We are having a series of tips and tricks that have helped us on our last road-trip. We drove through 9 states and spent nearly 60 hours in the car with three kids aged 3, 2 & 1. Crazy.  Some of the things we used to help us maintain our sanity included: buckets, plastic Easter eggs, ipods, fruit leather, balloons and a portable potty to help make our trip more bearable.  Here is part 2 of some of our car-sanity ideas, the ones that worked!
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I Spy:
We had …

I am on vacation, not camping, but at the beach – whoohoo!  Kristina, from Amenity Home, has graciously offered to guest post for us today!  She takes her preschooler camping regularly – something I admire.  I am a bit worried about what my kids could get into; I love the tips and ideas she has for ways to make camping enjoyable and safe for our kids.
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There is nothing better than camping with a preschooler. My little boy is four-and-a-half and we’ve been on nine camping trips so far. Every one …

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.

As my oldest has recently begun sounding out letters to form words, we are beginning to review a bunch of different early literacy programs and curriculums. To find what works and what are the most interesting reading programs out there!  This is the first in what I hope to be a long (although occasionally sporadic) series on different reading curriculum’s. This first program we discovered through Natalie, of Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.  She raved about Progressive Phonics.  We got the first e-book, printed it out and I was …

Every Friday we offer awards to what we think are a few of the most fantastic posts or interesting news we have found online or have been submitted to us.  Feel free to join in on the fun and find your own fantastic posts and blogs to feature!  We have a linky and a button award for you to share.     This week’s “shout-outs” go to DIY Crowns, Instructions on how to make your own gummi Lego Candy, some templates for making letter puzzles and the cheapest odor eliminator I’ve ever …

This is a spin off of a previous post.  The kids have a ton of pent-up energy today!  Time for a variation on the boredom buster dice.  We made an exercising dice.
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With a dice and labels, we marked the sides of the dice with exercise options: Jump, Hop, Stomp, Clap, Arm Circles, and Crawl.  We added a few other “tools” from around the house, a rug, a scarf, paper plates, pillowcases, etc.
Here are some of the activities we did with our exercise dice and household items.  As we are …

Today was one of those days where the weather is grey and miserable and our runny noses have us staying home from our usual activities.  However, my kids aren’t about to let a little sniffle stop them from playing so, inspired by the topic of children’s show we saw this morning,  I set up an indoor field trip :  Astronaut Training! 
I used things I found around the house to create a morning of astronaut training.  I made a list of all the stations on the easel and we used …

“Mommy, I’m Bored” or “Mommy I wanna do something”.  My kids used to drive me crazy with that several times a day.  Well, they still do… but now I have a comeback.  Go roll the activity dice.
We bought wooden blocks (available at most hardware and craft stores) and covered them with paper.  Here are directions on how to decoupage your dice and make it spiffy.  Then we added a sticker to each face of the die with an option.  I have several decision-making dice.  We have used them to decide …

What kid doesn’t enjoy playing with dirt?  This week we are learning about dirt and earth and the kids have enjoyed burying toy cars, bugs, beads and eating utensils in the dirt.  Feeling the dirt between their fingers, watching dirt become mud when we add water to it… and basically having fun getting dirty!  Here are some “dirt” activities they are doing this week.

Like most families, we love to save money. But once the kids are out of school, it’s sometimes hard to keep them entertained without spending. Each spring, I sit down with my kids and together we compile a list of fun things to do for the summer. It’s a great way to get the kids involved, and give them some things to look forward to this summer.
Hit the web
Check out some local websites and see what kinds of activities are being offered. Your local library, park district, museums and even …