Follow the Directions

A couple of weeks ago, we were driving Eli to preschool, when he said, "Look at that truck behind us."  But, the truck was in front of us.  He did the same thing a few of days later, saying we were in front of a vehicle that we were really behind.  To be honest, I was quite shocked at this.  Once might have been a simple mistake, but TWICE, means it's time for a game to practice directional words.

I wrote directional words on notecards (we added JUMP later in our game...the scribbled card up in the right corner, colored by Abby, was a FREE PLAY card).

We moved this blue table into our living room and then I held all of the cards.  The kids would pick a card and then stand where it told them to stand.  If they drew BEHIND, the would stand behind the table.  Drawing BESIDE meant that they had to stand beside the table.  You get the idea.  Sadly, I don't have any pictures of the kids actually playing our game.  I always like to do whatever we are doing for a bit before I start taking pictures.  So, we were happily playing away and the kids were loving it.  Big smiles were plastered to their faces as they ran AROUND the table and layed UNDER it.  We had a lot of fun, until the "injuries" began.  I quote the word injuries because they were kind of injuries that only extremly overtired children incur.  After three "injuries" of unknown origin, Eli was no longer into playing our game, hence, no pictures.  

Playing this game made me realize, again, the power of using common things in different ways.  We don't usually have our blue table in the living room and we usually don't get to stand on top of it and then jump off.  Using the same things in unusual ways makes instant fun! 

After half of my game players were incapacitated and we were done playing, I did think of some fun ways to expand this game.  You could make two sets of cards, a set of body parts and a set of directional words.  Then draw a card from each set and then do what it says...HAND ON TOP of the table, FOOT UNDER the table, HEAD IN FRONT of the table.  I guess that is basically Twister.

Interestingly, Eli never confused IN FRONT and BEHIND while we were playing our game.  Hmmmm.  

A mystery...kind of like his "injuries."

Refrigerator Abacus

My math teacher heart has been happy lately as Eli has been showing a great interest in numbers.  He is frequently asking me things like:

• What comes after 39?  49?  59?  (I love how is he is spotting the pattern of tens.)
• What is 5 + 8?  (or any combination of numbers he comes up with)
• What is between 8 and 9?
• How much is 100?

As a former middle school math teacher, I can hardly contain myself when he asks these types of questions.  In fact, I have always been curious about how young a child can learn algebraic concepts.  Oh my poor, poor, guinea pig children.  One of our favorite driving-in-the-van games is "What is Bigger?"  I will ask Eli, "What is bigger...5 or 11?"  We will also play "What is Smaller?"  It is fun to see his grasp of number concepts growing.  To help Eli visualize the idea of addition, we made a Refrigerator Abacus.

Here's what it looks like:

So, I taped two green boxes onto the fridge, using painter's tape, with an addition sign taped in between.  Each box has the numbers 1 - 6 that can be put inside.  I then tied fishing line from the fridge handle to a magnetic hook, with 12 beads strung on it.  You want to make sure that you have enough beads to represent the largest sum that could be made.  The biggest we could do would be 6 + 6, hence 12 beads on our abacus.  I had wanted to be able to do 10 + 10, but when I strung 20 beads on the string, it covered most of the width of the fridge, not allowing much room for moving the beads around.

A closer look at the numbers and boxes:

Each set of numbers 1- 6 was done in a different color with a matching strip in each box.  That way, the kids would know to which side the numbers belonged. 

My vision for this was that I would call out numbers to Eli, he would put the numbers in the boxes, and then use the beads to find the sums.  We made a little video so you could see how we are using our abacus.  The video is a bit shaky because, as we were videoing, I realized that our full trash can was right out the open.  Oops and Sorry.  Also, thank you to Abby for her keyboard accompaniment. 

I had hoped that Eli would be playing with this a lot, excitedly working with and exploring number sums.  That has not been the case.  Apparently, he is not as nerdy as I am, prefering to play with his Legos than do math at the refrigerator.    But, if I catch him in the right moment, or if he asks me an addition question that we can work out on the fridge, he will cooperate.  Abby, however, might be as nerdy as me, becuase she loves to play with the numbers and move the beads.  That's my girl.

All in all, it's been fun.  What I might need, though, is a WALL Abacus so that we can work with bigger numbers.  We'll save that one for another day...

Making Wrapping Paper

So, I left you with a cliffhanger last time...we had dueling art projects going.  Let's switch focus to Eli's project... 

Get it?  Switch Focus?  FOCUS?  (Insert cheesy laughing HERE.)

Wrapping paper seems to be overly expensive to me.  When I was looking for wrapping paper for my husband's birthday, I just couldn't bring myself to pay for it.  Now, if I could have found Star Wars paper I would have purchased it, but, alas, that was not to be found.  It really worked out better that way, because we were "forced" to make some instead.

We have a giant roll (like wrapping paper size) of brown paper in our basement that we used to cover our floor while our kitchen was being redone.  Seeing that paper reminded me of an idea a friend of mine from church had shared with me.  When her daughter was a baby (30ish years ago), she painted her feet and had her baby "walk" across paper.  Little baby feet wrapping paper...seriously, what could be cuter?    Ours didn't turn out so cute, but we did get some wrapping paper.

Coloring with markers.  That's it.

While Eli was coloring, Abby was happily painting away.  I've said it before, but that girl loves to paint.  When she finished the cards, described here, she of course wanted to keep painting, so I gave her a big piece of white paper that came off a big roll...kind of like wrapping paper...hmmmmm....

