Crown of Weeds

Next time you pull those morning glories from your garden don't throw them out! Use them as a flowery crown for your little fairy princess. You can also make necklaces and other jewelry = ). Have fun get creative there's no limit to what your imagination can come up with!

Sight Words and Beginning Writing

Yesterday I was confused as to which steps I should take next with my daughter at home to get her ready for Kindergarten. She knows her letters, sounds, and for the most part how to write them. So I asked my mom who is the know it all of children's literacy what next.

She told me to have her make some little books. The purpose of these was to practice sight words and creative spelling.

So this is what we came up with. Now I don't know if I'm doing it exactly right but it was a good effort and I'm proud of it!

The picture above is of my daughter running in the sprinklers. It reads I can run in the sprinklers. This is because we are working on the sight words I can and the right now and she creatively spelled sprinklers but ran out of room and had to write some letters under other ones. If you look closely you can figure it out!

Anyhow I hope this helps with anyone who is trying to take their first steps to reading and writing as well.

My Mom also gave me a list of sight words to start with. I, can, we, the, like, a, see, go, to, have, is, play, are, for, you, this, do, and, what, little, said, here, was, she, he, has, look, with, my, me, where. I hope this helps = ).

Sticker Letter Directional Tracing

Learning to write numbers and letter can be frustrating for your little one as well as for you. Then add in the extra frustration of doing the right direction and you and your kiddo could be in tears but not to fear this is a fun activity that will keep them writing their numbers and letters the right way over and over and over again.

This is how you do it. Draw an outline of the letter you are working on a piece of paper. Start by letting them place a sticker at the first place they would place their pencil if they were to start writing the letter. Then place another sticker or marker close to the first in the direction that they should write. Now it's time for a little game of connect the dots. Have them trace with their finger from the first sticker or place marker to the next and continue this until the letter is complete.

By the time you are done with this activity they will have traced the number the correct way multiple time and they are well on their way to making a habit of it! This is a fun way to learn letter writing direction that feels less like lecture and more like play. That's the best way for a kid to learn anyway right!

So may I add that this idea is not my own but my mom's! She's the greatest!

Hand Print Wreath

I've been looking through the archives again and I found this hand print wreath that my daughter and I made for Christmas. It was so much fun and it was a memento of just how little she really was at age 3. All you have to do is trace your kiddos hand once and then use it as a pattern to cut out the rest. Then position the hand prints in a circle and glue or tape them together. My daughter added her own bow but you can mix it up however you'd like!

Fire Cracker Fans

My Daughter and I were watching Martha Stewart together today for some project ideas and we came across this fire cracker fan. It is actually quite simple and my four year old really enjoyed making it with very little help from her mommy.

Fathers Day Shirt Origami

I made these oragami hawaiian shirts one christmas to decorate the tree with! I have also used this pattern many times at church or else where to use as a gift or a card for Father's Day. Here is an excellent step by step how to on folding one of your own.

Hawaiian Snowflakes

One year while I was searching for some patterns to decorate some Hawaiian stockings I stumbled across this fun site that has lots and lots of Hawaiian snowflake patterns. Granted that some are a little bit intricate for a four year old you can look through and find some that are easy or you could cut them out and let the kids decorate with them.


There is also a link for some history on the Hawaiian snowflake you may be interested in. Have fun making your very own Hawaiian snowflakes!

These snowflakes are also a good way to teach kid about patterns and geometric shapes.

Put Together Skeleton

I've been going through the craft archives and found this put together skeleton that my daughter and I made at halloween although you could make it anytime to learn about the human body. I couldn't find this exact skeleton but I did find a few link of some other make your own skeletons for you to enjoy. A collection of links are provided below.

http://www.1halloween.net/html/cutskel.html http://www.benjerry.com/assets/images/fun_stuff/holidays/halloween/crafts/skeleton.gif
http://sewingstars.com/skeleton.htm

Please email me if you know of any better ones at busybodiesblog@gmail.com I'd love to see it!

Apple Prints

I found this apple my mom made with my kids in my picture archives. All you have to do is cut some apples in half, dip them in paint and let the kids make apple prints! It's so much fun and makes a appealing piece of art!

Coffee Filter Butterflies

I've been going through the archives of my kids art projects and I found these fun butterflies that they did at Grandma's preschool. All you need is a coffee filter, water colors or markers, a spray botter filled with water and a pipe cleaner.




The way you make it is cut the coffee filter paper in half and tie the two halves together with a pipe cleaner to make a butterfly. Then either paint with water color or draw with markers and then spray the coffee filters with a spray bottle to make the marker spread throughout the filter.

