Getting into the Spring spirit

Willow and I had fun painting today. One of the things we did was finger painting pretty Spring trees. I took a few pics.

Look at those chubby little fingers :)

Here's Willow's pretty blossom tree.

If your children enjoy finger painting, you might want to check out Jill's blog. She makes the cutest pictures from just finger prints with her two children and always takes such pretty photos. I am so inspired by her! Also, take a look at the book I just purchased from Amazon. It's got lots of good ideas.

Prize Day

Now that Willow is 4 and a big girl, I have decided it's time to step up the chores she does at home. Up until now she has always just helped when I ask her to and she's great about doing that. But I think it's good to have consistency and routine.

I created a chore chart which contains her everyday chores and stuck it on the refrigerator. I used pictures along with the words because she is not reading. The chores include:

• Brush teeth
• Unload silverware in dishwasher
• Tidy shoes
• Clean room
• Help set/clear table

Once she completes each chore she puts a check mark in the corresponding box and at the end of the day, if she  managed to do them all successfully, she gets to put up a sticker. If not, she temporarily loses a toy. At the end of the week, if she made it with all her stickers she gets to pick a prize.

And for prizes, I went through my kiddie's activities books and wrote down some fun non-monetary things to do with Mom, Dad, or just by herself on pieces of paper. Then we folded them up and put them in a jar. When it comes to getting a prize, she just pulls out one piece of paper and I read it to her.

So far this has been having a wonderful affect. Her enthusiasm for doing chores is like I've never seen. But then it is still new. Yesterday, she chose her first prize and got: "make a special jellybean picture with Mommy". So that's what we did today. I thought it was a really fun thing to do with your kids so I decided to snap a few pics and share them here. I also think I may continue with this and put a 'kid's crafts' tab up the top. Whaddya think?

So here's how you make the jellybean picture. You just need a piece of card (I had some round cake boards which were perfect) and some foil to wrap over it.

Whip up some royal icing (which serves as the glue for the candy) with your helper and have him/her spread it over the board. Willow loved this part. 

Then just add colorful jellybeans to make a picture or design. You could use pastel jellybeans for Easter etc and make it a holiday craft. Some will, no doubt, get nibbled on as they are applied! And, of course, the whole thing (well, not the card and foil!) is edible, even once hardened.

You can make all kinds of things. We did a simple flower garden (thats a sun up in the corner!) and Willow made a delicious-looking candy pizza! "One for the picture, one for Willow ...."

Scrubbing can be fun!

What’s a fun and inexpensive activity you can do with your toddler on a rainy day that will keep them occupied for a long time AND make them feel like they’re being very useful?

Cleaning Pennies!

There haven’t been too many rainy days lately but it’s still something Willow likes to do when we have to stay home for whatever reason. And yesterday that reason was so Mommy could try to get ahead on all that housework I mentioned. And, just incase you’re wondering, I didn’t yet but I’m getting there!

So, pennies ….

You could start by having your children go hunting through every nook and cranny to try to find as many as they can (you could even hide a few to help them out!) and collect them all in a bowl. Once they think they have found them all, pour some water into the bowl and let them clean the pennies with an old toothbrush. If you really want the pennies to shine, add a little vinegar to the water.

Once Willow had cleaned her pennies, she put them in her little piggy bank which she painted before hand just for this reason. Next we have to count all the shiny pennies and go shopping for a toy!