Summer Time: Bean Play

The other day I was looking for something that both of my children can do together. It's hard because there is such a big age difference. Mr. I is 7 and Mr. E is 2. 

I decided to get out my beans that I have been saving for cold winter day but never got around to using them. 

I just opened the bag and poured it into a bowl with little things that I save for projects. I added a formula scoop, bread tags, measuring cups, milk tops and a couple of other random toys. 

I put a table cloth on the floor and let the boys explore. They played for hours using the cups to scoop and pour. The little guy enjoyed dumping the whole bowl over and over so mommy had to play clean up a couple of times. 

Mr. I liked calling the beans good deeds and bad deeds. Here he is showing good deeds. 

This is good deeds and bad. The good deeds out weigh the bad deeds. I took the opportunity to explain what each are according to what God would like us to do. He must of been paying attention at church. He had a lot of good answers. I was proud. :)

Summer Time: Rain Sticks

This summer has been super busy for us. We are making crafts like crazy. Trying out science experiments and going to everything we can find. 

My son wanted to make something using a paper towel roll and I thought why not make a rain stick. We looked on Pinterest of course and took some ideas from a couple of different places and made two different ones. 

Supplies:

Paper towel cardboard

Rice

Tape

Wax paper

Foil

Cardboard 

Our first rain stick we poured the rice into the tube and used foil on the ends. I cut out round pieces of foil and taped them on. 

The other rain stick we used wax paper on the ends and taped it up one end. 

Cut two strips of cardboard and fold them accordion style. Placed the cardboard inside the tube and added rice and tape other end.   

Decorate the rain stick with whatever you like markers, stickers, construction paper, etc...

We tested them both out and my son liked both but I liked the one with the cardboard inside. It's sounds more like a rain stick. 

Have fun shaking! 

Father's Day Tie

Here's a fun project for Father's Day that Dad is sure to enjoy. 

Supplies:

Felt

Scissors

Glue

Yarn

Hole punch or something to make a hole

Paper

First you want to make a template of a tie on a piece of paper. Pin the template onto the felt as shown here. 

Next cut out the tie and decorate with other felt pieces.

Punch two holes into the top part of the tie on both sides. Thread the yarn through and tie it up like a necklace.

Happy Father's Day!

(BTW - I made my ties in the car.)

Summer Time - Magic Mud

Today we got our hands messy with magic mud. 

Mr. I and Mr. E loved playing with it. They used the cars to drive through it. Mr. B even enjoyed it. (14 yrs.) 

The magic mud is like a goppy liquid but hardens when you poke it. 

To make it all you need is corn starch and water. I also added food coloring but it's optional. Add about 5 tablespoons of corn starch and about that much water or more and mix. 

14 Days of Valentine's - Day 14

It's Valentine's Day and I hope you have a wonderful lovely day.

If your looking for a last minute gift, flowers and candy are always good. Who doesn't love a beautiful  vase of flowers that can be placed on the table to admire for a couple of days. Candy is so yummy.

Don't forget a card. It's always nice to hear words of encouragement and how much you're loved. It might be the only time of the year you express your feelings. Don't miss this opportunity.

Get out the crayons, markers, stickers and glue and get busy making a card. It's the little things that count in the end.

If you have children send them flowers at school or balloons. It would make the day special for them too.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Need one for your sweetie. 

14 Days of Valentine's - Day 13

Here's the last of my heart crafts that you can cut out and make a new friend. I love butterflies and I really like how easy they are to make. You can make them all different colors and add designs. They are just so beautiful.

Be sure to check out the other days on this site. There are other heart crafts available.

Enjoy!

Right click and save. Open and print.

14 Days of Valentine's - Day 12

It's just a few days more. I hope your are enjoying all the goodies. Make sure to take a look back at the other days to see what all I have available. I'm sure you find something that you like.

Today I'm going to share another one of my favorites. I told you a couple of days ago my son loves space so I had to make a special one just for him. I love the letters on the moon. It looks like moon writing.

Right click and save. Open and print. 

If you have any problems downloaded my images please let me know and I can email them to you as well. I'm still getting the hang of sharing print outs. 

14 Days of Valentine's - Day 11

I enjoy February so much. There are so many wonderful things you can do for Valentine's Day. March brings spring and rain. I'm so ready for some sunshine. March also brings St. Patrick's Day.

If you like clovers you will enjoy this heart craft. This one you can keep up all through March too.

If you want to make more just use green construction paper and cut out three hearts and glue them together.

Right click to save and print.

14 Days of Valentine's - Day 10

It's only 4 days until Valentine's Day. Do you have something special planned yet?

