Tools for Tots - Counting Cards

M is just not interested in numbers. He can say his numbers in order to 10, but number recognition, and counting correctly above 2 or 3, as well as his one-to-one correspondence skills need a little work.

To that end I whipped up these fun little cards. They can be found here from childcareland.com. And they go up to # 20. I've made 1 - 10, but we only work on 1-4 currently. They are for a pom-pom counting book, but I printed them out on cardstock and laminated them to make individual cards. I bought cute little novelty erasers at Dollar Tree (30 for $1.00!), and we use them for manipulatives. It's pretty simple - just name the number on them, then count out loud with him as he places the erasers/markers on the circles.

The cards also have the number written out for those who are learning number words.

Enjoy! And have a beautiful day! :)

The Beginner's Bible

This is such a great little Bible. It has very clear language for toddlers and preschoolers, even for older babies. We've been using it for a while now. We take M to church with us; he doesn't go to Sunday School, and while we make sure to talk about Jesus and God and our faith a lot at home, I thought we should start having more of a child-centered "Sunday school" time at home. I want him to learn about how Jesus loves children, and the miracles He did, as well as all the other great old and new testament stories.

I checked this book out at our library first, and loved it so much I bought a copy. We've started making time for "Sunday School" on Fridays (we do read the bible stories on other days too) and I try to include a craft or some other activity to help the stories stick in M's mind. I hope to do some "Sunday School on Friday" posts as we go along. It's been a lot of fun!

If you are looking for a good Bible for small children, I highly recommend this one!

Have a beautiful day!

Waterpainting Outside

Here's a very simple project we did yesterday. I used our outdoor easel and set up a cup of water and some watercolor paints for M. He kept saying "We're painting outside, Mommy!" Which was a little strange since this was certainly not the first time we've painted outside. Oh well, the mind of a toddler is a mystery sometimes. He also kept saying "This is art, Mommy, not for the birdies to eat." And again, I say, the mind of a toddler...

Here's how it turned out:

The more vivid areas are from him dipping his finger into the water and then into a color and fingerpainting onto the paper. It turned out pretty nice, I think. I hope the birdies don't want to eat it!

Have a beautiful day! ;)

do-a-dot artwork

Yesterday we were all out of it... sick and feverish and completely lifeless... well, at least my husband and I. Matthew, on the other hand, was sick and feverish, yet somehow still managed to have a little energy for fun. It must be nice to be 2 years old.

He asked to do art first thing in the morning. My initial reaction was to say no because I just didn't feel like taking the time to set something up for him and then clean up (especially this) after him.

However, a little later I had an idea, and it turned out to be a good one too. Funny how that actually works out sometimes. He does not paint with his Do-A-Dot painters very often, as he prefers the messier tempera paints that he can run his little cars through. But he also likes to spray water out of my misting bottle. So... here's what we did:

I put a couple of layers of newsprint down then some papertowels on top (I left 2 paper towels attached to each other). Matthew made dots all over and then sprayed them with the water bottle. He had a great time doing this. It did make a little mess as he apparently decided to spray the whole table and the walls at some point, but dotting and spraying kept him busy for a good half hour if not more. And that was a blessing for all of us.

It actually turned out quite beautiful. The papertowels absorbed the water and caused the paints to bleed. You could do this with coffee filters or tissue paper too, I think. I'm not sure what we'll do with these; I'm thinking about laminating them with contact paper and turning them into placemats.

All in all, it turned out to be a fun and pretty spur-of-the-moment art project.

Have a beautiful day! ;)

Summer Sunshine

We were gone all weekend for the 4th of July and we came home sick, every one of us. Urgh. I have a list of things I want to blog about, but I'm afraid they just aren't going to happen until we are better and settled back into our normal routine.


But the post about the handprint fireworks reminded me of this cute craft we did back when it felt like spring would never come to Minnesota:





A handprint sun! This was so fun to make and it's been hanging on our kitchen wall since Febraury. It would be a great craft to do now that it's summertime. In fact, every child between 2 and 5 that has seen this has begged to do one like it.
What you need:
Yellow construction paper
Paper plate
Yellow paint mixed with gold glitter (do this beforehand on a small saucer)
Another color of paint - let your child choose, but try to keep it in the orange, red, pink family if possible (pink rays look a little more sunshiney than say, green rays)
glue
scissors
pencil for tracing
paintbrush
2 googly eyes
1 pompom
1 mouth cut from your choice of material - the one pictured here was cut from felt. It added a little texture lesson to the craft.
I let Matthew choose the color of paint for the sun rays, the pompom and the mouth.
First trace your child's hand several times onto yellow construction paper and let him/her paint them the color of his/her choice; when dry cut them out.
Next, have your child paint the back of the paper plate with the yellow paint and gold glitter mixture. If you trust the child with the glue bottle let them put two dots of glue on and stick on the eyes. I helped Matthew by holding the glue bottle with him and letting him squeeze, then quick pulling it away before we had an enormous pool of glue.
Next, stick on the pompom and the mouth in the same manner.
Finally, when everything is dry, glue the hands to the front of the paper plate. Turn it over and you have your cute handprint sunshine guy. :) Enjoy!
Have a beautiful day! ;)

A Little Summer Painting

Matthew has loved painting since he could sit upright in his highchair. I know painting with small children is stressful for some parents, but it is sooo much fun and, in my opinion, the benefits far outweigh the hassle of preparing and cleaning up.

