Location: If this is paradise, I wish I had a lawnmower.
Posts: 16,082
Hee hee! I don't believe it either. I subscribed to this thread so I could see what others were doing.
But, I didn't post to it, because I don't know if you want to know what we have been doing! We have gorgeous weather and are spending most of our days outside in the yard, or out at a park or in the woods. For us the summertime is the "inside time," unless we are in the pool.
We also do lots of things that have already been posted. Particularly fun is washing dishes, playing w/cornstarch and water, making playdough, baking (keeps the house warm, too). We have an Easy Bake Oven and Katie loves to make little cakes in it if we're not up for a big baking session.
I don't think you can do this inside, but I get out some old paintbrushes and fill a pail with water. The kids can "paint" the house. They love this and will do it for quite a long time!
We are getting ready to prepare our garden, so we are reading about gardening in Florida. We have a tie-dye kit so that's on our list to do next week, once I get buckets (we'll do it outside).
I also love to use the wintertime to purge. We are doing massive decluttering, and Katie enjoys helping to decide which toys to keep and which to give away. She does like to give toys away and is happy to know they are going to kids who need them.
Hey, Jodi! We do the same thing, too, only we use coffee filters instead of muffin cups (though, we're going to have to try those and make mini flowers!) And the girls color the filters with markers and then spritz with water, which makes them look kind of tie-dyed...
Lauren, I am so envious, want a few houseguests?? I love going outside, but it really has been TOO cold for the last 2 weeks...
We've been doing a lot of home-ec sorts of things as well... Nico is getting so good at folding clothes, and Kaya can do a great job with the napkins, washcloths and dish towels. Nico washes the non breakable dishes, and Kaya can dry them... That sort of thing.
We also do the couch cushion pile-up at least once a day. We've got two couches and two chairs with cushions that pull off, so that makes for one big climbing structure/somersault mat!
ellie and i have been really into making artists trading cards. they're sort of an in thing in the art world right now, and we've actually been altering teddy's excess yugioh cards, and then trading with other artists around the world. she just loves it when she gets another little pack in the mail! we've even started an exchange just for kids. i'm attaching a photo of one of mine so you can get some idea.
yesterday, we went to a bakery one of my friends owns. ellie got a private tour, and then she got to watch them decorate the special cookies and make croissants. all of this was to prepare us for a bread baking session on saturday unfortunately, my meager bread baking skills don't involve the amazing stuff we got to see on our visit!
we are also working on some stuff for granny's surprise 70th birthday. we're collaging an old broomstick to make a sceptre, and we're going to hang little dog statues from the top (she's a dog breeder). not exactly your basic waldorf project, but it's a hoot and lots of fun!
we don't do alot of arts and crafts. There is one thing that the girls usually do everyday though - the stuff is kept with the school supplies. I got the large popcycle sticks from the craft store and the girls use markers and color faces and bodies on them and make lil' puppets out of them.
Anyway, we got the girls a couple of board games & puzzles for christmas, and we play them all the time. Hungry hungry hippos, Candyland, Memory, and Chutes & Ladders. We usually play one a night. Even Olivia has fun trying to wreck the board - she plays HHH right along with the other girls.
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~ Cassie ~
mom to Marnie (10), Sophie (8), Olivia (6),and Ava (4)
Location: If this is paradise, I wish I had a lawnmower.
Posts: 16,082
Meeshi, you are more than welcome to come on down here and visit for some sun! That goes for any Amity's mama. ((((( I'm serious. We just drove to and from NY (Long Island, so about 6 hrs from the Finger Lakes, or we would've come for a visit), but looked at airfares and they were only about $140 round trip.
We have a pull-out queen sofa and a double futon couch/bed in our living room, and twin bunkbeds in the kids' room that they do not yet sleep in. So we can comfortably sleep at least 2 adults and 4-6 kids!
Joyce, wow...a sceptre! Cool! And I would love to see the artist trading cards. They sound awesome. The photo didn't attach, though.
I am getting some wonderful ideas from this thread...keep 'em coming!
We do our usual ton of coloring (Lauren has loved to color since she was about 18mo and the charm doesnt seem to have worn off any!), but the big thing yesterday was that we finally put sand in her sandbox and she spent about an hour outside playing in it. It was sooo much fun. Then she colored on the patio with her sidewalk chalks for a while. I bought some cheap wooden shapes at Joanns and if I'm feeling adventurous I'll let her color those with markers from time to time (which she really loves). We do playdoh occassionally, but she's not all that thrilled with it. Today we'll probably go to the park or go play with some friends...I'd like to let her give fingerpainting a shot...who knows. I think she has the potential for being very crafty I need to get some clear contact paper and help her make some collages, but I just havent done that yet. Looks like there are some fun ideas to try on here!
