Halloween Fun: Face Painting

I remember one time as a child standing in line for over an hour to get my face painted. That is dedication! Children seem to love to get their faces painted. Now, I am no artist. You can, however, easily paint fun holiday themes if you break down the picture into simple shapes.

Take the jack-o-lantern pictured above. A simple orange blob, some black eyes, nose, and mouth, and a green stem and you are done. I didn't make that, though, my sister-in-law did, and she is an artist. 

Here we have a spider web. You have a white web made from drawing various lines. You then have  black spider, which is made from drawing a couple of circles and some legs. 

Finally, we have a simple ghost. A white oval-ish with some black eyes and nose. 

There are a few different types of paints that people often use for doing face paints.

The first is a simple crayon or pencil. I haven't tried these, but a youth group at my church does face paints every year at the Halloween party, and they seemed to think they were not as easy as paint, which makes sense to me:

You then have actual face paint:





My sister-in-law just uses normal old acrylic paint:





Try this out with your children! You can do it for any holiday, sporting event, or even just something fun to do along with your weekly theme.

Valentine Magnets

You may have seen these around...they were quite popular around here about 4 years ago. We were learning about magnets a couple of weeks ago and I thought this would be a fun thing for my 5 and 3 year old to do.

AGE RANGE

Probably 3 or older is best. Kids, and grown ups, of all ages can enjoy this. Some 2 year olds might be able to do it (with lots of help). I decided my 21 month old was too young for this, especially because I knew my 3  year old might need a lot of help. 

SUPPLIES

• Gems (used often in flower arrangements. I found the bigger ones at Michaels).
• Magnets (small, round magnets that can hide on the back.
• Paper (we used Valentine scrapbook paper as well as plain paper to write on)
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Decoupage or Mod podge 
• Foam brush
• Hot glue gun (to be used by you only!)

ACTIVITY

1. Give your child a paper and a pencil.
2. Give your child the gem to trace onto a piece of paper. 
3. Have your child cut the circle out. The nice thing is this doesn't have to be perfect.
4. Have your child use the foam brush to put the glue on the flat side of the gem.
5. Have your child put the paper on the gem so it can be seen from the front.
6. Have your child put another layer of glue on the back of the paper.
7. Let dry. It will take some time, so clean up, take a nap, play....whatever.
8. Once dry, use a glue gun to glue magnet onto the back of the paper. Let dry.
9. Put it on the fridge!

You can do this for any holiday or any other reason you want to! You could do the child's name to hold up pictures the child made, letters, numbers, shapes...endless possibilities! You can write on the circle, draw pictures, use stickers...lots of fun.

Cutting the circle out

Gluing the paper on

Tree Decorating: A Fine Motor Activity

Decorating the Christmas tree is more than fun tradition. It provides some great learning along with it! The most obvious is fine motor practice. If you try to have things spaced as well as a child can space things, you will also be focusing on some spacial awareness and pre-planning. 

But allowing a child to help decorate isn't always as precious as those greeting cards and images in your head would lead you to believe. You can end up with broken ornaments and time outs...so I have a few tips to make decorating fun.

1-Set the tree up ahead of time. Don't expect children to wait patiently while you get the tree ready to decorate. Whether your tree is real or fake, small or large, you will need some prep time. Unless you plan to have the children help with lights, I would include stringing lights in your list of things to do before hand.

2-Pre-hang breakable ornaments, OR set them aside for later. Some children do great around breakable ornaments. Last year, Kaitlyn accidently dropped a few ornaments and broke them. She wasn't being crazy or doing anything she shouldn't; she was simply a two year old carrying something. So don't be like me; just because it is Christmas it does not mean your little toddler no longer toddles. 

3-Have piles for what the child can put up. This year, we had certain ornaments that each child could put on the tree. We organized these before the decorating started. 

4-Forget perfect. Don't stress out about where the ornament is compared to all the other ornaments. If you are allowing a child to help decorate, expect it to look like a child decorated.

