Tips for Moms, Activities for kids by Quirky Mommas

Make Your Own Moon Sand – Aka Moldable Mess!

Rachel — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:48:14 +0000

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 the kids were done and in the house). This was definitely one of our more messy learning activities!

What will you need to make your own Moon Sand?

Play Sand, Cornstarch, Salt and Water. We also used a Tupperware tub and a sifter to sift our sand as our play sand was rocky. Want to make your sand even more fun? Add glitter or food coloring to brighten up their play!

How to mix your own “moldable sand”?

You’ll want to sift the sand if it has little pebbles in it. You want the sand to be as fine as possible. We added salt (an entire container)to help preserve the mix. I know that cornstarch can spoil. We made this three days ago I’ll let you know how long it lasts before spoilage. Hopefully, a very long time! After we mixed the sand and the salt we added our boxes of cornstarch. You want the cornstarch to be roughly 1/4th of the mixture. We used two boxes so we could have a few inches of moon sand to play with. Next add water. Mix and enjoy making balls and shapes and of course smashing them! My son loved building walls for his cars to ram into!

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Learning to measure with gummy worms

Rachel — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:32:03 +0000

It is rare that all three of my kids enjoy learning at the same time, usually a learning activity is a hit with one kiddo and a bust with the other, while the other is zoned out in the corner. This measuring activity was loved by all! What you will need:

Ruler
Assorted Gummy Worms
Bananas

Activity to Teach Preschool Math Concepts :

Have the kids sort the gummy worms. Which do they think is the shortest? Which is the longest?

Once they have found the shortest one measure it. Can they find any other worms that are the same length? What happens if they stretch the gummy worm? What happens to it’s length?

While my older kids were measuring gummy worms, my youngest got to measure a banana. I don’t know how much she got out of the event, but she really loved helping the kiddos learn about subtraction. Take a bite of your banana or gummy worm? What happens to its length? How long were they before? How long are they now? What was the difference?

For more preschool Math Activities, check out our Counting Garden or How to Graph with Skittles

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Painting Pancakes: Modern Art You Can Eat

Rachel — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:20:09 +0000

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 eating your breakfast.
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For other painting fun, check out our bathtub paint recipe or finger painting with shaving cream!

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Edible Chapstick: Make Your Own Lipbalm for Kids

admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 01:40:04 +0000

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 Jello Mix – we used cherry.
3 Vitamin E Capsules
Some plain wax shavings
Small containers – we recycled used containers of party-sized playdough.

How we made our own chapstick:

Melt the shortening in a saucepan. Add the vitamin E capsules and the wax shavings. If you like your chapstick to be soft you can skip this step. We used a little less than a teaspoon of shavings and it made the lip balm a nice consistency (we think). As the fats are melted add the jello crystals. Stir till mostly dissolved. The jello adds a nice scent. If you want more coloring to your balm you can add more crystals (or use colored wax instead of plain). Pour your balm into your containers. Place in the fridge to set – after about 15 to 20 min your lip balm should be ready for you to enjoy!
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For similar posts, check out our list of Favorite Non-Food Kid Recipes! We have recipes for goop, playdough, finger paint, and more!
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Make Your Own Granola: Perfect Toddler Cooking Activity

Rachel — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:51:18 +0000

I got this idea from chatting with Kellie, from Chicks With Kidz, she had a great idea/suggestion to include my kiddos in making our own variations of trail mix. We eat granola regularly for breakfast, but I have always been the one mixing it up! With her encouragement my one year old now has a way to “help mommy” cook breakfast! Thanks Kellie! We are always looking for ways to include our kids in household chores and activities!

How to make your own Granola Mix:

Grab handfuls of any or all of the following

Dump the ingredients into a tub and let your toddler have a blast shaking and pounding the mix! My little gal thought it was the greatest “rattle” ever!

Enjoy eating your granola!!!

Want a great make your own granola recipe? Here is our favorite one from Wise Antics.

