Activity Packs – Keeping the Kids Busy and Learning at the Same Time.

My 4-year-old is a very busy boy. He likes to be on the go all the time.  To avoid him getting into mischief if boredom hits, I have always carried a variety of activities and toys with us.

As school is fast approaching for him, I thought it would be good to create a few educational activity packs to play with.  I got the inspiration for the content from a visit to his new school.  So many great activities were going on in the prep classes.

Here is what I have created:

Sight Words

This activity helps children not only recognise letters but become familiar with sight words.

You can find printable lists and flash cards with sight words all over the net.  I used these ones from our state government website as they are written in the cursive font taught in Queensland schools. I printed each sight word onto coloured A5 paper and laminated them to create flash cards.  As there are 100 sight words, I have started with only printing 20.

I then purchased a heap of cheap wooden pegs and using a marker, printed the letters from each sight word onto the pegs.

I broke these 2o sight words up into 4 activities and placed them into large ziplock bags.

To play, Master O must peg the correct letter to each sight word flash card until he has created each word. The action of pegging the letter to the flash card helps develop his fine motor skills.

Colour Matching and Fine Motor Training

This activity helps children learn colours, their spelling, as well as develop their fine motor skills.

I cut out various coloured card and laminated them to create flash cards.  I printed each colour’s name on the card in permanent pen.

I picked up a bag of coloured match sticks, a container to hold them in and a pair of small  tongs from a variety store.

To play, Master O must pick up the matchsticks from the container and place them on the correct coloured flash card.  If I want to make things more difficult for him, I set up a stopwatch so he has to race the clock.  If he is feeling nimble, Master O can also use the tongs to place the matchsticks in patterns.

Master O thinks these activities are lots of fun and I love that they keep both his mind and body active. I have put together a few other activity packs, including some for my 18 month old that I will share with you soon.

Have a great day.

Documenting the Rhythm of My Children’s Day

My youngest is in a Kindermusik class.  We both love it.

Our unit is called ‘The Rhythm of My Day’ and so it was suggested that each parent put together a little book illustrating the Rhythm of our child’s day. What a great idea!  Not only is it a great book for them to read and look at now, it will be a great book to look back on as they grow older, to see how the rhythm of their day has changed.

So over the last week or so, I have been photographing the common place activities in my 18 month old’s day….the nap times, play times, teeth brushing, lunch, dinner etcetera.  I have also started to compile them in a scrapbook album I picked up for just a few dollars at Kmart. Even without my planned embellishments (I can’t help myself), it already looks great.

My 4 year old has also been interested in this project too.  Really, I shouldn’t be surprised.  Before he began Kindergarten, the centre gave him a picture book that outlined the ‘rhythm’ of a Kindergarten day.  He loved it and often recites the book as we drive to Kindergarten. When I suggested we make a ‘Rhythm of Oliver’s Day’ scrapbook, including pictures of him doing the activities, he was all for it.

Such a simple, yet fun, activity and keepsake.  I promise to share the completed books with you as soon as they are done.

Enjoy your day.

Know Your Feel Good Clean

The weekend has left the Crooked Household….well…..crooked. Today is one of those days, where you can see there are a million things that need to be cleaned, done and fixed, but you just don’t know where to start.  You know there is no chance that you will get everything done and the whole thing is making  you annoyed.

It’s on days like this you need to do your Feel Good Clean before you tackle anything else.  You know what I mean, the cleaning tasks that take little effort but show big gains.  The tasks that instantly make your house feel lighter, cleaner and less cluttered.  The tasks that make you feel better about your home.

Everyone’s Feel Good Clean is different.  If you haven’t really thought about what those cleaning tasks are for you, they are most probably the ones you rush to when you get a last minute house guest.

Today I thought I would share with you my Feel Good Cleaning tasks.

1. Vacuum. Since having children and all the floor mess that comes along with them, I have perfected the art of the quick vacuum clean. Heaven help the toy or child that gets in the way of Mum with the Dyson.

2. Mop. Again I have perfected the quick mop.  When I want fast results I use a microfibre mop head with just a spritz of water.  The floor is cleaned really well and it is dry and ready to walk on in a minute.

3. Make the beds.  Don’t worry, we always make the beds, but it is on my Feel Good Clean list as it instantly makes the bedrooms look neater.

