Chocolate Isn't a Vegetable?

Make a volcano! For a great science experiment that will teach vocabulary and critical thinking, take a plastic cup and fill it with about ½ cup of baking soda and add a couple of drops of red food coloring. Explain to your child that volcanoes sometimes erupt, spewing lava and rocks. You can look at some great videos of volcanoes here and information about them here . Once you have looked at the volcano videos and talked about lava, rocks, and perhaps even earthquakes associated with volcanoes, begin the experiment. Tell your child that she will make the volcano erupt by pouring about ¼ cup of vinegar on the baking soda (make sure to place the cup with baking soda inside a small bowl to catch the “lava”). Explain to her that this is not real lava, which would be very hot! Next, explain that combining the baking soda and vinegar is a chemical reaction. For a simple explanation of this click here . Be prepared to make the volcano erupt again and again! Have fun!

A few weeks ago a couple of friends and I hosted a baby shower for a sweet friend, due with her first baby girl soon! We all provided food and my oldest made the beautiful, mod pink and brown cake. We also served Raspberry Sherbet pie , fruit, cookies, and delicious cheese dip. A diaper cake, several giant Onesie cupcakes ( tutorial here ), and baby sock cupcakes, served as decorations. We had a great time celebrating the Mommy-To-Be!

Today, create your own non-toxic finger paint. It is easy, inexpensive, and fun to make these! Check out a few recipes for finger paint here . Create a rainbow of colors and allow your little one to have fun creating colorful works of art! Model the letters of his first name for your child and have fun watching him create his own masterpiece!

Today, create a placemat that your little one can use to remember her morning routine. Complete instructions can be found here. Discuss with your child what items to include on the morning checklist. Then, take photographs of the actions or objects associated with the checklist item. For example, if "Make your Bed" is one of your items, show your child step-by-step how to make the bed the way you would like it to look (remembering that it will not look exactly like that when your little one does it). Place each photo on the placemat, before adding the clear contact paper. Taking photographs of what you would like your child's room to look like after he cleans his rooms is a great way to avoid the, "But I did clean my room!" battles. If the room does not look like the photograph, then it is not considered cleaned up! For babies, create a visual schedule by taking a photograph of your baby at different times of the day (breakfast, playtime, outside ...

It's never to early to teach our little ones about kindness! Today, create a card for a neighbor, friend, or relative! Fold a piece of paper in half and ask your child to tell you what message to include in the card. Write his message word for word. Allow him to "write" his own message as well, if he seems interested. Then, decorate with crayons, stickers, markers etc. until the card looks beautiful to both of you. Talk about how happy the person will be to receive your card and discuss other ways to "be a sunshine" (by baking cookies for a shut-in, providing dinner to a family with a new baby etc.). Babies can make greeting cards too - just paint those little hands and press them on the card for great handprint art!

For our Fourth of July celebration this year, we created a melon basket. You can find a great tutorial describing how to make one of these here. The basket turned out to be a beautiful and functional centerpiece!

I saw this great Cozy Car Caddy tutorial over at homemade by jill and decided to adapt it for my little Polly Pocket fan. I used the techniques described in the Car Caddy tutorial. It was so much fun designing this purse/Polly Pocket hangout! The finished purse can be opened to reveal Polly's sleeping bag, envelope for clothes, and a balloon for two friends. This is a great quiet toy to take to church!

Today, use some dry pasta ( elbow macaroni work well), paper, and glue to create letters. Draw large letters on pieces of paper and encourage your child to follow the outline of each letter by gluing the pasta on the outline. Name the letters as your child completes each picture. For babies, count out loud as you put dry pasta in a plastic container. Cover the container with a tight fitting lid. Have fun shaking your home-made pasta maraca!

One Simple Thing you can do with your preschooler or toddler today is to go grocery shopping! Create a shopping list together, explain that you use coupons to save money, ask your little one to be you big helper today! Together, walk through the aisles of your favorite grocery store and help your child compare the words written on your shopping list (make sure to print clearly) to the ones on the packages. Make sure to take your child very close to the actual item, at least at the beginning, so he can find the item without getting frustrated. This is a wonderful activity that teaches about environmental print, math, and savvy shopping! For babies, use your grocery store trips to point out letters on food labels and signs, and count aloud as you add items to your shopping cart. Have fun!

