Seeing God's Goodness

We've started to do a bit of more structured fun here at home. Last week and this week we are learning about how God created the world in seven days. I'll be posting more fun stuff over at Live, Learn, Love but thought this was too cute not to share here.

We made binoculars. Again. In the spring when we made them they didn't survive much use. These seem much better!

This is not a creative or special craft, but I thought I'd share since these seem sturdier than some others.

Using toilet paper tubes, I hot glued them together. I also hot glued the yarn on the sides. Meghan decorated the binoculars with lots of stickers. She told me what each sticker was (mostly animals), and then I asked her who made it. She happily told me, "God!" I highly recommend hot glue to keep them sturdy! Some of the stickers didn't want to stick, so we also used packaging tape to keep them on the tubes. The tape probably helped it to stay sturdy, too.

Then we went on a sight-seeing walk to find all sorts of things that God made. We saw birds, bugs, rocks, plants, neighbors, and animals (okay, just one dog).

Why not go outside and enjoy God's creation right now? Have fun!

Busy

We've had a busy week that started with the weekend. We attended a late wedding Saturday night that left us extremely tired on Sunday. I like to schedule some posts on the weekend, and that just didn't happen. A nap was priority!

We had a quiet Father's Day. Last week Meghan made SIX of these toolbox cards! Meghan and Evan are blessed with two great grandfathers, three grandfathers, and a daddy.

Evan is officially crawling. He's been dragging himself around for a couple of weeks, but now Evan is fast, though it's still an Army crawl. The protective blanket (for the spit up) is almost useless. Yesterday he made his way from the living room to the kitchen area where Lucy's bowl is kept. We've now moved it out of sight. Maybe the kitchen won't be so exciting to Evan with a bowl of Lucy's food to entice him.

Last week he removed one of our doorstops to eat it. While it was not digested, he certainly had fun with it. When the noise stopped, I was immediately concerned. Our doorstops are the springy type. They make a really cool sound when swatted. It didn't take Evan long to find the doorstops once he was rolling. He hasn't forgotten the joy and laughter the doorstops bring.

We also have had a lot of rain recently. Apparently ants often seek shelter inside when there is that much rain. Our yard has a ton of ant hills, and now we have some ants inside our home. Our neighbors also have ants which does make me feel a little better. Now that the sun is out, we're only seeing one or two ants a day, but where there is one, you know there is more!

I have been trying to be a much better house cleaner, especially in the kitchen. The floors are being swept often and mopped multiple times a week with vinegar. I'm cleaning the counters and table with window cleaner instead of soap and water. The ants are making me have a clean kitchen before I go to bed at night. It's good to do, but quite time consuming!

We're really trying to not eat in the living room, but that is one hard habit to break! We eat breakfast and dinner at the table, and Meghan eats lunch at the table, but lunch for adults is usually in the living room. I often find myself sitting on the loveseat to eat my lunch, only to realize I need to go to the kitchen. OOPS! Meghan is doing a great job keeping her sippy cups in the kitchen with just little reminders.

With all of that said, Derek and I are looking into having something done about the ants. I don't like to mess with God's creation, but at this point, they're in our home.

Softball is well under way for Derek too. Games are two nights a week. Thankfully he still has a quick dinner with us before heading out.

With all of the rain last week, our garden has a ton of weeds. Thankfully the corn and green beans are growing nicely. The watermelon and cantaloupe....well, I'm not sure what to expect there, but I thought they would be more vine-like. Recently Derek planted some lettuce and carrots. They haven't sprouted yet, unless I weeded them!

Now it's almost time for therapy. Then I'll chase Evan when he gets up and play a game of "chase" with Meghan! Whew!

Fun with Crafts

Today's Picnic Talk over at ABC and 123 is arts and crafts. Meghan is 2 1/2 and has been enjoying arts and crafts since I introduced them when she was around two.


I will confess that I didn't think she liked to use crayons. Her aunt and uncle gave her a coloring book for Christmas. That opened a new world to her. Coloring became fun. Meghan still likes to color with crayons, but she also enjoys markers, paints, gluing, and Play-Doh. We go through construction paper faster than I prefer.


We have a handful of craft supplies. I will highlight just two though. To introduce Meghan to painting, we used sponge brushes. She recently graduated to a regular, but large, round brush. We'll still use the sponge brush some, too. The sponge brush covers a lot of area with fewer strokes, which is important for younger children.


