Month: December 2016

K Week!

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We kicked off this week in our Letter of the Week play with a game of “Keep it Up”  – balloons that is! What toddler doesn’t love helping keep a bunch of balloons bouncing in the air?

 

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From there, we found lots of fun in words that begin with K. Read on!

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Kick: Speaking of kicking things off, fit in your child’s gross motor play this week by kicking a ball. With wintry weather outdoors, we decided to kick the soccer ball through the halls of our apartment building!

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Kleenex: Every once in a while, it’s worth it to buy what I affectionately call a “sacrificial box” of Kleenex and let your child go to town, so this was one of those times. Their absolute delight is worth the “waste”. And before you consider it a waste, the Kleenex will last for quite a few games in your K week play. You can “swim” in big piles of them, send them in the air with a theatrical “achoo!”, use them to “clean” in make-believe play, then stuff back in the box and pull them out all over again.

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Kazoo: A homemade kazoo is a cinch to make, and will provide endless entertainment marching and humming along favorite songs.

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Keys: Puzzles featuring locks and keys are great for little fingers, so pull out any toys you have along this line. I also have a few sets of old keys that Travis loves to use for make-believe, testing in all the locks around the house.

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Kiss: First read the hilarious book How About a Kiss for Me? by Todd Trapley. Then demonstrate kisses by applying lipstick and laying a smack on – hey! – Kleenex! Your child may or may not be interested in trying a lipstick kiss of his or her own.

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King: We played with our castle blocks and toy king figurine…

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… dressed up in capes like a royal king, and made a homemade crown (more on that below!).

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Kite: I have a few insect-shaped kites that Travis loves fluttering over a fan, even when their isn’t enough wind outside for kite flying. If your weather cooperates, put together a plastic bag kite!

And our weekly extras:

Fine art: What better craft than a king’s crown? I cut points along two strips of construction paper for the crown’s spikes, then Travis decorated with jeweled stickers, pom poms, glue, and lots of glitter for a royally good mess. Once dry, staple the two pieces of paper together to fit your child’s head and put on for a royally good time.

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Food: Kiwi was a fun tropical treat at breakfast this week. I also put together mini “kebabs” for dinner one night, with roasted bell peppers and Gardein beef. To make kebabs safe for little ones, thread the food on coffee straws instead of a skewer!

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Books: The favorites this week were the above-mentioned How About a Kiss for Me? and Kitten’s Winter, by Eugenie Fernandes. Check your library for any books about kangaroos.

Songs: Travis enjoyed watching clips of both Kookaburra and Let’s Go Fly a Kite! Make sure to hum both on your kazoo after.

Math: The concept is a touch advanced, but we used a toy scale this week to talk about how things have weight. Because it’s K week, I discussed each item in kilograms rather than ounces. Travis thought the scale was fantastic, filling it with pennies, toting it around, and testing out numerous toys to see how far they made the arrow move. Even if he didn’t absorb the concept of kilograms, it was a nice introduction to the idea of weight and mass.

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We’ll likely take a pause in our curriculum until the holidays are over – but we’ll see you in a jiffy for J week!

Christmas Cookie Crate

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We received this delightful holiday kit from Koala Crate, featuring both pretend and real Christmas cookies. The craft would be easy to put together yourself, simply by purchasing felt and stickers! I love that we not only engaged Travis’ imagination with the make-believe cookies, but then got to whip up real Christmas cheer with the included recipe.

First, we played with the felt cookie set. Travis thought the cookie cutters were very neat, since the pre-cut felt let him pop the trees and gingerbread people right out.

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The stickers for decorating were a big hit, and although we didn’t decorate the suggested Santa, snowman, and gingerbread people as depicted, we certainly had fun creatively applying the decorations!

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Then it was time to really bake! This recipe is super kid-friendly; tots can help measure, pour, or mix ingredients, as well as help to roll the dough and use cookie cutters.

For the sugar cookies, you’ll need:

1 cup Earth Balance butter

1 cup sugar

1 Ener-G egg

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons baking powder

3 cups flour

  1. Cream together the butter and sugar in a large bowl. Mix in the vanilla and Ener-G egg.
  2. Combine the flour and baking powder in a separate bowl, then add to the wet ingredients. Once a dough forms, finishing kneading the dough with wet hands.
  3. Divide the dough into portions (we worked with one quarter at a time) and roll out to 1/4-inch thick on a lightly floured surface.
  4. Use round cookie cutters (or holiday ones!) to make shapes, and place on a cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees F for 10 to 12 minutes.
  5. Cool the cookies briefly on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack.

