40 Days of Lent Egg Basket

So before I even start this post I want to give all credit to this Blogger! I just thought the idea was SO brilliant that I booked it to Hobby Lobby and immediately started putting together my own basket!

I grabbed an unfinished cross (that has a built in stand so it's easier to display) for painting during Good Friday. A bracelet, several charms and a wooden coloring scene of Easter and the empty tomb. I had already purchased a small Bible coloring book from the Dollar Store for J's Easter basket which I decided to use pages from in some of the eggs. She can color the picture and we can talk about the biblical scene.

I decided to number my eggs and fill them as I go so that I can control what things we're doing on what days. It just makes it a little easier for me to plan ahead. So, this is what I came up with...

Medal Mondays- receive a charm for bracelet along with lesson on what it means (cross, miraculous medal, angel, dove, etc. This is a good chance to do a mini lesson on Mary, angels, saints, holy spirit...)
Taking Time Tuesday- acts of service (visit elderly, clean up a park, give food to homeless, household chores, etc)
Word Wednesdays- read one of the Mass readings and have a craft or coloring to do
Thinking-of-You Thursdays- Make and mail a painting/ drawing/ homemade card to a family member
Family Fridays- pray one decade of the rosary for a family member (today we did our immediate family, next week will be Grandma & Grandpa, then Nana & Papa, then a week for each set of Aunts & Uncles... just so happened to be exactly 7!)
Sacrifice Saturdays- give up one small thing (tv show, water instead of juice for dinner, put fav toy away for the day, etc)
Sweet Sundays- I am a believer in Sundays being a day of rest as well as a day of no Lenten penances (The 40 days don't count Sundays.) So I don't have any numbered eggs for Sundays. We are going to do the same thing we already do which is have J listen in Mass and ask her questions about the readings. Basic stuff... who was in the story, where were they, who was talking, what were they doing... what ever questions apply. And if she is able to get a few answers right she gets an egg with some candy or other treat inside.

This is what I have so far if you're interested in the specifics...

1. (W) Bracelet to wear during Lent as a reminder (I didn't have any charms on it yet.)
2. (TH) Coloring page of Jesus, kneeling and praying. Colored it and hung it over the basket. Talked about Lent being a time of prayer. Also, that the color of Lent is purple.
3.(F) Egg with Rosary and a piece of paper saying "Mommy, Daddy, C and J". Prayed one decade together for our family.
4. (S) Give away two toys (talk about sacrifice)
5. (M) Angel medal (+ teaching... I just did a post on guardian angels here.)
6. (T) Bring meal to homeless
7. (W) Jonah and the whale with coloring page and bible time (Jonah didn't obey God and he got swallowed by a whale! Give goldfish snacks to go with the theme. More ideas here, here and here. )
8. (TH) Mail Letter/Craft to Grandma & Grandpa
9. (F) Pray rosary for Grandma & Grandpa
10. (S) Make playdoh and give to a friend
11. (M) I put some chocolate gold coins in her egg, talked a little about St. Patrick and did a coloring sheet
12. (T) Make something for J's teachers & talk about how Jesus was making his disciples into teachers
13. (W) Read toddler bible Mass readings and talk about St Joseph
14. (TH) Mail letter craft to Nana/ Papa
15. (F) Pray decade of the rosary for Nana/ Papa

(I will fill in more as I go... but you get the idea)

J woke me up this morning by whispering "It's time to open egg #3, Mommy!" I think she likes it! Hope your kids enjoy it too!

Teaching Kids About Angels

I was asked to teach our little preschool playgroup about angels today and I thought I would share our mini lesson here!

Kids LOVE angels! They have wings, they are invisible, they are warriors... what more could a kid ask for?!? So, there are plenty of angles to approach teaching kids about them. Generally, I approach teaching young kids with a less is more mentality so I chose 2 attributes to focus on and added 2 activities as always!!!

Angels are mentioned in the bible HUNDREDS of times but the verse that I think of most when I think about them is this one from Exodus 23:20

"I am sending an angel before you to keep and guard you on the way and to bring you to the place I have made ready. "

1. Angels are messengers. The best way I could think of explaining a messenger to my daughter was the example of Mailman. The Mailman brings letters from someone else to you. You can also give letters to the mailman to bring to someone else. So, an angel is like God's mailman bringing messages (letters) to you from God and where you can send your messages to go through him. (Kids love to write letters so you could choose to have them write a letter to God that their angel can see and tell God what it says.)

