Tag Archives: kid approved

Spaghetti Spaceship

Posted in Kid's Corner by


Another fantastic fine motor activity! Henry and Reagan enjoyed this activity and spent about twenty minutes breaking their pasta noodles, sticking them into the play dough and then placing the Cheerios onto the noodles. Henry’s verbal skills are much more advanced than Reagan’s and his imagination is fantastic!. He talked about how the play dough was a spaceship, the noodles were seats and the Cheerios were the space men.

Materials for Two:
Spaghetti Noodles- We used 5 noodles
Play Dough- Enough to make two balls
Cheerios- A small bowl for each child

Form play dough into a ball and then flatten on the bottom.

Break noodles in half or whatever size you want.

Insert noodles into play dough.

Place Cheerios onto noodles.

Pint-Sized Picasso

Posted in Kid's Corner by


This was such an easy activity from start to finish!

Materials

Washable Paint
Construction Paper
Corks
Styrofoam Plate
Something to cover table

This activity took no time at all to put together and allowed for me to utilize things that I already had in the house. I found an old set of washable paints and was excited for Reagan to stray from her normal blue and pink paint (I have yet to remember to purchase more colors). But, low and behold the paints were dry;( I even tried adding a little water to the bottle and shaking it, but it just wasn’t the right consistency anymore. So back to the trusty old standby colors.


I placed a cardboard mat underneath where Reagan would be working, even though it’s washable paint, it doesn’t always wash out 100%. I gave her a piece of construction paper, four wine and champagne corks, paint on a styrofoam plate, told her that they corks were stamps and let her go to town!

IMG_2103

She LOVED every second of the paint stamping. I mean, why wouldn’t she…she LOVES to dip, dip! Here she is, using sign language, to ask for more.

The activity lasted about 15 minutes before Reagan began to stamp her hands, her face, the chair and was even successful at getting the dog once or twice.

When the fingers went in the mouth, I called it quits on the activity. I could have easily given her a binkie and she would have continues to paint. However, I’m trying to confine the binkie to the crib and the car, so the binkie was not coming to the kitchen table to paint.

We had a blast and ended the activity with her favorite thing…a tubbie! Sometimes I think that Reagan loves to get messy because she knows that she will end up in the tubbie.

Everything cleaned up really easily. I threw away the styrofoam plate and corks- no paint brush washing today! And returned the left over paper, the paint bottles and the cardboard mat to the craft section in the basement.

A Little Love

Posted in Kid's Corner by


My sister, Erin, found this adorable craft on The Party Event (http://thepartyevent.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/valentines-day-candy-and-sweets-for-your-sweetheart-photo-booth-props/) and made the best Valentine’s day gift for someone very special that lives far away. I thought that it was the sweetest idea and that it would be fabulous for my husband who works long hours and often comes home after Reagan is already in bed. This Valentine is perfect for when he misses her and needs a hug.

Erin and I both strayed from the way that the hug was created on The Party Event (http://thepartyevent.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/valentines-day-candy-and-sweets-for-your-sweetheart-photo-booth-props/) and I LOVE the final products!

I decided that Reagan and I were going to make three HUG Valentine’s, one for Reagan’s dada, one for my mother-in-law, a.k.a Grammy and one for my father-in-law, a.k.a PaPa.

Below are materials and instructions for how to make Reagan’s HUG.

Materials

Mod Podge
Paint brush
index cards
4 different colors of paint ( we used pink, red, white and purple)
4 large sheets of card stock light colored card stock- I used a very faded light blue
2 sheets of red construction paper
1 (8×10) piece of card stock
1 piece of paper (large enough to trace hand on)
scissors
string
sharp knife
Printed saying (http://thepartyevent.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/valentines-day-candy-and-sweets-for-your-sweetheart-photo-booth-props/)

Step 1:

Paint both sides of the four sheets of large card stock paper- one sheet for each color (let one side dry before painting the other, this should be obvious…)

Step 2:

Trace hands onto piece of paper and cut along traced lines.

Step 3:

Trace cut out hand onto red construction paper. Using both pieces of red construction paper, one on top of the other, cut out traced hands. We needed six hands for our three valentines.

Step 4:

Measure the length of your child’s arm span. Ask them to put out their arms as if they were giving you a big hug. Henry’s HUG was perfect! It measured his exact arm length! I struggled a bit to get Reagan to stretch out her arms so I could measure her arm span.

Step 5:

Take two cut out red hands and mod podge one side of one hand. Place one end of the arm span measured ribbon onto the mod podge and then the other hand on top (You are sandwiching the string in-between the two hand cut-outs). Press down firmly. I would recommend putting something heavy, like a book, on top of your hands until they dry. Repeat this step three times. You are only gluing one side of the string in between two hand cut-outs at this point.

Step 6:

Cut three different sized hearts out of index cards. You will be tracing these hearts. I only ended up using one of the three sizes that I cut out.

Step 7:

Trace the cut out index card hearts onto the 4 large painted card stock pieces of paper. Cut out the hearts. This is where it became a bit tedious…there were a lot of hearts that needed to be cut out, that I didn’t even use! These will be going into the Valentine’s box, so at least I saved myself some trouble for next year!


