Category: Fun and Learning

My favorite resources for a General Conference weekend

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“Decide now to make general conference a priority in your life. Decide to listen carefully and follow the teachings that are given. Listen to or read the talks more than once to better understand and follow the counsel” (source).

One of the greatest blessings of being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is being able to hear living prophets and apostles speak. Our family has a tradition of watching all four sessions of General Conference at home, but we make use of a lot of activities to keep our children interested and occupied for the eight hours.

A General Conference weekend scene, October 2009.

Be sure to check out the 2010 General Conference Packets from Melanie at Sugardoodle.net. She puts a lot of effort into her work, and her packets are always excellent. She has different versions for junior primary and senior primary and youth.

The 2010 Apostle Cards are available here, along with suggestions on how to use them. You could use the cards to play Don’t Eat the Prophet, or play the game with the original prophet cards.

LDS.org’s General Conference packet is a great resource for older children to take notes on the talks.

Fun with stickers: Remove the poster from the most recent conference Ensign. Hang it on the wall, and then the children get to put a sticker on the picture of whoever is speaking.

A few years ago we had a lot of success teaching the Ant Bug the names of the Apostles by singing their last names to the tune of 10 Little Indians. Unfortunately, with the changes in the last few years the names don’t have quite the same flow. Here are a few other tune suggestions that you might like to try for Family Home Evening.

There are quite a few variations available when it comes to coloring books. This Conference Coloring Booklet is great, but I also like these versions that fit two pictures per page ( packet by Erin and packet by Debbie).

Here is a link to an LDS Bingo game. You could use this during conference sessions and have your children mark off the words as they hear them mentioned. We like to use M&Ms or skittles for game pieces.

A Little Tipsy put together a General Conference themed Easter egg hunt coloring and cutting activity. A great way to combine both special events in the weekend.

And a session of General Conference would not be complete without coloring the General Authorities ties!

The Ant Bug’s completed ties from October, 2009.

Be sure to visit the General Conference page on Sugardoodle.net for more ideas. This is a wonderful resource, thanks to the contributions of so many people.

Our activity packets for April 2010. Each child has her own folder, and then I have a general folder for the whole family with additional coloring pages and games and the apostle cards. Add in crayons, scissors and glue and we are ready to go!

A Tree is Nice

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In January we discovered a delightful book. It is a Caldecott Medal winner from 1957.
A Tree Is Nice by Janice May Udry

“Trees are beautiful. They fill up the sky. If you have a tree, you can climb up its trunk, roll in its leaves, or hang a swing from one of its limbs. Cows and babies can nap in the shade of a tree. Birds can make nests in the branches. A tree is good to have around. A tree is nice.”

A Tree by the Ant Bug

Reading this book inspired us to paint our own beautiful trees.

A Tree by the Sweet Bee

A Tree by Nurture Mama

Another Tree by the Ant Bug

The Ant Bug said “A tree is nice because…it gives shade. If it has bumps, you can climb it.”

When it comes to planning activities for my children, I follow a predictable pattern: read a good book, sing a song or two, then do a craft project (although we don’t always go in that order). With a little creativity, most children’s books can easily inspire an hour or two of fun.

Valentine Activity Round-Up

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We are having a nice quiet week: hurray for no appointments or meetings! Which means we’ve been spending some spare time working on fun Valentine crafts.

We counted hearts, from Chasing Cheerios.

We made hanging heart garlands, from Skip to My Lou. Our version was a little simpler. Using the method described here, I folded scraps of Valentine colored paper in half, drew half a heart, and the Ant Bug cut them out. Then we just attached them to pink yarn with string and taped them from our ceiling.

We made paper hugs, from No Time for Flashcards (pictured above). This activity was really fun. The Ant Bug added a hat and a skirt and legs to her hug. The Sweet Bee wanted to do another and contented herself with large dollops of glue and googly eyes.
We got 20 valentines ready for a preschool class. Nothing too creative here, we just bought a box from the store, but the Ant Bug did match up stickers and got lots of practice writing her name.
We made hearts with glitter and glue, from No Time for Flashcards (pictured above). My girls loved this activity and stayed crafting for nearly an hour, but I have to warn you: glitter is not for the faint of heart. I gave the girls each a cookie tray for holding their paper to use to help contain the glitter, but we still ended up with glitter everywhere. Anyone have any tips for making glitter projects less messy?!
The heart cookie cutters were fine to start with, but we moved quickly to painting glue with a cotton swab, and eventually to just squeezing the glue directly onto the page and dumping glitter.
We raided our recycle paper drawer and they created a lot of masterpieces.Thankfully, the Ant Bug was very eager to use the vacuum to help me clean up!

We bought some heart shaped message candies.
I plan to use these a few different ways:
Counting, from Ramblings of a Crazy Woman.
Heart Patterns, from Teach Mama.
Tic Tac Toe Hearts, from Alpha Mom.
Love Letters, from Love Actually.

We plan to make our traditional sugar cookies and decorate them with friends on Friday.