She told me she was painting a purple Princess Leia.  Ok then.

 Let's check in with Eli:

That looks about right.

Abby finished with the painting, but had still not expended all of her crafting energy so she jumped ship to the coloring.

Whoa.  A little close to the carpet there.

That's safer.

And then...a joining of forces.

Get it?  Forces?  Star Wars?  FORCES?  (Insert more cheesy laughing here.)

The final products:

The brown paper was pretty stiff to use for wrapping and did require a more-than-usual amount of tape.  The white paper wrapped well and is what I will use for our next wrapping paper adventure.  As it turns out, we did end up with Star Wars wrapping paper with Abby painting a "Purple Princess Leia" and Eli coloring a Death Star and Luke Skywalker hanging by a grappling hook from the bottom of at AT-AT Walker...at least that is what he told me he drew.

And just for fun, here are the cards we gave Andy (We are on a bit of a Star Wars kick around here, in case you couldn't tell.):

From Abby, who LOVES R2-D2.

From Eli, who couldn't stop smiling when he saw HIS face on Luke Skywalker's head.

Check out the faces.  I was really cracking myself up while making these cards.

And of course, no birthday is complete without a freezer paper stenciled shirt as a gift and kids that won't smile for pictures.

Ten or so takes later:

Ok.  That one is a keeper.

Thanks for reading!

Invisible Ink

More rain seems to be predicted for us this week.  That calls for a little rainy day activity.

Materials:

• White crayon
• White cardstock (I have not tried this using just regular white paper, but I think you probably could use it.)
• Paint
• Napkins

Start by writing something on the white paper with the white crayon.  You want to press hard, hence the broken crayon above, and make your lines thick.

Then let your little painters loose.

Once the painting is finished, take a napkin and wipe away the excess paint, revealing your 

"invisible ink."

Blank notecards and envelopes were our canvases of the day.

To summarize:

Write in white crayon on white paper, paint, wipe, dry, done.

Huh.  Part of that sounds like another set of instructions I give my young kids.  Anyways....

See Eli in the background?  While Abby was working on painting, Eli was working on another project.  We'll get to that sometime this week...I know...the suspense of it is thrilling.

Paint the Fence

After a round of sickness and a little family vacation we have, once again, resurfaced into the real world.  Not many of us are excited about this.

Yup.  This is how we all felt.  (Abby just peeked over my shoulder, saw this picture, and said, "Abby crying."  She remembers the pain of the moment.)

Yesterday, it was suddenly summer in Michigan.  Spring must have happened during the three days we were on vacation.  So, I lathered up my pale faced child in sunscreen, sent him outside, and it wasn't long before he came back to the door wanting someone with whom he could play.  I went out for a bit, but, coming back from vacation always means that the mommy has some work to do.  We invited the neighbor kids over.  They played contently for awhile, but as kids do, they soon got restless and wanted to come inside.  Sorry kids, no can do...today is a day for outside playing.  So, what helps sweaty and somewhat whiny kids?  Juice Boxes...and an activity.  I filled up three yogurt containers with water, added a paintbrush, grabbed the juice boxes and headed out to tame the masses.

Paint the fence, Daniel-Son.  Though, noticing his brush position, this is really Paint the House.

This was really easy and perfect for a hot day.  Very simply, we painted the fence with water.  Here Eli is painting a lightsaber.  The kids "painted" for at least thirty minutes, which in kid-time is about three days.

The water quickly dried, leaving the canvas blank again.  Perfect.

All the kids went and got chairs so that they could focus on their masterpieces.

The best part of this was listening as Eli told my husband about how they painted the fence.  I let it go on for awhile and when Andy was REALLY nervous, I did step in and tell him that we painted with water.  I said, "Did you really think I would let them paint the fence with real paint?"  He hesitated.  Ok...that's fair.

Side Note:  This could be done inside by painting on a chalkboard surface using water.

Next comes Sand the Deck, followed by Wax the Car.

Mother's Day Ideas

I will admit it;  I get excited about Mother's Day.  After two c-sections that brought an 11 pound 2 ounce baby and a 9 pound 9 ounce baby (our petite girl) into the world, I kind of like picking a restaurant for lunch and possibly receiving some sort of gift card.  My husband is a very thoughtful gift giver and has, on more than one occasion, given a gift that has made me cry.  Last year for Mother's Day he gave me a gift card for a massage and pedicure...amazing.  I saved it for awhile, but then decided to trade it in to get my nose pierced.  Nothing says "I'm a mom" like a nose ring.  One more reason I love my husband, he was willing to let me realize my lifelong dream of an extra hole in my nose.  Lest it appears that I had children for the once-a-year possibility of a gift card and restaurant (though I do REALLY like to eat out), I shall quickly proceed to the next paragraph.

I ALSO get excited about Mother's Day because I get to choose a card to make for our moms and grandmas.  It's a big deal to me and I take it very seriously, in a fun sort or way. Today's task is to select our card and start working on it.  Here are some places I like to go for ideas:

Mother's Day Cards

• Family Fun
• Martha Stewart

Homemade Mother's Day Gifts

• Family Fun 
• Martha Stewart 
• Frugal Family Fun Blog 

Each one of these sites has LOTS of ideas if you poke around.  

Have fun loving some moms!