Adventures In Crafting: Pumpkin Week

Between being sick and choosing a theme that left me appearing like a deer caught in the headlights, Pumpkin Week wasn't an out of the park hit.  It started off promising with a wonderful trip to Underwood Family Farms, but fizzled out after pumpkin painting.  I still hung in there to get through the week by perseverance and relying on oldies, but goodies.

Monday

Daddy took off and joined us for a wonderful trip to Underwood Family Farms.  CJ loved it!  There are pumpkins, rides for kids, farm animals, and a corn maze.  I had planned for theme weeks to end in a trip, but this place costs $12 per person on the weekends and that includes the munckin.  But during the week, it only cost us $9 and we used last years leftover tickets for the rides.  This was well worth switching up the schedule.

Tuesday

 We picked a mini pumpkin for our little one so it wouldn't be to overwhelming to handle and paint.  This project made me second guess using paint as a craft with this little guy.

Wednesday

I attempted to copy Play At Home Moms with the pumpkin magnet and tried to take it in a cheap direction and this one did not work out too well.  The magnets didn't stick well and he ended up just pulling them off the paper and the fridge.  It did, however keep him occupied for a second.  This day was when I reintroduced an activity from last week.

Using the picture board I made and the Woodsie cut-outs.  He had to match the letter blocks with the corresponding pictures.  Although I had to point out most pictures and tell him the letter, he got a few on his own.  I couldn't believe he actually had the patience to finish the whole board!

Thursday

Stamp day or should I say Diaster day.  It started off with me trying to have him make pumpkin stamps on white paper with different color ink and, well, you can see the pictures.

I also made a box tunnel, an idea I've adapted from several blogs and articles.  It was actually a hit, but I struggled adding the features I wanted.  It was supposed to have pumpkin lights inside.  He loved it though.  We ended up playing "mommy chase me into the box".  The day was also filled up with a trip to the store.

Friday

This was I am totally over it day.  I just took him to a local playroom and watched him enjoy himself.  I joined in intermittently to encourage pretend play.

Things I Learned:
     1.  Take time to learn what is age appropriate.
     2.  When in doubt rely on the basics
     3.  Come up with rainy day ideas (this includes mommy sick days)
     4.  Some activities won't work the cheap way, so don't be to proud to skip it.
     5.  Kids, unlike us, get pleasure out of simple things so if something doesn't work perfectly give yourself a break.

Adventures In Crafting: Alphabet Week-Day 5

Whew, I made it through our first week of crafting and it was awesome.  It's hard to imagine I began the week stressed, overwhelmed, and scared that I couldn't be THAT mom. CJ finally played the picture letter matching board game!  What a way to end the week, my perseverance paid off.  We went slightly off schedule today with a lot more independent play time than planned, but I was o.k. with that.

My awesome husband cut the Woodsie panels, this idea I got from the Play At Home Moms blog.  We did not use this this week.

Here, my son finally started playing the picture match game.  I was freaking out with excitement and probably became overly enthusiastic as usual.  I would tell him the item in the picture and tell him the letter it started with and he would find the letter on the board and place the picture.  Some pictures he described himself, but the best part is he actually went through the board in its entirety.

Our craft for the day was noodles and the letter 'N'.  He loved pouring these ones out.

 Next week is pumpkin week and I have decided that I will just consolidate the Adventures In Crafting series into one weekly post.  It is a lot to do a daily recap with a toddler and other projects.  See I am learning time management and how to let things go.

Things I learned:  When you find the right game, they can really focus.
                                If, somehow, one manages to keep a child focused for a long period of time,
                                a break should follow immediately to give them some free time to just be a
                                toddler.
             

Adventures In Crafting: Alphabet Week - Day 4

Thursday was a day of hits and misses.  The letter of the day was 'C' and I had planned three activities.  Today was also My Gym day which I love.  It got us out of the house and I am very pleased with their program for his age and I absolutely love the instructors.  Lucky for me one of them is male so I think that is good for my son.  I am realizing now that most programs for toddlers are scheduled around the average toddler schedule because everything we do starts between 10:00 am and 10:30 am.  I feel like the stars lined up for me on that or I just happen to choose a standard schedule for my child.  Anyway, 12:00 pm is lunch and around 1:00 pm nap.  While Connor napped I set up one of the activities, "Letters Around The House". I cut out large capital letters on my Cricut (you'll probably see that name a lot with these crafting projects) and taped them to items corresponding with that letter around the house.  Once CJ was up at around 2:45 pm, an almost two hour nap which is a treat for me, his gets a snack and free/independent play.  I set up the next craft which was cotton balls that are to be glued on the letter 'C' and I made a paper bag puppet cow to add some entertainment to the day.  I have become so obsessed with the puppet idea.  When the issue came up to introduce social aspects to my son's education, I realized I can use puppets.  Well before I could get started CJ recognized the letters and I began taking him around the house to find the letters.  He went ballistic.  He loved it.  He was so excited and running to find the next one and of course I began running as well, because this seemed to be a hit and that brought me an uncontrollable joy.