J
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Jamie, wife to Joe, momma to Lauren (1/27/02) and Tara (2/3/05)
DD is bigtime into her lincoln logs right now, so we build a lot of houses. We build castles out of regular blocks. She loves tea parties and her new dollhouse too.
We do a lot of the following:
bathtub painting
paint with water books
lacing beads (her "sewing")
we do finger painting occasionally
I bought her a pair of roller skates from the thrift store for $1 (too big though lol) and she skates around on the carpet.
She helps "clean" alot which is just wiping up messes mostly.
Listening to a lot of fun music and playing dress up.
We recently made bird feeders out of our leftover corn cobs from fall. We just spread with p.b. and rolled in birdseed.
She plays with pipe cleaners some.
She LOVE to play the game Perfection - remember that one? It has 25 shape holes and she can do them all pretty quickly too and she dies laughing when they pop up.
We play with "counting bears" and sort them in muffin tins. She also likes to fill different sized cups with them and see how many they will hold.
*A fun idea with coffee filters: flatten one out, tape together 5 markers in the order of rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue) and draw a rainbow on the filter and then sprtiz with water. So pretty and you can hang in windows.
__________________ Mom to W, M, N,& JI, due March 2010
Have you seen those little tiny bread pans before? I got mine from my mother-in-law so I know they are old. When we bake bread, the children make their own loaves with those mini pans and they love it.
I'm just going to share craft activities below and am not adding our playtime. things.
Our recent activities during the day: (I only have one four year old at home)
*Preschool Story Hour at the Public library where there is always a hands on craft.
*Working in our familiy scrapbook together.
*Making his fave animals with modeling beeswax
*Making a weather thingie for the wall. Used posterboard and made the little boy look like my ds. Made clothes for him w/velcro on back and a window w/various weather scenes that velcro on. Each morning we dress our boy depending on the weather outside. This was fun to make!! (but time consuming)
*Homemade stickers using old wrapping paper or any other kind of paper.
That is about it. Next week a lot of community classes start that I signed us up for. My ds will be taking a pottery class, craft class, and tumbling class.
Originally posted by lassie
I bought her a pair of roller skates from the thrift store for $1 (too big though lol) and she skates around on the carpet.
My kids love to do this! DD outgrew her old pair of Barbie skates, so I got her another pair (also happened to be Barbie) at a thrift store for $1 for Christmas, and I put her old pair in the garage for Goodwill. But when DS saw his sister get "new" skates, he wanted to know where the other ones were, so now he wears those, and says "I'm a beautiful princess." LOL.
Anyway, we haven't been doing anything crafty, even though my van is broke down and we've been stuck at home all week. DS does not like to color, but DD will color and do workbooks I give her. We've made bread 3 times this week. The kids really like their new wooden train stuff, so we've been playing with that. I got them a playstand and playsilks, but they think the playstand is like monkey bars and want to climb on it all the time. We've rode bikes, played frisbee, read books, cooked "food", but nothing crafty.
Maybe we'll do something with coffee filters tomorrow, that sounds like fun. Maybe the cupcake flowers too, as I have some leftover valentine cupcake papers (and when I buy flowers for the table the kids pull off all the petals).
I also get Family Fun magazine, and they have lots of great ideas for crafts, and a website, www.familyfun.com.
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Melanie
You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. Jer. 29:13
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Artist's trading cards sounds really cool! I would LOVE to see a pic and the story behind it
As for us, we bake a lot! Muffins and quick breads and cookies mostly. And dd loves to make her own collages, she will draw a background, then draw the people etc. to cut out and glue on. I always feel like we could do more if I was more organized! Let's see what else, she loves to string beads and do alphabet cards, and play rhyming games. But the biggest thing is drawing, she will go through 50 pieces of paper a day sometimes! She just draws these amazing pictures so fast like they just need to come out-lol! I don't seem to do enough with my younger dd though, she's 2- I have to try and remember what I did with older dd(4) when she was that age!
unfortunately, my meager bread baking skills don't involve the amazing stuff we got to see on our visit!
I need to get some clear contact paper and help her make some collages, but I just havent done that yet. Looks like there are some fun ideas to try on here!
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