People, Places, Things Farm Sort
Big Brother has been sick for the last three days, so we have been stuck in the house (again). I decided we needed an easy brain-stimulating activity (and a few minutes with the television turned off), so I came up…
Mother’s Day "Magic" Invisible Card
Big Brother got a kick out of making this card! The real surprise came once he began painting it! Here’s what you’ll need: white cardstock, a white crayon, a paintbrush, and some paint. 1. Using a white crayon, write a…
What to do when it rains…
Here are just a few things we’ve been doing with our dreary weather lately… Window Crayons (*If you do this, make sure your child knows which crayons are “window crayons” and which are regular, otherwise you’ll have lots of regular…
Visit to the Dairy Farm
Our church playgroup went to a nearby dairy farm today! We had so much fun!!! If you ever have the opportunity to visit one, I would highly recommend it! Here are some of my favorite pictures from our visit… Little…
Spin-A-Letter Easter Eggs
I’ll be honest…this wasn’t my favorite activity. It didn’t go as well as I had planned and Big Brother, surprisingly, wasn’t really into it. I debated whether or not to post, but finally decided to go ahead because maybe it…
A Lesson on Empathy: Talking with your child about the tsunami
I’ve debated whether or not to talk to Big Brother about the tsunami. We never have the TV on when the boys are awake (unless Big Brother is watching a kid-appropriate video), so it isn’t like he would “accidentally” see…
Easter Egg Necklace
We received a package in the mail yesterday and the “packing materials” was looooong strands of plastic crumpled together. The boys, of course, think that this is the greatest thing since sliced bread as they play “tug-of-war” and “walk-the-doggie” all…
Chicken Beak Counting and Guessing Game
This “game” incorporates both fine motor and cognitive development and emphasizes number recognition, counting, one-to-one correspondence, and hypothesizing. Talk about packing a punch! We pretended that the tweezer was a chicken beak and Big Brother practiced putting the corresponding number…
Teaching Your Child to Read, Part 3
*Be sure to check out Part 1 and Part 2 of this series.* Word Families To put it simply, word families are words that rhyme. Teaching children word families is a phonemic awareness activity that helps children see patterns in…
Teaching Your Child to Read, Part 2
*If you missed Part 1 of this series, you can find it here.* In the last post, we discussed the importance of reading to your child (beginning at infancy), asking questions during reading, and being an example by reading…
Making Rain
My boys love playing in the bathtub…dumping and filling cups of water. As I was trying to find something in our cabinets to put some leftovers in a couple days ago, an idea came to me of how to create…
C is for Cow
This super-easy alphabet craft offers great fine motor practice for older toddlers and preschoolers! We haven’t practiced “staying in the lines while coloring” a whole lot with Big Brother, mostly because I normally just give him a blank piece of…
Keyboard Learning
This is one of those activities that I really didn’t think I should put on the blog, but since it is an activity Big Brother loves to do…I thought I would go ahead and share it. When Big Brother wakes…
Stepping Stones and Diaper Towers
I stocked up on diapers for Little Brother this week at Walgreens (you can’t beat 8 cents per diaper!). I bought 8 packages total and the boys invented their own games using the diaper packages. Rather than hauling them to our…
Day 7 of Creation: God Rested
If there is ever a wonderful excuse for making (or rather, encouraging)Â your child nap, it’s that God himself had to rest after creating the entire world! Interestingly, the seventh day of creation is not included in the account of creation…
Day 6 of Creation: Animals and Man
Go here to download this image We took a little field trip to learn about Day 6 of God’s Creation…it was a beautiful day so we went to the zoo! What better way to “learn” about God’s creation than seeing…
Outdoor Play = Gross Motor Activity
One major reason that it is so important for kids to be outside is that playing outside naturally yields itself to gross motor activity! What kid goes outside and just sits on the sidewalk? No, kids want to run, jump, skip, throw…
Green Fizzy Fun
Welcome to Tot Chemistry 101! This fun and fizzy activity combines Science and St. Patrick’s Day! I first saw the idea on Grains of Rice and knew Big Brother would love it so much, he would go crazy (which, of…