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Travis did take a quick turn with the rolling pin, but then he loved crumbling the dough and pressing cookie cutters into his mess, so we lost some of our dough to toddler madness!

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Luckily, we still managed to bake enough cookies to decorate.

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For the icing, you’ll need:

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons non-dairy milk

3 tablespoons brown rice syrup

Food coloring

  1. Mix together the powdered sugar and milk. Add the brown rice syrup – your frosting should be thick.
  2. Divide into zip-top plastic bags, and add a sprinkle of food coloring to each bag, kneading to incorporate. Snip a small hole in one corner of each bag and squeeze onto the cookies.

Travis loved this part – be prepared to get messy!

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For a final dose of fun, we added colored sprinkles to some of our cookies, and crushed candy canes to others.

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In sum, a crate-ful of holiday cheer!

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Tortilla Roll-Ups

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This is just about the easiest lunch or dinner ever, and remains the only successful way I’ve gotten Travis to love his beans (key, for a vegan!). With a few embellishments, it can be adapted to suit older children’s taste buds as well.

Ingredients:

  • 1 whole wheat or spelt tortilla
  • 3 tablespoons refried black beans
  1. If desired, warm the tortilla briefly in a skillet. You can also simply use the tortilla cold.
  2. Spread the refried beans over the tortilla in an even layer. Starting at one end, roll up tightly. Cut into 2-inch pieces and serve.

For those who like spicier food, sprinkle on about 1/2 teaspoon cumin before rolling up. You can also serve with salsa for dipping!

Homemade Kazoo

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Kazoos may get a bad name in parenting circles, but this cute homemade version is far less, well, blaring than the ones you buy at the store, and your toddler will love marching about playing the “instrument”.

First, it’s time to decorate! Travis liked that he could color markers both on the outside and inside rim of the empty toilet paper tube we used.

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Ooh, and markers fit through the tube, too – fun!

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Once his decoration was complete, I punched a small hole with a pencil near one end of the tube. Cover the opposite end with wax paper, securing with masking tape.

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To play the kazoo, cover the hole with your finger and hum. Travis loved watching me play it at first, and then took over!

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Rocky Road Brownie Mix

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Layer the ingredients for this rich chocolate brownie mix in a gift tin; it makes the perfect gift for a teacher or neighbor during the holidays! Travis loved helping to measure and pour out the ingredients as we arranged them in the jar. And of course, don’t forget to whip up a batch to enjoy at home! Omit the pecans if your recipient has nut allergies.

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First, the recipe itself:

Ingredients:

  • Cooking spray
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup melted Earth Balance butter
  • 2 Ener-G eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 cup vegan chocolate chips
  • 1/3 cup vegan mini marshmallows (such as Dandies)
  • 1/4 cup finely chopped pecans
  1. Coat a 9-inch baking pan with cooking spray and set aside.
  2. In a bowl, combine the sugar, cocoa, flour, baking powder and salt (a.k.a. “the brownie mix”) with the butter, Ener-G eggs, and vanilla extract. Stir until well blended.
  3. Spread the batter into the prepared pan and bake at 350 degrees F for 20 to 25 minutes.
  4. Sprinkle the chocolate chips, marshmallows, and pecans over the batter. Bake for an additional 3 to 5 minutes – the marshmallows should be puffy.
  5. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and cool completely before cutting into 16 squares.

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To prepare the recipe as a gift, layer the sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt in a glass jar with lid. Omit the wet ingredients. Place the marshmallows, chocolate chips, and pecans in a zip-top plastic bag, and set over the dry ingredients. This was Travis’ favorite part, especially because he stole a few marshmallows for snacking!

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Make sure to seal the gift jar tightly.

Write out the recipe instructions on an index card so your recipient can add the wet ingredients at home. Use a hole punch to punch a hole in one corner, and tie the index card to the jar with a ribbon.

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Travis helped add stickers to the index card as the finishing touch!

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L Week!

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We had lots to do in L week! As with our M Week exploration, there were definite hits and definite misses this week, based on Travis’ current preferences. Below is everything we played and learned, from which you can pick and choose.

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Lighthouse: To kick off the week, I recycled an old activity we did when Travis was much younger. Set up pillows so they spiral up to a chair or stool, and give your child a flashlight. He or she is the beacon at the top of the lighthouse, guiding boats to safety! This is fun to do with lights dimmed before bedtime stories (particularly if you read about a lighthouse). Supervise closely, of course! I also pulled out an old lighthouse bath toy we have for tub time.

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Leap frog/Lily pad: We set out lace doilies as “lily pads” but anything flat would work fine – carpet squares, colored mats etc. Then it was time to leap among them like frogs. Travis wasn’t interested until I pulled out frog stuffed animals, and then he hopped them around the lily pads and got more into it himself. Pardon the blurry action shot!

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Don’t forget to ribbit!

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Lion: Because Travis is a Leo, we have an over-abundance of lion toys, from stuffed animals and plastic figures…

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…to a giant rocking lion. I left them out all week for solo play. We also acted out the hilarious book Lion Lessons, by Jon Agee. Definitely not bedtime reading, this one is sure to incite giggles, with lion yoga, pouncing, and prowling!

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Love: We love the Daniel Tiger episode in which “making something is one way to say ‘I love you.'” While we discussed how hearts symbolize love, Travis and I made at-home puffy paint for a heart craft.

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Leaves: Enlist your child to help you “rake” any last fall leaves on the ground (or just shuffle through the piles!) for some good gross motor activity. All we have left here are brown leaves, but I used those to fashion a simple crown for Travis. He was so proud to wear it, parading around as king of the forest.

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Library: We go to our local library every week, so perhaps it didn’t occur to Travis that this field trip was part of L week. But whether you go often or never, head over to your library. Many have toys in the children’s section, and of course you can cuddle up and read a book you love!

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Logs: We made paper logs simply by rolling newspaper and taping, then pulled out our toy campfire food for indoor camping. I admit, Travis was much more into the food than the logs!

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Lacing: Excellent fine motor skills practice for little hands, I recommend investing in a set of simple lacing cards. Ours feature fun shapes and pictures, and I left them out all week so Travis could pick up at his l-l-leisure.

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Lights: Thanks to Christmas, lights abound this week! We took an outing one night after dark to find the prettiest twinkling lights in the neighborhood.

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Little: One idea for this word is to have a little/big hunt around the house. Find a little version of an item, and then go hunting for the big version! L week is also the perfect chance to give a lap ride while singing Lttle Red Wagon. With your child on your lap, sing the following three verses:

[bounce child up and down] Bumping along in my little red wagon x3

Oh [name] aren’t you tried?

[lift one knee and then the other] The wheel is broken and the ride is bumpy x3

Oh [name] aren’t you tried?

[rock child back and forth] Try not to let the wagon tip over x3

Oh [name] aren’t you tried?

Travis then wanted to play with his own little wagon, which we hadn’t pulled out in ages!

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And our weekly extras:

Fine art: Although a project we’ve done before, we’re always up for leaf rubbing. He’s older than the last time we did this activity, so really understood holding the crayons sideways to expose the leaf underneath.

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Food: Travis sampled his first glass of lemonade as a special treat for the week. After describing it as sort of sour, he turned with a smile and said, “I like lemonade!”

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Books: Some cute reads included Little Tug by Stephen Savage, Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle, The Grouchy Ladybug Eric Carle, and anything in the Llama Llama series by Anna Dewdney,

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Songs: As mentioned above, watch Season 1, Episode 8 of Daniel Tiger, featuring the song “Making Something is One Way to Say I Love You”

Math: I hoped Travis could practice drawing lines – some straight, some wavy – and prompted him with talk about how some lines run next to each other and some cross each other, but he was uninterested. You’ll notice that he decided to make a line with some ketchup from lunch instead!

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Lots more to come next week, so we’ll see you soon!

Puffy Paint Hearts

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Say ‘I love you’ with this fun make-it-yourself paint. Children will love the puffy paint mixture, and a special adult will love receiving the final product, either as a card or stand-alone gift this holiday season!

To make our puffy paint, we combined the following:

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup salt

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup tempera paint

Travis had so much fun mixing the gloppy paint together that it took a while before I could direct his attention to the rest of the craft!

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I outlined several hearts on paper with pencil for him, and let him fill in the shapes with his puffy paint.

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I also filled in one heart myself as an example, so he had a sense of what his final craft could look like, but don’t expect a toddler to get the heart exactly right!

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Christmas Tree Alphabet

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Why not sneak in a little learning with your holiday decorating? If you don’t celebrate Christmas, you could try this idea on a drawing of a dreidel or menorah instead – or any time of year with the appropriate seasonal picture!

Draw the outline of a Christmas tree on poster board, and fill in with the letters of the alphabet, in random order.

Next, write out all the letters on blank stickers, and present your toddler with both.

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Now it’s time to match the letters to the tree!

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Travis loved the activity, especially the find-and-seek aspect of it.

