Screen Free Activities

April 29 – May 5^th is screen free week. So here is a list of activities you can do instead of watching TV.

Basketball – This weekend we bought Thomas a basketball hoop from Little Tikes. It is one that will “grow” from 4 feet to 6 feet. It is honestly a little too tall for him right now, but he will grow. For the time being I can just put it farther in the ground and make him seem taller.

Sandbox – Last year my sister and I dug my son a sandpit. He absolutely loves it. And since next week is supposed to be nice, we will be spending some time in this as well as playing with the basketball hoop outside.

T-Ball – My brother bought Thomas a T-ball set for his birthday, and Thomas loves playing with it outside. Needless to say I don’t allow it to be played with inside. He doesn’t really understand the concept of T-ball yet, but he loves when he hits the ball and we chase him with it. Or if one of us hit the ball he runs and gets it, and then someone else picks him up and chases the batter. That’s a giggle fest. But it is also very tiring to run around a yard with a 30 pound weight who wiggles all over the place too.

Treasure Hunt – I still have a ton of plastic eggs left over from Easter that we will be hiding outside and finding.

Chalk

Gardening

Make a bird Feeder

Sprinkler – It if gets warm enough play in the sprinkler. Who doesn’t love running through cold water?

Go for a walk

Have a picnic

Bubbles – Thomas has a bubble gun that the Easter bunny left for him. He loves playing with it. But I have deemed it an outside toy since it leaves a bubble mess behind and it kind of drips bubble water because he doesn’t understand to hold it upright instead of pointing it at the ground.

Build a fort – If you have the means to build a tree house or an outside fort I’d say do it. It would make screen free week memorable. But for those of us who don’t, we can build forts out of blankets and pillows and couch cushions.

Puddle Jumping – This is one of Thomas favorite things to do. And since it has been kind of muddy and mucky outside we have been doing a lot of playing in the mud.

Read a Book – Or have a book challenge and see who can read the most books.

Perform a puppet show

Tea party – little tiny cups, with some kid friendly tea and tiny versions of food

Play Dough – have them help you make play dough and then have fun with it.

Bowling – You can go out to a bowling alley or make you own at home.

Dance – Introduce them to some of your favorite songs, or even music from various decades, and then clean up a room, turn the  lights down and dance away.

Play shop – or kitchen or whatever…

Craft with cardboard boxes

Indoor snow ball fight with socks

Pillow Jumping – Pile up every pillow in your house turn on some music and let the kids dive off of a bed or couch into the pile of pillows.

Finger knitting

Let them put makeup on you

Montessori Learning

I have seen a lot of things online about “Montessori education: and I honestly had no idea what that way. So I looked it up. According to Wikipedia Montessori education is characterized by an emphasis on independence, freedom within limits, and respect for a child’s natural psychological development.

Children are allowed to learn by choosing what activity they want to do to learn a certain subject, and they are allowed to learn by discovering rather than being instructed.

Here are some blogs that I have found that have Montessori learning activities.

 

http://livingmontessorinow.com/2013/01/07/montessori-monday-abcs-of-montessori-a-h/  She breaks it down into easy to understand ABC’s. Be sure to look around the site she has a ton of ideas for learning activities.

http://www.momshavequestionstoo.com/space-themed-montessori-tot-school-trays/  This site has some good ideas for toddlers and Montessori learning trays. I have had Thomas play with the tongs and cotton balls and he loved it. I didn’t know it was a Montessori activity though. I was just using it as a fine motor skills developing activity.

http://sulia.com/livingmontessorinow/f/e8473079-f4b7-486b-9b9b-be3c34adea6d/  She has free printables  

http://happyandblessedhome.com/montessori-preschool/  I love the set up she has for her Montessori preschool. I often debate on having Thomas be homeschooled or not.

 

http://countingcoconuts.blogspot.com/2011/07/faq-montessori-materials.html  She tells you which Montessori materials her son likes the most. Might be helpful if you’re looking into purchasing some and aren’t sure which ones to go with. – Free Printables

 

I would like to say a Thank You to all the bloggers that I have fetured here for their helpful information on Montessori learning. I hope everyone else finds them as helpful as I have.

