Hey, I'm Just the Nanny...

Crayon Canvas Art

2011-12-27T13:53:00.001-05:00

Finally did it!

As see on every blog everywhere...

Glowing Christmas tree

2011-12-20T11:18:00.001-05:00

Materials:
Hole punch
Black paper
Tissue paper

Glitter Snowman

2011-12-20T11:17:00.001-05:00

I think I've made these for the past 393629 years with every kid I know

Materials:
Paper plates
Contact paper
Glitter
Scrap paper/ fabric
Tape

Back! With Christmas Crafts!!

2011-12-20T11:14:00.001-05:00

Testing the blogger app and here's a random christmas tree craft!

Classics- Rock Painting

2009-06-06T18:40:00.003-04:00

Rock painting is fun and easy and a classic Montessori based activity. My niece and I went searching for rocks. Didn't find many big ones but that's ok! We still had fun painting the small ones. (I painted a lot myself!) "Indy" didn't have much interest in it at first, much to my surprise. (I fear he is much less interested in a lot of stuff I present. Maybe it should be more challenging? Also, since Big Brother is home all the time now he wants to hang with the Big Boys and not me. :( Oh, well. I keep on trying anyways. ) Eventually he painted a few when I told him we should paint some gold to use as treasure in the Moon Sand etc. We used some sparkly paint like the gold and they came out really cool looking. My niece LOVED painting the rocks and made sure she had plenty to take home.

Weekly Unplugged Project- Petal

2009-06-06T17:40:00.003-04:00

I have a secret plan to try to use up ALL the craft sticks in the house. Of course we will never really run out but it's nice to have a goal. :) There just seems like there is a neverending supply. Here is one such project using craft sticks. And incorporating the Weekly Unplugged Theme of Petals.

This was a collaborative project. He colored the "stems" (craft sticks!) green one day and then lost interest. So my niece cut and glued on the petals with me the next day. Then after they dried...

I had them play this game with the flowers they had made. They started off with one flower and had to run down the yard and stick it in the ground by the other flowers then run back grab another flower and do the same thing. They each had 3 flowers to stick in the ground. It was easier because the ground was still damp from all the rain. Next time I would have them run down to a pot with dirt in it and stick the flowers in. Would have been much easier! You live you learn.

Weekly Unplugged Project- Magic

2009-05-13T17:05:00.004-04:00

For this weeks Unplugged Project I pulled the only two "magic tricks" I know out of my hat. :) I have remembered these since I was a kid. We did the "I bet I can walk through this piece of paper" trick and the "Bet I can put pins/needles/thumbtacks into this balloon without popping it" trick. You love my terminology I know.

Cut along the lines and then cut only the middle apart and walk through!

Scotch tape was the secret in this magic trick.

Muffin Tin Monday - Theme: Children's Literature

2009-05-11T10:20:00.002-04:00

Our Muffin Tin was based on the book Growing Vegetable Soup (Books for Young Readers). We used craft sticks to labels our vegetables like they did in the book for their garden.

Inside the book:

Last Minute Mothers Day Present

2009-05-08T20:46:00.002-04:00

I had a lot of ideas running around in my head for his present to make his mom for Mothers Day. I decided to use up the Plaster of Paris that has been sitting in their closet for 4 years. So, we made Plaster of Paris collage heart. We used glitter, scrabble tiles, glass rocks etc. He helped make one for me too. :)

Weekly Unplugged Project- Powder

2009-05-04T21:06:00.003-04:00

Does flour and baking soda count as powder? I sure hope so. So today for the Weekly Unplugged Project we used his favorite product FLOUR and made stress balls. We made some with flour and some with baking soda. We didn't have any cornstarch. :) Or a real funnel and my homemade one was a total FAIL. While we had balloons out to tried to make bean bags like Flip Flops and Applesauce. So not as cute as hers! Plus my computer died in the middle of reading the directions fully.

Pretty boring.

2009-05-03T18:21:00.004-04:00

I admit it. I have been slacking lately on the exciting project front. Between neighborhood garage sales and weird "working" hours and birthdays we have been basically just hanging out. The most exciting things lately have been 50 cent sand art (garage sale find!), giant Cars puzzle (birthday present!) and discussing Titanic! Oh! I also bought him a canvas bag he could decorate so he could hold some of our many library books. Yes, he drew the Titanic and an Iceberg on it.

He turned 5 years old a week or so ago. 5! I have been watching him since he was a little over 6 months old or so. It's crazy. He starts kindergarten next school year. :(

Next week I am going to start some hardcore project making and exciting activity having because once summer comes and Big Brother is home all the time it will be harder to get him to concentrate on me. :)

Random Pictures:

Fingerprint Sunflowers

2009-04-22T18:47:00.001-04:00

I got this idea from Preschool Daze. Unfortunately, I can not free hand draw anything! Like a sunflower. So I printed out a template he traced around it and then took brown paint and dipped his finger in and made the sunflower seeds in the middle. So cute!

