Color Sorting Beads

We've been doing color sorting activities for so long that this is very easy for my daughter, but it's still great for working the mind and for some quiet time and an activity she can do all on her own. She loves to sort! Her fine motor skills and color recognition skills have been great for a long time now because of activities just like this. I highly recommend this and my other fine motor activities for honing those fine motor skills.

For this color sorting activity we used beads of various colors and a mini muffin tin. All I had to say was "sort these" and she got right to work. When she was younger and first starting out with color sorting I would use fewer colors and put one of each in the spaces I wanted her to put them. You can try that if your child needs assistance. While they sort you could talk about which colors are which if they aren't sure yet.

We only had one green bead and one yellow bead in the mix. My daughter said "that pesky green bead" and it really made me laugh! Hopefully you and your kiddo have fun with this activity as well. It'd be great for a tot tray.

Josef Albers Inspired Art Squares

Firstly, I would like to make it known that I'm not taking credit for this idea. It was something my daughter got to do at our local library. I'm pretty sure it was an idea given by a book about Josef Albers art, but the librarians may have came up with it, and they put it together. I'm not really sure, but it was way too good of an idea not to share.

If you're not familiar with Josef Albers you should read up on him on the internet with your child, or see if you can rent a book about him from your local library. He used a lot of different colored squares for his art works, putting them together all different types of ways. He noticed how colors look different when placed on top of other colors.

I think this is a FANTASTIC color lesson for kids already have all their colors down. For those that don't, you can use it to teach them what colors are what too of course. But if you can really get your child thinking about how colors look on top of different colors that's so great!

You'd need to provide:
- A large sheet of white paper
- Big squares of several different colors of construction paper (enough to fill up the entire sheet of white paper, using every color just once)
- Little squares of the same colors of construction paper (the same amount as the big squares)
- A glue stick

Let them play around with it for a while until they get the design they love and connect with. Have discussions about how certain colors "pop" when placed on top of other colors, or how they "blend in." Good color terms to get kids familiar with. Once they have a design they like they can glue it down, or you can just glue down the big squares and leave the little squares paper clipped to the top to do over and over again.

Fine Motor Valentine's Cards

Valentine's day is right around the corner, and when your little one has lots of loved ones in their life it's best to get started on the Valentine card making early so in case they only want to make a few at a time there's no rush. However, when making these Valentine's cards your kiddos will probably want to go on for quite some time. I know mine did! 

These are great for fine motor skills, fun for kids (since every little one I know LOVES stickers), frugal to make a lot of, and cute cards that people will love receiving 

All you need to buy is two things from the Dollar Tree: a pack of construction paper, so you can use the red paper, and a package of different colored and sized craft foam heart stickers. Your little one will use their fine motor skills to peel the papers off the craft foam so they can stick them to their paper. They will be creative while they design the Valentine's any way they want. This is a time to praise them for their creativeness and efforts to make cards for other people. We made a list of who we needed to make cards for first so we could keep track and also because I wanted my daughter to think about who she was making each one for as she was making them.

Like I said I let my daughter get creative and design these however she wanted without intervening because they were her cards she was making for her loved ones. We do plenty of educational activities at all other times. However, if you want to work on colors, numbers, big vs small, patters, etc. you could use these hearts to do so with conversation while making them.

Here's how the ones she made turned out. I think they are so creative and beautiful. 

You can see I cut the pieces of construction paper in half as to make more cards, make our hearts go farther, and it just seemed nicer to send that size so people could put them on display easier. I also used a few pieces of pink printer paper that we had lying around in addition to the red construction paper so she could have options.

Strawberry Chia Seed Pudding

Here's a super quick make ahead breakfast for even snack for your preschoolers lunch that you prepare the night before. It's super healthy and will give them (and you, I love this stuff) a natural energy boost. 

Ingredients:

- 1/4 cup chia seeds

- about 5 big organic strawberries, plus 2 more for adding in later

- 1 cup of almond milk

- 1 tbsp organic honey

Put the milk and 5 strawberries into a blender and blend it until the strawberries are all blended into the milk. Pour the strawberry milk into a bowl and then add in the honey and the chia seeds. Stir together, then plop in the dices of the other 2 strawberries. Cover and put in the refrigerator overnight. It will be a delicious pudding by morning. 