Gardening with Thomas

April is National Gardening Month. So while there is still some of April left, have your kids help you plant a garden. Thomas and I have been working on our gardening outside. We have only really dug around in the dirt and experienced worms. He loved them, of course.

We are also trying to start some apple trees. We saved the seeds out of a couple of apples and planted them in a cleaned rotisserie chicken container. I saw online how you can turn one of these into a mini green house. So I thought it was worth a try. I’m slightly afraid that my lack of a green thumb will cause our apple trees to remain seeds in a bunch of planting soil, and never turn into anything. But if so, at the age of two maybe he won’t remember.

After we get all of our garden areas prepped and ready for plants and seed, we are going to go to town and pick out the plants. I plan on having Thomas help me pick them out from the look of the plants and from the pictures on the packages.

I honestly thought that having Thomas help me with a garden was just to help me occupy his time and maybe help his fine motor skills with all the digging in the dirt and what not. But after I started searching ways online to garden with children it turns out that it even helps them learn to focus for longer periods of time. WIN!

I plan on making him help me will all of the gardening – the soil preparations, the planting the plants and seeds, the weeding (we might have issues with this one) and the watering. Especially the watering. He loves playing with the hose and playing in the water.

Wish us luck on our garden… and hopefully I won’t kill it off before it starts to grow. Maybe…Just maybe…my little boy will have gotten a green thumb and not be a plant killer like his mom.

Library Week

April 14^th – 20^th is Library Week. I’ve been meaning to take Thomas down to our local library and get a library car. That way we can check him out a bunch of books every week, and I can save a little bit of money (and space) on his books. He loves reading books and I’m sure this is something he would enjoy.

But you can also visit libraries online. There are several children’s libraries that Thomas and I play on.  He likes playing with the computer and I like that I don’t have to carry around a ton of books when we go someplace. I can also get them loaded onto my phone when we are in the car and read him stories like that. That sometimes helps make a long trip more bearable.

1.       Have a book party – have everyone bring their favorite books over to share something out of them or everyone can barrow books from one another.

2.       Compile a book list – books you want to read or books you want to read to your child.

3.       Start a Journal or help someone else start a journal

4.       Organize and clean all of the books you have in your own home.

5.       Find and follow a good book blog.

6.       Buy or Sew yourself a new book bag.

7.       Enjoy a day at the library

8.       Find out what your local library offers – some even offer help on creating a resume

9.       Make a thank you basket for your local librarian.

10.   Read a story to someone

11.   Bring someone new to the library

12.   Volunteer at your local library

13.   Throw a party for the your local library – try raising donations for it

14.   Set up a reading nook for you or your children, there are all sorts of ideas online for a child’s reading nook

15.   Do you have any books you no longer look at or read? Donate them to a library.

16.   Design a poster that promotes reading

17.   Book flash mob – you can go someplace where everyone in the flash mob is reading, or dresses like a favorite book character, or hold signs promoting reading or the library, Afterwards host a party. Take pictures and submit the story to a local paper.

18.   Put on a play – The play could be anything from a scene from a favorite or well known book, to hanging out in the library or even all the things you can learn from books.

19.   Design some pictures promoting reading or the library or special books ect. and print them out on iron on paper. Iron them onto t-shirts and wear them around. You could also get craft and use permanent markers or fabric markers and draw directly onto the shirts.

20.   Take the time to read a new book

Enjoy!

Do you have any ideas on how to celebrate library week? What do you have planned?

Make a Boat - Boat Craft for Kids

After spending some time looking around online I found out that April 14^th is the anniversary of the Titanic hitting the iceberg and that inspired me to make some boats with Thomas. I’m sure right now there’s not much understanding of the whole meaning behind it, but we will still have fun making different types of boats and floating them around in the bathtub.

Now if you’re doing this for a classroom – which I think would be awesome – you could use a kiddy pool.

After spending some more time online looking at different boat crafts for kids I decided to put together a box of materials and let Thomas help me assemble the boats.

Boat # 1

Milk Carton
A Long Straw
One paper square
One paper rectangle 
Tape or Glue

Cut one long side of the milk carton off. Puncture holes in the paper and thread them onto the straw. Using either the tape or the glue secure the straw to the inside bottom of the milk carton. You could use a fan to move the boat or simply blow on it. You could have races or just simply show how wind is used to move some boats.

