Simple for Mom: Oriental Trading Magazine

I typically do learning activities that require a fair amount of prep work on my part. I am currently 13 weeks pregnant with my fourth child, however, and most days find it pretty hard to do the work I usually do. I got thinking about ways to still do learning activities when you are on a time budget--whether it is because of sickness, business, taking-care-of-a-newborn-ness, or pregnancy-ness. 

My first thought was Oriental Trading Magazine. They have a whole lot of fun activities you can do with your children. The activities come ready for you to do--you just open it and get started. It is also quite inexpensive per project.

There are a couple of tricky things about going this route. 

One is that you are buying in bulk. The mailbox you see pictured above came in a kit of 12. I have three children, not 12. There are a few ways to resolve this. One is to save the extras for next year. Another is to give them to a friend. You could also invite friends over and have a little craft party. Finally, you could ask a friend or two if they wanted to go in on it with you before you ordered.

The other tricky thing about this is that you have to order in advance if you want the item by a certain time. Shipping doesn't take long, but longer than it takes you to run to the dollar store. They do have plenty of activities you can get that are not holiday specific, so you could either go that route, or go order today and just get everything you want for St. Patricks Day, Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Independence Day, etc. Shipping is usually free if you order $50 dollars worth or more, so I usually get things for several holidays at once anyway. 

Just so you know, I was not asked to promote this company and I don't get anything if you buy anything from them. I just think it is a nice solution for the mom wanting to do activities but unable to spend the time getting them ready--for whatever reason. It is also a fun place for parties. 

Valentine Books 2012

Can you believe I have never done a Valentine book list on this blog? It might be because it is kind of tricky to find good Valentine books. Plus Valentines Day seems to just sneak up on me--suddenly it is February and Valentine time.

Biscuit's Valentine's Day by Alyssa Satin Capucilli

Biscuit is a beloved character of my oldest daughter. This is a safe story to read (some Valentine books revolve around boys hating girls or vice versa, which can be okay for older children since you can talk about what is and isn't nice, but not okay for younger children).



Fancy Nancy: Heart to Heart by Jane O'Conner

Another beloved and trusted character. Fancy Nancy is great especially for preschoolers and older.





Valentine's Day: A Sparkle 'n' Shimmer Book by Michelle Knudsen

This is a good one for your little one.






Will You Be My Valenswine? by Teresa Bateman

This is a great one for the child who likes to laugh. It also shows the love of a parent. Cute little story.





Where Is Baby's Valentine?: A Lift-the-Flap Book by Karen Katz

This is a great one for your baby or pre-toddler. Even the young toddler will really enjoy this.

Valentine Round-Up 2012

It is almost "that heart time" as Brayden refers to it. Here are our Valentine posts from last year!

Clay Hearts

A fun craft activity you can give as gifts. This is great for baby on up.









Heart Hands

A cute craft to say "I Love You" to someone. Framed, in a card, or just a paper are all special!






Sensory Activities

This activity was so popular that my kids have hardly left it alone for the last year! I think it will be a hit with your children too!





"V" is for Valentine

Decorate your V for Valentines day.










Valentine Candy Sort

This is a great sorting activity.









Valentines Day Snacks
Raegan compiled a list of snack ideas for you to make!

Valentine Dump Truck Card

A cute valentine that will especially appeal to the boys!






Valentines Galore!

Since we were in our infant year last year, we had no archive of Valentine activities. I searched the web and created a list of fun ideas to do for Valentines Day!









Valentine Magnets

Do this activity to add to your precious Valentines decor!

"V" Is For Valentine

This is another activity Brayden did at preschool last year.

Start with a paper with a block letter "V" on it. 

Give the child some tissue paper to tear up. Then have the child glue the pieces into the "V." When you are done, you have a fun, textured V!

Valentine Dump Truck Card

So many cute Valentine ideas are geared towards girls.  J made these Valentines cards for his cousins who would prefer trucks to hearts.  Candy always adds something special to the card too!

What you need:  Unopened box of candy and a few extra pieces of the candy, construction paper, cardstock, car stickers, marker, and glue

Prep:  I precut all the pieces of the truck for him to glue onto the cardstock and already had the "Happy Valentine's Day" message on the cardstock. 

J  put the shapes together to create the truck and added the box of candy last. 