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Organizing the Home, On a Dime!

admin — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:05:50 +0000

My house has clutter, lots of clutter and I am often in awe of some of those super organized mommas! Nicole from Restrained Chaos has offered to guest post a few of her organization tips… I love them! They are cheap and easy! Hope you can take and glean from them as I have. Here is Nicole in her own words:

Now, I can’t give the key to total organization. This is not because it’s a secret from Martha Stewart’s vault or hidden in a remote (and very clean) monastery in Tibet. Honestly, I haven’t figured it out myself. After 6 years of domesticity, you think I’d know something about organizing and how to make many things fit in a limited amount of space. And, yes, I do have some tips gained through an entire marriage (so far) lived in small student apartments with no storage to speak of. Small spaces and the ever-increasing stuff that comes with kids have forced me to think creatively about how I organize, particularly in my kitchen and pantry. I reevaluated the way my mom did things and had to throw out what was not working for my family. It’s amazing what you can re-purpose if you put your mind to it.

Some Quirky Home Organization Tips:

1. Keep your Kool-Aid packets in a notecard organizer.
Who knew that those little boxes meant to hold 3×5 cards would be just the right size for Kool-Aid and the odd cocoa packets. I literally had this epiphany 2 hours ago.

2. Use a shower organizer to hold garlic, and potatoes in your pantry.
We had a multi-tiered metal shower unit that wouldn’t fit in our current bathroom. So, instead of sending it into storage, we tucked it into a corner of our pantry to hold the things that need to breathe to stay fresh. I originally kept onions on it too, but it seems potatoes and onions have an antipathy towards each other. I now keep my onions in a separate perforated tub with a handle.

3. Keep your knives in a tupperware container.
Growing up, it seemed like the only solutions for storing knives were either in a block or in a drawer beneath the counter. Having been poked by the knives in the drawer one too many times, and unwilling to use counter space for a block, I had a Brilliant Idea early on in our marriage. I keep my knives-the nice pretty ones side by side with the Walmart specials-in a tupperware container just big enough to fit them. It tucks neatly in the cabinet next to my plates. This keeps the kids safe and Momma happy.

4. Use applesauce cups for measuring.
Did you know that individual serving size applesauce are each a 1/2 c.? So, in theory, you can wash and reuse the leftover cups. I find the half cup measure is the one I use most of all. Instead of having to worry about whether my measuring cup is dirty, I simply grab a clean applesauce cup. And, since they are meant to be disposable, I have no problem using them for holding paint or other goopy, messy things. If a cup is too filthy, gets mangled, or can’t be cleaned off, you can throw it away without remorse. It just means you have to buy another packet of individual applesauces. I’m sure your kids won’t mind helping you empty them. Aren’t they helpful?

5. Get an ottoman or coffee table with storage space within.
Although I don’t have the room for my coffee table (it’s pining away in storage), we have discovered how useful a storage ottoman is. It can be a footrest, a low table, and a seat for little people. However, I would never have bought it if not for the internal storage space. Now, when a neighbor or friend sits on the ottoman, they have no idea their rump is reposing right above my cloth diaper stash. I keep my Gdiaper pants, the waterproof liners, and the cloth insert (along with wipes and cornstarch for rashes) all tucked away in my lovely ottoman. It’s almost as cool as a secret passageway through a bookshelf. Almost.

6. Drink out of mason jars.
For those who preserve food by canning, one look in closets and pantries can reveal an overflow of empty jars. I just plain don’t have the room to let empty jars languish on my shelves. Any opened (and then emptied and cleaned) jar is immediately pressed into service as a glass. It’s not only economical. I find that I enjoy the rustic charm they impart.

Or maybe they just remind me of my moon-shining, horse-thieving ancestors.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of the many shortcuts and tricks I use in my home. I just wanted to share what I have found useful in our home. How have you creatively re-purposed storage to accommodate your home, lifestyle, or current needs? Please share, I could always use another tip to help me make (and keep) our home organized.

Want to read more about homeschooling, geeky and yet crunchy momma, Nicole? Read her blog! You won’ t be disappointed.

Much thanks to House of Sims and The Kitchen Designer for contributing photos!