Weekly Unplugged Project- Science

2009-04-20T19:57:00.003-04:00

Both of the "experiments" we did today today for The Weekly Unplugged Project came from this book: Simple Science Experiments With Everyday Materials

For the first one we took 1 tsp of baking soda and 1oz of water and dissolved it in the bottom of an empty water bottle. Then he poured in the 2 oz of vinegar and I QUICKLY slipped the balloon over the top of the bottle. And...tada the balloon inflated. (because of carbon dioxide you create)

The next project was called Magic Colors. This took some time. He painted the front of two circles blue and the back of one yellow and the back of the other red. (I held them when he painted the backs.) Then we hung them up to dry and then we waited and waited and waited...When they were mostly dry I poked holes (two on each side) and threaded some string through them. Then you are supposed to twirl it a around and then release it and your eyes are supposed to see the color purple for the red/blue one and green for the yellow/blue one. At first it didn't work because our circles were too big. So we cut down the circles and tada! It worked! Make sure to look right at the circle.

Muffin Tin Monday-Theme: MTM Goes Awol

2009-04-20T19:16:00.002-04:00

Boring I know, but we ate our MT in bed today!

Puffcorn, Bananas, Cheese
Ketchup, Veggie Dogs, Corn

It was an unoffical yellow day as well. :)

Weekly Unplugged Project- Transportation

2009-04-15T10:28:00.003-04:00

This weeks Unplugged Project Theme was easy. Transportation. Someone has been OBSESSED with The Titanic lately and this was a perfect opportunity to do a project I had been planning anyways. We made a book featuring The Titanic with the story and pictures by the little guy. He knows way more about the Titanic than the book says. :) All he draws is the Titanic so he's had a lot of practice. He really liked making his own book and said today was the best day of his life. Haha.

Muffin Tin Tuesday- No Theme

2009-04-14T20:10:00.002-04:00

I got a bit more creative today with our Muffin Tin. Yes, I need a life. Anyways, I made bologna flowers with black olives in the middle. (olives are a favorite around here) The cheese in the lower corner is supposed to be a sun ;). Strawberries and a leftover Easter Bunny cookie finish it off.

The Last Of The Easter Projects

2009-04-09T18:54:00.003-04:00

I just realized we didn't get around to making the hand print bunnies! :(

We blew out eggs a couple days ago and then washed them. The next day we decorated them with markers. One suffered a terrible accident as you can see. He really liked making the holes in the ends of the eggs.

Then we played a Egg Match Memory game. I took two of some random items and put them into different eggs and mixed them up. Then we found the matches. Those little egg holder are from the Thrift Store (99 cents for 3) and they were originally from Pier One! :)

Carrot Collage

2009-04-07T18:56:00.003-04:00

This turned out so cute! And it as beyond easy! The inspiration for this project came from No Time For Flashcards!

At first I picked out a small piece of cardboard to use, then he said "I want a HUGE carrot!" So, we cut some poster board in half and used that.

I had him cut up pieces of Green and Orange construction paper and Green and Orange Tissue Paper into baskets. He loves using scissors! Kids could also tear up the pieces with their hands. Then he applied glue ALL OVER the a carrot shape I drew on the paper. I helped a bit because it was a HUGE CARROT and I added more glue as needed. We let dry and then I cut it out. So cute!

Foil Easter Eggs

2009-04-07T18:44:00.002-04:00

This was another project I have seen on numerous blogs.

I cut egg shapes out of cardboard (empty cereal box) and covered them in foil.
I had him paint the whole egg and then use a Q-Tip to draw designs or whatever he wanted in the wet paint! Easy! Then we strung them together and hung them next to the Easter Egg Collage in the window.

Easter Egg Collage

2009-04-07T12:36:00.003-04:00

I've seen this done on a bunch of different blogs so we decided to try it yesterday! It worked out great. I took a piece of contact paper, cut out a egg shape and taped it down (face up) on the work space. I set out different materials. Pom Poms, Feathers, Tissue paper, Sequins, Felt, Etc. I told him to stick on whatever he felt like sticking on and that's it. I then sandwiched all the stuff in with another square of contact paper, then trimmed around it. We hung it up in the window when we were done.

Weekly Unplugged Project- Words

2009-04-06T16:51:00.003-04:00

This weeks Unplugged Project theme was Words.

We did Unscramble The Sentence. I wrote down short sentences out of a well loved book and cut apart the words mixed them up and had him put the sentence back in order.