When I was growing up, we had our family tree and a kid tree. We could decorate our tree with our ornaments however we wanted to. We also got to help with the family tree, but my mom was allowed to tell us where to put things or to ask us to move something somewhere else. 

I am actually not particular about where things are on the tree (this is surprising I am sure; it surprises even me), but even so, I think a kid tree would be fun. Maybe we will watch after-Christmas sales this year for a small tree they can use next year. 

Labor Day

Labor Day is an interesting holiday. While other similar holidays are set aside, rightfully so, to celebrate great leaders in Civil Rights, Presidents, and veterans of war, Labor Day is a holiday set aside to celebrate the every day worker.

As you go about your fun today, I encourage you to take a moment to share with your children what wonderful things important people in their lives do. Tell them about Dad's job, Gradparents' jobs, and other people important to your child. Tell your children that the holiday is to celebrate the American Workers and all that they have accomplished in the last year. It can be a simple way to get a bit of a history lesson worked in to your day of fun.

July 4th: Books, craft, and snack

We started learning about the flag by reading two books: The Starry, Stripy Blanket and The Star-Spangled Banner. We talked about how many stars and stripes are found on the flag, what the flag used to look like, and a little about the history of the flag.

Next, I gave my daughter a rectangular pieces of white paper, 7 red stripes, a glue bottle, and a smaller blue rectangle. I taught her how to use the glue bottle to put small dots of glue rather than squeezing hard to make large blobs. She did a great job! My 1 year old used a glue stick instead. After gluing down the stripes, she glued on the blue rectangle and a few silver stars. You could use white paint and a cotton swab, star stickers, or for my 1 year old, I just left it blank.

To finish it off, we made a somewhat healthy snack. I cut strawberries up into matchsticks, covered a graham cracker with cream cheese. As you can see, the blue is made of blueberries. If you don't have that, use what's around, like white icing, Twizzlers, jelly beans, sprinkles, Skittles.

Yum! Happy Fourth of July!! Have a great weekend!

American Flag Pattern Acvitity

This is an idea I came up with to learn about the flag and patterns. This activity works in colors, sensory, counting, patterns, shapes, and history all in one.

SUPPLIES

• Red pipe cleaner
• White pipe cleaner
• Blue construction paper
• White crayon

PREP

• Cut the blue construction paper into a paper 6 inches by 4 inches
• Cut three pieces of red pipe cleaner to 6 inches each (my pipe cleaner was 12 inches, so I just had to cut it in half)
• Cut three pieces of white pipe cleaner to 6 inches each
• Cut four pieces of red pipe cleaner to 4 inches each
• Cut three pieces of white pipe cleaner to 4 inches each

 

ACTIVITY

1. Draw 50 stars in the upper left corner. Kaitlyn (three) drew several by herself. They were more like scribbles, but that is okay. Count to 50 out loud. We put a few pieces of pipe cleaner down so we could see what our space was to fill in with stars. You could also draw a line and have your child fill in the rectangle.
2. Put the pipe cleaners in place to show the pattern of the stripes. This is a good time to talk about why we have 50 stars and why we have 13 stripes and other interesting facts surrounding the American Flag you would like to introduce.
3. Once you have the pipe cleaner in place, point out the pattern. Go through the 13 stripes saying, "red, white, red white..."
4. Remove the pipe cleaners and have your child put them back in the right order. For older children, they can do it on their own. Kaitlyn needed me to tell her which color started first.

 

This is an activity you can keep in a baggie in with your learning activities and pull out when you need your child occupied for 5-10 minutes.

Star Sponge Painting

I got the basics for this idea out of The Toddler's Busy Book. It is quite simple.

AGE RANGE
I would say a child 12 months or older can participate in this activity. The 12-15 month old will need A WHOLE LOT of help, the 15-18 month old will need A LOT of help, and the 18 months and older will just need help. Assuming you have your patient hat on. Your "it is okay to get messy" hat on (some of you know just what I mean). But the book is written for 18 months and up.

