Parenting Sites 411

You know, there’s so many arts and crafts out there that I could go on forever and never tell you about them all.  And, now at this time, I’ve run up on what’s called Spring Bling for Straws which, most of you are all going, uh? about right now, so let me explain. 

Here’s a photo of the finished product…

I’m not going to give you all the information here, but I will give you some bits and pieces…..like the supplies….

Supplies for Straw Decorations:

• paper
• double stick tape
• scissors
• straw
• ladybug (wooden or sticker)

And, if you think these are great, you need to check out Chrissie from Flip Flops & Applesauce and just see what all else she has going on that you might be interested.

And, with that, I’m going to throw in some food too.  Kraft Food & Family is a free magazine and if you check it out, you can find foods like the Mini Meatloaf Recipe

And, naturally, you at least need the ingredients, right?

Mini Meatloaf Recipe:

• Favorite Meatloaf recipe
• bbq sauce
• salt & pepper
• cheese - cheddar, or something stronger would be yum

So, now, go ye out there and find these great websites and make surprises for the family!

I’m going to lighten up because yesterdays post was so intense.  So, what am I going to give you today.  I’m going to give you a few sites with some great Valentine’s crafts on them that you can try at home with your children.

It is important that our kids are exposed to the holiday stuff through the crafts at school with his/her classmates.  But, usually those crafts are not very detailed because the teacher doesn’t have time to sit and help each individual child, so I think it is important for parents to take time to do crafts with their children.

And, because it is usually just the parents and their own children, the crafts can be much more complicated and usually that means that are much prettier too.  The secret is to sit back and let your child do the craft, even if you think it would look better if it has your handy work on it.  Grammy wants to see the kid work, not yours. 

With that said, here’s one of my favorite sites for crafts, coloring sheets, games, puzzles, etc for almost any occasion.  That site would be DLTK.  Go give them a shout out!

I love taking pictures. It is very odd to see me at some function or event without my camera. As I have mentioned before, we take lots of pictures of our son, so he is pretty used to having the camera aimed at him.

What has been interesting lately is that he is interested in being behind the camera as well. We have an old digital camera that still works, so we charged up the battery and stuck in the memory card. We showed Fuller where the button was and he went to town. He went to town taking pictures of his fingers. They were all over the lens. And it cracks us up.

But, he is only two and a half. What are we going to do?

If you don’t want to hand over the camera to your little ones, why not the pictures?

I am not one who enjoys scrapbooking that much. I did it once for a trip to Ireland in college, but beyond that, I just never really got into it. And with our family spread out all over the world, I feel as if the mission as been accomplished once I upload the pictures to my flickr account. At least then the pictures are visible to others.

But I have been recently thinking about those pictures and ways to display them somewhere off my computer. And what ways are there to get Fuller involved?

This article at Family Tree Magazine gives several scrapbooking ideas for children, but my favorite is the Picturing a Pedigree:

Kids may have a tough time keeping all the branches of their family tree straight, especially when your pedigree stretches back centuries. Illustrate the relationships by creating a pictorial family tree together. Start with a simple paper-pieced tree like the one shown here—kids will love cutting out leaves and crumpling brown paper to make the bark texture. Collect photos of parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. Color copy them so you won’t damage the originals, then crop the copies into apple shapes and mat them on red paper. “Hang” the apples on the tree and write the names on the leaves. Add a tire swing just for fun.

What a fun way to help your littles ones remember who all their relatives are and where they are in the family line. This would be great for my husband’s side of the family, since they are many in number and get together every major holiday.

In the early days of summer, it might be fun to pull out pictures from over the school year and have your kids put together pages commemorating their accomplishments and events. Scrapjazz has a great list of ideas of types of pages to create:

Favorite subject at school. Why?
Favorite teacher. What does your child like about this teacher?
Describe a typical day at school.
Describe the items in your child’s backpack. Take a photo of those items.
What does your child like about his or her school?
Where does he or she usually hang out?
List of fun things your child does with his or her classmates.
What extracurricular activities or clubs do you child join? Since this is a personal choice, why did he or she choose it?
Who does your child usually sit with at lunch?
Who are your child’s favorite classmates? What does your child like about them?
What are the memorable field trips?

A trip to the craft store can inspire children to create and remember the days gone by. They will have something that they created and will last a lifetime. I guess it is time to start printing pictures!

scrapbooking, scrapbooking for children

Fuller enjoys coloring, finger painting, and doodling on his magnadoodle. I wouldn’t say that he loves it and won’t do anything but that, but I can tell he does enjoy cramming as much color onto a piece of paper as possible. And he has entered the “ew” phase of toddlerhood- where he hates having anything on his hands. So, finger painting hasn’t been that cool lately.

But I have a feeling, based on the genes this kid carries, he is going to have his chance to be even more creative. He has a dad who sews elaborate Halloween costumes, a grandmother who does beautiful calligraphy, another grandmother who makes crafts for craft shows, and a mom who writes and crochets.
(more…)

I have a big day ahead of me. I have to whip this house into shape in order to feel like a proper hostess for a playdate tomorrow. Since staying at home, we have been to a few playdates and now it is time to reciprocate one. As a bonus, I am kicking my butt to get the house cleaned. (Here is a tip: invite someone that you aren’t as familiar with. I thought I would clean my house for a playdate with my bestfriend and I guess I am too comfortable with her because my house was wrecked when she came over.)

This past Sunday our church had a pancake dinner and dying eggs was part of the program for the little ones. Fuller got to dye his first egg and he seemed to have a pretty good time, so why not do it again? I called a mom from our church and asked her and her daughter to come over for egg dying, lunch, and a possible playground trip. So, in addition to cleaning the house, I am needing to prepare for two two and half year olds to dye hardboiled eggs.
(more…)