craft supply list

I have seen lots of supply list for childcare

and honestly a lot of those list overwhelm me

or

I don't know where I would put all those things if  had them

I like to keep my list simple

and if I have te extra stuff bonus

but I don't NEED those extra things!

paints:

craft paint

water paint

finger paint

(there is a difference between craft paint and finger paint)

paint brushes:

--i truly believe you can paint with anything but...

a varity of different sized brushes

sponges

(i buy sponges from the dollar store and cut them up)

qtips

tooth brushes

--these are the basics, but look around your house you will be AMAZED at what you can find to paint with.  You don't need anything fancy!  Kids just like to explore and discover!--

glue:

bottled glue

glue sticks

tacky glue

gorilla glue

(the kids don't use the tacky or gorilla glue but I like to have it on hand)

paper:

Construction Paper

Tag board

Tissue paper

printer paper

craft paper/scrapbook paper

contact paper

paper plates

odds and ends:

lids of different sizes

google eyes

stickers

foam stickers/pieces

sequence/glitter

marbles

shaving cream

small cups

--I am sure I am forgetting a few of my must haves but I can always add to that later!--

Where do I buy my supplies:

A majority of my supplies come from Hobby Lobby our local craft store

I also buy a lot of my stuff from dollar stores and dollar bins.

To craft with your children should not cost you a lot of money

start with the basics and you ca always add to it as time goes on!

Have fun learning, exploring, and discovering wih your children!



Ice Treasures

"WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR?"

this is what I heard as I set that blocks of ice out with toys frozen inside!

My reply was

"So you can have fun trying to get them out!"

50 minutes later the toys were unthawed, water EVERYWHERE, and smiling happy kids proud of their hard work!

Here are some pics of the kids working hard to free their icey treasures!

hammering with different utensils



 Pouring warm water to see what happens!

thinking oh he looks soooo cute and he is sooo busy!

then i turn my back and he dumps the bowl of water on himself :)

Happy Friday Friends

Hope everyone has an enjoyable weekend!!

Almost Finished!

From the day of the flood to now

MY family and my daycare family have been nothing but a HUGE blessing!

My husband, my brothers, my dad and my mom have worked so hard at putting the basement together as quickly as possible!

And now with the painting done, (thanks to a daycare Grandma!!)

only a few steps left of the process and we will be back in our daycare!!

Its all soooo exciting!

Here are a few photos of the before and after paint!

before the painting began!

another view of the room!

the stripes on the one long wall!

looking down the stairs!

I am hoping in 2 weeks we will offically be down in our daycare space!!!



DOT, DOT, DOT

and I don't mean the ...

I really do mean DOT, DOT, DOT!

ink pads and pencil erasers

kids stamping away

this little lady dotted forever!!!

long after everyone else was done she contiuned to dot away!

It was new, different, and fun!!

Today I took the time to catch some cute pics of the kids

i love when kids line toys up!

I think it means they will be super smart :)

pushing cars through the barn door!

someone was NOT happy when the cars wouldn't fit!

I have been trying for days to catch her reading llama llama red pajama on video!

It is the cutest thing EVER!

but everytime I pull the camera out she gets shy!

one day I will catch her!!!

Happy Monday Tuesday

( while talking on the phone with a friend she reminded me it was Tuesday)

Linking up with ABC and 123

Sometimes and Always

Today I am going to do a link out of my normal links that I do!

Thankyou Megan for this link!

I love megans blog because its different from a majority of the other blogs I read, and she is just the cutest sweetest thing ever!

Mackey Madness -- sometimes and always

I have been wanting to join for awhile but never do so here goes...

Sometimes : I want a quiet desk job...

Always:  I am thankful for the time I get to be have with my own children and to "mom" I get to be to "my other children".

Sometimes:  I think about calling in sick...

Always:  I am reminded about that one time I did call in sick when I wasn't and then I really did get sick so I work instead!

Sometimes:  I don't do the dishes till the end of the day...

Always:  I kick myself because with a daycare it takes 2-3 days for my dishwasher to catch up when I do that!

Sometimes: I want to turn the TV on and walk away!

Always:  I am reminded that God doesn't want me to be the daycare lady that sits her kids in front of the TV so I better figure out a plan and have these kids do some LEARNING!

(i will admit last week we watched WAY TO MUCH TV...I apologize!!! but it was PBS!)

Sometimes: I forget to put vegetables on the kiddos plate for lunch

Always:  I don't care because I hate veggies as much as they do, and I hate being two-faced and making them take one bite and I hate watching all the uneaten food be thrown away!

(I promise this only happens like once a week, its a treat for everyone!)

What do you Sometimes do/think but Always think/do afterwards!



Play with Your Food

I LOVE table manners

(i don't have them myself)

but I do try to teach the children about table manners

so playing with food isn't always an option!

