Lowes/Home Depot Kids Program

Both Lowes and Home Depot have kids programs on Saturday mornings. Kids are given an apron, safety goggles, a kids size hammer and a kit to make a wooden toy. They hammer it together, and add stickers to decorate. When they finish a project, they get a certificate to take home and a badge to glue onto their apron.

Kids get to use real tools to create a cool project, all while following directions provided (with pictures for non-readers!), following safety rules (watch where that hammer is going!), and using fine motor skills (to pick up those tiny pieces). The constant hammering is a little annoying to listen to, so get grandpa to take them if at all possible!

Bonus: Its free!

Click here to see it in action

(see what I mean about the noise level in there!?)

Puffy Paint

Mix shaving cream with a glob of elmer's glue to make puffy paint. It dries too (takes a while). You can add a little paint or food coloring to it to color it, or leave it white and use colored paper. Try practicing writing letters, or just smush it. It has a really unique texture.

Bonus: its easy to clean up!

Thanksgiving

Pilgram hat:

1. Cut a large rectangle strip long enough to fit around the child's head, staple it into a loop. Make snips all the way around at the bottom of the hat.

2. Trace the resulting circle shape. Draw a circle 3" bigger than this on the outside.

3. Cut out along the outer circle and inner circle (you now have a ring).

4. Apply glue to the tabs created in step 1, and attach the hat band to the brim.

5. Make a buckle by cutting out a rectangle, fold in half and cut a small rectangle out of it. Glue it on.

6. wear it!

November's Harvest

From the co-op garden

Creative Movement - Ribbon dancing

You need:

A ring (wood or metal, big enough to hold)

ribbon any kind

Tie the ribbon through the ring, at whatever length you prefer. Thats it!

Supervise use closely as ribbons can be a strangulation hazard.

Let the child try it out! Turn on some music and dance, or go outside and let the ribbons blow in the wind.

Major slacking on the blog!

Sorry guys, I have been slacking big time on posting! I am going to add some new posts now, catch up and then get back to regular posting!

Mr. Science

Levi has been taking a great science class at the rec center called "Mr. Science". Mr. Science is a funny guy who does all kinds of neat experiments with the kids. He does a good job of keeping them engaged through the hour-long class, and he throws in info for the grown-ups too. I really like that he teaches science in a way the kids can understand, but also uses scientific vocabulary (and explains it to them), and teaches them interesting concepts in a way they can understand, but not in a way that dumbs it down to nothing.

I'm glad we found the program as an addition to the other homeschool activities we do, because science is not one of my strong points. Its hard for me to come up with fun ideas, but its easy to expand on what he learns in Mr. Science class, and often we repeat experiments at home!

Here is a Video too!