Waiting for the Snow to Fall...

So I know that we have all done this, but we spent the other morning making snowflakes to decorate the windows to try to get the snow excited to fall from the sky.

This was the first snow flake that he made. I showed him how to fold the paper and then how to cut shapes of it, then he thought it was pretty neat as he was unfolding it.

This was the final result of his first homemade snowflake. He made more, but each time he made a cut he would open it up to see what it looked like, then he would fold it back up and make another cut. It took him a while to make each one and then daddy come home and made some more with us.
Then in the afternoon, it started to snow! Just a little bit, no accumulation. It was pretty neat and Bradley was pretty sure that his snowflakes had something to do with it.
Such a simple but fun activity for a preschooler.



Making Christmas Magical, Part 2

I tried to take advantage of my time at home with the boys this season and do lots of activities with them...

 

I think my favorite project was the gingerbread house. I bought a kit on clearance last year after Christmas knowing that we would never eat it anyways and stored it until this year. Jaxson took a nap one afternoon and Bradley and I got creative, it was so much fun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bradley and I also spent A LOT of time working on his Christmas List. He had originally cut out pictures and glued them on a piece of paper, then I told him he had to write a letter to Santa. So we wrote one letter, but then he was afraid it was too sloppy so we printed out some wide lined paper and rewrote the letter as a neat sheet. This teacher momma was on cloud nine, he was all over that writing process! He did a pretty good job saying words slowly and listening for sounds, I also gave him an ABC chart.

 

 

We also went to a small town in Illinois to see Santa on the CN Santa Train. It was pretty cool. The big engine rolled into town decorated with Christmas lights and stopped, then the long line of kids and their parents waited to get on the train to see the man in the big red suit. Really hoping we get to do this next year too!

 

(Bradley is covering his ears because the sound of the train horn was just too loud for him.)

 

 

(There was lots of neat stuff to look at on the train, but my camera was acting up and I had difficulty getting pictures. There was a really neat model train set up.The boys also got to go up on the engine and blow the horn.)

 

Hopefully I will remember to post the pictures of the boys with Santa once they are posted on the CN Santa Train Site.

 

 

 

We also did LOTS of crafts!

 

We painted puzzle pieces and put them together to make Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

 



 

We also painted popsicle sticks green and glued them together and decorated them to look like Christmas trees.



 



 

On another day, I painted the kids hands and we put a handprint on an ornament. I thought it made a neat keepsake and it was so simple.

 

 





 

I also bought some canvases. Then I used adhesive vinyl to cut-out the letters of our last name and the last names of the kids that I watch. Next, I stuck them onto the canvas and gave the kids some paint and let them paint. Jaxson was so excited, he kept saying "I paint! I paint!" Then when the paint dried, I peeled off the adhesive vinyl. I used painter's tape on some of the canvases, before I remembered that I had the vinyl. I thought they turned out really neat and made for some original gifts! I also painted the kid's hands and put their hand prints on them.



 

 

 

Jax loves having this hanging up in the house, every time he looks at it, he looks at me and says, "I paint!"

 

 

We also made and decorated cookies.

 

 

 

Making Santa's Cookies...

 

Whew! That is most of it! No wonder I am exhausted everynight, but it is all about the memories.

 

 

 

 



Making Christmas Magical, Part 1

I have been having so much fun being home with the boys.

I have tried to come up with lots of interactive activities for them to do and Bradley loves to do crafts and he came up with some more on his own. I also have a few extra kids in the house on most days so it was great for them too.
 

We started the season as soon as Thanksgiving was over by decorating three large trees and one medium sized tree in the house.

There was the tree downstairs in the living room where Santa will leave his gifts.

 

Then there was the red tree that was set-up downstairs in the toy room.

 

 

Also I set up a tree upstairs in the landing to all the kid's hallmark ornaments on and the handmade ornaments. This one is more similar to the tree that I remember from my childhood.

 

There was also another medium sized tree in the kitchen with kid oriented ornaments.

 

 

Nugget the Elf also arrived the day after Thanksgiving and returned to some funny places after reporting home to the North Pole each night. I am kind of sad that I forgot to take pictures after the night that she came back and toilet papered the tree and didn't clean up her mess before she flew back to the North Pole the next night.

 

   

 

ALL the Christmas Crafts that we have done to come in Part 2...

 

 

 

 





Making a Fall Tree

Not that we haven't been doing crafts and activities around here, but it has been a while since I have posted about it.

