Combine play sand with cornstarch and you get lots of sand fun!  What is great about this mixture is that unlike regular sand, it cakes together when slightly damp.  Almost becoming hard, but smashes back into sand.  All of my kids enjoyed playing with there new “outdoor only” tub!  I will warn you though, they were covered in sand when they were done!  The “clumping qualities” exist on clothing too – haha.  This was messier than regular sand, it didn’t just brush off until it was bone dry (aka when …

Super easy and Super fun! This is a really easy edible art project! Instead of boring plain old syrup on your pancakes, why not paint them! What you’ll need: Food Coloring, Syrup, Unused Paintbrushes, & Pancakes! We used an egg carton to “hold the paint” as it doesn’t tip easily, holds small portions of syrup and, most importantly, is disposable! I love art projects with easy clean-up! Add 3 drops or so to roughly a tablespoon of syrup and have fun painting and …

Do your preschoolers use a ton of chapstick?  Mine do!  And I needed an alternative to help their cracking lips (gotta love winter weather) and something that I felt safe with them ingesting.  I was inspired after reading about a friend who mixed shortening and a juice mix to create a yummy edible lip balm.  We adapted it slightly.  We like a “harder” solution – here’s what we made, and my kids love it!
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What you will need make your own edible lip balm:

1/2 a cup of vegetable shortening
1 teaspoon of …

Puppets are great for fostering pretend play! My three year old especially enjoyed having her puppet dolls walk and hold hands, have elaborate conversations… my son, as much as he enjoyed decorating his “man” all he wanted to do when he was finished was sword fight with his “puppet”.  Boys.   Want to know how to make your own stick puppets? Here is what we did!
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We thought it would be fun to make our own buttons to decorate our travel activity bag.  Yeah, well, it sounded like a good idea.  They were really easy to make.  The kids had a blast making them with me…. BUT… I got the wrong type of clay.  I got the non-hardening kind.  well, they weren’t lying.  It has been a few days and they are still soft and pliable!  Here is a tutorial we made on how to make your own buttons, just be sure to get the right …

We had a girls dress-up tea party at our house this week and they had so much fun dressing up!  We needed the perfect accessory, edible bracelets!  I was inspired to make these adorable jellybean bracelets after reading the tutorial by Mrs D Lightful, love her blog!  She used stretchy string to thread her bracelets but we just used plain string, the kids absolutely loved them!
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Supplies needed to make the Jellybean Bracelets:

Thicker needle (I used a basting needle from quilting.  Loved it’s “T” head, it made threading so much easier!).
Thin …

This is my preschoolers favorite way to paint!  Basically, it is what it sounds like; shaving cream mixed with paint.  We usually mix the shaving cream with tempera paint as it has the smoothest consistency and is the cheapest!  We have three tubs of primary colored paint: red, blue and yellow that we mix to get a whole host of colors.  When mixed with the cream, the colors look more neon and bright.

I love our fun activity box, well, actually we have two of them, one for when we travel with the kids and one for when I need to occupy them say at Church or another event where they have to sit quietly for a few hours.  Depending on how you use the box and how creative you get, the entertainment can last for hours!  To make the box last longer, only pull one activity out at a time.  If you don’t need to worry about stretching the fun out, try …

Ah the holidays, always something for a Mom to do. My kids needed a “mailbox” to have their valentine’s dropped into and I happened to be out of shoe boxes that we could cover with wrapping paper. This was a very happy problem, I love how these turned out. After valentine’s day we are going to give these boxes a brand new life as our “family love note center”.
Okay so first you have to run to your local craft store and purchase an unfinished kleenex holder. …

I love cutting and making snowflakes and my little girl loves pink hearts!  Julia of Roots of Simplicity sent me this wonderful activity which combines both of our loves.  This activity is perfect for you to do with your preschooler.  It is a great way for your preschooler to work on fine motor skills like cutting and folding paper and also a great opportunity for you to explain and demonstrate mirrored images to your child.