Leaf Day

A few weeks ago, as we wrapped up our summer/early fall term my oldest declared it leaf day.  What is leaf day you ask?  It was a day to celebrate fall and take a break from our regular studies to enjoy art, baking and a bit of science.

ART
Leaf Day was a day of art with different media.  We started by following this idea for painting a fall tree with q-tips.  As you can see, each child is different and put their own spin on their project.

Then we moved on to some fun with markers from Kathy Barbro. Kathy's site is great fun, with projects for all ages, abilities and intensities.

The last project was also from Kathy's site and a bit challenging for even me. It was a complete the leaf, copy its details and colors activity.

Baking

Between art projects we also pulled out our fall cookie cutters for some sugar cookie making.  Have you ever added autumn spices to your dough or glaze, try it, you will probably like it. Think ginger, nutmeg and a dash of cinnamon.  I love the way the sugar sparkles on the icing.

Science/Nature Study
Finally, we collected all of our Fall books for some reading and learning why leaves change colors.

Why Do Leaves Change Color?
Look What I Did with a Leaf
Fall Leaves Fall !
Fall Is Here I Love It!
Leaf Man

I f you still have leaves on your trees take some time to enjoy there beauty and make it a special day with the children.

Summer Sewing

I just love when my children get a "bee in their bonnet" about a project, they get so industrious and creative.  We are coming to the end of our 6 week lesson break and I thought I would show you one of our highlights.  It all started with a trip to the library and some American Girl Magazines that we brought home.  If you have not seen this magazine (we were a little slow to the party) check your library to see if they have a subscription, we love it.  The magazine is full of fun party/get together ideas, craft ideas, jokes, personal drawings and stories of real people, not models.  Well the little ladies, after pouring over the magazines, got into a crafting frenzy.  First, both E and K made bags out of old t-shirts.

This project came from the pages of the American Girl Magazine and was a complete no sew job.  The bags are easy to make (no I don't have a tutorial because I was leaving them to their own devices but you are all so creative, just google it or look on youtube), provide a lot of fine motor practice due to the cutting, tying and beading and the bags are oh so cute and useful.  It was also so sweet because when a neighbor friend came over later in the week, they had raided the friends' old t-shirt pile and E ended up with the opportunity to give her friend a craft lesson.

So, from there, the sewing books came out.  K wanted to make B a bag to put candy in during our local Fourth of July parade and man did my little girl impress me.  K's fine motor skills have improved by leaps and bounds since last summer's sewing activities, she sewed all of B's little bag by herself.  I was so blessed by her improvement in skills and her stick to it attitude to complete the project.

The E made a little pouch, button and all, from one of the sewing books.  She uses it to keep her "cell phone" in.

The two sewing books we use are My First Sewing Book and Sewing School.  Both books are filled with fun, cute and easy projects.  We also keep a large sewing basket for the children's needles, pins, thread, buttons and fabric.  I'm not showing it to you because it is so not picture worthy. It is a huge MESS!  Try as I might, that basket never stays neat, no matter how many containers or ziploc bags I use.

There are many summer days left that I am sure much more sewing, and crafts will occur.  If you need a few ideas to fill the long days I have 2 pinterest boards  For the Children and Kid Crafts and Concoctions.

Thanks for visiting and I would so love it if you left me a comment so we know you were here.

I am linking up with Montessori Monday.

Playdough in 5 Minutes

Our playdough spontenaity all started with this coupon that the little ladies clipped from the paper

 and ended with this oh so cute cake creation from the Play Doh Cake Makin Station.

If you have been reading here for awhile you know we like play dough.  Some mom's don't because of the teeny tiny bits that are hard to clean up but give a child a hand vac and it is no problem.

We have several Play Doh sets like the one above and the latest set to join the ranks is the Candy Cyclone, seen below.  The children love the Cyclone because it makes Play Doh gumballs.

Well seeing as how the children had a Play Doh coupon and how I was not going to drive 45 minutes to the nearest Target, we made our own.  Our recipe comes from this book:

The Busy Book is a long forgotten gem in our household but when it comes to DIY playdough it is what I reach for every time.  Here is our favorite recipe from the book and it really does take 5 minutes.  The littles love to play with the final product and the older children love to work the stove and mix the ingredients.

