Art Time – Magic Pictures

In an effort to use every last drop of paint from these practically empty bottles:

I put a little bit of water in each one, shook it up and poured it into our paint tray (which is a muffin tin with applesauce cups stuck in it):

This made great liquid watercolors!

I found some simple Bob the Builder coloring pages online, printed them out and traced them onto regular printer paper with a white oil pastel crayon.  I find that oil pastels work a bit better for this than regular wax crayons, but that is just my preference.

I put one paper in front of M, gave him some paintbrushes and he got busy.  He loved the watercolors.  I have to say, I think this worked so much better for us than the regular dry watercolors that you have to dip a wet brush in.

He was so surprised to see Scoop!

We did the same with two more pages (sorry no pictures!) and then he just painted on some papertowels:

  We will definitely be doing this again – it was a very fun project!

Have a beautiful day! :)

Our Reading Spot

Teaching My Little Bookworm is hosting a great link-up for posts about reading areas in our homes.

We have an entrance that we never, ever use in our house, and we’ve turned it into M’s "reading spot”.  I set up a fabric box to hold all the library books we check out, there’s a backrest for sitting on the floor, a chair, and a couple of stuffed animals.  Sometimes it gets used as an overflow area for toys too (as you can clearly see), but I try to keep it fairly tidy and inviting.

This morning M was very, very quiet as I worked in the kitchen.  You know how that normally means trouble, right?  Well, I went to see what he was doing and found this: (It’s as if he knew I wanted to do a post about this.)

I loved seeing this! 

He has a very full bookshelf in his room too, which holds the books he owns.  We normally check out 10 to 15 books from the library per week.  You can keep them for 3 weeks, and at one point I counted 40 children’s books from the library.  I felt a little… well, weird about having so many library books, but now that I’ve read some blog posts about this, I’m thinking we are pretty normal. It is a lot of reading, but we all enjoy it so much! 

Have a beautiful day! :)

Thursday Thinking – A Mother’s Work

Recently I sat and listened as a friend went on and on about how competent another friend of ours is… she really has her act together, works hard, and does a lot for others.  She (the absent friend) is a great person, great friend, and an excellent teacher at a local elementary school. 

This conversation was in no way intended to make me like “less”, but in a way it did.  I wasn’t being compared to the other friend, but I was comparing myself to her in my mind.  It is most likely my own sense of insecurity, inadequacy, etc. that made this conversation have such an effect on me.  I felt like a complete failure in comparison.

Those of us who are stay-at-home-moms, I think, are susceptible to those feelings of inadequacy from time to time, especially when we think about how everyone else seems to really “have it all together”. 

This friend of mine (Miss Wonderful :) ) is not married, and does not have children.  We are at two completely different stages of life.  There is just no fair comparison to be made.  And since we are all different, I’m guessing that applies to comparisons with everyone else too!

G.K. Chesterton wrote a book in 1912 titled, What’s Wrong with the World. It’s a series of essays about the times in which he lived.  Some of it is outdated, but much of it still applies.  I like to read a portion of it from time to time, because it always gives me food for thought. 

Yesterday I ran across the following passage, and wanted to share it with all of you, hoping it provides you with the same encouragement that it gave me (REMEMBER, it was written in 1912!):

“[A woman is surrounded with] very young children, who require to be taught not so much anything as everything.  Babies need not to be taught a trade as to be introduced to a world.  To put the matter shortly, woman is generally shut up in the house with a human being at a time when he asks all the questions that there are, and some that there aren’t. …when people begin to talk about this domestic duty as not merely difficult but trivial and dreary, I simply give up the question.  For I can not with the utmost energy of imagination conceive what they mean. …How can it be a large career to tell other people’s children about the Rule of Three, and a small career to tell one’s own children about the universe?  How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone?  No; a woman’s function is laborious, but because it is gigantic, not because it is minute.  I will pity Mrs. Jones for the hugeness of her task; I will never pity her for its smallness.” (What’s Wrong with the World, by G.K. Chesterton, p. 97)

Have a beautiful day! :)

Open Ended Art – Mosaics with Pebbles

To be fully truthful, I’ll let you know right away that I am totally cheating on this Open Ended Art project. :) For M’s birthday we had him make a stepping stone (from a kit – you can find them at Michael’s), and it sort of, kind of used pebbles. Glass pebbles, that is. :)
We’ve had this kit since he was 18 months old, and kept meaning to make it… and kept forgetting again. SO, we finally got it done on M’s 3rd birthday. He loved doing it and we highly recommend these for Christmas gifts for the grandparents! :)
I mixed the stone material and water together, then Daddy helped M make his handprints:

I put the letter tiles in where I wanted them, then M had fun placing the pieces of glass and glass pebbles wherever he wanted.