Here are a few more we’ll squeeze in if we get the chance:
Dance streamers, from Chasing Cheerios (for a Fun Friday Family Night).
Valentine Treasure Hunt, from Serving Pink Lemonade and also Teach Mama.
Heart Family, from Cakies.
Heart shaped animals, from Make and Takes.
Heart shaped pizza, from No Time for Flashcards.

Hearts and Love for February

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February is a fun month because there are so many activities you can do related to hearts and love. The Ant Bug has been cutting out hearts for the last five days and pasting them around our house.

This year we decided to be a little more festive and make a Valentine’s banner. I found a heart template online, and started tracing and cutting out the hearts on pink cardstock. I wrote the letters and the Ant Bug outlined them with our glitter gel pens. I had planned to make the hearts more like conversation hearts (I LUV U 4 Ever), but as the Ant Bug and I started spelling it out, she was concerned that we were spelling love the wrong way so we decided to be correct in our spelling. Once the glitter was a little dry, we punched a hole on each side of the heart and threaded some pink yarn through, then tied the whole garland to our banister.


I think my girls love Valentine’s Day because we get to use pink a lot!

Last year I wrote about my favorite Love Books for Parents and Children. They are books perfect for snuggling and might even bring a tear to your eye. Here are few more to add to the list:

I Love You, Stinky Face by Lisa McCourt

How Do Dinosaurs Say I Love You? by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague

What Do You Love? by Jonathan London

Looking for more Valentine’s Ideas? Be sure to check out Make and Takes–Marie has been posting many heart-based treats and crafts. I’ll be trying a few of her fun ideas in the next month, starting with heart shaped toast.

A Fancy Party for a Five Year Old

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The Ant Bug recently turned 5 years old and she had her heart set on having a party with friends. She enjoys the Fancy Nancy books, so we went with a Fancy Nancy theme. This theme works well for little girls, because at that age it is so fun to dress up and be fancy. I searched online and found a lot of good ideas, and here is how it all turned out.

The Invitation
Printed on fancy paper and tied with a fancy pink ribbon
Text:
Anwyn is 5 and FANCY !

You are invited to a soiree (that’s fancy for party)

Saturday, January 23rd at Anwyn’s house (address)

10:30 am to 12:00 noon

Please wear your fanciest ensemble.

Répondez s’il vous plaît {RSVP}
(that’s fancy for tell Anwyn’s mom if you’re coming)

phone and email

Ooh-la-la! We can’t wait to see you, darling!

The decorations
Pink balloons and pink streamers.

The fancy welcome sign on the front door
The fancy creative art project
The girls decorated pink foam sheets with flower and heart foam stickers, markers and glitter gel pens.

The story time.
The girls all piled on the couch for a reading of the book that inspired the party.
The Shopping Spree
The girls were each given a gift card that enabled them to shop at Anwyn’s Boutique, conveniently located upstairs in Anwyn’s bedroom.
They were able to select one (or two) of the following accessories to wear and then take home: sunglasses, rings, bead necklaces, stick-on earrings, and a hair clip. This doubled as the favor bag.
After shopping we had a little lesson in proper posture for walking. We used plastic plates from our toy food collection to practice.
The game
Back downstairs for a rousing game of “pin the jewel on the tiara”. Kudos to my husband for drawing an awesome tiara!
The menu
We served peanut butter sandwiches cut in squares, crescent rolls, ham and turkey roll-ups, carrots and dip, crackers, and fresh fruit. The girls used fancy toothpicks with flags as their utensil and were encouraged to eat with their pinkies in the air. After present opening, it was time for dessert–parfaits, of course! We laid out vanilla ice cream and all the best fixings: chocolate and caramel sauce, strawberry syrup, sprinkles and M&Ms.

The whole party ended up being about two hours, with a little free time here and there for the girls to play a little. The Ant Bug loved it, and I think everyone else had a good time. I was pleased with how everything turned out. Hopefully this will help any of you who need to plan your own posh party for your fancy little girl!

I got a lot of ideas from the following sources:
How to Throw a Posh Soiree for Kids
Fancy Nancy Birthday Party
Occupation Mommy: Fancy Nancy Birthday Party
And advice from my sister-in-law Becky, who had previously hosted a Fancy Nancy party of her own!

Snowy Fun

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Even after recent record-breaking low temperatures, snow is still proving elusive in my Florida town. But never fear! Even without any snowmen and snow angels outside, we’re still having fun with a few snow-based activities inside.

Marshmallows are very exciting things at my house, even if the Ant Bug sometimes gets confused and calls them mushrooms. I knew this activity was going to be a hit. I drew three circles of a snowman body for the Sweet Bee, and the Ant Bug drew her own. We outlined the circles in glue, then started counting marshmallows and sticking them in place (and eating some along the way). The girls continued filling in their snowman after the outline was done


Cotton-ball Snowman

Here is our take on the ever-popular classic cotton-ball snowman. We cut out circles of three different sizes, glued the circles to a sheet of paper, and then filled in the bodies with the fuzzy balls. We used scraps of felt for the charcoal eyes, carrot nose and stick arms.

