ("cat, cat, cat") the players stand still like a soldier. If the last animal named is different ("cat, cat, dog"), the players run to a distant designated "safe" spot before the leader tags them.
• If a player is tagged before they get to the "safe" spot, then that player now has to call out animal names. The original starting line then becomes the new "safe" spot.
• Variations: instead of animals, you can do body parts or colors or whatever; instead of running to the "safe" spot, you can skip, twirl, hop, or you can pretend to be whatever animal was called out last.

This game is fun because:

• Every kid LOVES animals
• It teaches math: Kids have to name one animal three times in a row, then they have to name one animal twice and say a different animal on the third time. I was very impressed that N was able to this because sometimes he has a hard time with numbers.
• Kids LOVE being chased, and the especially LOVE chasing
• It's great exercise for you and your kids. You'll both need some quiet time at the end.
• Parents will enjoy this too!

I had no idea just how much N would like this game. He absolutely LOVED it! He said, "Let's play this game all day!" It really was a lot of fun!

This book really has some great ideas. I made a goal to do at least one a week. Technically, there's one activity for every day of the year, but that's a little overwhelming for me. Maybe someday I'll get to that point, but I'm just going to take it slow for now.

Do Something Fun

Where we live there is an elementary school right behind us. All day every day N begs me to go over there and play, but every day I remind him that we can't go over there while the kids are in school. The kids are more than half the reason he wants to go in the first place. But, we usually end up going over there later in the afternoon just about every day. I do love having a park in walking distance.

Today when we went we were the only ones there. Most of the time I had to entertain C and try to keep her happy, which isn't always the easiest thing with Miss Attitude. But when we were just about done, I had a burst of energy. I strapped C in her stroller and started up a game of tag with N on the playground. He, of course, was thrilled with the spontaneous game. He squealed with delight as I got down and dirty, chasing him over monkey bars, crawling through tubes, and going down slides. After he'd get tagged by me, I would try to run away from him, which turned out to be harder than I thought. Not only did he love it, but I was happy to find that I had a ball too. It was so much fun. I felt like a kid again. Isn't that one of the great things about being a Mom? Being a grown-up can be so boring sometimes. It's nice that Moms and Dads get to revert back to their childhood now and then.

Usually, I'm one of those boring grown-ups. I'd rather sit on a bench for some much deserved rest while I watch N run around and get tired. But today I heard a voice in my head suggest getting off my lazy you-know-what and actually playing with my son. Hmmm, what a novel idea. I knew that doing that would make him feel happy and loved, so how could I resist doing it?

Doing something fun with your kids that you BOTH enjoy doing is so important. It makes them feel special and it strengthens the bond between you. I stressed the fact that it be something you both enjoy doing because I think that's major. Frankly, when N asks if I'll play dinosaurs with him, I can think of about a million other things I'd much rather do. Likewise, sometimes N doesn't want to do what I want to do. Having that kind of playtime with your kids only creates resentment, which is hardly condussive for a loving relationship. So, make sure you choose activities you both enjoy. Another other good thing about that is I think it will teach your kids not be selfish- that they need to respect other people's likes and dislikes.

Wow, this post is getting longer than I intended. My main reason for posting was to challenge all of my readers (and myself, of course) to get up and play with your kids when you usually just observe. Get really into it too, and you'll be surprised how much fun you'll have.

By the way, at dinner I asked N what his favorite part of today was (he had a fun-filled day of playing with neighbors, looking for bugs, splashing in puddles, and "shooting" with his toy gun), and he said "playing tag at the park." Aaaaah, that was good for my heart.

Inhibitory Control

One of the many things I've learned from Kindermusik is the importance of inhibitory control. Kids are great at wiggling around, especially when they're told to, but something they're not always so great at is stopping the wiggling. This comes easier to some than others. N is one of those others. When he first strarted going to Kindermusik classes I noticed he was often the last child to stop doing an activity. I'd never thought about the need to teach him inhibitory control (Yeah, I'm the world's greatest Mom. Good job, Marianne), but I learned it is an important step in learning how to sit still, among other things (Hmmm, maybe that's why he has a hard time at church?). Kids need to learn to control their physical bodies.

