Easter activities and song for kids

Hi folks! Sorry I dropped off the face of the earth/blog! Baby prep plus work deadlines have been overwhelming, and I've kind of been ignoring the computer during my downtime (or else I've been napping). I need to find time to write and schedule a few posts so that this blog won't be entirely dormant when the baby arrives and I'm too tired to do anything!

Anyways, the reason for my post is Easter!

We took C to the Stations of the Cross for children at our church today, and although she was a bit wiggly and chatty, she did pretty good! She was one of the youngest kids there, and she even got to hold the cross for a while (which she was thrilled about).

We've been playing a new Easter-themed board game, which she LOVES. It's a memory-type game called The First Easter. You put egg-shaped cards with the Easter story on them face down, then take turns flipping them over to find a match (just like Memory). When you make a match, one card goes into your Easter basket, and one goes on the game board. Once the Board is filled up, you can read the Easter story together. C got the hang of the game really quickly, and asked to play it five times in a row! I bought it for a fantastic price on sale too!

Two printable games I found online have been keeping us busy as well. The first is Easter egg number matching from Confessions of a Homeschooler. It's pretty simple - count the number of dots on half of an egg, and match it with the correct written number.

The other game is the chicks in eggs game from Tired, Need Sleep. You fill up plastic Easter eggs with cards showing either a chick or another animal. Roll a coloured dice (included in the PDF), then open the egg. If you have a chick, roll again; if you have another animal, it's the next person's turn. I may print out a few extra non-chicks - we keep getting beaten badly by C!

As for music... I read about the musician Yancy on the blog Impress Your Kids (now called Oh Amanda) a few weeks ago. I couldn't find her music in my local book and bible store, and tonight I thought to look on eMusic.com - success! She has a fantastic CD of Christian music for preschoolers, and I downloaded Little Praise Party for my daughter, and then clicked over to her website. On her blog, I noticed that she is offering a 5 song download of new preschool songs for $5 - but only for a limited time - until Easter (edited: this has expired now). "The Springtime Song" is definitely worth a listen at this time of year. It's about a child's view of Easter, reminding them about Jesus. Plus, it's very cute and catchy! We don't have much religious kid's music that we listen to regularly, so I thought this might be a way to introduce some to C.

The weather has been VERY unseasonable and beautiful, and we may have our Easter egg hunt outside for the first time I can remember in my life (usually we still have some snow at this time)! We also plan to make hot cross buns again this year - yum!

Bloggy inspiration - games and printables

I've been getting a lot of inspiration from other people's blogs lately. There are so many creative ideas out there! Here are a few of my recent favourites (some are spring and Easter themed):

• Story Stones from Inner Child Fun
• Foil mushrooms for a fairy circle from Filth Wizardry
• Sponge painting shapes from NutureStore
• Coloured wooden eggs from The Wonder Years
• Spring sensory tub from No Time for Flashcards (I keep meaning to make a sensory tub. I love the idea of using birdseed, so I'm not wasting food! Whatever spills on the grass or deck will just be eaten by the birds!)
  

I'm also trying to create a good stash of printable activities to have on hand for when I'm exhausted from the new baby, but want to teach C with some fun new activities (or have someone else teach her while I'm napping!). Here are a few samples:

• Exercise ABCs, originally from Homeschool Share
• Tracing shapes from Coloring Castle
• Chick and nest math game from Itty Bitty Bookworm
• Chicks in egg game from Tired, Need Sleep
• Easter egg number matching from Confessions of a Homeschooler
  I also downloaded the entire Letter of the Week Preschool Curriculum, and it's fantastic!

Feel free to link up your favourites in the comments - I love seeing what's on everyone else's radar!

Simple St. Patrick's Day fun

 

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day a day late this year, but it seemed a shame to let the holiday go by without commemoration!

We listened to Irish and Irish/Newfoundland music all day, and learned about the history of St. Patrick's Day through this cartoon on YouTube (Oh, how I love YouTube).


  We ate green snacks: leftover sugar cookies from the freezer, spread with icing and topped with green sprinkles, and green Jell-o later in the day.

We had a colour hunt, which C waned to do again. I think we'll try this another time with a different colour! I hid (in plain sight) a few green items to get her started, and we walked around the house collecting more items and putting them inside a green canvas bag. Afterward, we took an inventory!

Later in the day, we did some very simple artwork using different shades of green.

I hope you all had a fun day!

Bowling in our hallway

This one should be added to the Super Simple Activities posts!

• Super Simple Activities for Lazy Days
• Super Simple Activities for Busy Days

A couple of days ago C and I were listening to The Bowling Song by Raffi, and she announced that she wanted to bowl too! After some trial and error, we set up a bowling lane in our hallway.