Snowy Activities on Paper

Confessions of a Homeschooler has a wonderful page with a number of preschool worksheets and activities. We tried out the snowman pre-writing skills worksheet and played the snowflake matching game.

Snowy Books to Read
The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner

Christmas Craft Time

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We’re counting the days until Christmas! Now that school is out, we have a little time to work on some fun holiday projects. We’ll be trying some of the following in the next few days.

Super Simple Snowflake/Star Ornaments
Fork Print Tree
Shape Tree

Christmas Card Puzzle Game
Simple Reindeer Ornaments

From Kids Craft Weekly: Santa Cards

And of course, we will also be doing some baking. You can find our favorite Sugar Cookie recipe here, and a great recipe for gingerbread cookies here.

What fun activities will you be doing this week?

Polar Express Party Planning Essentials

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Reading the book and watching the movie of The Polar Express is a holiday tradition in our home. This year we decided to invite some friends and make it a party!

Polar Express Party Planning Essentials

Wear Pajamas–The kids in the movie were wearing pajamas, so we all did too. What could be better then snuggling up in cozy pajamas with your blankets and pillows to watch a good movie?

Tickets, Please–If you want to ride the train, then a ticket is required. We got the template for our tickets from this helpful packet.
Ride the Train–When our friends arrived we handed them a ticket, then we all boarded the train for a ride to the North Pole. Our train was just the kitchen chairs arranged in train style seating, but we chug-chugged and pretended we were looking out the window at the snow capped mountains.

Bells–The bell is a central element of the story. Our train took a short detour to make sure each passenger was properly equiped with a bell. A string threaded through the bell makes a great necklace (incidentally, the Ant Bug has been wearing her bell necklace since Saturday).

Lights, Camera, Action–We parked the train at a safe location and settled in to watch the movie, with the lights from the Christmas tree setting the mood.
Snack Time–don’t forget the treats! Our stomachs were content with popcorn, hot chocolate with marshmallows, and a few M&Ms.

Looking for more ideas? Check out this helpful packet from Houghton Mifflin which includes more party ideas, a crossword puzzle, word search, mazes and more.

Easy Ornaments

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One Christmas tradition I enjoy is making an ornament, usually with the help of my children (is it a tradition if this is only the second time I’ve done it?). This years version was inspired by an idea I saw here, but I got creative in using mostly supplies that I already had on hand.

Supplies needed:
-small round wood discs (I found mine at Michaels in the wood section)
-paint
-scrapbook paper
-mod podge
-string
-hot glue gun
-ribbon, bells, photos, graphics, etc (whatever you want to use for ornamentation)
Paint the wood discs and allow to dry (both sides). Cut slightly smaller circles out of decorative scrapbook paper, and mod podge the paper to the painted discs. Once the glue was dry I threaded white ribbon through a shiny bell, tied a bow and used a hot glue gun to attach the ribbon to the disc. The last step is to use the glue gun again to attach a string to the back for hanging on the tree.
The possibilities for the focal part of the ornament itself are pretty endless. You can use photos, old Christmas cards, berries, flowers, or whatever strikes your fancy. I made a version for my piano students using a small picture of a piano I printed from the computer (in the photo above).

December Traditions

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For most families, December is a month that abounds in holiday traditions. Christmas trees and carols and presents make for much excitement. The Ant Bug has been looking forward to December for some time now, and she was thrilled when it was finally the day after Thanksgiving and we could pull out our decorations and trim the tree.

Last year we found a great activity in the December 2008 issue of The Friend magazine that was perfect for helping us keep the focus on Christ during the Christmas season.
Here are the directions:
Each day during December look up the scripture reference for that day. Read the stories of Jesus. Then color the set of scriptures for that day. Each day also lists a picture from the Gospel Art Picture Kit (GAK) that can accompany the story. You can access the GAK online here.

We like to display the chart as well as the accompanying GAK picture as a visual reminder throughout the month.

Click here for the activity and the scripture reading list.

Last year we also had fun reading Christmas books together.
Here are the basic directions:
Find 25 Christmas books (or as many as you can), wrap them up and put them under your tree. Then everyday until Christmas your children can choose one to unwrap and read together.

Our current shelf of books is pretty sparse when it comes to Christmas books, so most of our books come from the library (you can still wrap them up even if you have to take them back). This is what we will be reading this year:

Drummer Boy by Loren Long
The Tale of Three Trees by Angela Elwell Hunt
Olive the Other Reindeer by Vivian Walsh & J. Otto Seibold
Christmas Tree Farm by Ann Purmell
Christmas Mice by Bethany Roberts
How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
Bear Noel by Olivier Dunrea
The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg
McDuff’s New Friend by Rosemary Wells and Susan Jeffers
The True Story of Christmas by Nell Navillus
How Santa Got His Job by Stephen Krensky
Christmas Day in the Morning by Pearl S. Buck
Mooseltoe by Margie Palatini
…and maybe a few more!

I first saw this idea on Make and Takes, and this year The Idea Room also shared their version of this activity.

As far as the rest of the month goes, I’m sure we’ll be doing most of the same things I wrote about last year here.

What traditions do you have that make your December special?