When you think Valentine's Day you think hearts. There are so many neat things you can make with hearts. I came up with one for my "Little Love Bug".

Have your child cut and make a bug for themselves. Add a magnet on the back and hang on the fridge or poke a hole in the top and hang it from the ceiling.

Right click on image and save. Open and print.

Note:  If the buttons and tiny circles are to hard to cut out just use whatever you like to draw them on. Remember this is my first time to share things like this. I'm still learning. :)

14 Days of Valentine's - Day 9

Make a CD for your loved one. I did this one year for our anniversary. I have Itunes so this was super easy but I just went through the songs and got our favorites. I picked out songs we loved to sing together. It was fun.

You can also make one for the kids.

If you don't want to make a cd you could just add a playlist to Itunes and program it to the ipod. 

Don't forget a label. I know there are ways to make it on a computer or I have also seen cd engravers you can get for your computer. They will burn an imagine on it. I don't know much about that though. I just used Sharpie markers and wrote I love you and the date I made it. (DO NOT USE REGULAR MARKERS OR BALL POINT PENS ON YOUR CD IT WILL MESS IT UP)

One other thing you could do is instead of music record yourself giving a special message or do a little of both. Most of all have fun.

14 Days of Valentine's - Day 8

Here's another fun valentine's day card for kids. A couple of years ago I made moustaches and lips for lollipops. The kids really enjoyed playing with them. I decided this year to do it a little different. I made cards that they can cut out and play.

If you want to slip them onto a lollipop all you have to do is punch a hole in the center and slip it on the stick.

Right click on image and save. Open up and print. They might need to be resized a little.

14 Days of Valentine's - Day 6

I have a child who is completely in love with space stuff. He enjoys reading books about the moon and space ships. I have learned so much reading with him. I can name all the planets and tell you a little about them and I know so much more.

I wanted to make him a special card for his friends at school, something that showed his interest. I looked on Pinterest and came across all the ones with glow sticks so I decided I needed to come up with one that include glow sticks. What kid doesn't like glow sticks.

I took a exacto knife and cut a couple of slits and pushed the glow stick through.

Here is what mine turned out like. I hope you enjoy it and let me know if you use it and what your kids thought. I would love to hear any stories.

Right click on image and save. Open and print.

14 Days of Valentine's - Day 5

Take construction paper in red, white and pink (or one of the colors I mention) take scissors and cut them into hearts. Write little love notes on them. Like the kind on candy hearts or make up your own.

Then take them and put them all around the house. Like in the sock drawer, pocket of a shirt in the closet that you know they will wear, wallet, inside the fridge on an item they will pick up, coffee pot or mug, on the mirror, on the tv or computer. Where ever you think they will find them.

Make sure you make a lot of them. Have the kids go on a heart hunt. Give a small prize at the end of the hunt. 

14 Days of Valentine's - Day 4

Today I'm going to share one of my favorite valentine's I made this year. I can't wait to share it with you.  I made a couple of different ones so you want to be sure to come back and check and see what I got going on.

This valentine is one that the kids can cut out and put together to make a new friend. My son loves fish so I started with this one.

You can use these for school or just for your children.

Have fun and let me know what you thought.

To use this right click on the image and save it to your computer and open up and print.

February the Month of Love

I love this time of the year. I get to use my creativity to make something sweet for my loved ones. I love coming up with new ways to surprise them.

This year I am making my son a mailbox and putting love notes and a small gift in it everyday until Valentine's Day. I haven't decided what else I will do. My husband will also get notes too. I leave them around in different places for him to find them. It's fun to see his reaction.

Here's some ideas to get you started. Get 14 cards, note cards, postcards, index cards. Whatever you can write a love note one. You can get cheap cards just about anywhere. Hallmark, Wal-Mart, Target the Dollar Store. You can also be creative and make your own cards with stickers, markers, construction paper, glitter and whatever else you have on hand.

Send one card the them everyday of the week or put it on the dresser, lunch pail, backpack, wherever you want you loved one to find it. Sending a card in the mail is great because not a lot of people get mail anymore and this would be neat for kids to receive one each day. Now I realize that on Sunday you can't send one so hid it somewhere in the house that they can find it. You can also do this during the week as well.  You can also send them to their place of work.

Inside the card you can say whatever you want. Be creative and have fun.

If you wanted you could put clues in them for where you will take him or her out for Valentines or pieces of a puzzle they will have to put together. Special stickers, candy, small toys, pencils, pens and anything small.

Start getting your stuff together now. Have fun with it and don't forget you got to do it everyday.