We also played with the Alphabet/Word Chart.

Muffin Tin Monday-Theme: Spring!

2009-04-06T16:39:00.002-04:00

It's Monday again! That means Muffin Tin Monday! This weeks theme was Spring...

Pink Go-Gurt (Pink is THE color of Spring right), Strawberries, Goldfish (with basketballs, which is a Spring Sport, right?)
Scrambled Eggs (leftover from some an easter egg project), Same, Carrots (Easter Bunny loves carrots!)

Hey, I tried!

Embroidery Thread Eggs

2009-04-04T21:32:00.003-04:00

I have been seeing these eggs EVERYWHERE lately so we decided to try it.

Yeah, not so good. He liked the balloons he LOVED the popping of the balloons when they dried but it was a little too hard for us to do. Oh well. They still turned out pretty cute.

We took some water balloons (just the right size!) and blew them up. I hung them up and we dipped the thread in a half glue half water mixture and stuck it around the balloons. He waited very patiently while they dried but couldn't wait to pop them!

Simple Ship Craft

2009-04-03T20:21:00.001-04:00

How many 4 year olds are obsessed with the Titanic? I only know of one. This kid over here. I am in desperate NEED OF Titanic/Ship related activities. Here's an easy project I found over at Enchanted Learning. He wasn't too impressed with it because it didn't have any smoke stacks.

Muffin Tin Wednesday-Theme: No Theme

2009-04-01T15:33:00.002-04:00

We are a bit late on Muffin Tin Monday!

Oranges, Oranges and Go-Gurt
Spaghetti, Spaghetti and Pickles!

Flour and Peas and Sieves oh my!

2009-04-01T15:15:00.003-04:00

"Indy" ALWAYS asks to play with the flour when we cook anything involving it. I let him every now and then. When I saw this idea at The Wonder Years I knew I had to try it. I used flour and black eyed peas that we usually use for counting activities. He put the black eyed peas into the flour and stirred it up. Then he used the sieve to fish the peas out. It worked really well. Our sieve wasn't as small or cute as The Wonder Years one but it was small enough for him to handle. He learned to tap the sieve against his other palm to shake the flour out. Of course all the tools were soon abandoned for his hands!

Homemade Playdough

2009-03-30T13:17:00.002-04:00

I can never remember which recipe I like the best for play dough so we always use a different one. :) I found this one via a google search for Best Play Dough Recipe and it gave me Super Crunchy Mamas site. Here is her recipe:

1 cup water

1 Tbsp vegetable oil

1 Tbsp cream of tartar

1/2 cup of salt

several drops of food coloring

1 cup of flour

Visit her site to get detailed directions.

Puffy Paint

2009-03-30T12:19:00.002-04:00

We did this awhile ago when we did Corn Syrup painting the first time so I decided to introduce this again. The Artful Parent calls it Puffy Paint. He loved it! I didn't mix it very well because chunks of flour or something kept getting stuck in the nozzles. (another thrift store find!) I saved it over the weekend in the refrigerator and he painted again with it today. We just stirred it back up and it was as good as new.

To make you'll need:

2/3 cup of flour
2/3 cup of salt
2/3 cup of water
2 squeeze containers from craft store
1 Tablespoon tempera paint –at least 2 colors

It takes DAYS to fully dry.
Full instructions at The Artful Parent.

The finished dried artwork. You can't tell how much it sparkles!

Today we made an Easter Egg with the Puffy Paint.

Nuts & Bolts

2009-03-29T19:02:00.002-04:00

I introduced this a couple weeks ago and he wasn't too interested. I set it out again last week along with the two short and long labeled baskets. In theory he was to screw a nut on the bolt and put it in the long or short basket. I really thought he'd like this activity being crazy about tools and all. I was wrong. He did about three and then just wanted to dump them out and have them attack each other. Maybe I will try again in a few weeks. Luckily they were only a dollar at the dollar store!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

2009-03-27T21:47:00.003-04:00

I can't take credit for this one. He brought this home from Preschool earlier this week and I was mad I didn't think of it first! ;) After reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar they made this project about the life cycle of a butterfly! They used a seed to represent the egg, spiral pasta to represent a caterpillar, shell pasta to represent a cocoon and bow tie pasta to represent the butterfly!

Penny Boat Race

2009-03-27T15:14:00.003-04:00

Last night I took the kids to Science Night as the 9 year olds school. I've took them the past couple years and it's always pretty fun. The 4 year olds favorite activity was "Penny Boat Race". Of course this is nothing new and its been on to-do list for awhile. I promisded him we could do it all day today if he wanted and he did do it for a looooong time today. Like, hours, seriously. I started out by making two ships and he made one. Then I made a chart to see how many of each coin ended up sinking the boats. I was very proud of his counting to some very large numbers! :)

Anyone out there have an IPhone? IPod Touch?

