Check out this website for detailed instructions.

Father’s Day Card (Thanks to FamilyFun)

Craft Materials:

• Decorative Scrapbook Material
• Glue
• Scissors
• Time needed: 30 min. or less

1. To make one, first cut a 4- by 12-inch rectangle from a piece of decorative scrapbook paper and fold it in half to create a double-layer 4- by 6-inch rectangle.
2. Form the collar by cutting 2 matching 1-inch-long horizontal slits about 1 inch below the fold.

3. Fold over the 2 flaps as shown, then glue them down with a 5-inch-long tie shape cut from another piece of decorative paper glued between them. Glue a pair of small buttons to the collar.

4. Once the glue has dried, lift the bottom front of the card and write a Father’s Day greeting inside.

Printable Bumper Stickers For Daddy HERE

LOVE Doorknob or Wall Hanging Project HERE

Footprint crafts are always cute!

Here is a cute poem to go along with one:

Footprints

“Walk a little slower daddy,” said a child so small. “I’m following in your
footsteps and I don’t want to fall.

Sometimes your steps are very fast,
Sometimes they’re hard to see;
So walk a little slower, Daddy,
For you are leading me.

Someday when I’m all grown up,
You’re what I want to be;
Then I will have a little child
Who’ll want to follow me.

And I would want to lead just right,
And know that I was true;
So, walk a little slower, Daddy,
For I must follow you.”

CD Photo Frame (thanks to Family Corner)

(My husband is a music lover, so this one’s for him!)

What You Need

Old Compact Disk
1 c flour
1/2 c salt
1/2 c water
Photo
Scissors
Double Stick Tape
Adhesive Backed Felt
Tacky Glue
Paint
Scrap of Cardboard

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F. In a large bowl, mix together flour, salt and water. Mix well, kneading with hands. if mixture is too sticky add a small amounts of flour until you have a doughy consistency. Be careful not to add too much, it can dry too quickly and crack.

Mold a base for your photo frame. Make sure that it is at least 1″ deep and 2″ around. Make it any shape you want. Use cardboard or a table knife to make a slot in your base. Go at least half way down through base and wiggle it back and forth a little to widen. Bake on a cookie sheet for 2 - 2.5 hours or air dry overnight.

Paint the base whatever color you like and let dry.

Cut photo into a 3″ circle. Attach it to CD with double face tape. Cover the back of the CD with sticky back felt. Use tacky glue to secure in into slot in base.

Father’s Day Coloring Pages HERE

Father’s Day Tracing Activity HERE

“Dad, I Love You” Letter HERE

I absolutely love decorating my home with stuff that represents my family; photos, little knick knacks (Willow Tree in particular!), and my favorites: hand print crafts that my kids have made. Here are some crafts that I’ve done as gifts to grandparents. I liked them so much that I even made a couple to keep for myself!

Framed Hand Print Flower

I just bought a cheap matted frame at Walmart for like $3, and put this cute little painting in it.

Plate With Hand Prints

You can find a plain, white plate really cheap, like at the dollar store. I got a whole set of these from a yard sale for next to nothing. You can bake these at 400* for about 10 min. to set the paint. Use acrylic paint, and seal with a Clear Gloss Acrylic Sealer. I do about 6 coats of this sealant.

“I Love Pappy” Wall Plaque

I used a pre-cut, thin wood plaque, thin metal wire, and raffia for the bow. I prefer using acrylic paint, and a Clear Gloss Acrylic Sealer. Drill small holes near the top for the wire hanger. Twist the wire around a pencil to make it curl, push it through the holes and secure.

Hope this inspires you to capture your child’s hand print in some way while it’s still small! Do you have a favorite hand print craft, or gift idea to share? I’d love to hear what others are doing!

Kids have a natural drive to explore…I’m learning this with my son. He likes to explore everything (especially things that are off limits. why is that?). Well, this past weekend I gathered a bunch of craft supplies that I’ve been hoarding and put together an "exploration board" for my son to…well…explore!

I wanted it to be full of visual and tactile stimulants for a 10 month old baby, so I included a variety of colors, textures and activities on the board. If you decide to make an exploration board, let me suggest that you supervise your child while he/she is playing with it as some of the objects do have the potential of coming off (and kid’s have been known to pull toys apart!). You may want to keep it out of reach and simply pull it out for "play" or "lesson" time with your child.

Here’s what I did (you could do this with any craft supplies, or even just things from around the house):

Gathered the Supplies

Made a header that says "Explore!" and pasted it to the board.

Powered up the glue gun and started gluing!

Finished!

Here is what’s on the board.