I made love notes this year using Picmonkey. I haven't figured out how to share documents yet so I hope that you can print these out and use them. If you right click them and save them to your computer you can put them in a word document and print. If you not you can always make them on Picmonkey and print them out yourself.

I had so much fun making them and I hope everyone enjoys them.

I also have some other ideas for Valentine's Day that I will share with you in the coming days.

What do you do for your loved ones? Do you countdown or just wait until the day?

Here's the one I made my husband for today.

These are the one's I made for my son. He loves jokes so I will hand write them in the bubbles. You can write whatever you like in them.

Summer Activities: Place Mats

Place Mats are a good thing to have if you have a messy child or if you are just trying to keep your kids entertained at the table, restaurant or their grandparents house.

Mr. I really likes to make food groups so for our place mat I drew the food plate from the http://www.choosemyplate.gov/ and then we cut out food from magazines. You could do any theme you like or you could just draw a picture. It's really up to your child what they like the best. 

Supplies:

Paper

Glue

Scissors

Markers, Crayons or Paints

Contact Paper 

Directions:

Take the paper and make a design using writing utensils or gluing magazine clippings. 

When you are finished measure out some contact paper and cut. 

Remove the backing of the contact paper and put it on top of art work. Repeat on the back side. 

Cut off access contact paper. 

Display your play mat on your table or keep for visits. 

Here's another idea. Use draw erase markers to draw on them and wipe them off.

Summer Activities: Sidewalk Chalk Paint

Supplies:

Chalk pieces

Water

Cups

Rolling Pin or hammer

Teaspoon

Paintbrushes

Plastic storage baggies

Directions:

Gather all the chalk pieces and put into a zip-loc bag. Separated by color.

Next use a rolling pin to finely crush the chalk up. (Make sure children use a hammer with supervision)

Put 1 teaspoon of chalk dust into a small cup and add 2 teaspoons of water. Add more or less water and chalk dust to make yours darker or lighter.    

Next let your child use a paintbrush to paint with the new water colored chalks. 

You can also paint on paper or pine cones. 

 

Summer Activities Week 2:

Sunday: Sidewalk Chalk Paint

Monday: Story Time

Tuesday: Place mats

Wednesday: I Spy

Thursday: Websites for Kids

Friday: About Me Collage

Saturday: Celery Science Project 

 

Summer Activities: Pet Rocks

Rocks are neat. They come in many shape and sizes. The texture is different on each one. They make great pets and gifts.

Here's what you need to make your new friend. 

Supplies:

Rocks

Google Eyes

Glue (hot glue optional)

Paint, markers or crayons

Directions:

Give the rocks a good bath. Lay them outside to dry.

When the rocks are dry decorate them using paint, markers or crayons.

Let them dry. 

Glue on the eyes, if you are using them.

Put your friend in a special place. Pet rocks have fun playing in the garden, on your dresser or on top of your desk. You could make many rocks and give them to friends and family. Make your Dad or Mom one for their desk. A great paper weight. 

Summer Activities: Binoculars

My son loves to explore. He looks for bugs, rocks, shells and pincones.  He also loves to look at the moon and stars. I decided since he loves to explore it was time to make some binoculars. It seemed like a fun way to make exploring even more exciting. 

Make your own pair of binoculars and start exploring.  Here's what you need. 

Supplies:

2 toilet paper rolls or paper towel roll cut in half

Paints, markers or crayons

Glue

Yarn

Hole punch

Stickers (optional)

Instructions:

Take the rolls and decide how you want to decorate them. You can use paints, crayons or markers.

After the rolls are decorated glue them together side by side.

Next take a hole punch and punch one hole on both sides.

Measure the yarn around your neck making sure you have enough to make the binoculars hang like a necklace.

Use the yarn to string through the holes and tie a knot at the end to secure it. 

 

Summer Activities: Travel or Nature Journal

Here's the first installment of Summer Activities. I hope that you enjoy coming back everyday to find out what's new and follow me on Pinterest to see all the activities I have. 

This summer I plan on going to quite a few places around my city and nearby towns. We also have one big trip planned to Big Sky Montana too. It should be a lot of fun. I wanted to make sure my kids had something to write down their new discoveries and journal about their days. 

Here are the directions on making a journal.

The little travel journals I made here are the done the same way just in a smaller size. I let the kids decorate them with letters and stickers.

 The Happy Gang with the Nature Journals

Here's this weeks line up.

Week 1:

Sunday: Travel/Nature Journals

Monday: Library Trip

Tuesday: Pet Store

Wednesday: Summer Reading

Thursday:  Binoculars

Friday: Root Beer Floats

Saturday: Pet Rocks