Special Valentine's Day Breakfast

A while back, my friend Alyssa told me of a tradition her mom used to do for them growing up - she would make a really fancy breakfast for the kids to wake up to on Valentine's Day morning.  Since we homeschool and the kids miss out on Valentine's parties at school, I thought this would be a fun way to celebrate.

Last year was our first year, and I didn't tell the kids what I was planning.  After they went to bed, I decorated the table, tied balloons to the chairs, and set out their surprises.  In the morning I put the food on the table before they woke up.

We had lemon poppyseed muffins with heart sprinkles (heart sprinkles make anything valentinesy).  We also had strawberry mini-wheats cereal, grapes, strawberries, danimals drinkable yogurts, and anything else red I could find.  I had made heart cookie pops for a centerpiece.  I didn't make a hot breakfast.  I figured the red stuff was fun enough.

We put their mailboxes on the table with notes from us in them, and put some treats on the table too, like cookies, yogurt covered raisins, conversation hearts, box of animal crackers, and chocolate lollipops.

I used a mold from my mom to make the lollipops.
We used to give these to our teachers at school.

My mom always made us a big sugar cookie heart with our names on them growing up, so I wanted to do the same for our kids.

I can't believe I didn't even make one for Nathan.
Poor neglected 4th child. 

Nathan was my early riser back then, so he got to enjoy his breakfast before the other kids came down.

All the kids were surprised and excited.

It was a lot of fun, and a tradition I think we'll keep.  However, it is a little less fun when it's not a surprise.  The kids keep asking "Are you going to do the breakfast again this year mom?  Are you?"

Hyperblast App and Magic of Learning App Review

I love my iPad for several reasons, one of which is all the fun educational games my kids can play.  But there are so many apps out there that sometimes it is hard to know which ones to get.  A few months back I had reviewed the jumpstart.com website, and they contacted me again asking if I had heard of their apps, and would I like to review a couple.  I had not heard of them, and was glad to check them out!

The first game is called Hyperblast.  It is one of the games from their mathblaster.com website, except since it's on the iPad, you tilt the screen to move around instead of using the keyboard.

You can customize the level of difficulty for your child, choosing which math operations are used and what numbers.  All my kids can play this game on different levels.

When the kids get to one of the math aliens, they answer the questions to earn more blasts.

The kids love playing this game.  They think it's a lot of fun to tilt and blast their way through bombs and obstacles.

My one complaint about the game is that I think it could do a better job of reinforcing math skills. When you get to the math alien, and your answer to the equation is wrong, it goes on to the next problem without letting you know what the correct answer was.  It would be much better if the correct answer was shown, and the child was made to touch the correct answer before going on to the next problem.  My 4 year old likes to play the game, and when he gets to the math alien, he just randomly touches numbers until the math alien disappears and he goes on playing.  He hasn't earned any more blasts, but he doesn't care.  I think if they fixed this aspect of the game, it would be great instead of just good.



The other game I was asked to review was the Jumpstart Magic of Learning app for Preschoolers.

This app has a variety of games kids can play.  The games teach colors, shapes, letters, and math skills, like sorting and counting.

matching letters

shortest to longest

This game is a good one to play with your preschoolers. It's not one mine can do on his own yet,  because he's not able to read and choose the correct level of play for himself, but he loves playing it with me.

I could only think of one complaint in this app, and that is that in the matching games the animals disappear.  I guess the thought was that it would be more fun, more of a game, if the kids had to think fast and touch the animal with the right card before it left the screen, but this was just frustrating for my son.  They actually do disappear rather slowly, and it wouldn't be an issue if the child already knew the answer. But my son is at a point where we need to talk through the cards together so I can help him figure out which one it is, and then when he finally decides on one, but then the card hides so he can't touch it, it's a bit frustrating for him.  This was more of an issue for the math matching, matching numbers to correct number of items on a card (because he didn't have time to count all the cards) than the letter matching games.

So now you know about two great apps for your kids.  What are your favorite apps?

Disclosure:  I was given the Hyperblast App and Jumpstart Magic of Learning App for free to review.   The opinions I have given are mine and may differ from others but were not influenced by the company or the free product provided.  

a Valentine Craft so easy a child can do it

The other day we pulled out the red pipe cleaners and some pink pony beads.  Voila!  Heart decorations.  We cut the pipe cleaners to make different sizes.

Maren also made Cupid's bow and arrow, and a flower, and
is that a candy cane?  Crazy girl.  

We decided to hang them with thread from our kitchen light.  It turned our boring fixture into a fancy valentine chandelier.

The kids like them a lot.  Especially the one that has curly cues in the middle of it, because they say it looks like a mustache, so they call that heart Mr. Mustache.

Nathan's Education

As I'm working with the older kids on their schoolwork, Nathan (age 2.4) is often on his own.  I try to keep track of where he is and watch what he's doing, but he often gets into things I'd rather he didn't. . .

like the marshmallows

and the toilet paper

Or sometimes we find him playing with his siblings' toys . . .

like Maren's American Girl dolls

and Joshua's  playmobil

But most often we find him here:

playing the iPad without permission

But don't worry.  Even though it seems like I don't have a lot of time to teach Nathan things, he is learning plenty from his brothers and sisters, as evidenced by the following video:

See?  Nothing to worry about.

Subtraction - borrowing

I tried to think of a fun way to teach Joshua borrowing during subtraction, and this is what I came up with.

I found some smarties and sweethearts roll candies leftover from halloween (candy always makes activites high interest).  I took some out, leaving 10 pieces of candy in each roll.  

I gave Joshua a problem to solve, such as 52 - 5.

We counted out 52, using our tens and ones.  Then I asked him how we were going to take away 5 ones when we only had 2.  He figured out that we would have to unwrap a roll of 10, so we did.  I asked him how many 10s we had now, and how many ones.  Then he took away the 5 ones, and we counted again.  

We did that a few times with different problems, and then I showed him how we write it out when we're doing it on paper, and if we wanted to do it without manipulatives.  

Here comes Nathan, trying to help him subtract some candy

He picked it up pretty quickly, so I'd say it was a success.

Peter Pan Party

Joshua asked for a Peter Pan party for his 7th birthday party.

We began the party with our traditional hallway wall mural.

The kids sat down and we played "Tinkerbell helps Peter Pan find his shadow".  I  gave the kids a jingle bell on a string they could wear around their necks.  One person went out of the room while one person hid the shadow, which I had cut out of black construction paper.  Then the first person came back in the room and tried to find the shadow, with help from us Tinkerbells, ringing loudly or softly depending on how close he/she was to the shadow.

Next we thought happy thoughts and flew to Neverland.  Each child got either a Peter Pan hat or a Tiger Lily headband.  I had made the hats out of green felt.  I just cut a simple triangle shape, sewed them together, cut a slit in the side and stuck in a large feather.  I didn't bother hemming or anything. The girls bands were brown felt with a feather stuck in a slit in the back.  Very easy-peasy.

Next we joined the Lost Boys gang and decorated our Lost Boy bracelets to prove our membership.  Yeah, I don't think they were in the story, but we put that part in because my son saw the "make your own bracelet kit" at the store and wanted to make them.

Then we went in to the other room and played "Captain Hook Says".  This is pretty much "Simon Says" except whoever was Simon got to use a hook, speak in a pirate voice, yell mean things, and tell the others to do piratey things.

For Joshua's cake, I made a map of Neverland.  Using a map image of Neverland I found googling, I cut and piled up cake to look like the island.  I used airheads, starburst, and tootsie rolls to mold all the other things on there.  I made teepees, a mermaid, the lost boys tree hideout, a pirate ship, skull rock, and Peter Pan.

In addition to their Tinkerbell necklaces and Peter Pan/Tiger Lily hats, the guests took home a bag with a pirate spyglass, a harmonica (I couldn't find any pan pipes, but figured a harmonica would work), a flashlight (for doing shadow play or for tinkerbell), some kisses, and some candy cane hooks.  I tried to find pixie sticks, but couldn't find them at any of the stores I went to.

I had a bunch of other activity ideas that I didn't get to, like the Lost Boys walking around the house playing follow the leader, throwing Hook's hand to a crocodile, making shadows on the wall (such as holding an object in front of a flashlight and having them guess what it was by its shadow), dancing to the beat of an Indian drum, or walking the plank.  Fun Times.

Dolphin Birthday Party

My daughter turned 9 this past November and asked for a dolphin party.
When she told me she wanted a dolphin party, I was not enthusiastic.  I tried to talk her into many other themes which I thought would be much more fun and much easier to plan.  I even came up with an awesome foot themed party that I thought would be hilarious, but she was less then thrilled with that idea.  However, we came up with some fun activities and I think everyone who came had a good time.

