Home Preschool

I have been having SO much fun doing "preschool" with Cooper. Usually the other kids join in too. I only do it for about a half an hour a day, but he seems to love it! Right now we are working on shapes and colors.
I print off worksheets from the computer, and I also ordered a couple of workbooks from amazon that are on their way. A couple weeks ago we did a math lesson using mms.

Today we had a picnic in the yard, and I read some stories and played a game involving shapes. It was fun!

Free Nail Painting

This morning the kids were looking for something fun to do. Taylor came up with the idea of offering free nail painting to the neighbor kids. Cooper wanted to join in the fun, so he offered free Popsicles

Tile Necklace

So I have seen more and more people wearing these fun tile necklaces. The first time I saw one was when I was waiting in line for the twilight movie. Someone had a tile with the book cover pic. I would love to make one for my daughter with a flower, barbie, or even picture of her new puppy on it.

Anyway, I think they look fun. You can buy them all over the place on Etsy. IM Creations is a store that has a bunch of them.

OR if you are feeling ambitious you could make some yourself. Here is a blog with great instructions!

Quiet Time

While her little brothers napped, my daughter, Taylor, found a great activity to do. We had some unfinished frames that we found at the craft store. Taylor painted them with some acrylic paints.

After she paints, I think we will glue some fun jewels or ribbons onto them.

Water Games

Never underestimate how fun an opstical course or relay games can be. Here are a few easy games we did:

We gave each of the kids a plastic squirting fish and had each child stay a few feet away from a cup. They had to fill their fish up with water (we had a couple big bowls of water) and squirt it into the cup. The person who's cup was overflowing first wins.

Limbo

Bored and looking for something to do with the kiddies?

Try a game of limbo. We did this with the cousins and grandparents and the kids had a blast! We had some prizes for the winner.

Family Restaurant

As part of our staycation we had a little pretend restaurant. The kids had a lot of fun with it. My mom made some menus and the kids decorated the tables with center pieces. The older kids were our servers. That had a lot of fun doing it. If we liked their service we tipped them using tickets (later we had a movie night where they could buy candy using their tickets).

Great Birthday Party Idea

My nephew had a WIPE OUT birthday party recently, and I was so impressed. What a fun idea! Here is his mom's description of the course:

"For the wipeout course, you start on the zip line, and go over the stream and land in a kiddie pool full of jello. You then run to the blow-up waterslide while dodging flying water balloons. After sliding down, you proceed to the doughnut station and try to eat a powdered sugar doughnut off the string while powdered sugar falls from the sky onto your head. The last step is just to walk across a pool noodle over the river to the finish line. Nothing to it."

So fun!!

Plus they have a really yummy burrito bar.

Hair Bow Activity

Yesterday morning my daughter was bored and really wanted to do a craft. We decided to make hair bows. This is a super easy activity to do with your child. Taylor is 5 and she did just fine (I handled the glue gun).

What you will need:

1. Fake Flowers (I bought fake gerber daisies at the dollar store)
2. Glue Gun
3. Metal Single Prong Clips (you can find these at beauty supply stores such as Sallys)
4. Buttons or other decorations for the center.
5. Ribbon to cover clip

Steps

1. Take apart the flowers
2. Restack the flowers (it looks great if you use a few different colors)
3. Glue each flower piece together in the center
4. Glue the button or other decoration in the middle.
5. Cut a ribbon long enough to cover the clip, and glue the ribbon over the clip
6. Glue the flower to the clip

All done!!!