 

Boat # 2

Milk Carton
Wooden Skewers
Rubber Bands
Craft Sticks
Tape

Lay the milk carton on its side and cut off the top. Push two wooden skewers threw the bottom of the milk carton (or the back of the boat). Cut a craft stick to fit in between the wooden skewers. Puncture a hole into one end of a craft stick and threat a rubber band threw the hole and tie a knot in it. Slide the other end of the rubber band around craft stick #1 that you cut to put between the skewers. Make sure there is room for craft stick # 2 to move between the end of the boat and flip back around the craft stick # 1 . Secure craft stick  # 1 into place using the tape. Make sure you leave the majority of the rubber band out of the tape. Wind the rubber band around the taped craft stick # 1 until it has been wound tightly enough to spin when it is let go. Place boat in the water, release the rubber band propeller and watch it take off.

Boat # 3

3 Corks
Glue

Make a raft by gluing the three corks together and let it float around in the water.

 

Boat # 4

Milk Carton
Balloons

Cut the side off of the milk carton. Puncture a hole in the back (or bottom) of the carton. Thread the balloon threw the hole. Blow up the balloon and place the boat in the water. Let the balloon power the boat across the tub.

 

Have fun! We sure did.

Traveling With Toddlers

When you live in the boonies you end up doing a lot of driving. When you are only two the hour or more drive to get anywhere seems like forever. So I’m always on the lookout for new ways to entertain Thomas in a car ride.

1.       Portable DVD Player – Thomas loves watching movies. I like to take one of the DVD cases that have three or more CD slots in it. Thomas loves being able to choose which one he wants to watch – and if I pick it he won’t watch it. So I pack his favorites and when he decided he wants to watch a movie I’ll let him choose from what I brought.

2.       Magnetic Drawing Boards – Thomas absolutely loves these. He has wore out two already.

3.       Vtech Innotab – He loves this thing. He will sit and play all the different games that I have downloaded onto it, or he will listen to the downloadable books.

4.       Books - I usually end up leaving the house with at least 3 different books in our bag of junk. Thomas loves looking at them, and I’ve got the most of them memorized by this point. And so does he. He has started “reading” them to me.

5.       White boards with dry erase markers or crayons – I usually just have the crayons in the car, but Thomas absolutely loves the markers.

6.       Wind up bathtub toys – Sure they won’t go anywhere but they have pullies and cranks that help make them make a different noise. And for kids that’s interesting, at least for Thomas it is.

7.       Old Camera – I don’t know if this s the same for all kids but Thomas loves taking pictures and looking at them. If he doesn’t take them on his Innotab, I’ve let him use my phone, but I’ve started carrying around an old digital camera of mine and let him play with it. He loves it. He also loves to look at the pictures.

8.       Listening to Music – Thomas loves listening to music. But I don’t drive around listening to children’s songs. He listens to adult songs that are appropriate for small ears. He loves the beats. He sits in his little chair and wiggles around as much as he can to “dance”. To date his favorite song is “Call Me Maybe”. But he also really likes music from about the 50s or 60s. Elvis is one of his favorites.

9.       iPhone apps – if you have an iphone or anything else that can download apps, there’s a lot of free children’s apps out there right now. Just Google it and download some.

10.   Snacks – make sure you have a bunch of snacks. Pack items that you know you child will like eating. And little treats that they don’t get on a regular basis. For Thomas its suckers or other little junk food type items that he doesn’t usually get. But I also take a bunch of snacks I know he will eat, and have a healthier base to them. Sometimes it’s hard to get him to eat when it’s time to eat.

11.   New toys – Go to the Dollar store or any dollar section in the usual stores like Target usually has toys for fairly cheap. Kids are always excited to have new toys.

12.   Favorite blanket and stuffed animal – You always have to hope for a nice nap in the car. I also have some neck pillows for him. I hate looking back there and seeing his neck in a funky position.

13.   Quit Books – I’ve seen these all over the internet lately. I haven’t made one for Thomas yet but I’ve been planning one. You can buy some on Esty if that’s the way you would rather go.