Combine in a saucepan and heat until warm:
1 cup water
1 TBS. vegetable oil
1/2 cup salt
1 TBS. cream of tartar
food coloring

Remove from the heat and stir in:
1 cup flour

Dump out the dough and knead until smooth.

See it is a very simple and quick recipe.

Now have fun with one of the sets I mentioned above or strike out on your own and make something like this:

Isn't that a cute face to start the week with?

I'm linking up with Living Montessori Now.

Shrinkie Dinks

 Today we start back to lessons.  Back to focusing on more structured mornings, routines and traditional academics but before we begin our fall term I want to share one more fun thing we did during our break.  We made Shrinkie Dinks.  It all began when I purchased two Shrinkie Dink kits from Amazon and then saw this post about a DIY Shrinkie Dink project.  We had a full morning of coloring, creating and amazement.  Enjoy and try it with your own dear ones soon.  Sometimes creativity is the resetting break we all need.

I bought one girlie Shrinkie Dink kit

and one boy Shrinkie Dink kit.

One sibling helping another is always a great thing.

Once the store bought kits were all used up we began making our own shapes and designs.  Now, don't be afraid to try this, there was no mess and no smell coming out of the oven, it was perfectly easy. Look here for directions.

E made a flower.  This is the flower before some time in the oven.

And this is E's flower after the oven.

I made this little heart and it is still sitting on our island as a reminder to take a break, get creative and just enjoy being together with my lovies.

It is Montessori Monday and I am linking up!

Slime Glorious Slime!

I remember getting green slime out of a grocery store vending machine when I was about 8 years old.  I played and played with that gross stuff until it was full of lent and debris. So when I say this recipe I knew we had to try it.

Mixing with a bit of trepidation.

"oh, this is weird!"

"Wow, fun!"

Watch it drip!

Add some trucks or trains.

"Look what I can do, Mom!"

Slime is a great playdough alternative, frugal and sensorial fun for all ages!

For more fun kid craft & concotions check out our Pinterest  board

Today is Montessori Monday and I'm linking up.

From My Reader--projects for dads and children to enjoy

I have been wanting a set of tree blocks for the children since last fall and today I found this fun blog that tells you how to do it yourself plus more. Check it out.

Tree Blocks

Tree Tea Set


Tree Snake

Valentine Card

Here is our final card project. The children and I made this for J and we were very happy with the result. I used 2 lunch bags folded in half and then stapled the binding. I had 2 pockets at that point so I snipped off the ends of 2 of the bags to get 2 more pockets. Then the 3 older children wrote or dictated their messages for Daddy and decorated their cards. I attached a little pretty scrap paper for tabs and we filled the pockets. (I think scrap paper is so handy and I keep a file of my scraps for various uses).


Our cover


An inside page with one of the children's handprints.


Another handprint and a vintage print printed from here. I discoverd this wonderful blog 2 weeks ago and have printed out many things to frame for added touched here and there.


The back cover with B's handprint.

Such a cute keepsake that can be made in so many ways--give it a try!

Scroll down to see the original post and link to the idea for this card with a lot more detailed pictures.

Cute Card--you want to take the time to look at this.

I just had to share this because I think it is so neat and could be used for so many occasions. It is a fun interactive card or book that you can make with so many of your own supplies or your children's. We are going to make one soon and I will post pictures when it is finished.

Here is the link--enjoy.

Snowflake Craft

This was a fun multi-aged craft. First I gathered all things, white, clear or natural from around the house. We used white beans, white pom poms (not seen in the picture), white and clear buttons, and white and clear beads.


I"m not sure where this muffin tin presentation came form but somewhere in blogland (sorry) but sometimes a craft is all about the presentation and organization to make it interesting to the reluctant crafter.

Then E took some popsicle sticks and glued them into a snowflake pattern for everyone to paint white and then we decorated with our stash of items and glue.


Here are E and K's creations.


I hung them with fishing line from our dinning light and it makes a cute display of the children's handiwork.

Go ahead give it a try and enjoy the time with you precious children.