Pudding Painting

Do I even have to say anything else!?!

Well, lest you think that pudding paint, or finger painting of any kind, is only for toddlers, think again!

Finger painting is a sensory experience that is crucial for scientific discoveries at a young age, it helps to develop small motor skills, can help children to regulate difficult emotions, and can be a creative outlet for thoughts and ideas at any age.

Depending on the age of your children, you can adapt finger painting activities to include literacy exploration {writing letters, names, spelling words}, science {why does the pudding need milk instead water or juice?}, or even math {measuring milk is tricky business!}, just to name a few valuable reasons to get down and dirty with finger paints throughout childhood!

We made pudding according to the directions on the box and then used aluminum foil to paint on today. Other great options for a drawing medium are wax paper, a baking tray, or heavy cardstock {the pudding will soak through regular paper pretty quickly}.

Have a blast! This project is fun and YUMMY!

Song Can

I put this Song Can together my second year of teaching. I add and subtract songs as needed depending on the age of children I am teaching, and this little guy has been a hit for at least ten years {you may want to add or subtract based on the age of children at your house. Kindergarten kids are totally over "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" but "She'll be Comin' Round the Mountain" is a little too intense for a two-year-old}.

Now that I use the Song Can at home I have added a few church songs for Larkin to learn and sing.

Larkin can sit and sing songs from the Song Can for HOURS! This is a great activity for kids of all ages. Your kids can even help you make the Song Can customized for your family.

I used:

A large coffee can

Stickers

Contact paper

Construction paper

EASY PEASY!

Have your kids help you decide which songs should be added to the Song Can. Have older kids draw pictures to go with the song names for little kids so that even young children can know which song they picked. Any of this can be done on the computer with clip art if you are feeling less than creative ... I totally get that, although my silly little school bus has worked just fine for "Wheels on the Bus" for so many kids I can't even count them all ... kids don't judge our creativity the way we judge ourselves, so just have FUN!

Music is so important in helping children to learn and grow!

Happy Singing!

Homemade Finger Paints

What do you get when you add sugar, salt, corn starch, and water? The perfect base for finger paints ... for cheap!

The recipe is simple.

3 T sugar

1 T salt

1/2 cup corn starch

2 cups water

food color

Mix everything but the food coloring in a pot and cook while stirring until the mixture becomes thickish. (Don't let the mixture come to a boil or become too thick)

Let the mixture cool and stir in food coloring. One batch of this goo made all the finger paints above.

If you have baby food jars, or small jelly jars, that is the best way to store these paints. We are fresh out of baby food jars these days, so we used tupperware containers today.

Colored Rice

I have been the "sick-in-bed mom" for too many weeks! It is time to get moving and creating again at our house! I have decided to pull a few tricks out of my bag and have a little fun with what is left of the summer. If you are running low on ideas at your house, feel free to use some of mine! None of them are original. I have found all of them in books, from co-workers, online, or in school. I hope you enjoy the last few weeks of summer at your house!

First up: Colored Rice. You can color just about anything with a little liquid food coloring and some rubbing alcohol ... rice, pasta, bird seed, tapioca ... any or all of these are perfect in a sensory table with some spoons and bowls.

We used 2 cups of rice in each zippy and 2 Tablespoons of rubbing alcohol with a little squirt of food coloring. Close up the bag and let your munchkin shake SHAKE shake!

(We added two bags of tapioca after we finished the rice so we would have a few extra colors.)

Once the rice looks "beautiful" as Larkin says, you set it out on a tray and let it dry out. The rubbing alcohol will evaporate and the color will stick. We set ours out in the sun so it would dry a little faster.

(I always mess with my pictures a little before I post them, but I left this one alone so you could see how vibrant the rice can be. It's the rubbing alcohol that makes the colors so bright! Once it evaporates the rice dulls and little.)

Larkin loves to cook so we set her up with lots of bowls and spoons and spatulas to cook up a storm. We poured in all the colors of rice and tapioca into a bucket and let Larkin mix them all together.

Such fun!

Next up on our list of fun things to do ... "clean mud", homemade finger paints, and the Song Can!

... even as He is

I wasn't feeling well this morning. I dozed in bed while my super-human husband fed, clothed, and prepared our daughter for church. Before long I found myself alone in our great big bed in our great big house and felt suddenly very disappointed in myself. "I am better than this." I thought to myself. And then I realized with a measure of sadness that in that moment I wasn't better than anything. To be better I must do better. A talk I heard this last spring came to my mind and I lumbered to my computer to read this. Tears flooded my eyes as I instantly felt the truth of this message and vowed to do better and be better, no matter how my body rebels.

. . . . . .

"May [my] efforts to develop Christlike attributes be successful so that His image may be engraven in [my] countenance and His attributes manifest in [my] behavior. Then, when [my] children or others feel of [my] love and see [my] behavior, it will remind them of the Savior and draw them to Him."

~ Lynn G. Robbins

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens ...

sisters and cookies and grandmas and temples ....

These are a few of my favorite things!

My parents and sister came to visit this past weekend. The time went too quickly and was filled with too many favorite moments to pick just one.

I loved watching Aunt Lanette help Larkin make cookies for family home evening ... there was a little extra salt in this batch. All I can say is: Larkin is quick!

Grandma and Grandpa and Lanette visited Fairy Tale Town with us. I loved watching Larkin run around showing them all her favorite things.

Yeehaw!

The purpose for the visit was to go with my little sister to the temple on Tuesday. Larkin has been waiting to visit the temple for weeks now. From the moment she could spy it from the car she was over-the-moon excited. I loved her excitement. When we got out of the car she said, "Look. That my temple."

I loved being in the temple with my family. It was a wonderful way to start a day, and an even better way to end a visit together.

We are expecting!

We should be welcoming baby dos to our family sometime around the 15th of February.

(I try to cite my sources ... I give full credit for this post to my friend Rachel who borrowed the idea from a friend of hers. Thanks for the fun idea ladies! :)