preschool

The best 8 dollars I ever spent

by Stacy on May 5, 2011

Birthday week was quite the whirlwind around here. There were monster cakes, lunch dates, popsicles and concerts in the park and one very special trip to Sea World San Antonio’s Bay of Play. But like most childhood discoveries, the best things are usually not something you’ve planned.

Happy Birthday Stinks!!! We Love YouPoor Shamu, never had a chance ... @SeaWorldTexas
Celebrating the Big 2 @SeaWorldTexas. Love that pirate smileTurning 2 means Popsicles & Concerts at the park <3

My guys have been pining away for some miniature ocean animal figurines they spotted at Sea World for the last few months. I’m not one to buy things every time we go somewhere (or I would be broke) but since they had been wanting them for quite some time and it WAS Little’s birthday … I decided to splurge a little.

Each kid got a small box to fill with as many figurines as the box would carry. We paid and made our way out of the park and I really thought that would be the end of that. But … when we got home, that’s when the excitement really started. They wanted to know about each and every animal and honestly, I didn’t know many of them. We sat down with our sea creatures and began to Google.

We carefully identified each one, using their colors and features as clues – White Beaked Dolphin, Speckled Dolphin, Chinese White Dolphin. The searches got more and more interesting and the process became more and more rewarding. We spent the next 3 days studying, inquiring and absorbing all things marine life. It was a homeschooling dream that cultivated with a trip to the coast this past weekend to talk about all that we had learned at home.

SplashSearching for Coquina

Those little sea creatures are the best $8 dollars I’ve ever spent! There’s no price tag for the love of nature, life and the majesty of the seas they inspired. And what kind of friend would I be if I didn’t send a bit of that magic on to you. Here are a few things we found while researching, perfect for preschoolers.

Animated Ocean Movie (** Highly Recommended & a great way to introduce your child to endangered animals and why we need to keep our oceans clean **)

Animal Ocean Game

Create Your Own Ocean

Online Ocean Find Game

And here’s a few coloring pages, follow the links to print these out for your little marine biologists.

narwhal whale

Narwhal Whale – my new favorite creature!!
Humpback Whale
Humpback Whale
whale shark coloring
Whale Shark

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Robots on a Rampage

by Stacy on May 25, 2010

The Backyardigans: Robot Repairman

Did you catch the Backyardigans premiere, Robot Repairman, on Nick Jr last week? There was no way we were going to miss it. We started counting down weeks in advance. It was all anyone talked about … 3 more days till the new Backyardigans, 2 more days Mommy, 1 more … Mommy, is today the day? I’m very selective of the shows I let my children watch, but the Backyardigans are so cute & musical I just can’t resist them. I’ve been known to burst out singing Boinga, the Alicia Keys song from Mission to Mars (what, you didn’t know that was Alicia Keys? I told you these guys were cool) at any given moment.

Oh yeah, about the robots … well, as usual, they rocked. The story line was cute (our favorite Backyardigan actually got a starring role – Yay!), the music was catchy and well the theme, the theme was one of our favorites. We just can’t pass up a good robot story.

When it was over we were still engrossed with robots. We needed them, we wanted them, we had to have them. So, we built our very own robots out of items in our recycle bin. We had a ton of fun and played with our new friends for the rest of the afternoon. If you have a preschooler at home, you know that’s a pretty decent amount of time to hold their attention span :) Bonus points for that!

Meet Robot Guy

Robot Guy

& Robot Girl

Robot Girl

& one very happy future space camper :)

{Notice he has planned his wardrobe around this monumentous event}

Space Guy

Pretty Cute, eh?

To Make Your Own Robots, You’ll Need:

  • Cardboard (We used a cereal box)
  • Some Alumnium Foil
  • Pipe Cleaners
  • Googly Eyes
  • A Glue Gun (Unless your eyes are stick ons)
  • Jewels, Stickers, Beads, Whatever you can find to adorn them with

Draw your robot shape on a cereal box, ask Mom & Dad to cut him out, wrap the shape in Aluminum Foil, smoosh till the foil is nice and flat, cut the foil in any knicks and crannies and the fold until you get the look you’re going for, have Mom hot glue some eyes on, and then go wild decorating him with whatever shiny stuff or buttons & knobs you have on hand. ~ Enjoy!

I added this to the ABC & 123 Show & Tell Tuesdays!

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Setting Up Shop

by Stacy on November 18, 2009

KSW_Eat_Local

Looking for some fun activities to keep your little ones busy this Thanksgiving Holiday? We’ll be featuring some fun for everyone ideas to keep the wee ones occupied and get them excited about Thanksgiving at the same time!

Our first activity is setting up a pretend grocery store ~ talk about Eating Local! The only limit is your imagination and if you’re a recycler, than chances are you have everything you need in your recycling bins {Empty juice bottles, cereal boxes or any boxes for that mater, yogurt or butter containers, etc}. Anything your kids will have fun sorting, stacking, and putting in their carts.

If you have toys or toy bins with wheels (dump trucks, strollers, toy boxes, etc) use these as makeshift shopping carts. Give your kids a few reusable shopping bags for toting their goods after they pay.

I taught my kids to pick out the items they wanted and wheel them to the checkout ( 2 x Ikea Lack Tables and a fisher price piano). Next, we emptied the shopping carts, scanned all the items (complete with beeping sound and everything) and packed them into the shopping bags. We used junk mail as our currency but given more time, I’ll probably make some life like versions out of felt.

The kids had a blast with this activity and the best part was watching them interact with one another with no adult participation. Anytime  there’s a chance to see the world through the eyes of a child, I encourage you to stop and take a moment to enjoy it. More than likely, you will learn something yourself.

Note: Children will vary, but this activity provided 45 minutes of pure entertainment for my 2 & 3 year old. This activity inspired from the Bo’s November curriculum Yr II from Itty Bitty Bookworm (more on this amazing resource coming soon)

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