Activities for Different Levels

If you follow me on twitter or Facebook, then you know that we have a child in our care through the foster system.  Everyone is doing really well adjusting and we are all having fun.  The days have gone smoothly and eating and sleeping schedules haven’t been an issue at all.  But some of our daytime activities have changed. 

I now have a 23 month old, a 2.5 year old, and a 4 year old.  All at different developmental stages.  “Little Man” (that is what we will call the little boy in our care) has substantial developmental delays and is definitely not used to doing projects and crafts (duh, Kim).  I am working on that, but I need to take baby steps for his sake and mine.  :-)

So what activities are there?  Easy-peasy one for outside on a gorgeous day…sensory station filled with water and bubbles!

Here is a table my mom scored from a local daycare doing remodeling.  I put some of our favorite items from playing in the kitchen sink in there.  I squeezed in some dish soap and added the water.

 

Instant fun!  Everyone played well and took cues from the others.  Each person experimented and tried things.  We had a blast.

 

There was outdoor bath time. 

 

Watching Cole and copying his every move.  Sorry about the creepy faceless child, but you can’t see Little Man’s face.

“Just feeling the water tickle through our fingers.”  That is how Cole put it.  Isn’t that so cute?

 

And my favorite angle of the entire time was looking at miniature legs side-by-side.  Those legs had no idea the fun they were missing just 2 feet up.

 

Oh, we had our fail moments as well.  Charley learned that putting on make up was probably not a good thing to play with bubbles.

 

What are some of your favorite activities to bridge developmental and/or age gaps between children?

Kim

New Way to Noodle Necklace

Okay, let me start off by saying that this activity in absolutely nothing new or original.  It is a hard noodle necklace.  I know your tingling with excitement, you are - admit it. 

I am a little leery of doing this activity with my preschooler, let alone my toddler, but I have found a way that makes me feel more comfortable with it.  I have not seen this before (but that doesn’t mean it isn’t out there).  I used a noodle as the “latch” for the necklace.

I needed an activity quickly, so I grabbed our wheel pasta, yarn, and transparent tape.  I took some tape and wrapped it around the end of a piece of yarn (like a shoelace end) to make it easier to thread the noodles on. 

Then I tied one end to a piece of wheel pasta.  I had the kids thread them on the yarn.  The best part about the wheel pasta is that is has multiple holes so it is easier for younger kids.

This activity is great for kids of all ages.  My niece was with us and had a lot of fun making her necklace. 

There was the natural toddler curiosity and taste test, but she strung her pasta like a big kid.

I tied the open end to the same piece of pasta that I started the necklace with. 

I always hated it when she got a hold of the previous ones we made, but now I felt more confident with her wearing it.  If it gets caught on anything or anything happens that it needs to break loose quickly, just break the piece of pasta and the necklace is free.

While it isn’t foolproof, it eases my mind a tad.  Please do not take this post as an open invitation to do this with your toddler or preschooler.  I was watching my daughter very closely and she is familiar with stealing wearing her brother’s (he has been making these for about 6 months).  Do not do this activity if you do not think your child can handle it.  Do not leave your child unattended with this necklace on. 

DO use common sense. 

I know you guys are great caregivers and moms.  :-)  I just want to make sure that this post isn’t interpreted as something it wasn’t intended to be.  I am just sharing something that helped me.

Kim

Hot Dog, Hot Dog, Hot Dickety Dog

Yesterday I took my son to see Nickelodeon’s Storytime Live show.  It was our birthday present to him (a little early).  While the show was fun, and having just Mommy and Cole time was fun, the highlight of his day was this…

 

On our way back from the show we stopped for dinner at Sonic and ate outside at their tables.  Cole wanted a hot dog.  Sonic only has a footlong coney.  So that is what he got.

That is Cole’s first footlong hot dog.  No, he did not finish it.  He ate less than half, but he did finish his tater tots. 

This picture was taken with my phone, so sorry if it is a bit grainy.

I linked this up over at Household 6 Diva for Mamarazzi Monday.  Head over there and check out other mom captured moments. 

Kim

Little Pim: Using Every Day Words

It has been a while since I have given an update on our journey of learning German with Little Pim.  Things have been going great.

