Valentines counting

Today Kaitlyn helped me to make her Valentines for her little friends. We worked on colors and numbers. She had to count out 15 candy hearts for each bag, fill the bag and then pass it to me to put the topper on...it took a lot longer than me just doing them peacefully during naptime. But they mean a whole lot more to her than you can imagine. She helped to make a list of a couple friends she wanted to give them to and even knew exactly which bag she wanted each person to have! Great way to reinforce those basic skills while including your child in making their own valentines.

It's not too late to purchase these printable just go to Magic By Marcy and get them for just $3!

Print at home on cardstock in just a few minutes you can have unique valentines for you little one to share with their friends.

Hearts...Hearts...Hearts

Making a heart bouquet

We had a lot of fun playing with some old crayons the other day. Kaitlyn sorted them into colors and chose her two favorites red and purple. We peeled back the paper and placed them into a clear ziploc bag. She practiced her hand eye coordination by using the hammer to smash the crayons inside the bag...I have to say she is pretty good at swinging the hammer, I see lots of DIY projects in her future.
Next we sprinkled the smashed crayon pieces onto a layer of wax paper, then covered it with another layer. I used the iron...on a medium setting.... to iron the wax paper melting the crayons. Once the color had transferred onto the wax paper I placed the left over crayon pieces into a ziploc bag to keep for future projects. Kaitlyn helped me trace some hearts I cut out of old file folders and then I cut the hearts out for her. I glued wooden dowels onto the back of each heart using a hot glue gun. added a little tuelle ribbon for grass in a small pot and viola...a heart bouquet!

Love is in the air....

It's starting to look like Valentine's Day around the house!

Kaitlyn and I had a lot of fun decorating for Valentine's Day. We came up with some pretty crafty ways to use things we already had on our craft shelf....in fact I put the entire mantle together without making any trips to my local Hobby Lobby! Which my husband definitely appreciates! Here's how you can get this look using things you might already have around the house.

To make the hearts banner I used heart ornaments I bought from Target after Christmas for 90% off....I bought 4 packs for $1, I went to my fabric bin and found all the scraps I had in reds and pinks, I cut them into 3 inch long strips and layered them to tie the hearts together.

Each season or holiday I try to utilize my glass jars on my fireplace mantle to reflect the season, but I ran out of ideas and money for February....so I simply used what I had. Kaitlyn used her cutting skills to help me cut small squares of fabric, they weren't perfect and it made quite a mess but that was half the fun. I filled the jars halfway with my fabric pieces and then added some left over glitter candles from Christmas....and Viola! A great look that didn't cost a whole lot of money!.........How do you decorate for valentine's day at your house?

A sweet treat!

I love to change things up each month and keep things fresh! One way we do that is by decorating for each holiday, its something Kaitlyn loves to do and looks forward to. She loves holidays and parties as much as her mama does. I made this cute centerpiece to serve two purposes...to be super cute for Valentines day and to help reinforce positive behavior at the dinner table...how do you ask????
We have struggled with getting our oldest (3 1/2) to use good manners consistently at the table since her brother arrived on the scene some of her manners have regressed....which I don't need! Especially when I already have an infant to clean up after. So I found a way to kill two birds with one stone :) Each day Kaitlyn has a chance to earn 3 candy hearts ( one for each objective) each time she eats, she has to show good manners, eat all her food, stay seated and clear her dishes and her brothers when we are all done. If she follows all of those expectations then she receives all four....and since the jar is filled to the rim with fun super cute candy it is a constant reminder for her to make good choices.

To make your own candy jar just get a large glass vase and set a glass cup inside ( this will keep the amount of candy needed to a minimum and give you a place to put fresh flowers, decorations etc in the center of the vase. Then fill the large vase with your favorite holiday candy ( candy hearts, jelly beans, sweet tarts, peeps.....get as creative as you would like!) and Viola! you have a great motivating centerpiece that is sure to please!

Circles and snowmen!

What to do on those chilly winter days....

We had some fun with our shapes! We worked on writing by practicing our circles...and boy has it been a challenge teaching my little lefty to write...The teacher in me keeps saying stay calm she will get it soon enough....the mommy in me is becoming quite frustrated. We worked on tracing and writing circles in our skills workbook and on her chalkboard, then we went on a circle hunt around the house. She gathered 5 toys from around the house that had a circular shape.....she had a lot of fun gathering her items. This is one of her favorite activities to do. You can play this game with letters and shapes and eventually words as they move on to elementary school.

Kaitlyn used an old aluminum foil roll ( it is best because its diameter isn't too wide) she dipped it into the white paint and then added circles all over her paper ( this was the falling snow :)
To make her snowman I traced three circles onto white paper and cut them out, Kaitlyn put them in order from biggest to smallest and then glued them onto her paper.
She tore strips of white paper into small pieces to cover her snowman. She glued them down with her glue stick. At the end she colored a nose and we added google eyes and a ribbon for a scarf, and black tissue paper for the hat. It was an O' so cute little snowman :)

Oh my!!!! It's been a while!!!!!

