Rainy Day Activities

It's a rainy sort of week and A has been stuck at home with a cold. My three year old might be happy to watch Tangled all day, every day, but I am not. So we have been busy with one boredom buster after another. Here are two of my favorites...

"Scary Mary" Fan Art {handprint chicken}

A and I had so much fun this morning creating this little piece of fan art. To go along with our barnyard theme, we read Scary Mary by Paula Bowles.

Marble Painting

We painted with marbles! It's as easy as (and less messy than) it sounds.

cardinal in the forest painting

I love art teacher's blogs. Their projects are so darn cute, and now that E is school-aged she's able to do much of it. I found this lovely idea on ARTASTIC! via Pinterest and was thrilled with how it turned out.

easy puff paint for "snow" paintings

I was organizing my pantry yesterday (I do hope you live a more exciting life than me), when I came across some self-rising flour that expired when my eldest was still in diapers. Instead of tossing it, I set it aside for this puff paint recipe I found recently on Frugal Family Fun.

Snowflake Paintings

I think this idea came from Frugal Family Fun (and even if it didn't Valerie is fabulous enough to deserve the credit in any case). All you'll need is masking or painters tape, cardstock, and paint.

A Mayflower for a rainy day...

We woke up this morning to rain clouds and snotty noses.

I was supposed to run errands.

She was supposed to attend the Thanksgiving party at preschool.

But we stayed in our jammies, left our hair unbrushed, and opened up the art box.

Cotton balls and glue. Paper and paint.

And the story of believers who left their home for the hope of a new life in a new world.

It's a beautiful day. :)

I'm linking up to:

Colorful Leaf Printing

The leaves are finally changing here in Virginia, and the trees are all golden and russet in the afternoon sunlight. On our walk today we came across a tree with huge yellow leaves and immediately plucked the largest for this craft. I've been just dying to try out leaf printing since I ran across the idea on Pinterest.

 We started by squirting different colored acrylic paints onto a baking a sheet. I then smudged them with paper towel into the general shape of the leaf.

 E pressed the leaf into the paint and then carefully placed the leaf onto the paper, pressing it some more. We made sure we placed the leaf vein-side down.

 She peeled back the leaf to reveal a gorgeous fall print. We made two prints, but there was still plenty of paint left on the pan. Kleas used one pan for an entire class of preschoolers, but since I didn't have other (awake) children in the house, I printed off this tree template for E to paint.

 Although its meant as a wedding keepsake (get your guests to ink their fingerprints onto either side of the tree), I added the word "thankful" and let E fill it in with her own sweet prints.

I truly am thankful for smudgy prints and the dear little fingers they belong to!

Autumn Walk by Kelly Asbury

I mention this book every year, but that's because I love it. Ignore the average illustrations and instead listen to the rhythmical, stimulating language throughout the book. After reading this to your kids, you're both going to want to romp through fallen leaves, sip hot apple cider, and glory in all that autumn offers.




Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert

A classic Ehlert, this book follows the life of a sugar maple from the viewpoint of a young child. Gorgeous watercolor collages fill the pages while the narration provides interesting information about the beginnings of the maple tree.

Potato Blueberry Stamps

I know, I should be starting on apple and pumpkin crafts, but I'm not quite ready to say goodbye to summer. Between random earthquakes and impending hurricanes, we're managing to enjoy our last few days of summer break. Last week my husband and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary by taking a road trip up to Acadia National Park in Maine.

 On the way up, it seemed there were "Wild Maine Blueberry" signs and stands at every corner. We didn't buy any blueberries, but I did pick up One Morning in Maine for my girls and was inspired to do this little craft when I got home.

You're supposed to use a cork for this project, but I didn't have any on hand, so I grabbed a fingerling potato instead. I simply trimmed each end and notched an X into the potato flesh. The girls then dipped either end of their potato stamp into some blue paint to create their blueberries.

When it had dried,  they glued on popsicle sticks to create a simple basket shape. Such a fun and simple end of summer artwork!

One Morning in Maine by Robert McCloskey

Written by the author of Blueberries for Sal, this sequel follows an older Sal through an average Maine morning. Blueberries do not feature in this book, but it does chronicle the loss of Sal's first tooth and her trip into town with her father and little sister. This time the plot takes a back seat to the beautiful monochromatic illustrations of little Sal and the Maine coast. Having just returned from there, I could fully appreciate the accuracy of the beautiful depiction of the New England coastline. Although it's a little long for early preschoolers, older children will enjoy the quiet chronicle of a child's morning, and kids of all ages are bound to love the artwork.

