Problem and Solution: Unwanted Behaviors

 

Problem: Killian has had some new, unwanted 3 year old behavior issues. Mostly, it's some attitude- 3 year old attitude. And discipline has only created sadness between the two of us. If you've heard this constantly: Ok, I won't do it again. Only to have your child turn around and do it again, you know what I'm talking about. SO.. instead of punishing the WRONG behavior, I decided I wanted to reward the correct behavior. After all, if he keeps practicing the correct one, the wrong one will disappear.

Solution:  I created a "good-boy" book. I have all the behaviors I want from him. After looking at it, I realized that it's quite a lot that I except, and I can understand that he's having a hard time remembering it all.

When I showed him the book, he got VERY excited, and did all the things that I have in there. (I actually forgot putting on his own clothes/shoes/coat). He often looked through it, trying to figure out what he could do to get a sticker.

We've both LOVED this! I can't wait to see what he thinks when he gets his prize :) (PS, if you want to use this, the dashed lines are the one you cut, the solid lines you fold. Then staple them together into a book.

Upcycled and Embellished Airplane Shirts

This week I have 2 more airplane shirts for any little airplane-loving boy (or girl) out there!

The first one is up- cycled. I have gotten tons of clothes from my aunt, as well as clothes from craigslist and rummage sales. They are perfect for up-cycling or embellishing. For this one, I decided to take a long-sleeve striped TURTLE NECK (come on, they just aren't in fashion anymore) and a plain gray short-sleeve shirt (nothing special) to make a very cute, unique layered long sleeve T.

Here's how it went down:

First, I took the t-shirt and used freezer paper to iron on an airplane stencil. (I hand-drew the airplane, but you could find a clipart picture on line if you'd like). It was super simple to paint blue.

**Please excuse the fact that you can see the white lines in this picture. I forgot to take one without them. :(

Once that dried, I used the bleach pen to draw the lines to the airplane. I put it on pretty thick, and it soaked through. Know that it spreads, so your lines won't be perfect (but hey, that's the fun!)

I let it dry for about 1 hour. I kept checking to see when it was white enough for me. **Side note- put newspaper under the top before you do this, or it'll leak through to the back of the shirt as well!***

After it was bleached the way I wanted, I washed the bleach off and let the shirt dry.

The final step was to cut the arms off of the turtle neck. I measured the shirts (put one on top of the other) and cut off the sleeves so it was about 1 in. longer than I wanted. That's for sewing.

With my sewing machine, I simply sewed the sleeves into place. It took about 15 min. for the two sleeves!

And TAH-DA!! An adorable airplane shirt that cost about 4.00 to make, and my son LOVES it. 

 

 

In fact, I only put it on him for the photo shoot- He'd never worn it before, and he wouldn't take it off! He decided that he liked it that much. :) Luckily it happened to match his pants for the day. 

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The second shirt wasn't up-cycled. It was embellished.  I actually bought this shirt from Old Navy- Just plain blue polo. 

But I had a vision!

I used freezer paper to paint on the airplanes:

After they were dry, I again used the bleach pen to add lines:

 

As you can see, I also painted on white on each airplane with fabric paint and a paint brush. Using a black fabric marker, I outlined each section as well. Finally, I sewed on buttons. 

 

Killian has yet to try this one on.. so I don't have any pictures yet. But I'll put one up as soon as he does.

And that's all for today- two different airplane shirts with a little work and creativity. :)

Friday Fun Day- Chicken Soup Recipe

Today I have a Chicken Soup Recipe for you that will knock your socks off! Literally- It's so warm you won't need your socks on a cold winter day. :)

I started with chicken stock. I make my own whenever I have a whole chicken. I freeze the broth in ice cube trays, but you can use store bought broth as well:

 

I added chicken (again, I froze extra chicken whenever I had a whole chicken. Then I defrosted it for the soup). I also added parsley, onions and carrots. These are all from my garden, which I froze. I really love this soup, because I get to use all my garden food in the middle of winter!

I also added some spaghetti. I broke it up into little pieces before adding it.

 

I stuffed it all in the pot:

 

I let it boil/simmer for 1.5 hours!

 

It's VERY delicious, can be frozen and makes a cold day warm and cozy. :) :)

Winter Art- Fun with Toddlers

I'm a little late with my Thursday posting, and I apologize! I'll have Friday's toss-up post up at 8 am (It's going to be a yummy recipe!)

But here's Thursday's post: Winter Art

If you live anywhere where there's snow on the ground, getting outside to play can be tedious. Getting on all the snowpants, boots, hats and mittens. However, here's something that's fun to do once you get out there!

Make art in the snow! Take an empty spray bottle (you can buy one at the dollar tree if you don't have one handy), put in water and food coloring. It's lots of fun if you have 4 or more different spray bottles with 4 or more colors. If you go this route- go with the primary colors (blue, yellow and red). Then let your boy or girl discover how to mix colors to get new colors!!

You spray the snow with the colored water and TA-DA! Winter art! Older children can actually try and create something in the snow or even write their names. Younger children might just like to color the snow. :)

Once they're finished coloring, play games with the colored snow. Hop/jump from patch to patch of colored snow. Make a snowman using the colored snow. Throw a ball or bean bag at the patches and try to hit it. You could create a baseball diamond with the colored water and play baseball- the colored snow is the different bases.