The other day Bradley really wanted to do a craft and Jaxson was still snoozing so we got onto Pinterest and started looking for an idea. We found a ton of awesome Fall Crafts, I think we will try the tangled pumpkin this weekend, once I dig out my orange yarn from my boxes of classroom in the basement.

Check this out, if you are looking for good fall crafts for preschoolers.

 

Anyways, the other day we dug out some of the tissue paper that I have saved from birthday parties, because I never throw that stuff away, and I hate buying it. Then we got out some paper, scissors and a brown crayon.

It was probably one of the simplest crafts we have done, but he loved it and has been busy making one for everyone, even his "Aunt Doug."

Bradley cut out leaves from fall colored tissue paper.

 



 

This is mommy's, but we used the brown crayon to draw the tree trunks and branches.

 

 

Then we glued on the tissue paper to make fall leaves on the trees.

 

While we were doing our fall craft, I threw Jaxson's "baby" (his blanket) in the washer and this is what Jax was doing. He was banging on the washer and crying for his baby. I was so happy when it was finally clean, because it was difficult to keep him distracted for any period of time, before he was running back into the laundry room.



My Challenge to Myself... Bathtub Crayons? (It was a flop.)

My goal was to blog about the weekly activities I did with the boys. My goal was not necessarily to have successful activities.

We attempted bathtub crayons, but they are more like soap shapes and they are  still not dry, five days later! I got this activity from googling and reading another crafty mom's blog and all the comments were so positive, so I thought it was a no brainer.

We got out all of the supplies; Ivory Soap, grater, soap dye, measuring cup, a candy mold and water.

Then we began grating the soap, I think it should have been more finely grated, perhaps that was one of our many errors.

We grated two bars and then added about a third cup of water and began to stir...

and stir...

Then we separated it into different containers so that we could add dye to create the crayon colors. Next, we pressed it into the molds.

We mixed in more colors and tried to press some out with cookie cutters.

So after all this, I put it in the freezer for a bit and let the stuff solidify a little bit. Then I pulled them out and set them on the counter to dry and 5 days later they are still pretty pliable.

I am game for trying this activity again in a few weeks, any tips on what to do differently would be appreciated...



My Challenge to Myself... Cardboard Towns - Bradley Town and Jaxsonville

For today, I actually had another activity planned to do while daddy was sleeping, but after having some other unexpected events occur, the teacher in me was flexible and quickly came up with an alternative and less complicated activity.

I feel like we watch way too much TV in this house, I have been trying to shut it off around 9:30am and leave it off until well after nap time is over. Some days are easier than others, it just depends on how many things I have on my to do list and if Jaxson is cranky. So this is an activity that we will continue to work on and add to in days to come.

So in the end we had some large sheets of cardboard that we taped together and then made roads and houses so the matchbox cars could have their own towns. We have the rug with roads and the plastic mat that you can lay out for the cars, but this was more fun since it could be personalized. Bradley drew his house and driveway, put a tractor store in the town, and he drew all his grandparents' houses. We talked about how cool it would be if they actually all were in the same town. His town had roads, parking lots, and of course it had to be a town in Indiana because it had a corn field. Jaxsonville had a road that I drew and some crayon scribbles.

Jax is sitting on his town, apparently Bradley's is better.

 

I think that Jaxson left his car in the cornfield, yikes what am I in for?

In the days to come I think we will add some 3-D elements to this town and elaborate on it more.

Up next week... Bath Tub Crayons! (At least that's the plan...)

My Challenge to Myself: Sidewalk Chalk Paint

Today, I decided to do my craft activity with the boys for the week. I am not sure why I chose today, I am trying to get ready for my mom coming in tonight, organizing things for fair, other monotonous chores, oh and the boys didn't get much of a nap because the smoke detectors started to intermittently go off about a half hour after they laid down.

So the boys were ridiculously crabby, but we decided to make sidewalk chalk paint anyways, it was fun and easy.

This what it looked like after a few brushes went through it. It made a neat picture, I thought.

So what I found on a Pinterest, it looked like using a muffin pan was the best option and I had an old one the was perfect for crafts. Bradley put 1/4 cup of cornstarch in each muffin cup, then he put 1/3 cup of water in each up and added food coloring appropriately.

We used a spoon for each muffin cup, if you have ever made oobleck or glurch, it was a little "gunky" to stir at first. I started it and Bradley finished the stirring.

It was so easy, and even Jaxson tried to paint with it. It worked better when you painted it in the sunny area. It took a while to dry in the shady areas. It was the start of Bradley's name, no I wasn't advertising for a mom bra.