Printing with Legos

Today is my son's 4th birthday!! I cannot believe he is that old! We are celebrating with several small parties to keep things less overwhelming (church friends, neighborhood friends, and family party). 

Today we have a Lego party with friends from church. I have several activities/projects we're going to try... so I thought I'd share one of them with you today. I feel like with all the ideas running around in my brain right now we could do a whole Lego themed month!

My son and I tried this activity out earlier this week and he loved it. Hopefully his friends do too. Lego printing is super simple and just requires materials you probably already have around the house.

Materials We Used: play-doh, Legos (duplo are our favorites), rolling pin, and something to cut with

We printed with the Legos and first attempted to create our own play-doh Legos.

We used our little knife to make the edges straight. We talked about how some Legos are thick and some are thin... and some are long and others are short. We talked about the colors we saw and the shapes we made too!

Then we stacked them and tried to build some towers.

Then we just explored. We used the fronts and backs of the Legos to see how they printed and talked about how they made different designs.

Have you ever printed with Legos?

What other unique tools do you like to use for play-doh printing?

If you love Legos, head on over to Quirky Momma to see the DIY Lego Instruction Book that I shared this week. I am one of the new weekly contributors at Quirky Momma. I'll be posting every Monday morning... so definitely also stop by this week to see the fun activity I will be sharing!

The Friday Kids Co-op- A Weekly Linky

I am excited to introduce you to The Kid's Co-op! Each Friday we will be participating in a link-up with several other bloggers. We will be sharing activities that are family oriented, fun, unique, and educational. If you'd like to check out all of the fabulous activities that were shared last week, head on over here.

Each week we will also ask you to share your favorite kid's activities. We'd love to see a variety of activities geared to kids of all ages. You can share a project you created or even your favorite "find" from pinterest!

Here's how to participate:

1. Find your favorite kid's activity.
2. Copy the URL from the site page.
3. Click on the "add your link" button.
4. Follow the directions to paste the URL and describe your link.
5. Once you're done linking up, go and check out some of the other fabulous links that have been shared!

In addition to hosting this link up, I'll be sharing a few of my favorite finds each week. This week I have two fabulous posts to share with you. Click the pictures to head straight to pinterest and pin them!

Hands on:As We Grow's Block City

Source: handsonaswegrow.com via Kristina on Pinterest

We are going to attempt this activity next week. Tape and blocks equal hours of fun!

No Time for Flashcard's 75 TV Free Activities for Toddlers

Source: notimeforflashcards.com via Kristina on Pinterest

I need to print this post out and tape it to my fridge so that I can be reminded of all the simple and easy things I can do with my kids before we turn on the TV.

Ok, so how about you? What was your favorite post from this week? Did you create anything amazing that you can share? I can't wait to see all of the great ideas that will be linked up here this week! Start linking!



Here's a list of some of the bloggers participating in the The Kid's Co-op this week:

Imprints from Tricia It's A Long Story RainbowsWithinReach Life & Love Expressed Train Up a Child B.Inspired Mama

No Time For Flash Cards My Creative Family Toddler Approved Rainy Day Mum Dirt and Boogers Mum of Twins a Toddler and a Teenager

PlayDrMom The Mommies Made Me Do It Reading Confetti The Good Long Road Ways2Play Smiling like Sunshine

If you're joining the linky, don't forget to grab the button.

<a href="http://www.rainydaymum.co.uk/" target="_blank"><img src="http://rainydaymum.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/comeplayatkidsco-op.jpg" alt="Kids Co-op" width="125" height="125" /></a>

Montessori Activity: Nuts & Bolts

This activity comes directly from John Bowman's ebook, Montessori at Home.

We have had fun in the past incorporating items found at the hardware store in our learning and play activities (March Wind Streamers and Our Own Pulley Investigation), so I was very excited to try this "Practical Life" activity using nuts and bolts.