Step 8:

Using a sharp knife, cut two small slits (as wide as your ribbon) at the top of your heart.

Step 9:

Thread your ribbon through your slits and place a small dab of mod podge behind the ribbon to secure. Repeat this adding however many hearts that you want to add. We only ended up using four hearts for Reagan’s Valentine, her arm span is super short. I utilized the free printable (http://thepartyevent.wordpress.com/2012/02/05/valentines-crafts-for-kids-a-long-distance-hug-a-beautiful-present-for-someone-special-diy/), printed it on card stock, cut it into an oval and attached it to the string in the same fashion as I did with the hearts.



Step 10:

Take two cut out red hands and mod podge one side. Place the other end of the arm span measured ribbon onto the mod podge and then the other hand on top (You are sandwiching the string in between the two hand cut-outs). Press down firmly. I would recommend putting something heavy, like a book, on top of your hands until they dry. Repeat this step three times.

Reagan’s finished HUG

Erin and I did our own version of the same Valentine’s HUG and they both turned out fabulously! This just goes to show that you can take someone else’s adorable project and make it your own!

This isn’t just a HUG for a Valentine, it’s a precious gift that can be sent at anytime of the year!

Valentine’s Lunch for Two!

Posted in What's Cookin' by


I had the perfect date for Valentine’s Day lunch…Reagan! We made our boring pasta and turkey dog’s fun by adding a little Valentine’s love to them!

What we used for our Lunch for Two:

2 Applegate Organic Turkey Hot Dogs
2 Bendable Straws
Nugget Pasta
Red Food Coloring

Directions:

Add pasta to pot of boiling water. Let pasta boil for 5 minutes or so and then add as many drops of red food coloring as you like. The more drops you add the darker red the pasta will be. The fewer drops added, the pinker your pasta will be. Continue to boil pasta till desired tenderness. (the steam from the pot blurred the first picture a bit)

Boil hot dogs in separate pot of boiling water. I boil our dogs for about 10 minutes.

Cut middle of hot dog out at an angle so that you have two end pieces that are about an inch and a half long each. You can make the heart as big as you like by cutting away less of the middle of the hot dog or none at all. Reagan never eats the entire hot dog, so I figured a little hot dog heart would be perfect for her.

Cut the bendable straw so that neither end is longer than the length of the cut hot dog pieces. You want the bendable piece to be in the center.

Insert each straw end into a piece of the hot dog so that the bendable part is towards the bottom point of your hot dog heart. Push rounded tops of the hot dogs to secure the straw into place.

Ta Da! A Valentine’s Day lunch that Reagan will LOVE! We of course needed our fruit and veggie, so we also had a side of green peas and apple sauce! Now that I think of it, I could have dyed some cauliflower pink and added some red food coloring to Reagan’s apple sauce. She was happy with what she had and that’s all that I was aiming for!

Pasta Necklace

Posted in Kid's Corner by


Today Reagan was a disaster; tearing apart every toy that ‘lives’ in the family room (as you can see in the background of all these pictures…HOT MESS!). I was attempting to put away things purchased from a trip to BJs (the TP that you see in the background), but Reagan wasn’t having it. She was in desperate need of a quick wind down activity.

A few months ago I dyed, with food coloring, a box of uncooked ziti. I wouldn’t repeat the way that I dyed the ziti because if Reagan puts it into her mouth, which I know she will, the food coloring wipes off onto whatever the ziti touches after getting wet. I need to find a better way to dye the pasta and when I do, I will be sure to share it with you! Nevertheless, I’m continuing to use the pasta until it’s gone.

Continuing on the path of strengthening her fine motor skills, I decided that Reagan could make a pasta necklace. We used a piece of ribbon that I cut long enough for Reagan to make a necklace that when tied would fit over her head, dried dyed ziti, and a pipe cleaner. The pipe cleaner is such an important part of this activity for Reagan. She struggles with stringing the ziti on a floppy piece of ribbon, I’m not sure what 15 month old wouldn’t. By twisting a pipe cleaner around the end of the ribbon, I am giving the ribbon support and allowing for Reagan to have something straight and sturdy to string her ziti on to.

By stringing a single piece of pasta and then tying it off with a knot, you are creating a stopper and are ensuring that not one piece of pasta will fall to the floor while stringing.

I poured out the dyed ziti bags onto a large rimmed plate, held up the pipe cleaner with the straw attached and told Reagan that we were going to string some ziti to make a necklace. We’ve done this multiple times, so I no longer need to show her how to string the ziti. The first few times that we did this activity I showed Reagan how to string the ziti, I then guided her hand to assist in stringing the ziti, all while verbally explaining what was happening.

A solid ten minutes is spent in deep concentration as Reagan chooses a colored piece of ziti, we say the color name, and then she strings it onto the pipe cleaner.


I tie the loose end to the tied noodle on the opposite side and BAM…a colorful ziti necklace!
I totally forgot to take a picture of the necklace yesterday, so here’s one the next morning. Oh, and checkout the toilet paper that is still sitting in the front hall.