Shapes & Toddlers

I occasionally go to the library and just LOOK around for better ideas to teach my toddlers. One such day I was looking at all types of shape books and just happened to come across this gem! It is called "Shape Capers" by Cathryn Falwell - it rhymes, is fun and engaging for toddlers but best of all they have a repetitive line that can easily be made into a game AND they make all their shapes into different things at the end of the book - and if you are a teacher you are already on the same page - instant art project!!

 

This is exactly what I did. I read the book to my kids. Then I made this handmade "Shake the Shapes" game which can easily be made out of any cylinder container (I made mine out of a chocloate covered pretzel container from Christmas). (In the middle of the container I covered it with a solid color paper and then wrote with sharpie on the front "Shake the Shapes".) I said the repetitive line of "shake, shake, shake, shake the shapes" and then asked what shape will ______ pull out? And then I let each child in turn pull out one shape from my jar and we had to identify what shape they pulled out!

When we were done with all that I used the picture from the book to make the spaceship out of the shapes we learned about. The kids loved seeing their art next to the picture in the book. It helped them relate and brought the book to life!

It was a wonderful resource and after returning my copy to the library I purchased one to keep in my classroom! If you are teaching your toddler shapes (or are a toddler teacher like me) I highly recommend this book to you!

 

GUESS WHAT TODAY IS??!!?!?!

 

 

 

Isn't she cute? But yes, it is St. Patrick's Day!!! The color green abounds and clovers cover every window! And look out for pincher's - they'll get you!

 

I just wanted to share a quick fact with you since I'm Irish and feel it's my duty.

 

Did you know...

that St. Patrick went around Ireland preaching the gospel and Christianizing the country! He used the clover to help teach the trinity of God (as shown below).

It makes me wonder how did a holiday honoring a man who preached the gospel turn into a drunk fest at bars?? Sad. But I still love my heritage and am proud of the work that St. Patrick did for his country! So go green, orange and white!

St. Patrick's Day Fun!!

How do you teach toddlers colors, have them exercise motor skills AND have fun doing science??! Well in my class I did this sensory table on St. Patrick's Day and the kids loved it! All I did was make one ice cube tray of with blue food coloring and one with yellow so we had blue and yellow ice cubes. When the kids arrived I dumped the ice cubes into a water table and gave them each a big spoon.

 

 

They stirred and stirred and slowly but surely the water turned green right before their eyes! they were amazed and then we spent the day of course talking about and showing them lots of examples of the color GREEN around us!

 

 

Later that same day we made Puffy Parsley Clovers for art. Here's what you need: Elmer's Glue, Shaving Cream and green food coloring.

 

Mix together some shaving cream and glue (roughly 1/3 glue as amount of shaving cream but trust me this is not a precise measurement type art!) Then mix in the green food coloring until you have desired color. I actually ran out because I learned it takes a LOT to make a true deep green so don't say I didn't warn you! So you will have to accept my minty green clovers for now.

 

Then cover a card stock clover with your shaving cream mixture. Once it's covered place the clover in a container and give the child a small bowl of parsley. Allow the child to sprinkle parsley all over the clover until covered or until they are content with it :)

Because if you know toddlers - some will cover the WHOLE thing until every last bit of parsley has been used and others will drop a few handfuls and be like okay where's the blocks? Ha ha, but that's the personalities of children and I encourage you to let them explore their world the way they want to. If art takes 5 seconds or 50 minutes - it's fine.

 

We also make elf pudding later that day! Vanilla pudding + green food coloring (hey it's St. Patrick's Day you need to stock up!) + Elf Cookies = Elf Pudding!! Simply stick the elf in the green pudding and use it as a spoon or dip it and then eat the cookie with pudding on it - or eat them separate if you are one of "those" that can't have your food touch!

 

One week away and I'm already pumped about St. Patrick's Day!!

FASHION!!

So it's not a common known fact but I actually love flipping through fashion and style magazines to see what some "things of the moment" are! I would just like to make clear that I do not agree with most fashion  gurus for what they THINK looks good HOWEVER they DO give me new ideas for my clothes. And so I channeled my best inner model and thought I'd share a couple fresh inventions of my clothes I've had (and don't laugh...at my "inner model" or my "NEW revelations" because yes I realize they may not be new to you) Okay you may continue.

 

A plain jane t-shirt with a fancy satin skirt! Okay call me old fashioned but until last year I didn't pair plain t-shirts with my pretty skirts - I put pretty tops with pretty skirts. you know what I mean right? Okay good. I feel better now. However I LOVE the look and it makes the outfit more comfortable! My suggestion, for what it's worth, is to pair it with great heels to keep it dressy - or go for all casual with the skirt as the oddball instead of the shirt.

 

 

A BUN! Seriously how many of you knew this was the latest craze! Now this one is as classic as it gets but here's the change - either go loose and flowy with strands coming out OR do a sock-bun look instead of the "old" twist. My favorite new up-do is sock-buns and yes there is a sock in my hair!! Hey I work with teens - they come up with crazy but creative things! And I like it!

(click on the link to see a tutorial for sock-buns)

 

 

Roll the sleeves up on a tailored jacket!! My momma gave me this cute sailor striped jacket but she is shorter than me so the sleeves down made it look funny on me. You could tell it didn't fit right. But I liked the look. So I rolled the sleeves up and viola - casual chic!

 

Wish they were better photos but to be honest I thought I need to blog and grabbed photos to MAKE this one happen instead of the reverse where I take photos and when I see them think - this deserves a blog post!!

