Friday Things #353
1. I think I’ve mentioned it here before, but Dominic loves seeing the moon and the night sky. Last night during dinner, he announced that he was going to outer space… in a blue rocket ship… with daddy… they were going to crash into the moon(!), but maybe beep their horn so they don’t crash after all, and then they’ll come back home. So let it be known that if Dominic ever becomes an astronaut, his space fascination began early ;-)
2. It is blowing my mind that this sweet boy is turning FIVE next weekend, whaaaaaaaat?! It seems like just yesterday and, at the same time, a lifetime ago that he was swimming around in my belly. I remember being anxious and not knowing how to take care of a baby, or how to entertain a toddler, and here we are, five years later! I think we’re all figuring it out pretty well :)
3. This little lady got a step stool for Christmas and she is LOVING standing up like a big girl to brush her teeth. I actually think brushing her teeth might be one of her top three favorite things to do. She’s such a fun girl :)
4. Do you know of any websites or Pinterest/Instagram accounts that are good for finding fun projects for preschoolers? Joseph LOVES doing arts and crafts and if there’s a free afternoon he always asks if I have a project for them to do. I’ve had luck picking up little seasonal craft projects at Michael’s, but looking for some other ideas, too.
5. Have you ever done a “cookbook club“? What book(s) would you want to use?
6. The first BEB Bake-Along of the year went live this week! Are you going to bake focaccia bread with me??
7. Dogs are just the best –> Dogs Show Sick Kids How to Go Through Medical Procedures
8. Another reminder that the days are long, but the years are short.
9. I’m totally hooked on Jeopardy: The Greatest of All Time this week. It still stuns me that people can find, learn, and remember such an enormous amount of trivia! I’m thrilled if I can get a few right answers during every episode ;-)
10. TGIF! Duke wishes you an awesome Friday 😍
Your children are adorable, your dog looks like the sweetest pooch ever and I have to agree with you about Jeopardy! I love to watch the show too, but I might get one or two answers every two or three days! How do these people remember all that stuff? I can’t even remember what I did last week!
Thanks for all the fabulous recipes. The white bread is my favorite so far.
Have a great week.
Carolyn
I like to order educational games and activities from mindware.com.
We have loved having a Kiwi Crate monthly subscription for our son. You can customize the box for the age or interest (like art or STEM) and each box has a few different projects in it. My son gets so excited when he sees the box on the front porch and it’s fun that he gets some mail that’s just for him. All the supplies are in the box, so it keeps that part simple too. I feel like he’s learning a lot from the projects.
My mom would make homemade play doh during the summer to entertain all 6 of us kids – I think it was something like flour, salt, and water to make the dough? I know you can google for a recipe. But it was safe if we ate it, we could color it with food coloring, and she’d sometimes let us choose one thing we’d made and she’d bake it. That could always be painted, if you wanted to let them play with paint.
As for arts and crafts – I think it really depends on how involved you want to be in the process. But there are a ton of online ideas from “get the kid started and let them have at it” to “parent’s involved the whole time”; just search online (and looking at what teachers do is also an idea).
How cute. We were so innovative back then and cost conscious..right…I remember making homemade paper mache in grade school. Boy have times changed. My nieces had actual powered kiddie cars. We didnt even get a car for our barbies lol…probably cost too much. Oh well. Glad they can enjoy😊
I was part of a baking cookbook group. We decided to pick a challenge and find our own recipes. We agreed that we didn’t want to buy lots of big cookbooks and not use them. The challenges ranged from seasonal ingredients to technique. Caramel was my favorite challenge! We met four times/year, so pretty low pressure. We all brought tasting samples and discussed our successes and failures. Having a challenge also allowed us to try different recipes and choose the best. We had many, many brownies to sample! If you were to do it online, you could use a video conferencing tool to hold a virtual meeting and have folks share their experiences.
I have been doing a Cookbook Club with my friends for two years now. and I absolutely LOVE it! We meet every other month, randomly choose books we think would be good, we all make a dish, and then talk, share, and eat. Since it’s at my house I usually make an entree so I can bring it hot to the table. It is so enjoyable and delicious!
This is for Dominic: 13 reasons to look up at the night sky this year
https://www.nj.com/news/2020/01/13-full-moons-including-2-supermoons-and-a-blue-moon-will-be-shining-in-2020.html
Cookbook club sounds like fun…but just cookbook “club” with me at home so no pressure and would give some therapeutic needed down time. Joseph looks so handsome and is growing up so fast. Duke looks handsome too and of course your other 2 babies are beautiful. Have a good weekend all.
Prekwolfpack on Insta is a good one. I’m a huge busytoddler fan, also!
I enjoy your Friday posts. Your little ones are adorable and growing so fast. I have a few suggestions if you want to start a cookbook club. Some of my favorite cookbooks are:
Half Baked Harvest Super Simple by Tieghan Gerard
Half Baked Harvest: Recipes from my barn in the mountains by the same author
Fresh Every Day: More great recipes from Fosters Market by: Sara Foster
Milk Street: The New Rules by: Christoper Kimball
You should follow the rambling red head on Instagram. She is hilarious and has 3 kids like you who she home schools part time and she does a segment called teach em Tuesday where she features different projects she’s using with her kids.
Busy Toddler on Instagram is such a wonderful resource for toddler activities and crafts. All the materials she uses are super common things (or easily sourced on amazon LOL). Can’t recommend her enough!
I perhaps have mentioned this book to you but If Dominic loves space stuff, you have to get him a copy of Eric Carle’s ” Papa, Please Get The Moon or Me”. It is available in paperback and if you google, you can find tons of activities, art projects, etc that early childhood teachers have developed for their classrooms. The book is very interactive and is a great way to help children understand the phases of the moon.
Pinterest is a great source for craft projects for young children. Just search art projects for 3-5 year olds. ou can be a general or specific as you want.As a former K teacher, the best projects are the opened ended ones. Some general directions to get to an end project are fine but it is best to let children be free to be creative. For example, a child would need basic instruction to fold a circle into a cone shape as the first step to making a snowflake as well as a quick demo about cutting but once that happens, the child should d be free to make cuts as they want and just see what happens.
I just ordered my niece a discovery subscription from this site. I haven’t seen the kits yet, but the reviews seemed good. She loves crafts. https://www.greenkidcrafts.com
I love the ideas on tinywhitedaisy’s board! https://www.pinterest.com/tinywhitedaisy/children-s-craft-ideas/
Busy Toddler and Days with Gray are GREAT for toddler + preschool age activities!
I’m so curious if you find any good Instagram accounts/websites for crafts for Joseph- I have a toddler son who would love that, also!
I like toddler approved https://www.toddlerapproved.com ( @kristinatoddlerapproved on IG ) and I can teach my child https://www.icanteachmychild.com (@icanteachmychild on IG) both have simple activities that my 3 have always LOVED!
Busy Toddler on Instagram is an amazing resource for sensory tubs and other easy, at-home toddler activities. My daughter just turned 5 and my twin sons are 3.5 so it’s been great to follow along with your similarly aged kids, Michelle. Thanks for sharing your life!