2009-03-25T20:31:00.002-04:00

If you do you should visit my husbands post about a Free App for the IPhone or IPod Touch. He develops applications for them and he is giving away his first app for free to 15 people! It's a fun little time wasting game called "Hi-Low".

Pretty please go visit his site! :)

Going In Circles

2009-03-25T19:37:00.003-04:00

Ok, this is really starting to get on my nerves. I see a project somewhere. I save it either by Starring it in Google Reader or bookmarking or even clipping it using evernote. Now I can't find out where I first saw this project! I've looked everywhere. Oh well. Here is goes anyways...

Easy and fun! I used a left over Styrofoam cup. I cut the bottom off to use as a stamp and then we also used the top as a stamp. They worked great and they were really easy for him to hold.

Idea from here.

Graphing With Trix Cereal

2009-03-25T17:44:00.002-04:00

This was our first experience with graphing. The book where I got this idea said to use M&Ms maybe that would have made him more into it. He graphed out as many has colored Trix as his attention would allow and then he counted them up and figured out which color had the most cereal.

Corn Syrup Painting AKA Shiny Paint

2009-03-25T15:37:00.003-04:00

Original instructions came from Kinderart. This is the second time we made this type of painting but the first time we did it was over a year ago and he had forgotten all about it.

I put some corn syrup into a cup and had him spread it on the paper with a big paintbrush. This stuff is sticky!

Then I put a few drops of yellow food coloring and a few drops of blue food coloring to start. I gave him two Q-tips and had him mix the colors in the corn syrup to make green. I told him he could use his fingers if he wanted, but he decided not to. Smart boy. Then I put some more colors around for him to mix into new colors. After a few days the painting dried really shiny.

Weekly Unplugged Project- Long

2009-03-23T15:03:00.002-04:00

The Weekly Unplugged Project this week was long. We took the noodles/pasta we dyed last week (that will be another post) and I cut a long piece are yarn. We threaded on the colored noodles. I started at one end and he started at the other end and threaded until we thought it was loooong enough.

I have been wanting to make this Snake since I first saw it and I thought today would be a good day since it's also kinda long. And rainbow colored. :)

I had to use a drill for the first time today. I drilled a hole in the bottoms of plastic eggs. Then we strung them together. I pushed the yarn through because my holes weren't very good. Then he pushed them together at the bottom. You use a whole egg with holes drilled through the top and bottom for the ends.

Muffin Tin Monday-Theme: Rainbow

2009-03-23T14:19:00.003-04:00

This weeks Muffin Tin Monday theme was Rainbow. Easy, right? We just started making our rainbow jello so it was not near ready to eat, but we had plenty of other foods to make a colorful lunch today.

I love your blog, too!

2009-03-21T20:32:00.005-04:00

Lucky me! I just received the I Love Your Blog Award from Lucky Me! Thanks so much! These awards might seem silly to some people but I really appreciate them and they let me know people out there are actually paying attention to what I am posting. Which encourages me to post more. Thank you!

Here are the rules:

1) Add the logo of the award to your blog

2) Add a link to the person who awarded it to you

3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs

4) Add links to those blogs on your blog

5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs!

I would like to nominate:

1. Blissfully At Home

2. My Two Happy Homeschoolers

3. Play, Explore and Learn

4. Teaching Tiny Tots

5. Funny Days With Mommy and Maddie

6. A Mommy's Adventures

7. Wilson-Parkes Family Tree

and an extra one ;) The Snails Trail!

Cherry Blossoms

2009-03-20T21:09:00.007-04:00

This idea came from Perpetual Preschool. That is one of the first websites I found when searching for art activities for kids a long time ago.

We changed things from what they listed. I used watered down brown paint instead of food coloring.
I used a dropper to drop some of the paint in the bottom corner and had him use a straw to blow OUT and push the paint up and to the left and right to form branches. (Where did all my pictures of him using the straw go??? Oh, well. )
Then he dotted glue along the branch.
He took small squares of dark and light pink tissue paper and balled them up and stuck them on the glue.

I thought his came out so pretty and spring-like that I made one too. :)

Check out more projects for kids at We made It, Showcase Saturday!

More projects at:

The Day After St. Patricks Day

2009-03-19T16:22:00.000-04:00

The actual St. Patrick's Day was kinda weird. We had an older brother home sick and the little one can't really concentrate on anything but him when he's around. We did have a Treasure Hunt for some chocolate coins but that's about it. So, Wednesday we did some St. Patrick's Day/Green oriented activities.

I used the green colored cards from my old Phase 10 deck and some green glass stones to have him practice his counting and number order.

