Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

Avengers Party Food

My Adorable, now 5 year old, wanted an Avengers party for his 5th birthday! So I asked,” What kind of food would you like that would be like Avenger food?” He said “Healthy food, because, super heroes need to eat healthy to be strong!” Melt my heart! So here is what we came up with:)

I found coloring pages online and my 5 and 6 year old colored them. I wrote what they said but we came up with the foods together:)

This first one cracked me up because it was his idea but I couldn’t think of a clever way to serve cheerios. I later I thought it would have been cute to make rice crispy treat with cheerios instead:)

Cheese and crackers

You can’t see it but there is avocado dip in a bowl:)

Fruit

Bennie wienies with veggie hotdogs and veggie beans.

The dip was made by blending low fat cottage cheese and a ranch dip seasoning packet together in a blender:)

Making Letters with an Abacus

Random thing Caden(6) decided to do and I thought it was cool:)

Corn pulling Extended

Earlier in the month we had an activity where the children pulled dried corn kernels off of a cob. The kids(especially the younger ones 2-3) loved it! I extended this by adding tongs and various containers.

BIG HIT!

Organizing Legos Sets

My son(6) loves Lego sets! We have a big collection of “Bricks” but he also has quite a little collection of sets. He has been complaining that he can’t find pieces and they turn up under the table or with another set. I knew we needed a new solution so him and I sat down and talked it out. Here is what we decided.

Overview of his school shelf

Top(display shelf) Middle(Art shelf) Bottom(Lego set storage)

 

Display shelf is where he puts COMPLETE sets. There are NO loose pieces allowed on this shelf.

This is what it looks like in the bottom shelf. That blue thing is his Lego work tray and it came from a Melissa and Doug magnetic boy toy.

Each set is in it’s own Zip Lock bag(some gallon, some quart-all freezer style because they hold up better) with the directions and the plastic tub has his little mini figure extra guys.

Even if the set is displayed on the shelf there is still a bag for it with the directions and any extra pieces.

So here it is step by step!

Step 1

Pick a set and sort piece out into the work tray(so they don’t fall or roll away). Use the directions to start building.

Step 2

Display the finished set on the shelf when you are done playing with it. This way it is safe and will be there when you are ready to play again:)

Step 3

Put the directions and the extra pieces in the storage bag.

Step 4

Put that bag and the work tray into your storage basket on the bottom shelf.

Why I love this-

• He is less frustrated
• he is more careful and proud seeing them displayed on the shelf
• If he isn’t finished with something, he can still put it in the bag half done to finish later
• If his  display shelf is full then he needs to take some apart before building new ones. This encourages more building and rotating!

I can’t say we will keep it like this forever because I am sure he and his brothers will collect many more over the years but this is working great and I do have a plan for when the collection grows:)

Kindle Fire Apps!

I love my kindle fire for me and the kids! I love the parental control settings that keep my kids(and bank account) safe! I love the bright clear and easy to use screen! I love the tons of educational and fun apps for my kids! I thought I would share some of our favorites! I am not compensated by amazon or these app developers in any way! These are just my honest opinions!

We love Monkey School Apps! They have 3 right now. Monkey Preschool Lunch box is great for kids 2-4 with some help for the little ones. Then there is Monkey Math School and our favorite Monkey Word School! It is AWESOME I  love that it is customizable to my kids skill levels and it can have 3 sign in names!!!! All three of their games are awesome!!!!

Another that we love is the Starfall apps! We have The reading one and it is just like the website but even better because it is all in one spot and I don’t have to worry about them clicking on other things they shouldn’t! This would be good for ages 2 to 7 because you can still read the stories to the little ones and there are fun little movies and games that they could watch.

We also Love Alphatots and Tallytots! My 2 year old and 3 1/2 ear old love these! They learn all about letters and numbers in a really fun way. My kids have had these for 6 months now and still go back to it over and over!

My Baby is 6!!!

HE chose Cheerios for breakfast and I always make their birthday breakfast special! So I sliced some bananas up and stuck 6 candles in them! Sprinkles finished it off! He loved it! He had a great Birthday and he has been having so much fun homeschooling this year! He is so helpful and kind. He is always playing and creating! I love this boy with all of my heart!

My sister made him this awesome ironman cake! No fondant! She is amazing!

Corn Kernel Pulling

We recently took a little field trip to a park and they had just harvested a field of corn! The kids loved running in it! We were lucky to find a few dried out cobs so we took them home. I set up this work on the shelf- a cob and a bowl. Pretty simple:) Ally(28months) is working in these pictures but all of the older kids loved it too. They could stop whenever they wanted and then another child would pick up where they left off:)

Yank

“Plink”

I love her focused little face!

Great fine motor work!

Fall Spooning Work

All of these items were from the dollar store. Simple and beautifully FALL!

Fall Counting Work

This is how the work looks on the shelf.

Use the tongs to set up the cubes and then use them to set one forest animal on top of each block.

The child can count as they go and trace the sand paper 9 as well.

Fall Cleaning

Before it gets to cold around here I have the kiddos get out their buckets and rags and give some of our paly equipment a good scrub down!

The kids love it and I love all of that Summer time dust and dirt get cleaned off!

Remember to use a soap that is safe for the kids to handle! I used my organic dish soap in a pail of water. I cut and old dish towel in to quarters for them to use.

“My Heart is a Zoo” Book and Activity

We read this really cute book this week! The kids were so impressed with the way the illustrator used hearts to make all of the animals!

We had to try it for ourselves! I cut a bunch of hearts out and broke out the glue sticks!

The kids made such cute little animals! They finished them off with black markers:)