Just move the mouse around the screen to splatter the paint.  The slower you move the more paint gets applied.  If you move quickly, you’ll get a thin line of paint.  Be aware, it’s a continuous line of paint.

To change colors, just left click with the mouse.

To clear your creation, just hit the spacebar.

These are just a couple of my creations.  This is actually pretty relaxing.

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I took Ashlyn to see her first movie (in a theater) last summer.  She was so excited!  We were going to see Happy Feet.  I thought, “Oh, it will be a cute little movie about penguins.”  I had no idea that the whole premise of the movie was about penguins mating.  Now, I am partly to blame because first of all I thought this movie was G but found out later it was PG.   Ashlyn spent half the time in my lap because the vicious seal and killer whale that freaked her out. 

I was talking to a friend of mine telling her about my frustrations and see told me to check out this Plugged In Online, a website that reviews movies.  It’s amazing! It tells you all you would want to know about the movie and so much more.  I won’t be taking my kids to a movie without checking this site out anymore.

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• Boggle Junior- This can be for many different ages.  My 4 year old and 22 month old play. 
• Cards- Card games are a great way to learn about numbers. 
• Yahtzee- I play this with my 4 yr. old and we only try to get the top part of the Yahtzee card.  Playing with dice is great for kids to learn about seeing groups of numbers and adding without counting every dot on the die.
• Memory
• Candy Land
• Chutes and Ladders                                                                                       
• Rummikub for Kids
• Uno
• High Ho Cherry O
• Brain Quest
• Scrabble Junior
• Connect Four
• Checkers
• Guess Who?

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Mondays- Sight Word practice-
*cut out letters in magazines to make her words
*I type a short paragraph using as many of her words and give her a highlighter to find them all. Then she draws a picture of what it says.
*using letter tiles she spells out some of her words
* practices writing some of her words
*word searches with her words in it

Tuesdays- Puzzles
*this is the same each week.
*I give her two 24 piece puzzles to do. She loves Puzzle Tuesdays!

Wednesdays- Math Activity
* tangram shapes
* worksheets on numbers, patterns, or sequencing
* I’ve also started an estimation jar with her. I put a different number of bears in it and she writes how many she thinks are in the jar on a post it note.

Thursdays- Craft or Art Project
*making any b-day cards for friends or family’s b-days that are coming up.
*free drawing
*Sometimes I give her different sized shapes and tell her to make something by gluing them together.

Fridays- Free Friday
* She gets to decide what I put out for her. It can beplaying school, dolls, her pretend cash register is a favorite, Lite Bright, drum machine, her tea set, etc.

Saturdays/Sundays- these days vary depending on the amount of time she has for room time. Usually she will just read books for a little bit. I also have her listen to books on CD, which she loves.

She looks forward to her room time and sometimes gets upset when we have plans and she can’t have it. It’s funny how kids cling to the routine. Hope this helps!

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I give Emily a few books, a puzzle, something that makes music, and some kind of stuffed animal. I keep the toys the same all week long then switch them out every Monday morning.

For Ashlyn’s room time I give her an activity to do in the beginning and once she has finished it she is able to read books, play with her dolls, etc. She has to stay in her room until I come and get her out.

They both love it. It teaches them to play independently, be creative, as well as obedience. We have also noticed that both girls have developed some long attention spans. They are able to focus on one thing at a time instead of jumping from one thing to another. It’s actually become a struggle to get them out. Emily wants to stay in and play by herself for up to an hour some days.

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Make a Mask- Have your kids cut out eyes, nose and a mouth. If you don’t want them cutting holes in the mask they can look through magazines to find different eyes, noses and mouths to glue on the plate. Then have them decorate it using markers, crayons, and yarn for the hair. Let them be creative. They can make animals, people, whatever. Let them cut out shapes out of construction paper to make ears. Then hole punch two holes and tie a string around it to fit around your child’s head.

Sunshine- Have them paint the plate yellow, and while that’s drying trace their hands. Cut the hands out and have your child glue them around the plate to make the sun’s rays.

Tamborine- You will need two paper plates for this one. Let your child decorate the plates on the backside with anything from crayons to sequins or glitter. Then staple the two plates together leaving a small hole to pour either rice, beans, or small pasta in. After it is all stapled together, your child can add tissue paper streamers that hang down. Now they have a musical instrument to play.

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Rainbow Writing- This can be done with paint, markers, crayons, chalk, etc. Just have your child write the word and then copy it using different colors.

Hang Man- We play this on her easel and use her word wall words. I don’t really like the name of the game and we only draw the man when we play.

Guess the Word- I would give her clues such as, this word has three letters and rhymes with fan. Then she had to guess the word I am thinking of… can. This game is great in introduce vowels too.

Word Puzzles- I write her words on index cards (one letter per card) using a different color for each word. Then she had to piece them together and spell the word. You can have your child glue them onto a different piece of paper or store them in an envelope to be used over and over again. This is a fun activity to do with your child’s name also.  Ashlyn loved spelling all the names of the people in our family.

Find the Words- I type up a very short paragraph using as many of her words as I can. Then I would give her a highlighter to find her words. Then she would illustrate the story.

4 In a Row- I stumbled across this idea by a man named Adrian Bruce.  I printed a couple of different game boards and had them laminated. The directions are on the website and it’s a simple game for any age. We used coins as game markers so Ashlyn could learn the different coin names and amounts as she was practicing her words.  She still loves to play this game.

Magazine Hunt- Have your child go through an old magazine or newspaper and cut out their words. Then glue them on a different piece of paper.

There are lots of other ideas but this is a good start. Hope it helps!

Check out my sight word list.

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Do you remember the old card game “War”? Here is a revised version and you can change the name if you don’t think “War” is appropriate.

Each player turns a card over and the card that is the highest wins both cards. You can switch it up after awhile and say the lowest card wins. This is great for teaching number sense and it’s fun. If the numbers are the same, just have them put the cards back in their piles. To make it alittle more challenging have each player turn two cards over and add them up. The player with the highest (or lowest) sum wins.

You might want to only use the 2 – 10 cards for this game.

Memory and Go Fish are oldies but goodies as well. Your kids will be having so much fun playing and hanging out with you that they won’t even know they are learning.

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