Summer time is the perfect time for letting toddlers paint. Just bring it outside! Fill a little wading pool nearby, use washable tempera paints, and you are good to go. Put them in their little swim diaper or swimsuit, give them a brush and a piece of paper and watch what they create.


I made this handy little outdoor easel and paint tray in less than 15 minutes. Take a large box - this one was an old diaper box. Cut off the two side panels (the small ends). Then flip the box inside out and duct tape it into a triangle shape:
Set it up on a low bench or chair out in the grass, and use a large rock or two to hold it down by placing them inside the triangle. Use masking tape to attach a large piece of paper. We almost always use freezer paper as it is shiny on one side, which is great for fingerpainting, and matte on the other side, which is great for just about everything else.

For the paint tray, I used a small 6-cup muffin tin. Originally I planned to just save the paint in it and add more as needed. However, this particular one started to rust (it was from the dollar store, so I'm not sure if that would happen with all of them, or those that are coated). So now we use small plastic tubs from individual size apple sauce and I attached them to the muffin cups with tacky putty - the kind you use to hang posters, etc. Cleaning them is super easy, though to be honest, we don't really clean them up very often. I just cover everything with aluminum foil and we bring them out whenever we want to paint. If the paint has thickened a little bit, just add a little water, or a little more paint and mix it up. It's easy for a toddler to use because the weight of the muffin pan keeps the paint stable while they dip the brushes in. Regular cups are easy to tip over, but we've used this for a few months now and haven't had a single spill! We have another one that we use for liquid watercolors, and it works just as well.

So go paint with your kids! And have a beautiful day! ;)

34 Months... how time flies

Dear Matthew,

I can not believe how big you are getting. Where, oh where, has my baby gone? Daddy and I are so proud of you! We keep trying to slow time down and relish all the wonderful, sweet, astounding things you are doing, but even as we attempt to catch our breath you are off again with something new to learn and master.

These days your favorite toy is your little green tractor (which I bought for ONE DOLLAR a year ago at Target). You mow the "lawn" inside the house and outside many, many times a day with that little tractor, and you know just the right sound effects to make while you do it. We are getting pretty worried about that little tractor. I'm not sure how much longer a dollar's worth of plastic can hold out, but I'm afraid it won't be long, and I am desperately searching for a replacement.

You also love your tools - your saw especially. It is technically a hand saw, but that doesn't stop you - in your world it is a noisy chainsaw that cuts down forests of trees in one day. You worked for days (really) on a little cardboard box, sawing and sawing away until you had sawed it in two. Well, we are glad to see you have dedication and aren't afraid of hard work!

Here you finally finished it and showed me how you could sit in it by going in the little door you made. You were very proud! I have to admit I was pretty proud too!

In our breezeway you have your work - "fixwork" - that you go to just like Daddy goes to work every day. You have car crashes in the breezeway, fantastic roll overs and pile ups, then you get on your bike and drive to work at the other end of the breezeway and get them all back in working order. Your absolute favorite "job" is fixing the flat tires.

You must've been the easiest kid ever to potty train. You figured it out and never looked back. You woke up one day singing "Big boy underwear, big boy underwear, oooooooh Babe!" Your first musical composition. And sometimes you want me to sing it to you at bedtime. :)

You are starting to have conversations on your toy phone with imaginary people, one in particular who is named "Betsy".

You are beginning to be more deliberate in your drawings, telling me what or who you are drawing, and you know what? I can really see it!

You ask a lot of questions. You are already much smarter than me, I'm sure of it.

You love your bike.

You love the bales of hay at Grandpa's farm.

You love your rainboots with the silly lizards on them.

You love acting like a kitty or a puppy, or a bird (especially a bird!).

You climb, hang, and jump from anything and everything. You have made my heart stop more than once with your daredevil feats. But I love you and I would not change a thing about you even if I could.

You are showing me just how amazing the world is when seen through the eyes of a little boy. I'm so thankful to be your Mommy.

I love you, sweetheart!

The Great Blog Experiment...

I wasn't sure I'd ever get to this point. I've thought about starting a blog for quite a while, but it can be so overwhelming to think about, especially when life is just so darn busy anyway. Let me introduce myself... my name is Nicole, I am a 36 year old wife to Dan and mother to Matthew (who is almost 3). I am busy, I am tired. Most likely you are too.

The reasons for the blog?

Well, for starters, I want to document my son's childhood - the fun, the cute, the silly - all the things we think we will always remember, but that we've already started to forget.

I want to share my current craft projects, as well as ideas for crafting and doing art with small children. I love to create. Love it. And one of the greatest joys of motherhood is sharing this with my child.

I hope to share and receive helpful ideas for creating routines, structure, balance, and PEACE for our families.

I am Catholic and my faith plays a role in all the areas of my life. I can't separate it out, and really, I wouldn't want to. So, from time to time I may share some of this as it relates to motherhood, marriage, and the life of a woman in general.

I hope whoever reads these postings will be encouraged to bring beauty and peace into their lives and the lives of their families, and that you will enjoy what our homelife has to show you!