You can help!

Yahoo is willing to donate $10,000 to MoneySavingMom.com to donate to a charity of choice if you change your homepage to Yahoo for TWO whole days- It's a GREAT cause to help someone else- or to give to others read here for more information.
Thanks!!

Candice

All About Flowers: Growing from Seeds

For our Botany/Flower Thematic Unit, we decided to do some experimenting with seedlings and germination.  Using beans right from your pantry are perfect for this lesson!! 




                         Here's what we did....                        


We used approximately five or six Pinto Beans and soaked them overnight. 

The next day we placed them into an zip-lock bag (sealed half way) with a dampened paper towel.

  You can place directly in sunlight.

After about three days they usually start sprouting so we decided to let them grow for an additional day or so. We planted the seeds at about a week after germination.

Harmony planted the seeds herself.  She was so proud!  We are still recording to every single day on the progress that the plants are making. They stand about four inches high at the present.

Unfortunately, we only had two seedlings that were successful but so far so good. 

After they reach a certain height it is recommended that you provide them with support so they do not topple over and snap in half. 

Harmony loves taking care of her plants, watering, and seeing how big they've grown!

Here are a few other botany/flower related lesson plans, books, and idea's for children. 

Teacher Vision

Kinder Plans Lessons: Plants is excellent for flower and plant crafts, activities, and the printable PDF version of the above botany recording book that we used!

Here are some excellent, excellent books that we also checked out at our local library!  Our favorite was Planting a Rainbow.. even though we read and re-read each at least twice.

Happy Tuesday!

Candice S.

Bookmarks

Harmony and I were hand making her "Fancy Nancy" birthday invitations (post coming soon!).. and I was inspired to make some bookmarks for both of my grandmother's and for my aunt.  I "try" to be crafty and I am so often inspired.  What might seem totally awesome to me might cause you guys to snicker at the additions and alterations that can be made..but bare with my utter excitement when I say that I love these bookmarks!!  They came out so stinking adorable that I think I might just make some more...

Tools:

Tacky Glue (My fav!)

Ribbon

Scrapbook Paper

Scrapbook Stickers

Ruler

Scissors

Total time was approximately 15-30 minutes.  We were crafting our hearts out so we lost track of time!  These bookmarks were super easy.  They would make great gifts for teachers, book lovers, and friends!  I hope that you like them, too.

Enjoy!

Candice S.

Guest Post on MoneySavingMom.com

Crystal, at MoneySavingMom.com has provided me with the opportunity to be a guest blogger and post how to make homemade baby wipes. 

MoneySavingMom.com is an amazing resource and tool for tips, couponing, frugality, and home management.  Check out my guest post, here.

Happy Thursday!!

Candice S.

Happy Tummies: Bite Size Smore's

Making Smore's is what sets the perfect tone for summer!  We've had plans to make smores for some time now so we went out and purchased your typical smore ingredients:  marshmallow's, honey grahams, and instead of Hershey chocolate bars we bought the new Hershey Smore's Chocolate Icing thinking that it was for smores.  When we went to use it, we found that it's nothing more than icing for baking goods like cupcakes and brownies.  Bummer!  ..I really wanted smores and I wanted them bad so Harmony and I came up with our Bite Size Smore's! 

Kid crafted, super easy, messy, oooey gooey.. and FUN!  I bet these would be awesome with gummy bears, M & M's, and oreo's.. How do you make your smores?

Happy Wednesday!

Candice S.

FREE Father's Day Fun!

Father's Day, like any other holiday, can become expensive.. if you let it be!  :) 

Luckily, there are so many great program offerings for children's crafts. 
The Home Depot offers a great program for a wood workshop the first Saturday of every month.  They are having an additional workshop for Father's Day, Saturday, June 18th, between 9 am- 12 pm.  The recommended age is 4 and up.  Your child will receive an apron with his or her name on it, a workshop pin, and the building kit.  Our local Home Depot serves drinks, has face painting, takes pictures and emails them to you, and more!

We had a blast!

Here is the workshop that Harmony and I attended this month.  We built a Valet Organizer, which was so fun!  Harmony and I were laughing hysterically while she attempted to use a hammer..

For more free fun idea's, check out this amazing list of free gift idea's for dad.

Happy Father's Day!

Free Sample: Mott's for Tots Apple Juice Sample

Vocal Point is offering a Free Sample of Mott's for Tots pre-diluted apple juice that contains 40% less sugar..perfect for your little one!

Benefits of Mott's for Tots for the curious and cautious parent:

• 40% less sugar than 100% apple juice
• Delicious taste!
• No artificial sweeteners
• 100% vitamin C
• Conveniently pre-diluted with purified water
• Available in 64 oz. multi-serve bottles or 6.75 oz. 8-pack juice boxes

Enjoy your sample and don't forget to check out more deals and steals at Vocal Point.
Candice S.

Bird and Sun Art (Inspired by Eric Carle's "The Tiny Seed")

 Thee last month we have been working on learning about flowers so we have read so many brilliantly and beautifully written books that have inspired our preschool lessons and our craft time. 