SUPPLIES

• Paper
• Paint
• Sponge
• Knife
• Paper plate

PREP

1. Cut the sponge into a star shape. If you aren't comfortable freehand-cutting a star shape (which would be me), try using a cookie cutter or a star shape out of paper and tracing it on the sponge with a marker. Then cut it out.
2. Get painting surface ready. At my house this means a tablecloth on the table.
3. Pour paint onto a paper plate.

ACTIVITY
Have your child dip the sponge in the paint and then press it onto the paper. Let dry and hang to decorate!

These photos are from last year. We did them the same week we learned about stars. Kaitlyn was 2 and Brayden was 4.

Gift for Mom or Grandma

This is an art project you can have your child help out with and give to Mom or Grandma. They are blocks that spell out the word "Grandma" (or Mother, Mom, or Grandmother, etc.). I then dedicated one block per person and put pictures on it. I did one block for my Mom's Grandmothers. One for her mom. One for my Dad's mom. One for her with Brayden. And one for her with Kaitlyn. Since I gave her these, two grandchildren have joined the family, so I will have to update them. 

Now, you can tell from this picture that she doesn't actually show the "Grandma" spelling. She really just likes it for displaying pictures. If your Mom/Grandma would be like that, then you can skip the letter part of the blocks.

SUPPLIES

• 
  
  Wood blocks the size of your choice. We bought a 4x4 piece of wood from Home Depot and cut the blocks to our desired length. I am sure you could find something similar in a craft store like Michaels.
• 
  
  Decoupage or Mod Podge. You can also get Mod Podge Satin All-In-One Decoupage Sealer. Please note that different Mod Podges have different finishes, from Matte to Lustre.
• 
  
  Foam Brush
• 
  
  Photos of your choice, cut to the appropriate size for your blocks.
• 
  
  Paint
• 
  
  Vinyl Letters or you could paint letters on
• 
  
  Sandpaper if you want a "distressed" look

METHOD

1. 
   
   Paint the blocks using the paint and foam brush. This is something your child can help with. Most of the block is covered by photos, plus if you distress it , you will have little need for a "perfect" paint job. Plus, we love things made by the children we love.
2. 
   
   Let dry.
3. 
   
   If you want a distressed look, gently sand the each edge of each block. You can decide if you do this part yourself or with help. Wipe all dust off.
4. 
   
   Put some decoupage or mod podge on the block.
5. 
   
   Put some decoupage or mod podge on the back of a photo.
6. 
   
   Place the photo on the block.
7. 
   
   Continue for all sides.
8. 
   
   Once you have photos all around the block, move on to the other blocks and put photos on those.
9. 
   
   Let dry.
10. 
    
    Decoupage or mod podge over the top of each photo. This will help protect the photo from scratches, water, etc.

You are done! And you have a lovely gift any mom will love.

Easter Basket Sensory Activity

This activity was born out of my need for several things. First of all, I wanted a fun sensory activity for my children for this season of the year. My kids love sensory activities--especially my nearly three year old daughter. Second of all, I had a need to justify the use of another Easter basket. I don't know what it is about these things, but I have a weakness. I love them. My husband wanted me to downsize our collection (I guess since I cam home with two new baskets a couple of weeks ago), so I found myself analyzing the need for each basket.

This is a nice sensory activity for this time of year because, as you can see, the basket can double as a decoration.

AGE RANGE

18 months and up

SUPPLIES

• Easter Basket
• Easter grass
• Treasures to put inside. I put bunnies and eggs. For added excitement, you can put things in the eggs

PREP

• Fill your eggs with treasures if you intend to
• Put your treasures in the basket buried under the grass

ACTIVITY

Allow your child to dig through the grass to find the treasures. You child will want to do this over and over again. It is as simple as that.

Counting With Eggs

This is a fun activity to do in conjunction with Easter to focus on math learning. One skill teachers look for when screening for kindergarten is the ability to touch and count objects, and this activity helps teach that.

