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.

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.

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:

Science Experiment Saturday: Chemical Reactions- with Color

We have had such an excellent preschool week- mainly having fun and playing!  For a while my household was off track due to our move, but we are slowly and surely getting back up and running.  I often wonder if those are the most receptive moments in a child's mind, when they are learning and exploring something that they enjoy.  Nothing makes me happier then seeing Harmony or Mark spark at a new adventure, whether it's a new project, or reading a book.  Children amaze me.  This week we have explored colors, read a million books, and have done quite a bit of arts and crafts.  This has definitely been an artistic week for us, which is why I think we've enjoyed it so.  Since we are learning with colors this week, I decided that this would be an excellent way to incorporate mixing primary colors into secondary colors, as well as, seeing the two different substances have a chemical reaction!  Boy oh boy, did we LOVE this!

We mixed our colors first- just a drop of food coloring, per color.  Then we added the baking soda, grabbed our camera, and poured in the vinegar!  I think the best part was Harmony's reaction after she poured the vinegar in.. 

After we tried it the first time, we kept on making our mini-magic potions of color.  This time, I got it on video.... yeah, I'm a dork- but it was too cute!

What science experiments have you done with your kids?  I would love to hear about them.. :)

Candice S.

Linking to ..

Snowball Counting Game

This game was so fun!  I labeled an egg carton 1-18 and placed the snowballs/cottonballs all over our house.  Harmony loved finding them!  

This game promotes number recognition and fine motor skills.  Harmony held the egg carton and placed each one in the next slot.  I chose this egg carton because Harmony is learning to recognize numbers 11-20.  This was perfect and even slightly challenging.  Harmony did excellent!

For more winter themed ideas click here.

Happy Friday!

Candice S.

Science Experiment #1: Liquid to Solid

For 2011, I wanted to start incorporating Science into Harmony's preschool lessons.  I thought that this was important and provided Harmony with a hands on approach to observation and analysis, even if she is only 4 1/2.  In our first attempt at a science project, we decided that we would create an observation book where we could record, collect our data, and write our hypothesis down to clearly define our experiment. 

Next, I was looking for an experiment that we could do that coincided with our thematic unit: Winter.  *You will get to see more Winter Themed projects that we have completed in the next few days.  

Step #1:  I started by having Harmony pick some small toys that could fit into a zip lock bag.  I ended up finding some jewels that Santa had brought for art projects to put in the bag.  After this, we fill the bag up with water, sealed it tightly shut, and then dried off the outside.  

Step #2:  Write down your thoughts in your observation book.  I asked Harmony questions and we wrote them down with her answers.  The questions were:

What does the bag feel like?  

Is it hot or cold?

Is it hard or soft?  

How many objects are in the bag?

What color is it?

Step #3:  Place in freezer on a flat surface.  Allow it at least 6-12 hours of freeze time.  We placed ours in the freezer overnight.  Harmony observed the bag for about an hour or two, but seeing as we did freeze it overnight, we didn't check again until we were taking it out the next day. 

 Step #4:  Take it out of the freezer, open the zip lock bag (was a little hard to get off) and remove the entire bag to reveal a beautifully shaped block of ice.  

Step #5:  Ask your questions again and observe your original hypothesis.  Make sure you teach your child vocabulary that contains "liquid" for water and "solid" for ice.  Harmony took very well to observing this experiment and because it was so basic (I'm sure you kids see ice all of the time AND water so they know that there IS a freezing process) it is still FUN to focus on your hypothesis of the likely hood of the water freezing.  

Step #6:  Grab a meat cleaver (with strong parental supervision) and watch your little one make a game of your lesson plan by hammering away.  

Harmony did this for about 30-45 minutes with ice flinging EVERYWHERE.  After she was done we watched it return to water, which we observed about two hours later.  I explained how it was returning to it's original state because of the temperature in the room.  We also put it under hot water to see it melting, which was another fun lesson of practical use.  

This experiment was given a score of a perfect 10!  We loved it!

Candice S.

 Inspiring Winter Book's:

     

Holiday Traditions, Gifts, and Family Fun.

I love Christmas.

I love the season, the cold, family, eating, and fun festive activities that we all love to do with our family.  I'm going to miss it, dearly.   So, to keep the Spirit of Christmas alive I want to share some of Rattles and Redheads, and your's truly, family traditions that are old and the fresh new one's that were welcomed into our family this holiday season.  Some of them I posted about, other's I didn't get a chance so it'll be your first time seeing them!  :o)

• Having Pinkie Pie watch over us during the month of December until he/she flies back to the North Pole to report on our behavior.

• Opening PJ's on Christmas Eve and other presents with our extended family member's.

• Setting out Reindeer Food (made of oat's and glitter) and Homemade Cookies for Santa.

• Our Christmas Activity Box is so fun that I might make one themed for each month!

• Buying Christmas Santa Claus Storybook

• Watching a Christmas Movie

• Receiving Santa's Bell (Polar Express Idea)  We bought the bell from The Dollar Tree and put a pretty ribbon on it.. Only those who believe can hear it.  :)  What fun!  

• Homemade Ornaments and Gifts

• Family Handprint Christmas Tree.  This is my all time favorite present that we could have made this year!  I love, love, love it!

Merry Belated Christmas and to a Happy, Happy New Year!  I hope that your holiday was as special as our's!

Candice S.

Santa Claus Countdown Chain

What better and easier to use then this fun Santa Claus Countdown Chain for Christmas. Harmony loved making this and it was beyond easy! I put the chain's together while she decorated Santa, and then put the date and countdown on each one.  She cannot wait to check on her Elf, Pinkie Pie, and then to go and rip off one of our chain's on the Santa Claus Countdown Chain!

Merry Christmas!

Candice S.

Glistening Pinecone Ornaments

We were using these pinecone's as fall decorations for our table centerpiece.  I was so excited when we hit December, as I planned on using these for our homemade ornaments.   

We used Mod Podge and silver glitter for a section of the pinecone to give it that snowy affect.  Harmony put on the Mod Podge and started sprinkling away!  After we finished up with the glitter and allowed the sparkly pinecones to dry, I hot glued on the ribbon ($1.00 at Walmart!).  

There is a total of six beautiful, glistening pinecone ornaments..they came out perfectly! I have another fun idea that I can't wait to try from Ms. Martha herself!  ;)  ..You'll just have to wait and see what it is. 

Happy Holiday's!!

Candice S.

Check out Rattles and Redhead's holiday section:

I've linked this project to:

Cinnamon Ornaments

I have seen wonderful recipes for making cinnamon ornaments that use applesauce, glue, and a boat load of cinnamon!  ...Lets just say.. after about 4 hours of kneading my heart out, I dumped the sticky gunk in the trash and called it a day.  

..Because I had a very eager and wanting little girl who needed to make ornaments for our tree, I decided the next best thing would be to make our salt dough recipe that we used for our fall leaves.  I added two extra ingredients to the mix: 2-4 tablespoons to applesauce and a ton of cinnamon.

Baby Brother doing his part, having fun with the plastic cookie cutters.

I added red food coloring to a portion of the dough that I sectioned off.  You flatten the dough, add a few drops of food coloring, and then quickly start folding in the dough.  Keep folding in the dough and kneading the dough until you see even color.  Add more color for more bold colored dough.

Place in oven at 150 and bake for about an hour or until desired dryness is reached.  Whalllaaaaa!  :)

Happy Holiday's!

Candice S.

Check out Rattles and Redhead's holiday section:

I've linked this project to: