Give each child a piece of paper. Let the children put their handprint on the paper. They can also decorate the paper any way that they want. Finally put their picture and name somewhere on the page and laminate it. Use the placemats during meals and snack for your children.
Give each child a piece of paper. Let the children put their handprint on the paper. They can also decorate the paper any way that they want. Finally put their picture and name somewhere on the page and laminate it. Use the placemats during meals and snack for your children.
Use a large piece of poster board. Add food coloring or paint to glue to correspond with the colors of Fruit Loops cereal. Then paint a rainbow on the paper with the glue. Then have the children sort and match the fruit loops and stick them to the corresponding colors on the rainbow.
Have children color coffee filters with washable markers. Have the children squirt the filters with spray bottles. Watch how the colors bleed and mix with each other.
Draw a tooth shape onto a yellow piece of paper or manila folder. Let your children paint with toothbrushes and white paint on the paper to clean the teeth.
Give your children magazines. Have them cut out people that are showing different emotions. Have them separate these based on their emotions and then make a collage with different sides of the paper representing different emotions.
Give each of your children small circles cut from wax paper. Have them glue on Q-tips in the rough shape of a snowflake with all touching in a middle puddle of glue. Sprinkle glitter onto the snowflake, and then let it dry for a couple of days. When it is dry you can peel it from the paper and you have a wonderful snowflake
Note: You can also use colored paper and let them leave it on the paper
Note: Add string before it dries to make the snowflake an ornament.
Make ice in a Popsicle mold. Sprinkle Kool-Aid or Jell-O on the child's paper. Let them use the ice Popsicle to push the powder around and create a really neat design.
Give each of your children three paper plates. Have them make a snowman smile and eyes with black Pom-pom's. Then have use the orange craft foam to make a carrot nose. Next fill in the spaces between the facial features with white cotton. Finally, glue the other plates to the bottom and add pom-pom buttons and small stick arms.
For a smaller snowman use Cupcake liners, or small plates.
Give your children a piece of paper with a snowman outlined on it. Have them lick marshmallows and then press them onto the paper to make a snowman, the marshmallows actually stick very well
This is a great recipe for playdough with an extra ingredient - Kool-Aid! By adding Kool-aid not only can you make your playdough different color, it smells wonderful! Give it a try - its easy and great fun!
Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1/4 cup salt
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 envelope Kool-Aid
1 cup water
1teaspoon vegatable oil
Mix dry ingredients in medium saucepan. Stir in water and oil. Stir over medium heat for 3-5 minutes untik mixture forms a ball in the center of the pan. Remove to a floured surface and knead for 1 minute (will be hot!)
Just mix corn starch and water.
It turns into a solid, but when you touch it, it becomes a liquid. It's a great sensory activity. This recipe works best with 1 part water and 2 parts cornstarch
Pour liquid tempera paint into ice cube trays or other containers.
Put craft or popsicle sticks in each compartment (they may lean a bit, but that's OK) Let set overnight in freezer.
Dip bottom of container in warm water to loosen. PAINT! Great colors and great fun!
Have your children cut two circles, one triangle, one large square, and one rectangle from the paper. They can then add the circles to the bottom of the square and the rectangle standing up on top of the square and the triangle pointy end to the square. Then let your children paint their train. This makes a cute train and lets your children see how different shapes can go together to form a unique shape.
What to do: Take a small square of wax paper and squeeze a small amount of glue in the center. Cut the three Q-tips into half and have your child place the cut ends into the glue touching to make a star shape. When the glue is dried peel off the wax paper, tie a string around one of the Q-tip ends and hang your snowflake.
Here are some simple steps parents and caregivers can take to prepare children for reading:
Help children become familiar with the letters of the alphabet: say them, sing them, and play with them:
Purchase magnetic letters, both lower and upper case. The refrigerator or dishwasher makes a great magnetic board. Cut pictures out of magazines and catalogues with your child to accompany the letters.
An alphabet jigsaw puzzle is a must. There are other fun alphabet games available from educational toy stores.
Borrow alphabet books from the library. Bookstores and garage sales are good places to buy alphabet books.
Play word games like “I spy with my little eye something that begins with ‘A',” or invent your own word game.
Help children develop their awareness of language by helping them to learn the sounds of language:
Read nursery rhymes to your child. Look in the 398.8 area of the children's section in your local library.
Listen to audiotapes with your child. The library has excellent audiotapes such as “Say the Sounds” (Ladybird) and “Musical Letters” (Hanwell and Sonne Production).
Introduce your child to “easy readers.” The library has many readers that help children learn about sound patterns and word families, including “Hop on Pop,” by Dr. Seuss, “Bears on Wheels,” by the Berenstains, and “Fat Cat Sat on a Mat,” by Nurit Karlin.
Read to your children!
This is the most powerful tool in language development. Language in books is different from everyday speech. It widens children's experiences because it is not in the “here and now.”
Reading aloud to your child develops an understanding of how books “work.” This is very important when he or she begins to learn to read for himself or herself.
Most of all, reading aloud is fun and rewarding. Don't stop when your child has learned to read. You will look back on reading to your child as some of the most enjoyable times of your life.
Have your children read to you!
Reading is hard work, at least at first when many of the words are unfamiliar. Spending special time on a parent's lap looking at pictures and working through the text is a great way to develop your child's interest in reading.
And your child may surprise you one night, as you are reading to her and falling asleep, by saying, “Oh, come on, Dad! Let me read!”
To be in your children's memories tomorrow, you have to be in their lives today. Anonymous
Parents need to fill a child's bucket of self-esteem so high that the rest of the world can't poke enough holes to drain it dry. Alvin Price
Children Learn What They Live - Dorothy Law Neite
If a child lives with criticism, he learns to condemn.
If a child lives with hostility, he learns to fight.
If a child lives with ridicule, he learns to be shy.
If a child learns to feel shame, he learns to feel guilty.
If a child lives with tolerance, he learns to be patient.
If a child lives with encouragement he learns confidence
If a child lives with praise, he learns to appreciate.
He a child lives with fairness, he learns justice.
If a child lives with security, he learns to have faith.
If a child lives with approval, he learns to like himself.
If a child lives with acceptance and friendship, he learns to find love in the world.
Sometimes we're so concerned about giving our children what we never had growing up, we neglect to give them what we did have growing up. James Dobson
The art of mothering is to teach the art of living to children. Elaine Heffner
Being a mother isn't simply a matter of having children. To think that is as absurd as believing that having a piano makes one a musician. Sydney Harris
Raising kids is part joy and part guerilla warfare. -Ed Asner.
An aware parent loves all children he or she meets and interacts with-for you are a caretaker for those moments in time. -Doc Childre.
If a child is to keep his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in. -Rachel Carson.
In the final analysis it is not what you do for your children but what you have taught them to do for themselves that will make them successful human beings. Ann Landers
