This One's For the Birds

With the weather finally starting to feel like spring, the girls and I needed a project to help get us in the mood even if the rain was keeping us indoors.  These two simple activities were perfect!  I'm sure you've seen them a million times, but kids love them, so why reinvent the wheel?

We first created a "Nest Helper" for the birds.  This was easy, but perfect for my almost two and three-and-a-half-year-old, and the set-up took almost no time at all.  I simply purchased a suet cage (under $2 at Home Depot) and found some leftover yarn in my crafting supplies.

To make the small pieces of yarn, I quickly wrapped the yarn around a stack of 5x7 index cards about 50 times.  I then cut through all of the strands to get 50 longer pieces of string.  They looked a little long to me, so I cut them in half again to make 100 shorter pieces. 

I repeated this with a few different colors of yarn (chosen by my girls) until we had enough yarn to fill up the suet cage with.  I mixed them all up to make a big pile for the girls to grab at and place in the cage as they wanted.

Unfortunately, I was too busy enjoying the moment to take pictures of them actually putting the yarn in, but it was a joint effort, and they had so much fun.  I was worried it'd be too simple, but they loved it and couldn't wait to go hang it out on the tree!

After that, they ran inside and my oldest said, "What's next, Mama?"  Luckily, I had the homemade bird feeders all set up to make too.  I didn't take any pictures of this activity, unfortunately, because it requires lots of hands-on attention (with the ages that I'm working with)!  I'm sure you've all familiar with the drill though: pine cones, string, peanut butter and bird seed (or raisins if you don't have seeds).

**I would have loved to have collected the pine cones as part of the activity, but it was way too wet...hopefully next time.

I tied the string on the pine cones BEFORE the peanut butter went on so as to minimize the mess.  Once the strings were on, each of my girls got a small (baby) spoon of peanut butter to spread onto their pine cones.  With a little help, they covered them with a sufficient amount.  We then rolled the peanut butter-covered pine cones in the prepared bowl of bird seed until there was no peanut butter showing and set them on a paper towel while we repeated the steps until all of our pine cones were done.

The best part was trekking out into the yard to find the perfect tree to hang our bird feeders on.  We decided to put them near the "Nest Helper" so that the birds will notice that it's there (and we can see it from our window).  The girls chose the branches and I tied the feeders onto them with the string.  It was sprinkling out, but that didn't dampen our moods at all!

After that, I got another, "What's next?"  I didn't have anything planned, but luckily we had some popcorn, a dull needle and leftover string.  Next on the list is popcorn string to hang on some of our pine trees!

Tips for Moving with Toddlers

Not recommended for the faint of heart!  It was a fairly rough road with a few bumps, but we made it five states over, from the great plains to the "great river."

We've been trying to prepare the girls for months, talking to them about moving and living in a new house.  Thanks to The Berenstain Bears' Moving Day book, E especially, really seemed to grasp the concept.

When we finally got to our new place, she was constantly comparing things that happened to us with the Berenstain Bears.  C, being 17-months-old, didn't quite comprehend what was going on, but has done a great job rolling with the punches.

It took five days after closing on our house (a whole separate story!), but our things finally arrived.  The night before the moving truck arrived, poor E was trying so hard, but couldn't keep it together.  She didn't understand where her things were and why it was taking so long for them to get here.  She missed her big-girl bed and her Minnie stickers for her wall.  And where were all of their toys?  C could feel the tension and was definitely missing her things too. 

The look on those girls' faces when the movers started hauling boxes and things into the house was priceless.  Even better, though, were the looks they gave as I put them down for nap in their own beds.  Both girls were more than happy, they were relieved that, in fact, Mommy and Daddy were telling the truth: their things WERE going to be coming here after all.

After going through the whole moving process with our two little ones, I came up with a few tips for moving with toddlers that I took away from the experience.  Check them out at www.playfullearning.net!

Homemade Felt Vegetable Garden (Part 2)

Here's how I made my tomato plants (my daughter's favorite).

 You need:

• Green felt
• green embroidery thread (and needle)
• 1/2 inch thick dowel cut down to about 6 inches
• sew-on velcro
• 3 green pipe cleaners

I didn't have a pattern to follow for the leaves, so I just sort of free-formed them. I created 3 three-leaf pieces and 3 two-leaf pieces.

