Salad Spinner and Gadget Art

The best part of working at a preschool, is getting great new ideas for art projects!  One of my coworkers, Teacher Doreen, found these "mini" salad spinners, and she uses them to make Spin Art.  You just need small, paper plates, some paint, and voila!

Amazing works of art!

The other idea that I got from Teacher Doreen, is called "Gadget Art".  You just need paint, and various "gadgets" like potato mashers, whisks, egg slicers, etc...

They make really cool designs, and they are super easy to clean up afterwards.

Thank You, Dollar Tree!

One of the skills that is often overlooked for children preparing for kindergarten is gluing!  I know that it sounds a little silly, but after teaching kindergarten for one short year, I was amazed at how much gluing my students had to do.  That is why, any chance I get, I have William cut things out, and glue things together!  Although the cutting things out is sometimes frustrating for him, he will glue things for hours!  That is why I LOVE the little kits that you can buy at the Dollar Tree stores.  They come already cut out, and with instructions on how to assemble them.  They are usually seasonal, but you can always find them.  Here is William working on some CUTE Christmas door knob hangers...

  

There's an app for that!

What would we do without our smart phones and our computer tablets?  I don't want to think about it.  I have an iPhone, and we are very lucky to be borrowing my Mom's iPad.  My children absolutely LOVE the educational apps for these.  Here is William playing with the BOB Books app...

Vivian has even figured out how to work the iPhone better than I can.  Her favorites are the app versions of the books, "The Monster at the End of This Book", and "Another Monster at the End of This Book"...

So, if you have a smart phone, or a tablet, I highly recommend you start checking out these apps!  There is even an app called "Moms With Apps" that reviews apps, so you can check them out before you download them.  

  

Local Transportation

One of the things that always surprises me is how many children have never been on a bus, or a train.

It is one of the easiest things to do, and fairly inexpensive.  Right after Vivian was born, we were all feeling a little "cooped" up, so we decided to go on a bus ride.  We drove to the bus station, parked the car, and caught the bus.  It took us all around our little town, and we saw things we had never seen before.  We met new people, and heard new stories.  

William was just shy of turning three, and he still remembers this day.  We talk about it often, and wonder why we don't do it more.  

More recently, we took the kids on BART to San Francisco.  It was very exciting for William, a little scary for Vivian, and extremely memorable for us.  Again, we saw things that we don't see from the freeway, and we were able to make some interesting, new friends.  

Next Stop!  An AMTRAK train ride.  To be continued...

Plastic Bottle Painting

I found this really great idea from another blog!

http://www.frugalfamilyfunblog.com/2010/03/flower-prints-from-soda-bottles.html

It looked simple enough, so we tried it out tonight.

It was very fun, and I really like the way the design turned out.  We used water bottles instead...

I am excited to try different kinds of bottles, and see what kinds of designs they make!  

Welcome and Hello!

Thank you for visiting my new blog.  I want to use it as a way to keep track of all of the fun that I have with my children, William (5 years old), and Vivian (2 years old).  Check back often to get ideas for easy and fun activities.