We got the colored rice out again and I hid special green coins in it for him to find. He did this for a long time.

We also did another "rainbow" project. I found this nifty "rainbow maker" for $1.75 at the store. It was pretty fun/interesting. The three colored brushes come off so they can be used separately or stuck together to make rainbows. The paint tablet is in the sponge applicator so you just have to dip it in water and paint! He wanted to cover every square inch of his giant piece of paper.

Weekly Unplugged Project- Water

2009-03-18T10:54:00.006-04:00

This week Unplugged Project was water. Which just happens to be one of our favorite things to play with. Anything to do with water is usually a hit around here, including taking baths and washing dishes.

The first thing we did was the Montessori based "thermic bottles". I took my thrift store glass bottles again and had him fill up two Ice Cold bottles using a small funnel. I filled up the room temperature and warm ones. Two for each temperature. I was not sure if he'd be able to tell the difference between the warm and room temperature ones but he knew right away that they were different and matched them up after carefully testing each one by wrapping his hand around each one.

We also did water transferring using a dropper. We used cups of Yellow and Blue water and wehn mixed in the flower ice cube tray it turned green. Magic, huh? He kinda lost interest in this about half way through. Using the dropper is way too time consuming for him. I need to find a bigger, better dropper anyways.

The last "water" activity came from Flip Flops and Applesauce. Rainy day splatter painting. I cut out the half circles and had him use the scalloped edge sissocers to trim the bottom edge. Then he glued them onto the paper. After drawing a few handles myself he wanted to do the rest so he did. Then the fun part we used watered down blue and white paint to make light blue and dipped an old toothbrush in it and SPLATTERED it all over the picture to look like rain.

Muffin Tin Monday-Theme: Green

2009-03-17T12:22:00.003-04:00

So I had to do my Muffin Tin Monday today which worked out since today is St. Patrick's Day and the theme is Green.

Here's our Muffin Tin!

Top row: Go-Gurt, Sour Cream and Onion chips, Pickles
Bottom Row: Peas, green mac & cheese, green mac & cheese

Rainbows Revisited

2009-03-16T21:08:00.004-04:00

Here is another rainbow themed project we did last week. Simple enough and he got to use a stapler which is scary but he really likes it.

He started out by cutting strips of construction paper. We actually used the Roy G. Biv colors this time. Then we just made a paper chain and I held the paper while he stapled. (Scary! ;) ) Then we attached the Pot 'O Gold to the end.

I did not "work" today so I will be making up for it tomorrow. We have to catch up on St Patrick's Day activities, Muffin Tin Monday and The Weekly Unplugged Project. Plus I have a new Rainbow art project to try.

Lemons to Lemonade

2009-03-15T20:57:00.003-04:00

After seeing this "award" floating around the blogoshere for awhile I am happy to say I "won" two of them! Thank you so much Momma Snail @Snail Trail and Jennifer @ The Wilson Family Tree for nominating me. :)

The Lemons to Lemonade Award!

The rules of the award are as follows:
1) Put the logo on your blog or post.

2) Nominate at least 10 blogs that show great attitude or gratitude.

3) Link to your nominees within your post.

4) Let the nominees know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.

5) Share the love and link to the person from who you received your award.

1. A Mommy's Adventures
2. The Peterson Party
3. Ten Kids and a Dog
4. Adventures of a Flake
5. My Two Happy Homeschoolers
6. Faith and Gasoline
7. ScottChrisCoriCassiCali
8. Play, Explore and Learn
9. A Listmakers Life
10. Our Montessori Story

These are just some of the blogs I have gotten many of my ideas from and you should check them all out for sure. I have also appreciated most of them visiting and supporting my newish blog!

Math.

2009-03-15T17:44:00.002-04:00

I have an old deck of Phase 10 cards that are missing a few so I have been wanting to use them in someway. They are so colorful and I couldn't just throw them away! I just set up this Math game using the cards and wrote "plus" and "equal" signs and let him use beans as counters. I showed him the easiest way to get the answer was to look at the first card and count out that many beans and then look at the second card and count out that many beans and then count them all up.

More Practical Life

2009-03-15T17:29:00.003-04:00

This idea came from Our Montessori Journey. So easy to set up! Just get a basket of Pom Poms and a hand help dust pan and brush and let the kids go crazy dumping and sweeping. For a kid who has trouble cleaning up after himself and has never sweep anything in his life he really liked it. Sure, he threw the pom poms around the room a few times, but he always picked them up and put them back in the basket. This means he will be cleaning up a lot more of his own spills from now on!

Shamrock Collage

2009-03-13T20:13:00.003-04:00

This is a classic activity that can altered for any holiday/season just by changing the colors and shapes.