I had already sewn my green tube together, so sorry I didn't get a picture of it before! I cut out a piece of felt that was 8 inches by two inches, folded it in half the "hot dog way" and sewed a quick stitch up the side and across ONE end (leaving a small opening at the other end). I then turned it right-side-out so that the seam was now on the inside.

To create the shape of the tomato plant, I took the three green pipe cleaners, folded each in half, and twisted them together into the shape shown in the picture above. Don't worry about the bottom "stem" part of the pipe cleaners, that will be hidden inside of the green felt stem when you're done. If you want more branches, simply add more pipe cleaners.

Next, I cut the velcro to fit on the underside in the middle of each of the three-leaf pieces. I placed one of the pipe cleaner branches in between the three-leaf piece and the velcro, and sewed around the velcro to secure it in place. I repeated this at the end of each of the other two branches.

I then cut a small square of green felt to fit the center of the two-leaf pieces.

Placing the leaf-piece below and the small square above the pipe cleaner branch, I sewed around the square to secure the leaves in place on all three branches as well.

Here are the branches before the stem is added.

Next, I took the dowel and slid it into the green felt stem sleeve.

Once that was inside, I slid the "stem" piece of the branches down into the stem sleeve alongside the dowel.

To secure it into place I cut a small circle of green felt, placed it on top of the center of the branches and hand-stitched it to the opening of the stem sleeve. I don't have pictures of my steps for making the tomatoes because it is shown beautifully in this blog post by Et Moi Alors. It's in French, but the pictures say it all! The only change I made was to add a piece of velcro to the top of the tomato so that they could hang from the branches.

And voila! You have a beautiful tomato plant ready to be planted and harvested. :)

Homemade Felt Vegetable Garden (Part 1)

We were on a strict budget for Christmas this year, so I had to get creative when getting the girls' gifts.  E is always pretending that she has a vegetable garden, so I thought, why not make one?  Though it made for a lot of late nights sewing, it was a lot of fun and definitely worth it!  I didn't think about sharing it until I was almost done, so I don't have as many pictures as I'd like, but I'll share what I have!

There are so many great tutorials out there that I took advantage of while creating her vegetable garden.  I ended up with corn stalks, tomato plants, carrots, beets, potatoes and green onions.  For the sake of time (yours and mine), I'll show a couple of vegetables created at a time.  Here's the finished product:

I found the basket at Michael's Craft Store.  For the dirt I simply cut pool noodles the width of the basket and covered each with brown felt, using hot glue to hold the felt on.  (Sorry I don't have pictures of this step since I actually am reusing the basket that I created for their flower garden.)  Here's a picture I dug up of the finished "dirt" (pun intended).

I started with the carrots since there was a great tutorial and they seemed the easiest to tackle.  Here is the tutorial I used by Craftiness Is Not Optional: Easy Carrot Recipe.  My only addition was to add a wide craft stick/tongue depressor inside the carrot to make it easier to stick into the garden while still maintaining its shape.  Since my steps were so similar to the tutorial I used, I didn't take pictures of my process.

Next were the beets.  This was another one I found a great tutorial for by Cut Out And Keep: Beets!  I loved how they made the leaves look curly, so I imitated that part exactly.  However, my beets are more 2D, since I wanted them to fit in between the pool noodle dirt rows, so I drew a beet shape on a piece of paper and cut out 2 (for each beet) from the dark pink felt.  I also added a smaller piece of a craft stick to the inside, just as I had done with my carrots.  Here are the finished beets:

I'll share the tomato plants in more detail (including pictures) in my next post.  :)

Transforming Christmas Lists

More toys to clutter the play room is exactly what we all need this time of year, right?  No?  Then what gifts do you wrap up to fill your children with wonder for the holidays?

After taking the Playful Learning Spaces Workshop, I totally revamped my children's (and my own) Christmas lists.

When I first started their lists (on Amazon...it makes relatives' lives so much easier) I was just trying to come up with things that were reasonably priced, and made to entertain their age-range.  They don't actually need (or want, honestly) any more toys.  After watching the very first video from the workshop, though, I knew it had to change.  Each following video and lesson gave me great ideas for things that wouldn't just clutter the play room, but add to it in an inspirational and educational way while still sparking the excitement we all love on Christmas morning.

So what sort of things are on the lists now?  Lots and lots of art supplies, made specifically for their ages, along with a few other things that inspire pretend play and outdoor exploration.  I've listed many of my ideas below.