The front of the card has a little road with some foam car stickers.  I thought it turned out pretty cute.

This is from Busy Bee Craft Kids.com .  They has a cute "Unloading some love" message for the card.  Of course, I didn't plan for the candy box to be glued on at a tilt like in the example (in effect, dumping its cargo).  Oops!

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

Heart Hands

This is something Brayden made in Kindergarten this year. Handprints in the shape of a heart! So cute. 

Very simple. Take a piece of paper. Get some red paint. Have your child paint his hand red. You might help him if you want him to do both hand prints at once. Have him press his hands onto the paper so they look like a heart. Let dry.

It came with this poem:

My little hands

Have come to say

I give you all my heart,

For being the best

Kind of parents

Right from the very start!

(you could insert anything for parents: aunt, cousin, grandma, friend, teacher, etc.)

Valentine Candy Sort

This is something Brayden did in preschool last year.

SUPPLIES

• Paper with hearts
• Crayons
• Conversation hearts

ACTIVITY

You start with a paper with several hearts on it. You then have your child color each heart a different color. You can see Brayden's teacher labeled each heart.

You then get a box of those Conversation Hearts. Have your child sort the hearts into the correct colored heart on the paper. 

When you are done, you of course eat some!

Valentine Round-Up

It is almost "that heart time" as Brayden refers to it. Here are our Valentine posts from last year!

Clay Hearts

A fun craft activity you can give as gifts. This is great for baby on up.










Sensory Activities

This activity was so popular that my kids have hardly left it alone for the last year! I think it will be a hit with your children too!






Valentines Day Snacks
Raegan compiled a list of snack ideas for you to make!

Valentines Galore!

Since we were in our infant year last year, we had no archive of Valentine activities. I searched the web and created a list of fun ideas to do for Valentines Day!

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 Snacks

It's fun to focus on heart shapes, the colors pink and red, and all things lovey during the week prior to Valentine's Day. So here's a few ideas how to make breakfast, lunch, or snack time even more fun!

• bagel w/ strawberry cream cheese OR bagel and add a dot of red food coloring to a blob of sour cream before spreading.
• Strawberry cut like hearts! When cutting the tops off of strawberries, cut in a V formation rather than straight across. Then slice in half, and you have heart shapes.
• Use heart shaped cookie cutters to cut sandwiches, toast, cheese, lunch meat, etc.
• Use letter cookie cutters to cut H (for heart) or V (for valentines day) into foods.
• Strawberry, raspberry, or cherry yogurt with red grapes or craisins (my daughter's favorite)
• In the blender, blend milk, strawberries and a little honey. Pink milk!
• On an English muffin, make mini pizzas. After the sauce, put a slice of cheese (or do your best w/ the shredded cheese) in the shape of a heart before melting.
• For a special treat, I bought cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Add a drop of red food coloring to the icing included, and then you have pink icing for the top. Or top regular icing with a few pink and white sprinkles.
• Heart shaped pancakes in the morning, dusted with powdered sugar and sliced fruit.

I literally went through the pantry and fridge and looked for pink, red, and white colored things. I also looked for anything that could be cut w/ a cookie cutter.

Have fun! Be creative!

Sensory Activities

My children love to do sensory activities. Give them a container full of beans and they will be entertained for days. I recently saw this idea for beans and hearts on No Time For Flashcards. Both children have enjoyed it; Kaitlyn has loved it. She plays with it several times a day. I keep it in the kitchen so she can play with it while I am in there.

You can do lots of different things for sensory activities. You can make them similar to this one and add whatever suits your theme for the week. You don't have to use beans. You can use things like rice, sand, and packing peanuts. Brayden's preschool teacher filled her tub with sand during dinosaur week and the children looked for dinosaur bones.

After you fill it, give your children items like spoons and measuring cups to scoop, pour, and dump.

Yes, there will be spills. Personally, I wouldn't' do sand in the house because I am OCD. That is what we have a sandbox for. But I don't think there is anything wrong with it if you will have sand in it in your house. You can teach your children to pick up the beans and packing peanuts as they spill or when they are done playing. Messes clean up :)

One warning, if you have carpet that is plush in the least, I don't recommend you use beans on it. We learned that the hard way about 8 months ago. We found beans in the carpet for months! I now do this on hardwood floors.

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!