First you cut out two squares of clear contact paper the same size.
You peel the back off one and lay it face up on the table and let the kids go at it using tissue paper and glitter.
When they are done you peel the back off the second sheet of contact paper and stick on the first one and rub them together.
Then you cut out into the desired shape. I can not free hand draw as you can see with this messed up shamrock.
We did the same thing with Christmas trees around Christmas time and hearts on valentines day.

Orange ya glad I didn't say banana?

2009-03-13T13:12:00.003-04:00

I had the same idea as Adventures Of A Flake a couple days ago. I wanted to try using a manual juicer with "Indy". Alas, no one I knew had one. So when I finally made it to the store I found a pretty good one for about 3 bucks. We didn't get much juice but he really enjoyed the process. And the tasting. Then we tasted ours compared to the store bought kind. He said he loved both.

Walking On The Line

2009-03-10T20:49:00.004-04:00

I have been researching Montessori and Montessori activities for awhile now and this is one of the first things I found. Walking On the Line, is basically just what it sounds like. First I used duct tape to form an "ellipse" as best as I could! I am sure I didn't do the shape exactly right. He really liked this activity much more than I thought he would. I showed him how to walk slowly and balance while walking on the line. Then I showed him Heel Toe walking. Then we carried a full cup of water while walking and trying now to spill it. And he wanted to carry a box of oranges! Now that was kinda difficult!

More info on Walking On The Line can be found here and here.

Topic: Teeth

2009-03-10T19:17:00.003-04:00

This project came from Our Montessori Journey!

What an awesome way to demonstrate why we need to brush our teeth. And why we need to limit our intake of drinks like soda! Our Montessori Journey said they left their egg soaking in soda all night. We only had the patience to let it soak for about an hour and it was already stained brown. Yuck.

So, we then took fluoride toothpaste and a toothbrush and he scrubbed down the egg. It turned white again!

Since we are on the subject here is the chart we use to track his teeth brushing!
I download it from here.

What's that sound?

2009-03-10T12:00:00.003-04:00

Last night I made the Sound "Cylinders" I have been wanting to make for a long time. I just didn't have enough of the same type of containers that weren't clear to use. Then I saw this post over at Teaching Tiny Tots. Sound eggs! You can find more information about Montessori Sound Cylinders here.

This project was so easy! I took plastic eggs and found things to fill them with different things that would sound different when shook. Fill two eggs with the same items.
I used:
Glass rocks
Pennies
Beads
Rice
Sugar
Flour
Cotton Balls
Cheerios
Then I taped them shut!

I did not use the same color for the same sound. I thought it would be too easy for him. He worked this out pretty fast without using the same colors!

The Rainbow Connection

2009-03-09T20:04:00.005-04:00

I originally read about this activity at My Montessori Journey. Then I began seeing it everywhere! Like at Ten Kids and a Dog and Adventures of a Flake!

I had a problem with the first Styrofoam/foam stuff I used. It was the crumbly soft kind and when I tried to tape it down so it would not stay put! Luckily we had a small Styrofoam ball left over from The Bluebird of Happiness project that I cut in half and taped down. (I wish I would have thought to use play dough like Joann at Ten kids and a Dog!) Eventually I added some cotton balls to make it look like clouds.

So, after getting that worked out I had Indy stick one end of a pipe cleaner in one side then thread on at least 6 beads the same color of the pipe cleaner then stick it in the other side. After he was done I transfered the whole thing to blue paper so we could keep it and admire it forever. ;)

This was another Rainbow project we did last week. It's called "Catch a Rainbow". You can get the details here.

Science Rules.

Weekly Unplugged Project- Happy

2009-03-09T18:26:00.002-04:00

This weeks Unplugged Project was Happy easy enough, right? We do things all the time that make us Happy. So I went a little literal and we made a Bluebird of Happiness. (click the link for more detailed instructions.

We painted two Styrofoam balls blue. We let them dry (kinda!) then stuck them together with a piece of a skewer. Then we added the googly eyes, feathers and legs (more pieces of skewers) and a beak (skewer painted orange).

Muffin Tin Monday-Theme: No Theme

2009-03-09T13:52:00.002-04:00

No theme this week over at Muffin Tin Monday, so ours is pretty boring!

Back Row L-R: Pickles, Strawberries and Gushers Fruit Snacks
Front Row L-R: Organic Ravioli, Organic Ravioli and Corn

Scavenger Hunt!

2009-03-07T20:44:00.003-05:00

Any kind of scavenger hunt is a big hit with both kids here actually. This took about 4 and a half minutes to put together. I did google search for ___ clip art. For example: bird clip art, car clip art, squirrel clip art, etc. Copy and pasted intpo a Word Doc and printed it out and off we went. We took our first walk in MONTHS! First warmish day in a long time. He was really enjoying looking for and crossing out the objects. Until....he tripped and fell. :( He then wanted to go home. We will be doing this again! Next time I will use a small clipboard to make it easier for him to hold and cross off pictures as we walk.

