$2.00 Target Tuesdays at Glazer Children's Museum

I have been looking for cheap and climatized (i.e. air conditioned) ideas for the hot tropical summers of south Florida. I found in a local family newspaper that the Glazer Children's Museum admissions price is only $2.00 every Tuesday this summer thanks to Target! What an awesome deal!

Getting kids to help in the kitchen

My Savannah has been helping me in the kitchen since she was old enough to sit in her bumbo chair. I have had to get more creative the older and smarter she gets with how to let her help! I let her help me make these amazing Coconut Dream Bars. We had to make a graham cracker crust, so I let her beat the graham crackers in a ziploc bag with a rolling pin. She had a lot of fun and felt like she was really helping. It kept her busy as I gathered the rest of the ingriedients.



Have your toddler place the graham crackers
in the bag.



She had to stop and make sure they tasted ok..



Let them go crazy with the rolling pin!

This post is linked to Raising Homemakers, Tammy's Kitchen Tips

Cooler Weather means Lots of Fun

When I lived in Ohio the first cool day meant the end of Summer and the beginning of a long cold winter. Where I live now in Florida, the first cool day means the end of the summer hibernation and time to get outside and enjoy the weather!! We let the tourists enjoy the hot humid summer and wait until the weather dips to the mid 80's. Today was the perfect day. Crisp 70 degree air greeted me and my brood as we started our day. We went to Sawgrass Lake Park and enjoyed the alligators and other wild life. We cleaned out the chicken coop, the backyard and a few of my container gardens. I let my niece be the "photographer of the day" a coveted position. She did well until she discovered the  "record" option and started taking videos of everything including my not so flattering side as I bent over to clean the chicken coop. Those videos will not be featured here today, but the amazing photos she captured (I took a few too) will be featured. Added bonus? The whole day was FREE!!! Gotta love that! Please enjoy and tell me how you enjoyed your weekend at your homestead!!

This post is linked to Barn Hop, Miscellany Monday, Frugal Friday, Critter Camera

Hot Florida Days

At this time of year some kids might be playing outside in the fall air enjoying the leaves, pumpkins and all things fall. Then you have those of us that are still living in the oppressing 90 degree heat with so much humidity that beads of sweat form on your face the moment you step outside. The only saving grace this time of year is either the beach or in our neighborhood Lake Pasadena under the oak tree. The kids LOVE to go there and "catch turtles". To hear them talk about it you would think they are running some sort of turtle catching business. The reality is, they are "armed" with a butterfly net and a box of cherrios. The lure the turtles in with the cherrios, lower the butterfly net into the water and catch a turtle. It makes a great learning oppurtunity because the kids can see the turtles up close. We let the turtles go almost immedietly after catching them. The kids have so much fun it is worth the short walk in the heat to hang out under the oak tree and catch turtles.

A Florida Cooter and some minows. The kids think
the larger minows are pregnant.

Even the baby gets in on the fun. He likes
to watch from the stroller.

This post is linked to Barn Hop Monday, Miscellany Mondays

$1.00 worth of fun

I have been trying to come up with fun and economical ways for my daughter to learn. I find it is important for her to have structured activities to keep her mind and hands busy. It keeps her out of trouble and it helps her develop many valuable skills. One idea I came up with was to buy those little colored things (pom poms?)....see the picture below if you know the correct name for these colored things as I refer to them PLEASE tell me!! I went to the dollar store and sure enough I was able to buy a bag of them for $1.00. I set up a tray for Savannah with 3 cups and the little colored things. I had her sort them, touch them and play with them. When she was "done" sorting them she exclaimed "Look mom, it is beautiful." She will play with these for about 15 minutes which is good for a 2 year old. She gets at least a dollars worth of fun out of them each time!!

You can see how hard she is concentrating.
Also, I set her up in the kitchen so I can
get some work done while she is working.


This is linked to Tip Junkie

Number Shapes and Colors OH MY!

Here are the list of ideas I have come up with so far for my homemade learning toy I made for Savannah.

• Have your child sort them by color into a muffin tin or egg crate
• Have your child sort them by shape.
• Have your child sort them by number (all the one's, two's ect.)
• Have your child stack them in numerical order
• For an older child, have them line up each set in order. If this it to hard, you line up one set and have them "copy" with each additional set.

The thing I noticed my Savannah doing was as she played with them she asked while picking up the shape "Mommy, what number is this?" I would tell her and she would place that shape down and ask me "What number is this?" for the next number. When her daddy played with her, he got tired of answering her and started saying back "You tell me what number that is". She looked at it and got the number right every time. That in itself was worth the 15 minutes it took for me to make this learning toy.

How to make a toddler number leaning toy

I recently had to take my Savannah out of her 2 day a week Mom's Morning out play group. We just couldn't afford it anymore and because I am not working as much, it really wasn't needed. I decided I needed to be a little more proactive with teaching her things (with out her realizing she was learning). I noticed that although she can count to a whooping 13, she didn't recognize her numbers yet. We had lots of learning toys that worked on letter recognition but nothing that worked on number recognition. So I came up with a completly free way to help her with number recognition.

Items needed

4 different colors of card stock
4 different shaped large punches
*if you don't have paper punches you can always draw and cut out the shapes
1 marker

Pick out one color and one punch. Punch out 12 of those shapes from that color. Example. Circle punch....punch out 12 yellow circles. Using the marker write one number on each shape. You should have numbers 1 - 12. Repeat with each remaining color and shape. At the end you should have for example 12 yellow ovals, 12 red circles, 12 pink flowers, 12 green squares. Click here for a list of things your toddler can do with this "toy".

This is linked to Tip Junkie, Living Well, Crystal and Comp, Frugal Friday, Works for me Wednesday, Raising Homemakers

Singing and Dancing Toddler

Parenting is never easy. There are a million books and a million friends willing to give you their opinion on how you should raise your children. My parenting philosophy is moderation and common sense. Since Savannah has turned two, I have needed to use a lot of moderation and common sense. She tries my patiences every day! One idea I have come up with to help us out on a daily basis is letting her dance and sing to positive music! I purchased Cedarmont Kids Praise CD 3 pack on sale for $9.99 at the Family Christian Book store. We listen to at least one CD every day. When she starts to misbehave or starts on one of her melt downs, I turn the music on and she immediately starts singing praises to God and running around the house. She forgets what was making her so frustrated and instead turns her focus on singing and having fun. She doesn't realize that at the same time she is learning valuable life lessons and memorizing Scripture. Even the baby gets involved. I give him a shaker and he laughs and has fun. I have found this idea to be a very valuable tool for my children and it works for me!

I am linking this up to Works for Me Wednesdays, ABC Wednesday, Wordless Wednesday, Homemaking Link Up, Mommy Club, Fridays Favorite Things, Frugal Fridays. Spiritual Sundays, The Diaper Diaries