You will need:

• Paper towel tubes
• Ball

That's it - it can't get much easier! I closed the doors in our hallway so the ball wouldn't go astray. I started out using yogurt containers for pins, but they were too stable - I needed something wobblier. Since this was our first time, we used a beach ball, but I think we'll try a smaller Nerf ball next time. I need a few more paper towel tubes too.

Super simple activities for busy days!

As I've mentioned before, Hubby and I have been very busy and feeling kind of stressed lately. Although I feel like I should be doing more planned learning activities with C, we haven't been doing many, as I've been trying to squeeze in a lot of errands and work before I leave on my trip to Ottawa tomorrow.

We all have those days (or weeks, or more) sometimes, so I thought I'd share a few super simple, low-prep activities we've been done:


Measuring
C is fascinated by measuring tapes. We measure everything - toys, books, people... here you see her measuring Little People. On this day, she ran back and forth from the kitchen to the living room, bringing in Little People one by one to be measured, and she put them all in a big semi-circle. She must have brought in almost 30! It gave me tons of time to make dinner!

Rolling coins
C's piggy and froggy banks were full (and heavy!), so we rolled all of the coins this week. Hubby and I did most of the rolling, but she was entertained for quite a while with filling up a roll and emptying it over and over again! When her banks get a few more coins in them, I think we'll fill up a basin and wash them!

Watercolour painting
A classic low prep, low mess activity. Look, no paint shirt!

Dominoes
Just don't expect to get a whole design set up! We normally just line them up and knock them down, although we sometimes do some matching.

Dress-up
In our house it's mostly about hats, but necklaces, receiving blanket dresses and C's Little Red Riding Hood cape are popular too.

Beanbag toss
Toss beanbags into a basket from various distances and locations, and count them as you go. Parents have to try, as do favourite stuffed animals and dolls!

Cooking
Well, cooking isn't actually low prep or low mess, but making peanut butter sandwiches is!

Playdough
Shape it, cut it, roll it, and use cookie cutters! C had a great time making up stories about Alice the Mouse the other day (but I had to keep reattaching her ears and nose!). This is my favourite playdough recipe.

Sorting cards
I must remember to stick a pack of playing cards in my purse!


Laundry Basket pretend
Never underestimate the power of a laundry basket paired with a child's imagination. This week, our laundry basket has been a crib, a train, and on this day, Nova Scotia! We flew all around the house to different places. The basket was Nova Scotia, the nook between the loveseat and end table was Quebec, PEI was her bedroom... what an imagination!

If you like these ideas, also check out Super simple activities for lazy days!

Four tips to a more enjoyable winter

Hate the cold? Join the club! But here in Canada, I have to make the most of it, because I can't hibernate all winter (especially now that I have a child - Mommy Guilt sets in)!

Read my guest post on Because Babies Grow Up for Four Tips to a More Enjoyable Winter, especially written for those of us who aren't snow bunnies!

"I’ll admit it; I don’t like winter very much.

I could happily hibernate for much of the season, but my February-born little girl is finally embracing her birth month and has been having a lot of fun in the snow this year. So, I’m trying to give us some more active time outdoors. Here are my tips on making winter more enjoyable for those of us who aren’t snow bunnies!..."

... continue reading at Because Babies Grow Up ...

Time for games again!

We were so busy over the holidays that we didn't do many new learning activities at home. Outings, cooking, puzzles, books and songs were about it, so it's time for me to introduce a few new games for C!

Yesterday we made shapes with popsicle sticks. I've seen this on quite a few blogs, and figured it was a quick and easy way to make a new game! C caught on really quickly, but the camera battery was dead at the time, so I didn't get a picture of her playing.


Some other plans:

• Making more recognizable things for C's felt board (more than just the basic shapes we have now)
• Spelling (she can spell a few words unassisted, and a few with help sounding out the letters. I figure I'd better go with this while she's interested!)
• "Painting" snow with coloured water in a spray bottle
• Tracing letters
• Music practice (we started a music class last week and learned some rhymes and exercises to practice)
• More practice on the balance beam, and practice jumping
  

On the jumping note, does anyone else have a child who can't jump?C is almost 3 years old, and she can't seem to master the mechanics of jumping. She'll get right up on her tippy toes and think she's jumping, but nope! Not even on the trampoline at gymnastics class. She can balance and stand on each foot, and her doctor thinks her coordination is fine otherwise, but she just hasn't figured out jumping yet. Any ideas for jumping practice (but not on the bed)?