The way they teach this at Kindermusik is they'll play stop and go games. These are easy things to do at home. If you're dancing around with your kids, say STOP and have your kids freeze in place until you say GO. Or, if you're dancing to actual music, hit the pause button so your kids learn to stop when they hear the music stop too. That's good for their aural skills too. Basically, you can do this with any physical or musical activity. My kids love it. N is so much better at controlling himself. Sometimes he starts moving again before I say go, but we're working on it. C loves these kinds of games- they always make her smile. Hopefully learning this now it will help her not have ants in her pants when she's N's age.

So, if you have a wild child like mine who can't sit still for more than two seconds at a time, this would be a good activity for you. Anything to help you not go crazy, right? God speed.

A Cute Blog and A Cute Book

I really shouldn't be posting at this late hour, but I was just introduced to the cutest blog! I was on Shannon Hale's blog (another good one), and she wrote about a blog with her favorite review of her graphic novel Rapunzel's Revenge. The blog (man, I've said that word a lot!) is called Bookie Woogie, and the writers are a dad and his three young kids. Every Monday they review a book and create some accompanying fan art. Their review on Hale's book was the stinking cutest thing I've every seen! What cute kids and what a great dad they've got! You need to read this.

I wanted to tell you all about this not only because it's darling, but it's a great idea! They read a book together and make their own art work about the book. That's such a simple but fun thing we can all do with our kids. I'm excited to try it with N tomorrow. He loves to draw, so I'm pretty sure he'll have a lot of fun trying to depict what he reads in a book.

Now, I'll give my own review of Rapunzel's Revenge. We actually checked it out from the library today. I got it for me to read because I LOVE Shannon Hale, but when I opened it and saw all the pictures (it looks like a comic book) I realized N would probably like it too. I was right. While I was feeding C some dinner, N grabbed the book on his own and started reading it (by reading it, I mean he looked at the pictures and imagined his own story in his mind). He "read" the whole thing (it's not that short), cover to cover. Then, after C was in bed, he wanted me to read it to him for real. We haven't finished it yet, much to his disappointment, but we'll definitely start up again tomorrow. I'm glad he's interested in it because it's totally different than anything I've read to him. It will give him a whole new experience in reading. And I'm so excited to have him do some fan art when we finish it.

So, check out the blog and check out the book! And have fun with your kids!

What have you done that's fun?

What's something fun you've done with your kids this week or recently? Anything to do with FHE, preschool lessons, fun books you've read, crafts you've done, etc. Please share! And don't worry if it's not extravagant. The best things are the simple things.

I took my kids to the Tree House Museum with a friend. N loves that place, so I bought a membership. If you haven't been you'll have to give it a try. Kids love it so much! If you don't know much about it check out their website.

I'm excited to hear what you've done! I'm in desperate need of ideas! I've gotten a little lazy.

P.S.- Sorry for the lack of posts. The creative juices haven't exactly been flowing lately.

A Smorgasbord of Fun

So, I haven't posted much lately because, frankly, I don't have many ideas, hence the reason for creating this blog- to force me to be more creative and fun with my kids. I have done a few things lately that were fun. They're pretty simple, but maybe they'll be fun for you too. Sorry, this post is going to be long.

I went to Utah Idaho Supply (something I should have done a long time ago- what a cool store!) and bought a couple activity books for N. One was more geared for things like tracing, matching, recognition, numbers, etc. We've only worked out of it once, but N seemed to like it. The other is a Halloween activity book with puzzles, coloring pages, crafts, etc. The other day we made a spider bracelet. N had fun because he likes to cut and glue things. He didn't wear it long. It went straight to the refrigerator. Here are the instructions:

Fold a sheet of black construction paper in half.

Place four fingers along the fold and trace them with a white crayon.

Cut out and unfold. This is a spider with a eight legs.

Roll the legs around a pencil to make them curl down, and glue on googly eyes.

Staple a 1" wide strip of black paper around your wrist, big enough so it can be slipped on and off

Accordion fold a small strip of paper and glue one end to the top of the bracelet.

