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.