Category: Fun and Learning

For one of our date nights, the Sweet Bee and I made Gloop.
Gloop is a wonderful hands-on sensory activity that most children will enjoy. Most kids I know love getting their hands dirty, so just relax and enjoy the texture, and don’t worry about the mess in your kitchen. Better yet, do this activity outside!

This was the recipe for Gloop that I started from:

1 cup cornstarch
1 cup water
food coloring (optional)

We started mixing it together with our hands, but at this point it was pretty runny. We just kept adding cornstarch until we got the consistency right (probably another cup), so you might want to start with less water. We chose to make ours light green.
The Sweet Bee had a great time squeezing, pulling and letting the gloop drip through her fingers.

If you store it in an airtight container you can use it again. We just added a little more water, and the Ant Bug spent an hour playing with it the next afternoon.
After two days of use it had kind of a funny smell, so I wouldn’t recommend keeping it for too long. But it was cheap, creative entertainment while it lasted!

Once you have children over the age of one, play dough is one of those essential items that you really should always have one hand. Our supply was running low recently so I decided to try a new recipe. The kids and I were very pleased with the results.

The recipe I used came from Rockin’ Granola:

2 Cups flour
4 T cream of tartar
2T cooking oil
1 C salt
2 Cups boiling water
Put all ingredients except water in a large bowl. Pour water over the mix and stir it with a spoon. Knead it with your hands (careful! Its hot!) and maybe add a little more flour if it is too “soupy” … keep at the kneading until it is the right dough consistency. Store in an air tight container (we keep ours in the fridge and it lasts for a couple of months)

This basic recipe will make nice soft dough that looks like this:

Soft, but a little boring, right?

It’s easy to spice things up by adding color.

These four colored balls were made using Kool Aid packets. Rockin’ Granola walks you through the steps, but it’s pretty simple. Just divide the dough into sections, pour on the Kool Aid powder, then work the powder into the dough until it is all absorbed. You can wear gloves if you are worried about your skin changing color in the process, but I didn’t have that problem.
The Kool Aid powder also makes it smell delicious! This is really nice playdough to work with, nice and soft and too sticky. We made ours about a month ago and it is still going strong.

If your children prefer to eat their play dough, then you might opt for the edible peanut butter play dough version.

I tend to go in phases when it comes to doing songs and finger-plays and rhymes with my children. We will be really good and do some every day for awhile, and then we fall out of habit and don’t do any for awhile. But with more time at home feeding and snuggling with our new baby, we’ve all been enjoying the songs and rhymes again. Here are some of our current favorites:

Creepy, Crawly
Creepy crawly little mousey.
From the barn in to the housey.
In the pantry, on the shelf.
Find some cheese and help yourself.
Nibble, Nibble, Nibble.
(Start your fingers at their toes and walk them up the body until they reach under the chin. Tickle under chin for the Nibble, Nibble, Nibble).

Hickory Dickory Dock
Hickory Dickory Dock,
The mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck one,
The mouse ran down!
Hickory Dickory Dock.
(Use your imagination with your fingers and tickles to go along with this rhyme).

Here is a Beehive
Here is a beehive
but where are all the bees?
Hidden inside where nobody sees.
Watch, and you’ll see them come out of the hive.
1…2…3…4…5! Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!
(Make a fist with you hand to make a beehive. As you count open up one finger at a time, then tickle for the buzzzzzzzzzzzz).

The old woman who lives in a shoe-Our favorite variation
There was a wonderful woman who lived in a shoe.
She had so many children, she knew just what to do.
She hugged them, she kissed them, she tucked them in bed.
I love you, I love you, is what she said.
(Sprinkle with lots of hugs and kisses)

The Grand Old Duke of York
Oh, the grand old Duke of York he had ten thousand men
He marched them up to the top of the hill
and he marched them down again.
When they were up, they were up
and when they were down, they were down
and when they were only halfway up
they were neither up nor down.

