This year, I have a 5, 3 and 1 year old boys who are all so excited, in each their own way, for all the holiday-ness that is about to come our way in December. A big part of what Christmas means to me is giving. I love making hand-crafting girls, making homemade body products with essential oils, and chocolates for friends and family! My kids are already going on about all the things they want Santa to bring, and although I love playing along and letting them have their Santa Clause fantasy, I really want to instill in them that this time of year we should focus on blessing others and being good people in conjunction with Santa bringing us a gift.
After scouring the internet for ideas on how my 5 and 3 year old's can bless others, I come up pretty short on ideas that A) didn't cost us tons of money (hello, raising three kids isn't cheap!), and B) wasn't super involved or over their heads.
So here is a list of 25 ideas on how 3-5 year old's can bless others this season that will make an impact on them, as well and help your community!
1. Learn a few Christmas carols and visit a retirement home
2. Draw pictures and mail to family and friends with your holiday cards
3. Ask friends who do not celebrate your same holiday traditions to come over for a play date and to teach you about their traditions
4. Bake cookies with mommy or daddy and share with neighbors
5. Offer to babysit a friends children for a few hours and do a holiday craft with them
6. Visit your local animal shelter and pet animals (bonus: buy some pet treats to take and give!)
7. Go for a walk and pick up garbage (Caution!! Watch your kids close and have them wear gloves!)
8. Sort your toys and books and clothes and donate those you don't need to a shelter, children's hospital, or local consignment store
9. Make bird or squirrel feeders and place them outside for the animals
10. Visit a pond and take stale bread to feed the birds
11. Paint Love Rocks and leave around your park for others to find
12. Put change in the red bucket outside grocery stores and talk about how the money will help others
13. Put together a box of food and drop at the local food bank
14. Make treats or pictures to take to your local librarians, nurses at the pediatrician, teachers, or babysitters
15. If you have yard space, plant a Christmas tree to grow for the future
16. Smile at everyone in the grocery store and say something nice to them
17. Make a video with mommy of you singing a Christmas song and email to grandparents
18. Leave a treat in the mail box for the mail deliverer
19. Take homemade goodies to your local fire and police stations
20. Invite friends over for a holiday part
21. Leave some puzzles or coloring books in a children's waiting area
22. Take chalk on a walk and leave pretty pictures on the sidewalk for others
23. Learn a new joke and recite it at family gatherings
24. Take bubbles to the park and share them with kids you don't know
25. Help decorate for the holidays
I hope you and yours find time to bless others this time of year, as well and take time for yourself as a family to celebrate. Leave some comments below of more ways small children and bless others!
Saturday, November 28, 2015
Thursday, July 23, 2015
Go to jail, directly to jail, do NOT pass go.
Teasing one of the boys this afternoon, I said they were going to go to jail. Monkey got super serious and started to tear up, "I don't want to go to jail, mommy!".
"If you are a good boy, you will never go to jail!" Then I had an idea. "Why do people go to jail, what do they do that is bad?"
Monkey: If they messer or explode like a ball-cay-no!!! (read: volcano..."messer" has no translation)
Monster: Well, bank robbers go to jail. And, actually, bad guys go to jail.
We discussed robbers, and why stealing is bad. Then we talked about how sometimes it's ok to take things that aren't ours...like the time we found an old discarded toy a the park, or the time the dog brought a ball home that wasn't hers (they still go on and on about the ball and how the dog who had it before is probably really sad our dog took it!). Suddenly, I remember something from long ago and told the boys this story:
Once upon a time I had this doll. She had long blond hair and a small red heart on her chest. When you pushed the heart it would glow, and the doll would sing. I loved her so much and took her everywhere. One day I took her with me to the park. When I got on the swing set, I laid the doll beside the swings on the ground. Right after that it was time to go and as I jumped off the swing and ran to the car, I forgot my heart doll, leaving her behind. At home, I remembered my doll and cried until my dad took me back to the park, but by then someone else had taken my doll home with them.
