Alphabet Art

Here's a fun way to learn letters...
My friend Brooke recommended this cool book Alphabet Art. It's got some great ideas. We made "Aa" and "Bb" these past couple weeks. I actually made up my own "Bb" activity...I had blue sand & beans...so that's what we did. They both loved it...especially the bottle glue and sand part!

Back at it...

I started this blog just as Holt's school was winding down. I love to look at other blogs and thought this would be such a fun way to journal and record all the fun stuff we do. Sharing it is the best part. I love to hear new, creative things from my mom friends! Let's see how I keep up now....

Letter hunt & Letter mom/baby match

For letter recognition, I made up a letter game. I made an index card for each letter, both big and little.
Letter hunt: Stick the index cards w/ tape all over the house or just hide them places. If the child can recognize the letter then they get to put it in their bucket. If they don't, they have to pass it up. At the end you'll know which letters they need to work on. You can do this w/ capital or lowercase.
Letter mom & baby: Give your child a stack of capital letter cards. Hide or stick the matching lowercase letters around the house. They go around trying to match the mom letter w/ the baby letter. Once again, whatever is left are the letters they need to work on.
My son calls this "Easter letters".

Marshmallow Bunny!

My kids think marshmallows are the best treat ever! I drew an outline of a bunny face and they licked and sticked! Construction paper works best. Their "lick" works like glue on the paper. It's not a craft you'll keep for long, but it's cute and is good for fine motor skills...& will power! I told them they could eat 1 for every 5 they stick.
Materials:
construction paper
pen
colored mini marshmallows

Bird Feeder

This Cheerios bird feeder was fun and easy to make. Our birds & squirrels loved it!
I found it in my Cheerios cookbook.

Materials:
ice cream cone
pipe cleaner pushed through bottom of cone...to hang from
peanut butter
Cheerios
birdseed

Froggy Snack

I found this fun Froggy snack in Family Fun. The kids loved it! We used apples, grapes, raisins, Laughing cow cheese for one & peanut butter for the other.

In the garden of Averys

The kids and I started caring for our garden a couple months ago...after my dad helped us plant it. The kids love it! We have tomatoes (big, little, yellow, orange and red), squash, carrots, bell peppers, banana peppers, mint, basil, dill and rosemary. We've currently got two baby tomatoes and lots of blooms. If you don't have a garden...make one! It's the best way to get your kids hands in the Earth and really help them feel part of really nurturing something.