When the partygoers arrived, they drew on our traditional "mural on the hallway wall".  This is a great opening activity because it gives the kids something to do while they are waiting for the other kids, and sometimes kids go back and do more on it during the party.

We started the dolphin party by practicing to catch fish in our mouths, ya know, like dolphins do.  I gave everyone a cup of goldfish and they all practiced.  It was fun to watch.  Some were quite incapable of tossing the goldfish anywhere close to them.  After a while, they all sat down and took turns demonstrating their fish catching prowess, if they wanted to.

catching fish

Next, I gave everyone a little stuffed dolphin (I had found these for about a dollar each at a place in town that sells things from oriental trading company) and we threw the dolphins through a hula hoop.  The kids stood in a line and took turns.  If they missed, they sat down.  If they made it, they went to the back of line.  I moved farther back with the hula hoop each round.

Then we put the dolphins aside and decided to throw ourselves through the hula hoop.  I got our gymnastics mat out ($5 at a yard sale, such a great deal) and the kids who were interested took turns jumping through the hoop.  Some even did rolls or spins through it.  Fortunately, no one was hurt.

Next we played a shark/dolphin version of the "detective handshake" game I used to play with students in summer school. In this game the kids would close their eyes while I walked around and tapped one of them on the head.  This child was the "shark". Then everyone opened their eyes. They walked around shaking hands with the other players.  If the shark decided to eat a dolphin, he would gently scratch the inside of that person's hand while they were shaking hands.  The dolphin was supposed to shake 2 more hands and then die a dramatic death.  The playing stopped, anyone who had been scratched but hadn't died yet went ahead and did their dramatic death,  and I let a couple of people guess who they thought the shark was.  If no one got it right, we kept playing.  The kids thought this game was a lot of fun, and it took a while for some of them to remember the 2 handshakes after being scratched rule, so it was easier to guess the shark.  We played many rounds, and we went back and played more after cake and presents.

This picture makes me laugh for 2 reasons - first, my little 2 year old decided
to lie down and be dead with the other kids, and second, it looks like Maren's
friend Josh is stepping on him.  

For the dolphin cake, I used green sour strings for the seaweed, and airheads and starburst to form fish, a mermaid, and a dolphin.

I used sprinkles around the bottom for the sandy ocean floor

This dolphin was on top of the cake.  I thought it was pretty cute.

 We sent the kids home with a party bag full of ocean things, such as sweedish fish, a handful of salt water taffy, bubbles, an ocean themed eraser, their stuffed dolphins, and a glittery plastic necklace which I had initially planned to use in some kind of ring toss game, but the kids liked using them as mini hoops to throw their stuffed dolphins through.

It turned out to be a great party, but I'm still going to try and get her to do a foot party someday.

Top 11 of 2011

Well, everybody else is, so I thought I would too.  Here are some of the most popular posts from my blog in 2011:

#11

Easy and Fun Monster Meals

We had a lot of fun with our gruesome dinner.

#10

Monkey Birthday Party for a 2 year old

Lots of fun activities for little kids at a party

#9
Good and Bad of Homeschool according to me
My thoughts about homeschooling are always changing a bit, but these are my thoughts as of last March

#8
Back to School 2011
How I got things ready for starting school in the fall.













#7
Superhero Birthday Party
This was a great party for my 4 year old last February

#6
The Birthday Interview
I posted about this tradition of ours last February.  We love this tradition.



#5
Cleaning up the Zoo
I posted about our new chore chart. It still works pretty well when I'm consistent.  It helps the kids know what their jobs are when clean up time comes.



#4
Teacher Thank You Gift for 2011
I gave these to my son's preschool teachers last May



#3
Summer Reading Charts 2011
These reading charts were a great success for us this year and we will definitely be doing again this summer.



#2
Lair of the Spider Queen
We had a lot of fun with this activity at Halloween



#1
Super Spy Identification Cards
I finally got around to making these 6 months after my daughter's birthday party in 2010.  They have gotten a lot of hits mostly because her Super Spy Birthday Party (which I posted in 2010, so it' can't be one of 2011's top posts) is making the rounds on Pinterest and has been viewed over 30,000 times here on this little blog.





Thanks to all of you who read the stuff I put on here, and thanks for pinning and spreading my ideas.  My favorite part of blogging is hearing about how people use my ideas to have fun and make memories with their families.  It makes my day.  Hopefully I'll be able to post some more helpful stuff this coming year.  Happy 2012!