Tag: tot school

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Friday Favorites

Friday Pinterest Favorites

I am absolutely in love with this idea and every bit of it is inexpensive. Looking at the picture, I wasn’t sure what she used to make the lily pads and I worried about that part but reading her post answered all of my questions. The supplies are already on my shopping list for this weekend. I’m excited and I know Peyton, Sylas, and JoJo will be, too.

This shirt is so perfect. It’s cute, true, and right up my alley. Adding it to my Mother’s Day wish list. 😉

 

How cool is this? So easy, very little prep, and hardly any cleanup. No clean up at all if your kids take care of it all. 😉 We are working on letters like crazy lately so I’m always looking for new ideas. I plan on doing this on our sliding back door while I prepare and cook dinner tonight. I think it would also work for practicing name recognition and numbers, too.

I’m all about cute outfits, I just can’t put them together myself. I’m not even kidding. I used to be fashionable – before babies. Now I’m so far out of the loop that I don’t even know what’s in style or what looks good together. I either have to take Nevaeh shopping with me or I have to have Pinterest open while I shop. I am good at using Pinterest to guide me in the right direction at TJ Max. 😉 What do you all think of this outfit?

That’s it for today!! Share some of your favorite pins with me in the comments!

Categories
Craft Toddler and Preschool Age Fun

Handprint Frog

I’m a sucker for handprint artwork. I love looking back on the tiny little handprints made into some cute design. My kids have been interested in frogs lately, so we made handprint frogs!

They painted their own hand green. I let them do this part themselves because let’s face it, kids love to paint themselves so why not let them when there is a fair chance?

I helped them press their hand onto the paper so that we could get the whole hand print the first time. Sylas insisted that he do that part himself, too, so I mostly let him. I just pushed the tips of his fingers down to make sure we got the whole thing.

Once we got the handprints, I let the kids free paint while I added the little details that they are still too little to do themselves.

I added green circles with paint for where the eyes are, a green oval for where the mouth area is, and a smiley face. Then I cut out circles with white paper for the eyes. The circles for each frog were different sizes since the frogs were all different sizes. I wanted to make sure the eyes weren’t way too big or way too small for them. Then I used a sharpie to make the black part of the eye. You could also use googly eyes but I don’t have any on hand (surprising, but it happens) so I used paper.

Once the paint dried, Sylas and Josie (with my help) cut the tongue, curled it, glued it on with a glue stick, and added the eyes. We curled them by wrapping them around a pencil. I curled the tongue for Liam’s frog.

Aren’t they the cutest? I made the oval on Liam’s a little too wide so I might have to re-do his later, but I still love it!

Have your littles made any cute crafts lately? Tell me about them in the comments and leave a link if you’ve blogged about it! I’d love to see them.

Categories
Toddler and Preschool Age Learning

Play Dough Letters

If your kids are anything like my kids, they will love this method of learning to write letters. With two kids in the house who are learning letters, I am always looking for new ways to teach them. Pencil and paper do the trick, but I want them to be inspired by new ways, as well. My kids love play dough so incorporating play dough and letters seemed like the perfect way to further their learning.

We did it a couple of different ways. First, I had them roll their play dough flat and then gave them tools to “write” with. I put out flashcards with letters on them, as well, so the kids could copy what they see and I worked with my own dough while they worked so that they could see the way I did it. I always find that they learn best when they can see it being done and do it at the same time. I wasn’t sure if the flashcards would help but Sylas actually referenced them while he was working. We worked on letters S (for Sylas), J (for Josie), and A.

The second way we used play dough to learn letters was by forming the letters with playdough. I taught them to rip a piece of the dough off, roll it in their hands until it’s long like a snake, and then form it into the letter they want to make.

They wanted to make shapes this way, as well. It could work for any learning concept!

They really loved making letters with play dough and asked if we can do it again tomorrow. I’m completely okay with that because it’s easy to clean up and there are not many materials involved.

For older kids, this would be a good way to practice sight words and spelling words.

What are some of the ways you teach your kids to make their letters?