The weather was really nice for a while and then we went on vacation, so we haven’t watched our videos as much as I thought we would be doing.  I did want to give you an idea of how things are going, though. 

Here is a video of Cole telling me the items in a place setting in German (it was his idea to do the video to send to Grandma – I’m sure she won’t mind us sharing it).  These terms are in German:Eating and Drinking, DVD 1.  It is very easy to go over these translations since we use at least one of these for every meal or snack.  We also go over these as the kids “help” me unload the dishwasher. 

Charley grabs a fork and says, “Dobble” and “Messa” for knife.  For those of you that don’t know knife is ein Messer and fork is eine Gabel.  So she is really getting it and she isn’t even 2 yet.  I am so impressed with how easy introducing these translations really are.  Since they are items and terms we use and see every day, it is really easy to reinforce them and use repetition.

In case you are unfamiliar with our foreign language adventure I approached Little Pim about doing this series together.  I chose to use Little Pim after doing a lot of research on my own about a program to introduce a foreign language to my children.  I had already chosen to use Little Pim before I even contacted them about this series.  I had planned on purchasing the set myself.  But instead, Little Pim provided me with their Little Pim Three Pack German to create this series documenting our journey. 

I will have more next week.

Are you considering introducing another language to your children?

Kim

Recipe for Homemade Laundry Detergent

I am pretty cheap.  Some people are frugal, but I have been known to be plain out cheap.  There are some things I have always held fast to, though.  I do not buy generic toilet paper.  I have been told by my husband to only buy Hunt’s Tomato Sauce (he can actually tell the difference – shucks).  I use good cleaners so I don’t have to scrub things for an hour or wash them a million times to look good. 

I have been using Gain for years.  I love it.  I love the smell and I love how well it works. 

But the prices of things have gone through the roof.  So I am cutting corners wherever I can and I am open to all sorts of ways to reduce my grocery bill.

I saw a recipe for homemade laundry detergent on a blog I read.  I thought it looked interesting.  So I tried it.  You guys know I love to try things.

It actually worked great!  I love this detergent.  I have used it for a few months now and I don’t plan on going back.  I have given samples to friends to try and shared the recipe.  They like it, too. 

 Image from MomsWhoSave.com blog

So here is the link to the laundry detergent at MomsWhoSave.com blog. 

I only wash in cold water and it works great.  It is very low suds, so it should work in HE washers just fine. 

The recipe calls for finely grating the bar soap, but after an awesome suggestion from a friend (thank you Lynette) I chopped up the bar and put it into my food processor.  It was much faster.

Here is what it looks like up close.  Give it a try.  I am pretty sure you will like it. 

If you are using very inexpensive soap, you won’t see much of a difference in your bill, but your laundry will show a huge difference.  I didn’t see much of a difference between homemade vs. Gain (a little more favorable to homemade), but I saw a huge difference in my bill.

Kim

Outdoor Fun- Mamarazzi Style

I have not done a Mamarazzi Monday post in a while, so here is some outdoor fun we have been having.

Cole riding his John Deere.

 

Charley learning to ride her new “vroom, vroom”.

 

Oh yeah, she’s digging it.

 

Could that actually be the two of them having fun together? 

 

Then they ride off into the sunset.

 

To check out more Mamarazzi Monday posts head over to Household 6 Diva.

Kim

Say WHAT? - Toe Spoons

“Do not use your toes as spoons.”

 

My children were eating some ice cream in the living room.  They were sitting in their little saucer chairs and chowing down.  I went into the kitchen to fix myself a bowl.  I heard a little bit of giggling, but didn’t think too much of it. 

I returned to the room to see my children scooping up ice cream with their big toes.  Charley was licking it off of her toe while Cole was sticking his entire ice cream covered toe in his mouth.

Nice.

That is when I uttered those words that I never thought I would say, or even have to say. 

What crazy things have you been saying?  I know you have some, don’t make me feel all alone. 

Kim

I am back...I think

Okay.  So blogger has me back on and able to see my dashboard, but I can't see my website.  Huh?

Oh well, it is what it is.  There might be 2 people that even know I am back up (and one is me).