As expected at craft time it was dump everything out and put back in time again.  He did seem to show some interest in the cotton balls and their texture.  He kept trying to get back into the paint container during the whole process.  Caliapi the Cow (yep I gave it a name) just seemed to weird him out so I am figuring out at this point puppets may not be for him.  This craft did not last long and he got antsy so I had him help me clean up.  While cleaning up I had come up with pretending the 99 cent table cloth is a wave of water and I go hopping around the house making waves with it.  He loves it.  Anyway, the rest of the evening went like this:

5:15 pm - Dinner
5:30 pm - Sesame St.
6:30 pm - Milk and Cookies
7:00 pm - Medicine (he has asthma)
7:20 pm - Story in Bed
7:35 pm - Sleepy time

Things I learned:  Some kids just don't like everything despite how standard some things seem to be.

Adventures In Crafting: Alphabet Week-Day 3

O.k., I am truly on a roll.  This craft day I was most excited about and to top it all off, we had an outing since I dubbed CJ well enough to be around other children (I thought he had a cold).  The day started off with the standard routine, but at 10:00 am instead of starting a craft or whatever  activity I had planned, we were off to the library for story time.  We arrived back home around 12:00 pm so it was already time for lunch.  He had free play with my phone apps.  This means, it's whichever game he likes most rather than theme of the week related.  Fortunately for me, I only have apps for him that stimulate learning.  The ones he happens to like are these puzzle apps which require dexterity, skill, and patience.  It freaks me out how well he plays them.  I do consider them along the lines of television so it is limited in the schedule.  Then it was nap time.  After nap there is independent play and then I set up for craft #2.  This was by far my favorite.  The letter of the day was 'B' so that meant buttons and his favorite, butterflies.  I cut out tiny butterflies that were to be used to decorate the letter 'B' I had printed on paper and a giant butterfly onto which he would hopefully glue buttons.

The outcome, CJ just played a game he created called "Dump The Buttons Out Of The Container And Put Them Back".  He shouted butterfly over and over again.  I got him to participate slightly by handing me buttons to glue onto the big butterfly.  I also tried a repeat of using the pipe cleaners to make the letter 'B' and decided to make glasses which I was requested to wear for a significant portion of the day.  Once again the craft lasted a significant amount of time, he helped me put the buttons away and the day just flew by with dinner, an hour of Sesame Street, and an alphabet bath (with alpha sponges) which he loved completing the day.  Yay, I really feel like I am getting less stressed and enjoying this time more than ever.

Things I Learned:  Having an outing incorporated into the day really allows me to reduce the amount of      
                                crafts and activities I have to prepare at home.  It also provides for a more balanced
                                day

Adventures In Crafting: Alphabet Week Day 1

So it's day one of my attempt to introduce a curriculum into my two year old's daily life.  This week is alphabet week.  The plan is to do alphabets and crafts relating to the alphabet all week.  I began shopping for the crafts on Sunday after I spent all of Saturday evening coming up with ideas and man was it stressful.  I also had to stick to a budget and couldn't just go buy anything my heart desired.

The plan was to start with an activity which I feel was an original creation but, as I have learned, I am sure it was an idea that I came across at some point in my research that penetrated my  brain and hid.  I made up a game where I was going to collect pictures from the internet that cover the whole alphabet and post them on a board.  CJ would then use alphabet blocks to connect with each picture.  Keep in mind.  This was the plan so I stayed up pretty late using a book to make a grid on the poster board because apparently in my shopping haste and excitement I forgot I would need a ruler at some point.  I then used a marker to make the lines pop and make the board more exciting and colorful my munchkin.  Before I knew it, it was too late and I was exhausted so I never got the pictures glued onto the board and I hadn't bought the Woodsie blocks for  to paste on the letters.



The next morning, when it was almost time (on the schedule) to play "Match the Picture with The Letter", I realized I didn't have a lot of time to glue the pictures on so I came up with writing the letters in the spots where the pictures go (I wanted to keep them in alpha order to reduce confusion) so I can be more efficient in my pasting.  Well that led to a new game, "Help Mommy Paste The Pictures On Their Corresponding Letter".  Well I wouldn't use the word corresponding with my two year old. Ha Ha.

As you can see from the picture, CJ found it more enjoyable to get on top of the board and point out the letters.  After a few minutes of coming up with creative ways to coax my son into playing the game with no luck.  I put the board away. Maybe we can try again later, I thought.

I was not prepared with my planned alligator craft so the day ended with me having to go to Wal-Mart to get more crafts, finding alphabet music and playing that for him, and his usual free play apps on my phone and sesame street.  I did continue to make attempts to play my picture letter game to no avail.  At the end of the day I felt defeated, but with the drive to do better next time and some valuable lessens learned

Things I Learned:  Know that all crafts and games will not take, be patient.
                                You can actually come up with multiple ways to play with crafts based on how the child              
                                 reacts or their interests.
                                 Be prepared ahead of time