Lots of households with kids have random fairys that reside within. One popular one is the Tooth Fairy. We have lots of little Nature Fairies that live in the birdhouses outside (they only come out when you're not looking). I've often heard moms wish that they had a Clean-Up Fairy to do all their work! Well, I think that I've met the Clean-Up Fairy's cousin, and it's the Toy Fairy.
The Toy Fairy doesn't leave your darling children toys while they sleep. The Toy Fairy doesn't magically fix a broken favorite toy. The Toy Fairy doesn't even give you mystical inspiration on what to get your kids for their birthdays. The Toy Fairy in our house will STEAL YOUR TOYS IF YOU DON'T PUT THEM AWAY! I'm not even kidding. Well, she's a little nicer than that, but she will take them to play with for an undetermined amount of time if you leave them out. It's so awesome. When N's done with a box of blocks and wants to move on to something else but is too distracted to get them all put away... "Honey, I thought I heard the Toy Fairy in the house last night. You better get those blocks put away or she might take them to play with!" It just lights a little fire under her butt, hehehe! As of yet, we haven't had to actually implement a toy taking. The threat of fairy invaders has been enough to spur a cleaning frenzy.
I've also heard that the Toy Fairy has lots of sisters and brothers, just in case you want to invite one to stay at your house. ;)
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Rainy Day? Craft Away! (Updated)
I'm always looking for something easy, cheap, quick, fun and not too messy to do with N. A tall order! I ran across a neat website called HowDoesShe? that has lots of craft ideas as well as recipes and articles on mommy-type stuff. I've found a few nifty things on there so far. One of the crafts that I ran across was this sidewalk chalk recipe. It looked easy, and N had a birthday party to go to soon and I thought it would make a good gift. I did end up modifying the "recipe" a little to make it less messy and easier to clean up.
You will need:
2/3 cup water
1 to 1 1/4 cups plaster of paris
sandwich sized ziploc baggie
ice cube tray or silicone candy mold tray
scissors
food dye
toddler or pre-schooler
1) Pour water into zip loc baggie and add food dye.
2) Add about half of the plaster of paris and seal baggie with most of the air pressed out.
3) Give to wee one to squish around until the plaster is thorougly mixed in.
4) At this point, the mixture will be very watery. Add more plaster until it is about the consistency of pancake batter. The pink set used a little over 1 cup of plaster and the yellow used about 1 1/4 cups. You can see the difference in how thick the mixture is. Both set up fine.
UPDATE: After popping out the chalk, the thinner mixture turned out much better. The chalk had no bubbles in it and the tops were smoother. I really like the home made chalk better than the cheap store bought chalk becuase it's much denser, so it lasts longer. The store bought chalk looks like it's made from a frothy mixture, so there's lots of air bubbles in it. Nothing wrong with it, but goes quickly. I need to get some more interesting molds, though! Also, the chalk only really works on sidewalks. It doesn't work very well on an indoor blackboard.
5) When you have the mixture at the thickness you want, snip a corner off the baggie and fill your trays.
6) After a few hours (or a nap!) flip ice cube trays upside down and pop out your chalk!
Here's the set I made for Z's 3rd birthday party. I got the boxes and basket at Rite Aid, and N decorated them with princess stickers.
The best thing about my modifications to the original recipe is that there's MINIMAL CLEANUP!! Just toss the baggies, wash the mold and you're done. I also like the small sized batches, this lets N pick lots of colors and squish lots of baggies. Her squishing made me a little nervous, so I'm definitely going to invest in some name brand baggies. The ones I had were from the dollar store and I didn't have a whole lot of faith in them holding up to her enthusiastic participation.
We had lots of fun today, even though it was rainy and chilly out. Now I just need to find something good for next time...
Monday, May 2, 2011
Too Cool for School!
A few weeks ago, N and I visited her future pre-school. There's not a whole lot of options in the area, so I scoped out everybody's websites and called a few places. It seemed like one came out far on top in attitude and price. When I called, the woman was super nice and it's right in town. (Also a big plus!) She told me that N and I could drop by any day just after all the kids get there and hang out for an hour or so while they do their morning routine. So, I arranged to meet up with N's little friend W and her mom, and off we went!
The preschool is set up in a church basement. There's a large common area with classrooms all around the perimeter. I think there were 2 three year old classrooms and 2 four year old classrooms. Each class had 10-12 students and 2 teachers. The three year old classes focus on shapes, colors, letters, numbers, etc. It seemed like most of what they would be "learning" is stuff that N already knows. However the MOST important thing that N will learn is how to follow directions and how to act in a classroom setting. She's never been to a daycare, or had to behave without me or A around. I signed her up for a tiny tots tumbling class to see how she'd do, but it's kind of a bust. N's not very interested in it, she is terrible at following directions, and the teacher isn't very good at controlling the rest of the class. I spend the entire class herding N around and trying to keep her on task while the two boys run amok. W is a little angel, of course!
