This week we decided to dig into a passion of ours...dinosaurs! We did activities throughout the week that were both sensory activities, literacy, math and more!
Most of these activities were created using items that we already had, or with things we could make ourselves!

​Creating activities around a theme doesn't have to break the bank! Check out some of our favorites from the week!
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Busy trays are some of my favorites to set up with any theme! They can be aesthetically pleasing, full of different textures & toys, and keep the kids entertained for a good length of time!

For this tray, I Included some Items that we already had from previous trays such as: painted chickpeas, painted beans, painted pasta & kinetic sand. Then gathered up some of our dinosaur toys of all sizes, some glittery "dino" eggs (from Easter) and our new glitter resin letters!

Sometimes the best activities are ones you can draw up (or download) yourself! I quickly drew some outlines of dinosaurs and made an activity for each of the boys that was to their learning level: shapes for Taso (2), letter matching for Xander (4) and site word building for Leo (5). I love when I can integrate some pre-k and kindergarten targets into our theme whenever possible!

Ice rescues are some of the most entertaining and longest lasting entertainment that I've discovered for my boys! You can easily incorporate this into any theme or just randomly, and they will have a blast playing with the ice and then the water!
Take a balloon and squeeze in small toys, then fill with water & tie. Freeze them until solid. Cut and remove the balloon to reveal your frozen dinosaur egg!

Then, place them in a plastic bin or bowl along with any other toys you'd like to incorporate. Give the kids a squeeze bottle with warmer water and any food coloring you have on hand and let them melt those dino eggs! SO much fun! (You can also make the same idea using a muffin tin or other containers to make larger ice with toys frozen inside!) 

To see this activity in action, check out the reel on my Instagram!

We got these fun multicolored resin dinosaur manipulatives so an easy way to use them is to start some patterns and have the kids try to complete them! You can also use these for counting, matching and more!

I hope you enjoyed our dinosaur themed activities and got some inspiration for your next kids activities or theme!
Stay tuned for our end of summer themes!

XOXO,
​Jamie

We are all about bugs in this house full of boys!'

I decided to dedicate this week's activities to all insects and learning a little about each of the boys favorites! (The ultimate favorite is the Dung Beetle--eww!)

While you won't find a dung beetle in our activities per-say, you will find plenty of books listed and even a few shows that we've discovered to satisfy that interest!

Bees have been a big interest ever since we were able to see a honeybee exhibit at a local county fair a couple summers ago! I found this book through our Usborne Books rep and it was the perfect information to go along with our play tray! I set out some yellow Playdoh, along with a hexagon cookie cutter to create a honeycomb.

I also Included some wooden beehives and bugs from a small shop that I found on Instagram called Chickadees Wooden Toys -- they have the CUTEST little wooden pieces and toys! The sprinkle letters are from two different resin shops: Happi Crafts and Resin Littles.
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Sensory trays are so much fun to put together, but also provide a pretty lengthy period of engagement with the kiddos! In this tray, I put some painted beans (the red ones are ladybugs!), small water beads, playdough, painted pasta, insect shaped cookie cutters and plastic insects and leaves! I gave the boys an empty tray to combine whichever of the items they wanted and play.

This sectioned tray Is from Dollar Tree, and the dough, insects and plants came in a kit from Little Creators TX! Everything else is from the pantry and painted by me :)
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The butterfly lifecycle was a fun addition to have out on the table amongst the activities so that we could briefly go through each of the stages. We also used our Ultimate Bug-opedia book for more background information! 
Lifecycle pieces and Bug-opedia book are both linked here in my Amazon storefront!
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This is a favorite art project that we've done a few times, but never seems to lose its luster! It is a very easy to prep and execute art project which makes life much easier on the adult setting up, too! 
All you need are coffee filters, watercolors and a clothes pin! Have the kids paint the filter, let dry, and then scrunch up into the clothespin to create your butterfly! The paper scrunching can even be an OT activity for that fine motor practice and pincer grasp!
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This activity was definitely the most sought-after of them all! Oobleck is a non-Newtonian substance, so feels both liquidy and solid at the same time! It is so cool!

I made mine to look like mud with 1 and 1/4 cups tapioca flour (you can also use cornstarch), 1/2 cup water and a sprinkle of cacao powder to make it brown (and smell like chocolate!). Then I added some painted pasta and our plastic insect toys! Clean up is actually easier than you might think--it really just rinses off!

Definitely give this a try If you haven't yet!
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We are working on sight words with Leo, and I've seen these types of things sold on Etsy made out of wood, but I decided to create my own and integrate our insect theme!

I drew out three boxes for the read, build and write sections. Then I wrote some sight words onto insect theme bulletin board pieces. We used the letter set from Resin littles to build each word and then a dry erase marker and sheet protector to practice writing each word!

Once again, super engaging and easy to create yourself!

