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!

Comments

One Simple Thing - Make Ice Cream! No Ice Cream Maker Needed!

You can make amazingly creative ice cream with your little one by doing the following (the original recipe can be found here ): Whip 2 cups of chilled, heavy whipping cream until stiff peaks form. In a separate bowl, mix one can of sweetened condensed milk with any mix-ins you like. We stirred in 1/4 cup Nutella and 1 tsp espresso powder for an amazingly rich Nutella ice cream. Later, we used chocolate chips and vanilla extract to make Stracciatella ice cream (shown below). Fold the condensed milk/mix-ins mixture into the whipped cream. Transfer this mixture to a plastic container and cover with a tight-fitting lid or aluminum foil. Freeze for 6 hours. Voila! Perfectly creamy ice cream! No ice cream maker needed! This was such a fun and creative project for the kids! They had so much fun making pineapple ice cream (adding 1 can of crushed pineapple) and chocolate (adding a chopped up chocolate bar and chocola...

Tile Coaster Tutorial

Tile coasters are easy and fun to put together and make wonderful gifts! Best of all, they are inexpensive and functional ! Here's what you'll need: Modge Podge (available at craft stores) 12x12 scrapbooking paper (scrap paper is fine too, you'll need 4x4 squares) 4x4 tiles (13 cents and up at home improvement stores) foam brush felt pads (any size, four per tile, found at Home Depot, Lowes etc.) clear acrylic spray Cut as many 4x4 pieces of scrapbooking paper as tiles. Using the foam brush, cover each tile with a thin layer of Modge Podge. Quickly press the paper unto the tile. Let the Modge Podge/paper dry for 15 minutes. Next, apply a thin layer of Modge Podge over the entire surface of the tile and paper. Let dry, then repeat. Finally, spray each tile with a thin layer of clear acrylic to seal. Add the felt pad to four corners of each tile and...Voila -water-resistant coasters that can be customized to match any season or decor!

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!

Chocolate Isn't a Vegetable?

Search This Blog