Children's activity envelopes

There are so many great printable activities online, but keeping paper organized is an ongoing challenge for me. While my own piles of paper are towering (I need a solid 24 hours to dig out our office!), I'm making headway with C's paper games. One way I keep things organized is by using activity envelopes.

Whenever I print or draw a game or activity, I laminate it, cut it out, and put it in an envelope. If it already has a picture or visual directions, I print that; otherwise I take a photo, print it and tape it to the front of the envelope. Then I put the envelopes in a magazine holder on my shelf. Voila, organization!

Two of my favourite sites for printable activities are File Folder Fun and Montessori For Everyone.

This post is part of Works-For-Me-Wednesday at We Are THAT Family.

November, so far...

What we've been up to lately...

Making poppies (kind of!) for Remembrance Day:

Sorting with Mickey:
Learning patterns with Mickey (I love the Disney paint chips from Home Depot - they're cute and colourful, and no cutting or laminating are required!)

Spelling (with cards, on the fridge, and in songs). By herself, C can spell her name, her Dad's name and "mop" (thanks to the song "Rag Mop" on her new favourite CD, Jazz For Kids). She's doing really well with letter sounds too, so we should do some more games with that while she's interested!

Making our own stickers - and this is inevitably what happens whenever we play with stickers!

And baking! We started our pre-Christmas baking a couple of days ago. We've been listening to Christmas music, which has increased C's interest in Santa Claus, so we broke out the Christmas books too. This is unprecedented for me - usually I'm a not-before-December kind of gal! Speaking of baking, I went to a Pampered Chef show last night - they have such nice kitchen gear!

 
We have totally cut out C's naps due to unusual bedtime crankiness recently, and things are going much better (although Mummy is very tired by the time 2 or 3pm rolls around!).

That's all for now!

Super simple activities for lazy days!

I'll admit, sometimes I just feel like being lazy. I use the slow cooker, put as many dishes as possible in the dishwasher, and don't feel like getting out paint or lots of supplies for activities for C. During the summer we traveled a lot, and when we were home we spent a lot of time outdoors. When we were inside, I just didn't feel like I had a lot of energy for activities (as evidenced by my lack of posts on the blog!). On some of those days, here are a few super simple, low-prep activities we do:

Sorting
My gal loves to sort. Mostly by colour, but also by shape and size. Alphabet letters have always been a big hit, and recently she's been into my button jar and a jar of beads.

Putting
Daddy's trying to raise a future golfer! Our putting machine (kind of like this) is a hit, and we have a nice long hallway to keep the balls contained! I remember my brother and I spent a lot of time rolling balls into my Dad's machine when we were young - it was fun to watch them roll back at us!

 Bead Designs
C loves Mardi Gras beads, but she doesn't wear them very often. She prefers to sit on the floor and watch me make letters and shapes with them. She'll tell me what to make, or I'll make it, and she'll guess what it is.
Shapes are fun because we can jump back and forth in them!

Beanbag Toss
Throwing beanbags into a basket is also a fun and easy activity. I just stick a piece of masking tape on the floor for C to stand on - otherwise she stands right over the basket! I keep moving the basket farther and farther away (until she gets frustrated and asks me to move it back!). If you don't have beanbags, just use small stuffed animals. Beanie Babies and Happy Meal sized toys are perfect!

Spelling
C is also very into spelling right now, and we use alphabet letter fridge magnets to spell our names, and any other word she can think of. We're working on identifying letter sounds, but some of them are tricky (especially vowels)!


So those are a few things I do when I want to be a good Mom, but I feel too tired or lazy to organize a big activity or craft! What super simple activities do you do when you're having those days?

If you like these ideas, also check out Super simple activities for busy days!

Artwork with Cheerios

...is not always productive. She got in a snack though!


The Cheerio octopus printable is from Making Learning Fun.

Coffee Filter Butterflies

We've been potty training this week, so I've been keeping C upstairs on the hardwood floor and away from the carpet downstairs. To keep us busy, we've been doing a lot of crafts, and this was a fun one that we did a couple of days ago. Here was the finished product:

Supplies:

• coffee filters
• paint & paintbrushes (we used watercolours)
• pipe cleaners

All you need to do is paint the coffee filters (C did about 5 and she spent lots of time on them!), let them dry (30 minutes out on the deck did the trick for us), then twist a pipe cleaner around the middle of each coffee filter to make the body and antennae of the butterfly. Voila - butterflies! C and her bunny Stanley (à la That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown) had lots of fun playing with them that night.

By the way, C's face paint was done at a multicultural festival earlier in the day. Isn't it cool?!