I told them this story, because it happened to pop into my head, but also to help teach that if it's not yours, don't take it. But, what I didn't realize, was how they would respond! Both got really sad, and then both started to talk at once! We had to take turns so I could hear both their responses:
Monkey: Mommy! We can MAKE you a new doll. We will sew her and put a little heart on her. And we can make her out of WOOD!
Monster: I know! Let's call everyone in this town and ask them if they have seen your doll! And if no one in our town has, well, though, actually, we would have to fly in an air plane or maybe ride in a boat to the next town and call all the people there!!
Monster was very adamant I get my phone and start calling people. I tried to explain it was over 23 years ago, and more than likely the kid that took my doll didn't have it anymore. But, my goodness, what huge hearts my new little "dolls" have!
"If you are a good boy, you will never go to jail!" Then I had an idea. "Why do people go to jail, what do they do that is bad?"
Monkey: If they messer or explode like a ball-cay-no!!! (read: volcano..."messer" has no translation)
Monster: Well, bank robbers go to jail. And, actually, bad guys go to jail.
We discussed robbers, and why stealing is bad. Then we talked about how sometimes it's ok to take things that aren't ours...like the time we found an old discarded toy a the park, or the time the dog brought a ball home that wasn't hers (they still go on and on about the ball and how the dog who had it before is probably really sad our dog took it!). Suddenly, I remember something from long ago and told the boys this story:
Once upon a time I had this doll. She had long blond hair and a small red heart on her chest. When you pushed the heart it would glow, and the doll would sing. I loved her so much and took her everywhere. One day I took her with me to the park. When I got on the swing set, I laid the doll beside the swings on the ground. Right after that it was time to go and as I jumped off the swing and ran to the car, I forgot my heart doll, leaving her behind. At home, I remembered my doll and cried until my dad took me back to the park, but by then someone else had taken my doll home with them.
I told them this story, because it happened to pop into my head, but also to help teach that if it's not yours, don't take it. But, what I didn't realize, was how they would respond! Both got really sad, and then both started to talk at once! We had to take turns so I could hear both their responses:
Monkey: Mommy! We can MAKE you a new doll. We will sew her and put a little heart on her. And we can make her out of WOOD!
Monster: I know! Let's call everyone in this town and ask them if they have seen your doll! And if no one in our town has, well, though, actually, we would have to fly in an air plane or maybe ride in a boat to the next town and call all the people there!!
Monster was very adamant I get my phone and start calling people. I tried to explain it was over 23 years ago, and more than likely the kid that took my doll didn't have it anymore. But, my goodness, what huge hearts my new little "dolls" have!
Monday, June 29, 2015
Make your own Geodes!
We try to cover a lot of earth science projects in the spring time. It just seems to fit in nicely with Earth Day and the fact that we are spending more and more time outdoors as the weather gets nice.
A few weeks ago we decided to try making our own crystals and geodes. Following a few other blog posts off of Pinterest, we came up with this experiment.
We saved egg shells for a few days and we were careful to break them open leaving 3/4 of the egg shell still intact. Monster then helped me mix different ingredients from the kitchen with hot water.
We decided to try the following:
- Sea Salt
- White Sugar
- Brown Sugar
- Canning Salt
- Ice Cream Salt
- Borax
We adding food coloring to each liquid so our crystals would have some color and filled our egg shells with the concoctions.
We waited a LONG time for our crystals to form. It took over two weeks for any activity at all. Finally small crystals started to form on the outside of the shells. After another week all the liquid inside had evaporated and crystals had formed inside the shells as well.
The sea salt and canning salt made the best crystals on the outside of the egg shell.
The borax and ice cream salt made really cool crystals on the inside of the egg shells. And the sugars really didn't do much.
The salt separated the colors in the liquid making some really pretty egg shells.
After we were done exploring the boys used the egg shells as a sensory experiment and did lots of smashing, stomping, and breaking of the crystals and egg shells. It is a great way to get rid of some pent up energy, ;)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
New words: Geode, crystals, evaporation, dissolve
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
Tea for Three
It is another rainy spring day here. That and the boys are still tired from camping over the weekend, and I am sick, again. Trying to come up with calm, non-argument inducing activities that doesn't make too big a mess isn't always easy. Usually we stick to movies, playdough, puzzles, lego towers, and books.
