Letter C

Here are some activities we did during C week:

• We baked cookies for lots of people we know whose names begin with the letter C!
• During naptime one day, I cut out 10 circles from colored paper and taped them around the house.  When Asher woke up, I told him to go hunt for the circles.  I thought 10 would be plenty, but I really should have done 50!  He loved it and I was continually taping them back in different areas to keep the activity going!  When we were done, we taped them to the floor and counted them.  You could also do different sizes and colors and sort them.
• Using 3 different sizes of jars/cans, we stamped circles using paint and the tops of those cans.

• We also used sidewalk chalk (a staple in our house) to draw very large shapes on the driveway.  I pointed out the circle and wrote "circle" inside it.  Then we walked around the "perimeter" (new vocabulary word!) of each shape, jumped inside and outside the shapes as I named them, etc.
• During our playgroup one day, we read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and made caterpillars from egg cartons.  The caterpillars are really easy to make: cut out a section of 3 from an egg carton.  Have the kids paint, then attach pipe cleaner for legs and antennae and either draw eyes or glue on googly eyes.
• At the end of the week, we took a "field trip" to our local Casey's General Store to buy some chocolate with coins (this was my husband's idea - and probably the best one for C week as my son still gets excited to go to Casey's and get some chocolate!)

Letter B

Here are the activities we did during B week!!

• Baked brownies and brought them to our pastor's (Brian) house and gave them to Brian, Ben and Brad.
• Gave a book to our friend Brody for his first birthday!
• Took a "field trip" to the bank to exchange the coins in his piggy bank for "bills" and then went to the library for some books, many of which started with B.
• Colored on one of the Diapers.com big boxes with markers (this is all we did with this idea, but if your kids are a little older you could put things in the box that start with B!  You could also "bury" something in the box and talk about that vocabulary word!)
• Make bubble art - mix 1/4 cup of dish detergent, 1/2 cup water, 1 teaspoon of sugar and divide the mixture into small cups or bowls.  Put a different color of food coloring into each cup.  Either use bubble wands or make your own (just use pipe cleaner and bend the ends to make a circle and secure it).  Then get out some white paper and blow bubbles, letting them pop on the paper! (I got this idea from http://www.perpetualpreschool.com/preschool_themes/bubbles/bubble_art.htm where there are lots of other bubble ideas!)
• Blow bubbles!  If you want to make your own or do something a little different, make the bubble solution from above and put it in a container (like a yogurt container) with a lid.  Punch 2 holes in the lid on either end and stick a straw through one side.  Have your child blow on the straw to make the bubbles come out the other hole!  Make sure they don't suck on the straw, like my son did.  Although he did have a nice bubble come out of his mouth when he tried to talk!!
• Grab all the balls you have in your house and sort them - size, texture, bounciness, etc.
• Make a bug - take a styrofoam ball and paint it.  when it's dry, give it some eyes (you can use googly eyes if you want) and a mouth and use pipe cleaner for the legs.

Here's our bubble art:

 

The Many Uses of Shaving Cream...

If you're looking for a fun and cheap way to keep your kids (and you) entertained for a while, get some of the cheapest foam shaving cream you can find (we use Barbasol), go outside, spray some in their hands or on the cement and let them have at it!  It washes off easily and it feels really cool :)  See how many things they can think of to do with the shaving cream.  We found out that clapping with cream in our hands makes a nice white shower.  Also, if you spray some on the cement, it's an excellent way to practice letter/shape/number recognition or have them practice writing in it.  Great for the tactile learners!!

Letter A

I'm a teacher at heart.  I have taught 5th grade, 1st grade, and preschool as a teacher and just about everything as a substitute teacher.  Everywhere I am with my son, Asher, I can't help but point out shapes as we drive, count the flowers we see, and explain new vocabulary as we play.  Using an idea for a preschool curriculum I ran across (http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/) as a springboard, I decided to write a short daily activity to do with Asher centered around a letter of the alphabet.  The thing that impressed me most about the curriculum on Heavenly Homemakers was that she incorporated service into the lessons.  So each week, we choose a person or a few people who's name starts with the letter of the week and give them something that also begins with that letter.  For example, this morning Asher gave a flower to Faith at church because it's F week.  He absolutely loves giving things to people!!  The first week, I had him pick a toy airplane (and a few toy cars) to give to his friend Abrahm because we would see him 2 days later.  He was so excited that he insisted we go NOW to give it to Abrahm!  I learned very quickly that I need to keep my mouth shut until it's time to do it :).  Asher is only 2, so the point right now is for us to have a fun activity to do and expose him to the letters of the alphabet.  So here are some of the activities we did for the letter A (subsequent letters to follow in other posts):

Letter A

• Apples - we got 2 apples off of our apple tree and cut them both in half, each in different ways.  I showed him the seeds and let him taste the apple.  Then we made apple prints (or stamps) using paint on a paper plate.  We then gave an apple to Amanda! (not one with paint on it, of course...)
• Airplanes - I did a search for airplanes on YouTube and we watched a few videos.  Asher loved this and watched his favorite one for probably 20 minutes.  Except his favorite clip was 90 seconds long, which meant I traveled back and forth to the computer every minute and a half... We also gave a toy airplane to Abrahm.
• Animals - we didn't do much with animals, but there's tons you could do with it...
• Asher's name begins with A, so we started the curriculum on his birthday and spelled out his name a lot.
• There are a bazillion ways to practice letter writing, and for the letter A, we used shaving cream outside.  Just spray it on the cement and use your finger to write!  Then wipe to erase and do it all over again!  He LOVED this!

