Sponge Fun

This summer we picked up some packages of sponges at the local dollar store. The initial reason for getting them was to cut them up into strips so we could use them as a "quiet" building tool to make towers. But, it didn't take too long before the girls took them and made long lines, put them in piles, and then took off with them to their play kitchen for some cooking. I was able to corral them for a little bit to do some counting, sorting, & patterning. Then, they were off again! Sometimes I find a random sponge piece under the couch or stuck in a shoe..... I guess the main point is do not underestimate the power of the sponge! Oh, and I almost forgot to mention the water ball sponges too. You have to try it while the weather is still warm, or I guess you could toss them in the bath! Just check out the pics and links below.

Here is where we got our inspiration for building towers and sponge balls.
I'm sure as you surf the web and pinterest you'll find lots of ideas too! (and different types of sponges that you can use). Yes, please send more ideas my way and have fun!

Sorting

Patterns

     

Building

Water Sponges

Coupon Cutting Tots

2 Girls + 2 Pairs of scissors + expired coupons = busy fun time

Here is my new version of coupon cutting....

Break out the kid scissors and let the kiddos have at it. Of course I tried to guide them about cutting on the lines to work on some fine motor skills, but who was I kidding. They cut and cut and cut to their little hearts content. It was fun just to watch them cut strips of paper, cut adds, cut pictures they liked. Be prepared for a little bit of mess, but for me it was well worth it. I even held back a pile of coupons/adds to save for another "rainy" day. I'm sure you could could have them cut out specific things like, colors, letters, numbers, fruits, veggies, animals, etc. We've done that before, but I didn't even feel like getting out the glue to make a collage. Maybe we'll try that next time.....

Let me know how it turns out for you!

10 Easy Sensory Bin Ideas

Over the past year, I've been keeping my 2 & 4 year old busy with a sensory bin (well, now they are 3 & 5)! My husband brought home a large blue plastic container from work, and I thought, "the kids will have fun with this." I don't think that was his original plan. Really, you could use any type of plastic container.

Here are some things we've tried or will be trying. I try to usually pick things that are simple, cheap, and not too messy. Despite my best efforts, there is inevitably a mess of some sort. Of course, we do things like water & sand outside when the weather is nice. This is also nice for days that are too hot or too cold.

I don't usually have a theme, because I'd never get it organized on time and sometimes we keep it out for a day or sometimes a few weeks at a time! I'm sorry I don't have pictures of them all right now (working on that!). You can add any spoons, bowls, cups, toys, etc. that your kiddos might like. I think you'll find that your kiddos will get creative with it all on their own. Have fun!


1-pom pom balls

2-dry noodles

3-dry beans

4-plastic eggs & grass

5-popsicle sticks

6-water (snow in the winter, bring indoors)

7-cotton balls

8-sand

9-leaves (real or fake)

10- nut & bolts


Do you have any more ideas for a sensory bin? Please send them my way!

Top 10 Link-up with Many Little Blessings

10 Apps On Our iPad Right Now

Our iPad is shared by the whole family, so we have a variety of apps on it. Here's just a few that we use pretty often these days! (in no particular order)

1-Pandora (we like our music stations)

2-Netflix (movies at the touch of a finger)

3-Angry Birds Space & Star Wars (is there such a thing as too many angry birds ?)

4-Cookie Doodle (make & design cookies .... less mess & low calorie :)

5-Pinterest (why not? easy access to my recipes)

6-Chicktionary (fun word making)

7-Make it Pop (pop objects to practice letters, counting, colors)

8-Monkey's Lunchbox (early learning concepts)

9-Math Ninja (fight a killer tomato & do some math)

10-Toddler Alphabet (sing abcs, trace & identify letters)

What apps are on your iPad or iPhone? Any recommendations?

Top 10 Link-up with Many Little Blessings

10 Ideas for Do-A-Dots (aka Bingo Stampers)

Several months ago, I printed some alphabet pages for my girls (3 & 5). I thought they would enjoy abc stamping, so I found some bingo stampers at the dollar store. You can order Do-A-Dot markers online too, but we are sticking with bingo stampers for now.  Since my girls enjoy using them so much, I starting searching for other activities we could do using the stampers- here's what I came up with. There are lots of great sites out there with activities & printables. Check out the links below.

1- Do-A-Dot ABC pages
Make sure to scroll down to find this download.

2- Alphabet Mazes
You can stamp on the letters (or use stickers, color, etc.)

3- Stamping Games
Create your own bingo game and/or practice letters or numbers with these blank printables

4- Make patterns
Red, green, red, green.  Blue, blue, orange..... you get the idea.  Kids can make their own, or you can make some for them to copy.

5- Create your own picture
Grab some stampers, paper or paper plates and get creative

6- Dot Counting
Roll the dice and stamp the correct color & number

7- Bingo Dot Art
A collection of printables from DLTKs for seasons & holidays

8- Art Ideas
Ideas for fingerprint art and crayon resist art using stampers

9-Addition & Subtraction
Take a break from paper & pencil work and use some stampers instead

10- Do-A-Dot Activity book
There are books available to purchase to use with do-a-dot markers/ bingo stampers

I know there are more ideas out there. Please share!