4. Tidy the kitchen benchtops.  We have an open plan house so the kitchen is visible from the living areas.  By removing the everyday clutter – books, loaves of bread, dishes and appliances,  I feel the house is less cluttered.

5. Polish the dining room table.  Again, as we have an open plan house and a glass dining table, the sticky little finger marks from meal times are visible to one and all.

6. Straighten couch cushions and floor rug.  Nothing entertains my boys more than messing with the couch cushions and sliding about on the rug.  Straightening them will most likely last about 20 minutes,  but for those 20 minutes, my lounge room looks good.

7. Clean the windows. The rear of our house, the living area, is almost entirely made up of glass.  When I do a Feel Good Clean I choose one or two sections of glass and give them a polish.  You can read how I have made cleaning window’s easier here. Nothing makes me happier than looking out of my freshly cleaned windows.  Weird, huh?

I did all of these jobs in just over 30 minutes this morning.  I was a whirlwind, but at the end of it the house looked neater and I felt a whole heap better.

I also scored some bonus cleaning in that time by warning the kids I was about to vacuum and mop.  They instantly jumped into protection mode, packing away toys and parking them on their play mat. Score!

What are your Feel Good Cleaning jobs?

A Bedroom for a Dinosaur Loving Boy

It occurred to me the other day, as I was giving Master O’s room a quick tidy, that I hadn’t shown you all the changes we made in his room.

Towards the end of last year, as Master O’s 4th birthday loomed, we struggled to find him a present.  We really didn’t want to buy him toys as we knew he would receive more than enough as gifts from the family.  I really had no inspiration until I found myself staring absent-mindedly into a store window while waiting for my sister.  As she arrived and I turned to leave, I realised what I had been staring at…..the cutest range of dinosaur linen and accessories on a fantastic sale.  There and then I decided his present would have to be a dinosaur room makeover.

The day before his birthday party, while he was a daycare, I set about transforming his room.  Previously it had sported a nautical/pirate theme which I shared in these posts here and here, but this is what it looked like on the morning I started the transformation.

After a good clean up and rearrange, followed by the addition of  the new duvet cover, matching cushions and bunting, the room looked a lot fresher.

I added a few other nick nacks that suited the theme, like these cute bookends.

I had already added a padded cushion to the Trofast toy storage units to make a reading seat, but now I could see how well my colour choice matched with the linen. You can read about how I made the seat  here.  A little rearranging of the Trofast tubs I already owned enabled me to bring the colour green into this area of the room as well.

I had tried to purchase some artwork for the walls in time for his birthday but I couldn’t find anything that matched the colour scheme. Master O didn’t mind, he was chuffed with the transformation.  The walls remained blank until about 3 months ago when I returned to the linen store and found a matching dinosaur canvas in stock.

So with one wall decorated,  I thought I might have to make something for the other wall – but what?  On holidays last month I came across a stall that sold all manner of dinosaur cutouts,  2D and 3D.  The were amazing and so well priced that I had to be restrained.  I purchased 2 x 2D cutouts and after a bit of spray paint, attached them each to a canvas.  It was a such a simple art solution and they really do pop with their shiny bright orange paint.

The other purchase I made was 3D pterodactyl.  After a couple of coats, also in the bright orange paint, I attached him to the ceiling.  I was concerned that he might be a bit scary for a 4-year-old, woken in the middle of the night, but Master O has entrusted the pterodactyl with the task of keeping him safe.

So after stalling for nearly 4 months with the artwork, the room is pretty much complete now.  Master O received a couple a big dinosaur figurines for his birthday and Christmas that fit in perfectly with the colour scheme so they now reside on top of his Trofast unit and look very much at home.  We also picked up a hat stand shaped like a tree on sale at Target.  It is the perfect place to hang his Kindergarten and library bags when it is not some how involved in some imaginative dinosaur play.

This really has evolved into the perfect room for our dinosaur loving boy.  What are you favourite themes for little boy’s rooms?

Organising Medications – Revisit and Cold & Flu Preparations

Even the best organising systems need to be revisited from time to time.  Today I revisited how I store our medicines.

I keep our medicines in plastic storers in our laundry, away from little fingers.  You can read about how I organise these more fully here.  After a good think about how things work, I decided that I was happy to keep it  as is and just give everything a good tidy up.

Things were looking a little messy, especially in the Children’s Medicine and First Aid boxes.  Obviously when the kids are sick or hurt, I get frazzled and my desire for order flies out the door.

I took the time to check all the use by dates and collect all the out of date medications.

