You'll need the sun on your side

For this activity to work, you'll need the weather to be on your side! Pick a day (if possible) where it will be sunny all day. Now, depending on where you live, you might have to wait a while. . .

Here's what you need: a large paved surface, chalk, and a sunny day!

Here's why should do it: It's a fun, hands on, visible way to explore how the earth moves in relation to the sun and learn while playing outside. :)

Here's how you do it: Head outside and trace their feet first, and then their shadow. Write out the time beside their head.

Lawton had to trace my shadow, too. :)

Later in the day, put your feet in your footprints and trace the shadow again. Talk about the differences in the directionality of the shadow, the length, and how the time and location of the sun affected these differences.
Do this as many times as you would like during the day, using different colors of chalk if you can. We were going to trace our shadows again for a third time, but Daddy decided to wash the cars in the driveway and disrupt our experiment. I couldn't complain! :)

Oooh . . . Pretty Beaded Garland!!

Just in case you missed it the first time . . . I posted this last winter and was reminded of this activity when perusing Target tonight. Be sure to stock up (after Christmas if you can remember! :)

Here's what you need: scissors, a bowl or container to "catch" all the cut beads, and strung beads of some sort (make sure, though, that you wee one doesn't find the strand of your grandmother's pearls!)

Here's why you should do it: This is an excellent way to practice hand-eye coordination and those tricky fine motor skills with those sweet, dirty, pudgy fingers! The cut-beads have lots of great uses, too, so don't throw them in the trash!


I think I got this tub for 75 cents after Christmas . . .
Cut a strand of 10-15 beads to make it manageable. Don't let your three year old hypnotize you either while you're at it!

Hold the strand and snip away! Warning: this can be dangerously addicting - just like popping all the bubble wrap until there isn't ONE bubble left!

Here's just one of the uses for cut beads! I wrote his name, put dots of glue along the letters, and there was even more hand-eye/fine motor skills work making sure that bead got on the dot of glue. You see, Lawton does not like to be "gooey" so he concentrated very hard so that glue wouldn't get on his hands!

We also used the cut beads to glue on Christmas trees we made in December. You could decorate Easter Eggs (on paper), make earrings when you draw and accessorize your peeps, and your two year old might want to stick them up their nose or in their ears. Oops! Just checking to see if you were actually reading! This is why you have to be careful if you have little ones crawling around underfoot! You don't have time to take your two year old to the doctor to be probed . . .

Stocking Stuffer Giveaway!!

Check out my other blog for a chance to win a Stocking Stuffer for your little elf!! Winners will be announced Monday . . . and I promise I will have a new post soon!

Jingle Bells . . .

All right - here's an idea for the little ones. . .

Here's what you need: a variety of objects, some of which make sound and some of which do not, and a container to put them in. I literally just looked in one basket in our playroom for these objects and didn't put a whole lot of thought into it. . . :)

Here's why you should do it: This is an auditory discrimination exercise in the simplest form . . . Sound? Or no sound?

Here's how you do it: In a perfect world, and a perfect lesson, I would take out an object, shake it gently in my ear then her ear, and nonverbally shake my head yes or no to answer "sound or no sound?" Then, in a perfect world, I would place it on the rug in the correct category and proceed to the next object. However, by watching this clip, you can see that this is not how the "perfect lesson" went. ha! My husband thought we should practice and do the video over again, but then that wouldn't be keepin' it real, would it? :) (and besides, I'm too lazy to redo it over again. . .) But you know, after watching this video I probably should have redone it for MY sake - does my hair really look this bad all the time? And do I really make these crazy faces all the time in real life? Just keepin' it real. . .