What's in the Bag?

I don't know about your children but mine love bags!  Every time they find any empty bag they grab it and fill it up with stuff~It doesn't matter what it is they just put it in the bag until it's too heavy for them to carry or the bag rips and everything falls out (they think that's funny...I don't always agree :)

I had a bag and they wanted to know what was in it~I told them to guess.  Well with a 4 year old and a 2 1/2 year old the guesses where a bit outrageous for the bag (a dog?  Daddy? A car?)  I tried giving them some clues...It's rectangle, has paper inside it, you use it to blow your nose.  Then Samantha wanted to feel inside.  So I had her reach in without looking.  She described it "hard" "not heavy"  Aiden was a little scared to reach in.  I pulled it out and showed them that it was a tissue box.  They wanted to find more things to put in the bag.  They played this together for a little while

This is a great activity to develop vocabulary (hard/soft, big/little, rough/smooth) and asking/answering questions.  Plus it takes no prep work or messy clean up :)

Sorry I've been MIA latety~School's our for summer and I just can't seem to get us back on some sort of schedule.  But we've been doing some fun stuff here and there and I will be posting about it soon

Have a great weekend!

Bubble Wrap

We were going through the garage last weekend and came across some bubble wrap. Who in the world can resist bubble wrap?! Not me or my kids that's for sure. So I let them go at it. It kept them busy for so long! Plus it's great for their fine motor development!

Not a great picture~Sorry

Pizza Bagels

Samantha loves bagels~She could eat them all day.  The other night she asked for a bagel but it was close to dinner time and I wasn't too excited about making dinner~Then I remembered Pizza Bagels!

I put marinara sauce in a bowl with spoons, put green peppers and cheese on a plate and the let them make their own pizzas.  They were both really excited about doing it.  I enjoyed it because they were able to do it on their own!  It was a pretty clean dinner until someone spilled the pizza sauce :(

Overall I think Pizza Bagels got a thumbs up!  Samantha told me that she just likes plain bagels and Aiden ate both of his pieces and one of Samantha's

Painting with Strawberry Baskets

It's that time of year~Strawberries are in season!  My kids LOVE strawberries...well all fruit actually.  They love going to the fruit stands and Farmer Market to look at everything.  The best part of going there is that the berries come in the cute green baskets.  I really don't like throwing them away...they just look fun!  So I decided to let the kids paint with them.  

It's really easy...Paint in a tray, dip the baskets and paint!  I like how the final product looks.  Plus it's a good way to learn squares and color mixing :)

Celery

Samantha has been asking for celery and peanut butter as a snack lately.  I finally remembered to buy some celery at Trader Joes.  She was very happy but I realized that she just likes to eat the peanut butter off of it.  I must teach her that a spoonful of peanut butter is just as delicious and less wasteful.

I got the Trader Joes brand of celery hearts~some of the celery had leaves on it still so I decided to stick them in water and food coloring to show them how to change the color of the leaves.

I let them pick the colors...Aiden picked orange and Samantha picked red.  The leaves changed colors within a few hours.  That instant gratification was nice :)

The veins of the celery also changed colors so I was able to show her how the celery gets its water and nutrients.  

It's a quick and fun little science activity. 

Summer of Fun

If you know me in real life then you know I make lists.  I love making lists...it might be an obsession.  It helps make me to be organized...but more then making list I love to cross things off my list.  Weird I know.

The kids are out of school for the summer so I want to keep them busy by doing fun things.  Well, what better way to organize all the fun stuff this summer then to make a list!  I'm calling it Summer of Fun 2013   Not very creative or original but the content is more important than the title so I let it go. 

I encourage you to sit down and talk to your family about what they want to do this summer and make a fun list.  That way when you have those days when you can't think of something to do...look at your list and take a pick. 

Happy Summer!