I Had a Little Turtle
I had a little turtle
His name was Tiny Tim
I put him in the bathtub
To see if he could swim.
He drank up all the water
He ate up all the soap
Now he’s stuck in bed
with a bubble in his throat.

Bubble, bubble, bubble,
Bubble, bubble, bubble,
Bubble, bubble, bubble,
Bubble, bubble, POP!!

Froggies–Mm Mm Ah (thanks to this site for the actions)
Mm(blink) Mm( stick out tongue) went the little green frog one day
Mm(blink) Mm( tongue) went the little green frog
Mm(blink) Mm(tongue) went the little green frog one day
So they all went Mm(blink) Mm(blink) Ah( tongue)

Now
We all know frogs go ( clap) LAH dee dah dee dah (wave hands to side like hula), ( clap) lah dee dah dee dah ( wave), ( clap) lah dee dah dee dah ( wave) We all know frogs go LAH (clap) DEE DAH DEE DAH (wave)
They don’t go Mm(blink) Mm(blink) Mm(tongue)
(Most times instead of the clap we do kisses. This is a favorite bedtime song for the Sweet Bee).

Five Green and Speckled Frogs
Five green and speckled frogs
Sat on a speckled log
Eating some most delicious bugs
YYYYUUUUMMMM YYYYUUUUMMMM

One jumped into the pool
Where it was nice and cool
Then there were
Four green speckled frogs
GGGGLLLLUUUUBBBB GGGGLLLLUUUUBBBB
(Repeat in descending order.)

5 Little Monkeys
5 little Monkeys
Sitting in the tree.
Teasing Mr. Alligator,
“You can’t catch me!”
“You can’t catch me!”
Along comes Mr. Alligator
Quiet as can be…and
Snatches! that monkey right out of that tree!
(Repeat in descending order)

Five Little Ducks
Five little ducks
Went out one day
Over the hill and far away
Mother duck said
“Quack, quack, quack, quack.”
But only four little ducks came back.
(Repeat in descending order. When you get to none, end with…)
Then the big Daddy duck said
“QUACK, QUACK, QUACK”
Five little ducks came waddling back!

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
I’m sure you know the words to this one, but at our house Daddy likes to include random “shooting stars!” for excitement.

White Coral Bells
White coral bells
Upon a slender stalk
Lilies of the valley
Deck my garden walk
Oh, don’t you wish
That you could
hear them ring.
That will happen only
when the fairies sing.
(We sing this song every night as a lullaby, because of the reference to Lilies.)

And just a few more that I’m sure you know: Eensy Weensy Spider, This Little Piggy Went to Market, Hickory Dickory Dock, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly, Old Macdonald Had a Farm, The Wheels on the Bus, My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean, and Head Shoulders Knees and Toes.

With all of our songs we include actions and hugs and kisses wherever possible. Maybe if I feel brave enough I’ll post a little video clip of some of these songs in action! I would love to hear your favorite songs and finger-plays. Please share them with us in the comments!

I will be the first to admit that I am not a natural crafter. Creativity does not come to me quickly. If I do manage to come up with something on my own, it takes me days of stewing over it and mulling it over in my mind. I don’t come up with my own craft ideas, but I will say, I am pretty darn good at copying. I can see something and look it over for a while, and then I can probably figure it out (if you give me enough time, that is!)

Creating things for my children, my home, and for my friends brings me a lot of joy! The problem is, I get stuck somewhere between having a great project to work on, and the motivation to actually get the sewing machine or hot glue gun out. Once I do start a project, I can’t usually put it down until it is done! I love that “project well done” feeling!

Well, lucky for me there are a TON of crazy good craft blogs out that inspire me, almost daily, and make me want to get my craft on. These blogs include amazingly detailed tutorials to follow and lots of pictures to help.

So I thought I’d share all of my favorites with you, and maybe you’ll be inspired too.