You should never dispose of medications yourself.  Here in Australia you can take old medicines to any pharmacy for them to dispose of properly.

As I returned items to their place, I wrote a list of things I needed to replenish.  I always like to keep a good stock of your basic medications like paracetamol, ibuprofen and anti-histamines on hand,  as a trip to the store is the last thing you need when you are feeling under the weather.

As it is coming into cold and flu season here in the southern hemisphere, I also took the time to pack a cold and flu attack box.  I wanted to gather up all the items, except pain meds, we use during those one or two weeks when the household is overrun with cold germs.  Rather than having these items spread between the first aid, children and adult medication boxes, I wanted them in the one spot and easy to access.  Some of the things I have moved into this box are:

• Plug in vaporizer and refill pads
• Steam vaporizer solution
• Inhaler
• Vapour rub
• Nasal decongestants
• Eye wash
• Thermometer

A few items on my cold and flu ‘To Buy’ list include:

 

• Throat lozenges
• Vitamin C and Zinc
• Antibacterial spray ( to kill flu germs on door handles, remote controls etc)
• Hand sanitizer

In putting together this cold and flu box, I might just have saved us from getting sick this winter.  Whenever I am prepared for the worst, it never happens. Ha – if only!

Do you prepare your household for flu season?

 

Easter Craft: Thumbprint Easter Egg Gift Cards

I came up with this cute card design to accompany my kid’s teachers’ Easter gifts.

The kids were able to get involved and we had a lot of fun completing them.  Give them a go yourself.

What we used:

Blanks cards – we purchased ours or you could make these from card stock

A variety of acrylic paints

Paintbrush

Coloured textas

Green paper

scissors

How we did it:

Taking the first colour, I painted each child’s thumb and got them stamping.  I directed the kids to stamp away from the very bottom of the card – you will see why later.

Before we used the other chosen colours, we washed and dried our hands.  This helped to keep the colours crisp.

Once the thumbprints had dried, we used textas to decorate the eggs and to add a greeting to the card.

Taking a strip of green paper, I cut out a zig-zaggy section of grass.

Using some glue, we secured the grass to the bottom of the card.  As we had positioned the thumbprint eggs further up the card, they appeared to be hiding in the grass.

And that is it.  Relatively quick and easy to make and they look gorgeous.

We have attached these cards to a bundle of mini eggs for each of the kids’ teachers.

As we had such a fun time doing this, I have dreamt up other uses for fingerprint Easter eggs. Tune in tomorrow to see them elsewhere.

Seaside Holiday

I haven’t been about the blog much the last week or so as we have been on holiday at the  beach.  Despite some very rainy weather and sick children, we were able to have some beachy fun.

The holiday was a great opportunity to get into the ‘Under the Sea’ theme we have been exploring, especially with a trip to Underwater World.  It was a perfect rainy weather destination!  Here are some pics

Ahhhh….shark. Master C was less than impressed

Shhh for the Seal Show

This weekend I am getting my Easter craft underway.  My youngest and I had such a lovely morning gathering all the little bits and pieces I need.  If all goes to plan, I should have some cute stuff to show you in the next week.

I hope you are all having a wonderful week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Organising Breakfast

Earlier this month I wrote about my New Year’s Resolution to make my days run more smoothly.  One aspect of my day that could be chaotic was breakfast.  Unlike everyone else in the house, I am not into the whole cereal and toast caper, a pain because they are about as easy and as quick to prepare as breakfasts come.  As I am a little fussier,  it was not unusual for me to miss breakfast, eat late or to end up scoffing my breakfast while completing some overdue task.

I decided that this year I really needed to sort the whole breakfast situation out for myself.  I needed to come up with quick, easy and healthy breakfasts.  After some consideration, here are some of my favourites:

Smoothies

A little while ago I thought it might be beneficial to try a smoothie for breakfast.  I like that it is something that can be taken with me if I am running late.  It is easy to carry around the house while I complete ‘must do’ tasks and is relatively quick to make.

To make the smoothie creation process faster, I went to the farmer’s market and stocked up on lovely fresh fruit.  I got this great box of mangoes for a steal…yum!

After cutting it all up, I popped 1/2 cup portions into little zip lock bags to pop in the freezer.  This way I always have fruit on hand, even out of season, and the frozen fruit makes my smoothies deliciously thick and cold.

