Another fine motor activity

This is another one of my favourite fine motor activities.  The object is to get the child to scoop the contants out of one bowl into the other.  This time we used maccaroni but you can use anything, dry beans, rice,  even pine cones.  You can use tongs or spoons.  The bowls I picked up at the dollar store.  My kids can spend hours doing this activity!

Goop!

Goop!  What more can I say?  Goop is so much fun for adults and children alike.  It's a great science experiment and fine motor activity.  The fine motor will help your children with writing letters and numbers down the line.  The Goop is a ball when it's in your hands but when you open your hand the Goop becomes a liquid.... great science!  The recipe is simple:  Corn starch, water, and food colouring.  When you make your Goop try not to make it too runny.  I let my children play with scoops, spoons, funnels, cups and bowls, or just about anything.  Let your children experiment!  This activity will be messy! 

Coffee can painting

My monkey son gave me a great idea the other day.  He saw a coffee can in the recycle bin, picked it out and asked, "Mommy can we make a craft with this?"  That's when I got the idea to put some marbles in the can along with some construction paper, and paint.  The kids rolled the can the table.  They picked it up and shook it.   They did this for about 45 minutes!  It turned out to be a great activity.  And we ended up with some pretty cool designs!

Sewing Fun!

My monkey children love to sew.  It's a great fine motor activity.  You'll need felt, a sewing needle, thread, and stuffing.  I tried using plastic sewing needles in the past but found that they don't really work, sewing needles work better.  You can use stuffing or try using some large dried beans, such as kidney beans.  My children really like the teddy bear stuffing because they like to take their little creations to bed with them.  The one thing that my children can't do is trace a shape onto the felt and cut it out.  Even I find it a little tricky.  You will have to watch your children while they do this activity, don't walk away and let them do it on their own.  Fine motor activities will help your children down the line when they are learning to write. 

Teaching Quantity

My children were very good a counting from a young age.  They could rote count very well.  I made up an activity to teach them quantity using foam shapes and clothes pins.  This worked well because it was something they could do on their own at anytime by themselves.  For my daughter I made flowers and for my son I made yellow school buses.  I cut out the shapes out of foam pieces and then drew numbers from 1 -10 on them.  The first time I did the activity I did it with my children.  I would ask them questions along the way like, "How many clothes pins do we need for the number 2?,"  or "We have 4 clothes pins on the bus we need to have 5.  How many more clothes pins do we need to clip to our flower?"  This is a great activity that will help your children in both math by figuring out how many pins they have and how many more they need to get the right amount, and it's a great fine motor activity as well.  They'll have to hold shape in one hand and use the other hand to open the clothes pin and place it on the shape.  Before you know it your child will understand how much 5 is, and they will have fun with putting the clothes pins on the shape.

Treasure chest and sight words

My monkey children were invited to a pirate themed birthday party a few months ago.  What a great party!  There was treasure to be found, a real pirate, and a pirate boat pinata!  As their craft, all the kids got to decorate their own little treasure chest.  This gave me an idea for an educational game.  I made several keys out of construction paper, and printed out some simple words to teach my monkey son to read some sight words.  We called it the "Treasure Chest Game."  I told him that if he learned how to read the words on the keys they would open up the treasure chest and inside was a treasure.  He thought this was great.  He knew all his letter sounds and now it was time to teach him how to put the letter sounds together.  At first I would point to all the letters one at a time and then I would speed up saying the letters and then say the word.  Then I would get him to repeat with me both the sounds and the words.  I would only do about 5 at a time not to overwhelm him.  When there was a word that he had mastered, we would learn a new now.  After each session, when all 5 keys were read, he could open his treasure chest.  The first few times he got a small handful of smarties and when he learned 10 new words he found a new Hot Wheels car inside his treasure chest. I now have to make up some new keys for him with some new words.

The best money I have ever spent!

My daughter justt had her first dance recital. I purchased the DVD so that I could show her what her performance looked like from the audience point of view, and so that I could relive the excitement over and over. It has turned out to be the best money I have ever spent. Both my kids have watched the movie over and over and over.... well you get the point. I think they have so far watched the DVD about 100 times in the past 2 weeks. A few months ago I took about 50 pictures of our adventure at an apple orchard near our house and put them onto a DVD and set it to music. Also the best money ever spent! I have learned that children would rather watch themselves on t.v then any cartoon out there. I plan to get more pictures put on DVD for them for Christmas this year.  No more expensive toys, just DVDs of the things they have done.  My advice to anyone who needs some time to themselves or needs to get the laundry done, or mop the floors, have some home movies of any kind of your kids ready!  It will keep them entertained for hours!  It can be something simple like pictures of them playing with their friends, or a trip that you have taken, even pictures you've taken over the past year.  Maybe even ask your children if they have any ideas or ask them to help you select the pictures to put on the DVD.  Make it a special project.  Be creative and see where it takes you! 

