Future Union Negotiator

I don't usually share these tidbits, but this one cracked me up.

Kiddo: "I'll take off my pants and you take off my shirt. That's called division of labor."

Easy Peasy Art

Last minute art project/distraction in 7 easy steps.
Step 1. Put paper on floor
Step 2. Squirt paint on plastic take-out tray
Step 3. Give Kiddo empty tape roll and bubble wrap envelope
Step 4. Go about one's business
Step 5. Get more paper and paint upon request.
Step 6. Go about one's business
Step 7. Hours later clean up stray paint on floor (thank you, washable paint).

FYI

I am just loving the blog, Free Range Kids and pretty much want to put every post in the shared items section of my reader (in my sidebar, btw). Instead, I'll just share the entire blog. AND I noticed the author is coming soon to our local Barnes and Noble.

Map Activities, part 2

Kiddo and I took our street map to the local office supply store and made a set of enlargements. Copiers are good fun for kids, btw.
When we got home I asked Kiddo to find our home on the map, and the day's destination. He did this with ease, not surprisingly, and then he drew the route on the map. He liked this so much he asked for more destinations and drew those routes, too, using different colored pencils.

Three good books we read:
This is Me and Where I Am. This book starts with the world and zooms closer and closer in on a child in his bedroom and then like a camera's wide angle lens, the locations reverse. Although not about maps, per se, I think it helped Kiddo with the concept of maps.

Are We There Yet, Daddy? This book combines 3 of Kiddo's great loves: maps, transportation and numbers. What is really nice about this book is that the map is not just located on the end papers, like a lot of books about travel, but each page has a map insert showing where the boy and his dad are along the route of their journey, and how many miles are left. I have now read this book a gazillion times.

Mapping Penny's World. I would have liked to read this book in conjunction with Map Activities, part 1, but better late than never. An excellent demonstration of how to read maps and especially map keys and symbols.

I would like to read As The Crow Flies, but our library doesn't own it.

Transportation Tuesday

Unplugged Project: Yellow

Once again, I used the Unplugged Project as motivation to do something I have been thinking about for a while: a photography scavenger hunt. Kiddo loves to play with the kid camera his grandparents got him last year, but in general he doesn't focus enough to take specific photos. Since the theme this week was yellow, I asked him if he wanted to go on a photography scavenger hunt. Even though he didn't yet know what this was it sounded cool and he answered a resounding, "Yes!"
So...... he took photos of things that are yellow. When we loaded the pics from his camera on the computer they were all fuzzy. Not sure if this is a quality issue with the camera or not, so I let him take some photos with the good my camera. He really enjoyed this project and it helped him settle down and concentrate on how to use a camera effectively.

Here are a smattering...

Inside our apartment.

At the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens.

Weekend Bonus Post for Internet Junkies

Just for fun, here are a few blogs I love that do not involve activities for children. Because don't we need a break from that sometimes?

A Year of Crockpotting. I love my crockpot.

No Impact Man. I loved reading this blog during the no impact year. Now it is more philosophical, but still enlightening.

Vintage Books My Kid Loves. Because who doesn't like to be reminded about the books they read in their formative years.

Greens & Berries (aka The Edible Balcony Garden) Because we can't all have huge yards. Lots of eye candy for gardeners.

God's Politics Blog. I am very ecumenical and appreciate this progressive look at human rights and social justice.

The Paper Trail and Family Bibles. These two blogs track family documents for sale on Ebay. I once found a letter by my great-great-great grandfather on Ebay. It was written to his wife and discussed his time in the Maine state legislature. How AWESOME is that. I hope lightening strikes twice.

You can also view my shared items in the sidebar.

Body Art

Finding ways to keep Kiddo quiet during New Kid's nap time is always a challenge. (I find having the noise machine and air filter on high also helps!) We had never done the "crime scene" body outline art project before so I thought I'd give it a try. Lucky for me, he found it fascinating and spent quite a bit of time on it.
As you can see he came at it from all angles.
Yes, he is in his underwear. I do what I can.
Now, most kids would draw clothes, hair, a face, etc. What is amazing is that Kiddo never draws realistically, even when faced with his own image! He told me the lines were subway trains. Oh, yes. Of course.

Number Books

Can you believe I have not discussed Kiddo's love of numbers in several days? What's happening? Rest assured, he still adores them. I wanted to share a book series that we have been reading lately called Math Start (no, no this is not a paid plug... I wish). I discovered it because we read Treasure Map in conjunction with the map making we did and subsequently checked out Too Many Kangaroo Things To Do. We've been reading others now, too. The books have some good (and easy!) hand-on activities to do at the end of each book.

Just to be clear... I am not reading them in order to teach my 4 year old math, he just likes any books with numbers. Unfortunately for me, I find a lot of counting books to be insipid and boring. If you feel the same, I have added a list of Kiddo's favorite number books in the sidebar, which you might find tolerable.

Catapult Action

I set up this activity as a means toward some sanity (for myself) the other day.
We used the catapult we made last year and some poms.
Draw several circles and indicate their point value.
That's all.

