Letter A: A is for Apple

B is not feeling too good today (24 h tummy bug that's working its way through the kids) so we wanted something quick but appealing.
I settled for using the apple magnet pages from making learning fun and a dot painter. We will probably revisit this with round objects to put on the dots later in the week.

Letter A: A is for Armour

Here is the knight in shining armour that we made.


First we drew a figure on corrugated cardboard and cut it out. We tried to do this by drawing round B but he was so wriggly we settled for one the same height!
Cover with aluminium foil.
Glue on paper feathers, face (not a scary knight this one!), shield.
Done

We also added a link to this at mama jenns blog for her kiddos create carnival. She sure is one creative lady!

Letter A: A is for Ambulance

"B needs to learn his letters" I said to OH the other day. At 2 he is a little young but if he were in the UK he would be spending a couple of afternoons a week at our local nursery just like his brother and sister did. Where to start with learning letters? Some advocate doing it ABC order, some linking it with reading/phonics and so doing those letters that have the same sound whatever word they are in which roughly translated means vowels last. Jolly Phonics (which was taught to the Reception Class at my kids UK school) starts with the letter "S". I decided that reading can wait and stuck with alphabetical order so "A" it is.
For the first "A" activity I took a picture of an ambulance (I used the one from http://www.first-school.ws/) and dropped it into MSPaint. Then I painted out the wheels. Next I dropped the same picture in and painted out the bodywork instead. This left me with two sheets.

I then cut out the wheels and gave them to B along with the other sheet and (fanfare please!) a glue stick. You have never seen such a happy toddler because whenever we do gluing normally his sister interfers; I mean helps; and takes the glue stick away from him. Not only that but he could pull the wheels off and stick them down again several times - Wow! As you can see he got them pretty much spot on too. With an older preschool child they could cut the wheels out themselves.
He didn't feel like colouring today so it will get displayed au naturelle later in the week.

Sensory Bottles: Slow Motion Bottle

The idea behind this bottle is to have a thick liquid through which your chosen objects of interest fall slowly. The other examples I have found of this use corn syrup but the thought of the mess if the bottle broke put me off! Instead I used a cheap shampoo and some star spangles. Unfortunately the shampoo was not very transparent so whilst it worked OK it was not ideal. Next trial was with the clear shower gel and silver glitter as well as star spangles - perfect!
Of course I could recycle the bottle with the shampoo to make another bottle but first I have to get it off my 6 year old who keeps having races to see which is faster. Kept him occupied for ages. Result! Another thing to try is rolling them, weird things happen due to inertia (sorry my secondary school science teacher roots are showing!).

Sensory Bottles: Wave Bottle

As a third child my youngest son tends to get the short end of the stick. With an older brother and sister he tends to get toys that are second or third hand and it is a struggle to get him things that are just his and not immediately stolen by his older siblings. Of course money too plays its part. Although I may have the will to get him a new toy just for him I usually have something similar already and of course no matter how babyish the toy is as soon as I liberate it from the back of the cupboard for my 2 year old it is immediately grabbed by older sister (8) or brother (6) with cries of "I remember this!" and cue the 2 year olds temper tantrum.
This is the start of resources that are produced for B first to redress this balance. It is the kind of thing used by daycare for their "sensory table" and since we are in Germany and don't have access to an English-speaking parent and toddler group at the moment (I am ashamed to say my German is woeful) he hasn't had much opportunity to experience this kind of thing outside the home either. This is not to say that he doesn't get to play with sensory toys like sand and water but anything else tends to be a bit ad hoc. Bottles like these can be made cheaply and stored away and got out to play with like any other toy.
This first one is the easiest - water coloured with food colouring and baby oil with the top hot-glued on. If you want to give it a fancy name you can call it your "wave bottle" or "ocean bottle".

Others will follow as an when they become available (I'm planning to use the bottles from the little bottles of juice that go in the older kids lunches for school and the "table clearers" tend to be a little over enthusiastic about collecting recyclables!).
Of course the best laid plans can go wrong. When I came to take the photo where did I have to liberate it from? DD's bedroom of course!

cooking for kids:Cream Cheesy Chicken Pasta

So far as I know this is my own invention. It is one of those dishes that is quick (under half an hour), only needs the occasional stir and ,as an added bonus, the creamy sauce won’t separate if left on the heat for a little while unlike those made from cream. Perfect for having to stop and deal with life with kids happening at the same as cooking dinner.

2 leeks,
a little oil
2-3 chicken breasts, skin removed, chopped
4 oz (100 g) mushrooms, sliced
2-3 tbsp (45 ml) water
200 g tub cream cheese, plain or garlic with herbs (no difference with low-fat or full-fat)
8 oz (225 g) dried pasta
a little milk

Remove the ends of the leeks and the outer leaves. Cut in half lengthways and fan the leeks under running water to remove any mud or grit. Slice into half rings.
Heat the oil in a frying pan and add the leeks. Stir around until coated in the oil, cover the pan, lower the heat and allow the leeks to soften.
Cook the pasta according to the packet instructions.
Add the chicken breasts and mushrooms turn up the heat. Stir around until the meat has lost its pink colour but is not browned. Add water to the pan, lower the heat and allow the chicken to poach whilst the pasta is cooking. Check chicken is cooked by cutting a large chunk in half.
Add the cream cheese to the pan a few minutes before the pasta is done. Stir until the cheese is melted. If mixture is too thick then add a little milk to give desired consistency. Serve.

Jeans Bag

These were R's favourite jeans. Even though they were too small she still wore them round the house. Eventually however they had holes in the knees too so we decided that we would use the patterned bit (which was R's favourite bit) as a panel on a bag.

First we cut the lower leg off a pair of my old jeans opened it out and squared it off to give a rectangle.
Then we cut the patterned bit off R's jeans and sewed it onto the rectangle with a zigzag stitch.

Then we folded the rectangle right sides together and sewed down the long side (opposite the fold) and across the bottom to make the main body of the bag. We then turned the bag right sides out and folded the raw edge to the inside to make a top hem.

Then I took the leg of my jeans and cut a strip 4 inches wide and as long as possible. Fold the raw edges to the middle and then fold in half again to make a strip 1 inch wide with the raw edges enclosed. Sew down the length of the strip. Sew the strip to the top of the bag to make a shoulder strap.

Done!