Preschool Work with Reece

Reece loves this little school activity. If we don't do it everyday he gets upset.
I have a set of Upper Case Letters and a set of Lower Case Letters. Each letter is on it's own card and Reece has to match the lower case letter to the upper case letter. We're working through the alphabet and we're up to I. He has most of them down, but still gets messed up on B, D, and H.

Blossom Tree Painting

I have a tab in my google reader marked "crafts for boys". The other day I let Wyatt scroll through it to pick something to do and this is what he picked.
The project came from here. Our methods were a little different, but we ended up with a similar product. We used our dot painters (this link is not where we bought the paints, but where we got them is no longer in business) for the blossoms and a permanent marker for the tree and branches. Wyatt really liked this project and ended up making several of them. It was fast, easy and low mess which is always good in my book.

Making Jello Playdough

It's been quite a while since we made playdough, but the boys asked if we could the other morning and I had all the ingredients in the kitchen so we got right to it.
You can find the recipe that we used here.
We made one batch of Orange and one batch of Lime. The Orange wasn't very strongly scented, but the Lime sure was and for this pregnant woman it really made me want to eat some real limes.
Seth and Reece had a great time measuring out the ingredients and then they watched me cook it and kneed it.
When it was cooled we got out all the cookie cutters, rollers, plastic utensils that we have so that they could have fun playing and boy did they! They played and played and played, then when Wyatt got home from school he got in on the action too. I always forget how much they love playdough. It's definitely something we need to do more often.

Father's Day Gift

I know that I am so late in publishing this, but well...I've been busy. The original idea for this project came from here. I just put our own little spin on it. I got big cork hotpads from IKEA (or the best place on earth as I like to call it). I taped of different designs on each one and then let the boys paint them. After the paint was dry we peeled of the tape and each boy put the handprint on the pad that they had painted. I attached ribbon to the back of each (using thumbtacks) so that they can hang. The idea is for daddy to have them at work and he can hang them and use them as mini-corkboards or if he needs a coaster for his desk then he can take one down and use it as a coaster. I think they turned out super cute.

Unplugged Project - Color

The theme for this weeks Unplugged Project was Color. I let Reece do something simple and he played with colorful wooden puzzles. However, I set about with something a little more complicated for Wyatt and Seth.
We did color arranging from lightest to darkest. I had made these a while back using paint cards that I got for free at Home Depot. I just cut them into little squares. I numbered the backs so that the boys could self check once they lined them up. We have several colors that I keep separated in little bags.


I also did this color matching game that I made from paint cards that I got at Home Depot. I cut the words off one card, but left the rest of it intact. Then on the matching card I cut little one inch squares and glued them to clothes pins. The boys have to clip the clothes pin to the color that it matches. It can be a little difficult because some of the colors on the card are so similar. They did each project and then switched and did the other one. They really liked it.

Fun with Frogs

We had a great time with this frog project the other day. Seth actually LOVED it, which is the first time I've gotten him to LOVE an art project. So, I thought I would share the step by step instructions for anyone looking for a good project to do with boys. I mean, what boy doesn't love frogs?

Supplies Needed:
Paper (We used butcher paper, but water color would also be good. I just wanted big pieces of paper so that we'd have lots of room for frogs)
Green Tempera paint
Potatoes, cut in half long ways and patted dry
Paint Brush
Sponge Brush (This is optional you could also just use a regular paint brush)
Black Permanent Marker
Paper Plate
Card Board for Legs
Bubble Wrap and Coregated Cardboard for designs on Frogs
Red Permanent Marker (Optional)

First, paint your piece of paper green using your sponge brushes (or regular brushes) with with very watered down green tempera paint. I told the boys were painting green slimy pond water for our frogs because frogs love to live in green slimy pond water. They really liked that idea.
Then using full strength green tempera paint coat the cut side of potato for the body of your frog and begin stamping your paper. You'll want to leave plenty of room between your frogs so that you have room for the legs.