2. Angels are our guides. For this one I used the image of a line leader. At J's school, they have a different child that gets to be the line leader everyday and lead the group. Our angel goes "before you to guide you". I blindfolded J and had her walk around and run into a couple of things to make my point (disclaimer: no children were hurt in the teaching of this lesson. Lol!) Then I had her ask her angel for help and I pretended to be her angel and guided her around the room. The kids all thought this was pretty funny to watch. The sillier the better!

After we finished blindfolding children and letting them run into things, we prayed the Guardian Angel prayer together and they colored a guardian angel worksheet which also had the prayer on it. While they were coloring I made the point that we all have our own special guardian angels with us always. I found the worksheet here. (I cut off the bottom of the page where it asks the child to name their angel. This is a somewhat controversial topic in the Church and is generally discouraged for a variety of reasons so I wouldn't suggest using that part.)

Hope this helps!

Opposites: Part 3

For our third Opposites study we used pgs 132-143 in the Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills for Preschool.

First, we read the book Quiet, Loud by Leslie Patricelli. After, we looked for some of the items in the book to see for ourselves how quiet and loud they were! So for quiet we gathered a pillow, teddy bear, books and crayons. They are quiet indeed! And for loud, J did some screaming, burping, singing, sneezing, banging pots & pans and acting like a monkey, dog, rooster, firetruck! Phew! My ears are still ringing!

Secondly, we emptied out two bins and sorted toys that were quiet and loud. J initially wanted to sort them by hard and soft since we did that a few lessons ago, but soon saw that some soft toys were also loud if they crinkled or made sounds. 

Opposites: Part 2

For our second Opposites study we used pgs 122-131 in the Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills for Preschool.

We read the book Opposites by Sandra Boynton then we headed to the playground and practiced our opposites! I gave J the first word to demonstrate and she had to tell me the opposite and demonstrate that as well. Over the playscape/ under the playscape, down the slide/ up the slide, high on the swings/ low on the swings, Up on the monkey bars/ down from the monkey bars, heavy/ light on the see saw, run fast/ go slow, etc.

Opposites

For our first Opposites study we used pgs 113-121 in the Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills for Preschool. 

First, I emptied out two toys bins and designated one for soft toys and one for hard toys. If you are working on reading as well, you can go ahead and put "soft" and "hard" signs on your bins. Once you have your bins, let your kiddo collect things until they're sick of the game! J actually ended up doing this one for a really long time plus she made a pile in between the two bins for items that were both soft and hard! Bonus!

For our second game we basically did a Simon Says with Opposites. Go "in" the bedroom (have them go) then ask "what's the opposite of in?" "Out!" "Out" of the bedroom (have them go out). Keep going: "Under" the table/ "over" the table, find a "big" stuffed animal/ find a "little" stuffed animal, find a "loud" toy/ find a "quiet" toy, stand "up"/ sit "down", "open" the door/ "close" the door, this wash cloth is "dry"/ now get it "wet", turn lights "on"/ turn lights "off", etc. 

Long & Short

For our Long & Short study we used pgs 104- 111 in the Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills for Preschool.

First, we simply arranged pieces of paper from shortest to longest. If you want to make it a little more interesting you could use rainbow colors or slice up a picture from a magazine that will be revealed once placed in the right order.

For our next game, I put some painters tape around a tile and had J try to push the cars into the square. Depending on where it ended up, we'd say "too short" and "too far." We didn't use the word long but it was a good exercise in distance, length and fine motor skills.

Short & Tall

For our section on Short and Tall we used pgs 96-103 in the Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills for Preschool. 

We did a house-wide tour to practice spotting things that are shorter or taller than J. Doorways, counters, furniture, baby brother, toys on the floor... anything goes! Plus you'll find the occasion item that is the same size. 

Before J could eat her fruit by the foot snack she had to arrange it from shortest to tallest. A little sweet motivation never hurts!

Big, Small & Same Size

The section for Big, Small and Same Size is found on pgs 88-95 in the Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills for Preschool.

We arranged the food containers from bigger to smaller and then from smaller to bigger. I also used three different types of containers per set: glass, aluminum and plastic. You can talk about the differences between the containers like how glass is breakable, how you can squeeze the plastic and how you can dent the aluminum. This would be a lot of fun for hands on teaching!

