Tag: activities

Growing Love-Our Garden Themed Week

by headsuppennies

But, killing plants….

When kids are out of school and all us parents are going crazy, I have found that having some sort of themed activity (here I go again) helps pass the time. I’ve done everything from space to farm animals. For this post, I’m focusing on gardens.

Pre-Covid (I.e. not this summer), I had a clear routine. On Monday we did the calendar and talked about the theme and did a craft. Our area always has (had) free summer movies for kids and cheap drinks and popcorn and that was our Tuesday and a craft. Wednesday, usually spent at the beach, Thursday, edible craft, and Friday is for a field trip (pre-Covid). Now, I am not perfect so sometimes this changed and frankly sometimes it didn’t happen. But, I try.

Ok, now that I’ve explained that, I’m focusing on our garden week. I did one craft and two edible crafts for our gardening week. The first craft was a flower sun-catcher. I used two paper plates (cut the center out, you will only need the outside ring), plastic wrap and flowers that we found outside while we were playing. Flowers go in between the plastic wrap and then the two paper plates are glued together around it. I also let them decorate it.

The next thing we did was an edible garden bed. For this we used chocolate wafer cookies, royal icing to glue the bed together, pudding, crushed Oreos, and sour patch fruit candy. Everyone thought it was really tasty.

Garden Bed

The last craft we did was similar, we made a garden patch. We baked a cake, used the rest of the pudding as the next layer, crushed Oreo dirt, icing for greens, the rest of the sour candy (I might have nibbled) and gummy worms. We were all happy with this too! I got too artsy and tried to write, “garden week” in pink…ummm let’s not talk anymore about that.

Our field trip was Brookgreen Gardens. If you’ve never been, you NEED to go. It is Heaven on Earth and we go a lot. Here’s some INFO and a short tour from one of our visits. It was the perfect ending to a great week.

Do you create theme weeks for your kids? It really is fun. Enjoy!

You’re Hot Then You’re Cold

by headsuppennies

The never ending cycle of finding an activity for a baby and a child…

When my first born was around 6 months old I remember our pediatrician telling us to do, “an activity” every day with her in a Tony Soprano type voice. God, I seriously love our girls’ pediatrician office. I mean they are awesome. Ok, back on track, what the heck do they mean by an activity?! I was still learning the ropes and now I felt the need to come up with all these “activities”. Like it wasn’t enough that I read to my baby and she watched me do dishes?! I think that moment truly started my need to plan for my child(ren).

The wheels began to turn and I would come up with great sensory activities that were so easy like putting Pom poms in a jar. I mean, it really is that easy!

Our sweet Lulu loving pom poms

The problem that has turned up this time around is now I have a 1 year old and a 6 year old. That’s like, wayyyyy different. Again, my type A personality began obsessing over these grand ideas when I realized that the 6 year old really likes the same stuff….getting messy and having fun.

So, how do you, the parent not cry during these activities while you children destroy everything you work so hard on every day to keep sort of clean?! 1) Don’t freak out if it doesn’t go as planned. 2) Be nice to yourself. 3) Be ok with children making a mess. To help with this I like to have a vinyl table cloth that I put down on the floor. It’s great for things like painting, water play, or moon sand. I also like to have some kind of container or tray to put the activity in.

For this sensory adventure, I used two plastic bins, warm water in the large container, cold ice water with ice cubes in the small container. I used food coloring to make two colors that when stacked would make a third (yellow + red = orange). The last part is just common kitchen items like spoons, measuring cups, and any other fun objects you think your kids would enjoy.

The girls had an awesome time. It took up a good 30 minutes of play. It started off very nice but I will say it turned in to a water park so I am very glad I had something down. Towels are a great idea too! Eventually, my older one wanted to add some of her favorite dolls which was just fine with me since it helped keep the activity going.

One last piece of advice…play with your kids too. Enjoy!