Monkey asked last night if we could have a tea party, at approximately 7:30PM. Half an hour from bedtime, just after dinner, and me barely keeping my eyes open and myself upright from the cold I am fighting. "Maybe tomorrow" I suggested. Lucky for him I had enough rest, and gumption, to set up our tea for three this morning.
Monster likes his with milk, Monkey drinks his plain, both have chamomile and I drink a caffeinated green tea. I even broke out a silly British accent "Good day, sirs! Would ya like a spot o' tea? Are you enjoying the weather?!" Monkey told me it was a great tea song, and Monster asked me to please stop. I guess they were not impressed.
Of course we don't do much without some sort of educational aspect to it, and we did a big lesson on tea a few months ago, so I just touched on what we had spoken about before: where tea originated, how it traveled around the world, what tea comes from what countries today, and how different people drink their tea.
If Monster wouldn't gag at the thought, we'd do a history of coffee and have a decaf party next week!
Friday, May 22, 2015
up, Up, UP and AWAY! A exploration of Rockets.
The last few weeks of May we are studying outer space and all things planetary. Today we had a fun day of rockets!
Monster and Monkey made name rockets to hang on our art wall. Monkey still has a very Picasso approach to his art work, ha ha, and Monster really wanted to put all the letters from bottom to top, so we had a lesson on what direction we read and write. (That spider is fake, by the way...)
As they glued their letters on, I opened our Usborne book of Earth and Space, and we talked about the planets in our solar system. They boys really liked learning how big each planet was, how many moons each planet has, and how many earth years it takes each planet to go around the sun.
We created some toilet paper rockets, which they stapled flat, because stapling is super fun. Monkey layered his rocket componenets and stapled them together as more of a rocket "pile", because, you know, Picasso. ;)
Next we tried out an experiment I had read about online: seltzer water and Splenda. Supposedly, when mixed together, it has a similar reaction as baking soda and vinegar. We wrote out graphs to track how much of each substance we put in the bottle, and then the results. Monster practiced writing numbers and we talked about how you write out one half, something we hadn't talked about yet. Monkey scribbled some lab notes:
First we sampled the sugar substitute and seltzer. Monkey really liked both, Monster wasn't so sure about the seltzer, and I missed getting a picture of the awesome face he took after trying the "sparkly water".
I asked both boys if they liked the experiment:
Monster- Yeah, but it just went splat.
Monkey- Yes! It was good. And a VERY BIG explosion!!!
Three year old's are pretty excitable creatures. ;)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
New Words/Terms: Galaxy, artificial sugar, seltzer, carbonation, orbit, and Galileo (he discovered some planets moons).
Monster and Monkey made name rockets to hang on our art wall. Monkey still has a very Picasso approach to his art work, ha ha, and Monster really wanted to put all the letters from bottom to top, so we had a lesson on what direction we read and write. (That spider is fake, by the way...)
As they glued their letters on, I opened our Usborne book of Earth and Space, and we talked about the planets in our solar system. They boys really liked learning how big each planet was, how many moons each planet has, and how many earth years it takes each planet to go around the sun.
We created some toilet paper rockets, which they stapled flat, because stapling is super fun. Monkey layered his rocket componenets and stapled them together as more of a rocket "pile", because, you know, Picasso. ;)
Next we tried out an experiment I had read about online: seltzer water and Splenda. Supposedly, when mixed together, it has a similar reaction as baking soda and vinegar. We wrote out graphs to track how much of each substance we put in the bottle, and then the results. Monster practiced writing numbers and we talked about how you write out one half, something we hadn't talked about yet. Monkey scribbled some lab notes:
First we sampled the sugar substitute and seltzer. Monkey really liked both, Monster wasn't so sure about the seltzer, and I missed getting a picture of the awesome face he took after trying the "sparkly water".