I hope you enjoyed our Insect theme for this week! Ocean and ocean animals is up next week!

XOXO,
​Jamie

Summertime is here and we are kicking off our learning with an ice cream theme!
I like to make activities that are easily differentiated for multiple learning levels, so check out these and adapt them to your kiddo's needs and abilities!
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This is a super easy one to have on hand and be able to reuse if you can get the pieces laminated! I cut out ice cream scoops and cones and laminated them to be able to write on them with a dry-erase marker! I came up with a few variations of activities for the boys:

- Uppercase & Lowercase Letter match
- Number match
- Letters in my name

The possibilities with these pieces are endless!

This was super easy but the boys LOVED it! Anytime we can get the paints out, they are happy! All I did was draw a cone with marker on construction paper and let the boys design their ice cream cones! They each did a few of these and watercolors are such easy clean up! Perfect little activity to kill some time in between other events in the day!
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This was probably my favorite activity of the week and definitely the one that they boys stayed engaged with the longest! (We're talking over an hour!)

I made two batches of my normal play dough recipe and colored them lightly to resemble strawberry and mint ice cream! I added essential oils to make them scented (vanilla essential oil to the pink and peppermint to the green). I set out some real sprinkles and some of our painted chickpeas for the boys to put into their dough and had little ice cream bowls to create sundaes!

They boys had so much fun! You could even use real ice cream cones if you trust the kids not to actually eat the play dough! Here's the dough recipe that I use:

- 1 cup flour
- 1 cup water
- 1/4 cup salt
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 tsp cream of tartar
Combine ingredients and continuously stir over medium heat until the dough comes together. Add food coloring and essential oils and knead until fully mixed in.
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Once again, a very simple set up for this activity! I got out our sprinkle letters from Happi Crafts and dumped some sprinkles onto a tray. The boys traced the letters into the sprinkles with a paint brush and we even created a few sight words with the letters for Leo who is just starting to learn how to read! Super versatile activity for any age! Other ideas to trace into the sprinkles:
- numbers
- shapes
- names
- sight words

I hope you guys enjoyed our Ice Cream Theme! Stay tuned for next week's new theme and activities!

​XOXO, Jamie

Play Dough kits are all the rage on Etsy, Pinterest, etc! But if you're like us and go through play dough quickly and often, sometimes its just cheaper to make them yourself here and there!

Leo is super into outer space these days and Xander and Taso also like it and love the snow, so I figured I'd incorporate those themes this time. I found these Toob toys through Safari Ltd. (they have many different themed tubes, too!) and made my own colored & glittered play dough to go along with them!

You can also use other small toys or items to go into your play dough kits without buying new items, but I figured we could do with some fun, new themes around here!

Here's the base play dough recipe:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup salt
• 1 tbsp oil
• 2 tsp cream of tartar

Mix all together over medium/low heat, until It comes together and Isn't very sticky. If It Is still too sticky, you can add more flour, but not too much as it will dry the play dough out.

To make It fancy, you can add In your food coloring In the last few stirs. I wait to add any glitter or essential oils until it has cooled off and I can mix those in by kneading it into the dough!

There you have It! DIY play dough kits are super fun and easy and will easily last a couple of weeks kept sealed in a airtight bag or container!

It is a myth that raising boys allows you to avoid whining.

 I was told “oh you’ll have to deal with rough-housing and wrestling, but at least you won’t have constant whining!”

Wrong. So wrong.

The whining is never-ending around here. And it is whining about everything you could think of! Wanting certain toys, hunger or thirst, not getting their way...the list goes on.

I was listening to a podcast episode about whining on “what Fresh Hell: Laughing in the Face of Motherhood” and Amy mentioned a study that was done that showed whining as being the worst distraction for adults trying to complete a set of math problems—worse than a baby crying or even the screeching of a table saw! That is some power that these kids hold!

It has seemingly been worse the more that we’ve been stuck at home and constantly around each other through the pandemic! I find myself losing it right away before breakfast is even on the table.

So here are a few ideas that I got from the podcast and through others advice that I’m going to try implementing:

• Acknowledge Feelings (but don’t necessarily validate them): say “I know you’re frustrated that it isn’t your turn for that toy”. However, don’t coddle or make the whining ok. Just explain that you hear them.

 

• Don’t Yell “Stop Whining”--(it accomplishes nothing): While it feels really good for the few seconds it takes to yell, usually this only fuels the fire. I need to try to stop letting my own frustration get the better of me and go to the other options of responding listed here.

 

• Positive Reinforcement: recognize when they don’t whine and say “I love how you just asked me in your own, strong voice!”

As frustrating as listening to the sound of whining is, I am really going to try to focus on doing these three things. I’ll keep you posted each week on how my efforts fared!

Do you have any tips on dealing with whiny kids? Share them in the comments!