Tassles

Fuzzy Fabric

Velcro

Fabric Flaps covering pictures

Fuzzy Ball Ribbon

American Flags and Hinge

Ropes and Zipper

Bricks and Tractor Sticker

Marble Pictures

Alphabet and Numbers

Baby Picture from Magazine overlaid with Clear Sticky Squares

Then we put it to the test

He loved it! My husband and I had so much fun watching my son "explore" his board…and mommy had so much fun making it! Like I said, you could basically use anything from around the house to put together an exploration board! It also makes for a wonderful teaching tool!

I highly recommend this book!

“Mommy, you tell me when you see a bad stranger, okay?”

I laughed a little when 2 yr. old Jada said this to me one day while we were at the grocery store. I had just started warning my precious little girl about “mean” people in this world. If only we could simply look at somebody and know if they were good or not. Simple, innocent thinking like this from a child is precisely why it is so critical that we warn them of the dangers in this world, and the evil people in it. I urge you dear mothers, if you haven’t done it yet, don’t put it off any longer. Your children need to know how to protect themselves from those who are out to harm them. Don’t be afraid that you might scare your child, or worry him. It is time that you arm him/her with life saving knowledge using these practical tips.

• Have a heart-to-heart. This needs to be a sit down, face-to-face, serious conversation. A casual mentioning of strangers will not suffice. Your child’s age will determine the tone of the conversation, and how deep you get with it. I would suggest starting at age 2 ½-3 yrs. old, depending on their maturity level. This is how I would go about it:

“Baby, I want to talk to you about strangers. Do you know what a stranger is? A stranger is somebody who you do not know well. Now, there are lots of people in this world who are strangers to us, we do not know them, and some are good, and some are bad.

Most people are good, but there are some people out there who are bad. Bad strangers will try to hurt you. Sometimes bad strangers try to take children away, and keep them and do bad things to them. I want to tell you about bad strangers to teach you to be careful around people who you do not know.

Bad strangers don’t always look mean. Sometimes they act very nice. You can’t tell if they are good or bad just by looking at them. Bad strangers are tricky! They will act nice to you, but they are really mean. Sometimes they will try to trick you to get you to go with them. It is very important that you stay close to Mommy or Daddy while we are out, so that you don’t get lost from us. If you do get lost, you need to find a store worker, or a police officer right away and ask for help.

• Role Play. This is where you give your child some scenarios of what a “bad” stranger might try to do to get your child to go with them. It is really important to equip your child with the right responses for certain situations, and there is no better way to teach them than through practice and role playing. It’s just pretend now, but if it ever happened in real life, they would be able to recall their practiced responses. Do this often to keep it fresh in their minds.

Now, remember, bad strangers will try to trick children. They want to get you away from your Mommy and Daddy so they can take you. They might act really nice to you and say something like, “Hello little girl. What’s your name? Do you like candy? You do! Well, I have some in my car, you want to come and get some candy?” Let me tell you something… you should never talk to strangers unless you are with a grown up who you know. You should never take candy from a stranger, unless your Mommy or Daddy says it’s okay first. And you should never, EVER go to the car of a stranger! This is their trick! If they can get you to their car, they will put you in it and drive away. I would never see you again! Now, let’s practice what you should do if a stranger comes to you.

Here is where you roll play. Make up a few scenarios to lead your child through. Don’t act creepy. Don’t put on a mask or try to make yourself look mean or different. Strangers look like everybody else, your child needs to know that. Pretend to walk up to your child and begin a conversation:

You: “Hello. What’s your name?”

Child: “My name is Sarah.”

You: “Hi Sarah.” “How old are you?”

Child: “I’m three.”

You: “Oh! Wow, you’re a big girl!” “Well, Sarah, would you like some candy?”

Child: “Yes!”

Stop!! This is where you correct your child. Tell them again how they should never take candy from a stranger. Give them the correct response:

Child: “I have to ask my Mommy or Daddy first.”

Now begin another scenario.

You: “Hi little girl. Do you like puppies?”

Child: “Yeah!”

You: “Well, I have the cutest little puppy in my car. Would you like to see him?”

Child: “Sure!”

Obviously this is another big stopping point! Tell your child that if somebody invites them to his/her car, they should never go alone. Give your child the correct response:

Child: “I have to ask my Mommy or Daddy first.”

Become a little more aggressive in your approach as a stranger.

You: “Oh, come on! He’s really cute! I’m sure your Mommy wouldn’t mind. We’ll be right back!”

Child: “No thank you. I have to ask my Mommy first.”

Now, without acting it out (you don’t want to scare your child), talk to them about the possibility of a stranger trying to grab them and forcibly take them away. Tell them that sometimes bad strangers will pick a child up and try to take them.