Homemade Popcicles and Flavored Yogurt - Yummy!!

We had playgroup at my friend Sherri's house one day and she brought out some cute little homemade popcicles for the kiddos to eat.  She had just put some yogurt (various flavors) into ice cube trays to freeze with toothpicks for handles.  Then a few weeks later, I was at my friend Dana's house and she brought out some homemade popcicles made with lemonade in popcicle molds.  Also very tasty and cute!  By then the inspiration had hit: I HAD to make some popcicles.  I started with some strawberries I found on sale:

I chopped their green hats off and put them in the food processor:

When my super awesome food processor has done its work, it looks like this:

Now, at this point it tastes a little tart, so I added some agave nectar to sweeten it up.  We were out of honey (used in the applesauce) and I try my best to add natural sweeteners instead of sugar.  Not that I'm totally against sugar.  It's just that when I have the choice between refined sugar and something natural, I will most likely choose the natural route.  Because my 2 year old doesn't need any more sugar than he already gets!  Then I poured the mixture into an ice cube tray:

I cut up some straws into thirds and stuck them in the popcicles to freeze for the handles.  Someday I'd like to get some popcicle molds, but this works well for now.  My son loves them!  I'd also like to try some other popcicle flavors such as:

• lemonade
• apple juice (or other juices)
• applesauce
• pureed cantaloupe
• pureed frozen grapes (or maybe not frozen, I'll see how that works)
• chocolate flavored something - maybe yogurt?

Any other ideas??  I'd love to hear some!

I took some of the rest of the strawberry puree and mixed it with plain yogurt.  That was also tart and needed some agave nectar to sweeten it up.  My son has this obsession with Dannon-ino yogurt and would eat the entire package if I let him, so I saved the cartons and put the yogurt in them.  The first time I presented one to him, he was extremely tired, so he saw right through it and freaked out.  But I'll try again when he's in a more pleasant mood :)

Delicious applesauce - right from my own backyard!

We have an apple tree in our backyard.  Last year, it didn't produce any fruit at all, due to a late freeze, and we almost gave it the ax.  I'm so glad we didn't because this year, the fruit was abundant!  About 2 weeks ago, we had a strong storm come through our town that produced a "microburst", knocking a bunch of my apples to the ground prematurely.  So began the apple picking!  After picking all the good ones off the ground, we looked at the tree and decided to go ahead and pick as some of them were getting buggy.  Thus far, I have made 9 apple pie fillings, 4 quart jars and 3 pint jars full of applesauce, and 12 4 oz. jars plus 1 2 oz. jar of unsweetened applesauce for baby food.  And I still have enough apples for a batch of some apple jam.  Here are some of my recipes:

Honey Applesauce
I used my handy-dandy peeler-slicer-corer thing that I got for Christmas a few years ago to prep the apples:

 It's super fun to use and makes a nice peeling necklace to wear around (at least until it turns brown and smells).  And the apples look cool and are easy to do a quick slice down the middle before plopping them in the crock pot (after you check for bug spots and other stuff you should probably cut out - or just don't tell anyone.  Hey, it's cooked, right?)

 Next, I just sliced the apple in half with a knife and put the pieces in the crock pot (after cutting out the bad spots).

 Then I added 1 cup of honey (approximately, I didn't really measure), a splash of lemon juice, and a cup of water.  Turn the crock pot on low (stir occasionally) and magically, 6 hours later, this is what you get:

 Why yes, that is the most delicious applesauce on earth.  Glad you asked!  If you like it chunky (I don't really care one way or the other), just mash it a little more with a fork.  If you like it more creamy, put it in a food processor like this one:

 I'm telling you, this is the best food processor to be found.  If you don't have one, I pity you.  My parents bought it for my husband for Christmas.  










I froze my applesauce in glass jars, but I'm told you can can it.  I just don't like to take the time to can unless I have to!  I do enjoy canning and want to do more, but honey, if I can freeze it, I will!

 
Apple Pie Filling
6 cups sliced and peeled apples
1 T. lemon juice
3/4 c. sugar
2 T all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg

Combine them all in a bowl and stir together.  Then put mixture into a gallon freezer bag: