busy bags or boxes

I love the idea of busy boxes. The idea of busy boxes is having everything all ready for your child to do an activty when you need them to be busy because you are. I have not done it but I think I may try it. I have found it in a few different places. I wanted to put the links all together.
Play at Home Mom has busy boxes 
Intrepid Murmurings calls her's toddler and preschool activity bags
Chasing Cheerios also calls her's toddler activity bags and she has better bags to use in this post.
My Delicious Ambiguity calls her toddler busy activity bags
Tired and True has homemade stuff in hers
Money Saving Mom calls hers busy bags
The Princess and the Tot call hers the toddler busy bags
The View from 5'5" calls her quite time boxes and they each have a few things in them.
Mine for the Making has some great ones. She calls them busy bags.
Playing House calls hers busy box. They have a few things in each one so she has a little more time.

I think you could do a lot of different things the same way. Those site have good stuff to get you started.

Less Tv For Preschooler

The Ten Way to Watch Less Television

1. No TV Before lunch This one is hard for me. On the days I do it works great.
2. Listen to music The noise and fun of the songs has help Girlygirl not think about turning on the TV.
3. Read When the TV is off and Girlygirl needs something to do I stop what I am doing and read a book. It takes but a few minutes and is great for her.
4. Have your child help you It takes more time to have your child help you but they love it. Plus if they learn how to do it slowly when they are young and want to "they" say it is easier to get them to help later.
5. Keep toys cleaned up This may be easier for others but I feel often why clean it for her to just take the same thing out again. What I have learned is Girlygirl plays a lot longer in a clean house.
6. Have quite time for your child daily This gives you the time you need on your own.
7. Move toys around There are a few ways you can do this. You can switch them from the play room to bed room or keep some up and bring them from time to time. I do both. Toys in a new place are like new toys
8. Art and Crafts They break up the day and give the child something new to do. I do some planned but she has a book and now collage tray she can do whenever she wants.
9. Play with your Child
10. Teach your child to play on their own You can read my post on that here.

Let me know some ways you keep the TV from taking over your house.

Teaching Preschooler about the Bible

Teaching your preschooler about the Bible can be over whelming but we as Christians know we want your children to understand God's truth. Therefore teaching your preschooler about the Bible is important. There are a few things that I have done to teach Girlygirl about God's Word. Helping your preschool memorize Bible verses is easier than I thought. After joining Awana she has taken off. If you never heard Awana of it is a great program. I loved it as a child and now Girlygirl is having a great time in her first year. Girlygirl is doing great at remembering the verses. She even asked to do two in a week. I do few things to help her meet her goal. I have writen them on index cards and taped them on the door frame between our living room and dining room. This helps me see them easly to say them over and over through out the day. At first I say a word Girlygirl repets me. Then later in the week I say 2 to 4 words and Girlygirl repts me. I also turn the verse into a song and sing it with her (sometimes she loves it others she doesn't it.) By the end of the week I just say the first word and can say the whole thing on her own. I think she wouldn't try as hard if wasn't getting a patch for her Awana vest every few weeks. More about teaching your preschool about the Bible in the weeks to come. Today remember to help your child learn the word of God and hide it in their hearts.

Collage Tray

Girlygirl loves to glue. She often can be found sitting at her little table making a collage. It is great open end craft project and now is out and ready whenever she wants to do it. The great thing about collages is you can put to match a theme or just random things.

I just keep a store bought veggie. I just ask for it after the church potluck. Veggie tray are great for a few reasons. It is dived to keep the different things in there own place and has a lid. What I like best is if you get them from a potluck like it did it was free. Now here are some list I found of stuff to put in the Collage Tray. Earth Kids has a great list that can be found here. This list is almost the same but has a few different ideas.

Towel Time

In my last posted about things I do to teach Girlygirl to play on her own. Now I wanted to share what towel time looks like in our house and give you some idea of toys to give during this time. Where does towel time happen? Towel happens most often near me, where ever that is that is the great thing about it. This helps me make sure Girlygirl stay there and helps me to get to her fast if she gets of. I do not always stay in the same room but if I am down stairs then she is too if I am up stairs she is too (my house is tiny so it works out good for us). I just tell her we are going to do towel time. She doesn't like it at first some days. The longer it has been the hard it is for her. Should I do towel time with my kids at the same time? This summer when we had my friend's kids living here. Both of the little girls (Girlygirl and Little Sister) like to do towel time. They would do it at the same time often in the same room but not close enough to touch each other. It gave them a break from having to share and deal nicely with other. It also gave me time to have one on one time with one of the big kids also. What does Girlygirl get at towel time? Like I said before she gets a few books, her blanket, and a toy or two (may be a group of toys) What are the toys Girlygirl gets at towel time? There are a lot a different toys I give her. Some I keep put up for this time only others are out all the time and I just think she will like to play them more than she does. When it comes to picking toy pick things you know your child can do on their own and will like to play with. Here is a list of the ones we us most.

• Doll house
• Little People- most often the farm but some time another ones
• blocks-we a a few different kinds to choice from
• Fast food toys- I keep them in a drawer with the other toys and just give her the drawer
• Mr. Potato Head
• puzzles
• stacking cups
• Elmo ( like Mr. Potato head)
• Doodle Pro
• lacing cards
• doll with clothing, food ect.

Girlygirl is the only kid here with me right now and she has learned to play on her own because of this we don't do towel time much. Cheek out what Kimberly said in her post called Multi-level Homeschooling: Little Ones Part 2. It will be hard at first but remember your not in the entertainment business you are their mom and teaching them to depend on themselves from time to time will only help them as they get older. I'd love to hear how towel time or whatever you call it in your homes works so please share in the comments.

Preschools Playing on Own

Before I became a mom I learned that children need to be taught to play. Getting down and playing with your kids is important. Just as important is teaching your child to play on their own. I have done a few things to teach Girlygirl this. I am not good about have a set time for things but we use all these more as needed than daily.

• Towel Time-It is just like it sounds. Girlygirl sits on a towel and plays with toys I have given her. I put a few toys on the towel for her to choice from along with 2 or 3 books and her Nauna (her blanket) I set the time for 10 to 25 min. (I notice more than 25 min is too long).
• Room Time-She plays in her more for 30 min. I put up the baby gate and just let her play. She has about half her toys in her room and a lot of her favorites.
• Table Time-I have blogged about this before. I often start something with her and then let her do it on her own for 5 to 15 min. I will then come back and play with her again.

I even teacher she can do things on her own in our day to day interactions. I am not quick to help her. Even at a young age I would sit back and watch how she would do something I thought was too hard for her. Sometimes she would amaze me at what she could do. Other times she be proud of her work done "wrong". I have many pictures of her trying to put on clothing at 1.5 years old and it is all "wrong" but is was happy to do it herself. Encouraging words when she wants me to do it or if is get frustrated. I often tell her if she tries she can. Sometimes it works and she will do it others she just stops. In Elmo's Potty time the have a song about things being hard when you are learning. I will sign it to her. I also use words to tell her how. We gave her a V Smile for her birthday. It is a little hard for her. I will sit with her and tell her what to do. Like press enter the big orange one. When she does it she knows she can. Teaching your kids to do all they can gives them great self esteem. So let them do things on their own even if they don't like it at first they will. You are teaching them they can play and do things on their own.

Bean Bag Fun!!

Bean bags will come in handy again and again. Here are some ideas I have to get you started but they are a great open ended toy. Bean bags could lead to hours of play.

• Bean Bag Toss- toss the bean bags into a laundry basket, bucket, pie tin or other container. Once he has gotten skilled, make it more challenging by moving the container farther away. • Catch- with friend or by throw up in the air • Balance beam- place bean bags in a line on the floor and walk on them • Pillow- for doll or stuff animals • Balance-walk with a bean bag on your head. Too hard on the head try crawling with them on your back. • Game of hot potato • Practice colors- by talking about the colors or asking your child to bring you the _____ bean bag. • Counting- count the bags, have the child bring you ___ number of bags. • Juggle • Hit the can(s)- set up cans and throw beanbags to knock over the cans • Parachute flip- put bean bag(s) on parachute and flip up. (No parachute? Use a sheet or for a two man game a pillow case.) • Bean bag hide and seek- hide the bean bags all around the room or house for little on to find.

Bean bags have hours of fun in them to help to kill hours of boredom for us. To find out what others do to kill boredom cheek out Works For Me Wednesday "Mom I am bored" week over at We Are That Family. After your done remember to go play with your kids.

I re-use it!!

I know it is sad but I am not good at being Green. One thing I am good at is finding a new life for old stuff. Here is some things I reuse for our table time (Tot School).

Juice boxes I just started saving them. They are strong and it was the right size for the pens. I will be finding more uses for them I am sure.

I am sure we all reuse bubble wrap.(Girlygirl use to hate the noise but loves it now)

It is hard to see but that is one of Girlygirl's paintings made into cutting strips. I save the piece she cuts and give then to her to glue later. I have tried to let her cut and glue at the same time but it hasn't yet worked for her. Play-doh tubs work great for holding things on her trays. I also use the smaller one for sorting or with a small wet rag for painting (this keeps the water cup from making a mess). I save all our lids above she used the to glue below I traced and cut them out for her circle collage.The lacing card is made out of a cracker box and a painting Girlygirl did. I use old food tubs for lots of stuff to store stuff or to hold things on the tot tray. In this tub is cut paper and glue stick.

A cigar box become letter box.

Egg cartons are great. We us then lots we made Easter bunnies this year with them but no picture. Above: is was we use for counting. Below is pattern matching.The mail box is made from a tissue box.The jar is hold all kind of old stuff.We painted news paper hearts for Valentine's Day. I know I do reuse other stuff and I am do an other post about it someday. I just don't want this to be too long or is it too late. Anyways what do you reuse in your tot school or just with your kids?

Free: Table time/ Tot School Tools

As I was looking at blogs this morning I saw a few people use droppers for different things. Like the water transfer over at My Montessori Journey and marbleizing paper over at Chasing Cheerios. You can get free eye/med droppers from your Pharmacy. I have gotten them from Walgreen's without buying any meds. You just have to go ask. I ask for 3 and they just gave them too me. I have not done this because I got paint cups for $2 at a garage sale last year but Michelle over at Her Cup Overfloweth had a great idea to use Ice coffee cups as paint cups. Take a look here. Just some good ideas to have good cheep fun with your little one. As always remember to play with your child today.

An Other Great Blog

Today when reading Tot School. I was clicking around on the links on the blog and I found a new great Tot Blog. I think I will be getting new ideas for Girlygirl Tot School from ABC and 123. I will be looking around this site for a while and if I do like at much as I think I will I will be adding it to my links on the side bar.

Three Ways to Get Cheep Sand Toys

I was at Target to buy a gift Girlygirl always likes to look the toys and it is cute to hear her say, "I save money. Not Mommy's money. OWN!" Anyways we went down the lisle with the summer stuff. I was shocked at the price of the toys. So when I got home I thought I'd let all you know what I do to keep sand toys cheep. I would say spend the money to get one nice shovel for each child. I have noticed that with shovels it make a big differences. Other than that here are a few things I do.

1. The Dollar Tree has great cheep sand buckets. At least last year the did they are big and come with a shovel. (the big kids broke them a lot) 2. Save your plastic food tubs; butter, peanut butter, sour cream, etc. are great. The size are fun to making castle (at least for me) 3. A few years ago I had a ton of formula scoops. Whenever I brought them every kid that the pack loved them. I wish I saved more but I trying to get my sitters to save theirs. If you start save your stuff now your kids will have fun all summer at the beach, park or in the back yard sand box.

Remember to play in the sand with the kids they will like it more even if you have nothing. What is your or your child's favorite sand toy?

Mommy!! A Monster!! A Monster!!!

What do you for your little one who is scared for monsters? I have a few idea I have heard over the years and have been thinking about it a lot because Girlygirl is sure that monsters live in the dark.

• a scare light-this is just a flash light to shine and see what is there and scare the monster away.
• monster spray-can be just water or air freshener. I have heard that people make a new label with a monster with an x over him to make it look like it is the real stuff.
• a night light-if they can see what is there it may be less scary.
• a brave toy-with a little boy I baby sat in high school he had a loin that was brave and stayed on his bed to keep in safe. Any toy could work.
• pray-we pray that God will keep her safe and know that God is there with her.

What do you do to keep monsters away from your little on and keep your little one happy at night?