“Sometimes a bad stranger will try to take you away by picking you up, or grabbing your arm and forcing you to go with them. Do you know what you should do if that happens? If somebody tries to take you away from me, I want you to fight them with all of your strength! Do you understand me? You kick, you scream, you yell “Mommy!!”, you hit, bite, and fight as hard as you can to get away. Do not let them get you to their car. If they get you into their car, I will never see you again. And baby, if I lost you my heart would break! I would cry and cry. I don’t want to lose you, so I need to teach you what to do if a bad stranger tries to get you, okay?”

Now remember, most strangers are good. But there are some bad people out there who want to do harm. The best way to keep safe is to stay close to me always, never run off or get too far from me. If you aren’t close, a bad stranger could grab you and run away with you. And if you get lost in the store, you find a worker to help you. Never, ever go with somebody out of the store. Okay?”

Make sure that you practice and talk about this often. Make up different situations to better equip your child. What you teach him has the potential to save his life! Some other scenarios you can practice:

“Can you help me look for my lost puppy?”

“Your Mommy told me to come and get you.”

“Would you like to make a little money helping me?”

“Your Mommy is out in the car. Come, I’ll bring you to her.”

Talk to your child about what his/her reaction should be for each circumstance. And I can’t say it enough, practice, practice, practice. Don’t let your child forget this very important lesson. Remind them often when you are home and in public. I have to warn though, this should not be used as a behavior tool. If your child is misbehaving, and wandering off, don’t threaten him that a stranger is going to take him away. This is an issue of disobedience that requires a disciplinary action. Teaching your child about “Stranger Danger” is a life lesson, not a disciplining method, so don’t confuse the two. You wouldn’t want your child to take this warning light heartedly.

• Question and Answer Time. Ask your child if they have any questions, and answer them the best that you can. Next take your turn asking questions. Quiz them about what they are going to do in different situations. Reinforce what you have just discussed. And make sure to give lots of praise for correct answers! Encourage your child, and give him confidence in knowing that now he is able to better protect himself if suddenly found in a compromising situation.

I hope that I have provided you with a good starting point to begin teaching your child about how to better protect him or her self. If you have a personal story about a “bad” stranger in your own life, or if there has been a recent news story about a child being kidnapped, don’t be afraid to share these with your child to better demonstrate the reality of this danger.

Here is a link to help you find some more “Stranger Danger” lesson plans and activities to do with your child.

I’d love to hear any suggestions, or personal stories about how you have talked with your children about this subject!

If you haven’t discovered them yet, your local library may have lesson kits available for you to check out. Each bagged kit is of a particular theme. The one pictured here is about Mothers. In them you will find books, a puppet, a lesson plan booklet with activities inside, finger play and poem cards, music, and a flannel board story. They are usually found in the children’s section. These kits are such a wonderful resource, and for FREE, what’s better than that??

Did you know that nursery rhymes are one of the best tools you can use to aid your young child’s language skills?

Not only do nursery rhymes engage the baby’s attention because of the bee-boppy rhythm that are inherent in them, but they introduce children to:

• new vocabulary
• rhyme and rhythm
• memory and auditory skills
• and very importantly, to “phonemes”, or the sound units that make up words

(*note: check out some very interesting articles about this here, here , here and here ).

Well, all that to say: nine months ago I became a mother.

One evening I found myself sitting in my rocking chair holding my son and thinking, “I should probably be singing him a lullaby”. So I began…”Hush little baby…*thinking, thinking *…on the tree top…*making stuff up *…why don’t you fall asleep…I think you’ll really like it”.

I sat there…stupefied. Somewhere along the road of life I seemed to have missed something. The only nursery rhymes I could seem remember with some semblance of the real thing were “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” and “Mary Had a Little Lamb”. What kind of mother was I? Why didn’t they have classes about this stuff in college?

Well, after that sad attempt of cooing my son to sleep, I decided to put lullabies on the backburner for a while. Not too long after that episode I was trying to find some songs to download on our I-Pod for my son to listen to and thought “Nursery Rhymes! I’m sure there are nursery rhyme MP3’s out there somewhere that I could download for us to listen to (and maybe I’ll finally learn a few!).”

I was excited to find this deal at E-Music (although back when I signed up, they were giving 75 free downloads! Oh, and don’t forget to CANCEL your trial period when you’re finished downloading the songs or they will charge you):

I’m sure there are tons of other offers out there like this. I personally downloaded “Diddle Diddle Doodle Doo” (Brian Melville & Caroline Sweeney) and “Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes” (by Radha).

