Melted Crayon Wax Suncatcher

We went over to a friend's house for a playdate on Friday, and did a fun valentine's day project! My friend found the idea on Martha Stewart's Craft of the Day here. Follow the link for instructions on how to do this craft.

Family Tree Poster & Other "Maps"

I've been thinking about doing a family tree type of activity with Talia for a while...
So today, I rolled out the art paper, and we got to work making our family tree (well, we just did Ken's side of the family this time, we'll do mine next time, now that she knows what a family tree is).
Here's Aunt Rushy & Uncle Aaron who fell in love & now they're having a baby girl! (Note Talia's illustration of their baby ;)
And Gummy & Poppy, where it all began ;)
Talia was quick to understand what we were doing, and I think this is a good way to help her visualize how the family works.

I drew another type of "map" earlier today. This one was of a day. Talia cannot seem to grasp the idea that when she wakes up from her nap it's not a new day. So, I drew a detailed "day" for her today, showing her the things we do each day & discussing them as I drew them, along with a sun showing when it is light & a moon and stars for when it's dark. Then I pointed to each thing and I explained that the nap is in the middle of the day and it's not a new day when she wakes up. "See??"

Talia: "That doesn't make sense."

*sigh* Okay, so the map didn't work for that one ;) Does anyone have any other ideas or success stories for helping your child understand that a nap is in the middle of the day? Or do most kids just get that? :)

Homemade Wrapping Paper

In my blog-searching, I came across the idea to wrap up all of your Christmas books and put them under your tree. Then your kids get to choose one book to unwrap each day leading up to Christmas, and you read a book each day.

I think this is a great idea, because it lets your kids unwrap things before Christmas! It also adds a little more excitement to reading the books. Unfortunately, we don't have very many Christmas books! However, we do have quite a few Christmas CDs, so I'm going to try this with music this year.

So, this morning I rolled out our big paper (a roll we got at Ikea for $10- it has come in SO handy, SO many times!) and we decorated it with red and green crayons, Christmas stickers, etc. We're going to use it to wrap the CDs later.

Leaf Rubbing

As soon as the leaves started to fall, I had been planning this one. We finally got a few rainless days, and gathered some nice leaves to use for leaf rubbing.

You just need a paper, a leaf, and some crayons.

Place the leaves under the paper, hold the paper in place, and rub over the leaf with a crayon, to get the leaf pattern on the page.

Magic Paint Pictures

I found this idea on Learning Vicariously. It's great for Hallowe'en, but could be used for anything! I like the idea of having Talia draw some pictures or designs herself & then painting to see what she did. I think we will do that another day, but this time she was ready to stop by the time we finished the page of Hallowe'en pictures I had drawn ahead of time for her.

How To Do This:

- draw pictures on a white paper with white crayon
- use watercolour paints to paint over & reveal the pictures!