Unwrap It

Toddler Activities from Familyeducation.com http://ift.tt/1qt4UVh Babies love to unwrap boxes. This activity will have your baby unwrapping boxes filled with surprises.

First Water Slide

Toddler Activities from Familyeducation.com http://ift.tt/1k4e1Er This activity encourages water play and gives baby a good workout on a warm day.

Fun with Faces

Toddler Activities from Familyeducation.com http://ift.tt/1qYquko This early childhood game teaches your baby the names of different body parts.

Feather Painting

Toddler Activities from Familyeducation.com http://ift.tt/1qD28um For this colorful toddler painting activity, you can use feathers from the craft store, or bird feathers from outside.

Spray Painting Cars With Kids At The Cadillac Ranch

Kids Activities Blog http://ift.tt/1qAGsPu

Summer is time for the family road trip! Follow Kids Activities Blog and Julie Blair and her family as they travel 8 states in 30 days for the ultimate road trip story…

Normally, I don’t allow my preschooler to handle spray paint, but at Cadillac Ranch just West of Amarillo, all visitors get to ink a hunk of vintage car.

Even four-year-olds.

Eight Cadillacs are entombed nose down at a 45-degree angle, canvases for the curious since 1974.

Simply pull off of I-40, walk through a hole in the barbed wired and up to the mega-sized art, which is submerged amidst a field of weeds.

Then, pick up one of the many cans of paint littering the ground and get your art on.

Charlotte, of course, choose purple paint.

Today, the cars were surrounded by swampish mud, but thoughtful fellow artists had built bridges to the Cadillacs using empty spray paint cans, giving us access.

I will tell you the adventure is messy: We spent just as long getting the mud and paint off ourselves as we did putting up art.

Still, this roadside curiosity is very Texas—and a great place for family pictures.

You can read more about the Cadillac Ranch here.

The post Spray Painting Cars With Kids At The Cadillac Ranch appeared first on Kids Activities Blog.

Calm Down

Toddler Activities from Familyeducation.com http://ift.tt/1jSTBhp Help your child learn to listen with this calming activity.

Through the Tunnel

Toddler Activities from Familyeducation.com http://ift.tt/1nG0q8z This activity will teach your child how to control his limbs in an enclosed space.

Boat Craft for Kids to Make from Juice Boxes

hands on : as we grow http://ift.tt/1lScuXB

We suck down a lot of juice boxes in the summertime. I finally realized I can make something with these juice boxes! So we made a cute boat craft for kids to play with!

They’re very simple to make, but take a little help from Mom [and any adult].

But I love to upcycle and reuse something before we throw it away. It just makes my craft cupboard much easier to stock!

We used our sponsor’s, Mott’s for Tots, juice boxes [they're 40% less sugar that's 100% apple juice with all the essential vitamins: A, C, E].

I can’t get over Mott’s promise:

“Nurture the potential in every kid every day.”

That’s been my goal this year as I want to spend time with every kid, every day. And nurturing their potential through creativity is right up my alley!

How to make a boat craft for kids using juice boxes:

Ask [as if you have to] the kids to drink their Mott’s for Tots juice boxes.

While drinking their juice, Henry and George can cut triangles from card stock paper for the sail of their boat.

We did a double triangle to add some color. So they each cut a larger triangle and then a smaller triangle in another color.

Tip: I drew lines across the corners so George would just have to cut one straight line.

The rest was up to me.

I taped the triangles together on top of each other. I just used Scotch tape.

Once they had their juice gone, I taped the sail to their straw of the juice box. Again, just with Scotch tape. I don’t have really any trick for this, other than to kind of shift the paper to one side of the straw. I also used the bendy part of the straw to fold over the top of the sail and then bend down over along the edge of it. To give it that added structure.

With the sail complete, I added it to the boat [the juice box]. I poked a hole on the side of the juice box [unfortunately it ended up right in the eye of the apple on our Mott's for Tots juice boxes! Looks a little odd poking him in the eye!]

And be sure to tape the hole at the top of the juice box too so it doesn’t sink!

The kids thought these were great!

We got out a tub [it hasn't been swimming pool weather, or we would have done that] and filled it with water.

And they floated their new boats!

Louis was a little boat destructer!

He’d keep pulling the sale out of the boat! But that was easily fixed…

I need to find a way to have a longer bit of water so that they boys can have races.

It would be so fun to have them blow them across the swimming pool or something else [with out touching] to see who wins [my kids are all about competition... every thing is a race]!

