Trick Or Treat

Trick Or Treat!


We had a great Halloween. Jada finally got the whole deal with trick or treating. it took a few houses but very quickly she learned that if she showed her bucket people would give her treats. A very nice older lady gave her 4 chocolate bars!! She refused to wear her hat and as you can see she fell on her knees. She was a trooper and trucked on. We did about 6 houses and headed home.
Now time for bed:)
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!

Halloween Party

Jada as Uniqua from the popular children's show The Backyardigans

Please note those are not dirty socks. She has her Robeez on and the bottoms are scuffed up.
Our Class Ink

Our Class Picture

Some of the grub


What a great party. Honestly, I think it's the best one we have had! can't wait til next year!!!!

MoNsTeR SlImE AnD DiRt AnD WoRmS

Monster Slime/Touch and feel without the mess!. I got this idea from a handout that i got from a children's activity workshop.
All you need is a clear plastic bag, hair Gel in your favorite color, and some google eyes. The instructions didn't say to use eyes but I thought they would go with this activity really well for Halloween.

Jada Roo was away yesterday visiting her Nannie so I didn't get any pictures of her doing this Dirt and worm activity. The older children had a lot of fun making it though. They especially liked licking the spoons!
And a special Treat for the Kaboose Readers. I wish I had a plaine T-shirt to try this out!

Making Crayons Fun

Crayons are a classic that have been around since I was a little girl. I have memories of my sister throwing them down the forced air duct. My mother ran around the house trying to figure out what that burning smell was lol.
This week I have been trying to clean out our storage bins of junk! lots and lots of junk. I can across a large box of unused cheep crayons. Jada also got a brand name box for her birthday but I have baned the non washable ones until she gets older. I don't think I have to tell you why!

Well back in my daycare working days we used to make our own crayons. I forgot all about it until I saw THIS, THIS, and my personal favorite from Smashed Peas and Carrots post. I think just about every daycare, homeschooling parent ,babysitter and grandparent have tried to make their own crayons at some point.

They look almost good enough to eat!

Yeah, she wasn't into it at all. Good thing her older friends thought it was the best thing since the invention of Silly Bandz

We used a silicon mold from the dollar store that has really cute Sesame Street characters.
I put them in the oven for about 10 minutes, just long enough for the crayons to turn to liquid. Then I carefully sat them ontop of the stove for 20 to 30 minutes until cool. Then I put them in the fridge for 10 minutes. Popping them out of the molds was very easy.

We also used our mini muffin tin for all the extra crayons. They turned out kinda pretty:)

These crayons will be used by Jada under very close supervision. I don't really want to scrub crayon off my walls again!

Make Your Own Felt Board

To Make a felt board you will need a large picture frame with the glass removed. You will also need a piece of felt that is cut slightly bigger than your frame. Center your felt onto the back of your frame just like if you were to put a picture in. My frame didn't have a solid back just another frame that fit into the front frame. Put your backing on and trim and excess felt. The tighter the fit the better. Mine needs to be centered again.
It should look like this on the back:


I find black is the best color for the felt on your felt boards as it makes the colors of your storey really pop. Sadly I didn't have any black. I plan to change the color out after Christmas.






And this on the front. Please ignore the nice brown spot. It needs a good washing!
And there you have it! a nice felt board that hopefully cost you next to nothing and took about 3 minutes to make, if not less time!


I know this is not your traditional felt stories but trust me laminated card stalk is much more durable. This is a what is missing game. To play what is missing you show the children all the pieces on the felt board and talk about each piece. Ask the children to close their eyes and take a piece away. Then ask the children what is missing.
*** A good tip that I can share from finding out the hard way! If you use painters tape of the backs of the laminate stories you won't have the awful sticky residue that other tapes leave behind.


As you can see the felt pieces look warren out. They are much loved and come out every fall. This is a ghost rhyme

And this is another what is missing game. The felt board is a huge part of our circle time routine. The children especially love the interactive stories and games. More on that in another post but in the mean time.......
Happy Felt boarding!

ETA: I will be doing a post each month about the felt board activities we will be doing along with the sensory bin and play dough.

SpIlLiNg BlOoD

This activity is out of one of my Montessori books that I got from the library. The blood part was my idea. Well red food coloring :)


Talk about messy! I don't recommend using food coloring with a first timer!



I learned my lesson and used water the second time she came to the table.






She is definitely right handed. Once she found the hand that felt the most comfortable she poured like a pro.

Where do I get My Ideas

The last thing I want anyone to think is that I copy right from their blog so I thought I better start by saying that WHEN ever possible I DO link back to the blog that I found the idea. I was thinking of posting something like this for a while now but a recent comment has made me feel defensive. It's sad really that I even have to defend how I write (speak) my blog posts. Sigh, Really this is silly because if you don't like what you see why not just move on.? The blog world is so huge I think there is enough room for all of us. I am not looking to have a huge list of followers or steal any ones lime light.
So here it goes........
Where do I get my ideas?
Now at times this is tricky as a lot of the time I write down the idea but not where I got it. It can drive a person crazy to try and figure out where all these ideas come from when the blog community is so huge and growing everyday. I decided to share some of my favorite blogs to find ideas, books, programs ect.


First I must say this:
My schedule is very flexible depending on the children's interests and moods/ energy level.
I don't follow one method of teaching. I did a whole post Here about Teach My Toddler. I can't say enough good things about this program.
I teach the way that works best for me, my child and our little friends.

I spend nap/quiet time searching for new ideas. I spend hours and hours each week searching blogs, books and the huge world that is the Internet.
I watch very little t.v. as a result.

Blogs I follow for inspiration

Totally Tots
My Montessori Journey
Counting Coconuts
Confessions of a Homeschooler
Itty Bitty Love

1+1+1=1
All About The Journey
Growing up our style
Pink and Green Moma
The Shafer Family (my favorite this week)
Wee Waldorf (she also has a fabulous Etsy Shop)
This list is growing everyday! I will be back often to add to this list

The Books

How to raise an amazing child the Montessori way ~ Tim Seldin
The Best Of Totline Flyers Book ~ No particular author
Toddler Theme Calendar~ Elizabeth McKinnon
Family Fun's crafts~Family Fun Magazine
Halloween Crafts~ Huguette Kirby
Halloween Activities~ Usborne
Toddler Busy Book~ Trish Kuffner
Again this is just a few many, many books out there for great ideas for toddlers.

MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE PLACE TO GET GREAT IDEAS IS
**GOOGLE** and **FLICKER**
and **PHOTBUCKET**
Seriously just type in what theme you are looking for and a bunch of sites and blogs and pictures are instantly listed.

Now as for Sensory Bin Ideas My favorite is Here
and HEREAnd of course google.

Where Do I find My materials
Oh boy that's a hard one because I find stuff everywhere! some of the many places include:

Around My home that I have saved over the years
Thrift stores
Etsy
Ebay
Michael's craft store
Yard Sales
Homemade
Hand Me Downs
The dollar Store
Donations from Day care parents
Nature (wood, rocks, sand, grass, shells, pine cones, acorns and more)

I think it is important for me to state that I started my blog in hopes of keeping track of my daughters growing years. That is my top priority! sorry if I lack in linking back to where I got my ideas/inspiration. Life is short and my days are busy. At times I throw a post together just so I can record the activity and have something to look back on when we revisit that theme or activity again. I think it is important to remember that any blog that posts about children's education puts the child's education first.
Well I guess that's it for now. I will probably come back and add some things later.

Halloween Family Picture And More Fun

Don't Forget To Enter For The Giveaway!!!!


Our Family Halloween picture for 2010





Let me just say that these costumes are not very flattering lol
Oh and yes I made our costumes this year:)


Watch the skeleton grow



Making Mr.Pumpkin Heads

I did not come up with this Idea. Some guy who sells the plastic pieces to Dollarama did lol.
I make some small holes ahead of time in the gourd so Jada could put her pieces in without too much trouble.














Pumpkin Carving




I caught a picture of the spoon in mid flight


ewwww pumpkin guts


My Sister, Kari took some beautiful shots of Jada Roo at the park.



I think I will use this one for Christmas cards.

HaPpY HaLlOwEeN

Sorry to leave you hanging on Friday. Did you guess what I was making? Here it is:

A Halloween Advent Calendar

You can see that I had extra unused muffin space that needed to be covered. Oh by the way #8 is my favorite!


A close up



Here you can see how I joined the two muffin tins together.

Please note that it was a super windy day that this picture was taken and the pieces kept falling off! Oh and it was threatening to rain on me lol
The embellishments are 3-D. Love them!



I wanted to make a Halloween one after buying
THIS Christmas one last year on Etsy. Thanks Kristy I love it!!! Oh and she now takes custom orders if you want a Halloween one too! I set out to find a way of doing one for Halloween. I googled til my hands hurt and found This really cute one. I also found This one on Flicker.
I decided right away that I wanted all 31 days for my advent calendar but didn't want it to look broken up by using 2 mini muffin tins. So I decided to ask hubby to drill some holes in both tins so I could attach them with some festive Halloween ribbon. Added a magnetic poster to the top to cover the unused muffin holes. That pumpkin in the middle is actually a Halloween card my dad sent Jada.
Here is an excellent tutorial on how to make your own. There are so many great tutorials and images out there for inspiration. You could also make Birthday countdowns, Easter, wedding, graduation etc.
This craft was a lot of fun to make I really enjoyed it. It was a bit expensive to make $30 for the materials (paper goods) and The tins were on sale at our local grocery store for $7.50 each. The muffin tins are a good investment because Jada will only eat mini muffins and I make at least 3 batches a week! a win, win situation in my opinion. Now that Jada is getting older I would like to do things that will be our family tradition just like every year we go apple picking, pumpkin picking etc. I want Halloween and Christmas to be remembered as a really fun time spent with mommy and daddy doing all kinds of fun stuff found in our advent calendar. Some ideas I had for each day of the advent are to place small pieces of paper in each telling you what craft, event or treat you can have each day.

Example:

Day 1 Read a Halloween book with mommy and daddy while snuggled up in front of the fireplace
Day 2: Listen to our creepy Halloween music CD
Day 3 :Decorate the house for Halloween
Day 4: Make ghosts from our feet prints
Day 5: Go pumpkin picking
Day 6: Try on our costumes to make sure we have all the parts needed for the 31st
Day 7: Make a Halloween themed eye spy bottle
Day 8: Make some Halloween cards for the grandparents and mail them
Day 9: Bake some pumpkin cookies
Day 10: Make a Halloween t-shirt
Day 11: Look under your pillow for a surprise (dollar store Halloween toy)
Day 12: Go for a walk with mommy and daddy and collect some leaves
Day 13: Make a Halloween frozen excavation
Day 14: Make a spider with our hand prints
Day 15: Go to the library and find some more Halloween books
Day 16: Make toilet paper mummies
Day 17: Play with our Halloween Play Dough and cookie cutters
Day 18: Halloween water play
Day 19: Do some Halloween rhymes
Day 20: Color a Monster Picture
Day 21: Halloween Sticker Collage
Day 22: Halloween colors painting
Day 23: Play in our Halloween texture bin
Day 24: Watch a Halloween Movie (kid friendly)
Day 25: Halloween Felt Stories
Day 26: bake Halloween Cookies
Day 27: Color a Pumpkin Picture
Day 28: Make funny Mr. Pumpkin Heads
Day 29: Carve our Pumpkin
Day 30: Bake Pumpkin seeds
Day 31: Go Trick Or Treating!!!!
I have also thought of putting little Halloween erasers, rings, smarties or m&m's in each day as well.
If anyone has any ideas for some things to add to my list please, please share them with me.
I plan to start doing this advent calendar next year as Halloween is almost here.
If you have made one for Halloween or Christmas I would love it if you would send me the link:)