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Save It For A Rainy Day

2 Feb

Sometimes life brings us rainy days…or snowy ones. We feel the walls caving in on us and we must get out of the house!

Let’s face it – there are also days we never leave the house. And there are days we can’t afford to leave the house, or shouldn’t, anyway.

I have come up with ways I never thought possible to entertain the kids. Especially on rainy and snowy days, we always find things to do.

Here’s a brief list:

•Go to the library.
This isn’t the most imaginative idea in the world. It’s probably close to your home, it’s usually spacious, and it’s FREE. Most children love books, and there are usually other story times and activities scheduled daily to keep your little one entertained.

•Have a dance party in your living room.
Every family must do this, if you haven’t already! Put on your favorite music – it will become theirs, too. Loosen up & get silly! We do the robot, the funky chicken, the shopping cart, among other classics, as well as make up our own – the bear, the giraffe, the roller coaster. Your kids will love you forever.

•Do a new craft.
Something you’ve never done before. Maybe something you are too intimidated to try, or too anal to clean! Sometimes it’s time to break out the paint, play dough, glue, & glitter and not worry about the mess. The mind it creates surpasses the mess it creates, by far. Again, your kids will love you for it! Check whimsicalsweet on Pinterest if you’re really at a loss for ideas.

•Make a fort.
Bust out the blankets and pillows & get creative with this free activity! We often make obstacle courses and mazes out of blankets, pillows, ottomans and sofas, too. Get imaginative & create a scene. You can be in a forest or an aquarium, a zoo or a jungle. Pretend play goes a long way and is good for brain growth and for the soul. :)

•Get crazy in the craft store.
As sort of a reward for being nice and patient while we shop for my art & craft supplies, I’ll drop by the foam play things aisle and let the kids play for a while. So far, nothing has broken (*knock on wood*), and their imaginations can run wild in someone else’s space for once! Michael’s, JoAnn’s, AC Moore, Hobby Lobby – they all have an aisle with foam hats, swords, shields, magic wands, crowns, etc. that you can “borrow” and test right there in the store. Just be sure to put everything back where it was and ask your children to do the same. And if anything gets worn or broken, buy it. Both are good lessons for them to learn.

What are some of the things you like to do or used to do with your children on rainy days? What activities are free or easy on the wallet?

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GIVEAWAY: sweet whimsy designs’ Monogrammed Toddler Scarf

10 Dec

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I’ve taken some time off.  I’ve stopped knitting.  I’ve stopped creating.  My kids are well-taken care of, though, so that’s good.

Knitting became a newfound love in my life.  Piano was IT, forever and ever, and it still is, but I don’t have enough time to play.  When the children are napping (which, among all three of them, is pretty much all. day. long.), there is no chance to play the piano.  But, knitting, well…that’s a different story.

Knitting is quiet and peaceful.  Quaint and lovely.  Knitting can be creative.

I got a little creative LAST winter and came up with a design for a simple scarf for my then-one year-old:  Something he could tie and untie himself. (Let’s face it, toddlers LOVE their independence!) So, I figured out a way he could do that in a very easy fashion.  The scarf has a slit. Just slip one end through and VOILA!

The Toddler Scarf was born.

A sense of accomplishment and pride comes over your little love, as easy as that.  However, I thought it was a little “too” plain.  I thought a monogram would be nice.

The Monogrammed Toddler Scarf was born.

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In order to “launch” my product, I thought I’d share one with one of you kind readers!  I really don’t expect to start pumping these out until after the holidays, but the scarf would make such a nice Christmas present, yes?!

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And so begins my Tri-Giveaway extravaganza!  Stay tuned for a few more giveaways before Christmas.  Share with your friends and family, spread the word on Facebook, Twitter, & Pinterest.

Thank you, friends! Your support is always appreciated & never taken for granted.

Enjoy December and all the joy it brings!

To enter, simply click on this link and follow further instructions.

You will also find it here:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/sweet-whimsy-designs/146219828726153

Please follow me on Facebook to keep up to date on the latest going-ons from The Whimsical Sweet & sweet whimsy designs.

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Homeschooling Fun: The Five Senses

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We have yet to be involved in a homeschooling co-op locally, but that starts soon & we are so excited!  In the meantime, we’ve been learning things at home per our 3 year-old’s request. We let her lead & tell us what she wants to do & when she wants to do it. It works pretty well. There are days when she chooses to sit with a workbook for hours.  We can’t believe her attention span sometimes.

One concept we’ve been working is the senses.  Each week, I would explain a different sense, & we would pick out a few printables from the internet.  (Try this site, this one, or this.)  Along with a great book I found (at a great sale price!), “The Ultimate Book Of Homeschooling Ideas” by Linda Robson, we came up with a fun project.

We started with the basics…we use our eyes to see, our ears to hear, our mouths to taste, our noses to smell & our fingers (& toes!) to touch.  Then we cut out examples from magazines of these senses being put to use and pasted them onto construction paper.  Tavia colored in the words & decorated the pages.

 

For the sense of taste, we had a blind taste test of all different flavors & textures of food.  She used great adjectives to describe the foods…sweet, salty, tangy, sour, spicy, rough, smooth, mushy.  One of my favorites used to describe a lick of a popsicle:  frigiddy!  Another favorite word to describe a bite of a marshmallow:  squishyish!

 

She got the hang of it rather quickly & was sputtering examples throughout each week.  At dinner, she would say “Mmm, this tastes yummy!  Hey!  I just used one of my senses!”  Or she would ask me to feel something soft or fuzzy when we were out and about.  We knew she was learning.  We could see her learning.  What a cool observation to be witness to!  It gets me every time. :)

We hung the display we created in the kids’ learning area so she could teach her brother what she learned about the five senses and recall what she had learned.  She loves teaching him new things.

