All posts in Infants and Toddlers

All About Queen Esther {Preschool Homeschool}

By | February 22, 2013 | Holidays and Events, Infants and Toddlers, Preschoolers, Purim | No comments
Esther

This week, we’ve been celebrating Purim (the official date is February 23rd this year)!   The kids (preschool and toddler age) have been having a blast learning all about Queen Esther.  Here’s some of the activities we’ve been working on:

Monday: Introduction to Esther

Esther Coloring Page

 Coloring Queen Esther

Tuesday: Esther’s Beauty Treatments

For this day, I had two preschool age girls at the house, so beauty treatments were easy to pull off.  If you have boys, you might have to get a little more creative!

  • Nail Painting
  • Lotion on hands
  • Combing hair
  • Talking about taking care of our bodies
  • Esther was beautiful inside and out (people favored her because she was kind and polite)

Beautiful Queen Esther

 Beauty treatments fit for a queen!

Wednesday: Cast of Characters

Today, we talked about the different characters and acted out the story.  I was planning on making stick puppets from these figures, but the kids loved dressing up and acting it out themselves, so we stuck with that.  We also made graggers and listened to a 1 minute Queen Esther Story that I downloaded from Amazon.

  • More Esther Coloring Pages from “What’s in the Bible?”
  • Making Graggers of our paper plates
  • Listening to the story on audio

Queen Esther and Haman

 Queen Esther and Haman

Queen Esther: Gragger

Shaking the Graggers!

Thursday: In the Castle

  • Crown Craft
  • Sceptor Craft (find directions here)
  • Building a castle out of blocks

Playing with Blocks (4)

Friday: Summary and Review

  • Working on Memory Verse
  • What’s in the Bible Video (get coupon below!)
  • Acting out Story with Puppets or Dress-up (again)
  • Talking about Feelings (Mad, Embarassed, Scared, Happy)

 

Other Posts You May Like:

http://christianmommyblogger.com

For the Kids Fridays at SunScholars.com

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DIY Tie Dye Sheets {Toddler Christmas Gift}

By | December 19, 2012 | Christmas, Infants and Toddlers, My Thoughts, Parents | No comments

Our Christmas shopping is almost {almost!} completed and I wanted to add something homemade to the kids’ gifts.  For my three year old daughter, I decided to jazz up her bed sheets with some purple tie dye.  Want to follow along?

New-To-You Bed Sheets!

Abigail is almost three and she is starting to develop “favorites” only she doesn’t call them that.  She always refers to them as “her best”.  For example, she’ll say “Purple is my best color” when she really means that purple is her favorite.  Recently, she’s been quite obsessed with purple, and I wanted to get her some purple sheets.  The only trouble is we have WAY too many toddler bed sheets already, so decided to upcycle a few she already had!

Now, I should confess from the beginning: I have no idea what I’m doing.  I looked at a few tie dye posts I found via Pinterest and even watched a video on Youtube where some guy kept talking about owl spit and the importance of heat.  I also read the directions on the RIT dye, but they all seemed to advocate for different methods, so I just kind of guessed.  Sounds like a recipe for disaster, huh?  Well, stick around and see!

To begin, I laid the sheets out flat (well, as flat as a fitted sheet can lay) on a too-small counter and put a wooden spoon in the middle.  I spun the spoon in order to twirl the sheet up into a hurricane design.

After the sheet was all twirled up, I placed rubber bands around it to hold it in place.

I found an old bucket left over from summer fun at the beach and dumped the packets of RIT dye powder in it.  I added some salt because one of the sources said to do that.  Can’t hurt, right?  Right?  Did I mention I have no idea what I’m doing?

I placed the wrapped sheets (I also did a pillowcase) one at a time into the bucket.  Leaving it in the dye for about 10 minutes on each side.  Well, that was the plan, but I did leave one sheet in for a significantly longer time while I left to go deliver dinner to one of our church families.  Focus is not my strong suit.

After being in the dye, I placed each sheet inside a plastic bag.  Now, none of the sources said to do this, but we did do this when we tie dyed at our VBS this year, so I thought it would be a good idea.  You’re supposed to leave the material in the bag for 24 hours, but……….

I got anxious to see how they turned out, so I opened up the bags after about 5 hours.  That’s a pretty long time if you ask me.  Now, I wish I would have taken pictures at this point because the sheets were still white, but the hurricane design was very purple.  I was kind of hoping for more purple, but I liked the design.  Anyway, the camera was ALL THE WAY upstairs, so you’ll just have to imagine this step.

Next, I washed the sheets twice without any soap.  So, I guess I just rinsed them.  But I used a washing machine, so it seemed like I was washing them.  After they were done being rinsed, all of the sheet was purple and the hurricane design was dark purple, so that was perfect for me!  Just what I was hoping for!

To the dryer next and then finally onto the bed to see how they looked.  Pretty cute, huh?

What About You?

What kind of DIY gifts do you make for your kids?  Leave me a comment and tell me all about it!!

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Truth in Tinsel: Week Two

By | December 10, 2012 | Christmas, Elementary Age, Holidays and Events, Infants and Toddlers, Parents, Preschoolers | 2 Comments
Truth in Tinsel

We’ve been loving Truth in Tinsel this year.  My {almost} three year old can remember the stories and loves retelling the day’s adventure to her dad each night at dinner.  I love the fact that we’re focusing on Christ all month long instead of just rushing through the Christmas story on the big day.  Here’s a snapshot of all the fun we’ve been having!

Day Eight: Jesus is like the Rising Sun (Luke 1: 57-80)

We decided to adapt this craft a bit to make it easier for little hands.  If you look  closely, you can see the Bible reference across the bottom.  I also wrote “Jesus is like the Rising Sun” across the top after I took this picture.  If I were to do it again, I would write the Scripture and Title more to the inside and then cut triangles along the outside to make the plate look more a shining sun.   This project was a little abstract for my kids, but we did talk about how Jesus was the light of the world (again) and read through the book The Light of the World.  If you’re using the Jesus Storybook Bible, pages 184 and 190 are great for this lesson.

Day Nine: Joseph (Matthew 1:18-24)

For this one, we skipped trying to make a Joseph figure and used some Nativity “build-a-scene” stickers I had picked up from Oriental Trading recently.

As can be expected, the stickers were pretty poor quality and my 18 month old kept ripping all the people to shreds before they made it to the paper.  As a result, his Nativity scene looks a bit like a massacre!

The girls (both age 3) did a little better at keeping their people whole :)

Finished!

There are also a ton of printable Nativity characters you can use for this too (to make a puppet like Mary and Elizabeth).  Check My Little House, Making Friends, and Prepared Not Scared.

Picture taken from The Activity Mom

Day Ten:  The Dream (Matthew 1:18-25)

I appreciate the fact that making Joseph’s pillow is a no-sew project!  However, even the pipe cleaner method seemed to be a bit too taxing for our crew.  I had some scrap fabric in the craft drawer, so I had each kid pick out their material and then we cut it to about double the size of a pillow. I hot glued two edges (one was sealed by the fold) and then had the kids stuff cotton balls inside.  Once the pillow was filled, I hot glued the remaining edge.  Then we played out the scene from the Bible (again and again!).  We also made a matching blanket to complete the scene.

Every time we finished, Abigail (age 3) exclaimed, “Again!  Let’s do it again!”.  So again we would go!  About 4-5 times into it though, Joseph started singing a different tune.  Instead of getting up and listening to the angel — he would start saying “Go away, angel.  I’m very sleepy.”  Oops.  That’s not how the story goes!

Since we didn’t have a Joseph figure, we had to construct one from pipe cleaners real quick!

Day Eleven: Jesus (Matthew 1:18-25)

Now this project REALLY deviates from the Truth in Tinsel book.  We had been doing a Polar Express theme in our homeschool preschool.  We had made a “Name Train” to help the kids recognize their own name and so we just put Jesus’ name in the mix.  Jesus wants to ride the name train too!

Day Twelve: The Census

Okay, now we’re really getting off track!  I love the project for today, but I was kind of wanting to do that as a stocking stuffer for the kids, so I devised a different activity to talk about the census.  We lined up a bunch of Little People and animals and decided to count them using the Abacus.  My {almost} three year old has been struggling with her counting anyway, so this was the perfect activity for today!

That’s as far as we’ve gotten so far!  I better get a move-on if I want to stay ahead of the game!

What About You?

How are you enjoying Truth in Tinsel so far?  Leave me a comment and link up to your blog so I can check it out!

Don’t even tell me you haven’t bought the book yet!  There is still time!  Grab it here! 

 

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Preschool Christmas Party!

By | December 7, 2012 | Christmas, Elementary Age, Holidays and Events, Infants and Toddlers, Preschoolers | 2 Comments
Christmas (3)

Looking for something fun to do during the dreary days of winter?  How about throwing a Christmas party?  There are so many fun activities that go along with Christmas that planning a party is easy (and fun!).  Here’s some pictures from a recent preschool (sort of) Christmas party we had at the house.  The main activity was a craft from the Truth in Tinsel book and we added to the fun from there!

Everyone gathered around the table to create the crown from Day 2 in Truth in Tinsel.    This was a perfect activity for a wide range of ages — easy for the little hands and room for embellishment for the older kids.  Our oldest kid was in 2nd grade and our youngest was 18 months.   It was a blast!   If you don’t have the Truth in Tinsel book, you can find a ton of Christmas-inspired crafts on Pinterest or by doing a google search.  Of course, I would recommend you buy the book — it’s not too late to join in the fun!

Working hard on her crown.

Sisters working together!

Colors, Colors, Everywhere!

After we were done with the Truth in Tinsel project, the crafty juices must have been flowing!  Requests were made for markers, crayons, scissors, more paper, glue and all kinds of materials!  The kids made masterpiece after masterpiece.  Check them out!