For Preschoolers: Playing with coins is an easy and fun way to practice counting and sorting! Your preschooler will learn new vocabulary when you explain to him what each of the coins is called, talk about their characteristics, and the characters represented on them. For some fun coin trivia to share with your child click here. For Babies: Today, spray about three tablespoons of whipped cream/spray topping on your child’s high chair tray, letting her explore the texture (and flavor!) of the whipped cream. Explain to her that it is sticky, white, soft etc. to build her vocabulary while she engages all five senses to explore. Add more whipped cream as needed, then draw and name basic shapes for her. Have fun!

Today, make your own non-toxic play dough using simple ingredients! Once the play dough is ready, cut a few plastic straws into pieces of uneven length for your child to use while working with the play dough. These pieces can become antlers, tails, or whatever else you and she can imagine for your play dough creations. Have fun talking about the creatures you create, while building language and fine-motor skills! Here is the recipe we used all the time when I was teaching preschool: Combine in a heavy saucepan: 2 cups flour 3/4 cup of salt 4 teaspoons Cream of Tartar (buy in bulk or at the Dollar Store) Add: 2 cups of water 4-5 drops of food coloring of your choice Stir until lumps disappear. Add 3 Tablespoons of vegetable or corn oil and heat over medium high heat, stirring constantly. This will take a lot of elbow grease as the ingredients turn into a heavy ball of dough. Make sure to keep stirring so none of the dough touches the bottom of the pan for too long. Once the play dough h...

One Simple Thing you can do with your child today to increase his reading skills and boost science learning is to...play with water! Place an old towel or blanket either on a level surface, indoors or outside. Fill a plastic baking bowl or other plastic container with room-temperature water and add 2-3 small Tupperware-like plastic containers. Let the pouring and measuring begin! As your child scoops up water and scoops it from container to container, narrate what she is doing. Then, ask questions such as, “I wonder how many little scoops it takes to fill this bigger plastic container?” Ask other “investigative” questions and narrate what he is doing. Then, you are teaching language and science at the same time! Supervise closely and have fun!

This year Boo's birthday party theme was "Candyland." We had plenty of inspiration for this fun party from this site . Here are some pictures I took at Boo's party! The candy buffet was made up of favorite candies I had bought on sale whenever possible, beginning a few weeks before the party. Most of the containers are from the $Tree. A pad of construction paper was used to create this Candyland path. My oldest, Miss Independent, painted this "Gingerbread Tree" for a bean bag toss game. The party guests earned tickets based on how many of three bean bags they tossed through the openings. We used a piece of foam and painted it for our Princess Lolli lollipop game. The kids each pulled out a lollipop, the color at the end of the lollipop stick earned them one, two, or three tickets (at the end of the party tickets earned at various stations were exchanged for prizes). Party guests visited Princess Frostine, making ice cream creations at her stat...

Memory and Hide-and-Seek Today, gather five to eight household objects an place them on the floor in front of your child. Name each one, then cover three of the objects with a dish towel. Ask your child to name the objects underneath the towel. If she gets all three correctly, add one more. Continue to add one more object, as you work your way up to remembering all eight objects (if possible, the important part is that you both have a blast and nobody gets frustrated). Make sure to take turns and have fun! This activity builds your child vocabulary and visual memory, important to successful reading! One Simple Thing you can do with your baby to strengthen his or her prereading skills today, is to name a toy you are holding, and then let her see you "hide" the toy close to her. Encourage her to find the toy ("Where did the ball go? Can you find the ball?") praise her when she does ("You found the ball! You found the red ball with the white dots!"). Make s...

One Simple Thing you can do today to strengthen your child's pre-reading skills is to create Treasure Hunt Bottles! Fill an empty plastic bottle with 3/4 cups of rice and add small items such as paper clips, bottle caps, and buttons. Add more rice, until all items are hidden. Close the bottle tightly. Supervise your child closely (possible chocking hazards) as she turns the bottle slowly to discover the objects inside. Name the objects as they are found and explain their use. For older children, model writing the name of each item on a piece of paper, drawing a picture of the item beside it. After all items have been found and named, encourage your child to gather small toys and other items, and help him make his own treasure hunt bottle. Model writing down each item he adds to the bottle (or let him write his own list if he's interested). Have fun asking friends and relatives to hunt for all the treasures in the bottle! Babies will have fun shaking the treasure bottle...