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Preschoolers may have the attention span to get through the whole alphabet in one sitting, but Travis lost patience and instead returned to the game over the course of a few days.

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It’s a fantastic way to test recognition of the alphabet without going through the letters in rote order.

Penguin Cup Cozy

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What could be cozier in the winter than a warming cup of hot cocoa? This adorable craft came to us care of High Five magazine. Travis was fascinated by the sock, and could help with the gluing portion of the craft, but I put the rest of the cozy together. Preschoolers can make the whole “penguin” themselves, though!

To start, cut the feet from a pair of black tube socks; discard or save for another use (like puppets!).

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Slide the tube of the sock over a cup that can hold hot beverages. Cut white felt into the shape of a penguin’s face and a small triangle from orange felt for the beak. Glue to the sock.

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You can either glue on googly eyes or draw on eyes with black marker.

Here’s our penguin doing an excellent job of keeping hot cocoa warm and cozy!

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And here is Travis having his first-ever cup of hot cocoa. Needless to say, the project was a hit!

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Instead of keeping the cozy for your child, it’s also a great do-it-yourself project that kids can make as a gift. If gifting, don’t forget to decorate a card with crayons for your recipient, then tuck inside the cup with the cozy on the outside!

M Week!

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We’re in M week on our Letter of the Week journey, but I’ll be honest: Travis was barely into anything I planned for the week. Not sure if it’s just that the words based around M fell flat, or because he’s a budding two-nager… But your child may love the activities we tried, so I’m including the hits and the misses below.

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Music/Maracas: This was by far the highlight of the week, as Travis loves music. March with maracas in hand and you’ll have a merry good time! We wore ourselves out with high-knee marching and added in silly “mouth music” – what sounds could we make using just our mouths? We pretended to be trombones, clarinets, flutes, and more. Several great children’s songs play with this concept, using the mouth as an instrument; check out Fireworks from Music Together.

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Mirror: There are many great mirror games you can play, including just pointing out body parts or trying on silly hats. I thought for sure Travis would love the taboo sensation of drawing on a mirror with a special dry-erase marker, tracing his “portrait,” but he lost interest very quickly.

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Mittens: Teach the song The Three Little Kittens if your child doesn’t already know it. You can also squeeze in a little learning by attaching three kitten pictures to poster board, and making six cut-out mittens. Your child needs to assign two mittens to each cat to help the kittens find them again!

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Museum: This word was the inspiration for our field trip of the week, taking Travis not to a children’s museum, but to a small local art museum. As we walked the gallery, I prompted him to guess what was happening in each painting. This game works especially well when people or animals are depicted. His favorite was a painting of waffles covered in jelly, which he thought some birds were going to come and eat. Even better, many museums often feature interactive exhibits. Travis spent 45 minutes painting at this digital paintbrush station!

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Magnets: I left out all the toys we own that have magnets in any form – magnet blocks, magnetized puzzles, dinosaur magnets. It was a reminder to focus on some old favorites, but again Travis lost interest after a bit of play with each.

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Moon: Cut three moons from craft foam – one crescent moon, one half moon, and one full moon – and attach to craft sticks. This is a fun way to talk about the phases of the moon, or to use as props while reading stories about the moon.

And our weekly extras…

Fine art: Aside from helping to color in monkey and mouse mask templates with crayons, Travis wasn’t into the art project I came up with for the week. I thought it would be fun to glue additional elements like whiskers to the masks, and then we glued them to popsicle sticks.

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Food: We had yummy stuff to choose from this week – muffins and mangoes at breakfast, mushrooms with lunch (Travis’s favorite vegetable), and mac n cheese.

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Books: Travis enjoyed Maisy Goes to the Museum by Lucy Cousins, the perfect read before our outing described above. We also read some classics: Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown and If you Give a Mouse a Cookie/ If you Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Numeroff.

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Songs: A good children’s song to play is The Bear Went Over the Mountain. (Take advantage of a mountain field trip if you live in a mountainous region!) Better yet, I left Mozart playing in the background most of the week! More on that below…

Math: Very briefly, I introduced Travis to the concept that a year has twelve months, by flipping through a calendar with him (Admittedly, he was more into the pictures of the dogs and cats).

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You could also focus on the word match by having your child match up socks or winter gloves, but Travis lost interest in that task quickly.

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What did Travis prefer to all these games I had planned? Well, he discovered my case of 170 Mozart CDs, and took them out and sorted them by color endlessly. So there you have it, we spent M week matching Mozart CDs… I guess it wasn’t a miss after all!

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