You light up my life....

2009-03-07T14:33:00.003-05:00

with Tissue Paper Candle holders! In a green and light green color scheme for St. Patricks Day of course!

I bought three glass containers at the thrift store for 29 cents a piece! Can't get much better than that since we have no need for baby food jars anymore.

This project was a little too time consuming for him though and frustrating when the tissue paper stuck more to his fingers than the glass but I jumped in and helped him and we got three pieces done.

First, he ripped up the tissue paper into small pieces. He then helped me mix the white glue and water. We did equal parts of each.

Then, since we couldn't find the big paintbrush he used the heart sponge from an earlier project to sponge the glue mixture on the glass. Then he stuck on some tissue paper and more glue...etc etc until the glass pieces were covered!

More Shamrock Shenanigans

2009-03-06T10:41:00.002-05:00

I am really losing my mind because I know I JUST saw this project somewhere and I can not remember where...again! Sorry, it's a great, cute, EASY idea!

I took a sponge and cut it into a Heart Shape and one piece into a skinny rectangle.
I set out green, green-yellow, and light green paint and had "Indy" dip the heart in and stamp in three times on the paper in a clover shamrock pattern and then used the rectangle for the stem. You could just draw the stem. That's it. So simple and cute!

How many, many feet you meet.

2009-03-05T08:23:00.004-05:00

Why didn't I warn him to STAY ON THE PAPER OR WOOD FLOOR??! I turned my back for one minute and he had ran around the room onto the carpet. It was my own fault. I didn't tell him not to.

What am I talking about? THIS!

I rolled out two looong pieces of paper. (I found a roll at the thrift store for like a dollar) And I taped the ends down.
I put paint on a cookie sheet.

Then he went wild walking up and down the paper. It worked better when I actually painted his feet. Plus it tickled.

That was yesterday. Today:

We used some text from The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss and wrote them on the banner/mural. I had him write FEET and FOOT whenever it came up.

Close Ups of the finished product.

I got the words from here. I can not believe we didn't have an actual copy of the book!

St. Patrick's Day Spirit

2009-03-04T09:45:00.004-05:00

Yes, even my font is green. Today we started our St. Patrick's Day activities.
I can not remember where I got this idea...Someone lined their shamrocks with buttons. If you are out there let me know so I can credit you! EDIT: I got this idea from ScottChristieCoriCassieCali! Thanks so much!

Anyways, here's our version of it.

I traced 4 hearts onto green construction paper. I put that and a gold pipe cleaner in one basket. I put the tools he would need in the other basket. Glue, Scissors, Glitter and Tape.

He cut the four hearts out. He is so good at cutting! I am so proud of him. He takes his time and follows the line very closely.
Then he arranged them in the Shamrock shape, glued them together, added the stem with tape on the back.

I helped him line it with glue and then he sprinkled green glitter on the outline!

The Finished Product.

A little Late, But We Can Still Celebrate!

2009-03-03T10:30:00.005-05:00

Awesome rhyming title because we celebrated Dr. Seuss' Birthday today! (Even though it was yesterday!)

We read a bunch of Dr. Seuss books.

Watched and ate "Green Eggs and Ham". Didn't have any ham so I used Bologna and meatless sausage patty shaped into the letters H-A-M! Sometimes you gotta get creative.

And we made a Cat In The Hat Hat!

These are the awesome sites I got these ideas from:

No Time For Flash Cards- Again!
The Crafty Crow
Story Time and More
VickiBlackwell.com

Marshmallow Rainbow

2009-03-03T08:17:00.008-05:00

This project came from No Time For Flashcards.

We took a bag a fruit flavored mini marshmallows (most were already hard and they would have been thrown out anyways!) He separated them into the four colored cups and then glued them onto a rainbow shape I drew (not very well might I add).

(Trying something new with the Picasa Collage Maker...)

Weekly Unplugged Project- Bottle

2009-03-02T11:37:00.008-05:00

This week for The Weekly Unplugged Project the theme was Bottle.I finally got to make use of the little glass bottles I bought at the Thrift Store for $1.29!
After going through ideas for bottle I knew we already did an I Spy bottle with rice and an ocean in a bottle, so I wanted something different. He's into anything with water and we've been working on color mixing for awhile so this idea was born.

First, using a funnel (for the first time) he poured water into each glass bottle.

Then he followed the "recipe" cards to color the water. We used 6 bottles and made 6 colors!

Then of course, he wanted to mix them all up.