1. Made by Rae
2. Make it and Love it
3. Homemade by Jill
4. How Does She?
5. Little Birdie Secrets
6. MADE
7. So You Think You’re Crafty?
8. Heather Bailey
9. Ucreate
10. V and Co.
11. The Idea Room
12. Nanny Goat
13. Create

My children love to use googly eyes in their creative artwork. They add an eye-popping touch (ha ha) to any creature that we are creating. The Sweet Bee often skips the creature creating part and is most content with a bottle of glue and pile of googly eyes.
Shhh…don’t tell, but I always go back later once the glue has dried and pull off the eyes from her artwork and return them to the jar to be used another day. This applies to buttons and beads also. Then we always have plenty of googly eyes on hand!

After a well-child checkup at the doctors office my girls needed a fun activity to take their minds off of the pain and terror of their immunizations. We opted for edible fun!

We found this simple Peanut Butter Playdough recipe by Jane on Make and Takes.

1 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup honey
2 cups powdered sugar

Mix ingredients in a bowl and you’re done! Store in an airtight container or plastic baggie with air sucked out of the bag. (Quick tip: Spray your 1/2 cup with oil before measuring your honey and the honey will pour much easier.)
This recipe had a great consistency and was not sticky. It was also quite tasty! We love peanut butter at our house. I held the Sweet Bee off from tasting it as long as I could, since once she had a bite she just wanted to just keep eating. Guess what we had for lunch that day?!
As you can see in the pictures, we like to use cookie cutters with our playdough. A few years ago we purchased a set of 100 cookie cutters. Storing the set is kind of bothersome, but we have shapes and letters and numbers for all seasons and any mood that we happen to be in. We also do a good amount of sculpting and cutting (plastic knives are great tools).

Nurture Mama has shared some great activity ideas with felt. I’ve enjoyed doing some of them with my children. In fact, one of my older daughters made felt food for her younger sisters for a Christmas gift. For a guest Nurture Mama post I wanted to share something fun and simple I made with felt years ago.

One of my favorite childhood toys was a set of wooden building blocks. I’ve since learned they’re called standard unit blocks because they are uniform sizes–one rectangle block is the same size as two square blocks and so on. We played with those blocks in endless creative ways.

Many years ago—for a little something fun I decided to create felt building blocks. My little girls could use them for two dimensional play on a flannel board. Younger children have fun putting the different shapes and colors on the board and comparing and matching. Older children will build elaborate houses and patterns.
Felt Building Blocks are simple to make. I think all those years ago I cut them out with scissors, but with a cutting mat and a rotary cutter they would be simple to make in very little time. There are a few standard shapes you want to have in your felt block set.

Rectangle: 4 inches by 2 inches
Tall rectangle: 4 inches by 1 inch (half of a regular rectangle)
Square: 2 inches by 2 inches
Little rectangle: 2 inches by 1 inch
Triangle: cut a rectangle diagonally into two right triangles
Arched rectangle: cut a small half-circle out of one side of a rectangle
From colorful felt cut several strips 1 inch and 2 inches wide and then cut down to 2 and 4 inch lengths. So simple. Beyond these basics there is no limit to the sizes and shapes you can create!

Tips for making a flannel board
Several years ago we got two lovely flannel boards from my mother-in-law. So, I’m not an expert on flannel board making! But, as I look at the boards she made it shouldn’t be too difficult. To make your own board you will want a large piece of neutral colored felt, a sturdy board (heavy cardboard, foam core or masonite board), spray adhesive, and some strong, wide tape. Decide how big you want the finished flannel board and cut the board to size. Cut the felt 2 inches larger on all sides than the board. Spray the felt with spray adhesive and smooth it on the board. Tuck the felt to the back and miter the corners (clip a section from each corner) so it will lay flat. Secure the felt to the back with tape. The boards I have are about the size of a poster board—you could also make a small individual size board.

Here is another online tutorial for making a flannel board.