If You Give Some Kids A Bunch of Craft Supplies...

If you give some kids a bunch of craft supplies and say "Go on create"...
 they make look at you blankly and just decide to wait.
Until you give directions... for the craft of the day.
Because you see my children rarely get just time to play...
with stickers and sparkles and markers and glue...
they are waiting for me to tell them exactly what to do.

Eventually they make a move and start to chose some paper...
as you tell them "There's no step by step" they become the art creators.

So dabbers dab and and scissors snip... and it soon becomes clear...
This open ended art thing should be the norm... and not just once a year...

 

Wants and Needs

We have had some fun schooling with friends this week... Rachel came over and created a wants and needs collage with Meadow.

Each girl cut out pictures of things they NEED...   They chose:

Food

Water

Air

Clothes

A house

Love

For WANTS they cut out:

Dolls

Games

A Christmas Tree

Cupcakes and Goodies

 

Christmas Party!!!

On Monday we had the crew from Our Little T-Pot came over for a Christmas Party.
We used an Advent activity from Truth in the Tinsel and made some gorgeous glittery CD Christmas ornaments to go with the story of Mary's song.

There was cookie decorating:

And cookie eating as well of course.
The children listed to Christmas music, went sledding and enjoyed each other's company in general.
I love these homeschool get togethers. :)

I Have Amazing Friends...

... excuse me if I get all emotional (my due date is tomorrow so I will totally blame it on the end of pregnancy, get this baby out!, hormones...etc) but I really must tell you that I am a gal with some awesome friends.

Yesterday was my (hopefully) last doctors appointment before baby girl is born and my dear homeschool friend Twyla  agreed to watch my children for me.  PLUS she agreed to watch them longer so that I could go and have lunch with my husband... like on a date.  And not only THAT but she did school with my children and hers!  Seriously she is WONDERFUL!

The lesson was based around this Magic School Bus book.

The children cut and colored ladybug pictures.

And they even "took the book outside" by exploring the garden, eating peas and raspberries, and identifying "weed seeds".

I am so thankful for friends like Twyla.

Valentine's Party!

Oh yes we have quite a few parties around here. There is usually a great reason to celebrate something each month :)

Our Valentine's party was quite a success.

We started off talking about love and who loves us.  I was thrilled to hear "God loves us" right off the bat :)

Then we read Snuggle Puppy by Sandra Boynton

Next it was off to the kitchen table for some open ended Valentine's Art.

I gave each munchkin a piece of scalloped (is that the right word?) red cardstock and turned them loose.
The materials for creating were:

• markers
• crayons
• glue
• heart cut outs
• stickers
• sequence
• red cellophane
• ribbon
• yarn 
• lace

Each one did such a great job!

James

Autumn

Hudson

Snack time!  I must admit that I am rather proud of these Valentine's cookies.

You can snag the cookie recipe over at The Palace.

What kind of a party would it be if we didn't dance?  So we danced.

We played a game that was a real hit with the kiddos. I filled this basket with chocolate hearts.

Then sent them out of the room so I could hide it.

They searched for quite a while. (even Meadow got in on the hunt :))

Finally they found it and devoured their yummy treat.

A super fun party with some terrific kiddos!

Hudson's 4th Birthday Party!

On Saturday we had Hudson's 4th Birthday party. Oh the fun that a small group of 3 & 4 year olds can have when 2 dads are in charge.

There was some creative piggy back sledding:)

Even Meadow and I got in on the fun!  I strapped her into the snuggly and down the hill we went!

The Lightening McQueen was amazing.  Thank you Aunty Anita for making it!

 

The guests really enjoyed it.

Everyone went home with a container of homemade play doh as a party favor.

Stay tuned for the recipe for the world's best play doh recipe in another post!

Preschool Corner - Hudson's Christmas Party!

Hudson hosted his first annual Christmas party today. There were 3 little elves that came to join the fun.

The party started with telling the Nativity story with my new Nativity felt board cutouts from Teachable Moment.

This set is so cute and the kids were enthralled with the story.

Next there was dancing to Feliz Navidad.

Don't ya just love the big grin on my boy's face?

Then there was crafting.  Each child made something special to give to their parents for Christmas. (however because some snoopy parents read my blog I can not post what those special gifts are)

I can show you how we decorated the wrapping however.

I gave each child a paper bag and put out 4 colors of paint with different painting tools in them (a snail sponge, bubble wrap, tree cookie cutter and bear cookie cutter).  The kids had tons of fun experimenting with the various meathods.

The chocolate chip  and craisin cookies were a crowd pleaser!

My children were the messiest 2 of the bunch :)

We  had a photo shoot with the Christmas Tree hat on.

This is Autumn.  Her mom blogs at Just a Closer Walk.  Isn't she a doll?  She is betrothed to Hudson :)

Our last activity with some crazy bell jingling!

Here are all of the kids (minus Meadow) showing off their Gaddy Nipper Crayon party favors!

I won these from Izzy Mac and Me.  Too fun!

Check out other peoples Preschool Corner Posts!






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