The Art Box – Valentine Style

In the Art Box last week: some patterned paper hearts that M cut early in the week, foam and silver heart stickers, foam heart beads, valentine colored pom-poms and buttons, sparkly heart sprinkles, paint, doilies, construction paper, glue, stamps, stamps, and more stamps, and red glitter.

M was very excited about this particular art box. This was the first year I didn’t have a single Valentine craft idea in place, and I was ready to enjoy seeing what he would come up with on his own. We went over the list of people we’ll send Valentines to, and I was so happy to see him excited about making something for the specific purpose of gifting it to someone.

He started off taking a look at all the stamps and had fun with some new roller stamps I found at Target.

Before long he was gluing and sticking and stamping all over the place. This was so much fun! I loved that he thought it was completely appropriate to include firetruck and helicopter stamps too. :) I had fun hearing about who was getting which Valentine, and all he wanted to do on each one. Here’s a sampling of what he did:

He still has a few more to make, and I’m wondering if he’ll agree to folding these so they are more like cards (with extra decorations on the front). I love each one and I hinted to him that I sure would love to get one too. I may have to hint this to Daddy as well. ;)

I know these are not the cutesy crafty Valentines that we all love, but they were truly made with love and something M was able to do completely on his own. I love that they really look “kid made”. :) I hope everyone who gets one knows how special they are!

Link your Art Box posts up below! A warm thanks to all of you who participate – I love visiting your blogs and seeing your posts!

Have a beautiful day! :)

Blog Stuff…

I have switched my comments settings so that all comments are now being moderated.  As soon as I read your comment I’ll publish it to the post. :)  I’m hoping this will cut down on some of the spamming. 

I appreciate all your comments so much, and just wanted to let everyone know about this change.  Thank you!!

Have a beautiful day! :)

Tot School – Feb. 7, 2010

M is 41 months old. 

We have been taking turns sharing the flu the past couple of weeks and so what you see below is a hodgepodge of activities we did in the last half of this week (when we were finally starting to feel better), and things we’ve done over the past several weeks that have just not made their way into a post yet.

First, the fun stuff – Valentine Activities. :)

M used tongs to transfer red and clear plastic crystals into an ice cube tray.  He, on his own, made a “red, white, red, white” pattern as he did this.  I actually squealed when I saw it. :) The boring ice cube tray was exchanged for a cute heart tray soon after this, but no pics.

I set up a heart cutting activity for M and before I could walk to the kitchen, find my camera and get back, he had them all done. These were pretty scrapbooking papers I picked up at Target.  I folded a piece in half and drew half a heart on it and M was so surprised and excited when he cut it and opened it up to see a heart!  He loved this and did more of them the next day, and even showed Daddy his “trick” later. :)  I saw this on Chasing Cheerios.

I put together a quick sensory bin for M, using our red crystals, pom-poms, red and silver foam snowflakes (Valentine’s Day is associated with winter in my mind, although I know it isn’t for everyone).  There are foam heart beads and foam heart stickers in there, and little pipecleaner hearts too:This was a phenomenal dud with M.  He lasted 5 minutes looking at the items.  However, I’m sharing it because he loved the “snow” I filled it up with.  This is fiberfill stuffing, and it is called Cluster Stuff.  I get it at Walmart and since discovering it, I do not use anything for stuffing (when I’m sewing or whatever) except this.  It never gets matted down.  It’s washable and, in fact, gets softer and fluffier when it is washed.  Oh, I could sing it’s praises for a long time.  However, what you really want to know is that M thought it was wonderful and played with it by itself for quite a while.It’s soft, warm, and cozy as you just dig your hands in.  Mm.  Don’t you want to go buy some now? :)

Back to activities… a little Sucrets can (M loves this little can, what can I say?) with pony beads in Valentine colors and red pipecleaners.  After he strings on the beads we’ll shape them into hearts for the Grandmothers.  Blue was added to make it a bit more masculine. :)  It worked, right?He hasn’t actually done this yet, but I wanted to include it in a post before Valentine’s Day is actually here.

Also, for a fun activity on his shelves, I put a container full of our Valentine window clings.  He does these seasonally, but for some reason theses Valentine ones were a huge hit.  He loved running back and forth and putting them up on windows.  Most of them found their way onto our kitchen door:

 

More Sensory Activities:

We made Gak using liquid starch, white glue, and blue food coloring.

