Peanut-Butter Jar Banks

My hubby and I recently put these together for our kids; so far we all love them!

I made the labels on the computer and backed them with scrapbook paper. They're attached to the jars with a little glue and clear contact paper (for protection of the label as well as attachment to the jar). Same with the lid covers--some scrapbook paper with a slit, covered with contact paper slightly larger than the circles. Hubby cut the slits in the actual lids, cut and stained the wood, and screwed the jars to the wood.

Pretty simple, used all on-hand supplies, fun, and quite functional!

Homemade Stickers - Lick 'n' Stick

Remember lick 'n' stick stickers? I think they're less common these days! Here's a fun way to make some tasty ones of your own. You can use pictures from magazines, computer printouts, your kids' own drawings...be creative! To make them stick, mix the following:

1 tsp. gelatin (any flavor)
2 tsp. boiling water

Stir until gelatin dissolves and let cool for just a minute or so. While still warm, paint mixture onto the back of your "stickers" - use a paintbrush, a cotton swab, your fingers...whatever!

If you're doing a large sheet, it's easier to just coat the whole sheet and then cut apart afterward...

Let dry. Cut apart, if still needed. Lick, and then stick!

The Three Little Pigs

Here's a quick little project to do with your kids sometime! Read or tell the story of the three little pigs. A fun online version can be found HERE.

Then make the three houses! We used spaghetti noodles for the straw (yarn or actual straw would work, too), craft sticks for the sticks (toothpicks would work great; just watch out for the pointy ends!), and red paper rectangles for the bricks. For hanging, we attached all three houses to a piece of yarn.

If you'd like a pattern for the houses, click HERE.

It's also fun to make the houses in 3D--use yarn or straw (or noodles) for the straw house, get some sticks outside for the stick house, and use Legos or some sort of building block for the brick house. Then have the kids try to blow each one down! They have a lot of fun trying to "be" the wolf! (Incidentally, you can also make a wolf out of a hair dryer--cover the barrel part with brown or gray paper for the wolf's muzzle, and cut out a face with a hole in the middle to slide onto the barrel...and voila! You have a wolf that can actually huff and puff!)

If you'd like some patterning practice for little ones, here's a fun little sheet. Since we did this with a group of five, the second sheet has five cutouts for the "answers"--in case you're wondering why there are so many! :) (Since the preview on the download link isn't showing properly, here's what the sheets look like):

Early Literacy in the Home

This month's KidStuff activity was about early literacy in the home--from birth up! I gave a presentation about different ways to promote literacy (in all facets) and then we made a craft. Here is the handout:

If you'd like a .pdf version of this handout, please click HERE.

Here are some links that may be of use, as well:
http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/LiteracyIdeas.htm
http://www.rif.org/parents/
http://www.walearning.com/Guide.html
http://www.kcls.org/kids/whattoread/booklists/Raising%20Readers%20Toddlers.pdf

Our craft was making our children's names out of tactile letters. We cut the letters from lots of different textures! My kids love theirs. The visual and tactile combo is really great for early learning, too!

If there's anyone in my area who didn't make it but would still like materials for the craft, please don't hesitate to contact me. Thanks!

Peek-a-Boo Books

Last spring we made "peek-a-boo" books. I did a religious one and a secular one (thanks to my sister for helping me put the samples together!). They're a lot of fun and are very adaptable: text or no text, large "windows" or small, simple pictures or complex, themed or non-themed, etc. You can use old magazines, calendars, etc. for pictures. Here are a couple of scans from that project:

Juice Lids!

In November we had an "idea fair" of homemade Christmas gifts (simple, inexpensive things)--more on that later. But in addition to the ideas on display, we had three "make and takes" available. I'll post on the third one later, but here are the first two:

Jumbo Bank

For this activity, you need juice lids, a peanut butter jar, and colored paper, stickers, or both. If you want to go the extra mile, you also need clear Contact or laminating paper. I suppose you'll also need an exacto knife or something to cut the slit in the jar lid, and scissors or a circle cutter to cut the paper. :)

You can decorate the "coins" however you'd like. When I made mine, I cut colored paper slightly smaller than the middle of the juice lids. Then I put stickers on the paper and attached the paper to the lids with a little bit of glue. I cut circles from clear contact paper, slightly bigger than my colored paper circles, and I "laminated" the paper circles to the juice lids. This protects the designs from exploring little mouths...and protects those cute little mouths, too--from swallowing paper or a sticker or something.

I've gotta say, I've had this toy around for years now and my kids still love it! They never seem to be too old to put the "coins" in the slot!

Star Match Game

For this one, I turned to the good old juice lids again! I used patterned Contact paper for the backs, which was a really easy way to make the backs uniform. Then I just used those great star stickers to make pairs of matching patterns on the other side. I did patterns of two, three, and four stars each, and that provides a simple enough game for really young ones with some help, yet challenging enough for some older ones (it's more challenging than you think, looking at all of those stars!). I've had a lot of fun playing this game with my kids, and it was SO simple, cheap, and quick to make!

The ABCs of Christmas

We saved our Christmas cards through this last Christmas season in order to use them for these great books entitled, "The ABCs of Christmas." My aunt made one for my family growing up, and my mother saved her Christmas cards and made one for my little family a couple of years ago. We love it! You can see in the picture above the one my mother made and then the one that my daughter is in process of making. We need a few more pictures, and then we'll be able to laminate and bind!

These are a couple of pages from my mom's so you can see examples--so cute!

Here is the full text and some title text, for a cover, if desired:

You can download a file of the text in book layout HERE, if you're ready to put one together! We printed our pages on white cardstock.