Paper Easter Basket

 With Easter approaching we've taken a small break from school to work on a few decorations to put up. Out of all the crafts we did this was by far his favorite. We made a couple easter baskets out of paper plates. It's really easy to do too. 

Things you need: 

* paper plate

* paint, in the colors you want your basket

* scissors 

* glue

* egg cut outs

*easter grass

To make the basket shape draw a line down the center of the plate and cut it out, for the handle follow along the curved edge of the plate. Next let your kids paint their basket. Call me crazy but I love the hard boiled egg plates for putting our paint on. It's easier for Boog and he doesn't have to worry about paint mixing when he doesn't want it too. 

Next decorate the eggs. I used a cookie cutter to trace my eggs on to a piece of card stock. I gave him different things to decorate with, paper clippings, markers, and crayons. Your kids can even paint their eggs, it's completely up to you and them on what you guys want to use.

We let the baskets dry over night before we assembled them. First I let him glue the grass on. I had to help him here because he didn't want to push down on the glue and get his fingers sticky. Then he glued the eggs to the back. 

When they are all dried hang them up. You can add flowers, bows, what ever you like to the outside of your basket. He wanted to leave his plain, and I don't blame him. The paint job he did was very cute. 

Hope you enjoy making a basket and I wish everyone a happy Easter! 

Sometimes you fail

Since Valentines Day is right around the corner Boog and I have been making some heart themed crafts. Yesterday we tried making salt painted hearts. I've seen it on Pinterest last year and finally decided to do it. I thought the bright colors against the black background looks so nice. 

 

We started out by adding the glue to the hearts I what ever design Boog wanted. Afterwards he poured the salt on them, shaking off the excess. Then he used the dropper to add the water colors to the salt. But this is where things went wrong. 

Boog has yet to grasp the concept of just a dab is all you need, and seeing how I know this I still ignored it. When I showed him how to add the color the yellow traveled across the salt trails beautifully. Bit when he took over he squeezed out so much water we ended up with a big soupy mess. It really is my fault, I should have known better. We let the hearts dry over night, then this morning when we went to go hang them the salt started to break and fall off. Now, I'm not sure if it's because he used so much water or is we did something wrong, but these hearts are now proudly displayed on top of our trash can. Looks like we'll have to find something else to decorate our walls with. 

Starting up again

So, it's been awhile since I've posted on here but I figured with the new year I could really get back into it. Since I've last posted we have learned a few things, like our bones and the life cycle of a pumpkin. And started next week we will begin a whole new adventure. boog has been bugging me on how to tell time, funny thing is he has no interest in numbers so this should be fun. I have a few fun crafts already planned out, and a few more I need to cut and write up so hopefully he enjoys everything we do and actually learns how to tell time, keep your fingers crossed for us.

Bath Time Alphabet Hunt

Lately Boog has been bugging me to teach him the alphabet. He already knows most of the letters and can recongize them but he still needs lots of practice. So I got an idea. I recently had surgery and was unable to talk for a few days so this activity was perfect for the both of us cause it required no talking from me.

First I set up the bath tub by adding bubbles and dyeing the water blue with a few drops of food coloring. The colored water is by far Boog's favorite part about bath time and he asks for it on a regular basis. Next I added his foam letters I had purchased at K-mart a while back (you can also purchase them here on Amazon).

I would then hold up a letter for him to find. I made these letters for him a while back using large index cards and watercolor to give them a nice look. He loves them and enjoys looking at them on a daily basis. These cards have multiple uses and I will be posting about them later on when we start school soon.

Boog would then find the letter and if he knew what it was he would tell me the name. If he didn't I tried my hardest to say it. Luckly grandma was hanging out with us so when I couldn't say the letter she would.

Happy bath time.

Pipe cleaner fireworks

For the past week Boog and I have been focusing on Fourth of July related crafts. I've been trying to explain to him what our flag looks like but I don't think it has clicked yet. Either way he has been having a lot of fun with our flag themed projects.

Our first craft he got to paint fire works in the night sky. What you will need is paint, and a pipe cleaner stamp. For the stamp take three or four pipe cleaners, bend them in half then twist the top half to hold them together. Next spread out the half that isn't twisted to make a nice firework shape.

Next lay out some black paper, really you can use any color of paper but the black really lets the colors pop. Pour each color of paint onto a plate and let your littles get to stamping.

When they are all done hang them up, stand back, and enjoy the beautiful night sky. Another way you can do these is instead of using paint have them stamp in glue and once they are done have them use different colored glitter to sprinkle on. This will give the fireworks a little shine and sparkle.  Happy crafting. 

Number Ladybugs

As some of you know I have decided to homeschool Boog and since I am short on funds I have been making a lot of his school supplies myself. Boog has started to show an interest in numbers so I decided to help him out by making some number ladybugs for him. These are really easy to make and you can honestly make them from anything you have around the house. I decided to go with rocks because I've been clearing them out of our flower beds and also because Boog just loves collecting rocks.

The lady bugs are very easy to make. You just paint the body red, add the black head, then add the correct number of dots to each ladybug body. I'm sure you can even do this with bees where you count the stripes on the bees body.



I used acrylic paint do paint the bodies, then added a few coats of clear nail polish so the paint wouldn't chip off and to give the ladybugs a nice smooth finish.

After they had fully dried I turned them over and added correctors on the back. This way if Boog has trouble figuring one out he can easily turn it over and match the numbers. I also made him so counting cards so he can match the ladybugs with them.

I didn't have any black stickers to put on the cards so I used some neon ones I had and colored them in with a black sharpie. I then added them to an index card and wrote the number on the bottom left corner of each card. This way he can easily match the ladybug to the card either counting the dots or turning the ladybug over and matching the numbers together.

We haven't worked with these yet but next week I will be introducing him to them and hopefully he really enjoys them.

Washing Dishes

A few months ago I use to let Boog help me wash dishes. I would put his apron on him, pull up a chair and showed him how to rinse. It wasn't until he decided to throw a glass on the floor that him helping me out came to an end.

Ever since then he would bug and bug to help me wash dishes but I didn't want a repeat of what happened last time. So then it dawned on me. Why not take dish washing outside? And that is exactly what we did.

So the other day I set him up with his own dish washing station. I pulled out a bunch of plastic dishes, set up two tubs; one with soapy water and the other with rinse water, got him his own sponge and dish rack. I walked him through it once showing him that after he was done washing he can rinse them then put them in the rack to dry.

We spent over an hour outside rewashing the dishes over and over again. He really did love this activity and the family jokes that when we go camping we know who will be washing dishes out there.

And with the days getting hotter this was a perfect activity to do outside. Especially when he realized that the rinse water could also be used to splash water on mama.

Since this activity was a huge hit I am sure he will be washing more dishes this summer. And who knows maybe he will earn my trust back to start washing dishes at the sink again.