Why I love Mott’s for Tots juices:

• Mott’s for Tots was developed with children in mind


• Mott’s for Tots has diluted the juice for mom, while still delivering the essential nutrition kids need and great taste they want


• With 40% less sugar* than 100% apple juice and vitamins A, C, & E Mott’s for Tots helps children get the nutrition they need


• Mott’s for Tots is pediatrician preferred over regular juice, good for kids’ growing bodies and has a taste they love


• They also have a 64oz jug of juice for at home use when we’re not on the go all the time.

Follow Mott’s on their social media:

• Website


• Facebook


• Twitter

Henry is 6 years old. George is 3.5 years old. Louis is 18 months.

*Mott’s Fruit Punch Rush and Wild Grape Surge have 15g sugar and the market average of 100% fruit juices and blends have 25g sugar.

Disclosure: Mott’s has graciously sponsored this post on hands on : as we grow.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Motts for Tots via Burst Media. The opinions and text are all mine.

Boat Craft for Kids to Make from Juice Boxes

hands on : as we grow http://ift.tt/1lScuXB

We suck down a lot of juice boxes in the summertime. I finally realized I can make something with these juice boxes! So we made a cute boat craft for kids to play with!

They’re very simple to make, but take a little help from Mom [and any adult].

But I love to upcycle and reuse something before we throw it away. It just makes my craft cupboard much easier to stock!

We used our sponsor’s, Mott’s for Tots, juice boxes [they're 40% less sugar that's 100% apple juice with all the essential vitamins: A, C, E].

I can’t get over Mott’s promise:

“Nurture the potential in every kid every day.”

That’s been my goal this year as I want to spend time with every kid, every day. And nurturing their potential through creativity is right up my alley!

How to make a boat craft for kids using juice boxes:

Ask [as if you have to] the kids to drink their Mott’s for Tots juice boxes.

While drinking their juice, Henry and George can cut triangles from card stock paper for the sail of their boat.

We did a double triangle to add some color. So they each cut a larger triangle and then a smaller triangle in another color.

Tip: I drew lines across the corners so George would just have to cut one straight line.

The rest was up to me.

I taped the triangles together on top of each other. I just used Scotch tape.

Once they had their juice gone, I taped the sail to their straw of the juice box. Again, just with Scotch tape. I don’t have really any trick for this, other than to kind of shift the paper to one side of the straw. I also used the bendy part of the straw to fold over the top of the sail and then bend down over along the edge of it. To give it that added structure.

With the sail complete, I added it to the boat [the juice box]. I poked a hole on the side of the juice box [unfortunately it ended up right in the eye of the apple on our Mott's for Tots juice boxes! Looks a little odd poking him in the eye!]

And be sure to tape the hole at the top of the juice box too so it doesn’t sink!

The kids thought these were great!

We got out a tub [it hasn't been swimming pool weather, or we would have done that] and filled it with water.

And they floated their new boats!

Louis was a little boat destructer!

He’d keep pulling the sale out of the boat! But that was easily fixed…

I need to find a way to have a longer bit of water so that they boys can have races.

It would be so fun to have them blow them across the swimming pool or something else [with out touching] to see who wins [my kids are all about competition... every thing is a race]!

Why I love Mott’s for Tots juices:

• Mott’s for Tots was developed with children in mind


• Mott’s for Tots has diluted the juice for mom, while still delivering the essential nutrition kids need and great taste they want


• With 40% less sugar* than 100% apple juice and vitamins A, C, & E Mott’s for Tots helps children get the nutrition they need


• Mott’s for Tots is pediatrician preferred over regular juice, good for kids’ growing bodies and has a taste they love


• They also have a 64oz jug of juice for at home use when we’re not on the go all the time.

Follow Mott’s on their social media:

• Website


• Facebook


• Twitter

Henry is 6 years old. George is 3.5 years old. Louis is 18 months.

*Mott’s Fruit Punch Rush and Wild Grape Surge have 15g sugar and the market average of 100% fruit juices and blends have 25g sugar.

Disclosure: Mott’s has graciously sponsored this post on hands on : as we grow.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Motts for Tots via Burst Media. The opinions and text are all mine.

Object Outline

Toddler Activities from Familyeducation.com http://ift.tt/1l9nUjF Foster your child's creativity with this drawing activity.

Chore Bracelets for Kids

Kids Activities Blog http://ift.tt/V8HB6i

Chores… and kids…

Do your kids have a hard time remembering what their tasks for the day are?

I know my kids often forget what their chores are.

Our solution:

Chore bracelets.

As the kids finish a task they can rip off that bracelet. This is perfect for kids who are reading, but I bet you can adapt it with images for younger kids.

Note: I saw this on Pinterest and could not track down the link to the original (the pin went to a spammy site). This is not an original idea, but boy, has it helped us. If you blogged about this let me know and let me link to you!

.

