Toddler Tuesday: Learning Centers

I am always trying to brainstorm ways to teach my Toddlers the basics: colors, shapes, letters and numbers!

It works well to talk about these topics in our every day conversations and have lots of books available for them to look at and learn from. But (as in previous posts) we know that they love to carry things around to show people what the have! We created several different learning centers that we rotate every few weeks and the toddlers LOVE THEM!!

We made a sign for each center that can be put up on the wall (at their level of course). Below the sign, we hung a 3M wall hook for each ring of learning to hang from. Then the kiddos could stop by and grab one as part of their play...super fun!

If you happen to have a laminating machine at home, it will make the centers longer lasting but clear contact paper does just fine to get basically the same effect! Punch a hole in each card that you have laminated and then add to the ring. Lock it together and secure the clasp opening with a piece if tape. (Because if there is anything Toddlers like more than carrying stuff around, its taking stuff apart....) Expand this idea to any topic that your kiddo is interested in too....animals, transportation, foods...anything!!

Stylin Saturday: Planet Janet

We had a family reunion this summer hosted by my Aunt Jan and Uncle Chuck in lovely Milwaukee....it was such a fun weekend spending time with the Amundsen clan and revisiting the old neighborhood (I was a resident of Bay View, WI for a large portion of my preteen years). Big sister and I even stopped by our old house and walked back and fourth on the sidewalk until we got the nerve to knock on the door and ask for a tour from the current tenant:

We had a grand old time sharing lots of hilarious family stories....most of which I have heard a million times but still make me cry with laughter. We even had our very 1st Amundsen family spelling bee hosted by cousin Matt, the Master of Ceremonies: (oh, yeah, as a side note I was the first player eliminated from said Bee.)
Word: fiery
Prize: dictionary

The icing on the cake....I really loved spending time in Chuck and Jan's house admiring and taking note of the amazing decor that filled the rooms of their house! Auntie Jan has such a natural gift of style and a knack for great thrift store finds...she knows how to turn those finds into eye catching, elegant delightfulness. She can make any room look like a page torn from the cover of a super chic house wears magazine. I spent a bit of time just walking around the house taking photos of all things awesome and thought they might serve as inspiration to you in your home decorating adventures, enjoy:

ON THE WALLS...

FOR A TABLE, SHELF, DESK OR HEARTH...

ROCKIN' FURNITURE...

MANNEQUIN HEADS...

A COLLECTION: DOGGIES, that last one is real:)

AND UNCLE CHUCK'S RUST TREE: I wish I had more photos of this, a huge tree of all things rusty hanging from the branches in their back yard...wagon, wire, an old scuba diving helmet...super creative and cool!

Feel inspired?? I do! I know some of her pieces were an investment and you may not find an entire house worth of items all from thrift store finds, but i think its a great place to start! Lesson for the day: Never forget to frequent thrift stores, estate sales and antique shops when looking for fresh ways to breathe new life to a dwelling space. So many jewels out there waiting to be uncovered and loved once again....you never know what you may find!

Toddler Tuesday: Puffy Paint

Now, I know what you are thinking. Puffy paint....it's bringing back some wonderful memories from the late 80's/early 90's. Pretty sure I crafted the best neon puffy paint 'New Kids on the Block' T-shirt that ever existed back in '88....and it may or may not have matched a pair of freshly neon puffed Keds...ok, it did.

But this is not the puffy paint I wish to share with you today. We're talking puffy paint toddler style.

This art activity is one of my favorites that I do with my kiddos. It has elements of sensory play, imagination and it just looks really cool when it's done.

Here's the gist:
Gather together glue, shaving cream, something to mix them in, a craft stick or other device for spreading/painting, and some paper!

Make a pile of shaving cream in your holder of choice (I recommend a disposable pie tin) and then pour glue over the pile to coat it...not an exact science, just a guesstimation.

Give it a good mix and your toddler is ready for some painting fun!

This is a great activity to let the little friend in your life get a bit messy! They can use a paint brush or craft stick as their tool or let them dig those hands in the goo if they prefer and plop it right on their paper! Smearing it all around is the best part...encouraging messy play promotes creativity! You can talk about how it kind of looks like a cloud...'What does your cloud look like?'..'What kind of cloud did you make?'.

When your kiddo is all done, let it dry overnight and it holds it's puffiness!

