Happy Fortunes

It's 1:23 a.m. and for some stupid reason, I am still awake! I took a "Spencer 15" 3 hours ago while I was waiting for my dear friend to drop by and pick up her cute as a button baby girl and since that nap, I'm WIDE awake.

So, naturally, what does one do when one can't sleep? Blog. One of my very favorite blogs to read is http://nieniedialogues.blogspot.com/ . If you haven't heard of NieNie (Stephanie Nielson) then you are truly missing out.

NieNie and her husband Christian were in an airplane crash a few months ago and suffered serious burns. Her sister, Courtney, is taking care of their 4 children while she and her husband recover. Christian is in therapy now as he is out of his coma and Nie is coming out of her coma now. Anyway, Courtney is keeping NieNie's spirit alive through her blog. It is worth reading. NieNie is a fabulous mom who loves her husband and she tells us all about her wonderful life through her intimate and personal posts.

One post that was re-posted on September 15 (a very good day as it happens to be my birthday!) is on making HAPPY FORTUNES.

I think this activity is a fabulous Monday Night activity of which our family will do this week!

How to make HAPPY FORTUNES:

1) Cut slips of paper

2) Color and draw pictures on slips

3) Write the "Happy Fortune" on your colored strip of paper.

Ideas for fortunes might be: "You are special," "someone loves you," "God loves you," "you are beautiful," "you are perfect," "you are like a rainbow," "you are pretty like a unicorn," etc.

4) Fold in half and stick a "stickie" on it that says, "READ ME" (refer to top picture)

5) Hide them in fun places for people to find. NieNie took her family downtown Pheonix, I believe, and they hid them in places for strangers to find! You can decide as a family on where you would like to hide your Happy Fortunes!

This activity seemed so uplifting, beautiful and meaningful for children to learn about caring for others and making a positive influence on people.

Definitely, if you haven't, go visit NieNie's site. I have shed many a tear reading her blog. And her sister's blog - also worth reading. http://blog.cjanerun.com/

Spooky Treats

Taste of Home has some really awesome Halloween Treats. Check out the recipe for this Spooky Spider Cake and other fun treat ideas that will give your kids a fright! Click HERE!

Today's Activity

Read a story about a Farm.
(Literature)

Homemade Play Dough

Homemade Play Dough

2 cups water
1 cup salt
4 T. oil
2 cups flour
4 t. cream of tartar
2 t any color of food coloring

Combine flour, salt and cream of tartar in a large saucepan.
Combine water, oil,a nd food coloring in a separate bowl.
Gradually stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients in saucepan. Cook over medium heat stirring constantly until a ball begins to form. Remove from heat and knead until smooth.
Let cool and store in air tight bag.

*Tip*: I like to only make 1 color at a time - the color we are learning about that month. Mainly because if you make lots of colors, they inevitably get mixed together and form a massive brown/black color.

Q-Tip Skeletons

Q-Tip Skeleton Craft

Supplies Needed: Black Construction paper, Skeleton heads (I drew some on white paper), 5-6 q-tips, glue (elmer's glue works better than glue stick), craft scissors, crayons.

You can use a whole sheet of black construction paper as your background, but I was running out so we cut ours in half. Cut out the skeleton head, paste at the top of your page and design a skeleton body out of q-tips. We broke some of our q-tips in half to make the arms and legs. Then, color the head!

Voila! Finis!

Bugs, Bugs and More Bugs

NATURE/SCIENCE ACTIVITY: Bug Hunting

No preparation needed, really, just walk outside and hunt for bugs! Kids LOVE bugs, for some crazy reason! And, they will be completely enthralled by a little bug hunt outside through the garden or bushes or trees or woods or whatever is around your house!

PRAYING MANTIS

There has been a praying mantis hanging around in our yard lately, and yesterday Matthew and I found it hiding in our butterfly bush eating a bee!

We sat for at least 10 minutes, maybe longer, watching the bug eat the other bug. We were both fascinated and totally engrossed!

Andrew and Matthew are also very into POTATO BUGS! YUCK! They could hunt for hours for bugs!

Super Easy Pumpkin Craft

Craft Time

How to Make a Super Easy Pumpkin

This craft idea really isn't hard and it might be a little cliche, too, but there really are some great skills being taught with this simple activity.

Skills learned:
1. Color Recognition -- Orange, Black & Green
2. Shape Recognition -- Triangle and Crescent
3. Cutting with Scissors - a skill required for Kindergarten
4. Imagination - Creative skills in decorating a pumpkin face
5. Emotions - happy/sad

My dear, sweet hubby took our camera to work with him today, so we made do with my camera phone. Sorry if the pics are a little fuzzy, but you get the idea!

Supplies Needed:
Orange, black and green construction paper
Kid scissors
Glue stick
Pencil
I drew the pumpkins and cut them out, leaving the eyes and mouth and stem for the kids to cut.

Practicing those scissor cutting skills! Look at the concentration on his face!