Top 5: Favorite Blogs

1. Preschool and Peace- Written by Kendra who is mom to eight children. I get a lot of encouragement from her. She has great tips to be a mom to young one.
2. The Crafty Crow- A great place to find ideas of thing to make with and for the kids. It is update Monday-Friday with great links.
3. 1+1+1=1 is written by Carisa. This is where I found Tot School which I love and she shares a lot about what her homeschooling life looks likes. She does a great job.
4. Totally Tots has many author and many ideas from its readers.
5. Chasing Cheerios written by Melissa. She shares a lot of great Montessori style ideas. I don't really have a style of teaching yet but I love her ideas and she does a great job of showing and explaining them.

Bonus site it is new blog and I am very excited about it so it may bump it off of my other top 5 soon. Homeschool Bright and Early written by Mother Bear who plans to post each day. I look forward to getting ideas from she. What is you favorite blog about preschoolers (ages 0-5)?

Memory Game With the Memory

Girlygirl has loved games this last week. We have a few and some have worked great for her but one that she could get was Memory. I didn't but the game away and say wait until she is ready. I just changed the rules. We played Letter Match. (our game is Sesame Street and ABC game) I laid the pieces face up and found the two that matched. Girlygirl had lots of fun doing this. It was a great way to talk about letters too. This didn't work with Girlygirl yet but worked great with a little girl I use to nanny. We used half of the pieces. That way it there was less choices and the game went faster. Both big when you are trying to do anything with a two year old. Play the game normally.

Remember to play with your kids today because playing is learning. What ever you play make it work for you.

Terrible Twos: Avoiding Tantrums

All moms with young kids know what it is like to tell their little one no or it is time to do something they are not ready for and the crying to start. Each child has different things that make them go into a tantrum but when they get there many of us don't know what to do. Lucky for me I got to learn things that worked as a nanny and teacher's aid long before I had Girlygirl. Here are a few of my thoughts about avoiding tantrums.

1. Give them a warning before it is time to clean up, go to bed or leave the house. Just telling Girlygirl in 5 minutes it is ______ works great. No she doesn't know when the 5 minutes are up but it helps her know that she will have to change what she is doing soon.
2. Try to keep your days the same most days. When changes will come in let your child know. On days we go out to do something Girlygirl and I talk about it. I am say "Today after we eat we have to get ready. We are going to go shopping today." That way she know we will not play for two or more hours after we eat.
3. Teach your child as young as you can to be able to play on their own. Don't run to your child every time they start to get mad wait a little bit to see what they will do even as a young baby.
4. Let your child help you do what you are doing. Girlygirl has a place she can come in the kitchen when I am cooking. If she does I try to find something she can do to help me or just talk to her about what I am doing. She has her own cleaning stuff to help when I clean. Sometimes I feel if she was not helping what I was doing would go faster but then the times I tell her no she ends up getting mad because she loves to be with me or making an other mess I have to clean.
5. Move your toys around. Even if you don't keep toys to rotate you can move the bed room toys to the living from or even to a new place in the room and the child will like to play with them more.
6. Don't have tantrums your self. If you get mad and yell when things don't go your way what makes you think your child will not.
7. Plan things to do each day. Your child will get broad if they are just left to play all day everyday. Some days of just all day free play is good but most days should be broken up with planned things. Bring out the play dough, have them sit at the table and play for at least 15 minutes a day, go outside, go do something, or make a craft just to name a few ideas.
8. Take time to play with your kids EVERYDAY. If they don't have to be be bad for you to stop what you are doing to talk to them they will enjoy you more.
9. To do this say what you mean and mean what you say. Don't say I am going to throw you outside if you don't stop yelling because you know you can't do that. Maybe say if you don't stop mom is going to put you in your room because that hurts my ears. Or if you say if you do that again I am going to spank you then when they do spank them. In the same way don't tell you child if they are good at the store you will buy them a candy and then not buy one when they are good or worse buy them one after being bad.
10. Teach your child your are the boss. We all have bosses in life and for now you are your child's. Tell your child , "I am the Mommy (or daddy or _____) you most listen to me." I have taught Girlygirl I am the boss. Sometimes now all I have to say is "Who is the boss?" Girlygirl will say "Mommy, Daddy". I say "Yes you have to do _____ because I am the boss."

Remember what you teach your child today is the steps to the whole life. I will be talking more about tanturms in the next few weeks. Come back to see my other thoughts.