We have re-read The Tiny Seed (World of Eric Carle) several times.  I adore the beautiful illustrations.  

I sat down this evening after putting the kids together and wanted to put some of my idea's to work.  The sun piece is actually very similar to what I saw Vanessa from Silly Eagle Book's put together.  I am still aw-struck by her stunning piece and her ability to portray images so uniquely as she selects them from her books. 

So, I decided it was time to get creative.  I took two mirrors that were purchased at a garage sale a couple years ago and cut scrap book paper to fit.  The bright pieces that I used in the sun image are from a magazine.  I also used scrapbook images to decorate the frames along with tempura paint.  My original idea was to spray paint the frame's red, but then decided it would be too much contrast.

So, what do you think?  :)  I'm pretty happy with the way they came out and I cannot wait to show Harmony in the AM!  I'm pretty sure she'll tell me that she is "impressed" .. Happy Friday!

Candice S.

I'm linking my bird art to...

The Perfect Playdough Recipe

I found this playdough recipe a few months ago and have been dying to try it!

Ingredients are as follows:

1 tbsp cream of tartar
1 cup of flour
1 cup of water
1/2 cup of salt
1 tbsp cooking oil  (I used olive oil)

Here's what you need to do..

You mix the dry ingredients in a bowl and add the water. 

Cook the mix in a pot on low to medium until mixture starts pulling from the sides of the pot and forms into a ball.

Knead the mixture and add your food coloring and scents after the playdough cools.

Waaaaa laaaaaa!!  After you've add your color, you have beautifully formed playdough!!  Prep and cooking time was about 30 minutes to an hour- kneaded the color in is the most time consuming part but well worth the efforts.  The colors we used were green and red- to make brown, pink, and green food color to go along with our flower thematic unit this month.

Enjoy!

Candice S.

Jumbo Toddler Crayons

The last time we made jumbo crayons was when Harmony was about 2 years old, so we have quite a bit of small piece of broken crayons that can be repurposed. 

Sort the crayons by color, or have your super smart/super sorter toddler/preschooler assist.

Take the paper off of each crayon.

Put in a muffin tin or mold.

Bake on 350 for about 10 minutes or until the crayon pieces have melted into one beautiful crayon!

I want to get some molds to make various shapes.  Any good idea's on where to get these molds from?

Have a rocking Tuesday!

Candice S.

Linking to: 

 Just Something I Whipped Up at The Girl Creative :)

Summer Family Fun Activities

Here are a few summer fun idea's that I have compiled together.  I plan on doing these with my family before Harmony starts school in August.  :)

1.  Play a game of hopscotch
2.  Have fun with ice cube painting
3.  Make puff paint
4.  Collect nature objects, rocks, twigs, flowers and place them into a display basket and use them for props or story time
5.  Make a nature book
6.  Blow bubbles
7.  Dance in the rain (a light drizzle- not recommended for dancing in thunderstorms! hehe)
8.  Go Hiking
9.  Go to the park
10.  Have a picnic!
11.  Camp out in your backyard
12.  Take a family bike ride
13.  Watch a movie under the stars (usually events like this are at your local theater, library, or within your community)
14.  Go to your local library and sign up for their children's programs- story time, family craft time, music, and art programs.
15.  Plant a garden or a tree
16.  Fly a kite
17.  Make homemade ice cream
18.  Make a puppet theater out of cardboard boxes
19.  Take a walk and explore your neighborhood
20.  Make homemade lemonade
21.  Eat lots of watermelon
22.  Start your own reading program.  Read a book a week with your kids to keep their minds fresh.
23.  Go to the beach
24.  Play in the water, pool, or water hose
25.  Start writing a pen pal
26.  Read a classic
27.  Go to your local flea market
28.  Make a sensory tub for your toddler/preschoolers:  You can make a garden sensory tub with seeds, soil, and a shovel.  :)

29.  Play tag outside your house and run aimlessly after each other (that's what we plan to do!)

30.  Have a family sleepover in your living room 

31.  Make homemade play dough

32.  Make smores

33.  Create a sun picture (place lemon juice on paper and place in sun)

34.  Use up your scraps from your art collection (example:  use extra broken crayons for making jumbo muffin tin crayons)
35.  Read the news
36.  Play a board game
37.  Play kickball
38.  Have a water balloon fight!
39.  Observe the clouds for rabbits, squirrels, and other fun shapes!
40.  Register for Lowe's or Home Depot's building program for kids (usually held on Saturdays and are completely FREE)
41.  Learn (or teach your child) how to jump rope, roller skate, or swim
42.  Make a sockpuppet
43.  Donate toys to your local charity
44.  Start a kids club for community clean up
45.  Play I-Spy
46.  Have a treasure or scavenger hunt
47.  Have a tea party
48.  Make tissues flowers
49.  Make a magazine holder
50.  Create a shadowbox
51.   Learn to sew
Most of all...stay safe, use sunscreen, and have fun!!

Candice S.

Linking To: