Shamrock Painting

I found using cookie cutters as stamps to paint with actually works well. We used a shamrock to make a St. Patrick's Day painting. I think Lizzy's favorite activity to do is anything paint related. This wasn't messy and pretty simple to do. Last year we used sliced half bell peppers to paint stamped shamrocks with and that also works pretty well if you are looking for something to make for St. Patrick's day.

Sticker Organization

I use to have a drawer filled with all kinds of stickers all in one drawer. Most of those stickers didn't get used and when I needed them I couldn't find them.  There are two ways I have found that work well to organize stickers is in a binder and in an over the door clear shoe organizer. Currently I mostly use the binder but I find that keeping the ones used mostly often in the shoe organizer is working well also.



So for the binder I use clear sheet protectors with labels. For the shoe organizer I pretty much do the same thing and labels the outside of each shoe organizer with a label of the type of stickers. Some of the labels are:

Christmas/Winter
Halloween
Valentine's Day
Independence Day
Girly stickers
Boy Stickers
Fall/Thanksgiving
Reward Stickers
Spring/Easter
And some others...but those are the main categories.



I needed to organize these stickers because we have so many and also because I use them with Lizzy and for work. Stickers are like gold for children so I need to have them handy and organized for when I need them.

Live Butterfly Garden

We received our live larvae this week for the Insect Lore Butterfly Garden we got off Amazon. You buy the kit off amazon then order the larvae when you are ready for them. They come in a cup with all the food they need inside so you just keep them in the cup until they become chrysalides then you transfer them into the butterfly garden pop up container where they will morph into butterflies! I think I am more excited about this than Lizzy but this is a great way to teach and observe the butterfly life stages. Four of the five larvae we got are alive and growing bigger each day wish us luck that we actually get to the butterfly stage!

Wooden Spoon Puppets

Use wooden spoons to make puppets and tell stories. Lizzy made three puppets and told the story of Hansel and Gretel.

 

Cake Decorating

Lizzy found this cupcake decorating kit while we were out shopping and had to have it. It's got all kinds of little candies, long string candy, eyes, and other cute things. This one was spring themed and came with lots of petals and pastel colors. We baked a cake and Lizzy had lots of fun decorating the cake on her own. You can get these kits by Wilton at Micheal's or most craft stores.

On a separate note Lizzy is feeling much better. The antibiotics worked overnight and Lizzy was back to herself in the morning. Lizzy got to come with me to work today and had a blast. She was such a great help too. It was a good day with beautiful weather here in Arizona.  

Math

This post is about Math. Lizzy has learned addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division all in a month. I never would have thought that would be possible but each day she knows more. I have to credit Lizzy's school for this, they are pretty amazing with children. I walked in to Lizzy's school while they were working and all the children were fully engaged in math, it also felt so calm and loving. I was amazed. At home we practice addition and subtraction using dice. With two dice your child can add them or subtract them each roll. It's easy and you can always add manipulatives for the child to use with the dice. Lizzy uses small erasers, counting bears, and some little hearts I found at the dollar tree to help in visualizing and perceiving concepts. Never underestimate how much your child can learn or how quickly they can learn.

On another more personal note,  Lizzy has been sick with a cold for over a week and I took her to the pediatrician on Wed. and it was a waste of time because he said it was a cold and she had to stick it out. My concern was her coughing all day and night which she is still doing. Today Lizzy was complaining of pain in her ear...another trip to the doctor and it's an ear infection. Poor baby is really sick this time. We have been lucky that Lizzy has never been any sicker than a runny nose, no fevers, or anything really but this time she's tired, fussy, and in pain. I hope she feels better by Monday because she was really excited about coming to work with me since she is out of school for president's day. Hoping she's better soon.

Valentine's Day Treats

Some of the sweet treats we made this year were pink heart rice krispie treats, pink fudge, and lots of red velvet cookies for Lizzy's class. The Krispie treats used the normal recipe we just added some food coloring and cut them with a heart shaped cookie cutter. The pink fudge was made from melted white chocolate chips and pink frosting mixed together. The red velvet cookies were pre-made cookie dough we bought at the store and baked. They were really good. Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day Crafts

Sticky Paper Heart Collage and People I Love Heart Wreath 

The Sticky Paper heart is contact paper and the paper heart outline. Lizzy added feathers and tissue paper then we sealed it and put it up on a window for all to see.