AGE RANGE
You can do this anywhere from two and up. Some children sometime between 18 months and up could do this. You could also do a variation of this with children younger than 18 months to expose the child to counting.

SUPPLIES

• Egg carton
• Plastic Eggs* Note: You can do this activity without eggs if you want to
• Marker
• Items to fill eggs

PREP

• Write a number on each egg. The photo above shows a pound sign (#) before the number. That isn't necessary, and I think just the number would be best. Write the numbers 1 through 12. *If you are doing this activity without the eggs, just write a number in each egg spot directly on the carton.
• Fill the eggs with something. You can use snacks such as raisins, candy, or small toys if you have some that will fit 12 in one egg. Put as many items in each egg as the number on the egg. So if you were doing raisins, you would put one raisin in egg one, seven in egg 7, etc.

ACTIVITY

For Preschooler
Have your preschooler identify what number is on the outside of the egg. Have your preschooler open each egg and count the items inside. Have him take each item out as he counts it so he will get practice touching and counting items. Many preschoolers can count from 1-12, so it might be more of a challenge to do the numbers out of order.

For Toddler
Work in number order 1-12. Before you open the egg, have your toddler identify the number on the egg. Most won't know; tell you child what the number is if she doesn't know. Then open the egg. The next step will range based on toddler's ability. Younger toddlers will most likly need you to pull the item, count it, and hand it to her. The benefit of this is she will hear counting, feel the counting, see the counting, and if it is a treat/snack, taste the counting :). The older toddler might be able to pull the items out herself and count, and some might pull out, but need some help counting. Complete the activity at your toddler's ability level with offering some challenge to help her grow.

For Baby
As soon as baby is old enough to eat finger foods, you can put your favorite finger food in the eggs. Work in number order 1-12. Show baby the egg. Point to the number and say what it is. Then open the egg. Count each item as you take it out. Give it to baby as you count and let her eat it. You aren't going to have your baby start counting one day as a baby, but this will expose her to counting. Don't underestimate the power of simple exposure. Children are eager to learn and learn from all they experience.

If you are eager to do something with a baby who is unable to eat finger foods yet, you can still do something. You can put items in the eggs, pull them out, and count them. Keep these items out of reach of baby because they will be too small to be safe for her.

Leprechaun

Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE Brayden's preschool teacher? She is the best. I have zero complaints about her, which is kind of rare for me. I usually see room for improvement somewhere. With her, nothing. Love her. She is the perfect teacher.

Okay, so this cute leprechaun is something Brayden brought home from preschool, hence the "ode to teacher" by me.

SKILLS TAUGHT
With this activity, you can talk about colors and shapes. It is also a fun art activity, and of course, a fun way to celebrate a holiday.

AGE RANGE
This is another one of those activities where young toddlers can even do it because it is easily assembled.

SUPPLIES

• Small paper plate (but you could use a white piece of paper. You probably want it to be stiff, so if you need to use paper, stiffen it with some cardboard behind it--like cardboard from a cereal box or something).
• Curly noodles--they colored theirs orangy/red, but you could leave it the original color if you like.
• Crayons
• Green construction paper
• Black construction paper
• Yellow construction paper
• Glue

PREP

• For the toddlers, cut out the shapes to make the hat. You will need a green square, a green rectangle, a black rectangle, and a yellow square.
• For the preschoolers, draw the shapes for the hat, but let them cut it out.
• For the older children, have them draw and cut out the shapes for the hat.
• Gather supplies.

ACTIVITY

1. Have older children draw and/or cut out shapes for hat
2. Have all children draw and color the face for the leprechan
3. Glue the hat together
4. Glue the hat on the plate
5. Glue noodles on hat for whiskers
6. Let dry, then display!

Clay Hearts

Kids love to make stuff. This is an activity where your child can make something, and you can have a cute memento to hang on to forever. I love memento . I got this idea from the Sibling's Busy Book.

AGE RANGE
You can make this work for all ages.

SUPPLIES

• rolling pin
• baking sheet
• marker
• butter knife
• oven
• zip-lock baggie if doing with baby
• homemade clay (recipe below)

METHOD

1. Make clay. If your child is old enough to help with this process, let him!
2. Grease baking sheet
3. Have your child flatten the clay out on the baking sheet until it is 1-2 inches thick
4. Draw a large heart on clay using marker
5. Cut heart out with knife (this is for you)
6. Have your children decorate the heart with other clay or making designs in the clay. This represents how each of them are in the gift receiver's heart. Awww. Cute
7. Make a hole in the top of the heart with a pencil so you can put a string through it later
8. Bake for 30-40 minutes at 300 degrees until exterior has formed a crust

For Baby
You can put clay in a baggie for baby and let her squeeze it. You can press her hand into the heart to make an impression.

CLAY RECIPE

• 1 1/2 cup salt
• 4 cups flour
• 1 1/2 cup water
• food coloring

Mix the salt and flour in a bowl with a spoon. Add water gradually. When dough forms, knead it well, adding water if it is too crumbly or flour if it is too sticky It should be firm. If you want more than one color of clay, divide into separate bowls for adding food coloring.

Valentine's Day Cards

I don't know about you, but I LOVE getting real mail, you know the kind that requires actual paper, an envelope, and a stamp. It's such a joy to see in between those piles of bills and junk mail a letter from a real person that I know and love (or even like).

So, for Valentine's Day my goal is to send cards out to all our family and friends. I have the perfect excuse to be corny and cute after all--I have a kid :)

Here's what we're doing:

Materials to gather:
-paint
-butcher paper (we have a whole roll from IKEA that was quite cheap)
-digital camera
-a child (after all, this wouldn't be as cute with big adult feet)

Procedure:
1) pour paint into a shallow plate or bowl
2) dip your child's feet and hands into the paint and make footprints and handprints on the butcher paper
3) allow your child to add stickers, scribble with crayons, or paint as they please to finish up the picture.
4) take a picture of it
5) give the actual piece of artwork to your spouse
6) print out cards on the computer using the picture of the artwork as the front cover
7) under the picture write (or have your child write) I love you from the tips of my fingers to the tips of my toes.
8) mail out to friends and family in time for Valentine's Day. Kids usually love putting things in the mail so let them walk it out to the mailbox and put it in.

Extensions:
You might want to extend this lesson for preschool age children to talk about how the mail works and how to address and stamp a letter.

Valentines Galore!

I was planning out my learning activities for the next couple of weeks. Naturally, I am focusing on hearts an valentines with the upcoming Valentine's Day. I started browsing some blogs and WOW! There are a lot out there. Here are some of my favorites. Any photos on here are photos of our creations. I don't want to put the photos from the original blog on here because I didn't take them. I will post a link to each activity and each photo on the original site--links open in new windows.:

• Letter H: This is a super cute activity to help familiarize your toddler with the letter H.

• Heart Match: This is a sorting activity similar to the one I posted using Pom Poms. This activity is posted in the same post as the Letter H activity; just scroll down. Photo
• Valentine Dump Truck: This would be appealing for younger boys. Photo
• Friendship Wreath: I love this one. I am planning on doing this as our grandma valentines. Wait...I hope they don't read this! Photo
• Hearty Pizza: I love working our shape of the day into our meals if possible. This is a fun way to keep hearts going all day long! Photo

• Easy Valentines Craft: This is a great one for your children who can't draw hearts yet...which I would guess are all most under five when it comes to hearts. I plan to make some valentines with this, too!

• Preschool Valentine Game: This is a great activity for combining hearts and counting. I love to beat things into the ground, so I plan to use this for our number activity during heart week. Photo
• Heart Cards and Counters: This is pretty similar to the one above, except this one doesn't involve candy. Photo
• Valentines Math Activities: This activity once again brings hearts into math day! Photo
• Clothespin Math Activity: This one looks absolutely fantastic! I am most excited about this one I think. Photo.
• Heart Hair: If you have a little girl, you might have fun doing her hair in hearts. Blogs like princesshairstyles.com give lots of ideas on how to do so!

So there you have a collection of some great Valentines learning activities. Since we are a young blog and don't have archives for you to go to yet, I thought it might be fun for you to have some easy access to some great activities!

Advent Prayer Beads and Advent Wreath

On the post about preparation for Christmas and general traditions for the advent season I mentioned two traditions we do in our home. The first is the lighting of the advent wreath each Sunday. There are 4 candles on the advent wreath, we bought our candle holder at a Christian book store for pretty cheap and added a wreath around the edges. The four candles represent the four weeks of advent and also hope, love, joy, peace. We light one additional candle each Sunday after church (we attend a 5pm Mass) until all four are lit. The pink candle (joy) is the third to be lit so it goes in a circle starting with the front candle.






The second tradition that I am starting this year is saying an advent prayer each evening, using prayer beads to keep track of the prayers. These are called chaplets in the Catholic tradition and can have either a saint medal or a cross at the bottom. My husband is Protestant and does not recognize saints so we used plain crosses. If your faith tradition doesn't use crosses a simple bigger bead at the bottom to mark the end point would work just fine.

Materials:
purple or blue beads (the colors traditionally associated with advent)
smaller silver beads to go between the larger colored beads
Cardstock with prayer printed on it. To print the version I used, click here.
*these materials can be found at any craft store, I bought mine at Joann's.

Activity:
Tie a knot around the clasp at the top of the cross, then add 2 small beads, 1 large bead all the way around until you have 15 large beads. Tie a knot when you're finished.

In the evening sit down as a family and each family member can hold their beads and (for literate children) the prayer you've chosen printed on cardstock.

Say the prayer 15 times, moving your fingers along each large bead to keep track. This is an extremely meditative practice and is great for focusing attention on the Lord. In our home Tobias is still very young so he just played with his beads while I said the prayers :) But over time he will be expected to at least sit quietly during this prayer time and later will follow along with the beads and eventually pray with us. For now his only participation is to watch us and say "Ahh-may!" at the end.


*Shoes are not required for this activity, in fact Tobias discovered that the prayer beads are perfect size to fit around his foot and ankle :)

Making the Holidays Memorable

I love this time of year! It's a time to bless others, spend time with family, celebrate traditions and make new memories. It's also the busiest time of the year in many cases. I want to slow down and make this year especially memorable and fun for all of us.
Each day of December we are going to do one thing to help celebrate. I'd like as many of them as possible be either free or inexpensive, involve helping or blessing someone else, and/or help us slow down and enjoy family and this time of the year.
So start making your list, too! It doesn't have to be time-consuming and it should bring a smile to your face (and your cute little munchkins, too).

Here's some to get you started, in no particular order:
1. Start your Advent Calendar.
2. Decorate your tree (and your house)!
3. Have an indoor snowball fight. (Balled up scraps of paper+bundled up kiddos+couches as forts=you are the coolest mom ever).
4. Walk through the neighborhood looking at decorations.
5. Watch a Christmas movie (Charlie Brown, It's a Wonderful Life, etc).
6. Bake Christmas cookies and deliver some to neighbors, shut-ins, or a nursing home near you.
7. Check out holiday books at the library.
8. Make a birthday cake for Jesus.
9. Take your little one to pick out a toy to donate.
10. Fill a shoebox for a charity.
11. Visit family.
12. Pictures with Santa.
13. Have a cookie swap.
14. Serve at a local soup kitchen.
15. Make Christmas cards together.
16. Make peanut butter pine cone bird feeders.
17. Write letters to Santa.
18. Have a birthday party for Jesus.
19. Host a dessert party.
20. Make homemade ornaments for family members.
21. Have holiday portraits taken.
22. Start a Christmas book collection. Buy one new Christmas story each year. If possible, donate a book to the local library, toy drive, or school.
23. See a holiday play or cantata.
24. Reenact the Christmas Story as a family.
25. Sip hot chocolate and read Twas The Night Before Christmas.
26. Go Christmas caroling.
27. Go to a holiday craft show or bazaar.
28. Bake a holiday treat and take it to a local fire station, police station, or hospital.
29. Pop popcorn and play a board game as a family.
30. Make a holiday craft. You could probably do this each day!
31. Celebrate the first day of Winter.
32. If you get snow, start a tradition of First Snow of the Year (insert treat here...fudge, pie, cake, ice cream sundaes, snow cream, etc).
33. Pick a family to bless with dinner once this month. You can invite them over, bring them dinner, order them pizza, etc. Or if you go out to eat, pick a family and pay their bill. You can do this in the fast food line, too.
34. Write a letter/draw a picture for people in your family telling them how much they mean to you, why the are special, or something memorable. Put it in their stocking or mail it.
35. Put together a care package for a soldier.

