Celebrating Dr. Seuss

As a teacher, Read Across America Day was something that was always celebrated in my school and classroom.  For those of you who don't know, this is March 2 (or the closest day to it if it's a weekend) and is Dr. Suess's birthday.  Since I am no longer teaching, I decided to incorporate the world of Dr. Seuss at home with Derek.  Since March 2 fell on a Saturday this year, we did activities every day for the week leading up to it.  Many of which I found on Pinterest!

We kicked off the week by watching The Lorax and reading the book.  The next day, we made Truffula trees.  We used Model Magic, pipe cleaners, pom pom balls, and a hot glue gun.  Derek got to pick whatever colors he wanted.

The next day we read Green Eggs and Ham and made a snack.  We used pretzel sticks, white chocolate chips, and green M&M's.

The third activity we did was The Foot Book.  We read the book, then traced everyone's feet.  They were labeled "L" and "R" and Derek had to decide which feet belonged to which person.  Then he glued them into a book and we measured them all with Unifix cubes.  I wrote the numbers in pencil and he traced them in marker.  He is not really interested in writing but he is starting to at least trace it if I write it first.

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish is the next book and project we did.  I made a fish bowl out of paper and he used finger paint to make fish in the bowl with hand prints.  Glitter glue was used to make the fish sparkle and to make bubbles.  Googly eyes were added to the fish as well.

Throughout the week we read many different Dr. Seuss books and on Saturday, we watched The Cat In the Hat movie.

Kitchen Turned Art Studio

We have two dining room tables in our house.  One has three leaves and can be made VERY small.  When we got our larger table, we used the second table in the foyer to put things like mail and the phone on.  At holidays, we would open it up with the leaves and use it for a buffet table. I wanted a new cabinet to hold toys and games for the kids instead of using the table there.  For my birthday last year I got a really nice cabinet for that spot.  Now what to do with the other table?  We stored it in the basement.  Three months later, Thanksgiving rolled around.  Where were we going to put the food?  Well, when it was completely opened up, it fit in the kitchen by the big window. So the buffet would just be in there.  I decided I would keep it up, full sized, through the holidays to accommodate all of the gatherings we were having.

During this time, I had my nieces over for the day (they are 3 and 4).  So with the three kids (Brooke went somewhere with Daddy), I planned cooking and craft projects and made the table into a square in the kitchen.  This way I would only have one room to clean up.  They did their projects there and ate lunch.  I decided I really liked having it in the kitchen.  So it stayed.  Now I use it all the time.  If I have things to do in the kitchen, cooking or cleaning, Derek and Brooke sit in there and eat or Derek might do a project.  My kitchen has always been the art studio in the house.

Last week, Derek started asking to do projects so I keep a box of "stuff", pom poms, paper, scissors, glue, stickers, crayons, in the kitchen for him to create.  We made doily snowmen and then he found a box that he said looks like windows.  We glued them in the windows and decorated the outside with snowflakes and glitter.  Idea for the snowmen came from here. 

Today I set up the booster seat at the table in there.  This way Brooke can sit up at the table too and I don't have to move the highchair all over the place.  We did a painting project.  I put two squirts of paint in a Ziploc bag and taped it shut.  Brooke's was taped to the table too.  The idea was they would mix the two colors to create a new color.  Fun!

Next, we made play doh.  The other day we left the play doh out and it dried up.  There wasn't that much left anyway so it wasn't a big deal. I was waiting for it to be done so I could make some.  This was the last of the store bought stuff he received as a gift a while ago.  The recipe for the homemade play doh can be found here.  Today we made red and green play doh.  Brooke played with it too.

While they were doing this, I was able to empty the dishwasher, reload it, and reorganize the pantry, which was long overdue. 

Then, before dinner, they had a snack. Derek had carrots and Brooke had peas.  My before dinner snack rule is fruit/veggie only.  Derek was finished so he decided to play a spelling game.

Meal Planning and a Menu Board

As I have mentioned before in other posts, I do a lot of prep work when it comes to food.  Sometimes I prepare meals ahead of time and freeze them.  I always menu plan.  I have a notebook where I write down 7 meals for the week.  That is how I create my shopping list (as well as looking for staples that are low or out). Planning a specific meal for a specific day was not working for us.  Creating a menu board of some sort seemed like a good idea to organize the meal planning for everyone to see.  I found many ideas but went with the one below.  It uses a picture frame, spray paint, clothespins, scrapbook paper and envelopes.  Our kitchen has recently been upgraded and the color scheme is red, black, and white.  I chose to paint the frame white so it would pop off of the red walls.  Each of the meals is listed on small cards and on the backs is a list of the ingredients needed to make the meal.  This way, after I choose 7 meals, I can look at the backs to create my grocery list for the week.

spray painting the frame

list of ingredients on the back of the taco meal card

completed Menu Board hanging in my kitchen

A "Pin"teresting November-Part 3-Fun!

For the third installment of my "Pin"teresting November blogs, I will focus on the fun projects and activities I did with/for Derek.

He is really into Angry Birds so I saw an idea to make a huge Angry Birds game out of boxes.  Unfortunately the link from Pinterest has gone bad so I cannot link it but these are the pictures of what we made.  Since it's cold outside, we made it in the foyer of the house.  Derek has some Angry Bird stuffed animals so we used those in the game.  If I were to do it outside I would most likely use rubber playground balls.

Another thing he loves to do is play with play doh and cars so I combined the two!  There is a recipe to make play doh that looks like dirt.  It's made with coffee so he calls it coffee play doh.  I was unable to get it to be the same color as that in the picture.  But he enjoyed it anyway.