The results were not as cool as we had hoped, just some fizzling. I have has the Splenda for a while though, so maybe it is better fresh?
I asked both boys if they liked the experiment:
Monster- Yeah, but it just went splat.
Monkey- Yes! It was good. And a VERY BIG explosion!!!
Three year old's are pretty excitable creatures. ;)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
New Words/Terms: Galaxy, artificial sugar, seltzer, carbonation, orbit, and Galileo (he discovered some planets moons).
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Four is the new cool.
I love babies. I love, love, love, LOVE babies. I loooooove them. They are the best. All snuggles and warm baby smells and just all around nice to hold, look at, kiss and love on.
BUT. Babies do not stay babies forever. Soon they start rolling, and walking and talking...and then, then they turn two.
But they do not stop there! Oh no! It gets worse! They turn three-going-on-thirteen with attitudes to put teenagers to shame!
And then one day you wake up, and your chubby cherub, your precious pumpkin, is now four. He's a kid. A for real, talking back, making up his own rules, child. You can barely remember those sweet days rocking him to sleep or kissing his pudgy cheeks as he depends on you day after day for everything. And instead your memories are being replaced by day after day of argumentative come backs that are better thought out than you ever would have imagined from someone so small.
Some days I wish I could magically send us back to the beginning where it was just me and my tiny newborn, getting to know each other for the first time. No four-year-olds demanding things at the top of their lungs. Asking for things not politly, but by saying one word in a totally demeaning way. "MILK!...MILK!...MOOOMMY! I SAID MILK!!"
BUT. Four-year-olds are amazing. The imagination, the ideas, the intuitive-ness of them is overwhelming some days. They come up with interesting thoughts that are all their own and you are blown away by how all that knowledge you had been stuffing into their little brains for YEARS has finally been taken, rearranged, and spit out as totally their own conscious thought.
Monster has been amazing the boots off me recently.We had a day discovering Martin Luther King JR. and differences in people and how we are all the same in the end. And he came up with these ideas for how to make the world a better place:
-Everyone should put lids back on pens so they don't dry out
-Keara-dog should stop getting everything dirty, like the windows
-Everyone charge your phones, wash your windows, and eat and drink
-Talk about it instead of fighting
-Everyone should wash their hair
-Say nice words to people instead of mean ones
If you ever wondered what four-year-olds thought was important in life, there you go.
BUT. Babies do not stay babies forever. Soon they start rolling, and walking and talking...and then, then they turn two.
But they do not stop there! Oh no! It gets worse! They turn three-going-on-thirteen with attitudes to put teenagers to shame!
And then one day you wake up, and your chubby cherub, your precious pumpkin, is now four. He's a kid. A for real, talking back, making up his own rules, child. You can barely remember those sweet days rocking him to sleep or kissing his pudgy cheeks as he depends on you day after day for everything. And instead your memories are being replaced by day after day of argumentative come backs that are better thought out than you ever would have imagined from someone so small.
Some days I wish I could magically send us back to the beginning where it was just me and my tiny newborn, getting to know each other for the first time. No four-year-olds demanding things at the top of their lungs. Asking for things not politly, but by saying one word in a totally demeaning way. "MILK!...MILK!...MOOOMMY! I SAID MILK!!"
BUT. Four-year-olds are amazing. The imagination, the ideas, the intuitive-ness of them is overwhelming some days. They come up with interesting thoughts that are all their own and you are blown away by how all that knowledge you had been stuffing into their little brains for YEARS has finally been taken, rearranged, and spit out as totally their own conscious thought.
Monster has been amazing the boots off me recently.We had a day discovering Martin Luther King JR. and differences in people and how we are all the same in the end. And he came up with these ideas for how to make the world a better place:
-Everyone should put lids back on pens so they don't dry out
-Keara-dog should stop getting everything dirty, like the windows
-Everyone charge your phones, wash your windows, and eat and drink
-Talk about it instead of fighting
-Everyone should wash their hair
-Say nice words to people instead of mean ones
If you ever wondered what four-year-olds thought was important in life, there you go.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)