Gettin' Crafty with the Crayons

I have to admit, I was skeptical of my ability to complete this project. I'm not one to follow online tutorials for projects, and I'm generally not one to use my sewing machine for anything other than a simple square shape BUT a good friend of mine sent me this link and I thought it was too cute not to try it for myself. I showed the finished project to my husband who said 'looks great! the boys are going to love it.' to which I responded... 'this is for me... but I guess they can share it.' : ) Does anyone out there know of any good sewing or craft blogs that have good tutorials? I think I might be hooked!

Go, Speed Racer, Go!

Are you stuck inside on a cold or rainy day? Do you have sick kids who can't attend playgroups or go to the nursery, keeping you at home and confined? Are your kids tired of their toys and acting out because they are bored? Try this!

Set up stations around the room with different sets of toys. I used three different puzzles, a shape sorter, stacking cups and pull-back cars. Depending on the ages/stages of your kids, you can make things more challenging by mixing all the puzzle pieces together instead of sorting them by puzzle, spreading out the stations or maybe even using blindfolds.

Treat the game like an obstacle course. Time them and see how fast they can complete all of the activities. They can compete against each other if they are close in age or against their own best time. Take turns with the kids setting up the different activities and rules - they might think of ways to use their toys that you wouldn't have. Here are some other ideas for stations:

• Build a block tower X blocks high (varied based on the age of the child)
• Say all the sounds of the Little People farm animals as you hold each one up
• Do a somersault or jumping jacks
• Say the alphabet or count to 20
• Roll a ball towards anything resembling bowling pins (toilet paper/paper towel cores)
• Make a snake out of play-doh

The possibilities are endless... and you can bet that they won't be bored with their toys for much longer!

Sponge Painting

I just came across a great art project idea for anyone with little ones who aren't coordinated enough to use a paint brush yet! The idea in Family Fun magazine is for painting an autumn tree, but this would also be really use for painting a turkey, a pumpkin, candy corn, a cornucopia, a Christmas tree, a Santa face and so much more.

Using a piece of construction paper, draw the outline of of the object to be painted (for example, draw the trunk of the tree or the outline of a pumpkin). Cut a kitchen sponge into roughly 1 inch pieces. Pour a few puddles of the appropriate colored tempera paint onto a paper/plastic plate and put a piece of sponge in each puddle (to avoid color mixing and to allow more than one child to paint at a time). Simply stamp the colors onto the construction paper to create a work of art!

Around the World

I love to travel! I think that seeing how others live their lives and experiencing other cultures is one of my very favorite things to do. New foods, new sights, new languages, new stamps in my passport... I love it all! Though travelling with kids can be next to impossible, that doesn't mean you can't foster a love of other cultures in them at an early age. I saw an idea this month that my mind just ran with! You start by making your child his very own passport. You can get as creative as you want with this - use old maps, scrapbook paper, stickers, colored paper, glitter, ribbons - or as basic as you want (white paper and a couple staples and let your child decorate himself). Label the pages with a country name. Look at a globe or map together and let your child choose which countries he would like to learn more about. Has he heard about some on TV or in school that he is curious about? Does he like a particular kind of food from a certain part of the world? Customize it based on his interests! From there, focus on learning - but make it fun! Research the different kinds of food they eat, the music they listen to, the climate, the major languages spoken, major religions, what tourists do when they visit, what continent it's on, how long it would take to get there... and anything else you can think of! As you're learning about it, find some recipes you'd like to try or take out some books from the library about that country. Find online resources that would teach simple words in another language. Label things around the house in that language! Make it a family affair by talking about what you learned at the dinner table. When you feel that you've learned all you can about a country and you're ready to move on to the next one, draw the country's flag in your passport to represent "visiting" that country. There doesn't have to be a deadline on finishing this, so you can keep adding more countries or spend all your time on just a few. Kids love to learn - why not harness that energy and learn something new together!

Say Cheese...er... Milkshake!