Materials Needed

-Hex Bolts/Nuts in the following sizes: 1/4, 3/8, 7/16, 1/2, 5/8, and 3/4" along with 5 washers the corresponding sizes for each.  

-Container (for storage)

-Index Card

-Marker

Total cost for the items ended up around $14

Make 3 label cards (in lower case): nuts, bolts, washers.



"Show your child how to separate out the parts with their label cards."

"Show how to find the right washers and put all five on a bolt,

then find the right nut and attach it, turning it to the right. 'Right is tight.' "

"Help as needed with your child gradually taking over. Show your child how the washers stop moving around and tighten down when the nuts are turned all the way down. Your child can also compare how much each set weighs, a Sensorial experience."

"Line up the completed sets as shown for a visual effect, going left to right, a pre-reading skill."
 














I have always been drawn to Montessori based teaching, blogs, and "toys".  Do you incorporate Montessori based activities into your daily play/lesson plans?  What are your favorite Montessori inspired blogs?   

Cooking With Mom: Wonton Soup

Some of my earliest memories are helping my mom prepare dinner.

One of my favorite things to help with was filling and wrapping wontons for soup.  You can find a recipe right on the wonton wrapper package or through an online search (which are more authentic and probably much better than mine, however I've included ours below (which my mom altered for the picky eaters in my family):

Ingredients:
1 package Wonton Wrappers (usually found in the produce section of your local grocer)
4 1/2 - 5 cups Chicken Stock
Green Onions/Spinach to garnish (optional)
Meat Mixture:
1/2-1 lb lean Ground Pork
3-4 Green Onions finely chopped
1 stalk Celery finely chopped
1 tsp. Ginger
Touch of Black Pepper
Garlic Powder (optional)

Combine meat mixture thoroughly.  Separate Won Ton wrappers.  Place a teaspoon of the meat mixture in the center of each.

The next step is where I let my daughter start to help.  Dip finger in water (most recipes will suggest egg white, water works just fine) - brush water on all four edges of wrapper (this will help the wrapper adhere to itself).

Fold in half (forming a triangle) and press down on the sides to seal.  Didn't get any photos of the last step in folding so am including instructions (below) found at ChenPhotography to finish folding the wontons:

Image Credit

Bring chicken stock to a rolling boil and drop in wontons.  They will be fully cooked in about 5 minutes.  Garnish with chopped green onions or spinach and devour!

How do your children help you with meal preparation?

When Life Gives You Snow . . .

We got snow - first time this winter, and it left as quickly as it came.

I have to admit I was excited when I saw this out my window because it meant (in my mind) that we'd be forced to stay inside all day sitting by the fireplace drinking hot cocoa and reading books OR that it would allow me the excuse to stay inside and finally accomplish everything on my "list". 

Confession: I have to have, always live by "a plan".  It may not be written out on paper or completely organized, but I always have a plan.  So, when something doesn't go as planned, fit into my plan, or changes my plans I throw a huge tantrum (not really, but sometimes I'd like to).

As was the case yesterday - my plan was to stay inside because it was much too cold.  Yet, we had abnormally warm temperatures (warm enough to not need a coat and melt almost all of the snow by late afternoon) and I had two excited children begging to play with the snow.  So much for my plans . . . 

 . . . actually, it was so much BETTER than my plans.  We spent a good 2 1/2 hours outside building snowmen, making snow angels, and jumping in the big puddles formed by the melting snow.

Had we stayed inside as I had planned, I'm not too sure there would have been anything about this day that my children would have remembered.  I know I can't make it snow everyday and that on most days we really may not have the time to spend as long as we want outside - but I'm so thankful that on this day I let go of my plans and took the time to see the "snow angels" in the snow.

Toddler Touch & Feel Box

Happy President's Day! Is today a vacation day for your family? Or is it business as usual? 

We have no preschool and no work, so we'll be enjoying some time off as a family. I thought I'd share a favorite simple activity that all four of us at our house have been enjoying lately... 

a Touch & Feel box! 