It might take a few tries of mixing different amounts of glue to shaving cream to get just the right puffiness. But once you got it, it's a pretty cool activity! You can also add a bit of paint to make it colored (I do however find this deflates the mix a little).

I'm also thinking this mixture could be a great addition to a grade school diorama in desperate need of a little cloud action....use your creativity and have some fun!

Stylin Saturday: Saucy

I love to cook and I love to eat. However, I have this thing about leftovers and foods that have been in my fridge for a few weeks. I know that you can eat leftovers for a bunch of days, but in my mind they become poisonous after about 48 hours....irrational, yes.
I am also well aware that when you open a jar of salsa or a gallon of milk, it's good for quite awhile...maybe even a day or so past the expiration date (yikes, it's even hard for me to type that without a little anxiety in my heart).

So you see my dilemma when dinner time rolls around and I want a tasty bowl of spaghetti, but staring me in the face is a questionable jar of Ragu or Prego.

One day, I thought to myself, "How can I get around this problem? I could just NOT be crazy and eat the spaghetti sauce. Naaaah, let's be real...it's for sure poison. I need a better solution."

Then it came to me...I need small amounts of sauce that can be stored safely and used as needed....I just can't eat a whole jar of store bought sauce before it becomes "contaminated".

I found a simple recipe for spaghetti sauce online and spent the day simmering and stirring a delightful pot of homemade sauce.

Then I split it all up in a bunch of ice cube trays and froze it all overnight. The next morning, I popped those bad boys out and put them in a container to be stored in my freezer.

Crazy lady problem solved. Frozen things stay "unpoisoned" way longer (right???). So now when I have a hankerin' for spaghetti, I toss in a few cubes of homemade sauce, melt them into my noodles and enjoy with total assurance of a poison-free eating experience!

It's still a life goal of mine to learn to eat leftovers and dial down the crazy when it comes to old-ish open jars of this and that. But until that day comes, I am content to know that my sauce cubes are waiting for me in their happy frozen home...poison free.

Toddler Tuesday: Song Sticks

Do you know a little toddler friend that likes to sing songs? Does this little friend sing the same song over, and over, and over......

Toddlers are great repeaters and learn best from doing something many times in a row! It is so fun when they start to learn and remember the words and actions to familiar songs!

But if you are anything like me, I can only sing 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star' so many times before I go bananas. So we created Song Sticks!

We collected a big list of songs that the toddlers know (or are still learning) and then found a picture that easily identified each song. We laminated each little picture (from clip art mostly) and stuck them to craft sticks! We labeled each stick with the song title and tossed them in a container (I recommend that this container be decorated with lots of stickers and such.....because its fun!). We were then ready for hours and hours of singing bliss....our kids love the anticipation of what stick will be chosen next and feel so proud when they can identify the next song from looking at the pictures!!

Best of all, Song Sticks make it easy to sing LOTS of songs (not just the same song repeated until the end of time) and keeps track of the ones we have done already- "Oh, it looks like we sang Twinkle Twinkle already! Let's choose another stick and see what song we should sing next!"

Repetition and variety all in one- Song Sticks are delightful!

Stylin Saturday: Pretty Toes

Has summer been tough to your little tootsies? No extra funds for a day at the spa? No worries, I am here for you babe!

Once every few years, I treat myself to a professional pedicure. But let's be honest, it really tickles and is kind of expensive!

So after a few trial runs, I taught myself how to make my toes a little fancy (with a pretty flower and all) just like the ladies do at the salon!

Let me tell you how:

First, prepare your toes in whatever way makes you happy (soaking, loofa scrubbing, lotion) and then get out your nail tools and favorite polish:

Great! Ok, start with a clear base coat followed by a lovely color of your choosing. Paint a coat (or 2 depending on the polish) on your little piggies:

Now for the fancy flower! Start by getting a piece of paper and your flower color (I like white best...). Make a small pool of polish on the paper for dipping in. My tool of choice for flower making is a metal crochet hook, the smallest one I could find at the local craft store. Works like a charm! Take your original polish color and do one more coat on the toe to be flowered (this just makes it easier to create petals in the steps to follow):

Here we go! Dip the rounded end of the tool (not the hook side) into your paint and make 5 dots in a circle on your toe where you want the flower to live:

Awesome, now flip your tool over and use the hook side to drag each dot to the middle of the flower:

Wow, you are doing so great!! Ok, let's get a little cuter and add a few accent dots just like those salon ladies do:

Hello, can you say "professional flower painter"? Because that is just what you have become! Now let's finish this bad boy off with a green center:

High fives all around...aren't your toes magnificent! Now sit back and relax for a minute to let that flower set....add a clear top coat to all your toes and you are ready for a night on the town...or to Target, or your back yard....doesn't really matter where you go.....you have cute toes!!