Lizzy practiced writing the names of the people she loves in paper hearts then laced them into a wreath.

Lizzy's Lemonade Stand

Over the weekend Lizzy kept asking if she could sell lemonade and cookies. So we let her make her own lemonade stand in the backyard. She was so excited! She made her sign, we made the lemonade together, then she found a box she could use to keep her "money" in, then she set everything up outside. I think she did pretty good setting up her own lemonade stand.

Valentine's Day Sensory Tub

I did a small sensory tub themed for Valentine's day. This is what's in the tub:

Silk petals
Ribbon
Feathers
Pipe Cleaners
Foam Letters
Potpourri
Tulle
Wooden hearts
Plastic Hearts
and Stickers...

There may be more things in there but for the most part that is what is in there. These types of sensory texture bins are great for little ones who are exploring different textures.

And Happy Chinese New Year! Lizzy made a snake from a paper roll tube, markers, and googly eyes for the year of the snake to add to our nature table area.

More of Lizzy Singing

Love Mail

Lizzy's mailbox is back again this year for love mail. I usually put something in her mailbox every night for her to find in the morning from the first of Feb to Valentine's Day.  Lizzy has been so excited to find what is in her mailbox each day. I just love her excitement. I got this mailbox at Target in their dollar section last year and spruced it up a little. When Lizzy has mail I put the flag up and some of the things I have put in her mailbox are:

Magic Towel
Glitter glue sticks
Stickers
Pins
Small crafts kits
Valentine's day shirt
Socks with little hearts on them
Heart Cookies......

I try to use little things I already have to surprise her with but we both enjoy love mail leading up to Valentine's day.

Storytelling: Puppet Theater

This week I will be posting about storytelling. We got a table top puppet theater after learning that Lizzy really enjoys putting on puppet shows at her school. I planned to sew curtains to add to Lizzy's play stand and use that as a puppet theater until we were gifted a giftcard to lakeshore learning where we found a few good new toys for Lizzy including a table top puppet theater. Here is Lizzy playing with her puppets:

More story telling and puppet ideas to come!

Chocolate Fondue

Something fun to do at home for Valentine's Day with a young child is make your own fondue. Lizzy loved it.

Heart Pizza

Disney Nights

Lizzy is turning 4 this year and rather than having a birthday party we have decided to take her to Disneyland. We can drive there and her birthday falls on memorial day weekend so we will have extra time to enjoy and recoup from the trip. Although I don't usually buy into the whole mainstream consumerism thing when buying and making things for Lizzy I have decided to make an exception when it comes to preparing for Disneyland. I want to make it as magical as I can for her so I've done some planning. For now we are doing Disney nights at home on weekends. We pick a Disney movie to watch together and make a themed dinner and watch the movie. We started with Finding Nemo Night. We had sushi for dinner and goldfish crackers for snacks during the movie. Yes I know sushi for Finding Nemo is kinda cruel but we all love sushi. More to come on Disney Nights and Disney surprises!

School Supplies Organization - Closet

I have been focusing on organizing "School Supplies" I use these with Lizzy and in the work I do. I think I will post everything I've done so far to organize these supplies because I feel it would be useful to parents, and traveling teachers like myself who have their supplies at home and take them on visits. I got most of these ideas off pinterest and so far it feels good and it makes things so much easier having everything organized and easily accessible.  First I started by organizing a linen closet with all the craft supplies in clear shoe boxes. I got all these boxes at the dollar tree so it doesn't have to be expensive to organize your materials. Some of the categories in these boxes are coloring supplies, magnets, play doh, flashcards, glue, scissors, sharpies, stamps, paints, sticks, paper, and some other things. I will be posting about organizing my stickers, Lizzy's coloring books, and other work supplies soon.