One Simple Thing you can do with your baby, toddler, or preschooler is to...paint with pudding! Drop a dollop of any flavor pudding (prepared according to package directions), on a piece of wax paper. Allow your child to use the pudding as paint, encouraging him to write letters, his name etc. Make sure to model how to correctly form each letter . For a refresher on forming print letters correctly, click here . For this pudding painting activity, you will definitely want to wear play clothes or a smock. For a great tutorial on creating a water-proof smock, click here . Have fun!

All print our children see around them can be considered environmental print. Just drive your three-year-old by any McDonald's and he will plead with you to get him french fries the minute he sees that golden "M." One Simple Thing you can do today to help your child succeed in learning to read is to support her love of environmental print! Collect five or six DVD or VHS covers of shows or movies that are your family's favorites (your local library is a great source of movies you can rent for free!). Lay them side by side on a table or rug and begin talking about each one. Your child is likely to tell you some of the titles immediately ! Point to the words in each movie title as you read it aloud. Then, the fun begins! Point to the title of a movie your child knows for sure and ask, "What does this say?" Most likely, he or she will "read" the title correctly. If it is slightly off ("Bug's Life"), point to each word and say, "Yes...

One Simple Thing - Monday One Simple Thing to boost pre-reading skills in your baby today is to involve her in your chores! As you do the laundry, name each item you fold and describe it ("Time to fold the shirt, Mommy's pink shirt with the long sleeves."). If you are vacuuming, explain the difference between the brush and the hose, for example. Talking your child through your daily activities will build her vocabulary immensely and make cleaning up fun! One Simple Thing you can do with your toddler or preschooler today, is creating a chore chart! Two- to five-year-olds love to help and will be happy to have their very own list of chores. List two to three age-appropriate chores ("Put plastic cups on the table for dinner," "Fold the wash clothes," "Match and straighten the shoes") on a piece of paper and draw a simple picture next to each chore to illustrate the task. Then, put a checkbox next to each chore. Decorate the chart together and ha...

This fun activity aids vocabulary development, encourages an interest in animal science and nurtures imaginations: Go on a scavenger hunt with your child and collect as many of her stuffed animals as you can find. Then, lead her take the lead organizing them into categories to create a "zoo." Create "cages" out of blocks or pillows and label each cage with an index card stating the animal's name. You can also add interesting facts about each animal by researching the internet (for some great live animal cam footage click here ) or looking through an encyclopedia. Create "zoo tickets" and invite siblings and friends to visit your unique zoo! One Simple Thing you can do to help your babies language development today is to take a "texture walk." Describe each texture as you encourage your baby to touch a soft blanket, a smooth plastic surface, or squishy playdough.

One Simple Thing you can today to boost reading skills in your reading skills in your baby is to blow bubbles with your baby. How does this help with future reading skills, you may ask? Well, while blowing bubbles, use many descriptive words to help your little one build his or her vocabulary. Explain how the bubbles are round, shiny, light, etc. Recipes for homemade bubbles can be found here . The ones with glycerin (typically available at any pharmacy) produce the most "store-like" bubbles, but the recipes containing sugar or corn syrup work well too! One Simple Thing you can do with your toddler or preschooler today is to make bubble pictures! Add a dishwashing liquid such as Joy to a large bowl filled with warm water. Teach your child how to blow into the water to create bubbles (make sure they blow into the water, rather than swallowing the soapy water). Once you have a bowl full of bubbles, add liquid food coloring to the surface of the bubbles. Now, take lightly colore...

Making curly ribbon hair bows yourself is a great way to create matching hair accessories for your little girls' outfits. I made these to attach to birthday gift bags as a little "extra." A tutorial for curly ribbon hair bows can be found here . Have fun!

Moms of babies, toddlers, and preschoolers alike: Bussongs.com allows you to download tunes and lyrics to all your favorite children's songs. One Simple Thing you can do today to increase your child's reading or pre-reading skills is to choose one song from the website and teach it to your child! Children's songs teach rhyming in a playful way - an essential pre-reading skill! Have fun!

One Simple Thing you can do today to help your baby, toddler, or preschooler work on his or her pre-reading skills is to play with your food! Pour about 1 cup of sugar on a baking sheet and allow your child to explore the new medium. Describe the grainy texture of the sugar, the crunchy sound it makes when it is moved around on the baking sheet, and the clear and white colors of the sugar. After some exploring, help your child draw shapes or letters. You may want to allow your little one to taste the sugar toward the end of the activity. Store the sugar in a plastic ziptop bag labeled “sugar writing” and use repeatedly. Have fun!