Shell Necklaces

This month when we were in Hawaii, my mom and dad did a great little project with Clara during nap time.  Every morning they walked on the beach and collected little sea shells.  Some of them had holes already in them, and some of them Pa drilled holes in.  Then, Moo sat Clara down at the dining room table and they made some adorable little necklaces.  Super fun!  Thanks, Moo and Pa!

Teaching Toddler Shapes

This week when I had the two squirmy toddlers, I decided that we needed to learn some shapes. It turns out that both of them could only name the heart shape. Wah! I know Clara knew more than that by twenty-two months. Oh to have the time to drill things like that into the second child’s head. But, none-the-less, I’m going to make up for it. We did three shapes projects this week. The first two were spur of the moment activities that simply led the kids to learn some names of the shapes. Construction paper, contact paper, markers, stickers, etc. and two little projects were born in about twenty minutes.

Then on Thursday, I set up a painting project (which by the way, earned me all sorts of bonus Auntie points with Chloe who loves to paint, but for some reason never does). I grabbed our shape sorter shapes, some washable paint, and a couple of paper plates. I taped some big paper on the table to keep it from slipping around or hitting the floor. Then after we picked colors of paint and reviewed all of the shapes, I pretty much let them go for it. I tried to talk about what shapes they were painting with as they went as well. Fun, messy learning!

New Menu Planner!

I just had to share this, as it is currently making me VERY happy! I made a new menu planner for myself and my little sister. I love it because I don’t have to recreate the whole thing each week and all the options that we love are right there waiting for me!

I got this idea here!

Stained Glass Color Mixing

Sorry for the lack of posts lately!  We were in Maui, then when we got back we adopted a new kitty, went to a whole lot of kindergarten tours, and started swimming lessons.   Whew!  But, despite the busyness, I still have to do some stuff with the kids.  I have been feeling a bit guilty that Nancy has not had the same amount of artsy-fartsy stuff introduced to her that Clara had at the same age, so for the next month or so, I’m going to focus on toddler sorts of things to do.  I have a free morning once a week with both Nancy and her newly two year old cousin, Chloe, so I have decided that that is a perfect opportunity.

This week I was trying to keep it simple because it was turing out to be an incredibly busy day after our hour and half together.  So, I put up these fantastically easy and finger painting tools that I have seen all over Pinterest (by the way, if you’re interested in a new addicition, I can hook you up with some Pinterest).  They are just ziplock bags with paint in them (two colors for color mixing) that I then used packing tape to attach to the window.  The four year old also likes these, by the way.  They can be used for as long as they are interested and then you can just take them down and toss them.  I dare you to not play with them yourself. Every adult who has walked into our house has played with them, too 😉