List of 29 Christmas Books to Buy!

I know some people like to get a lot of Christmas books and give them to their kids each night to unwrap, and some people like to get one for the Christmas eve box or whatever. Our elf gets out all our books when he comes. Some Christmas books to think about purchasing before the next Christmas rolls around:

1. Christmas Is Together-Time by Charles M. Schulz
2. Hallmark Stories of Santa: Up on the Housetop/Jolly Old St. Nicholas (A Storybook of Two Beloved Santa Claus Songs) by Benjamin Russell Hanby
3. that's just our Elf on the Shelf book that comes with the elf
4. Shrek The Halls by Catherine Hapka
5. Christmas Every Day by W. D. Howells
6. The Best Smelling Christmas Book Ever by Laura Rader
7. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (Little Golden Book) by Rick Bunsen
8. Merry Christmas, Rugrats!: Rugrats Christmas Lift-The-Flap by Kitty Richards
9. Llama Llama Holiday Drama by Anna Dewdney
10. Frosty the Snowman Big Golden Book by Suzy Capozzi
11. 'Twas The Night Before Christmas. There's a ton of versions, find one you like!
12. Madeline's Christmas by Ludwig Bemelmans
13. A Gift From Sofia by Elizabeth Bennett
14. Arthur Decks the Hall (Nifty Lift-and-Look) by Marc Brown
15. The Twelve Days of Christmas. There's a ton of versions, find one you like!
16. Olive, the Other Reindeer by Vivian Walsh
17. Baby Kermit's Christmas (A Jim Henson Muppet Press Book).
18. My First Words Christmas. You can find this at Yoyo-books.com
19. The Power Puff Girls 'Twas the Fight Before Christmas by Laura Dower
20. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Shaped Board Books (Set of 2) on Amazon
21. Sesame Street C Is for Celebrate Board Book on Amazon
22. We have that Christopher Pop-In-Kins book from a Santa we saw at the mall, I guess it's another Elf on the Shelf type of thing.
23. Slide and Find Christmas by Roger Priddy
24. Christmas in Snowy Forest: A Muppet Lift-the-Flap Book by Alison Inches
25. The Berenstain Bears Meet Santa Bear by Stan Berenstain
26. Christmas in the Castle Disney Princess Pictureback with Flaps) by RH Disney
27. My Little Pony: Holly, Jolly Harmony by D. Jakobs
28. Doc McStuffins Jingle Bell Doc by Sheila Sweeny Higginson
29. Penguins! Holiday Parade Shaped Board Book by The Clever Factory on Amazon

Spinach Muffins

Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup pureed organic spinach
- 1 tsp all natural vanilla extract
 - 2 brown eggs
- 1/4 cup coconut or sunflower oil
- 1/2 cup of organic cinnamon applesauce
- 2 cups of white unbleached flour
- 3/4 cup raw sugar
- 2 tsps baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt

All you need to do is steam the spinach and puree it, then add the next 4 ingredients into the blender as well and keep pureeing until they're all mixed together. Meanwhile, put the remaining ingredients into a bowl and mix them together. Add the ingredients from the blender into the ingredients in the bowl and mix them together until they are just combined. Fill muffin tins with liners up 2/3 of the way full and bake at 350 for 15-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

It's so fun and educational to have your kids help out in the kitchen as well. We did this as a preschool baking lesson.

Marshmallow Transfer Tot Tray

As part of our Arctic theme this week we did this fun tot tray!

First off, how cute are those polar bear pajamas? Charlie got them as a gift from her great grandma and they are just perfect for this themed week. 

So, we got out the blue tot tray, some cool colored bowls, and some clear plastic tongs. These tongs were sold in a pack with quite a few of them. I'm not sure if they were from Dollar Tree or if I had found them somewhere else. 

I filled up one bowl with marshmallows and then instructed my daughter to transfer them to the other bowl with her tongs. This is a practical life skill that's good for fine motor. My daughter's fine motor skills are honestly so great and have been for a while now from doing these activities. I keep her doing them just because she finds them fun and I think they are educational and like I said it's a practical life task. As a reward she got to eat a few of the marshmallows!