Sustainable & Creative Living
Easter is this weekend and I don’t know about you but my little one is counting the days until the Easter Bunny comes. We love to celebrate this joyous day with lots of family time and, of course, egg hunts, baskets overflowing with yummy goodies, and a few fun family activities. I just added this East Bingo to our Etsy shop and it’s on sale so grab it while you can! [Read more…]
If you’re a loyal follower, you know that we shared a great post with some different techniques on how to teach your child their phone a few years back. Back then I was showering thawed for printable worksheets to go along with my homeschooling efforts. But today I’m happy to be sharing my own printable worksheet that you can download to help when teaching your little one their own phone number(s). At the end of this post, you can find a link to our Test page which has this I Know My Phone Number Printable. [Read more…]
This week’s Toy Rescue: Ice Sensory Activity is one of my and my 6-year-old’s favorite play activities. It not only helps build hand & muscle coordination but also invokes a playful need to save their toys from a big block of ice. [Read more…]
If you’ve got a little one in preschool or kindergarten through second grade, then you know the struggle with teaching sight words. I’m always trying to come up with new and creative ways to try and reduce the repetitiveness of teaching sight words to my very non-interested 5-year-old. Flashcards are great, and in a pinch, I might fall back on them, but I try not to rely on them. I like to incorporate as many hands-on and creative learning when it comes to sight words, which is why this activity, Sight Word Practice with Magnetic Letters, [Read more…]
Rainy days can be so relaxing if you get to curl up on the couch with a good book or binge your favorite Netflix show. For little kids, on the other hand, when they’re itching to get all their pent up energy out on the world, rainy days can be the WORST! I’ve come up with a collection of Indoor Rainy Day Activities that are perfect for most ages, even my husband and I had fun playing them. If you and your kids are stuck inside on a rainy, snowy, or just plain old quarantined day, check out some of these fun [Read more…]
We’ve been doing a lot of easy science experiments at home, trying to keep the creative mind of an inquisitive 4-year-old active and curious. This Floating Letters Experiment is simple enough for young children and still fun for older kids. What’s great for parents is that it shouldn’t require an extra trip to the store due to the magic of Amazon, and it keeps kids busy for a while doing their best to guess the results. [Read more…]
With Easter just around the corner, we’ve been doing lots of Easter crafts in my house. This Paper Plate Easter Bunny Craft is one of my favorites. I took an old favorite— the cotton balls on a paper plate idea and added a little flare. Most of these items you should have on hand but if you don’t, [Read more…]
I’ve had some great feedback from my scavenger hunt games so I decided to make some more! If you’re headed out of town or just driving to the grocery store these Road Trip Scavenger Hunt printables are perfect for your active and observant little ones. [Read more…]
If you’ve read some of my recent posts, you know I’ve been kind of obsessed with sensory bins and fine motor development games. Both are great ways to help children explore and stimulate the 5 main senses. At the same time, they can help develop the skills needed to learn how to use [Read more…]
Sensory bins are a great way to help children explore, develop, and stimulate the 5 main senses. When a child plays with a sensory bin, they are able to touch, feel, and even talk about the different materials they are discovering. Sensory bins can help develop and improve focus and concentration skills in a way that is far superior to average plastic toy play. While playing with sensory bins your child can also learn to [Read more…]
Easy science experiments are a fun way to get your child interested in learning. They don’t have to be too detailed with a lot of steps, just a lot of fun. Actually, in my opinion, the fewer steps the better when trying to entertain a toddler. During letter O week of my alphabet lesson plan, we made Foaming Orange Volcanos with just an orange, some baking soda, and little bit of vinegar. [Read more…]
Right now I’m teaching my almost 3-year-old the alphabet. Each week we concentrate on a new letter while introducing letter specific flashcards, crafts, worksheets, books, sensory, and fine motor play. I made this easy DIY Felt Magnetic Fishing Game the week my son was learning the letter F. It’s a simple game for kids that help encourage the development of fine motor skills. This catch and release game can be played with again and again while helping your preschooler develop hand-eye coordination. [Read more…]
When I first started teaching my son how to recognize different shapes, I would draw them on a piece of paper, point, and tell him what each shape was. Before too long he would get bored and move on to a toy with wheels or sound and leave me in the dust. It didn’t take me long to realize I was going about my teaching style all wrong. He needed something to touch and feel in his hands to be more interested in learning his shapes. So I turned my original boring shape activity into a reusable, hands-on, and very easy-to-make Shape Recognition Activity with colorful felt shapes that can be stuck on and peeled off over and over. [Read more…]