Mud-Like Play Doh

Finally, I made a card for a 2 year old who was having tubes put in his ears and his adenoids removed.  I saw this card and I thought it was really cute for a kid's get well card!  It is so simple too.  Band-aids and googly eyes!

Get Well Soon Card

A "Pin"teresting November-Part 2-Christmas

I started prepping for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving.  I like to do a lot of handmade things and that takes time so I need to get an early start.  Here are some of the things I made this year.

Those fancy dresses are cute but way too pricy for me when my daughter was only going to wear in maybe twice.  I found this idea and made it on a 9 month sized onsie.  The original design uses pink (as if girls don't wear enough pink), but I used Christmas colors instead.  After all, it IS a Christmas shirt!

Christmas Tree Onsie

I never know what to do with all of the adorable picture cards I receive at Christmas. I saw this idea and thought it was a cute, easy way to display them every year.  Make them into a book!  I made two books (so far).  The first one has cards that were sent before WE had children.  The second book starts when we had our son, Derek.  I made dividers to separate the years and the first photo for each year is the card that we sent out.

Photo Card Books

I think I am going to use that idea to make a book of birth announcements as well.

The majority of my Christmas decorations were handmade by my grandmothers and my great aunt.  Some of them are also things that were given to me as a baby.  When these decorations are eventually passed down to my children, I want them to know where they came from.  The following idea shows how to do that.  I used s 4x6 photo album and took pictures of the important decorations.  On a 4x6 index card I wrote an explanation of who made it and why it is important.  I thought hand writing that information was the best way to go.

Decoration Information Book

Finally, I wanted to create an Advent calendar for Derek, and eventually Brooke, that had them doing special activities and things to help others.  I searched for several different ideas to find the best way to create my own Advent calendar.  The idea I ended up making uses a 16x20 canvas, spray paint, and clothespins.  I also added stickers for decoration.  The original idea called for making cards for each day with the date on one side and the activity on the other.  This does not allow for any movement of activities from year to year and I didn't want to be stuck doing the same thing in the same order every year.  I created a list of several activities and I put the numbers on the clothespins.  This way I can easily change the activities every year.  

 

A "Pin"teresting November-Part 1-Food

In November I decided to focus on doing new projects.  I hosted a party early in the month and used some of my pins to make food for my guests. Pumpkin was my theme for the majority of the foods that I made.

Caprese Pops

Pumpkin Fluff Dip, Pumpkin Muffins, and Pumpkin Brownies

For the muffins, I used spice cake mix instead of yellow.  The brownies were made with a box of brownie mix and a can of pumpkin.  I also made pumpkin hot chocolate (not pictured).

Having a three year old means eating pizza once a week.  Instead of always placing a delivery order, I wanted to make our own pizza at home.  I found this quick and easy recipe and it uses Greek yogurt!  With one large container of Greek yogurt, I made dough for three crusts.  I added some garlic and Italian seasoning to the crust as well.  I also found a very simple sauce recipe.  We then made it into an Angry Bird Pizza (no picture, unfortunately and I got the idea from Pinterest but the link no longer works).

2 extra crusts for the freezer!  Wrapped in plastic wrap first then plastic bag with cooking instructions.  The dough is very sticky and after thawing requires extra flour to roll it out.

I may be a SAHM but that doesn't mean my days are full of hanging around the house doing nothing. I still need quick and easy meals to prepare for my family.  One dish meals are great.  I can work on prepping them a little at a time during the day then pop them in the oven when It's time to eat. 

Cheesy Chicken and Rice Bake

My note for next time is to add more chicken than what it calls for but otherwise it was a yummy one dish meal!

I made this yummy popcorn snack thinking our son would love it, popcorn + marshmallows, 2 of his favorite things.  He wouldn't even try it.  But I loved it!  Need to make more of the topping next time though.

Marshmallow Caramel Popcorn

And the final food item for the month was cinnamon bun waffles.  I made these on Thanksgiving morning.  Super easy waffles using cinnamon buns from the refrigerated food section. They don't come out perfectly shaped but who cares?  They have icing!

Cinnamon Bun Waffles

Mommy-Made Workbooks

As a teacher, I was not a fan of worksheets. I personally think there are better ways for children to learn that are more interactive than a worksheet.or a workbook.  That being said, there are also some moments when it is necessary to administer a paper/pencil activity to see if a student understands what is being taught. 

For the last month, I have been going through my 10 years of teaching supplies. My main goal was to get rid of my storage unit, so we moved everything into the garage.  This gave me a chance to sort through everything and really evaluate what is necessary for teaching in the future, and what is not.  I came across many things I have not used in many years and some things that I have never used.  A lot of things got tossed in the recycling or trash, and I was able to sell some things to new teachers at a yard sale.  All of my neatly organized binders were taken apart and put into a file cabinet (which I do not like but it takes up less space than 30 notebooks of files). As I went through the notebooks to file them, I pulled out pages that reinforced letters, numbers, colors, and shapes.  I turned them into workbooks.  Each workbook focuses on a different skill and the activities range in ability. For example, in the letter workbook there are simple matching upper and lower case letters and then there is also writing words that begin with a particular letter.

workbooks in old report folders that were in my teaching supplies

I also created one that is write and wipe with dry erase markers.  I have a laminator at home so I just laminated the sheets I wanted and put them in a folder.  I can add more or make it more challenging in the future.  Included are sheets for tracing the alphabet as well as his first and last name. (worksheet for name tracing was generated here.)  There is also number writing practice and a sheet to circle the correct amount of pictures that corresponds with the number.  I particularly like this book because it is reusable.  Eventually, the sheets may end up in a larger three ring notebook and they can also be reused when Brooke is old enough to practice these skills.

examples of two pages in the write and wipe book