This always fits in with the rainbow theme and all the rainbow projects I have been wanting to do.

Clothespin Number Match

2009-03-01T13:08:00.003-05:00

Indy knows most of his numbers but he starts mumbling at around 14. I made a wheel with dots with some numbers between 11-20 with clothespins with the numerals matching them. He is a lot more interested in using Clothespins for activities than I thought he would be.

More Pretend Soup

2009-02-26T20:07:00.003-05:00

(Woo hoo! My first post using my new MSI Wind u100 "netbook". It is so cute.)

Anyway...He had fun making these Hide & Seek Muffins. He got to "hide" the strawberries. They weren't so delicious. Not sure what the problem was...Oh well, it's the process not the product right??

Randomness

2009-02-24T19:20:00.003-05:00

An all time favorite activity: helping (pre) wash the dishes.
Dividing objects into living and nonliving. He did well after telling him it was not "real or pretend".

Pink Fruit Dip from...Pretend Soup! He loved it almost as much as he loved the blender we used.

Weekly Unplugged Project- Clothing

2009-02-23T09:16:00.007-05:00

This is our first week participating in The Weekly Unplugged Challenge over at Unplug Your Kids. The theme was "Clothing" and I couldn't think of ANYTHING to do with real clothes except Tie Dye and I didn't have enough time to do that this week. (even though I really want to do it soon!) So after looking at some of the other entries I came up with two ideas.

The first one I printed off from here: Making Learning Fun.

It was a little too easy for him. Here's "Indy" putting it together:

The next project was Clothesline addition problems. I wrote the equations on the Pants and the answers on the shirts. He liked it a lot more than I thought. The only problem was the clothespins were too heavy for the paper clothes. Not enough planning ahead on my part. I am going to look for mini clothespins or something next time I am out and about.

The Problem.

Edit: March 1
Found mini clothespins and they work so much better and are so cute!

Pretend Soup = Real Fun

2009-02-21T15:44:00.003-05:00

He loved the slicing!
And the eating. Don't worry that's not salt. It's Parmesan Cheese. Mmm.

Click the picture check it out at Amazon.com.

I've know about this book for awhile and now that "Indy" is into cooking we checked it out at the library. The recipes are healthy and the recipes are so easy to follow. We made Zucchini and he ate the whole plate full!

Before and After

2009-02-19T21:19:00.004-05:00

The bedroom wall before. We worked really hard to complete all the letters for the Alphabet Wall. Of course, each letter has a theme to go along with it. But then....
Star Wars came into our lives. That is a giant life-sized Darth Vader Fat-Head wall sticker. That is a small cute Darth Vader in the chair and a small doll sized Darth, too!

Snowman Letter Matching Game

2009-02-18T19:03:00.003-05:00

This was a cute Winter themed letter game. The capital letter is on the snowmen and you match the lower case letter that is the hats. Sorry, I can't remember where I downloaded it from!

And yes he is dressed like Indiana Jones. Like he has been for months.

Classics - Foot Ghost

2009-02-17T20:03:00.002-05:00

He loves anything to do with paint. Especially when he is supposed to paint a body part!

Easy and cute!

A Winner Is Me!

2009-02-17T19:34:00.003-05:00

I received my prize package from Lucky Girl Gifts aka Cari today! Woo hoo! The heart ornaments are even more cute in person! I am so lucky!

This giveaway was part of the One World One Heart Event. There were over 900 blogs participating! What an awesome idea.

I actually won three contests! I was so surprised. I am signing up to give something away next year!

Cornstarch Clay

2009-02-17T18:59:00.002-05:00

The idea for this activity came from here.

Man, my pictures keep posting in the wrong order....

Playing With Colored Rice

2009-02-17T18:39:00.004-05:00

We colored rice using this recipe:

Materials:

uncooked rice
food coloring
rubbing alcohol

To food color rice, add a healthy amount of food coloring to two 1 tsp of rubbing alcohol in a ziploc bag.

Pour in about 3/4 cup of UNCOOKED rice.

Close the bag

Shake well

Taken from: Here-DLTKs

Read Your Own Books 2009 Challenge

2009-02-16T21:25:00.001-05:00

A challenge to read your own books. Wow, I have about 873948530 books I want to read...that I already own! Evenually, I will have a real list.

Valentine Work

2009-02-16T20:46:00.001-05:00

Here is a "Montessori" based activity we did last week.

Tweezing felt hearts and sparkly pom poms in the correct pattern.

Re: The Name

2009-02-16T20:42:00.000-05:00

I am a Nanny. Sometimes people think I am The Mom. I say "Oh, no I'm just the Nanny". So there you have it. Though, I hope they think I am more than "just" the Nanny.