Any time we use markers, paints, and even glue I pull out our handy-dandy reusable cardboard to protect the table. It protects better than newspaper, and it's not wasteful. Ours came from a thick cereal box (we get bulk sized cereal, so it's a good sized box). It folds nicely to a smaller size for storage.


I know the benefits of unstructured art time, but we enjoy mostly planned activities.

Here is a varied sample of our crafts.

Color Collage
Potato Prints
Pasta Necklace and Bracelet (great for young ones)
Footprint tree
Button Egg

I gather ideas from other websites and blogs (the list is too long to list all who inspire me). There are too many to name, but I try to give credit when I use someone's idea. Check my sidebar for lots of great sites, if you are interested.

Her First Masterpiece

This is Meghan's first drawing. After we made the paper train, Meghan wanted to use markers. When I asked her what she was drawing, after a minute she said choo-choo. (I don't know if she had intentions at first. Her first scribble was the blue one. It's quite different than the other "box cars."


You might not be able to see it, but while she was drawing I was amazed at her method.


Can you see the small bits of scribbled color toward the bottom? I think those are the different box cars. When she was drawing the lines across the top she told me they were smoke. (I asked.) The lines on the bottom are tracks! I am impressed at her detail (and attempt at some hard words)!

Above is a picture of all three of our train projects that hang on the fridge. The top is the train made with Meghan's arm. Below is the free art train. At the bottom is the freight train, based on the Donald Crews book.

Freight Train by Meghan (and Donald Crews)

We made a paper freight train based on the wonderful book by Donald Crews. We used the book to help us know which car/color would come next. I had the cars precut into the appropriate shape. I also had the track drawn on the paper ahead of time.




Meghan really enjoyed telling me which color would come next with almost no prompting.




This is Meghan waiting for me to get the black paint for the wheels.


She chose to use crayons for the smoke. She was so precise with where it went. This was our second train, so I didn't tell her where to put it. She knew.



The wheels are made with her little fingerprints. Yes, the yellow hopper car is upside down.



This is quite large. I thought two inch wide cars would be a good size. It wasn't until after I had cut them out and was placing them on the paper that I realized that there was no room for the black tender! An inch would have been large enough!

For another similar, yet different Freight Train project, visit my friend Jennifer at My Two Happy Homeschoolers!

Sometimes I wonder if I am trying to do too much with Meghan, but she really enjoys paper crafts! We had a lot of fun completing this project, and when we were done she wanted more. Tomorrow you can see a "train" she made without any help from me!

More ABC Fun

The picnic talk over at ABC and 123 today is the alphabet. Meghan knows a lot of her letters and can say them too. She is not capable of singing the ABC song (or any other song) at this point, but she likes it when I sing it for her.

For those of you new to us, Meghan has a speech disorder. To encourage speech and learn letters, we are creating an ABC Sound Book. She can read each picture word on each page since it is based on her vocabulary.

Our ABC Sound Book is near completion. A while back I said I probably would not share any more pages, but here are all of the pages, though it is not complete. We have a few more pictures to glue down, but not many.

Initially we worked on just one letter at a time, based on words that Meghan could say. I used Google Images and our own photos of special people to glue on each page.

Once we had completed the letters with a lot of word pictures, I decided it would be fun to glue the rest of the letters on paper all at once. I think Meghan enjoyed this, too! (Since then she loves to point out X. She also crosses her arms to make an X when she says it.)

We will NOT use construction paper for our next ABC book's pages! This book is over an inch thick. I never considered that it would deplete my supply of paper. (Did you notice that there is a lot of red and green paper? We were given a lot of those colors, but even that is really low.)

Now I need suggestions as to how to hold these pages together so that Meghan can read her book whenever she wants. (Since they aren't bound, I keep the pages together in a cupboard.) What are your suggestions?

Go over to ABC and 123 for alphabet ideas for all ages!

Train Made with Arm

We've been reading some books about trains. Trains are always a favorite for us. I saw this really neat craft here.

The original was actually much cuter, but it had been a long time since I had looked at it...so ours isn't as cute. More important than cute is that Meghan had fun.

We traced her arm and hand, then cut it into pieces. Meghan colored each part and then the windows and wheels, too after gluing them on the track. This was really a neat idea though.

We had a good weekend with incredible weather. Much of our time was spent outside. Derek has every other Friday off (works long days because of it), and Friday was a work day, so the weekend seemed short.

