School of the Momma: Yellow

Yellow was the first color the boys could say.

Yellow is also the color of one of their favorite characters "big burrrr" and in case you don't speak baby that is Big Bird.

We played with yellow balloons. Balloons are always a hit at our house.

We made a yellow tornado bottle using water, a few drops of  dish soap, a few drops of  food coloring and some glitter. I hot glued the top on so that they wouldn't be able to drink it.

Of course we did our muffin tin meal again. I apologize in advance the picture doesn't look the least bit appetizing. I couldn't find my camera so this was taken with my phone.

School of the Momma: Edible Fingerpaint

Do you have a toddler that does this when fingerpainting?

If your answer is yes then here is a edible finger paint recipe for you.

All you need is sweetened condensed milk and food coloring. We did two colors so I put a little bit of sweetened condensed milk in each bowl and then put food coloring until I reached the color I was trying to achieve. Easy enough, right?

I wouldn't advise letting your child eat the whole bowl because it is way sweet but if they have a couple licks in between painting it won't hurt ;)

When dried, this paint gives a very glossy finish. After letting these air dry for 8 hours and they still were wet, I put them in the oven on the lowest setting for about 10 minutes and that did the trick.

Happy Fingerpainting!!!

School of the Momma: Fall Fun

Fall is one my favorite times of the year. I hope the boys grow up to like it too. To start out our fall fun we made some jack-o-lanterns because what says fall better than pumpkins?

To make these I cut the shapes using my silhouette and cardstock. Then traced it onto the stiff felt. I made the eyes and mouth detatchable by putting velcro on them(as you can see in the pictures below). I only put the hook side(the rough one) of the velcro on the face parts and there is no need for the loop side because the felt works as the loop. Hopefully that makes sense.

I did something similar for Christmas with a Christmas tree with detatchable ornaments. They really had no interest in it at 12 months old so I was a little worried they still may be too young for the pumpkins but they LOVED them.

I had no lesson planned for this it was just supposed to be a fun game for them but while playing I would ask them where the eye was and where the mouth was.

And my camera died before he could show you where the mouth was.....story of my life haha.

Since they like these so much I am thinking about making more shapes for the face. Yay for fun and learning!

Another fun project we like to do is fingerpaint. But as you know that is usually one big fat mess and if you are like me and usually give your kids edible fingerpaint because they are going to put it in their mouths then this is an alternative where you can cut the mess and not have to worry about them putting it in their mouth so you can use regular finger paint. We still like to do the messy fingerpainting too.

I found this idea here.

You take construction paper and leave several drops of paint on it. Cover with wax paper and tape it down to the highchair or table. Then let the kids do the rest.

After they finished I let it dry for several hours( or if you are impatient like me you put it in a oven at about 150) then cut it into the shape of a leaf.

They are now proudly hanging on our french doors :)

Another fun fall activity that I already showed you was my pumpkin playdough which you can read about in our Operation Orange post.

School of the Momma: Operation Orange

Now we are on to the color Orange. Orange will play a very important role when the boys get into school because it is the school colors, so we better learn it early.

For our muffin tin meal we used foods that we already had on hand but here are some other ideas you could use:

-tangerines

-cheddar cheese

-pumpkin

-cantaloupes

-mangoes

-yams

-cheetos

-butternut squash

Wondering how you eat a muffin tin meal? Probably not, but the babies will show you anyways ;)

First you dig in and grab as much as your chubby little hands can hold.

Then you stuff it all in your mouth at once and tell your mommy "nom nom"

We sing this color song while we hunt the house for orange stuff:

(Tune: THE WHEELS ON THE BUS)

 

O-R-A-N-G-E,

O-R-A-N-G-E,

O-R-A-N-G-E

ORANGE IS WHAT THAT SPELLS

 

JACK-O-LANTERNS ARE ALWAYS ORANGE

CARROTS ARE ALWAYS ORANGE

ORANGES ARE ALWAYS ORANGE

O-R-A-N-G-------E!

Fortunately Unfortunately these songs have been stuck in my head since I taught pre-school. The song is by Frog Street Press.

Look what we found on our Orange Hunt: pumpkins and trucks and Tiggers, oh my!

The boys favorite orange activity was the pumpkin pie playdough. The recipe is from Family Fun magazine.

Warning: This is edible in the sense that it will not harm you child if they happen to take a bite out of it but it is not edible in the sense that you will want to eat it. Although it does smell very good, it is very salty.

1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
2 teaspoons cream of tarter
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon veg oil
1 cup water
6 drops red food coloring
15 drops of yellow food coloring
Combine dry ingredients in a non-stick pan
Add oil, water, food coloring and whisk until smooth
Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it forms a ball
Turn onto counter, let cool slightly, knead until smooth
Dough will keep in a plastic bag for about a week

We were pretending to bake cookies for Daddy using cookie cutters.

We also sang "patty cake".

Next time we will show all of our favorite fall activities.

Linking up to these parties:

Hands On As We Grow
No Time For Flash Cards

School of the Momma- Operation Red

Before having my own kids I taught a preschool class, so I guess it just comes natural that I would teach my own kids things that I spent much time teaching to other kids. Mr. Hands Full (aka my husband) once referred to my teaching the boys as "School of the Momma" so that is where this title comes from. This will be a new series on my blog that will be every other Monday.

Let me preface this post by saying that these photos were taken in the spring but I am just now getting around to finishing this post.

To start out our study on red, we had a muffin tin meal filled with all red foods. This is also a way to get creative and get your kids to try new foods.

Ok so the lasanga doesn't look red in this photo but the sauce is red, mmmk?

The boys loved it...can't you tell!?

The next day we did a "red hunt", where we went around the house and picked out all the red things and put them in a tub. We then used that as a sensory tub because we picked things of all textures, shapes, and sizes.

If I would have done this recently, we would have talked about Elmo because he is all the rage at our house these days. Funny thing is they don't know Elmo from the TV show(because they are way too busy to sit down and watch tv), they only know him through their books.

The next installment of "School of the Momma" will be all about the color orange of course because we operate according to the Roy G. Biv system around here ;)