But today I encouraged playing with food

and then eating it :)

What you need:

and fruit loops

-i forgot those in the photo-

what this is are little dixie cups with a scewer stuck in them and a quarter piece of paper the colors of the rainbow/fruitloops

I then placed the cups on the table and the fruitloops in the center

and had the kids match the fruitloops with the card under the cup.

--this was very easy for my group so I added numbers to the cards and had the kids match the correct number of fruitloops with the card number and color--

The girls matching the cups to the paper

matcing the fruitloops with the paper

 hmmm i think this is a good match!

working hard!!

I even had the little guys do this project, i did not have them do the color matching but just focus on the fine motor skills of getting the fruitloop onto the stick!

HUGE HIT!

not very often can I get the little boys to sit still for more then 48 secs

so the fact that they did this for 30mins is WONDERFUL!!!

It helped that they could snack and learn at the same time!!

look at the concentration on that face!!

one at a time!

 look Jill, I did it!!

taking a quick snack break!!

Happy Friday!

Hope everyone has a GREAT weekend!!!



Blow Paint

This is awesome!

so cool!

can I do another?

I love this!!

--these are a few of the phrases that I heard during project time--

It was a hit!

What you need:

paper

straws

paint

and a few good lungs!

Its pretty simple:

squirt paint onto paper

give each child a straw

and use those good lungs to blow the paint around

DONE!!

After blow paint was done I took out a bunch of stickers for the kids to use up

Never did I think that between blow painting and stickers that an entire 2 hours would be used up!

This kids were crazy about both activities.

I didn't take pictures of the kiddos playing with stickers and I am kinda kicking myself for not!

They were so into it and made some of the neatest things with their stickers!

These kiddos NEVER stop to amaze.

Even the very little kids sat perfectly still as I handed them each a sticker one at a time since they were not able to peel the stickers themselves!

It was the PERFECT activity!!!

Here are a couple of the sticker projects that were created!

Lots of time and energy were used on these photos!

I am soooo in love with them!!



Sweet Pictures from sweet kiddos!

This weekend has been a whirlwind!

My little brother was in a serious car accident on Thursday afternoon

so days and evenings spent at the hospital, along with just being a mother and wife!

Friday to keep my mind busy I had daycare

and told the kids about my brother/my kiddos uncle.

We prayed for him and talked about how cool he was

(they had just seen him since he was here working on the Basement)

Today I wasn't in a project mood kinda mood.

so I just took out some crayons, paper, and letters to trace or do crayon rubbings on

The kiddos got busy on their stuff,

when a child mentioned that we hadn't prayed for my brother

so we stopped what we were doing and prayed!

The kids then thought it would be fun to draw him pictures to make him happy!

here are a few pics of the kids hard at work!

I was given these letters awhile back ago and didn't think much of them and then I realized that would be great for a writing activity!

tracing, crayon rubbings or just covering your paper in them!

 Here are a couple pics of what the kids drew.

 one of the little girl drew a picture of Natalie (my daughter) and her uncle Kirk!

so sweet!

I told the kids that Kirk loved doing puzzles so another little girl drew a bunch of puzzle piees for him!  to cute!!!

It was so sweet to see the kids remember my brother and want to draw pictures for them!  It meant so much to me!  They made sure to sign their names so that Kirk would know who the pictures were from, they are sooo sticken cute!

Please Pray for My Little Brother a he has a long road ahead of him

here is his caring bridge page if you want to see his progress.

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/kirkbleyenburg



Blogging Break Catch up!

I took a break from blogging the last couple days

because

1. I wasn't in the mood

2. We didn't do anything to exciting!

and then I decided it doens't need to be exciting to blog about

I am blogging to share!

So Wednesday we did 2 different stations

(these kids are obsessed with doing stations right now so I am rolling with it!)

At station one they painted with Yarn

At station two they painted with popsicle sticks

It was weird because the group that did the yarn station first didn't really enjoy it but LOVED the popsicle station, and the kids that did the popsicle station first seemed bored but painted FOREVER with the yarn!  Kids are so crazy sometimes!

On Thursday we did this

But its all I can share with you for now! 

You will learn more next week!

I know the anticpation is killing you right...or not :)

Last night the hubby ordered pizza

(i had left the house in a hurry and didn't prepare any meals or leftovers so that means order pizza)

anyways I LOVE to marlbe paint when I have pizza boxes!

And what kid doesn't love to shake a box with marbles inside as crazy as they want!!

dumping the painted marbles in the box

giving the box a good shake!

finsihed product!

one more shake for good measure!  :)

And Finally I leave you with my little computer nerd!

(and yes he is playing with a barbie computer, but thats what you get when your older sister is a girl!)

Linking up with Two Sasters TGIF #6