It takes a wee bit of practice to get the dots in the right place, but once you have done it a few times it's no big thing! Get some gals together to hang out, eat snacks and practice your flower making skillz! You deserve to have pretty toes for a bargin!!

(Many thanks to my foot model Nici L. and her pretty toes)

Just a thought....

I have had this week off of work and have enjoyed many an hour sitting in front of the tv, basking in the glory of the Olympic dream.
While sitting on my couch in my jammies with my blankie, I realized that I had forgotten about an old friend of my youth that is most definitely worth blogging about.

That's right....a scrunchie. Scrunchies are awesome and everyone should have them....

....ok, maybe not in public as your #1 go-to hairstyle but for sure at home when you just want to be comfy and happy. It's ok, get that scrunchie out and wear with pride....you know you want to.

Toddler Tuesday: Signs

Sometimes in my classroom, it gets a little crazy! No matter how well I try to plan out toy selection, room arrangement and awesomely fun activities, my toddlers occasionally (ok, probably more like daily...) lose control. Screaming for fun, running around the room until a teacher redirects them, taking someone else's toy just to get a reaction....you get the idea!
My guess is if you work with kids or have some little munchkins of your own at home, you experience some of these same delightful moments too!
In order to maintain order in a room full of 14 two year olds, my lovely co-teacher and I had to send in for some reinforcements! Toddlers love to be silly and a little crazy, but they also love to feel like they have power and control!
Being the smart little cookies that we are, we thought it would be helpful for our kiddos to have some tools for remembering the rules....SIGNS!

Here's the idea, a toddler gets really excited about something and giddy screaming ensues....screaming is too loud and is for outside (that is one of our rules). So instead of reprimanding the tot with a stern and un-fun message, I calmly walk over to my little friend and remind them of the rule: "Hey little friend, screaming inside is too loud. Would you like to carry the sign around to remind everyone that we need to use a calm voice?"

Oh no, what now??? My little toddler friend has lost the ability to slow down and is on the run around shelves, tables, other Tods....yikes!
"Hey little friend, we walk our feet in the classroom. Would you like to carry the walking sign to remind everyone that we walk our feet to be safe??"

This idea can be tweaked for a multitude of situations based on the challenges that you are facing with following the rules. Just think of the behavior that you desire to change and make a sign that your kiddo can carry around and 'remind' others nearby of the rules! They feel so proud and empowered to be chosen for such an important job as SIGN CARRIER!

Another type of sign that is an effective tool is the schedule sign. We have this one (above) posted by our tables for mealtimes to help the kids remember the process for the end of mealtimes. They learn to know what's next from the pictures and from the teachers repeating the process. This is a great tool for bedtime routines or other challenging transition times!

The final type of sign is hands down my very favorite....and hilarious! We call this one the "BM" sign. We use it as a teaching tool for our friends who are at the beginning stages of toilet training or are having some challenges with the toilet learning process! Some people use stickers, a jar of M&M's, prizes....none of these are bad choices for motivating toilet success. We have just found that the kids want to show people what they did, not for someone or something, but for them....they are so proud!
We show the sign while our friends are sitting on the potty, "See, BM's go in the toilet. When your BM goes in the toilet, you can go show your friends what you did with this sign!!"

Again, this type of motivational tool could be used for many other things...cleaning up toys, getting dressed, trying some vegetables...they key is to only let them carry it around when they have done what the sign says. No points for trying without results! Its very effective!

Toddlers love to learn new skills and are so happy to share their accomplishments with anyone who will listen, so let's give them some tools to make them feel like they are in charge and SO BIG! Empowerment is powerful!

Olympic Sunday

Kara Goucher, you are an amazing inspiration and have represented your country with grace and strength! Congrats, dear friend, on all you have accomplished! Can't wait for what's to come!