Our second project we used different sized plastic cups which we again order biggest to smallest and smallest to biggest. Once finished we poured water into the smallest cup until it was full. Once it was full, we poured the water directly into the next bigger cup to show how this cup is not full from the same amount of water. You can then add more water from your water container and once that cup is full pour into the next cup and so on. Once the largest cup was full I let J pour all of the water into the small cup and see how much it overflows! You can't beat making a mess! If the weather isn't warm enough where you are, you can always set up shop in the bath tub!

Shape Review

For our Shape Review we used pgs 84-87 in the Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills for Preschool. We traced, colored and matched shapes.

For our shape review craft J made some shape monsters! I cut out multiple shapes in different sizes and colors out of left over construction paper (you could also do with felt so it's reusable) Then cut out large shapes to make up the monster body. Let your kiddo glue to their hearts content! (You could use googly eyes if you're realllllly fun.)

Secondly, we simply collected one item of each shape from around the house.

Another idea you could do is Shape Simon Says. If the weather is nice you can draw shapes in chalk on the sidewalk and do it that way or you could tape paper shapes onto the ground inside.

Learning About Diamonds

Our Diamond section was pgs 79-83 in the Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills for Preschool. We traced, colored and wrote the word diamond.

For our first project I gave J triangle stickers and asked her to figure out how to make a diamond out of them. It took her a while so I gave her a few hints as we went: use only two triangles, have them touching, have one pointing up and one down and. I also ended up drawing a diamond to help her along. I had to use some self control to not move them around for her but she was very proud once she finally get it for herself! (If you want to simplify you could just start with two larger triangles.)

Second, we made kites with Glad Press n Seal and tissue paper pieces. You could also use contact paper if you'd rather. 

Learning About Ovals

Our Oval section was pgs 72-78 in the Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills for Preschool. We traced, colored and wrote the word oval. You can also talk about how an oval only has 1 side just like a circle.

In the spirit of Halloween we had two "spooky" crafts! For our first craft I simply printed out this tree and let J made some spooky leaves with her oval fingerprints. You could obviously used reds and oranges to make it more fall themed and colorful.

Secondly, I cut out a white ovals and a bunch of black ovals and J glues them on to make a skeleton face. You could also do this on felt to make it reusable. 

Hope you all had a very Happy Halloween! 

Learning About Rectangles

Our Rectangle section was pgs 66-71 in the Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills for Preschool. We traced, colored and wrote the word rectangle as well as counted the sides and wrote the number 4. We also talked about what other shapes have four sides, specifically, squares and diamonds. 

For our first application J sorted square and rectangular stamps. Once she was finished she got to play with them, of course! 

Secondly, I had her make a rectangle using legos. She initially ended up with a square but eventually figured it out. This was a good problem solving activity. 

Finally, some graham crackers for snacks!

Learning About Triangles

Today we did pgs 60-65 in The Comprehensive Curriculum for Preschool focusing on Triangles. We practiced writing the word triangle, tracing triangles, counting their sides and writing the number 3.

For our first project I drew some black triangles on black paper and had J cut them out with craft scissor. Once she finished her triangles, J glued them on a pumpkin to make a fun, fall face!

For our last project I cut some slits in the bottom of a toilet paper roll then shaped each square into a point to make triangles. This was a really fun stamping project and was great to make the sun and flowers. We also ended up with a color blending lesson where J got to see that blue and yellow make green and purple and yellow make brown!

Learning About Squares

My daughter, J, goes to preschool two mornings a week and does the typically 4 year old curriculum of a letter a week. For the rest of the time I wanted to start a supplementary learning program at home. We finished the Big WorkBook for Preschool this summer and she really enjoyed it so we moved on to the next book in the series. We are now using the Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills: Grade Preschool. It seems to cover a lot of ground so I am going to build some very basic lesson plans around this workbook. Just thought I would share in case anyone else wanted to come along for the ride! Happy Homeschooling!

Today's lesson was on squares. We used pgs 55-59 which included tracing squares, as well as the word square, and coloring in just the squares on a page with several shapes. We added counting the sides as J traced them and also practiced writing the number 4. J also added some family portraits for your viewing pleasure... =)

For an activity, we walked around the house looking for 10 squares. A very simple, but fun application! We went from room to room and even baby C had fun following us and watching J rummage around.