When we got there, N definitely looked overwhelmed with all the activity. After a few minutes, she decided it was OK to join in the free play and she fit right in! After 15 minutes or so of kids coming in the door and getting settled, it was time for all the classes to meet in the common area for morning prayers and songs. This was where things got a little scary for N, I think. The 3 year old and 4 year old classes all got together in a big circle (with N and W) while W's mom and I hung back to watch. I think what was most intimidating to N was that everyone knew what to do except for her. W, however, jumped right in and copied everyone's dance moves and tried to sing along to the songs that she didn't know! Even though I was trying hard not to giggle too loudly, it was a bit sad to see N so weirded out. Since it's the end of their school year soon, all the other kids had months to learn their songs, dances and Bible verses. They were a well oiled machine! N was just standing there like a deer in headlights while the other kids were clapping and dancing. At one point, W tried to hold N's hand to make her feel better. For the next few minutes, while W had gone back to dancing, N had frozen with her arm sticking out and a panicked look on her face. Poor kid!
After morning songs and prayers it was back to their classroom for craft time and free play. The teachers would pull out two students at a time to work on their Easter baskets while the other kids played until everyone had a chance to complete their craft project. W's mom and I just hung back again to watch how our girls interacted with the rest of the class. I didn't think that N and W seemed so much younger than the other kids. Everyone played and shared nicely and W even helped clean up when play time was done. N will be on the older end of the 3 year olds by the time she gets into class, which is fine by me. Hopefully it will give her a chance to mature a little more and listen a little better.
I'm sure that N will be fine when she starts in the fall. She's only signed up for two days a week from 9 to 11:30, and she should be in the same class as W. I, however, have never had to leave her with strangers before, so... I think I'll be the nervous wreck! We've definitely been lucky in that A's mom watched N while I worked part time, and that I was able to stay home after D was born. It was a blessing that we got to keep the kids home with family. It has been hectic lately and I find myself daydreaming of work sometimes, but when you get right down to it, I wouldn't trade my life for anything.
The preschool is set up in a church basement. There's a large common area with classrooms all around the perimeter. I think there were 2 three year old classrooms and 2 four year old classrooms. Each class had 10-12 students and 2 teachers. The three year old classes focus on shapes, colors, letters, numbers, etc. It seemed like most of what they would be "learning" is stuff that N already knows. However the MOST important thing that N will learn is how to follow directions and how to act in a classroom setting. She's never been to a daycare, or had to behave without me or A around. I signed her up for a tiny tots tumbling class to see how she'd do, but it's kind of a bust. N's not very interested in it, she is terrible at following directions, and the teacher isn't very good at controlling the rest of the class. I spend the entire class herding N around and trying to keep her on task while the two boys run amok. W is a little angel, of course!
When we got there, N definitely looked overwhelmed with all the activity. After a few minutes, she decided it was OK to join in the free play and she fit right in! After 15 minutes or so of kids coming in the door and getting settled, it was time for all the classes to meet in the common area for morning prayers and songs. This was where things got a little scary for N, I think. The 3 year old and 4 year old classes all got together in a big circle (with N and W) while W's mom and I hung back to watch. I think what was most intimidating to N was that everyone knew what to do except for her. W, however, jumped right in and copied everyone's dance moves and tried to sing along to the songs that she didn't know! Even though I was trying hard not to giggle too loudly, it was a bit sad to see N so weirded out. Since it's the end of their school year soon, all the other kids had months to learn their songs, dances and Bible verses. They were a well oiled machine! N was just standing there like a deer in headlights while the other kids were clapping and dancing. At one point, W tried to hold N's hand to make her feel better. For the next few minutes, while W had gone back to dancing, N had frozen with her arm sticking out and a panicked look on her face. Poor kid!
After morning songs and prayers it was back to their classroom for craft time and free play. The teachers would pull out two students at a time to work on their Easter baskets while the other kids played until everyone had a chance to complete their craft project. W's mom and I just hung back again to watch how our girls interacted with the rest of the class. I didn't think that N and W seemed so much younger than the other kids. Everyone played and shared nicely and W even helped clean up when play time was done. N will be on the older end of the 3 year olds by the time she gets into class, which is fine by me. Hopefully it will give her a chance to mature a little more and listen a little better.
I'm sure that N will be fine when she starts in the fall. She's only signed up for two days a week from 9 to 11:30, and she should be in the same class as W. I, however, have never had to leave her with strangers before, so... I think I'll be the nervous wreck! We've definitely been lucky in that A's mom watched N while I worked part time, and that I was able to stay home after D was born. It was a blessing that we got to keep the kids home with family. It has been hectic lately and I find myself daydreaming of work sometimes, but when you get right down to it, I wouldn't trade my life for anything.
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