Felt Fishin'

When the weather is rainy, or it's too hot to play outside, Pyper and her friends love to go fishing.  I bought a wonderful book called, "Creative Play for your toddler."  It's Waldorf inspired and the tutorials are amazing!  If you haven't seen it, check it out at the library, buy it ($10) or if you're near me, I don't mind lending it out!

I made some felt fish, sewed them together, added some poly-fill, buttons for eyes and a metal washer where the mouth is. I went out back and found 3 sticks, braided some yarn (different colors for the 3 different kids), and added a magnet to the each of each pole. I had a piece of blue material that came with the Learning Tower, so I put that down to be the water.

The kids get on "the bridge" (the Learning Tower) and go fishing. It's a great way to encourage hand/eye coordination, color recognition, and counting.  It's a hit at our house!  Even Naki loves to fish!

 I set up the introduction for the kids.

 The swimming fish.

 Their poles (I added hot glue to the yarn on the ends to ensure a secure knot.)

 Heavy duty magnets.  I had to special order these magnets on Amazon, but well worth the cost. 

 The concentrating kids!

First thing in the morning, Pyper goes fishing!

Look at that smile!  Makes my day!

It's Laundry Day!

Pyper loves to help me do the laundry. She is very good at separating by color, and tells me what temperature to wash colors and whites. She loves to transfer the wet clothes into the dryer. I can't wait to have her help me hang clothes on the line and smell the sunshine on our clothes. I have been looking for a wooden washer and dryer but they run around $250! YIKES! Below is a picture of what I envision. I have asked my dad to make one for the girls as a Christmas present. Since I am impatient, and since Pyper's love of laundry seems to only grow with the piles of laundry, I decided to MAKE a washer and dryer.
I decided to make it out of a cardboard box. We have lots around the house with my addiction to Amazon and working at the health department. This box held car seats for the WIC program. Perfect for washing clothes! I separated the large box in half with some cardboard left over from the cave we made a month ago out of the same kind of box.

Then I traced a dinner plate to make the opening for the washer.

I used an envelope I had nearby to be the door of the dryer. You could use a piece of paper, I just had this handy.

Then I used a serrated bread knife to cut out the shapes. I like bread knives to use on cardboard because they are easier to handle and cut with.

I needed knobs for the washer and dryer. I went into the craft closet, pulled down the huge craft box and rummaged through it. Jenn had saved some plastic pudding cups. Perfect! I then got some pipe cleaners, as they are easy to bend and shape, and fairly sturdy. I poked a hole in the bottom of the cup, doubled up the pipe cleaner, threaded it through and then poked a hole in the cardboard backing. I had cut a piece of cardboard from the said cave box to use as the knob panel. I threaded the pipe cleaner through the panel, knotting it to secure it.

I had knotted the pipe cleaners inside each cup to secure them as well.

I then traced the face of the cup to some foam board and cut out the template. I glued them on the face of each cup to hide the pipe cleaner. I liked the bright green. :)

Here it is with the knob panel attached with knobs. I just propped it up and taped it. I used lots of packing tape. It's great stuff.

Side view of the knob panel.

I then had to make handles for the w/d doors. I used 2 pipe cleaners that I had twisted together to add strength.

Here it is. I had considered painting it, but decided against it. Pyper is relatively gentle with her toys, but the boys are a different story. They're boys after all. Their play is completely different. And let's be realistic--this is made of cardboard. It won't last very long. ((sigh))

I set it up before Pyper could play with it. I placed her iron, ironing table, hanging tree, empty detergent bottle and basket with odd pieces of laundry next to the washer and dryer. She saw it, and her whole face lit up. She said, "Oh! I do laundry like momma!" She had to go in and get her little cleaning apron before she started. Watching her play brought such a warmth to my heart.

Here she is moving her laundry from the washer into the dryer. The best thing, besides seeing Pyper play, was that this washer and dryer cost me nothing but time and a bit of imagination. Sometimes I am short on both, but today I scored.

Cave Dwellers

In keeping with the theme of "unplugging" our kids, we cancelled our Direct TV. I was going to give it up for Lent, but decided I needed to make a more permanent decision for our family. I discussed it with Shannon, and he agreed that we watch too much TV individually and as a family. We had noticed how over-commercialized programming has become. So much so, that our 2 year old asked for a product that had just been advertised. That was a wake up call. So, we decided that after dinner, we would play as a family, or read, or weather permitting, go outside as a family. The theme being "FAMILY."