For our second game, I put some painters tape around a tile and had J sweep poms poms inside the square. This is a great activity for hand eye coordination. J got a kick out of me hamming it up by saying "AH-AH" whenever she would try to cheat and use her hands. When that game got old, we switched to her sweeping one color group at a time. And now you just worked on colors!

After our games we had some square crackers as a snack and called it a day!

I hope that this can help someone out there who has an a kiddo interested in learning but maybe you don't have the time to plan things out from scratch. I am learning that lessons don't need to be too long or involved to be effective. So this is my attempt to keep it simple and fun for parents and kids alike! Enjoy!

How to Print Your Pins

I don't know about you but I.... am..... a.... Pinterest.... Addict. There it is... I said it. I have spent many, many, many hours collecting things on Pinterest. And what do I have to show for it? PINS! But what happens if for some reasons those pins disappear or something happens to my account? What will happen to the fruits of my hoarding labors? I'd really rather not find out. Ya hear me?

So this week, I have a little tutorial on how to save your pins on PicMonkey. If you are a planner like me you have already started thinking about Fall, so here is the first set of pictures I put together with my Halloween collection. 

Head on over to PicMonkey and click on Create a Collage. 

Click on the picture on the far left that says "Layouts" when you hover over it. Choose the category "Square Deal" and choose the amount of squares you want... I used the third options which has 16 squares. 

Under your collage it shows the dimensions 1024 x 1024. Click on the little lock button so that when you hover over it it says "Lock Proportions." This will allow you to change the proportions and make your picture 8 x 10 for printing. Change the proportions to 1920 x 2400.

Go back to the far left options and click on the picture you hover over that says "Images" and then click on "Open Photos". 

Upload the pictures you have selected from Pinterest. (I previously right clicked on the pins I wanted to save, clicked "Save to My Computer" and then saved them all in a common folder.)

If you want to add any words to your collage now is the time to click on "Edit". Just make sure you have the pictures exactly the way you want them because you won't be able to go back and change them once you enter the Editing section. 

Save to your computer and print that puppy out!

Hope that helps and Happy Pinning!!!

Honey Bee Baby Shower

The Honey Bee Baby Shower is a perfect theme for any Mama to Bee!  It's gender neutral, yet still colorful and fun! Just mix up some black and yellow napkins, plates and cups and you've got yourself some Honey Bee action!

 I made a cute (yet practical... hello diapers!) little Bee diaper cake that I LOVED! I found this yellow hexagonal ribbon which was perfect and the mini bee pillow pet will be just right once baby is ready for a toddler pillow! You could also go with some Burt's Bees Baby Shampoo and Bubble Bath but I went with the old standby, Johnson and Johnson.

 For a game we played Guess-How-Many-Honeycombs-are-in-the-Baby-Bottle. And for the few kids that tagged along for the party, I made a little snack bag of Honeycombs & Bees (M&M's). 

Now onto the super fun honey themed menu!!! I'm not gonna lie, I had a really fantastic time looking at honey laden foods and could have made much, much more... but I managed to rein in my inner over-doer and went for a more appropriate sized spread. =)

First, and my favorite, was the Honey Buttercream Frosting on the cupcakes!!! OMG! I wanted to lick each and every one of them... but don't worry, I didn't. This recipe is a MUST!

Secondly, I made a version of a great Fruit Salad with Honey Dressing from Food Network, compliments of Paula Deen. I wasn't so keen on the idea of using ALL fruit (I thought that might be too sweet) so here is my version of the recipe which received thumbs up all around!

1/3 cup honey

1/4 cup orange juice

1/4 cup canola oil

1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice

3/4 tsp poppy seeds

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp dijon mustard

Romaine lettuce

Diced apples (I used Gala)

Mandarin oranges

Craisins

Candied pecans

Finally, we had some simple Honey Ham and Cheese Croissants but these Honey Ham Biscuits Sliders and Honey Prosciutto Flatbreads look like pretty amazing alternatives!!!