Elmo Alphabet

The Sesame Street website has free online games for preschool aged children. Just this morning my Son and I were learning the alphabet and about toilet training with our favorite monster Elmo!

Lolly Pop Butterflies

Putting butterfly wings on a stick of candy or a Lolly pop like the one we did makes for a fun project as well a perfect gift for somebody special! My kids had so much fun making their butterflies soar! They made these sweet little butterflies on a visit to Grandma's house one day! Thanks Grandma = )

Fleece Tied Pillows

Sorry for not documenting this well but I hope I can explain! All I did to make this easy no sew pillow is to draw two circles (you decide how big) and then draw another circle that is about two to three inches bigger all the way around as shown in the diagram below. A good way to draw perfect circle is to get a piece of string and tie a marker to the other. Then pick a point to be your center and swivel the marker strings length all the way around. To make the second circle cut a string two to three inches longer than the first and do the same thing from the center point.

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Now cut little slits all the way around. Next tie little knots all the way around and just as you get to the end add the stuffing and then tie the rest!

Well gotta go!!! Good Luck!

Enemy Pie

My mom introduced me to this book by Derek Munson and I absolutely love it. It is a clever twist on how to take care of your enemies. It's guaranteed to entertain and even teach a lesson on how to loose your best enemies! I think you'll love this book too!

Trinket Frame

My daughter saw an Activity TV on how to make a picture frame out of sea shells. We however did not have sea shells so we went through the junk drawer and her grandma's junk drawer and found some treasures. It was really fun and right on her level. After gathering all of the goods she finished the project all on her own.... that was so nice!

Here is a link to this project featured on Activity TV !

String of Popcorn

My daughter wanted to decorate for a party. We discussed what kind of party it would be and decided on popcorn and a movie with Daddy. We blew up balloons and then since it was a popcorn party we took a needle and thread and strung the popped corn until long enough to adorn the TV. This project was easy enough for my four year old and she enjoyed decorating!

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A string of popcorn can also be used to decorate a Christmas tree. To do this though you would have to have a lot of time and quite a bit of patients, something I don't have.

Recycled Plastic Tote

When got our our new issue of Family Fun in the mail my daughter immediately looked for what project she was going to do first! She chose this recycled plastic tote! I had to do most of it but she picked the shape and the colors! Thanks to some local clothing stores we had plenty to choose from. Here is the link for the how to. I used some kitchen trash bags for the base to make construction easier and eliminate the words.

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After it was done my daughter loaded it up with some spare change and took it shopping. She loved it and decorated it with some stickers to add her own personal touch.

God's Eye

When my husband got home from work the first thing my little girl wanted to do was crafts with daddy. He remembered making these when he was a little boy and helped my daughter create one.

I found a how to for you to use at Family Fun. Click here for the link!

Serape

My daughter made this adorable serape after watching Activity TV. Here's the link for a how to. I made one for her little brother too and they have been wearing them everywhere!

Potato Prints

My daughter and I watched an Activity TV on how to make your own wrapping paper out of white paper and a sponge. However we didn't have a sponge on hand so we used potatoes instead to make our stamps. Thanks to Martha Stewart it was easy with this cookie cutter technique! All you have to do is press the cookie cutter into the potato and then take a knife and cut around the outsides and peel off the excess. I tried to cut out other shapes with a pairing knife but using a cookie cutter was easier by far.

Wrapping Paper Sombreros

My daughter's favorite thing to watch is activity TV. We watched this clip on how to make a fun sombrero out of wrapping paper. My little girl and even my two year old loved wearing it around the house and showing off their new Cinco de Mayo attire! Here is the link for a video on just how it's done.

If your kids are under eight you will definitely need to help them on this one! Once again I used tape instead of glue so my kids didn't have to wait and it turned out just fine!

Nature's Toys - Storksbill - aka Ballerina Flowers

My cousins showed me how to play with these little weeds when I was a little girl. I thought I would share them with you! The weed is called storksbill, click here for some more photos for identifying them.



This is a picture of the seeds. This is the part of the plant that you can watch dance. I used to call them ballerina flowers. All you need to do is break off very tippy top and then pull back the hairs a little to get the dance started. Make sure that you get the ones that are brown. The browner the better - they work the best, but don't be fooled by the ones that have already lost their seeds. They are brown too but not as thick.

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Below is a video I've included on what happens when you do this. It is real time so wait for it to load and drag the slider over if you want to see it dance faster.

Sight Words List

I found a really great website with lists of sight words. The lists are divided by difficulty level so you can move up with your child as they progress. Here is the beginning list that I plan to use for my 4-year-old to start with:


a
and
away
big
blue
can
come
down
find
for
funny
go
help
here
I
in
is
it
jump
little
look
make
me
my
not
one
play
red
run
said
see
the
three
to
two
up
we
where
yellow
you

Double Dipped Egg

Multi colored eggs are fun to make. All you need is an egg, some food coloring and vinegar, and some masking tape.