I got about 10 of these big boxes at work. They are the perfect size for Pyper and her buddy Hunter to play in comfortably. We decided to make a cave.

I took some brown paper from some packaging and a roll of brown paper and had Pyper crinkle it up really tight into a ball. You could also use brown paper bags. Then we smoothed it out.

Ok, I smoothed it out. She liked balling the paper up WAY too much.

Then we taped each piece to the box giving the effect of earth or rocks. Here, Raegan is making sure the opening of the cave is large enough. I love that sweet baby.

We covered the entire box. Then it was play time! Pyper took her markers and did cave paintings inside and outside of the cave. I also looked for a strand of white Christmas lights to put on top. I was going to poke little holes on the ceiling of the cave and make the constellations, but couldn't find any lights. Oh, well.

After playing with the cave for a little bit and unsuccessfully trying to lure Hannibal inside, Pyper decided to play the piano. Shannon was playing Abba's "Dancing Queen," and Pyper played along, singing.

Belting it out!

Having too much fun. I'm so glad we decided to get "unplugged." It has really taught us to use our imaginations when playing and spending time together. Now, we still have our TV, and we watch movies. But we really try to limit her movie watching to no more than an hour a day if that. Some days, it's about a half hour. My only regret is that we didn't cancel the Direct TV sooner. Oh, well. We live and learn. Now, Shannon's wondering where he'll watch the Super Bowl! My timing is flawless...hee hee!

Unplug Them!

You may wonder what in the world am I talking about? I'm telling you to unplug your kids, folks! Turn off the TV, the computer, the iPods, the Play Stations and even the phones. Unplug them and plug into what your kids need: You. Creativity. Imaginative Play. Fun. I know this is difficult. Especially now in a day and age when it's sometimes easier to have the TV babysit the kids and you escape into Facebooking or just browsing the web. I'm guilty of this, too. But now that I'm more aware of how much Pyper needs ME and creative outlets, I have forced myself to unplug her and ME. This is an ongoing transformation, I won't lie. Just last night, she wanted to watch TV in our bed while I cleaned up the house from a fun weekend. She's recovering from a cold and ear infection, and is feeling a bit under the weather. So, I didn't feel TOO guilty for letting her get some TV in and have some quiet time. I can also get my housework done a lot faster without her underfoot asking for me to hold her or just whining that I'm ignoring her. Sometimes, TV is necessary. But not all the time. I've stopped Facebooking at home. I limit my internet and computer use while in our home. I try everyday to do fun, creative things with Pyper and just enjoy my girls being little and inquisitive.

Bake cookies with your kids. Pyper has really developed her love of anything to do with baking and cooking. She loves to whisk eggs, stir soup, and push the buttons on the food processor. Let them help you cook--they will more likely eat what they helped prepare!

Play with boxes. I picked up 4 huge boxes at work that held car seats. They were going to throw them out, and I stepped in and saved them. One thing I've learned--kids will play with the box before the toy. Jenn, our nanny, made this creative playhouse for the kids, cutting out shapes of different colors and sizes for the kids to learn from while playing. It is now covered in shapes that Pyper and I cut out last Sunday. Pyper loves to use the glue stick and "decorate" her house.

She will disappear for long periods of time and when I go looking for her, she's in her playhouse playing with her stuffed animals.

Shannon told her to get her markers and "paint" the inside walls. She loved this, and had a ball decorating her house...

These kinds of crafts are great when it's too cold outside or rainy to venture out and play.

But when it's nice out, take the kids out! Two weeks ago, we walked in our first family 5K. It was in honor of Thomas Musser, a little boy in our small community that lost his battle to cancer last year. Our tiny town and surrounding communities raised almost $20K!!! All proceeds went to St. Jude's, where Thomas received his treatments.

It was participating in this 5K that made me really re-evaluate the time spent with my little ones. How would I be remembered spending time with them? Them watching TV while I was engrossed with something silly on the Internet? I didn't want this to be my legacy with my kids. We, as parents are our children's first teachers. Start teaching them to use their imaginations, and creativity. You'll be amazed at how much better everyone will feel.