Move: Berry Picking Near You!

A

Sweet,

Juicy,

Yummy,

Special

Kind of

Fun

For All!

To find a place to pick berries near you, visit http://www.pickyourown.org.

Have fun!

Music: Musical Glasses

A little water.

A little food coloring.

A little practice.

A BIG smile!

Make: Rainbow Fish and Sharing

Sharing. If that word suddenly induced a somewhat sick feeling in your stomach, you're not alone. Teaching our children to share is not a fun lesson...for mom or child! The Rainbow Fish, by Marcus Phister is a great way to introduce (or reiterate, for the 435th time) the value of this virtue. After reading the book, and working through some of the content with your kiddo, you can lighten things up with this fun craft...

Step 1. Draw something resembling the shapes above on the back of a paper plate.

Step 2. Cut out the shapes that you drew, and lay them out around another paper plate to make sure that all fins are going the right way, and are the desired size. Notice that the tail is actually face up (which is why I put a star on it in the Step 1 picture).

Step 3: Designate the left side of the plate as the face, and let your little one color that area blue...my buddy got a little carried away when I wasn't looking! :)

Step 4: Cut out small pieces of tissue paper and aluminum foil.

Step 5: When working with glue, I like to use a paintbrush to spread the stickiness. This keeps tiny fingers nice and clean, and makes a more even workspace. Apply paper and foil pieces to all areas of the fish, except the head and lips.

Step 6: Staple the pieces together, add an eye (we used a googley one), and trace the lips and head with a black marker.

Step 7. TA DA! Your kid will now willingly share with a smile! Okay, maybe not. BUT, at least you now have a visual reminder to hang in her room, of why she might want to!! :)

Mid-Week Laugh Giveaway!

If you've got a mom-friendly, funny story,

you've got a chance to win a VERY FUN book!!

To Enter:

1. Commit to being a FunMom by clicking Follow in the sidebar.

2. Type up your story (any length) and send it to emailfunmom@yahoo.com

Deadline: Tuesday, June 15th

Prize: The Preschooler's Busy Book

Good luck!

Move: Backyard Fishing

The smile on my little boy's face was priceless when I tiptoed into his room this afternoon and whispered,

"Wake up honey...we're going fishing in the backyard!"

No, we do not have a pond, or a creek, or even a large puddle in our yard (at least not one that's supposed to be there). BUT, we do have a baby pool and a hose. And, actually, a large bucket would have worked too. Here's what else you'll need to get that same smile from your little one...

1. Foam Sheets:

I folded these in half and cut them into the shape of fish. You can easily draw on the foam (if you want to), and can use the first one you make as a pattern for the rest. I did this while my kiddo was napping, but an older child would probably enjoy practicing their scissor skills on this fun, squishy material.

2. Magnets

Once the fish are cut out, add a magnet to the front and back. You can do this with a type of adhesive if you prefer; we just let the natural magnetic pull work it's magic!

3. A Dowel Rod (or Stick) and String.

Tie the string to one end of the fishing rod. Secure it with a few good knots, and make sure the string doesn't hang too low. Remember that your fishing buddy probably isn't quite as tall as you.

4: Couple More Magnets...

Splay the end of the string so that it is as flat as possible. Again, feel free to use a strong adhesive if you have it. My super glue seems to only come out easily when I don't want it to (which usually induces a minor panic attack), so I used the same technique that I did on the fish...natural magnetic attraction.

5. WATER!

Here are a few games that we played:

Catch Color Matches

Catch Biggest

Catch Smallest

Catch and Count

*Be careful when "releasing" caught fish. Magnets will come off of fishing line if pulled too quickly.

**After your little one is done fishing in the backyard, remove the magnets for fun bathtub fishy friends.

Munch: Edible Aquariums

A yummy, fun afternoon snack for kids...of all ages.

Ingredients:

Cheerios

Bran Cereal

Graham Crackers

Goldfish (or Swedish Fish)

Cream Cheese (or Frosting)

Food coloring (blue and green)

Step 1: Mix the cream cheese (or frosting) with blue food coloring. This is your water.

Note: We used cream cheese, but will use frosting next time...you decide, but I vote that the frosting is definitely worth the calories and sugar!

Step 2: Mix the bran cereal with tiny bit of water and green food coloring. This is your underwater plant life.

Step 3: Time to Decorate! Spread your water onto a large graham cracker and then add fish, plant life, and water bubbles (cheerios).

Let your kiddo decorate their own aquarium, and they'll get creative before your eyes (this is Landon's).

Munch: Chocolate Bird Nests

We've been keeping an eye on these little ones in our yard over the last few weeks, and their constant hunger inspired us....