Preschool Craft time: Coffee Filter Butterfly

Preschool Craft time: Coffee Filter Butterfly These are great fun but a little messy to make it. Step One: Gather 1 or 2 coffee filter(s) and 1 1/2 pipe cleaner. A cup of water, water colors paint and bushes. Young kids have fun using more than one brush. You may put down pager on table because paint does go through the filter. (I don't mind cleaning up the mess so didn't do this.) Step Two: paint the filters and let dry.

Step three: If using two filters put together. Then pinch mild together. (like in picture above.)

Step Four: Wrap the half a pipe cleaner (the are easy to cut with scissors) around where you pinched it. Step Five: Place the whole pipe cleaner through the pipe cleaner that is there. Fold in half and twist together. This is held to make the butterflies fly. Girlygirl loved that she made something she can play with.

New Ideas For Preschooler

I was looking at a book my sister has and I got new ideas I would like to try with Girlygirl. I love finding new things that I have not tried that will work for us to do at home. For snack time I found a great idea to had Animals in the Mud. All I need is animal cookies in chocolate fostering. Just have the animals standing in the fostering. I think I will be a good thing when we talk about animals. For art/craft time I got lots ideas. Some are more simple like; scribble bookmark, torn paper or fabric collage. A few will be made out of shoe boxes. Treasure box made out of a shoe box covered in construction paper. You can choice to decorate the box with stickers and by coloring. We will use it to hold all the treasures of a two year old and as she grows. Show box garage simply cut whole in front to fit toy cars in. Again you and decorate however you want. I am sure the kids will not care if it is just a box with a hole for their cars. Mail box is made just like the garage you can decorate or just cut a hole to get the mail. (I plan to make the mail box this week I will blog about it when we are done) Car wheel painting is a great and easy thing to do. Just get or make a shallow box make sure it is big enough to fit your paper. Roll toy cars in paint then in box. Or you can just put a few drops of paint in the box and roll the car around on them. I have never used a car but when I worked in a preschool we did it with balls it work it was a great hit. I found three other things I am not sure what category they'd be in. I still look forward to trying them. Falling ball tunnel (I think can work for cars too) you need a cardboard mail tube, a towel, cookie sheet and masking tape. To make the falling ball tunnel you roll towel and place on cookie sheet. Then place the mail tube long way on the cookie sheet with towel holding one end high on the other end on the cookie sheet. Tape all three together do not cover the holes. A cheep great game is what is in here. All you need is a pillowcase, tube socks and things to hide in the socks/ pillow case. There are two ways to play you can just put things in the pillow case and let your child play with them. They may dump the all out then put back in or just take out one at a time. The other way to play is to hide things in the tube socks and then in pillow case. The last sounds easy but I never thought of it. It is called laundry basket ball. It is just like it sounds you throw a ball in the laundry basket. The other idea was to use rolled up socks. I can't wait to play these with Girlygirl. Remember to play with your kids today.

teaching color with color bag

Back when I worked as a teaches aid the class had these cool color boxes from Lakeshore. I really liked them and when I wanted to start helping Girlygirl learn her colors I wanted to buy them. That is when I found out how much the cost. So when I was at a Thrift Store and fond canvas little bags I came up with the idea to make my own color bag for Girlygirl. I got 5 bags all white. It made a great art time for Girlygirl to paint the bag we just do one at a time. After the bag is dry I went around the house and looked for anything blue to add into the bag until the bag was full. Girlygirl loves the bags. Soon I will be teaching her to look and match the colors. We will have all 5 bags out and take all the toys out and she has to put each thing in the right color bag. I will let you know how this goes. Update: I found other home made color bags. I they are nicer than my done by the mom. Just thought I'd share my find. They made by PisecoMom over at Mind Games. Remember to play with your kids today. Playing is teaching

Allowance at 2

We give Girlygirl an allowance of $2/week. She will get a $1 raise each birthday. The money is not given to her for chores or anything she just gets it. As part of our family she gets money just as Sweet Dude and I both get $10 each week no matter what also. We do make her give 25 cents to savings and 25 cents to church. The other money is her to use as she wants. She doesn't really understand it yet but we like to start now and teach her little by little.

No Help

Girlygirl loves to do anything and everything she can with out any help. She got a great Christmas gift from a friend. It is a tea pot. She uses it very morning to pour her own juice. I also give her a cheese knife to put peanut butter on her toast. It not only saves me time but teaches her she can do it.