Our craft

Remember all that macaroni, and coconut that we coloured the other day? After drying over night this is what we made. Our lasagna noodle is decorated with various macaroni and shredded coconut and other things. We are going to display this art work on top of the monkey children's dressers for a while. The next thing that we made was magnets for our fridge with the juice lids. I put magnets on the back and now they are nicely displayed on our fridge. I have another idea for the lids. If you have any broach pins lying around, which I have run out of, you could hot glue them to the back and your kids can wear them as pins. These make great mother's day gifts for moms and grandmas, or you or children can just wear them around town. One thing I should mention about this craft is after your children have place the macaroni, rice, etc. drizzle some glue over the top. Try to fill in any holes where you thing the piece might fall off. The glue will dry clear. Have fun and be creative!

Great Soccer Drill

It's hard to keep very young children on the soccer field. Many of them have never kicked a soccer ball before, let alone play soccer for a full hour. Our team is made up of children who are 3 years old. One of their favourite games is called "Bunny Hops." If you look at my picture you will get the basic idea of how the game is set up. The children line up and "hop" over the balls. I thought of another variation of this game to play at home or at school during gym. Find balls of different sizes, and varieties. Spread them out all over the backyard, field, gymnasium. Have the children run around and jump over them. The smaller balls will require smaller jumps using smaller muscles and the bigger ones will require bigger jumps using bigger muscles. At the end of the activity you can get the kids to kick the balls back to you or tell them that you are going to count to 10 to see how fast they can run and collect all the balls. They can kick them to you or reach down and grab them in their hands and run them over to you. Great exercise and lots of fun! Get those kids moving!

Funny Carrots!

The great thing about growing your own garden is that sometimes you get some pretty funny looking vegetables. This is the carrot we pulled out this afternoon to have with our dinner. "They look like they are giving each other a hug!," said Monkey Girl. We took a picture so that we could add it to our collection. Our Super Duper Monkey Opa once pulled out a potato out of his garden that looked like a heart. We called it a "Heart-tato." It was pretty cool looking just like our hugging carrots.

Coloured macaroni, pasta, and shredded coconut

Buying craft supplies can be expensive. Here is an idea for you to make at home with your children. My monkey children love to help me with this one. You'll need rubbing alcohol, rice, different types of pasta, macaroni, shredded coconut, small and large ziploc bags, and food colouring. Children can not do this one on their own, they will need to be your helpers with this part. First decide what kinda of pasta you will use, bowties, elbows, scoobi doo, shells, the choices are endless. Then you put a little bit of rubbing alcohol in a small ziploc bag, add a few drops of food colouring, put the macaroni in the bag, zip it up and let your children shake it till the macaroni is fully covered. You can do the same with rice and shredded coconut. The large ziploc bags can be used to colour lasagna noodles, which you will have to do on your own without the children. These noodles are a little more delicate. Once everything is colour you will have to place them on a tray or plate and set them out to dry. Out side in the sun works really well. This activity is great because you can teach your children that if you mix certain colours together you can make new ones, like yellow and blue food colouring together makes green. Let your children explore with the different colours to see what they can come up with. As soon as we make some cool crafts out of these I will post them. For now save your frozen juice lids!

Looking for more ideas?

For more ideas check out "My place with kids." There are craft ideas, snack ideas and more. She is inspirational, creative, and has spent many years working with children of all ages so the flow of ideas is endless.

http://myplaceyourkids.blogspot.com

Wacky Farm Animals

Today was a rainy day. It was completely down pouring! We decided to make some farm animals. It just so happens that we live on a dairy farm, with a few chickens. And when "Super Monkey Mom" is your mom.... you just know that the animal are going to be anything but just the usual. We traced a plate and a book. Then I cut out some black spots for the cows and some wings and combs for the rooster. Then it was up to the monkey children to use their imagination and create a "Wacky Farm Animal." They turned out great! We had glue and construction paper everywhere, even in monkey boys hair! How he managed to do that I'll never know! Monkey girl came up with a new animal..... A Rooster Cow! Chickens everywhere beware! Rooster Cow may be invading your barnyard soon! You can do all sorts of things with this craft. You can make a triangular horse, a rectangular pig.... the ideas are endless! And it's a great way to get younger children to practice their shapes. Various colours could be used too. Maybe you'll make a purple triangular barn cat, or green hexagon sheep. Experiment and see what you come up with. You too can have your very own Wacky Farm Animal.

Purple beans

Every year we plant a garden with our children. This year's garden is the best we have grown yet. We plant something new every year. Last year it was purple carrots, which ended up swimming in about 3 inches of water! This year we planted purple beans. I thought this would be a great science experiment for our children. The experiment worked! We had an amazing crop this summer. I harvested some of the beans to show to my children. First we compared them to green beans. They looked pretty much the same except for the colour of course. Then we cut both the green bean and purple bean in half, and to my childrens surprise the purple beans were green on the inside! My children tasted both the green and the purple beans and found a slight difference in taste. But then the real experiment happened..... We steamed the purple beans, and to our surprise the purple beans turned GREEN! My children were amazed! We now have a new favourite vegetable. Next year we are going to try purple carrots again, provided the weather co-operates!