14.   A child mirror – I just let Thomas hold it and look at himself.

I like to pick out a bunch of Thomas’ toys that he likes to play with a couple of days in advance. I pack them in a bag and put them out in the car. That way when it comes time to travel he isn’t already board with playing with the toys that I packed. And remember breaks are ok. You need them to stretch legs, run off energy, and change diapers or use the bathroom. Relatively just take a break from the car and get a little bit of fresh air. And sometimes cracking the window helps improve a cranky mood. Anyone can start feeling carsick at anytime. Have a safe drive.

7 sites for Free children’s ebooks

My son loves reading, or I guess being read too. But I hate traveling with tons of books. So I’ve been looking for sites that you can get free books online for him. Here is the list that I have come up with.

http://freekidsbooks.org/ 

http://www.magickeys.com/books/

http://www.smashwords.com/books/category/61/newest/0/free/any Make sure you are on the “free” tab. And a lot of these books are for older children, not necessarily my toddler. But still something I wanted to add to the list.

http://www.wegivebooks.org/

http://storytimeforme.com/

http://en.childrenslibrary.org/

http://www.brillkids.com/free-download/childrens-ebooks.php

Spring Activities

Spring is upon us and in my house we love getting outside and doing things that we we’re able to do during the winter.

1.       Play in the Sandbox.

2.       Start a garden – Thomas loves digging around in the dirt, and the Easter Bunny brought him some gardening tools that double as sandbox toys. We will be putting them to use.

3.       Have a picnic.

4.       Playing T-Ball – For his birthday Thomas received a T-ball set from his Aunt and Uncle. He absolutely loves taking it outside and swinging at the ball. He also loves it when you carry him around and chase someone down with it during a “game”.

5.       Ride his toy 4 – wheeler. There just isn’t room to ride it in our house so it’s a special treat to ride it around outside.

6.       Look at the baby animals – Living on a ranch provides us with the ability to walk down the road and look at all the calves. And he absolutely loves it. But I also like to take him to the farm store and look at all the ducklings and chicks that they have.

7.       Fly a Kite

8.       Puddle Jumping after it rains

9.       Go to the park

10.   Feed the birds

11.   Draw on the sidewalk with chalk

12.   Skip stones – I am horrible at this

13.   Eat fresh fruit and veggies

14.   Watch for rainbows

15.   Bird watching

16.   Catch bugs and attempt to keep them alive

17.   Dig for worms

18.   Go to a green house

19.   Go fishing

20.   Cloud Gaze – how many different shapes/images can you see?

21.   Make homemade paint, put it in ketchup/mustard bottles from the dollar store and let the kids paint stuff outside. When done wash away with the hose. Paint recipe – 1 cup water, 1cup salt, 1 cup flour, food coloring

22.   Make stilts from tin cans and string

23.   Make tin can phones

24.   Hopscotch

25.   Go camping

26.   Make a butterfly feeder

27.   Make bird feeders

28.   Plant flowers

29.   Water gun fights

30.   Collect rocks

Massage for Baby Gas Troubles

When Thomas was younger and sometime even now, he would suffer from horrible gas pains. Instead of just shoving him full of medicine I tried baby massage. He loved it. It not only helped when he was super gassy, but it helped relax him as well.  

Start with laying baby down on their back on a soft surface. I always just laid Thomas down on the bed. It might also help them relax because they’re surrounded by mommies scent. This is apparently naturally comforting for them.

You can use you regular baby oil or lotion, but you’ll want something to help you hands glide smoothly over baby’s skin. I tried to always do a quick massage time after his nightly bath to help him relax and go to sleep.

Most places will tell you to keep their diaper on, or to loosen it. That’s because when you’re doing some tummy massages if there isn’t something to catch the mess you will certainly end up cleaning one up. A lot of the gas massages help aid in the digestive process and can be used for constipation.

Start by rubbing the oil or lotion straight down from the chest to baby’s feet. Lay one hand palm down and rub down – ward. After the first hand gets so down to the feet, start with the other hand and keep doing this so you have a steady movement and slight pressure. This helps baby just relax and stretch out. If they’re too distraught to relax with this then you can start by pumping their legs. Uses a motion like they’re peddling a bike, or help them stretch their legs straight out and them push them up into their tummy/chest and repeat. You can alternate between them; I find that to be the most helpful.
Tip – It helps to talk to them in a soothing voice.