I have learned a very big lesson over the past two months it is impossible to be a homeschool mommy, wife, successful stay at home mommy, ETSY store owner, and a blogger all at the same time...I have fallen way behind so now that Christmas orders are starting to dwindle....and yes I completed over 250 Christmas Cards for fabulous families this Holiday season...that is an all time record for me, and
 I still have a few more coming in......ahhh the bussiness of the season.  Here is a quick update on some projects that we have been working on.

Kaitlyn and I made a Christmas countdown Calendar for her room. She had so much fun painting the picture frame. She used a branch from our Christmas tree dipped into some white paint to add some snowflakes to her frame. I spray painted the small clips I found at Hobby lobby with some glitter spray paint....I had no idea they even made that what a great invention....I see lots of glitter in my crafting future :)Kaitlyn decorated her frame with Santa stickers she picked out and viola we were done....each day she removes a clip as we get closer and closer to December 25th!

Tonight we made salt dough ornaments with Daddy for our tree they were so easy to make.
1 cup salt
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup luke warm water

mix together and then roll out onto a floured surface. Kaitlyn used cookie cutters to make some that we are going to paint later and then we made two special ones for our tree using K's handprint and Callen's footprint.

To celebrate Thanksgiving we made some handprint turkeys for the fridge. the kids loved playing in the paint and getting their hands messy!

Halloween fun

Ghost Candles

This morning started off with some spooky pancakes and some Halloween fun! Kaitlyn and I made some Ghost candles out of old spaghetti jars. She squeezed some white paint into them and I added a few tablespoons of water...she shook them both up to coat the jar. I drew the eyes and mouth and she used the sharpie to color it in. Put a small flameless candle in the bottom of the jar for a spooky effect...these looked so cute tonight in the kitchen window.

Halloween Counting Book

We worked on our counting skills today. Kaitlyn used some Halloween stickers to make a counting book. She sorted the shapes first and put them into piles. I drew the numbers on the pages and she added the correct number of shapes to the pages. We are working on recognizing her numbers and using tangible items to count and match to those numbers. When she was done she had a cute book to read tonight.

Candy Corn Counting

Next we practiced a few more numbers by using some candy corn. I made small little flash cards with the numbers 5, 6, 7 and 8 on them using scrapbook paper. I put some muffin wrappers with each card. K had to put the correct number of candy corn into each muffin wrapper. We talked about the numbers counted them and compared them. At the end she decided she wanted to eat the muffin wrapper that had 8 candy corn because it had the most.....I think she got the lesson :)

After Math we practiced her letters by playing a letter matching game, you can purchase it from my Teachers Pay Teachers Site here 

Painting

K had fun breaking out the paint and painting her candy corn...she had a little piece of candy as her inspiration :)

Lunch was fun we made ghost sandwiches using our Halloween cookie cutters! Overall it was a spooktacular day, can't wait to see her go trick or treating tonight!

Spooky Counting Fun

K and I use lots of different objects as manipulatives and tools for learning. Tonight we used some spooky PEEPS to practice our counting. So the next time you are passing that candy aisle take a look and see what fun stuff you can find that makes learning a little more fun!

The Letter S is for Spider

A great way to start off your morning learning about the letter S.....Some spider Pancakes!

We started school today by reviewing some of the letters we have already learned. I picked up some workbooks in the dollar section of our local Target when they went on clearance for 25cents a piece. These specifically focus on the sounds letters make as well as writing them. So we practiced writing them and choosing pictures that have the same sound. It is helpful to young writers to draw a small dot where they need to start forming their letters. this helps teach them proper penmanship as well as gives them a starting point to consistently use. Most books have them already these did not. After each page she got to put a sticker on her paper as a reward....she was over the moon about that :)

S is for Spider

Today we introduced the letter S, we had fun making the sound and kaitlyn tried to name as many S words as she could come up with. We worked on our S page for our ABC Book. Kaitlyn fingerpainted her entire page using Black paint....and then practiced making her S's on the painted paper. This is a fun way to review letter formations. When it dried I applied white paint onto her paper in a ring fashion ( see above) She then took a paintbrush and used it to draw her lines stemming from the center of the web. When she was done she had a spider web. I drew the letter S and then she applied some cute foamy glitter spiders onto the letter S.