Your paper should look something like this.
Now, frog bodies are not smooth, so we used bubble wrap and corregated cardboard to make marks on their bodies while they were still wet (the cardboard is just the inside of a Starbucks cozy).
Next you'll need two pieces of cardboard for the legs. One needs to be longer than the other and you'll bend them in half. The shorter one makes the front legs and the longer one makes the back legs.
Just dip them in your paint and then twist them on your paper like you see in the picture below.
After your legs are done you need frog toes! Use the end of your paint brush to make little dots. Just dip the end of it in your paint and make three little dots at the end of each leg.
Finally, when your paint is dry use a black permanent marker to draw eyes. You could also do red eye tree frogs and use a red marker.
Here are some pictures of the boys having fun making the Frog project.



Seth decided his frogs needed tongues!!

Our First Gingerbread House

We made our very first Gingerbread house from a kit. Reece bit the top of the head off snow man so we had to give him some "hair" to cover up the bite mark. It turned out pretty cute. We still have a kit for a Santa Sleigh and a Train that we need to make. Hopefully we'll get to it before Christmas or we may keep it until next year.

Making Ornaments

My friend, Kristal, mentioned that the week after Thanksgiving her boys make ornaments for their tree. I've decided that's a fantastic idea and so now we have a new tradition. We headed out to our local craft store and I let the boys pick out what ever ornament they wanted. Seth and Reece both chose wooden trains and Wyatt chose a wooden Gingerbreadman. Wyatt's isn't really an ornament, rather a stand alone little figurine, but it's what he wanted. They all loved painting them and I put their names on each one and dated them so that as we continue to make them through the years I'll know who they belong to.

Unplug Your Kids- Thankful

It's been a little while since we've done the weekly Unplugged Projects, but we jumped back in this week with the Thankful project. Originally I intended to do this as a turkey project. You know, the one where you put what you're thankful for on the the turkey feathers. However, since we made Cereal Box Turkeys just a couple of days ago I decided to go with something else. I cut big circles out of construction paper and had the boys tell me what they were thankful for, I wrote it in Sharpie on the circles and then we taped them to the back door. We had all sorts of things to be thankful for: that daddy is Spiderman, that Uncle John is the Hulk, and that mommy is Spidergirl (these are all great family secrets by the way); David from school, the guinea pigs, that Jesus died on the cross (Wyatt thought of that one), Transformer toys, driving race cars, that we went to a Veggie Tales Concert, that Miss Robin had a baby, for all the little tiny babies, and Seth listed everyone in our extended family.

Cereal Box Turkey

I got the idea for these little turkeys from this blog. Ours are a little different, but generally the same. The boys had fun gluing them together. When I was cutting up the boxes they kept asking what I was doing and I told them we were going to make turkeys. They were so confused. I think they turned out pretty cute. Reece's is the one in the middle with no feathers. He got tired of the project before he glued on the feathers in the back. I used empty Cheerios, Swiss Miss Hot Chocolate, Z-Bar and Annie's Organie Mac & Cheese Boxes that I had in the pantry for the project.

Wyatt's Turkey: He drew it with a mouth.

Seth's Turkey: He's the one that originated the eye lash idea.

Thinning Paint

I decided to do a little exercise with the boys where we thinned paint with water so they could see how you could get a different "look" with just a little change to the paint. Ofcourse Wyatt loved it and Seth wasn't that interested (why do I feel the need to get him so interested in art when he clearly has no interest in it). First, we used full strength paint and painted a line on our paper, then we watered it down a little and painted another line, then we watered it down a little more and painted another line. After that I let the boys paint whatever they wanted.

Seth trying hard to stay interested; I've got to find something else that will interest in him that's artistic/crafty/fun

Wyatt wrote his name in yellow crayon and then painted over it

As you can see, Wyatt loves to paint (all of these except one are his)

Make Your Own Bouncy Balls

A while back I bought these Make Your Own Bouncy Ball Kits at the Dollar Bin at Target. We finally got around to making them and the boys loved it. You mixed a colored sand like substance into a ball form and stuck a blinking light in it. Then you swirled the ball form in water for 30 seconds. Then you let it dry for 15 minutes before you pulled the ball form off and you have your new blinking bouncy ball. It worked pretty well. The sand stuff expanded quite a bit, so Seth's ball got a little lopsided.

Don't you love the Larry Boy hat and Sunglasses?
Drying Balls

All finished