Next rub the tummy in a clockwise spiral motion. Starting at the bellybutton and working your way out. This is easier to do with a couple fingers vs. your whole hand. But I also find that if you just rub the belly with slight pressure and a flat palm in a circular motion.

I like to repeat each step a couple of times, say 5 times. And then repeat the whole thing for 5-10 minutes. It really depends on how long baby will let you massage.

Other things I like to do with Thomas when he is screaming about his tummy troubles are use something warm. It could be a warm washcloth, a warmed rice bag, or even a blanket warmed up in the dryer. The blanket is Thomas’ favorite. And I like to gently massage the sides of his tummy by using one hand and pinching the sides inwards and moving my hand in a slightly circular motion. You want to be super gentle with this one; you would really hate to hurt your baby. This is honestly something I learned from taking care of orphaned kittens. After feeding them you have to massage their bellies to help them digest their food properly. It’s something that their mother’s do by licking them to clean them after a feeding.
I remembered it one night when Thomas was only a couple weeks old. I tried it right after a feeding and then proceeded to burp him. And sure enough a couple minutes later there was a full diaper in need of changing.

What are some things that you do to help you baby during a gas fit?

Healthy Snacks

I can’t be the only one who has a kid who at times refuses to eat an actual meal. So to fix this problem I like to have Thomas eat not only healthy snacks but filling, so come meal time if he absolutely refuses to eat I can calm my nerves by  telling myself it’s ok because he was snacking on fruit and cheese and later I’ll have him snack on some peanut butter toast. So here is my list of go to snacks that I try to keep on hand.

Gogurt
Drinkable yogurt (I tell him it’s a smoothie)
Cheese sticks / Sting cheese
Sliced Apples – I like to also offer some peanut butter, Nutella or a cream cheese fruit dip along with it.
Graham Crackers with peanut butter or Nutella
Smoothies – Thomas loves smoothies, and now that it’s getting warm I’m going to freeze some into    popsicles.
Bell Peppers
Dry Cereal – If all they want is junk food usually you can convince them that the sugar-y cereals that are out there are actually candy.
Raisins or other dried fruit
Strawberry and cream cheese sandwich – You butter the bread with cream cheese and put diced strawberries in it.
Chips and Dip – we use cheese for the dip
Waffle Sticks
Oranges
Bananas
Chocolate Waffles – I mix a couple tbsp of Nutella into the waffle mix and then thin it back up with a little more milk and Thomas loves them.
Goldfish or Cheeze-its
Carrots – I take a peeler and just peel them into strips so that he can eat them.
Pancake Balls – They make these pans that you can turn pancake mix into little balls or you can use a thicker recipe and roll them and bake them in the oven. Again I add a little nutella and milk to make chocolate ones.
Muffins – I tell him that they are cupcakes and he loves them.
Ice Cream - You can have actual ice cream or you can make the “ice cream” out of creamed up fruit. There are more and more recipes online for this.
Cucumbers
Pickles
Granola Bars
Protein Bars – Fiber Plus has some fiber/protein bars that are coated in chocolate. If I’m getting desperate for him to eat something then I’ll start eating one like it’s a candy bar and he will take it from me. He thinks he is eating a candy bar and I can stop panicking.
“Donuts” – Sometime I make the muffins into baked donuts. The pans are actually so you can bake cake donuts but I thought I would make some muffins and tell him they were donuts. He gobbles them up, and I rest easy.
Peanut Butter Cereal Bars – I’m sure a lot of people would say these are unhealthy because of the syrup in them, but I think the peanut butter and cereal are a win.
Toast
Beef Jerky – Hunters usually help keep my dad stocked up on Jerky (usually deer), and Thomas loves the stuff.
Breakfast Cookies
Popcorn – You can add all sorts of flavors to it and have it either salty or sweet. It’s a great alternative to chips.
Crackers
Mellon
Rice Cakes with Peanut Butter
Ham Roll ups
Fruit Cups
Bagel Chips

What healthy things do you have your kids snack on?