Top 10 Link-up with Many Little Blessings

10 Sensory Bottle Ideas

I just made some sensory bottles for the kiddos this week. I found many ideas out there so I thought I'd share a few. We ended up using glitter & food coloring, dice, ribbon, plastic squares, and beaded necklaces. I also found VOSS water bottles at our local Kroger store. The labels were easy to peel off too, but you could use any kind of bottle you like!

Here are some things you probably already have around the house that you could put in the bottles.

1-glitter
2-curled cut ribbon
3-dice
4-bead necklaces
5-plastic beads
6-small pebbles
7-little Legos
8-plastic buttons
9-foam shapes
10-oil

I'm sure you could even mix & match some thing too. Try sand & pebbles, or food coloring & oil. We also found some little plastic frogs, colored paper clips & a few other things we wanted to try, but we ran out of bottles. Is there such a thing as too many bottles? I think I'll have to limit myself, but these would be great inexpensive gift ideas too! Oh, make sure that when you are happy with the bottle, glue the cap on.

Check out these links for even more sensory bottle ideas!

The Jandernal Journal- sensory bottles

Pink Pistachio- sensory bottles

Southern Thomas- discovery bottles

Meet The Dubiens- I Spy bottles

If you have any more ideas, please pass them my way! 

Top 10 Link-up with Many Little Blessings

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, BLUE Fish......(part 2)

Here's a few activities we did last week to go along with the Dr. Seuss book, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.  (Better late than never, right?) We kept it very, very simple, plus I still didn't get to do everything I planned. I have a small collection of Dr. Seuss activities on my pinterest board too.

Also, as a side note, our BLUE beta fish is still alive & swimming! And no one has stuck any goldfish in the tank yet either!

Goldfish Sorting

Simple sorting. The possibilities are endless though. Sorting & eating was enough for us

Sorting & Eating, Eating & Sorting

Blue Jello Snack

We made a batch of blue Jello and stuck in some Juju fish (from Kroger).

Yummy! (see helpful link below)

Simple Girl Blog- Dr. Seuss snack 

More Juju Fish Fun

Patterns

Sorting (again)

 Paper Plate Fish

I would recommend using small plates, but we did large because that's what we had. Painting anything with q-tips is fun and you can just toss when done!

Paint & Q-tips

Painting the plate

Here, fishy, fishy.

One fish, two fish, red fish, BLUE fish...... (part 1)

We just recently got a new brilliantly BLUE beta fish at our house. Sadly, we needed to give away our dog, so to ease the transition we bought a fish.  Of course, when we went to the pet store the kids were attracted to every animal except the fish! But, we remained strong and came out of the store with one beta fish in one small fish bowl (the bowl does have a cool color changing LED light though). Having a pet is always interesting with three kiddos. I have a feeling some interesting things might happen. Here's what I've been pondering...

1) Will the bowl get knocked over, or how long before it gets knocked over?
2) Who will be the first to stick a toy through the hole in the lid?
3) How long before my 2 year old feeds the fish her snack?
4) When will the bowl get hit by a flying nerf bullet? 
5) Will they forget we even have a fish?
6) How long will this fish live? Can we find a look-a-like?

All of you parents know what I'm talking about.....
 

I'm also a big fan of Dr. Seuss, you know his birthday is March 2nd. (March 2nd- Read Across America Day ) I thought I'd post a few fun ideas & some links as a tribute to this brilliant author whose work has never been matched! I'm sure you'll find an abundance of ideas this week all over the internet! To keep my life simple and because I can never get everything done that I plan for, I'm just gonna stick with one book- One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and do a few activities with my 2 & 4 year old. You'll have to stay tuned for more..... See you again very soon! 

From LMNOP to L - M - N - O - P

Today's menu special:  Now I Know My ABCs

How do you move from singing the ABCs with your toddler or preschooler to helping them learn to recognize & write the ABCs ?  I've always been highly interested in early literacy, and I used to get asked often from parents about what they can do at home with their kiddo. There are so many ideas out there it almost gets overwhelming. But, here's one quick resource that I think you'll like.  I hope you'll join us on this "literacy adventure".

I was browsing the internet looking for ideas for alphabet fun for my little ones (ages 2 & 4) and I ran across this site. I thought I'd share this find with you, especially if you have a little one learning the ABCs. It has almost everything listed that I could think of myself, including ABC read aloud suggestions, so rather than retype that all- here's a quick link.

I personally prefer more hands-on type of activities at this age to expose the kiddos to the alphabet. Pencil & paper can come later.  As you know though, no two kids are the same, so I'll think you'll like the variety of activities.  Hope it's fun & helpful.

PreKinders- alphabet practice ideas

You probably have a lot of these items sitting around your house already, or would be easy & cheap to pick up @ the Dollar Store. (ex. magnetic letters, shaving cream, clothes pins, abc stickers, divided trays, burner covers to use for sand writing, paper plates, bags, ...... the list could go on.....)

Since you know I also like music AND it's a great memory device for kids too,  I just had to include a few of my favorite fun ABC songs. Feel free to dance along or make up some ABC actions (I won't peek, I promise)!