I often add some LSA or 1/2 a Weetbix into the blender to help bulk it up and keep me full for longer.

Fruit Salad & Greek Yoghurt

It is not uncommon for us to put together a large fruit salad on the weekend and to pick at it over the course of the next two days . It is a great weekend breakfast, especially if you plan to eat out later in the day, as  it doesn’t keep you feeling as full as other breakfast choices.

Boiled eggs

On a Sunday evening I boil a bunch of eggs to keep in the fridge. If the shells aren’t cracked, they are safe to be stored 2-3 weeks. If I find I am really hungry in the morning, cutting one or two of these up and eating it on toast is a sure hunger-buster.

Keeping boiled eggs on hand is great idea.  They are a terrific snack on their own and a fantastic sandwich filler at lunchtime.  If your evening salad is looking a little ho-hum, pop some egg on top.

Pancakes

These aren’t the healthiest breakfast choice but sometimes they are just what you feel like.  There is no weekday morning when whipping up a batch of pancakes is possible for me.  So, when I make pancakes as an after dinner treat or weekend morning tea, I increase the mix and cook a few extra to freeze.  More often than not, they get consumed by the kids as a quick morning tea option, but they have proved once or twice to be a great ‘grab and go’ breakfast option for me.

To freeze your own pancakes, I suggest letting them cool completely before layering baking paper between each pancake.  I freeze these in individual potions in ziplock bags.

A little while back I found a fool-proof, easy to remember pancake recipe with just 3 ingredients.  It doesn’t add sugar and always yields amazingly fluffy pancakes.  I will share it with you soon.

So there are some quick and easy breakfast ideas that are really helping streamline my morning routine.  I’d love to hear your favourite breakfast ideas, tips, ticks and recipes.

 

 

 

 

Easy (and Tasty) Muesli Slice

With the school year about to start Downunder, I had to share this easy and delicious muesli slice recipe a friend passed on to me last week.  It is ‘no bake’ and can be easily altered to nut-free.

Muesli Slice

• 1 cup  desiccated coconut
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup unsalted peanuts 
• 1 cup sunflower seeds
• 1 cup sesame seeds

Toast these either on a tray in a 200 degree celsius oven, or in a pan over a medium heat.  Stir frequently.

• 125 g butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup honey

Melt these ingredients in a saucepan or in the microwave.

Mix the dry and wet ingredients together.  Press into a slice tin. Refrigerate, then slice.  Store in fridge.

To make this slice suitable for my son to take to his nut-free childcare centre, I replaced the peanuts with sultanas.  You could replace the nuts with any mixture of dried fruit you wish, or up the quantities of seeds.  I have used rice malt syrup instead of honey to good effect too.

I hope you give this ago. I am sure you will enjoy it.

Shared with The Organised Housewife

Creating a Smoother Day – Morning Routine

Previously, I had written about my New Year’s Resolution to make my days run smoother.  I realised the key to success would be my morning and evening routine.  Last week I listed some of the tasks that I included in my evening routine to ensure my following day started off on the right foot.  Today, I thought I would share with you my morning tasks that ensure that the rest of the day runs smoothly for me.

• Go for a walk – This is the first thing I do every morning.  I find I feel a lot more energised and ready to face the day after a walk

• Drink a glass of warm lemon water – this gets the fluid intake going early in the day and the lemon aids all sorts of things such as digestion and the immune system

• Unpack the dishwasher – as the dishwasher was run while I was sleeping, the dishes are dry and washer is then ready for dishes used throughout the day
• Do any last lunch box preparation and packing
• Unload the washing machine – the cycle, set on timer the night before,  finishes just as I am returning from my morning walk.  While I am happy to wash clothes, I loathe hanging them out and bringing them in.  This is hubby’s task.  Until he reliably remembers that each morning there is washing to hang up, I unload the washing machine and place the full clothes basket in the hall so he can’t miss it.

• Make the beds

There are also things on the ‘not to do’ list as well.

• Turn on the television 
• Hop on the computer to check emails, Facebook etcetera
• Be side tracked by non-urgent tasks (usually cleaning tasks).  They can wait till later.

By completing this small list of tasks, I immeasurably improve the running of the rest of  my day.  I have still left ample time in the mornings to have a play with the kids, eat breakfast, shower and dress for the day in a very civilised fashion.

Between the morning and evening tasks, things are running relatively smoothly in the Crooked Household.  Far less flying by the seat of our pants moments!