We also played a game of PIN THE NOSE ON THE RUDOLPH.  Kids loved this one.  Even the tiny ones got in on the fun, sans blindfold of course!

Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer… had a bunch of shiny noses!

For this game, I printed off this coloring page for Rudolph, cut some noses out of red construction paper and used a scarf as a blindfold.  We wrote the kids names on the noses after they were placed so we could determine a winner!

After games and crafts, the kids ran around like maniacs for 1/2 an hour.  We ate some Christmas cookies of course.  We were going to make these candy canes out of pipe cleaners, but we ended up playing dress up instead.  Crazy kids!

What about you?  What kind of fun preschool parties have you had this season?

Leave me a comment and tell me all about it!

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Story Time in the Park: Bedtime

By | August 13, 2012 | Infants and Toddlers, Preschoolers, Summer Story Time | No comments

But I Don’t Want to Go to Bed!

If you’re a parent, you’ve probably heard that cry more than you’d like to admit.  Thankfully, when you’re at story time in the park, we’re only READING about bedtime.  No one actually has to go to bed!

Books We Read:

 We usually get our books at our local Erie library, so be sure to check your own branch for great story time books!

Making Quilts Craft:

I wanted to go with the monkeys jumping on the bed theme, doing something like a Monkey Paper Plate or an Easy Monkey Face, but Miss Anne said monkey faces creeped her out.  :)  So, we did a quilt craft instead, which turned out really cool.  The kids colored a quilt pattern (find links below) and then crinkled up the paper several times to make it nice and soft.  When we told them the final step of the project, the kids just stared at us in disbelief.  It didn’t take them long to really get into the crumpling and uncrumpling though!

Quilt Patterns:

What About You?

What’s your favorite bed time book?  Leave me a comment and let me know!
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What We’re Reading Wednesday

By | August 8, 2012 | Books, Infants and Toddlers, Preschoolers, Resources, Reviews | No comments
Stack of Books

What I’m Reading:

Everything by Mary DeMuth

This one isn’t released yet, but I’m part of a launch team and am loving the book so far! Especially now that I have the Easy Reader PDF app.  So much better!

Something More by Jean Grasso Fitzpatrick

I picked this book up at Erie’s annual “Great American Book Sale”.  You never know what you’re going to find, but for a quarter a book, it’s worth taking a gamble!  I’ve been inspired by Rick Warren to read some older books, and this one has proved to be full of good gems.  I’m four chapters in and I still can’t tell if this book is “Christian” or not.  The author talks about God a lot, the Bible quite a bit, but I’ve only seen “Jesus” once.   She does a lot of interviews with parents and talks about becoming more aware of spiritual moments that happy everyday.   This book is especially good for those parents who are feeling a bit run-down by the “ordinary” tasks of life, especially those caring for very young ones.  I’m still holding out my verdict, but it’s been encouraging so far.

Community by Brad House

I have been reading this book for months.  It was kind of a slow-start.  Once I hit chapter three, it was taking forever because I had to keep stopping to highlight.  Great insight for small groups in general and for kidmin small groups as well.

Be the Mom by Tracey Eyster

What can I say?  I’m a chronic over-commiter.  I need to read books that tell me do slow down, do less, and enjoy my kids more.  I don’t know what it is about the “busy-ethic”, but I do sometimes feel pressure to do more than I know is good for our family in order to “prove” I am a contributing citizen.  This book highlights some of the common traps moms fall into (including over-scheduling) and ways to work your way out of them and avoid them.  It’s not exactly compelling writing, but it is certainly worth a read.  I’ll be posting a full review in the next week or so!

Quitter by Jon Acuff

I’m constantly amazed by Jon Acuff.  First by his snarky humor on Stuff Christians Like (and in this book), and also by the incredible wisdom and insight found in the pages of this book.  My husband actually bought this book for our Kindle, but I started reading and can’t stop.  This is the book that keeps me up to all hours of the night.  Great stuff!

What My Toddler is Reading:

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear by Eric Carle

I don’t know why kids love these books so much, but they sure do.  I mean a whole lot.   Perhaps I will hide this book before bedtime tonight.

The Toddler Bible by V. Gilbert Beers

This is a regular feature at bedtime, but I thought it was worth another mention.  Read my full review here.   I have to add though, the more we read it, the more I like it.

What the Baby is Reading:

Old MacDonald Had a Farm by Lara Ede

My little monster scored this book at his recent birthday party and has been loving it.  The pages are all cut out so you can see animals peeking through and every page has something to touch and feel on it.  Very cute!  Worth buying for your own collection.

Baby Loves Summer by Karen Katz

My chipmunk daughter received a Karen Katz book for her 1 year old birthday party, and we’ve been big fans every since — picking up books at garage sales and book sales whenever we see them.  I just spotted this little gem at the library, so of course we had to bring it home.  I don’t know what it is about lift-a-flap books, but this one sure holds the little ones’ attention!

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