He really enjoyed this, we had to remind him a couple of times to be careful not to mess up the words or his handprints; all in all he did a great job!
Here’s the finished stone:

I can’t believe my baby is 3 years old!
For more mosaic ideas, head over to Teaching My Little Bookworm!
Have a beautiful day! :)

Art Time! – Painting with Stuff :)

Monday morning M said, “I have an idea!” (This is his new favorite thing to say), “Let’s paint!”  So, paint we did – I was happy to hear him request this because we used to do some sort of open art thing several times a week (we shot for once a day, but that didn’t always happen), but somehow we’ve gotten out of our art-groove lately.  I bet we haven’t had the paint out in 2 weeks.

He requested blue paint, but since there was not much left in the bottle I gave him some red too and we turned it into a color mixing lesson. 

Then I grabbed a few items that he doesn’t normally paint with – a bath pouf, an old vegetable scrubber, and a foam paintbrush.

He tried them all out:

I had him look at his paper and asked him, “What do blue and red mixed together make?”  He got it right – purple.  I was a little anxious about his answer because I’ve started to wonder if he is a little color blind when it comes to blue and purple.  Often he’s not able to distinguish between the two.  At this age it’s hard to know if he is really having trouble seeing the difference between the two colors or if it’s just that he can’t remember the color names once in a while. 

There are worse things than being color blind, I know!  So, either way I think we’ll survive, ha! :)

Here is the finished artwork:

It’s a house.  Couldn’t you tell?  It’s a “big house”.  Yep. ;)

And, he wanted more “stuff” to paint with, but my mind drew a blank!  We’ll have to do it again when I’ve given it a little more thought.  And when it’s not morning and my brain hasn’t woken up yet.

Have a beautiful day! :)

36 Months

Dear Matthew,

You turned 3 years old last week.  You are such a big boy now, and you are quick to remind us of that fact.  We are so very proud of you. 

There is hardly anything of the baby about you now. 

I’m so thankful for the rocking chair that you aren’t yet ready to give up.  Even when it’s the middle of the night and you want me to rock you, I do.  Because, although you would never admit it, you are still my baby and I know those precious moments are numbered. 

You had a wonderful birthday!  Balloons, noise-makers, pizza, presents… all the good stuff that a little boy wants.  And a cake from your mama that was built according to your specifications: dirt, a road, a fence, some trucks, some m&m’s, and lots of “shiny” parts (frosting). :)

You received your “dream machine” from Grandma – a push lawnmower that you’ve had your eye on all summer:

You’ve been a handful lately, but you’ve had a lot going on.  3 looks like a lot of fun, but we know it can be difficult too, don’t we?  There’s a lot expected of you, so many new things to learn about, endless questions that Mommy doesn’t always know the answers to, and rules, rules, rules! You are not a big fan of all the rules! :)

But, you know what?  You are doing a great job, and we will always love you and help you when you need us.

Your spontaneous hugs and kisses are so sweet.  Your silly faces and absurd jokes are so funny. 

You bring so much more joy to our lives than we ever expected.  Thank you, Sweetheart, for being you.  We love you very much.

Love,

Mama.

Tot School

M is 36 months old

Despite having a crazy-busy week, we were able to slow down enough for an occasional tot school activity. Here’s a little of what we did…

It’s been raining a lot here lately, and M loves to open the windows and feel the rain and talk about it. He actually went out to play in the rain twice, but his silly mama forgot to take any pictures.

He watched Daddy plug a hole in one of the tires of our truck, then pump more air into it. This was fascinating for M.