We would love to hear your ideas if you’ve taught the five senses…whether you’re a homeschooler or teacher!  I’m sure we’ll always be learning how our senses guide & help us through the day!

You can find me on Pinterest where I have a board of homeschooling ideas.  Please follow me there & share your ideas, too!  (Look for the “P” in the right hand column of this page.)  You can also subscribe to my blog, thewhimsicalsweet, by clicking on “follow” at the top of this page.

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These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things: Fall Edition

4 Nov

I love fall.  I don’t like what it signifies - death, change…those kinds of things - but I do love everything that comes with it!

Pumpkins Picking them, carving them, painting them, roasting their seeds, eating them in various ways (pumpkin ravioli, pumpkin pie, pumpkin pancakes with pecans).  Let’s face it, they’re cool!  This year each one of us chose a different colored pumpkin.  Kind of fun, no?!

Color-Changing Leaves It’s neat to drive by the same trees & see how they change each day.  What’s even more fun is when they drop from the trees in quantities enough to jump into!  The kids enjoyed raking them into huge piles with cousins this year.  Their faces were priceless as they dove in with glee!

Tavia - 2 years old

Apples Picking them, carving them (we made stamps), eating them, drinking their cider, baking with them (Apple Crisp is my fave, also applesauce to last the whole year through).  Who doesn’t enjoy a good apple?!!

Fall Crafts We have been artsing & crafting like nuts around these parts!  Cut-out masks, leaf rubbings, apple & leaf stamps, our very own “tree”, lots of printable activities via the internet, the list goes on & on.  We just can’t get enough.

Pecan Pie Incredibly indulgent & full of unhealthy ingredients…need I say more?!

Halloween 2010

Halloween From making costumes to trick-or-treating and all the dance parties in between, Halloween may very well be my favorite Hallmark Holiday.

Autumnal Light  Outdoor photography in the fall is usually some of the most beautiful, assuming you’ve captured it on a day full of sunshine.

Places To Go, People To See I’m pretty sure we’ve visited every farm, corn maze, pumpkin patch & apple grove this side of the Mississippi.  The fun never ends at these places, so look into it next year for your little ones if you haven’t already.  There are usually plenty of free activities & lots to do at little cost…bonus!

Decor  Halloween decorations are fun, but so are the colors of fall around the home.  I like to have certain seasonal decor like a rust-colored table runner, a scarecrow scattered here & there throughout the house or a few sparkly pumpkin placemats for the kids.  It changes things up a bit and makes life fun - always a priority in our lives.

Clothing  I am a redhead, fall looks good on me :)

Harvest Moon  Not many things in life are better than a full, round, low-lying, giant fall moon.  You know, the kind of moon that makes you glad your heart is beating.

Thanksgiving At My Parent's House, 2010

Thanksgiving Dinner We are *thankful* to celebrate Thanksgiving three times each year.  Though it may be a time-crunching, hectic schedule to attend to, we get to indulge in three meals in return.  Not a bad deal!  The most scrumptious part about it?  Each of our families prepares Thanksgiving dinner in a different way, so we get a smorgasbord of tastings throughout the day.  Some of my personal favorites, besides the obvious turkey, gravy, stuffing & mashed potatoes:  mushroom caps in a wine-cream sauce, chestnut-stuffed artichokes, homemade cranberry jam, sweet yams (prepared in a way only my Grandmother can) and Yorkshire pudding (prepared in a way only my Grandmother-In-Law can!).  Can you say “YUMMMMM”?!  I never have room for dessert :)   Even luckier, only two dinners are served on the actual day of Thanksgiving, so the love is spread out (& our waistbands don’t expand too much on the day of)!  That is one day where my “all in moderation” philosophy is WAY out the window!

What are your favorite hints of autumn?  What do you look forward to most each year?  Do tell :)

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Homeschooling Fun: Autumn Clay Tree

24 Oct

Since my oldest is only 3, we are not ready for full-time (or part-time) preschool, so we try to do fun things every day that somehow sneak in education.  Sometimes this entails going out & about, sometimes it is at home.  “Homeschooling Fun” will display my slight attempt at projects we do together.  I have a plethora of resources where I usually get these ideas but sometimes they are my own.  (I am ALWAYS open to new suggestions for resources!  Please comment below.)  Unfortunately, I don’t remember where this next project came from but I do know it was a lot of good, time-consuming fun!

Autumn Clay Tree

We started this simple project by going outside & scouting out the perfect tree branch.  There are not too many trees around us, so we couldn’t find a loose branch on the ground, we had to cut this one directly from the grounded tree.  Our daughter was quite intrigued by the different shapes of branches we found, not a lot look like trees if standing on their own.  I tucked in a discussion of the what, how & why of trees.  Lots of questions followed, which I always look forward to when explaining something to an inquisitive toddler!

We gathered indoors (it was chilly out that day!) & started “planting the tree” (sticking it to green construction paper*) by surrounding it with “soil” (green clay).  *This was a little difficult with the flimsy construction paper.  I would recommend something stronger like cardboard or wood.

Next, we pinched tiny pieces of clay (we used play-doh for times’ sake but homemade clay would have worked better), perfect for her petite hands, into the branches.  We used colors she thought would be seen in the fall – red, orange, yellow & green.  She did most of the leaves.  She was very focused & excited to see the end result.

VOILA!

The pieces that fell were smooshed into the paper to become those fallen leaves.  Easy-peasy!

What do  you think?  What would you have done differently?  What indoor activities do you do in the fall with your children?  PLEASE SHARE!  We’d LOVE to hear!

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