 

My crazy self - oh and I actually was wearing these adorable nude peep toe HIGH heels with these skinny's. I love how the tall heels dress it up but the nude color doesn't distract from the simplicity of the outfit.

Winter Ideas

January seemed to fly by and although we are always busy it wasn't really because of that. It's just that I finally got my head settled enough to take some things in and enjoy life! In case you are amidst a winter womderland right now let me introduce you to Texas where 3/4 of January was in the 70's. Yes the 70's, that was not a typo. So we barbequed, because we could, the kids were out on their bikes as I baked cookies for all the neighbor kids out playing together and I even scrapbooked and did some Spring cleaning. I know Spring is a long ways off but shoot if it's 70 degrees out you feel good and get some things done!

However even if it's 50 below there will be something on here that might inspire you! I'm working on my laptop so I don't have all my wonderfully artistic photos (sarcasm, NOT pride) to go along with the ideas but I just thought I'd post some things I've gotten done and also plan on doing this week! Hope you feel inspired!

1. Tried a new recipe! This always makes a blah winter day fun! I've tried a couple: one was a new smoothie recipe from my daughter's cookbook she got at Chrismas, one was Italian Meatballs that I added to our everyday spaghetti (which made it amazing may I add), and I searched for a new green bean casserole recipe because if it's not something I LOVE LOVE LOVE, then I'm not stuck to the same ole recipe. And found I like my new recipe for it more than my old one. If you want to try the green bean casserole recipe too it's from Paula Deen (I suppose I felt especially Texan that day) - just click here for her recipe.

2. Painted an old dresser to repurpose: So we have passed this dresser around a bit because it's a nicely made wooden dresser that was a beautiful red color. It started in my son's room and when we put the house up for sale put it in our room because we had to pair down our dresser space. This one was tall versus wide so it gave the bedroom more space. However when my parents recently moved we inherited their bedroom set (what a blessing) and so the dresser ended up in the garage. I told my husband not to get rid of it though because our daughter needs a new dresser. Hers is probably 15 years old (it used to be mine!!) and was starting to fall apart. However red would not do for my baby girl's purple, pink and torquise room. So a $13 quart of paint and a few hours of work and viola! A white dresser was made. I let my daughter go to the hardware store with me to pick her own drawer pulls so she could be included in the remake! It wasn't that hard and here's a quick tip - for a quick color change buy "deglosser". It's a liquid that you wipe over the old paint and it takes away the gloss so your new paint will adhere better. No sweat lost over traditional sanding!! Worked great! (Just make sure you paint it within a couple hours of applying the deglosser otherwise the gloss will come back)

3. Organized my kids closets! This was my early spring cleaning. I usually save my daunting closet organizing for then but it felt great to get them all cleaned up, decluttered and organized and right on time for the in-laws! They had room to put some shoes and hang some shirts and what-not and saved us the embarrasment of showing them what their closets "used" to look like. Don't pretend like you don't know what I mean!

4. Making handmade Valentine's: This one will be done this week! I saw the cutest idea in a magazine and can't wait to set up my kids and I at the table to knock some out! You take regular cardstock and cut them to desired size. Then round the corners with a corner rounder or scissors. Take a small roller craft brush and paint the middle of the card leaving a one inch border on each side. Once dry, take cookie cutters (preferably heart shaped) and dip into paint and then stamp onto the card. One idea is to stamp white hearts cascading down the side of the card or paint several hearts putting the point of the hearts at the same spot so it makes a flower!! Use your creativity and see what you can create! I loved the thin stamped outline of hearts on the cards though! So you all know what I'll be doing Tuesday night!


I could add several things but my daughter is beckoning me to play horses with her so alas I must sign off and go feed her horses some plastic carrots. Farewell and don't let winter blues get to you!

Apple Dumplings

 

(Photo from thepioneerwoman.com)

 

Did you procrastinate planning your New Year's Eve like I did? Don't get me wrong it's a day before and I know who is coming and NOW know what is on the menu but I did my typical "well I want to try something different" and bought all these ingredients for a recipe I have never tried. Brave right?! or stupid, whichever you choose to see it.

 

However I did take one step of sanity and preparation and tried a small batch of my dessert tonight! Yay for me! And I'm so glad I did because now I can have this TWICE! These are Apple Dumplings from Pioneer Woman and you will NOT be disappointed! They are DIVINE! they are similar to apple cobbler or apple turnovers with warm gooey syrup and melting vanilla ice cream beside it!

 

This is right up my alley and maybe it will be for you too. So if you are still looking for ideas, try this one. Please.

 

And since this recipe belongs to Ree Drummond I'll simply leave the link for you to go get the recipe:

Click HERE for recipe! (Or click her photo above)

Book Review: Full Disclosure

A handsome FBI Special Agent gentleman meets a beautiful confident woman that knows how to tell a story. And he's a good listener! She first appears as a local small town cop - you know the kind - where she comprises the whole staff! However she walks down the hall and casually says hello to a U.S. Marshall, happens to be the Midwest Homicide Investigator and, what?! she knows the previous Vice President...like not just knows but is a close friend!??! Who is she? Who is Ann Silver? That is certainly what Paul wants to know ever since she captivated his attention. There are surprises popping up constantly with this one but she doesn't just have surprises, she has secrets.

 

This book is an amazing read and one that provides a great twist and crazy turn of events! It really leaves you wondering and asking out loud - who is she??!

 

 

 

In case you didn't figure out by now, I highly recommend this book as a great read! Not only will your curiosity be held but it intertwines Christ so easily into it that it just makes it all the more sweet. If you are like me and FINALLY have a little time off this holiday season, give this Dee Henderson new release a try. I doubt you'll regret it.