After this picture, the battery in my camera died and I didn’t get any pictures of the actual process of making it or M playing with it.  It was a lot of fun.  It’s a slippery, stretchy putty.  It’s pretty cool stuff.  Here’s a picture of it after my battery was charged, ha.

 

M asked for his Floam one day; it’s been forever since he’s played with that.  He sat in the living room for a good 45 minutes “snowplowing” the floam.  We are still finding it everywhere despite the huge towel he was sitting on.

 

Math Skills:

I wrote numbers 0 through 10 on some paper doilies and M put them in order on the floor (he pretended he was a train as he moved down the line).  Then, using tongs, he counted “snowballs” (cotton balls) onto them.  He enjoyed this much more than I expected and did a great job. This is him telling me he doesn’t want me to take a picture just as the camera is flashing.  Sigh.  I thought this was a super idea, and then I saw that Katie at Katie’s Nesting Spot had done the exact same thing, except hers are much nicer looking (of course, everything she does looks amazing), and obviously weren’t just thrown together like ours were. ;)

M has been loving his pattern blocks and mats lately.  He has been doing them every. single. day.

 

Literacy:

M got this new ABC puzzle from the Target dollar spot and did it with only a tiny bit of help:

He did a J cut and paste page:(he just loves that purple glue stick).

And we did the activities in our new J lapbook:

 

Visual Discrimination:

I bought a cheap small calendar and M matched up the small pictures on the back to the large pictures:

As you can see, he’s been opting out of some of the photos lately.  It’s his choice and one I’m really trying to respect although I would prefer to see more of that cute face. :)

 

Fine Motor Skills:

M played with his Lite Brite:

Sorted erasers into an ice cube tray with tweezers:

And played with a wooden dress-the-bear puzzle:

For more Tot School posts, go here! 

Have a beautiful day! :)

Books of the Week – Feb. 6, 2010

Click the button above to see more reviews of great kids’ books!

Like the widget? I finally decided to get it since I normally only really write about one or two books each week. We normally read many more and this is a way to let you see some of the others. Any of the books in the rotation above are recommended!
We are starting to discuss dinosaurs and we’ve had fun reading a couple of new (to us) dino books this past week.
Saturday Night at the Dinosaur Stomp, by Carol Diggory Shields:The rhyming text in this book is fun to read and the illustrations are fantastic (ill. by Scott Nash). It’s a fun story about a dinosaur dance and does a good job of naming a lot of dinos.
Ten Terrible Dinosaurs, by Paul Stickland: Paul Stickland has several fun dinosaur books, but this was the first time we’d read this particular one. The characters look the same as they do in his other books and M recognized them all. It’s fun to watch as one by one each dino leaves the group. They really are terrible, but they look adorable in my opinion. :) I love the facial expressions and unique character given to each of these dinos.
Have a beautiful day! :)

Book Review – Divine Mercy by Robert Stackpole, STD

Dr. Stackpole has written an invaluable book about the mercy of God in Divine Mercy, A Guide from Genesis to Benedict XVI.  
I’ve been reading this book a small portion at a time in order to really grasp the abundance of wisdom it contains.  In chapter one the author begins the book by talking about our “normal” definition of mercy: an act of pardon, and the cancellation of punishment.  Divine Mercy is that, but so much more too.  “Divine Mercy is God’s love reaching down to meet the needs and overcome the miseries of His creatures.” (p. 19).  It’s an active role that God plays in showing us mercy… like the shepherd who went looking for the lost sheep in order to bring him back to safety.
Part one of the book includes the characteristics of God’s Divine Mercy and helps the reader to understand, in down-to-earth terms, how much we are loved by God.  Stackpole talks about two Hebrew words used in the Old Testament to describe God’s mercy.  The first is hesed, a love that is steadfast and always giving.  A love that gives over and over again, regardless of anything the loved one does.  The second is rachamim, which is a tender and compassionate love.  The author uses the illustration of a mother who loves her child and pities him if he is hurt, and in that pity does anything and everything she can to help him and to relieve his pain, even if it was his own disobedience that brought him to it.  This really struck a chord with me, and probably will with all mothers.  I love my child that way, and to know that God loves me that much… well, it’s humbling and awe-inspiring to say the least.
Part two of the book goes through the writings of several theologians and saints and develops their viewpoints of Divine Mercy.  This was a very deep section of the book and I will be going over it a second time (and most likely a third time too) in order to get a more full sense of what these men and women contributed to the understanding of Divine Mercy.
Part three discusses how the understanding of Divine Mercy continues to deepen and grow in modern times, as well as the world’s great need to hear about, understand, and place its trust in the great mercy of God.
This is an excellent book and I highly recommend it.  It includes thoughtful study questions and discussion starters at the end of each chapter and would be a great book to study as a group.
This review was written as part of the Catholic book Reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Divine Mercy - A Guide from Genesis to Benedict XV.

