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. :)