Is anyone else amazed that June has arrived? Time is flying by! We're trying to make our summer plans including a family vacation and a trip to visit family...and hopefully some time away for just Derek and me.

Fingerprint Rainbow

We made this fingerprint rainbow with some of our new paints. I am fairly sure I saw this at Lucky Me, but I didn't have it bookmarked, so I am not certain. Lucky Me's site has lots of great craft ideas for preschoolers and school-aged kids.


First we made the rainbow, using ROY G. BIV to remember the order of the colors. We started with the inside since I wasn't sure how large it would be. Meghan's patience was tried with this rainbow since I had to guide her hand, but after she saw it would be a rainbow she got excited about it. (Telling her was not enough.)

After the rainbow was dry a day or two later, I cut it out, as well as a yellow sun. We gathered some cotton balls and stretched them to make clouds. Then we glued it all down.

Meghan was really proud of this once it was completed. She took it to show her daddy saying, "rainbow." Meghan's "rainbow" sounds a lot like her "read book." As I've said, context clues are often needed to know what Meghan is saying! I think it was about a month ago she started calling rainbows their name instead of just "bows."

A Mother's Day Card

Happy Mother's Day to all of our Grandmas!

Like most of our crafts, this was not my own idea. Her Cup Overfloweth gets all the credit!
Meghan really enjoys having her feet painted and making footprints. Her toes may not cooperate as much as I'd like, but that's life.


This is the inside of the card.

This is the back and front of the card.

We'll be making four of these cards! To keep it simple I worked with one foot at a time. After we had four footprints, the foot was wiped clean.


We did this before baths since it was hard to clean between the toes.

Butterfly Craft

I saw this butterfly craft at Lucky Me (a great blog for children's crafts).
We used our mini coffee filters and mini craft sticks. (We only have a coffee pot for company, and for some reason I thought the tiny craft sticks were cuter than the regular ones.)


Meghan used her markers to color the filter. I put polka-dots on mine.

(Yes, that hair band is back. I wish I could say it looks great...)

Then came the FUN part. Do you see the joy on her face?

Meghan used the spray bottle to spray the colored filters. Unfortunately, her aim was quite high, and the table got very wet. With a little help she did just fine.















After the filters dried we folded them and placed them between two colored craft sticks with a pipe cleaner for antennae. I used markers to draw eyes. Our googley eyes never stay with glue.

Ta-dah! A butterfly.


Don't forget to enter our giveaway for fun felt patterns!

Cotton Ball Lamb and Scissors

We made this cotton ball lamb. I have seen it posted by several people, but Jennifer at Ramblings of a Crazy Woman was the first one I saw post it. Her site is great for preschool crafts!


Instead of the recommended paper plate, I just cut an oval from white paper.

Lots of glue is needed.


When I let Meghan glue (though I did most of it), she signed "thank you." She really enjoys crafts and often thanks me while we make them!


Then have some fun gluing the cotton balls!

While Meghan placed the cotton balls, I cut the four feet and head. I opted to leave off the googley eyes since they always seem to fall off. Instead I cut white eyes and placed a dot in the middle.

Does anyone have any ideas how to keep the googley eyes attached? Regular glue doesn't seem to work for us.

Meghan was so crafty that day that I also introduced her to scissors! First we cut into a strip of paper, and then we cut a straw into many pieces. This was fun for her, but she had a difficult time cutting. (She's only two though!) These scissors are made for left or right handed children, so if she decides that cutting is easier with her right hand, she can still use them.

Button Book and Button Eggs

Buttons Buttons!

I made a button book for Meghan's Easter basket. It was fairly simple to make. I got the idea here. Since Meghan tries to unbutton and button my shirts, I thought it was time that she had a more appropriate place to practice this fine motor skill. I used two pieces of felt, plus addition felt for the pocket and shapes. Embroidery floss holds the buttons on and the book together. Simple!

Here is the inside of the book with the sewn buttons and removable shapes.

I decided not to use the recommended blanket stitch. Instead I just used the whip stitch.

The outside has a handy little pocket for storing the felt shapes.


Though this picture is upside down (and I don't know how to fix it), it shows the button and ribbon closure. I hope she likes it!
Meghan's Reaction:

Silly me. When I made this button book I didn't consider Meghan's compulsive tendency. I will be making new shapes for her in matching colors to the buttons.

Meghan decorated an egg shape with buttons with her left hand

and her right hand.