Here's what we used:

Shredded Wheat Cereal

Yogurt-Covered Raisins

1 Cup of Peanut Butter

1 Bag of Chocolate Chips

Muffin Tray/Muffin Liners

First, we melted the PB and chocolate together, and added the crumbled cereal.

Then, we stirred it all together.

We put heaping spoonfuls into our muffin tray.

Wetting our fingers helped make a neat little indentation in the middle of each nest, and then I popped the whole tray into the fridge for a few hours.

When the nests were nice and sturdy, we added a few sweet, yummy little "eggs" (yogurt-covered raisins) to each one.

Now it's time to feed the hungry little mouths in my own nest. Mmm!

Music/Make: Rain Sticks

As I'm writing this, I'm listening to the pitter patter of raindrops on my roof. Maybe God's answering my little boy's bedtime prayers (see last picture).

Here's how to help your own kiddo make a rain stick:

Step 1: Mom, use a small nail to poke holes in a paper towel roll.

Step 2: Mom, insert plastic toothpicks in one hole and out another. To get the desired sound, make sure that your toothpicks are going all different ways (including slanted) through the roll.

Step 3: Mom, this may sound crazy, but next I heated my accupunctured-looking paper towel roll in the microwave for about 35 seconds. This made the plastic toothpicks flexible. I then slowly bent the pokey parts down (or up) and covered them with a good amount of masking tape. It's not a big deal if they snap off; the toothpicks just stay in place better with the sides bent and taped. Just make sure that any sharp pieces are covered with a lot of tape!

Step 4: Mom, cover one of the ends with a piece of wax paper. Next, cover the wax paper completely with tape. I did a criss-cross method, which seemed to work really well.

Step 5: Mom and Kiddo can now work together to wrap the rain stick like a mummy. This was actually really easy! Just attach the end of the tape to the stick and start turning it (the stick). The whole instrument will be covered in no time!

Step 6: Let your little one add the rain! We used dried beans, pasta wheels, and broken pieces of spaghetti.

Step 7: Work together to cover the open end the same way that you did in Step 4. Landon held the wax paper while I taped.

Step 7: Color the rain stick! Paint won't adhere to masking tape very well (I know you're disappointed), but crayons will work great!

Step 8: Teach your child how to slowly turn the rain stick to make it sound authentic.

Step 9: Snuggling one's newly treasured rain stick while sleeping, is optional. :)

Note: Just a head's up, the mom prep work on this project took me about 20 minutes (steps 1-4). Landon and I usually do our "Special Time" right after his afternoon nap so that I can gather and prepare materials while he's sleeping. Just an idea that works for us.

Made you Laugh: A Sticky Situation

True Story: Tuesday 6/1/10

Let me start this by saying that I'm not an overly germ-conscious person. I don't ask people to take their shoes off in my house, I only clean my bathrooms once a week, and I buy dry shampoo more than I buy the regular kind. Everyone has their limits though, and this afternoon, even my skin was crawling. Here's what happened...

Landon and I had a whole list of errands to run. We'd been to the library, the church, the post office, the ice cream store (there's got to be some reprieve!), and the tractor store. The last stop was a bit of a discount-for-good-reason clothing store where I was hoping to find some comfy, very affordable t-shirts that I could wear to do yardwork. Landon was being such a good boy! He pointed out a few interesting options for me, didn't say anything overly embarrassing when we encountered some very unique people, and sat patiently in the cart while I sifted through maimed, torn, and stained pieces of clothing. Finally, with a few possible options thrown over my arm, we headed to the dressing rooms. I hung my items on the hooks available and glanced at my watch. Realizing we should already be home for naptime, I hurriedly began trying on the slim-pickings that I had found. Yes to this one...Wow! Definitely NO to that one! Uhhh...not sure. I'll have to think about it...

See...I was in my I'm-running-late-mode (which, you may have realized by now, happens far too often) and so I didn't realize what my sweet, content, but WAY too quiet little boy was doing until he very happily said..."Mama! Look!! I found some stickers on the wall!" I struggled to quickly push my mop of yes, unwashed hair through a t-shirt that unfortunately was at least one size too small, to see horrifingly that Landon did indeed have two new stickers proudly displayed on his own t-shirt. I covered my mouth, shocked, as I got eye level to them. Worn and pilled already they said,

Swimsuit sanitation pad. Please remove before wearing.

Move/Make: Nature Pictures

Go out and explore!
Come in and create!

Step 1: Take a nature hike. Let your little one collect anything that catches his/her eye.

Step 2: Older kids can draw their own scene on a large piece of paper. I drew Landon's for him.

Step 3: Using glue, your child can attach their nature walk treasures to their picture! Add markers, stickers, yarn, etcetera to make a seasonal masterpiece.

Step 4: We hung our picture on the fridge to enjoy the springtime shades of green!

*Hooray...this activity was FREE!