Map Activities, part 1

Previously we worked on bus maps for our unplugged project: transportation. Recently Kiddo also made a map of the living room. We looked at the book, Maps and Mapping; it's really for older kids but Kiddo was very excited to look at all the maps in it and we talked about the way in which a map is an aerial view of something. I'm not sure he really grasped this concept completely. View his map of our living room:
Note the non-aerial view of the windows and the bookshelf!

We also used his map to play a treasure hunt game. I put an "X" (we used one of the alphabet magnets) on a location of the map to indicate where I had hid one of his trains and he had to find it. Even though this was really easy, he totally LOVED it and we had to do it for quite some time.

Extra Credit Reading:
Treasure Map
Zigby Hunts for Treasure

Unplugged Project: Science

This week's Unplugged Project is Science.
We did a small experiment from one of my favorite science websites. It is very quick and very easy.
The Magic Jumping Coin.
First chill a bottle and a coin by placing them in cold water. Place the coin on top of the bottle. Wrap your hands around the bottle and wait.
The coin will jump up off the bottle!
Read why this happens here.
The experiment itself doesn't provide lasting entertainment, but a bowl of water, a coin and a bottle do! We did end up with a wet table, though.
Cloth diapers are very absorbent.

Activity Links

It's so nice not to have to think for myself.

Here are a few ideas we have recently borrowed from others:

Making Soup (you can see I was waaaay too lazy to sort the ingredients!)

Ball Tube (a huge hit!)

Hammering is Fun! (yes, yes indeed it is) Incidentally, I knew Kiddo would love this when I saw it, but groaned, "where am I going to get golf tees, I hate shopping". Lo and behold, Daddy-O, who had to go on an overnight business trip (ack!) came back with a bag of crap goodies from the vendor, which included.... golf tees!Word Family Eggs (the extra eggs were sacrificed to the ball tube gods)

And Kiddo now has his very own Clipboard for his number mazes!

If It's Not One Thing It's Another

We just started putting New Kid on his tummy to sleep (he rolls over anytime you put him on his back now) so we can finally all go to bed.
But could my husband please STOP SNORING.

Kids These Days!

Which would you rather take to bed every night with you?
These soft, friendly fellows made with organic cotton that your mama lovingly chose for before you were even born, believing you would fill her heart with joy each and every day...
OR

These toxic polyester, commercial stuffed animals, one a present from your father's psycho ex-girlfriend, the other a cheap thank you gift from an animal shelter charity?
And which would you rather play with?
These safe, wooden toys your loving mama chose especially for you knowing that open ended play is the cornerstone of a happy and joyful childhood....OR

these cheap, commerical, die-cast, made in China cars which break and need constantly to be fixed with tape?

I'll let you figure it out.

Springtime: Up Close and Personal

Last Thursday was gorgeous. Finally, a beautiful, sunny day, not too cold, not too hot. A perfect day to spend hours in the park and playground. After reading his latest issue of Click magazine, which included stories about looking at nature through a magnifying lens, Kiddo decided to take his own magnifying glass to the park to check things out and hunt for daffodils.

He found some!He also found some interesting bark.
If anyone knows what kind of flowers these tiny fellows are, I'd love to know!

Unplugged Project: Transportation

This theme of this week's Unplugged Project is transportation. Frankly, that is the theme of everyday of Kiddo's life.
I have been working on some mapping activities with Kiddo (stay tuned for more posts on that topic in the coming weeks) and so for the UP Kiddo made a Bus Map.

First Kiddo looked at his Brooklyn bus map, chose a line and drew it on a large piece of paper. He then dictated to me all the stops and the transfers available at those stops, which I wrote down on little stickers. Then he put the stickers on his map. (Sorry about the poor photo.)
Kiddo LOVED this. At first I made the stickers one by one as he applied them. but I decided that I should make all the stickers first and then he could apply them all at once. This gave me a little break, especially as he insisted we make FOUR more maps.

For more transportation fun see these posts. And for some of Kiddo's favorite Transportation books check out the sidebar. Beep! Beep!

Sweet Dreams

I heart baby sleep smiles.

Easy in the Kitchen

WARNING: This post is not Kosher for Passover.

I will round out the week with two recent easy food ideas.

The first is from Mama in Wonderland. I had her recipe for Pasta with Spinach and Chickpeas and Garlic Sauce bookmarked for a year. Finally, while Mormor was visiting we tried it. I don't know what I was waiting for. It was delicious. We were lazy and cooked the spinach right in the sauce instead of separately and it was still excessively yummy.