Art Supplies:

• Preschool scissors
• Triangular colored pencils
• Triangular crayons
• Triangular pencils
• Tabletop easel
• Blank sketch pads (these could also be handmade)
• Dry erase markers
• PlayDoh and accessories
• Alphabet stamps
• Window crayons
• Toddler craft kits

Dress-up and Pretend Play:

• Dress-up clothes 
• Role play hats
• Pretend play broom and duster
• Pretend play kitchen accessories
• Felt vegetable garden (handmade or you could probably find it on Etsy)

 Outdoor Exploration

• Explorer kit
• Binoculars
• Magnifying glass
• Bug catching kit
• Umbrella
• Raincoat and galoshes

 Other ideas:

• Toddler instruments
• Chalkboard writing set (easy to make, from Playfullearning.net)
• Memberships to the local zoo, aquarium and children's museum
• Use this link to find a zoo or aquarium near you
• Use this link to find a children's museum near you 

I could go on, but I'll stop here and hope that some things from this list provide inspiration for your lists this holiday!

Playful Learning Spaces

I count myself lucky to be a part of the Playful Learning team and was over the moon at the opportunity to take part on their Playful Learning Spaces workshop this past month.  The experience gave me a whole new perspective on the areas I have designated for the girls and made me completely rethink the Christmas list we were sending out to the family (that's a whole other post!).

My  favorite part is the fact that I am able to revisit the lesson videos and links, as well as the inspiring comments and pictures of the room transformations shared by the other women in the workshop.  Inspiration can continue to be reignited each time I look back on these awesome resources (because we all know that we never have time to do the things we want WHEN we want to do them).  :)

My rooms and spaces are far from done, but I already see the difference these small changes are making in my girls' interactions and in the way they entertain themselves and one another.  Here are a couple "before" photos that I took of our play room on the main floor.  I intentionally left it messy so that the amount of toys available to the girls was captured.

It was both over-stimulating for the girls, and overwhelming for us to take on as a task to clean it up every evening.  It was so jam-packed full of toys that I wasn't even sure where to start with it's transformation.  These suggested blog articles were a HUGE help:

• Child's Play: The Art of Toy Rotation
• Toy Organization: Tackling the Living Room
• Rediscovering Your Child's Space
• Seven Guiding Questions for Creating Playful Spaces
• Child's Play: Organizing One Toy at a Time

As I said, the room makeover is far from complete, and I'd still like to downsize a bit, but I already feel better about the amount of toys I have available for the girls at any one time, as well as the organization, making it easier for them to clean up after themselves.

I hope to continue to share updates as they happen, as well as my daughters' reactions to them.  So far so good!  Their attention spans seem to have tripled with fewer toys in the room.  :)

It's a wonderful, rewarding experience that I just couldn't keep to myself and wanted to pass on in hopes that one of you will find it equally as encouraging.  If you're interested, check it out here:

A New Toy for Free!

The girls woke up this morning to this beautiful sight outside of our sliding door.

We were given a brand new toy to play with that was absolutely free: snow!  As soon as the sun came up we took on the challenge of dressing for the outdoors.  Snow pants, boots, coats, hats, scarves and gloves were donned and 45 minutes later we were out the door.

So what do toddlers do out in the snow?  Simply explore.  Our girls LOVED discovering the fact that they could make footprints wherever they went.  C grinned each time she watched her boot come up and discovered that she had left a mark behind her, and E was all over our yard, looking back every so often to see the new design she had created. 

Of course, there is a natural draw to eat the snow too.  I'm sure it's not for everyone; but as long as it wasn't any other color than white, I let them experience the cold snow melt quickly on their tongues.  Who wouldn't want to savor that feeling again and again?

Once the gloves were saturated, it was time to head back indoors, but we came out right away again after nap time in the afternoon.  Our back yard has a small hill (more of a slight incline, really), so we brought out the sled this time around.  Although they enjoyed the hill, the real kicks came from me simply pulling them around the yard.  :)

Daddy came home just in time for the snow to get warm enough to turn into the perfect packing material for snowman-making.  Though we didn't have any carrots, we made do with some sticks as arms and rocks from our garden to create the eyes, nose and mouth.

Since the snow has already started so early this year, we'd better find ways to enjoy it!  Who knows, maybe Mr. Snowman will get a snow-puppy in the near future.  :)