I used to make simple touch and feel boxes when I was teaching because not only are they fun, they are a great language activity. We tried this last week. My 1-year-old loved finding objects to hide and touching and feeling them. My preschooler loved the challenge of trying to guess what was inside the box each time.

Materials Needed:

• shoebox (I love the small kid boxes we get at Target)
• scissors or a knife to cut a small hole
• objects to hide inside the box

The instructions are simple:

• Cut a hole in the box
• Have one child find an object and place it inside the box
• Cover the box back up (and don't let anyone peak)
• Have a different child describe what he/she feels inside the box
• Have child try and guess what is inside the box
• Open the box to see if the child is corrent!
• Repeat!... again and again!

I contemplated decorating the box and making it look cute... but really, this activity was so exciting that we really didn't need a cute box... Hooray for simplicity!

This activity is great for teaching new vocabulary words and practicing describing objects (using a variety of adjectives related to how objects look and feel).

If you are a teacher, you can tie this activity into a weekly classroom theme by adding objects that relate to the curriculum/theme. For example, for President's Day I could add a flag or for St. Patrick's Day I could add a little pouch full of gold coins.

My preschooler could've played this activity all day and my husband loved trying to find the hardest objects possible to try and sneak into the box.

Our 1-year-old loved to stick her hand into the box and feel what was inside and grab it. I would try to describe the object as she touched it so that she began to connect what she was thinking/feeling to actual vocabulary words. As she gets older she'll be able to describe the objects with short one and two word phrases.

If you haven't tried this little game yet... add it to your family to-do list this week! I love any activity that we all can do together.

Scrap Paper Rainbows

We have had a shoebox full of valentines sitting in our kitchen all week. My son has loved looking at them, talking about them, and stuffing them back into the box. He also has created stories with them and my daughter has been carrying them all around the house.

After a week of having them on my counter (and everywhere in the house), we decided to try and create a masterpiece with the valentines... and so we came up with these scrap paper rainbows. 

Materials Needed: scrap paper (valentines or other pieces of paper from around the house), scissors or a paper cutter, glue, colored cardstock, a marker, and some packing peanuts (or cotton balls).

Directions to Make Scrap Paper Rainbows:

1. Cut the valentines or scrap pieces of paper into little squares. Ours were 1 in x1 in.

2. Draw a rainbow outline with markers onto a piece of cardstock.

3. Start designing and gluing the scrap pieces of paper onto the rainbow.

Our rainbow went through several variations until we finally decided what went where. My son had very specific opinions.

4. Cut out the rainbow if you want and mount it onto another piece of cardstock.

5. Add some cotton balls or packing peanut clouds and grab your favorite book about rainbows to read.

I loved this project... especially all of the colors that we discovered as we sorted through our valentines. You probably have noticed that my son's rainbow doesn't look like the perfect rainbow that you usually see in books and crafts. At first I was going to try and cue and prompt him to make his more exact (red, then orange, then yellow, etc.) and then I reminded myself that this was his project and I wanted it to be his rainbow.

I love how it turned out and I think as he continues to learn about rainbows and the ordering of the colors it will be interesting to see how his rainbow designs change.


During this project we talked about... 
- colors
- shapes
- friends (and who gave each valentine and our favorite things about them)
- designs
- weather

Do you ever have that urge to "fix" your child's project to make it more like what you think it should be?


Do you have any favorite rainbow-themed songs, crafts, activities, or books?


Do you have any other favorite ways that you reuse valentines?


Please share your thoughts in the comments below or on our Toddler Approved Facebook page!

PS- If you're on Facebook then maybe you saw me mention that today is my wedding anniversary. My handsome husband and I have been married for six years today. I'm sure there was a rainbow in the sky on the beautiful and freezing cold day when we were married in NYC... so this project is perfect for today. :) We will be celebrating all weekend long.

  

 Hope you have some fun plans this weekend too!! See you back on Monday!