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Here's how. Make a dipping solution by putting enough vinegar to cover an egg in a cup with about 12 drops or so of food coloring in as many colors as you'd like to make.

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For your first color cover the parts of your egg you'd like to keep white or save for another color with masking tape and dip your egg until it is the color you would like.

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Remove from the dye and remove the masking tape (drying it while you go so the dye doesn't leak!).

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Completely dry the egg and then reapply masking take where over all of the color and white areas you'd like to keep. Leave a little for dying the second color.

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Ok you get the picture ba bye!

Candy Starburst Plumeria

I made this mini plumeria from a Starbust candy. It is really easy.

Here's the step by step

1) Mold a Starburst until it is soft enough to flatten on a hard surface. Take the cap off a ball point pen and break of the point. Use the cap to cut out 5 little circles in the flattened Starburst.

2)Remove one of the cut circles

3)Press it slightly with your thumb and finger.

4)Pinch one end

5)Repeat steps 2-4 until you have 5 petals.

6)Press the petals together.

It's that simple!

I thing this pretty little flowers would look great on top of a cupcake at a Luau or something.

Picture Puzzle

This picture puzzle mosaic is a craft to help kill some time. It is fun personal and unique way to display some of your favorite photographs!

It was fun to see the look on my daughters face when I asked her to cut her pictures up! She was very concerned and proceeded with caution just to make sure she was hearing me right! It was kind of funny!

Toilet Paper Roll Flowers

We are always trying to find new uses for old things in our family. Here is what we did with a used up toilet paper roll!

Nature Walk Rock Necklaces

My little girl is always finding cool rocks and showing me them. So we decided make necklaces with her favorites so she could show them to everybody! She liked this one because it was shaped like a diamond.

This project is fast and easy but a four year old will need an adult helper to wrap the wire around the rock. All you have to do is find some bendy wire (we used the floral kind) make a loop and then take pliers or your hand and twist the wire around the end. Then wrap the wire around the rock securely. Return to the loop you made wrap the wire again then cut it with scissors. Use your pliers to pinch in the pokey ends. Walla you're done!

My little girl made one for her and her Grandmother. It's so much more fun when you share the fun.

Color Etchings

We went to an author signing at our public library and there were lots of kids activities set up. I liked this one because I used to make these crayon etchings as a kid. These were bookmarks from oriental trading that have black wax or something on top and you scratch them off to see colors but you can make your own. All you need is a magazine cover and a black crayon.

When I was little I would take a piece of paper and color it with lots of different colors. Then I would color the entire paper with black crayon thickly so that I couldn't see the picture anymore. I would then scratch off the black to see the colors underneath. When I tried this again as an adult I was a little disappointed with how dull the colors were so here's the trick! Use the cover of a magazine (not the inside pages they are too thin and not as glossy), cover it thickly with black crayon and then scratch it off to revel the colors underneath. This method worked nicely and produced excellent results.

Happy coloring!

String and Sugar Creations

This little yarn creations was a product of a mishap while trying to make sugar crystal candy! Which by the way if you have been successful at please email me.
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When I pulled the string out of the sugar water I noticed how hard and rigid it was when it was dry. So then I thought why not make something with it.
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My daughter made this little piece of art by soaking yarn in sugar water and then letting it dry. In my experience I've found the more sugar the better and the more string piled on top each other the sturdier the creation. It takes 3 to 5 days to dry depending on how wet everything is so understand that this project requires patients. It is a virtue right. Just not one I claim.
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Our sugar water was really thick like syrup. Sorry I didn't measure I'll try and be more specific in my next posts. I boiled a almost equal parts of water and sugar together until it was clear.

Toss and Serve Ice Cream

My daughter watched a how to video on Nick Jr. on how to make Ice Cream in a bag. She has been dying to make it with her brother since. At first I told her she couldn't because she is allergic to milk but then I decided to improvise and came up with my own non dairy recipe.

We all put on gloves and then tossed our bags of ice cream, course salt, and ice until the ice cream looked like soft serve. It was a lot of fun tossing the bag but it was slippery so it was hard for my 2 yr old to catch. We switched it up a bit to help him out and put it in a large beach towel me on one side and the kids on the other and tossed it. That was easier for him and made everyone happy!

Here is the Nick Jr. how to link http://www.nickjr.com/food/seasonal_treats/ice_cream.jhtml their video link isn't working right now.... sorry.