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Magnetic Words: Great Way to Teach Site Words to Preschoolers

admin — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:29:53 +0000

We have found a terrific way to work on our Bible memory verses and have recently begun using magnets to learn site words. These are super easy to create. You know all those random magnet advertisements, well they finally have a purpose! Get some mailing labels, print out the words you want your kiddos to learn to recognize, attache the label to the magnet, trim them and viola! You have large magnetic words perfect for little hands. Below is a list of 100 common site words:

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List of 100 Most Common Site Words:

The First Hundred

the
of
and
a
to
in
is
you
that
it
he
was
for
on
are
as
with
his
they
I

at
be
this
have
from
or
one
had
by
word
but
not
what
all
were
we
when
your
can
said

there
use
an
each
which
she
do
how
their
if
will
up
other
about
out
many
then
them
these
so

some
her
would
make
like
him
into
time
has
look
two
more
write
go
see
number
no
way
could
people

my
than
first
water
been
call
who
oil
its
now
find
long
down
day
did
get
come
made
may
part

**List was taken From: The Reading Teachers Book of Lists, Third Edition; by Edward Bernard Fry, Ph.D, Jacqueline E. Kress, Ed.D & Dona Lee Fountoukidis, Ed.D. Found on site: Education Watch

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Stick Puppet Tutorial: Our Preschool Theater Production

admin — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 03:17:37 +0000

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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Puppet Making Supplies:

Body Cut-out to trace.
Fun Cardstock Paper – we used some of the shaving cream painted sheets from last week’s activity.
Scissors
Bamboo Skewers
Hot Glue Gun (we tried tacky glue, but it was not effective)
Sequins, glitter, feathers, etc. for embellishing

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How we made the stick puppets:

We traced out the body outlines onto our decorated papers, cut them out two at a time so we had matching halves. Then glued a skewer, sandwiched between two “people”, add googly eyes, glitter for a mouth, sequins and feathers for hair and viola! We have out stick puppets!

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Sponsored by Dallas Hair Salon, Splurge! They do a great job on hair!

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Fantastic Friday: Babies, Time Capsules, Car seats & Slings

admin — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:29:32 +0000

I am halfway through this pregnancy! Whoohoo! There will be another baby in the Quirky household come July. My mind is on babies. Here are some great blog posts I have found with excellent DIY instructions to make a coffee-can scrapbook of sorts, super easy car seat strap covers and a ring sling.

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I’ve never made a baby book. I’ve started a few but never saw them to completion. Maybe something simpler, like a “time capsule” would work for me! Crafty Chic Mommy created an awesome way of “capturing” her daughters special firsts with a paint can and some phenomenal embellishing!

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Obsessively stitching has a great and super easy tutorial on how to use simple potholders to create seat belt covers for those abrasive car seat straps. I could make these in a naptime and still have me-time left over! If you want more super easy and cheap tricks and tips – she has plenty! Lots of them are baby oriented.

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Last but not least, I love my slings! And lost one of my favorite ring slings! Thankfully, I was able to find a tutorial to make my own! Hope it helps some of you babywear!

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We are giving away a diaper bag this week! Check out Ellye-K Designs! It is adorable!

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The Perfect Toddler Diaper-Bag: A Giveaway!

admin — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 02:11:04 +0000

Congratulations to Lisa from the Nut House (love your blog!) You are our winner! I will contact you via email and will send your contact info on to Kelley. Thanks to all for participating!

You know how much I love mom-made products. Moms just really know what what other moms need. Kelley is no exception. Do you constantly loose pacifiers? How about shopping cart covers? I know I detest carrying a cumbersome cover, when the handle is the place their hands and mouths most likely are! Kelley gets these things. She has an adorable Etsy shop, Ellye-K Designs, with numerous mom-friendly products. Today she has graciously offered a bag to one of you.

What may you win:

One roomy handsewn bag in Green and Brown Hues. It is the perfect size for a sippy cup, a diaper and a snack! Great for going out and about. The bag also comes with an interior compartment for keys or whatever. This bag is lined making it super durable!

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How you can win this bag:

Visit Ellye-K Designs on Etsy and come back and tell us your tip on keeping kids entertained when out doing errands.
Fan Ellye-K or Quirky Momma on facebook
Tell someone about this giveaway (be sure to leave a link)

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Contest ends Thursday night, March 4th. The winner will be chosen randomly.

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