Don't you love seeing how much she concentrates? Amazingly, school glue holds the buttons to the paper without any problems, unless a little girl tries to peel them off!

Footprint Tree

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is a favorite book of Meghan's. It has colorful pictures and is repetitive. She enjoys saying the "boom boom." The story isn't great, in my opinion, but it passes her test, and that's what matters!

We made this footprint tree. I painted the trunk ahead of time. Then I painted her foot green and pressed it to the paper. The coconuts are Meghan's thumbprints.

Unfortunately, we made this on construction paper. Our ABC letters are not strong enough to hold the paper to the refrigerator, or even to stay up easily. But my goal was to be able to imitate the book using our magnet letters.

Just for Fun inspired us! Sandy has lots of hand print ideas, too!

Pasta Necklace and Bracelet

Last December Meghan and I made pasta necklaces to give as gifts to her grandmas and her therapist. The colored pasta was very easy to make. I made a big batch so we would have extras to use in her kitchen (she would try to eat uncolored pasta) and other projects.

Colored pasta is very easy to make.

To make necklaces, just use a tubed pasta like rigatoni or ziti. (I would suggest ziti for older children and rigatoni for younger.)

• Place 2 cups of pasta in a zipper bag.
• Add 1 tablespoon of rubbing alcohol and 4-6 drops of food coloring.
• Mix thoroughly, then spread on a cookie sheet lined with tin foil.

When completely dry (overnight or so) you can play away!

I recently learned that pipe cleaners are much easier to thread than yarn, even taped yarn.

Here's the bracelet, made with just one pipe cleaner.

Then Meghan made a necklace using two pipe cleaners.

Very cute!

Meghan made these pretty much all by herself and was pleased with the result.

Painting Three Ways

We attempted blow painting. I remember doing it in elementary school and enjoying it. We used some of our homemade paint. I thought it would be a good activity for Meghan to strengthen her lips and blowing skills, but she wasn't very interested in it. I did assist with the direction of the straw. (Sorry about the blur.)

I apologize, but I don't remember where I saw this mess-free finger painting. I put three colors of finger paint on a piece of paper and covered it with wax paper. Then we used our fingers to move the paint around.

The final painting.

Here is a train we made. It seemed like a good idea, and I think it was. However, using the Crayola finger paints was not a good idea.

We used a sponge for the box cars. I used two different sized carrots for the sun and the train's wheels. Meghan had a great time with this, but the paints just weren't bold enough for my liking. I'm not sure if this was my idea or someone else's. Let me know if I can give you credit!

Potato Prints

We made some traditional potato prints. To do this, cut a potato in half and draw a shape on the flat side. Then cut away on the outside of the the shape. We used a folded paper towel as a stamp pad.

We made triangles. Meghan did quite well stamping these. It hangs on our fridge.

We also made circles. It may look like we were finger painting, but really Meghan was supposed to be making more potato prints. She used the potato (and a few fingers) to wipe the paint on the paper though.

Meghan also has a thing for smelling paint. Every time she paints, her nose gets painted because she has to smell the paint so many times.

ABC Sound Book: P

We are continuing our ABC Sound Book. This time our letter is P and includes all the P words Meghan can say. We use Google Images for the pictures. It's nice to find the sign language pictures for words like "please" and "more."

Meghan painted a cut P purple since we did not have purple construction paper. We used our homemade paint again. I can't wait to make the next batch using some corn starch to thicken it up a bit more.

As she touched each object, I had Meghan tell me what they were. (peas, pop, purple, please, and pacifier)

The pacifier was confusing for Meghan. I thought it was clever that I found an image of a Penn State pacifier, but she was too focused on the nittany lion to notice it was a pacifier. (Unfortunately she doesn't say Penn Sate yet, but she notices every nittany lion she comes across and roars for it.)

Just a note: I don't usually like stickers on faces, but Meghan earned a sticker for using the bathroom. She wanted it on my forehead. Then she got a matching sticker for herself and wanted it on her forehead. I thought it matched her bow nicely!

Homemade Paints

Above is a yellow painting collage Meghan made. The paint I made myself, but I didn't cook it long enough for it to thicken. (I have the same problem with gravy at times.) I plan to make another batch of paint because it was quite washable, though it spread thin. I am storing the paint in small shampoo-type bottles. I got the recipe here. Teaching Tiny Tots has been a great resource for me. I cut a sturdy cereal box to use instead of newspaper for our painting projects. Our table needs protection from Meghan!