Glue the spider to the other end of the folded paper.

Make the spider creep and crawl with a back and forth rocking motion of the wrist.

After we made the spider bracelet N wanted to make a cat out of pink construction paper. I did most of the cutting, but he did all the gluing. He used so much glue that when we put it on the fridge, well, see for yourself.

• N loves Hide and Seek. He watch The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (like 10 million times) and that got him hooked. I know this is a classic game that's been played for hundred of years I'm sure, but sometimes I forget about the simple games. Once it was introduced to N He loved it! Something they do at Kindermusik, which I'll talk more about later, is they pretend to be missing roosters. The person looking walks around crowing like a rooster. Your child is supposed to echo the rooster sound. Deliberately take a long time to find the lost rooster, and when you do, delight in making rooster sounds together. It's a fun addition to the game that N really likes.


• Here's a game we played once that N really liked. I cut up strips of paper and on each one I put something to imitate- an animal, a flower growing, etc. I put the papers in a cup and each paper N would draw out we would imitate the animal or thing on it. He had a lot of fun, and I was really impressed with his flower impression. I think I might have gotten the idea for that game from the book The Toddler's Busy Book by Trish Kuffner.


• You can also use the above idea and apply it to singing time. I put the names of songs on pieces of paper and each song we draw from the cup we sing.


• Kindermusik! It's great! N loves it! C will start it soon, and I'm sure she'll love it too. If you don't know what it is, it's kind of like a music preschool. You can find out more about it on their website. In N's class they're teaching musical concepts through the weather. Right now they're talking about the rain. Last week the kids made rainmakers. You can make one using an interesting container and fill it with small items, like paper clips, beans, rice, marbles, etc. You can tell stories using your rainmakers- "I woke up to the sound of thunder...boom! boom! (stomp your feet). I felt the wind on my face, and it started to rain (when you say "rain" have them use their rainmaker)" You can make up whatever story you want. You can talk about temp by saying it rained fast and have them shake their instrument or say it rained slow.


• More music stuff: C likes music too. Yesterday we had some fun. The three of us all had a musical instrument: N had the classic wooden spoon and pan drum set, C had a rainmaker, and I had a small hand shaker I bought at the music store and some jingle bells. We sat down on the living room floor making music together. I talked about tempo, making fast or slow music, and we talked about dynamics, making quiet music growing into loud music. It was really fun, and all three of us had fun. C was so dang cute, I'm not going to lie!


• Again, more music stuff (have you guessed that I'm a music nerd yet?): This is similar to the rainmaker, but we made a kind of tambourine. I remembered doing this in elementary school, you might too. N and I each had two paper plates, and we colored each one on the backside. Then we turned one right side up and put dried corn (you could use beans, or rice or whatever) inside. Then we glued (you could probably also use staples) the two sides together. We ended up with our very own tambourines. We used them in singing time for a while.


• Last but not least, is there anything better than taking your kids to the park? N LOVES it, as I'm sure all kids do, and C is old enough now that she likes it too. She loves going down the slide, and she loves it when I help her climb things- it makes her feel so big. Today she sat in a swing and had so much fun. All three of us were swinging together, and I had a blast. I love doing things with my kids that are fun for ALL of us. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy doing fun things, like all the things I've talked about in this post, but sometimes those things stress me out. You know what I mean? Some activities require a lot of effort from Mom to make them fun and entertaining to a 4 year old, and that can be mentally exhausting. That's why I love doing things where I can sit back and just enjoy the moment. So, don't let this post, or this blog for that matter, fool you into thinking that I'm a mother who spends every waking moment of my day entertaining and teaching my children. If I were I would go insane. I feel pretty good about life if at the end of the day I have succeeded in not losing my patience with N, there was a somewhat smooth routine followed, I laughed with my kids, I sat down and played with them a few times, they were fed, were read some stories, and go to bed happy. Trust me, that's not an every day occurrence, but each day that is the goal. I just have to learn to not beat myself up for when my day doesn't turn out the way I hoped. Just make the best of things, I guess. Anyway...I digressed a little. Uh, parks...they're fun aren't they. Yay for parks...and children.