Hope you have fun party planning! I'm more than happy to bee of service! =)

30 Beers for 30 Years Birthday Gift Sampler

It's been a few months since my husbands big 30th birthday but I finally got around to blogging about it. As most of you have probably discovered, gift giving for guys can be tough! No they don't want ties... or socks... or really anything from the stores I like shopping at! My guy loves gadgets and computer stuff but I don't speak geek. For instance, the one time I tried to buy a computer game for my dad who likes "Fantasy" type games... I accidentally got him a kids game. I guess I don't know how to tell the difference between adult games with elves and kids games with elves. Lol!

But beer. Beer is always a win in our house! So if your guy is like mine then consider making him a beer sampler with the number of beers to match the number of birthdays! We have a store called Specs that sells individual beers so I came up with the idea of 30 Beers for 30 Years! I was pretty proud of myself... if you can't tell. And if you would like to avoid your kitchen counter being taken over by the beer rating system, go ahead and type up a spreadsheet or download a beer app on his phone so your guy can rate them and remember which ones he liked. That's part of the fun!

The Sampler idea could translate to an easy gift idea for any member of the family too. Have a mom that likes tea and coffee? Give her a sampler of exotic tea bags or k-cups if you have a Tassimo coffee machine. Does your dad like gardening? You could give a Seed Sampler to the green thumb in your family. Samplers are fun! And they're a gift that keeps on giving!

Heart Glow Valentine

Valentine's Day is upon us and, I don't know about you, but I can never seem to bring myself to buying pre-made Valentine's from the store. I'm sure J would be perfectly happy giving out Disney Princess cards to her little friends but... Mommy just can't help herself. I found this cute Valentine on Pinterest, and, while it was printable, I couldn't edit it and add J's name. Off to PicMonkey.com I went and I'm really happy with the way it turned out! 

Since, I'm pretty sure I'm not the only person out there who would like a personalized Valentine I thought I would save you some work and give you a quick and easy tutorial! So, head on over to www.picmonkey.com and make one already!!!

What You Need
* Cardstock
*Printer
*Hole Punch
*Glowsticks (15 for $1 from Target)

First thing I did was open paint and create a blank canvas of the right size. Once you are in paint open Properties change the units to inches and input the Width as 5.5 and the Height as 1.5. Now save it somewhere where you can find it! Lol!

Click edit your photo and open your page. Click on the P on the far left which will take you to fonts. Type in the words in these sizes, fonts and colors: 

Valentine- D90700 Sacramento 48

you make my- Shadows into Light Two 22

Heart Glow- Budmo Jiggler 50

Happy Vday- Shadows into Light Two 18 

Click on the picture of the Heart with the arrow through it below the P, click on Sweathearts, click on banners, choose one and enlarge it to fill the entire page. This is how I made the background pink. There is probably an easier way... but that's what I did. You can do the background in any color you like but here is the color pink I used: FFCDE1.

Thanks for stopping by my blog and... Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Burp Cloths and Fabric Block

Baby C was born in November and between going from parent of one to parent of two, plus throw in some holidays and having family in town, I haven't posted in a while. But... I have completed a few projects here and there. A good friend of mine had her baby boy just a month before me and I was able to throw a little something together for her before popping myself! 

Burp cloths are just about the most simple thing you could possibly make and one that absolutely gets used! There are a lot of burp cloth tutorials out there in blogland so I won't bore you with another one... but you can click on the link to view the tutorial I used. I also made a fabric block out of the same fabrics with a felt letter M for Max! 

Halloween Crafts 2012

Here are some of the fun little Halloween crafts J did this year! Most of these she did at school so I can't really take credit but I thought I would share anyway for those of you who might want to recreate the cuteness!

J colored her pumpkin with markers one day and added the "Happy Halloween" letters another. 

The cat was made in a bowl with dried black beans and lots of glue! Add the googly eyes, pom nose, pipe cleaner whiskers and scrap paper ears and you have yourself one cute little black cat! Oh, and, can't forget about the glitter!

The balloon pumpkin was covered with paper and starch water, painted orange and a paper face was added last. 

I found the foam Halloween cutouts and stickers at the dollar store. It worked out great for working on letters and sounds!

The pumpkin is made of orange dyed rice with a black bean face and a artificial leaf and pipe cleaner for embellishment. Again... lots of glue!

The paper crafts is simple enough... gluing spooky scrapbook paper shapes onto paper but I thought the footprint ghost was a nice touch!

And that was our October of crafts in a nutshell! Hope you found some good ideas to share with your kiddos! Happy Halloween!!!