Have fun!! Let me know your ideas, too! I'd love to hear about your traditions and how you are blessing others this season.

Witch Cupcakes

This is a fun way to decorate cupcakes, and it is definitely something your toddler can help you do.

AGE RANGE
1 and up with assistance. Two with lots of guidance. Three and up with their own imagination.

SKILLS TAUGHT

• Cooking/baking
• Math
• Fine motor skills

SUPPLIES

• Cupcakes (and all that it takes to make them)
• Sugar ice cream cones (the pointy ones)
• String licorice
• Candy corn
• Frosting
• Food coloring if desired
• Scissors (for you)

ACTIVITY

1. Have your child help you bake cupcakes. This is where the math learning comes in.
2. After cupcakes have cooled, frost them. You are making a witch, so I dye it green.
3. Cut string licorice into pieces of hair. I use red licorice because no one in my house likes black.
4. Let your child put hair on the witch.
5. Put her pointy hat on.
6. Add her candy corn nose.
7. Eat her!

PHOTO

Sugar Cookies

Okay. Here is the truth. I really don't enjoy making sugar cookies. By the time they are made, my back is just killing me and my stress level is peaked. When I am eating them, I think to myself, "Chocolate chip cookies taste a lot better than these and they are WAY easier." However, the kids love to make them. They are a lot of fun to make around holidays. So, I make them a few times a year. One day this month while I was grocery shopping, I found these cute Halloween cookie cutters and in a moment of thinking like a child instead of a mom, I bought them. So now add October to the list of months I must make sugar cookies. Some day I will miss it :) I will be like my grandma who made TONS of sugar cookies every Christmas in anticipation of our arrival.

AGE RANGE

One and up. My kids love to help cook. I let them start as soon as they are interested and I allow them to "help."

SKILLS DEVELOPED

• Cooking/Baking
• Math
• Fine motor skills
• Colors if you do frosting

PREP

• If you let your child help make the dough, you don't need to do anything more than put on your apron and wash your hands.
• One more thing...put your "patient" hat on.

ACTIVITY

• Make dough (recipe below)
• Chill dough if needed
• Roll out dough. Let your child help
• Cut out shapes. Let your child help. At first, I let them put the cookie cutters wherever they wanted to, but I soon realized we would be there all night that way (since they were not spaced close together). I then placed it on the dough and let them cut it out
• Bake the cookies
• Make frosting (recipe below)
• Frost cookies once cooled
• Eat cookies

NOTE

Note that the cookies are not going to be perfect. They are going to be mis-shaped. They will have large finger imprints in them. They will still taste the same :) This is for the kids!

PHOTOS

Note the imperfect cookies

RECIPE: SUGAR COOKIES
I got this recipe from Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book .