One Little Blueberry by Tammi Salzano

If you're looking for a blueberry-themed book for younger children, check out this cute little story from Tiger Tales. A simple counting book, the story follows the journey of one runaway blueberry while two ants, three ladybugs, four caterpillars, etc. all try to catch the blueberry for their own. Sweet illustrations and rhyming text make this a great read-aloud for classrooms or at home.


Disclaimer: One Little Blueberry was provided to me courtesy of Tiger Tales Books free of charge in exchange for a review. This does not in any way influence my review.

Happy 4th!

Our poor house looked rather unpatriotic, so the girls and I did a little "easy batiking" to help improve the view. I sewed the flag out of some scrap material, and then used gel glue and watered down acrylic paint to decorate it. You can get full directions for how to batik with kids here.

Now we are off to enjoy my mother's fabulous home...

And a much nicer view!

 

Have a wonderful 4th of July!

We heart Splotch

I'm back! Our move went great (despite the rain - and snow!). We've been busy unpacking, decorating, and enjoying our new digs. But I couldn't let the week before Easter go by without any posts, so I'm back to review one of my favorite new books:

Roly-Poly Egg by Kali Stileman

Of all the books I received from Tiger Tails, this is by far my favorite. Splotch is a little bird who lays an egg: "small- yes, spotty- yes, and absolutely perfect in every way!" In her excitement over her egg, she drops it and thus begins the egg's adventure through the forest.

Each page chronicles the egg's journey from animal to animal and finally back to Splotch. The illustrations are beyond adorable and have a Carle-esque feel in their paint and cut paper collages. A dashed line on each page encourages children to trace the egg's path. In the end, kids get to lift the flap of Splotch's egg, for a delightful spotted surprise!

This book just begs for fan artwork, so we pulled out our paints after church today and got splotching!

I let the girls pick out two paint colors and then they mixed and went to town on the paper. We used folded cardstock so we could give these away as cards.

We each thought our painting was small- yes, spotty-yes, and absolutely perfect in every way!


Disclaimer: Roly-Poly Egg was provided to me courtesy of Tiger Tails Books free of charge in exchange for a review. This does not in any way influence my review.

One Rainy Day

Our house is officially under contract, which means we can once again pull out our messy paints! It's a mild, rainy spring day, so we decided to paint a picture of the rain.

Yes, we do own an easel but it - along with so much other "stuff" - was stored away when we listed the house. The fridge actually works quite well, and A enjoyed spreading the watered-down (washable) blue and green paint onto the paper.

She was also excited to discover the tiny raindrops I had applied ahead of time with a wax crayon. If I were to do it again, I'd fill in the raindrops with crayon as well.

One Rainy Day by Tammi Salzano

Duck loves the rain, because rain means red boots, an orange umbrella, yellow flowers, and so much more. Like any good board book, it's not the story that takes center stage, but the illustrations. Bright, cheerful drawings fill each page and tell the story through colorful and adorable characters. Accentuating the artwork are silver foil raindrops which not only fall from the sky, but drip and puddle on the illustrated leaves.

I thought this padded board book might be a little young for A, but she loved it from the start. It's her current favorite and our must-read before naptime.

Update: You can win your own copy of One Rainy Day! To enter, just visit Tiger Tails Books and comment on your thoughts about ebooks for kids.

Disclaimer: One Rainy Day was provided to me courtesy of Tiger Tails Books free of charge in exchange for a review. This does not in any way influence my review. 


I'm linking up to:
- stART @ A Mommy's Adventures 

Paper tube heart stamps

It took having children to get me to enjoy Valentine's Day. I love my hubby, but we're both way too independent to enjoy a holiday that dictates romance. So, I channel my inner pink-fanatic at the start of February and dive with my children into a world of hearts, hugs, and warm fuzzies.

Using a couple toilet paper tubes and some red and pink paint, I created heart stamps for the girls. It took a bit of practice to get the heart just right, but once it was firmly creased it worked well as a simple and disposable stamp.

A enjoyed the stamp for about 5 seconds before she moved on to full-blown finger painting. My "H is for Heart" turned into "H is for a horrendous, happy mess!"

E did a great job on her card. I love how the paint splattered in spots... although I later found out it was non-washable paint, and I spent part of the afternoon carefully scraping it off of my dining room table!

Valentine Surprise by Corinne Demas

Lily tries to create the perfect valentine for her mom. Each day she makes a new heart, but each day it isn't quite right: too lopsided, too skinny, too pointy. At the end of the week a frustrated Lily gives her mom all of the rejected hearts only to have her mom exclaim, "Oh, Lily! You made me one for every day of the week!"

This simple story has sweet illustrations and subtly teaches days of the week and shapes to young children in a gentle story that kids will easily relate to.