Letter J j Lapbook Printables

Well.  I’ve finally gotten another letter lapbook finished up.  As much as M enjoys his cut and paste ABC pages and his ABC book, I really felt he was getting a better grasp of phonics and letter formation (etc.) from the lapbooks we had done.  He really enjoys these and they are fun for me to put together too.  They take some time, but we are in no hurry. :)

I have to admit the J lapbook was a difficult one for me… I had the toughest time coming up with good ideas.  Ah well, D is next (for dinosaurs, yay!) and I’ve already got a good hundred ideas floating around in my head.

So, here we go… our J j Lapbook: That’s the inside.  No craft on the front as of yet.

First, Things that Begin with J:This is a standard for all our letter lapbooks.  We go through the pictures and reinforce the beginning sound.  M enjoys this very much for some reason.  It kind of ends up as a chant… j-j-j-jellybeans, j-j-j-jackhammer, j-j-j-jumprope.

Next, Color Sequencing with Jellybeans:
Now, admittedly these jellybeans are a bit larger than regular jellybeans, and M did call them eggs as they were printing out, but he believed me when I told him they were jellybeans. :)  There are 5 colors and 3 jellybeans for each color.  M will sequence them from darkest to lightest or vice versa.

Number Sequencing with Jars:Pretty simple here – just sequencing the jars from 1 to 5. 

Then we’ll count our jellybeans from above onto the jars:

Jack and Jill Poem Sequencing Cards:The sequencing cards are from here.  And there are 4 of them; I was missing one when I took the picture.  I added a little card that has the poem on it too.  I printed the sequencing cards much smaller than the originals, making them each 3”x2” so they will fit into the lapbook pocket.

Big J and Little j Sorting:This is simple and pretty self-explanatory.  M loves jackhammers (and all things destructive), so I’m sure he’ll enjoy this.  In the future I may print the letters in various fonts too, but for now a simple sort seems best.

The back of the lapbook has one last pocket, Dot-to-dot J and j Letter Tracing:These are laminated so M can practice on them with a dry-erase or window marker over and over again.

All of these activities are available for downloading and  printing here.  Like I always say, you don’t have to make  lapbook!  Just use them for activity packs or whatever! ;)

Have a beautiful day! :)

I Wish You Enough Book Giveaway Winner!

Well, there you have it - #1 is the winner. I have to say this is the first time I’ve seen the first commenter win. Congratulations Val!! Please get in contact with me within the next 48 hours (your email was not included in your comment - oops!).

Thanks to everyone who participated!

It’s for the Birds :)

I know the experts say you shouldn’t use cutesy titles for your blog posts, but sometimes a person just can’t help herself, right? 
I realized last week that I have not yet shared a fun little post-Christmas tradition that we have here.  We always have a real Christmas tree, and once Christmas is over and done with, we find a spot in our backyard and set our tree up for the rest of winter.  We pile the snow up around it until it’s reasonably straight and stable.  And by we I mean my husband.   Because, as you know, I’m all about hibernation in the winter, not going outside and doing crazy things with the Christmas tree.  But anyway…
It pretty much stays green until spring, and we make little cheerio bird feeders like this:
and hang them on the tree for our little feathered friends to find.  We also toss stale bread onto it, as well as any half-eaten peanut butter and jelly sandwiches we may have lying around.
We have seen lots of sneaky little squirrels stealing things and chasing each other around. :)   However, as much as they might try, they don’t get it all!  We have a great variety of birds munching on our treats too, and it’s been a lot of fun to watch our beloved Christmas tree and the activity around it this winter.
I just wanted to share. :)
Have a beautiful day! :)

The Art Box – February 1, 2010

M was sick all of last week, and I was barely hanging on, and well… no art.  There was a lot of this going on: and not much of anything else.

However, I would LOVE to see any and all art your kids’ made!!  MckLinky is below. :)

Have a beautiful day! :)