Andrew, because he is 4, is much better at cutting. He was able to cut out all the shapes. Matthew, on the other hand, is just learning how to master the scissors. It was really hard for him to cut out the triangles and the mouth, so I just let him practice by cutting his stem.

Matthew's finished . . . Andrew, almost!

Pumpkin Faces! Andrew chose to decorate his with a smiley face and Matthew with a frowny face. Beginning this project, I intended for both to be happy, but Matthew designed his own, of course, and this was his finished project! We pointed out happy and sad. What nice work, Boys!

Pumpkin Patch

Check around for a local pumpkin patch and take your kids to pick out their own pumpkin! Point out to your children all the different sizes of pumpkins - big, medium, little - and the colors too. At our pumpkin patch, we had orange, white, multi-colored, orange and green, white and green. In addition, teach your kids how a pumpkin grows. You can also have them pick up different sizes to see how heavy and light the different pumpkins are too!

On the way to the pumpkin patch, you could tell a story about your own childhood experience of when you went to a pumpkin patch. I'm sure we all have them. My grandpa was a farmer and every year, he planted a field full of pumpkins that we, his grandchildren, got to sell. We always had first pick and always picked the hugest pumpkins in the patch! The best part of the deal was we, the grandkids, got to split the profits!

A lot of times, when we go do something fun, I forget to make our fun activity, a fun learning activity too. But, when I do remember, my kids always have so many questions and have so much more fun.

Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons

This book is absolutely the best book written on teaching your child to read. My sister-in-law recommended it to me a couple years back when I wanted to begin teaching my daughter to read. My sister-in-law has five children, three of which are in grade school and all of which she taught to read, with this book, before they reached Kindergarten. She is now on child #4. I also used this book with my daughter and it helped her grasp reading so quickly. My friend was over at my house a few months back and she saw the book lying on my table and immediately picked it up and said, "Hey, my mom taught me to read with this book!" And, the funny thing is, I vaguely remember a tattered book cover of this very same book lying around my friend's house when I was growing up. Her mom taught her 8 children how to read with this book. It's amazing! And, if you make it through all 100 lessons, your child should be reading at a 2nd grade reading level. Check it out by clicking on the link to the right of my page on Amazon. I promise, you will love it too! (I forgot to mention how easy it is and how much the kids love learning from it!)

Colors of the Month

Orange and Black!

In honor of Halloween for the month of October, we will focus on the traditional Halloween colors, ORANGE and BLACK. Everything that you are doing this month, pay close attention to anything that is Orange or Black and point out the colors to your children - even quiz them, "what color do you see?"!

Stocking Your Craft Cupboard

Whether you have a real craft cupboard or just a box in the basement, here are some of the BASICS you will need! You do NOT have to go out and purchase everything all at once, but these are some ideas to consider when you're at the craft store or discount shopping store. I like to make a list of activities that we can do during the week and purchase supplies for the particular crafts we will be doing during the week.

Art Smock (Recycle an old t-shirt)
Chalk
Child-Safe Scissors
Contact paper (clear and colored)
Colored Pencils
Colored Tape
Construction Paper
Cottonballs
Crayons (I always buy Washable)
Food coloring
Glitter
Glue Gun
Glue Sticks
Googly Eyes
Index Cards (plain & lined)
Masking Tape
Paper Clips
Pencil Sharpener
Pencils
Pens
Pipe Cleaners
Plain White Paper (I like to buy my kids their very own ream of computer paper - 500 sheets/$5. Deal!)
Pompoms
Rubber Cement
Ruler
Sponges
Stapler/Staples
Stickers
Straws
Paint, Water & Tempura
Paint Brushes
Paper Plates (the cheap ones)
Tissue Paper
Transparent Tape
Washable Markers
Wooden Spoons
Ziploc Bags, in several sizes

Things to Consider Buying:
Balloons
Beads (all different sizes - with toddlers, be sure to only put out large beads to prevent choking)
Bells
Butcher Paper
Clear Acrylic Spray
Clothespins (craft and spring-type)
Colored Cellophane
Craft Magnets
Crepe Paper
Liquid Starch
Magnet Strips
Newsprint pads or rolls
Paper Doilies
Plastic Easter Eggs

Why Mrs. Tittlemouse

Hello All!

I'm starting this blog because I, as a mother, need help! I'm constantly looking for fun ideas to do with my family. I have three kids, age 6, 4 and 3 . . . one girl and two boys! Whew! They are tons of work but lots of fun.

I am far from perfect as a mom. In fact, I do tons of research on parenting and teaching children online and reading books, but I rarely act! With so many fabulous ideas roaming around in my head, I decided it's high time to become a doer and hopefully become the mother and person I want to become.

My plans are to design a blog with great learning activities for children, arts and crafts, science projects, etc. Because even though our babies attend pre-school and then grade school and on up, we as parents still need to do our part.

So, WELCOME!

(Oh, if you're wondering where "Mrs. Tittlemouse" came from, it's one of Beatrix Potter's tales! I love Beatrix Potter. First thing you should do as a mom is buy all of Potter's works. You'll love her! And so will your darling babies!)