• 2/3 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1 Tablespoon milk
• 1 tsp vanilla (I sometimes change this to another flavoring...like almond. I love almond)
• 2 cups all-purpose flour

1. Beat butter on medium speed for about 30 seconds
2. Add sugar, baking powder, and salt
3. Beat until combined, scraping sides occasionally
4. Add flour. Finish by hand if it gets too thick for mixer
5. Cover and chill dough for 30 minutes or until it is easy to handle
6. Divide in half
7. On a lightly floured surface, roll half of the dough at a time until 1/8 inch thick
8. Cut using cookie cutters
9. Place on cookie sheet one inch apart
10. Bake at 375 degrees for 7-8 minutes (until edges are firm)
11. Cool
12. Ice if desired

RECIPE: FROSTING
I got this recipe from a neighbor. It is delicious. I half the recipe when I use it with the sugar cookie recipe above. Take note that this is a frosting recipe, not a icing or glaze. I use this because I love it. If you want an icing or glaze, do not use this recipe.

• 1 cube margarine or butter softened
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 2 caps full of flavoring of your choice. If you put a flavor in the cookies other than vanilla, you might want to just do vanilla in the frosting. I find vanilla might need a bit more than two caps full
• Coloring (if desired)

1. Mix together ingredients with beaters
2. If too dry, add milk or water (I add water)

NOTE ON COLORS
If you add coloring to the frosting, it helps your child with colors. For the older child, you can mix two colors together to make a new color (like red and yellow to make orange).

EXTENSIONS
You can do this with any holiday. You can also cut out letters for teaching letters or shapes for teaching shapes.

Egg Carton Spiders

This is a fun little activity to do with your child around Halloween.

AGE RANGE

I got this idea from Preschooler's Busy Book. The book is written for ages 3-6. I did this with my 4 year old and 2.5 year old, so I know it can be done with a 2.5 year old. I would say if your child enjoys painting or coloring, she will enjoy this activity.

SKILLS DEVELOPED

• Science (if you talk about spiders)
• Art
• Fine motor skills

SUPPLIES

• Cardboard egg carton
• Scissors
• Pipe cleaners
• Paint, markers, or crayons
• Construction paper for eyes (or a marker)
• Glue (if you used construction paper)
• Thread or yarn (optional)

PREP

• Cut out the cup sections of the egg carton
• Get out supplies
• If you are painting and you are like me, prep the area (art smock/T-shirt/down to underwear and a vinyl tablecloth)

ACTIVITY

• Have your child color/paint the egg cup
• After the egg cup dries, insert pipe cleaner into the cup to be legs. I poked holes in the cup so the kids could insert it themselves and work on their fine motor skills
• Bend the pipe cleaner so it looks like legs
• Draw eyes or attach eyes out of construction paper
• Optional: attach string to the top so you can hang it somewhere

PHOTOS





This is kind of cheesy and they don't look a lot like spiders...but it is a fun thing to do.

Baby Ghost

Preparation
-take a scrap of white fabric and ball it up
-take a second scrap of white fabric and wrap it around the balled fabric, securing it at the bottom of the ball with a piece of yarn or a hair tie.
-draw eyes and an open mouth on the ghost (feel free to make it as scary or friendly looking as fits your child's age and maturity level)

Activity
Sing this song while waving the ghost puppet around to touch each body part.
*This is a great way to distract a squirmy baby or toddler during diaper changes!

BABY GHOST Baby ghost, baby ghost Flying through the air. Baby ghost, baby ghost Touching your hair. (Move puppet back and forth in front of toddler.) (Have ghost touch toddlers hair.) Baby ghost, baby ghost Flying down low. Baby ghost, baby ghost Touches your toe. (Bring hand with puppet down low.) (Bend down and touch ghost to toddlers toe.) Baby ghost, baby ghost Flying up high. Baby ghost, baby ghost Touches your eye. (Raise ghost puppet up high.) (Toddler shuts eye, while ghost touches eye lid.)

Skills
-body parts
-rhyming



Credit
I found this activity at a neat site I just discovered: http://www.preschoolexpress.com/
(This activity is in the toddlers section)