We take a ton of pictures. If you've ever visited my other blog, http://www.365fox.blogspot.com/, then you know that I post at least one picture (but usually many more than that!) of my twins every day, and have since they were born. Some turn out better than others, but there's always at least one that is 'blog worthy' per day.

When I came across an article on taking better pictures, my hunch was that almost everyone wants to be able to take better pictures of their kids. Thankfully, film cameras are a thing of the past, so there's no risk in experimenting with lighting, timing and angles. Try these out:

• Snap a lot. Click click click like a crazy person. The more you take, the more you have to choose from.
• Select the right setting. Don't be afraid of changing the setting on your camera from 'auto' to something else. If your camera has a 'sport' or 'child' mode, use it! (Look for an icon of a running man or a boy with a dog)
• Say 'monkey' or 'milkshake.' Saying words that start with M will result in a more genuine smile... however, your kids don't have to be smiling to be adorable. Just try to catch them in the moment.
• Capture their personality. Bring out the things that your child is interested in during this stage in life. My son Owen has been dragging around a little monkey puppet (affectionately named Monkey Boy) for over a month. He holds it in his fist as he crawls and as he holds on to the crib rails when he stands up after a nap. It would be so sad to realize one day that he's not carrying it around anymore and to not have a picture of him in action. You can't fake that kind of attachment.
• Expand your horizon. Make sure their aren't shot-wreckers in the background of a photo - like construction cones, school buses or random body parts of other kids.
• Go small. Don't forget to zoom in on the smallest parts of your babies - toes, fingers, eyelashes. Look for a flower icon, which will keep the photo from blurring. The problem is that you need a perfectly still subject, so try this one during sleeping hours.
• Get a move on. What's cuter than playtime with daddy? When kids get to the age when they love being thrown in the air, snap a shot of them mid-air. Follow the movement with your camera, pausing when you snap. You can also aim the camera mid-air and just start snapping like crazy as he's approaching the spot. One of your shots should capture the perfect moment in space.
• Aim for prime time. Shoot before 10am or after 4pm. Add the flash to soften features and fill shadows if you shoot at other times.
• Tone it down. Turn on the red-eye setting if you're shooting at night.
• Move in. Set up your shot and then take two giant steps forward. Most people shoot too far from the subject.
• Consider all the angles. Change it up! Get down on the floor with your kids. Have fun with experimenting.

If your kids are old enough, ask them to collect their three favorite things and put on their favorite outfit. That will be a memory all by itself! Then have fun with it. Experiment with your camera's settings. This might be an especially fun activity on a rainy day, but who says you can only do it once?! Pick one (or two!) of these tips and post your best shot of the week on your blog. Then leave me a comment so I can check it out. I can't wait to see what you capture. Happy shooting!

Tips were adapted from the article "Picture Perfect" in the May 2009 issue of Parents magazine.

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

My parents are big into landscaping, so as a child, we took a lot of trips to home improvement stores looking for the perfect plants, scrubs, trees and flowers. And as a child, it was boring! My sister and I would occupy ourselves by collecting paint color samples and wallpaper samples and leave the store with guilty grins like we had stolen something. The beauty though, was that they were (and still are!) free!

Home Depot offers a Disney line of paint colors. They come on 2x2" cards and the color is in the shape of Mickey's ears. Here are a couple thoughts:

• Pick up two of several different colors (2 reds, 2 blues, etc) and play Memory with them - you remember the matching game from when we were kids
• Pick up two of several different colors and write RED on one, ROJO on the other (ORANGE/NARANJA; YELLOW/AMARILLO; GREEN/VERDE; BLUE/AZUL; PURPLE/VIOLETA; PINK/ROSADO; BROWN/MARRON; BLACK/NEGRO; WHITE/BLANCO) to teach English and Spanish pronunciations and spellings. You could either glue them together (front English/back Spanish) or keep them separate to mix up like flashcards.
• Pick up two of several colors that match the motif of your child's bedroom (pinks, blues, etc). Cut out the shape of the Mickey ears, glue together and hang on string to create a mobile to hang in their room.

Did any other ideas come to mind? Please share!