If you are in the same boat as me I used a young coconut and blended the meat and coconut water in the blender. Then I sweetened it to taste with agave and added some real vanilla extract. My son wanted his strawberry so I added them to his. They both turned out tasting OK. The kids liked it and it was good for them too. That makes me happy!

Tumble Bumble Bugs

These little bumble tumble bugs are one my favorite crafts we have done so far. They are pretty easy to make and you would be surprised how they tumble about so much like little bugs. The most fun is when we took off our couch cushions put them at a slight incline and had tumble bug races!!!

I got the idea from Family Fun. Here is the link for the instructions. http://jas.familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts?page=CraftDisplay&craftid=11739

Just a note: I used tape instead of glue to put the bugs together. I wasn't to sure of my gluing skills and besides my kids wanted to play with their bugs right away not wait for the glue to dry!

Cupcake Crayons

Don't you hate it when you get crayons and your kids break them so fast. Well here is a really fun way to make them new again. All you need is a mini cupcake pan of some sort, pieces of crayons, and an oven.

Here is a link for the instructions from Family Fun.

http://jas.familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts?page=CraftDisplay&craftid=11585

In the instructions it says to bake them at 250 for 10 to 15 minutes. This completely liquefies the crayons so I would suggest melting crayons with like colors so that they don't all melt down into brown crayons. Another tip I might add.... don't get impatient and put them in the freezer they will crack. I guess that is to be expected. You can however wait until they are pretty solid and then put them in the fridge there is minimal breakage there. Oh last comment.... don't use a cupcake pan you really love it does leave a little of crayon reside. I didn't use liner though. Maybe I should have.

Straw Airplane

I can't take credit for this ingenious idea--it came from the baby-sitter. This airplane is made using a straw for the body and another straw for the wings. Then masking tape is used to keep everything together, make the tail and add depth to the wings. My son was so proud of it! He also made another airplane with a straw for the body and a Popsicle stick for the wings.

Home-made laptop

My four-year old son likes to make a craft every day. Usually this requires that we search endlessly on the internet for some pattern or directions for a craft that matches the idea he has for what he wants to make that day. I'm pretty proud of myself for coming up with the idea for a laptop on my own. All you need is some colored paper, folded in half. Then a piece of white paper, cut into squares and glued on as the keyboard. My son used another colored paper cut in half to be the screen. Pretty simple, and it kept him occupied for a long time with cutting, gluing, then writing the letters for the keyboard.

Play Dough

I have recently fallen in love all over again with play dough. It is so much fun. It can be used for a variety of things. Just this week we used it to sculpt airplanes, flowers, igloo's, and more.

We also used it to practice making our numbers and letters. And since we had the newspaper out we pushed it on the newsprint and then looked at the letters in the mirror to read them the right way again.

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My mom brought us some play dough for church last week and it thoroughly entertained my 4yr old for a good portion of the time.

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In the past we have made it into a volcano for our baking soda and vinegar experiments.

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You can also mix colors to make new ones!

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All in all play dough is a preschooler must have!

Easter Egg Maracas

My little girl is so creative. She is always inventing things! She came up with these Easter egg maracas all on her own one day! I thought it was quite ingenious! She's such a smartie pants!

This is how they are made. Plastic Easter eggs, beads or anything little that can shake, sticks to go in the bottom, and something to hold them shut while you shake them. I used tape but she liked the sticker idea better.

She's one smart cookie don't you think!

Cupcake Liner Flower Card - Mother's Day

My daughter came home from a church activity with this cupcake liner mother's day card. It was fun to see her happy little face smiling back. Just the thing to make mommy smile.

News Paper Sight Words

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My 4 year old has been working on learning sight words. She loves to find the word THE when we are reading books. So we play a little game with the newspaper and use crayons to highlight all the THE words we can find. This can be use with other common sight words such as SAID. Stay posted, I am going to post the sight words that all kindergartners at our local school need to know before entering 1st grade soon!

You can also use this little game for learning your letters and numbers. Just pick one go on a letter hunt through your newspaper!

Celery, Daisies, Food Coloring, and Capillaries!

A good way to teach kids about the capillaries in plants as well as humans and how it all works is a simple experiment using white flowers such as daisies , carnations, or Queen Anne's lace and celery! All you need is some food coloring and water!

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We tried celery and daisies after a few days their petals and leaves changed colors. My 4yr old kept checking them to see if it worked and when it work she ran in announcing with delight. They turned colors mommy, they turned colors.

When it was done we had a little science lesson on veins, and capillaries, and how plants and people work. I've included this scholastic/magic school bus link to help you better explain what is happening!

http://www.scholastic.com/magicschoolbus/simplescience/archive/labs/capillaries.htm or here is another good one as well! http://www.reachoutmichigan.org/funexperiments/quick/celery.html

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