We found some moon sand at the Dollar Tree. I was really excited about this because I’ve been wanting to get some for M, but it just seemed so expensive for… sand. At the dollar store it’s called Magic Sand. :)

I made a new flannel board set – have you ever heard Raffi’s song about the Little White Duck? That’s what this is based on. I found the pattern here. I’m telling you, Matthew LOVES his flannel board. He is so into it I’m going to have to do a separate post about it.

I printed out this hot air balloon and gave M some m&ms to put on it. He loved this of course. He is such an m&m kid. I got the idea from Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.

I also printed these “magnet pages” and M practiced one-to-one correspondence by putting glass pebbles on them. I did not think this was the most original idea ever, it was just something we did on the spur of the moment. However, it was one of M’s favorite activities that day.

We used our pocket chart to do some ABC matching:

More matching with this heart matching game, from Childcareland.com:

I used these dog pictures for another game. I put 4 different dogs on the tray (these are magnets, and we used a cookie sheet to stick them on), and we talked about them. Then he would close his eyes and I would take one away. When he opened his eyes he would try to remember which one was missing. I think this was a good idea, but it was a little too difficult for M. I’m going to try the same thing using other items some time soon.

M practiced his fine motor skills with some lacing cards:

And practiced his scissor skills too. Does anyone recognize this scissor practice printable? I can’t recall where I found them. I added the stickers to help guide him.

My favorite activity this week (and M liked it too, but I don’t think it was his *favorite*) was this:

I used foam stickers to make these, and M had to recreate the shape combinations that I had stuck to the bottom portion of the grids. I got the idea here; click to see the full tutorial. He did great with this, and I was so proud! It is not as easy at it looks because he had to determine which shape was on the bottom and then place the second shape on top of it.

I hope you all had a great week of tot school! Go here to get more ideas from other tot schooling moms!

Have a beautiful day! :)

Open Ended Art – Yellow and Crayons Theme

The theme over at Teaching My Little Bookworm for open ended art this week is yellow and crayons. Check out more artwork here.

One morning this week I set up a piece of newsprint and crayons for M.

Have you ever seen these crayons? They are made by Elmer – the same company that makes the glue – and they are called Color Slicks.

They are so much more vibrant than regular crayons, and they remind me a little bit of oil pastels. We haven’t had them out much lately, and we have been coloring with regular crayons a lot, so I decided these would be more fun for his special theme artwork.

He loves these, but apparently he loves the yellow one least. :) I had to encourage him to use that one, and he made a yellow “tunnel” with it, then went back to the other colors.

I gave him some cotton balls to see if he could smudge the colors, and it worked.

He wasn’t crazy about the effect though – I think he didn’t understand.

Here’s his finished artwork:

Have a beautiful day! :)

Craft Time – Rainbows Galore - #2

Because the Gluey-Jello rainbow turned out like it did, we did another rainbow craft.
I gave M a piece of white cardstock and this rainbow painter we found at a discount store ages ago and have never used:

He didn’t really paint in a rainbow shape, but I didn’t necessarily intend for him to. I just wanted the whole paper covered with rainbow colors.

I also had him put his hands together like this (to make a dove) and drew around them on a light beige piece of cardstock:

(Oh, how I love those chubby little hands!)

Then we mixed white glue and very fine silver glitter together on a saucer:

He painted the birdie:

I wish you could see how sparkly it turned out. I have had great results mixing glitter with paint (or even just plain white glue) to achieve a sparkly effect. The key, though, is to use the finest glitter you can find. It’s way less messy than letting them sprinkle the glitter on.

Once the rainbow paper was dry, I drew a rainbow shape on the back and cut it out:
Glue the dove onto the top and you’ve got a pretty little reminder of the story about Noah’s Ark.
Nope, I didn’t make him hold it front of his face, that’s just what he did.
Here’s a close up of the sparkly dove:
It turned out very pretty – the pictures don’t do it justice.
Have a beautiful, sparkly day! :)

Craft Time – Rainbows Galore – #1

I wanted to do these crafts as part of our Noah’s Ark theme last week, but we simply ran out of time.  They are pretty fun to do though, and I like the results, so I’m sharing them here.
The first idea I got from Making Learning Fun.  I printed this template, then circled the color names in the appropriate marker color so M could do this on his own a little bit.  Then I put a muffin tin out with different flavors of Jello powder – cherry, orange, lemon, lime, blueberry, and grape. Sounds yummy, doesn’t it?