The first time I hit “play” and my son heard the nursery rhymes being sung correctly (*cough, cough*) a smile spread across my his sweet little face. He loved it! Now every time I walk over to the I-Pod to hit play, he smiles with anticipation. And you know what else? I’ve got almost all of the songs memorized now (as does my poor husband - he could probably sing them in his sleep :))!!!

We’ve also invested in a book full of poems and nursery rhymes that we read to our son (since we believe that reading directly to our children is THE best) and it’s amazing to watch him really stop and listen to the poems that have VERY apparent rhythm.

So, here’s the question: What are we supposed to do with all of the wonderful crafts and pictures that our children so proudly make for us??

We can’t throw them away, at least not without some amount of guilt (and prayers that our child doesn’t find his masterpiece in the trash)! And if we kept every little thing that they ever made we’d soon be investing in an addition to the house dedicated to the storage of these priceless little gems.

Believe me, I cherish every little doodle, every little craft that my daughter makes for me. BUT, I am prone to quarterly de-cluttering in my home, and am not one to be a pack rat, or keep things that no longer have a practical use. We live in a small, humble home, and I don’t have room for unnecessary piles in every corner of my closet. So, I have had to come up with a solution to this problem of what to do with these precious mementos of my little one’s childhood.

Here are some solutions:

• Take a Picture of it! This way you can still keep the memory of how adorable it was, but not have to take up the space.
• Turn them into a book. Something fun to do with all of these pictures is to turn them into a keepsake photo book. You could do a book on all of the crafts, drawings and projects that your child did that year to highlight their accomplishments. I think it would be fun to chronicle the progression in my child’s artistic abilities each year; from preschool stick people to more mature, detailed portraits.
• Use them as gift wrapping and embellishments. A great thing to do with your child’s colorful scribbles, drawings and paintings is to save them to use as gift wrapping paper. Grandparents will especially love this (though they may have a hard time trying not to tear it)! And smaller crafts such as ornaments and things would be a great embellishment to add to the gift as well.
• Give them as gifts. Family members, grandparents again especially, my enjoy receiving a gift handmade by your child. And your little one will feel pride in making and giving something so special.
• Reuse them. If you have a craft that you’ve decided you are ready to toss, take a minute to see if there are still valuable parts on it. My daughter recently made an egg carton caterpillar (pictured above). Before I “give it a new home” (in the recycle bin), I’m going to take the “googly” eyes and the pipe cleaner antennae off to be used again in another project. No need to waste useful materials!
• Display It. I know, I know. We don’t really want our living room to look like a Kindergarten classroom, with paintings and crafts cluttering everything. But maybe there’s a good place to display one particularly special piece of art. Maybe on a bookshelf or a tabletop. Or hang a really colorful painting in a nice frame. Even displaying these things in your child’s own room will make them feel good about what they’ve done.
• Let them play. Let your child have fun playing with the new craft they’ve made. If it’s something you want to remember, take a picture of it first. And when it’s no longer an interest to him, take the useful parts off, and toss it. Your child may get lots of use out of it before it’s time is up!

So don’t feel badly about not keeping every single thing that they make. Do something more practical and useful with them! And if your child wonders where their project went, just tell them that you turned it into a picture to keep forever, and then show it to them. This should get a smile.

For more Works-For-Me-Wednesday ideas, go here!

Sometimes it’s hard to find time to squeeze in all of the lessons that we would like to teach our children in one day. A good way to take advantage of “dead” time is while you are out driving around. Instead of turning on a DVD player for your child to mindlessly vegg out on, go over memory lessons with him. Some things I’ve practiced with my preschooler while driving are:

AGE 2-3:

ABC’s

Counting 1-20 (Eng. and Spanish)

Colors in Spanish

Days of the week

Months of the year

Reciting child’s full name, and parent’s full names

Quoting Scripture Memory Verses

AGE 3-4:

Naming the Presidents (1-10)

Simple Math (Addition/Subtraction)

Counting 1-100

Counting by 10’s

Counting by 5’s

Naming the Continents

Naming what Continent she lives on

Naming what state she lives in

Reciting Her Home Address and Phone Number

More Scripture Memory Verses

Naming the Four Seasons

Naming and Discussing the 5 Senses

Practicing Spanish Phrases

And it’s always fun to sing with your child (without the radio)!!

Oriental Trading has their Christmas stuff clearanced, including lots of kids (12 ct.) craft kits for $.97!

*PLUS I have a FREE SHIPPING code: ASP824 (good till 5/15/08). Just type this in where it asks for the KEY CODE during checkout.

Go HERE while there is still a lot to choose from!

I ordered several of these. I love having my 4 yr. old daughter make something for her loved ones at Christmas time to give as gifts. It makes her feel good, and proud that she was able to give. And with these kits, she can give 12 gifts for under $1! That’s an awesome deal!