Letter Review

Kaitlyn spent teh rest of her afternoon playing with her letter mats. She uses pom poms to make the letters by placing them into the dots. Each one forms a letter she has already learned. I made these and hope to have them on the website as a resource for you to use soon :)

Spider Cookies

The great thing about staying home with your little ones is being able to relax a little and enjoy the little stuff. Tonight while Kaitlyn played dress up....her favorite pasttime. I made a batch of sugar cookies. She helped me to decorate them in a most spooktacular way! We made some spider cookies. We took black frosting ( I really don't even want to know whats in that) and iced our cookies, I drew the circles using white irradescent frosting onto the cookies. Kaitlyn took a large wooden skewer and spread the icing out by drawing lines that start at the center of the cookie. When she was all done she added a gummy spider...yum!!!!! I had a few cookies I wanted to do something different on so we made spiders on them. As I drew them on with the icing Kaitlyn counted the legs making sure I had 8 on each one.

Her Face says it all!

Take a Time out...in a new way

Get your free Tag here for your Glitter Jar

Print out the image below and apply it to the top or side of your glitter jar using clear packing tape.

 

Since blogging about this we have switched our glass spaghetti Jar to a plastic Applesauce jar...it was much lighter for my daughter to use and I didn't have to worry about it slipping from her hands and breaking.

O is for Owl, creating our alphabet page

O is for Owl

We worked on our alphabet pages today for our ABC Book Project. Kaitlyn practiced making her o's using some of her favorite colors. She dipped her finger in the paint and wrote them on her paper. I gave her a cute owl template I found online and had her paint each part, when it was dry i ut it out and assembled it onto her paper. It turned out very cute!

Fun with food!

While surfing the web I have noticed a new trend in kids lunches, whether packed for school or eaten at home they have gotten quite elaborate! I've seen an octopus made from a  hot dog. Owl sandwiches, Rainbow lunches...the list goes on and on! So we rolled up our sleeves and had some fun in the kitchen making an owl sandwich and a cucumber carrot tree! I must say Kaitlyn really enjoyed it because when lunch was over there was nothing but some cucumber rinds left on her plate!

Here are a few ideas I found around the web

Lots of mamas are making muffin tin meals, great concept to get kids interested in what they are eating. Each tin follows a theme and presents a small serving perfect for growing toddlers!

 

This is a great website I found with some super cute ideas, so I hope you find something that inspires you to have some fun with your little ones at lunch time!

Nap Time....Planning Time

The greatest peace during the day for a stay at home mama is nap time! Some days naptime feels like a figment of your imagination that never quite comes to pass, yet there are some days where it all works out just right........

You see there are several combinations that can occur during naptime when you have more than one child...... some days you might have one child that is peacefully napping while the other one is wide awake, while other days you have two kids that are wide awake and have no desire to rest peacefully, however there are those rare days when all of the stars align and both children are quietly off to dreamland at the same time. Those are my favorite days because I know I can accomplish so much while they are peacefully snoozing away! Today was that day! Whooo Hoo! I had 3 uninterrupted hours of quiet, and boy was I productive! I had a chance to plan out my next months worth of homeschool activities as well as make some fun printables I will be featuring here in the upcoming lessons. I even had some time to peruse through Pinterest...ohh the possibilities so much craftiness so little time!

Here is a sneak peek at what is coming up over the next few weeks

The Letter O is for Owl! Hoot Hoot!

Today we learned about the letter O

We started out with a sensory activity. I squeezed some different colored paints ( blue, purple, black, light blue, glitter paint) onto a piece of construction paper. Kaitlyn practiced making her o's by moving the paint around with her finger. When she was all done we sprinkled on some glitter and set it outside to dry.


While it was drying we went out to the front yard and gathered some fall leaves and found a nice branch for our picture.

I used the hot glue gun to attache her branch and her leaves onto her painting.

I then traced the body of an owl onto some construction paper and asked Kaitlyn to color him brown.....I look over a few seconds later and see that she drew feet onto the owl ( this was a first for Kaitlyn) She is starting to become more accurate in her depictions of things. We made some handprints for wings and added them onto her picture!

We discussed today how owls are nocturnal animals and how they fly quietly at night to hunt for their food. We read several books today about Owls, Kaitlyn's Favorite was Owls, by Gail Gibbons

 

 

Letter O, Practice

Kaitlyn practiced her letter O's today on her mats I made. She used pom pom's to make the shape of the letter O. She also used her dry erase crayon board to trace the O's

Hoot Hoot! It's Orange Owl Cupcake Time

Kaitlyn and I had some fun in the kitchen this afternoon cooking up some orange cupcakes. Kaitlyn and I decorated them to look like owls. We used oreos and little green candies for the eyes. She then decorated the bodies with almond slivers and cocoa pebbles cereal to mimic the feathers. The finishing touch was a goldfish cracker as a beak. They were so much fun to make! Now to find a small army to eat some owl cupcakes!

Kaitlyn loves "school" time and loves practicing with her learning puzzles. This is a great one that we actually got as a gift. Kaitlyn matches the color or texture to the object. It is a great way to learn about describing words. When she is all done she practices reading the cards by pointing to the words and saying the describing word and the objects name.....a great way to develop those early reading and decoding skills.