Also, at Blissfully at Home I saw a recipe for Bread in 5 minutes a day! I used to use my bread maker to make bread all the time but it is so old now that the motor won't knead whole wheat dough and I mostly just use it for pizza dough. I was going to buy myself a new bread maker with our tax refund but that was before the economy tanked, I lost half my 401(k) and nerves set in because Daddy-o works in the banking industry. (Don't send me hate mail, he doesn't get gazillion dollar bonuses or work with mortgage backed securities)

I hate store bought bread because it is either too expensive or loaded with ingredients that, in my opinion, should not enter the human body. So I was excited to try this recipe. According to the more detailed instructions here, it is wise to first master the white bread before moving on to whole wheat, so I haven't tried the whole wheat yet. The bread is pretty good, but very dense. Personally, I think that makes it good sandwich bread. Also, the loaves are small -- but that keeps me from eating too much!

If you forget to score the top of the loaf, your bread will look something like this:

The hardest part about making this bread? Not eating it all before it cools down. Thank goodness for exercise breastfeeding.

Public Distractions

As much as I try to avoid it, finding myself in situations where I have to wait in line with the kids is inevitable. It's horrible, right? One needs an arsenal of distractions! I've used Brain Quest at the post office, the voting booth, the DMV (don't have a car, still need a license), the restaurant, etc..... But what if you left BQ at home??????

First, panic.

Then, remember you are trying to help Kiddo with his auditory learning skills and you try this game:
"Ball, doll, teddy bear, puzzle, blocks are all what kinds of things?"
"Toys!"
"Cheese, tomato, cracker, apple are all what kinds of things?"
"Food!"
Ad nauseum

It always helps to preface the distraction activity with an enthusiastic "OOOOOH!!!!!! LET'S PLAY A GAME!!!!!!!"

Good luck out there. It's brutal.

Money Sorting

We save all of our change in a glass milk bottle in anticipation of a 2011 trip to Disney World -- except for the quarters, we need those for the laundry (in this economy you have to save up!). It will be our spending money for the trip but until then it serves as entertainment. One morning when Kiddo was being particularly annoying exuberant I got down the jar, dumped it out and made circles for sorting it.When he got bored with that I pointed out how each coin had a year on it. This proved to be even more fascinating than the original activity! He then bowled me over with his amazing math skills by telling me how old each coin was. (He couldn't do this past 5 years, but still, whoa. Lest you think that I am some obsessive mama who wants her preschooler doing algebra I should say that I really don't "teach" him this kind of thing, he just figures it out.) You've heard it before, you'll hear again. This kiddo loves his numbers.

Transportation Tuesday

Unplugged Project: Words

Is kosher to steal an idea for the Unplugged Project (this week's theme is words)? Well I did. This great idea came from Montessori Free Fall (a great blog written by a mom whose talent for organizing preschool activities is clearly much greater than mine).

Kiddo loves to ask me to spell words so we played MFF's version of "I Spy". I set up three pictures and then said "I spy, with my little eye something spelled huh-ah-ttt". Kiddo then found the corresponding letters, spelled the word and checked his work by turning the picture over to reveal the correctly spelled word.
He thought it was great fun and it was easy for me since I could putz around while he found the letters and put together the word.

I think in the future I am going to try this activity without the pictures. Kiddo is a highly visual learner. After he heard me spell I could tell he relied on the photo to get the job done. That's not bad of course, he's only 4 and this is a pretty advanced activity but a recent assessment (long story, not for this blog) showed he could use some assistance developing his auditory learning skills.

Weekend Bonus Post for Health Nuts

Just thought I'd share two ways I like to make my baked goods less toxic.

1. Substitute whole wheat pastry flour for all-purpose flour. According to one of my favorite cookbooks, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, anytime a recipe calls for AP flour, you can always make this substitution. Yes, it is more expensive, but we are able to buy it in bulk.

2. Substitute unrefined Rapadura sugar for white or brown sugar. OK, this sugar is a lot more expensive, especially if you don't have access to an inexpensive food co-op. We don't make a lot of sugary treats so I feel okay about buying it (plus, most conventional sugar is produced with exploited labor). But can you believe this sugar has 11% of your daily iron in only 1 teaspoon! Who needs spinach? Just eat a cookie! Note: this sugar is not the same as those "raw sugar" or turbinado sugar packs you use in your coffee -- that is really just fancy white sugar.

Using these two ingredients, I sure can make some yummy sweet potato and candied ginger muffins.

Easy Stained Glass

Lately I have been all about doing projects I have seen on other blogs, but here is something I actually came up with myself. (No doubt others have thought of this before me, but I patted myself on the back anyway.)

First I cut the sides of a plastic sheet protector so that it folded open. Then I gave Kiddo some colored cellophane that I had cut into shapes. A better alternative would be to have the child cut out shapes, but that kind of focus was beyond Kiddo today.
Kiddo placed the shapes on the plastic. It seems so obvious now, but I had not thought of putting the cellophane on both sides of the plastic! As he did that I thought, "ooooh, color mixing! Excellent twist."

Once Kiddo was done we taped it shut and hung it up in the window. It was pretty challenging to get a photo without the fire escape or child safety bars in the background!Does anyone know of any picture books that are illustrated in a stained-glass style?

Rainy Day

Today was one of those days in which I pretty much had to use every one of my quick and easy distractions. And then some.
Enough said.