(Please pretend you can’t see my rusty old pan.)

M put glue on each stripe of the rainbow (he needed a little mama guidance with this, so no pics), then used a small spoon to *sprinkle* (dump) the powders on.

Here’s the finished rainbow, and it smelled delicious!

There are a couple of things you should know before you do this with your little one though…
1. The paper becomes very heavy with this on it, because it gels when it mixes with the glue.  We used cardstock thankfully, or it would’ve been a disaster.
2. It gels when it mixes with the glue.  So, you know, you have gluey Jello  which, while it smells pretty and looks pretty, is really kind of gross.
3. Ants may come calling when they realize there is gluey Jello nearby.  For this reason M’s artwork ended up in the garbage early the next morning, the evidence covered up with lots of paper towels.  Thankfully he has not asked about his pretty, smelly rainbow yet. :)
So, if we do this again… and it was truly a LOT of fun for M (kept him occupied for a good 45 minutes) we’ll use sugar free koolaid. 
Have a beautiful day! :)

Gone for a While…

Whew, we have a hectic week ahead of us.  Dentist and doctor appointments, taking dinner to a friend and seeing her new baby, play date with a bunch of other mommies (and kids) on Wednesday, and a 3-year Birthday Party with the Cake of M’s Dreams on Thursday.  Not to mention all the cleaning, cooking, laundry, and errand-running that should be done too.  I feel like I should put brush my teeth and shower on the list too, because I’m not entirely sure I’ll be able to get them done otherwise. 

This is a week when too much has been planned, and though most of the things are something enjoyable, a little of the joy is taken out by the sheer amount of energy it’s all going to entail.

I’m pretty sure blogging is going to have to take a backseat this week.  I’m not sure we’ll get any tot school in; maybe if I’m organized I can get a couple of things together in case M asks and we have free time. 

So, while I normally like to take time to comment on everyone’s tot-school posts and especially those that comment here, it will most likely be several days before you hear from me!  I have a couple of posts that were written over the weekend scheduled for the next couple of days, but I won’t *really* be here. ;)

If I’m good about taking pictures this week though, I’ll have a lot of blogging material for the future. :)

Have a beautiful week!  :)

Tot School

M is 35 months old.

I felt really behind all week, nothing was planned (and I am nothing if not a Planner), and both M and I were a little cranky.  Sigh.  Motherhood isn’t always pretty I guess.  Anyway, we did only a few things…

We played with M’s foam bath numbers and he matched the number to the correct pile of erasers that I set up:

He did this pretty well, with only a little guidance from me.  We switched it and he put the number of erasers down next to the appropriate foam number (does that make sense??)

One day he wanted to “do school” when I wasn’t able to, so he got out the little erasers, a pair of tongs, and a bowl from the kitchen and did this all on his own :

 

I found a copy of the Moveable Alphabet here, printed it out and put it in our pocket chart (from Target dollar spot – you knew I’d mention it at least once, didn’t you?!).  Then M matched up his letters from his See and Spell.  I thought he would have fun putting things in the pocket chart, but he really was not all that interested.  I do think I’ll try it again though, it could’ve just been that we had a bad attitude all week. ;)

M matched paper clips to colored pieces of cardstock.  He did great with getting them on this time, something he’s really had a hard time with in the past:

 

He did some scissor practice using the pages I printed from here:

We did a dolphin puzzle, which was a real struggle… I know he can do this puzzle, he just lost interest halfway through.  I made him finish it, but I’m really not sure why.  Normally if he isn’t having fun we just skip something. 

We made a blue, yellow, blue, yellow pattern with his blocks.  I did this with him and kept asking “what comes next?” and he kind of got it eventually, I think.

We finished up with an activity that’s always fun and puts both of us in a good mood.  We got out his songbook and we played his instruments and sang several songs.  You can’t see his box of instruments in this picture; we have a harmonica, a triangle, a shaker bottle (pictured), jingle bells, tambourine, and the bowl and wooden spoon (pictured) that he uses like a drum. 

I’m hoping to make next week a little more fun and interesting!  I hope you all had wonderful weeks with your tots!!

Have a beautiful day! :)