One Simple Thing - Thursday - Treasure Hunt Bottles

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 (leave about 3 inches headroom in the bottle, for a great rain sound), and exploring what items they can uncover by moving the bottle (supervise closely). This is a great cause and effect activity for little ones! Have fun as you explain the names of all the objects in the bottle!

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Candyland Party

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...

Frozen Hot Chocolate

Melt 1 tablespoon of butter on low heat in a medium size saucepan. Add 1/4 cup of sugar and 1 tablespoon of baking cocoa. Next, add 1 cup of milk and whisk until almost smooth. Add 6 oz of milk chocolate chips and stir until a smooth chocolate sauce forms. In a blender, combine chocolate sauce, 5-6 pieces of ice, and 1 cup of milk. Blend until the mixture has a frappuccino-consistency, about 20 seconds. Pour into two tall classes, add whipped cream, and enjoy!

One Simple Thing - Friday

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!

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