Have fun outside and enjoy the snow!!

Organizing Your Child's Art

 

Every mother and father knows this: Once your child is over the age of 1.5, they start creating art work. Beautiful artwork, but also TONS and TONS of art work. I hated throwing it out, so I kept it in a small file. However, once he hit the age of 3, the art work started piling up! 3-4 pieces were being done every day! It became a little overwhelming. 

SO... I decided to store it in a nicer way. 

I bought a 3-ring binder. I took paper and 3 whole punched it. I inserted the paper:

 

Then I glued or taped his art work in there. Sometimes I kept cute things that he just signed or drew a picture on:

 

I also put in some clear sleeves so that anything he made that can't be glued down (like this elephant trunk hat) can still be kept in here:

 

One nice thing about this binder is that it has pockets. So the little books he started coloring/writing can fit nicely in:

 

Lastly, I took a piece of his art, and glued it to the front to make it look nice:

 

And added words:

 

Sometimes I use his art for crafts (like thank you cards)- and I'll show you how to do that another day. :)

That's it- Keeping your house organized one day at a time. 

February's Preschool Curriculum!!

It's here! Well sort of... half of it's here. I have the first two weeks of February's Curriculum done.. AND it's free this month!!!

Try it out and see if you like it! It's FULL of ideas and print-outs to try. There is work that goes into it, but if you're serious about educating your preschooler at home, it's work. :)

Please let me know anything you'd like changed- formatting wise.

I'm also adding assessment pieces- Assess your child so you know which activities to really do, and which you could skip if you run out of time.

ENJOY!

Alright!!

I decided to put my curriculum on my etsy shop. 
I couldn't add a PDF to blogspot :( My curriculum is .20 on etsy- still super cheap! :)

Problem and Solution: Grocery Store Madness

Time for my weekly problem and solution.

Problem:
Whenever I took Killian to the grocery store, he was well behaved (relative mind you, he is 2) most of the time. However, I made the mistake a while ago of letting him eat the food we were purchasing before we purchased it. This became part of the routine, and Killian eventually was wanting to eat EVERYTHING we bought. So I thought, how can I make grocery shopping more educational and exciting for him, so he wouldn't want to eat so much, AND he was learning to help me?
Solution:
I created a simple 5 item grocery list for Killian to have. He was in charge of finding these things and putting them in the grocery cart.

As you can see, I have the numbers, pictures and words. Killian's beginning to recognize numbers and he just started realizing that words mean ideas. So this became an educational experience. I'd ask him what the 3rd item on the list was, and he had to look next to the 3. In addition, he "read" the words to me. MAN was this a hit. He was so helpful, going over his list again and again to make sure we had everything. Of course, I made sure I put the items in the order that we'd see them (I know our grocery store by heart of course). I made a template of the list blank, so I can fill in the pictures and words for each grocery shopping experience within a couple of minuets, and we'll be good to go. I might actually give him a few more items to find as well, as he started to get anxious to find the yogurt when we were only half way through the store.

So there you have it. A simple way to give your child responsibility, while educating them, and stopping any grocery-shopping boredom/misbehavior. Being a pre-service teacher, I know that most misbehavior comes from a child not knowing where/how to otherwise direct their energy. So, keep them busy with meaningful tasks, and teach them how to be responsible and helpful in the process.

Airplane Sweater- A Gymboree knock-off

I saw this airplane sweater at gymboree this past spring, and fell in LOVE with it. However, it was 25$... and being frugal, I decided I could make it. (The one above is my version).

So here's how you do it:

1. Go to Walmart (or goodwill) and get a plain zip-up Sweater: $7.00

2. Take out some old fabric that you don't need. On a piece of Freezer Paper, draw a picture of the airplane. Then, using an X-acto knife, cut out the airplane. Iron it to the piece of fabric. Use fabric paints to paint it.

3. Cut the airplane out, and cut it in half. Then, use iron-on adhesive and attach it to both sides of the sweater. 

4. Either hand sew (like I did), or use your sewing machine, to sew around the airplane. I used yellow embrodery floss, because I thought it looked cool.

5. Sew on a button

6. Show off your adorable kid. :)

Lots to come!

Alright, I'm finished student teaching and taking a firm grip on this blog now... So what's to come??

Glad you asked... every day will be a new post about something different. Here's the schedule:

Monday: Project/Craft for Boys
Tuesday: Mom's Solutions
Wednesday: House Organization
Thursday: Fun/Educational Ideas for Toddlers
Friday: Fun FRIDAY! This is a toss-up... you'll NEVER know what you'll get :)


On another side note... I'm currently creating curriculum for preschool (ages 2-5) children. SOO, if you're a stay-at-home mom, or a homeschooling mom, you can purchase my curriculum from me.. from this blog. I'll be putting up Feb. curriculum for free later this month. Then, if you like it, it'll be 10$ a month, pay as you want.

So.. Watch out for monday's post for a project you can do for a boy in your life. :)