Thursday, July 22, 2010

Trash to treasures

Look what someone was throwing away! Well I pulled my SUV over and threw them in the back...while the former owner was watering her lawn. Can you believe it! I also stopped and chatted with her and told her my plans for her...umm trash.
So far I have sanded them down and painted one. I found outdoor paint on sale at Sears for $2.50. I was just going to paint them white, but when cream is so cheep...cream it is! :)
Now I need to find the prefect outdoor fabric to finish the project (or one that I like just as much on sale)
So stay tuned for the finished results...:)

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Working on it...

Someone needs more of Mommies time these days. I have been trying to be more creative in my parenting approach, and I feel like I am learning new things every day. My husband and I joke that we were perfect parents...until we actually had our own kids! :)
A few things that I have come up with:
1. There is a stop light posted on my fridge! - This is a simple visual device that I'm using to help J stay on track. :) I took a piece of black construction paper with green, yellow, and red circles glued on to look like a stop light. Then I used a clothes pen and clipped it to the side of the "light" that helps J to see where he is at. I also drew a smiley face on the green circle (great day), a strait face on the yellow (warning), and a sad face on the red (not good). J can earn back a green light with good behavior...or a nap. :) This tool has really helped.
2. The schedule - This is also posted on the fridge. On another piece of construction paper I wrote out J's day. Wake up, get dressed, eat breakfast, table work (preschool activity), free play, lunch, book, nap, etc. I also drew pictures next to each activity since J can't read yet. Then I use a clothes pin to clip on the paper and move it to point to the activity that we are on. I did not put times on the schedule...J does not know time yet either, and I don't want to be held to that strict of a schedule!
3. A shopping list - can you tell I have a visual child! (I'm the same way though, and yet have no picture of this!) I was having a hard time getting my very active little boy sit still while I shop. So I created a shopping list for him to hold on to. We have turned shopping into a fun game of I Spy. Before we go shopping I write out a few of the things that we need to look for in the store and draw pictures to go with each item. This is a great way to talk about colors, shapes, and letters while out. I put this list in a plastic page protector to keep it "safe" through the trip.
If you don't like to draw just use clip art from your computer. Children don't care if your not the worlds greatest artist. They are just happy that they get to play a game!
When all else fails a 50 cent ride at the end of the shopping trip usually does the trick. ;)

Sunday, July 4, 2010

hanging art

J loves to paint, but I quickly run out of places to hang his pictures so that they can dry. Also, now that baby N can pull himself up onto things some of J's pictures that were hanging on the fridge have been ripped. oops! So I decided to hang them up in the playroom using a clothes line and clips that we found at the Dollar Store.
First J painted each of the clothes pins. Our "painting table" is outside and can be sprayed down when craft time is over. :)
Then we hung up some of his pictures using the dry clothes pins. To hang the clothes line I just nailed two long nails into the wall half way and tied the line to the part of the nail sticking out of the wall. We are not going to be hanging anything heavy on the line so I was not too worried about how well it's hung up.
You can see half of the playroom in this direction. This is the area where we do arts and crafts when the weather does not allow for outside activity.