Some of the chores we have made bracelets for our 6 & 7 year olds:

• Feeding our pets


• Filling and Emptying the dishwasher


• Sorting the laundry


• Wiping the sinks after they brush their teeth.


• Sweeping the floors.

What chores do your kids do?? We would love to hear your tricks to getting your kids to contribute to the family on our Facebook Page.

The post Chore Bracelets for Kids appeared first on Kids Activities Blog.

Clothesline Art Show

Toddler Activities from Familyeducation.com http://ift.tt/1llEodl Host a neighborhood art show -- on your clothesline! Themes

Planning a Road Trip With Kids {Eight States, 30 Days, One Family}

Kids Activities Blog http://ift.tt/T2KZhe

Summer is time for the family road trip! Follow Kids Activities Blog and Julie Blair and her family as they travel 8 states in 30 days for the ultimate road trip story…

I wish I could honestly tell you that the decision to take a 30-day cross-country road trip with my three children was born of my free-wheeling sense of adventure. that I love planning a road trip with kids.

Our Road Trip Story

Or that I possess a special kind of joie de vivre rarely seen in suburban mothers.

Nope.

That’s not really me.

After all, I am the mom who aims to park in the same spot at Target every shopping trip so that I won’t lose my car.

I often make the same three meals for my family weekly (spaghetti, tacos, spaghetti tacos).

And my children will tell you I’m a stickler about bedtime: 8 p.m. for 4-year-old Charlotte and 9 p.m. for Elizabeth and William, 10-year-old twins.

So here’s the truth: It was the thought of dust that motivated me to become a member of AAA.

On June 17, our contractor and her parade of experts arrived with jackhammers to remodel a good chunk of our home’s first floor.

There were workers knocking out walls, maneuvering industrial sanders and tiling with cancer-causing sealants so pungent, the neighbors will likely soon call public safety experts.

I could cope with the mess if it weren’t for the weather.

You see, we live in Dallas. And I’m a Northerner by birth.

This means that when the temperature climbs to 104 degrees, I actually feel as though my skin is bubbling.

Also, my eyeballs begin to bleed.

Thus, I can’t very well escape outdoors while my home is being remodeled.

And dust masks don’t do justice to my face shape.

“Just move out,” urged my gal pal Kristen, who gracefully lived through various gut jobs but remembers the mess in Technicolor.

(In truth Kristen is a good Midwesterner who kindly told me to suck it up. Be a grown-up, she said. But I like to remember the part where I wore her down after several Gin and Tonics. It was then that she told me to “just move out…”)

All this said, there is nowhere to go.

Six realtors I spoke with confirmed that Dallas is experiencing one of the tightest real estate markets in history.

I could find zero homes to rent.

And only one apartment complex had a 3-bedroom unit–for $4,000.

Well, I thought, for that price tag I could take a nice vacation.

Later that evening while on Facebook, it occurred to me that we have family and many good friends spread throughout the U.S.

In fact, I could construct a dot-to-dot route all the way from Dallas to Holland, Mich., where we book an annual getaway at a little cottage near the beach.

If said family and friends were willing, we could kill 30 days with them then land at the beach. This would give Lucie the Contractor eight full weeks to renovate.

And so a route began to take shape.

We’re driving West before heading East, which William— a contestant in his school’s spring geography bee—pointed out is sort of silly—until he considered that Great Aunt Josie is fabulously fun and lives in Albuquerque.

Next, we’ll zip up to Santa Fe and Taos (Art! Indians!) before trying out Denver for a longer stay.

The Mile-High City will offer a break from heat and from backseats.

(Did I mention that Charlotte is intolerant of car rides lasting more than 45 minutes? No? Well, the irony is not lost on me.)

Then, we’d tackle Nebraska. Omaha has an amazing zoo and we’ll finally get to Lincoln, home of my beloved Georgetown University roommate who has long been crowing about their corn-fed sports scene.

Iowa would give us a good excuse to delve into the history of the Mississippi River; Milwaukee and Madison offer a look at America’s lush lakes/piney woods.

We’ll follow-up with a taste of urban living in Chicago, where we’ll house sit for my sorority sister.

Finally, we’ll make the slog around lake (Eww, belching smoke stakes…) to my gorgeous home state of Michigan.

See, this whole boondoggle is making sense, yes?

But there’s more.

Along our route, we’ll develop our sense of place by reading relevant kiddie literature; we’ll eat at local farmers’ markets in order to sample food grown from the land on which we traveled.

Why, we’ll be homeschooling on wheels!

And as a journalist, it will be natural for me to chronicle the whole trip via a blog.

My twins will add a segment too: “From the Backseat.”

And little Charlotte is quite the photographer.

I won’t even have to drive the whole trip by myself: My husband Jim could parachute into a couple of cities thanks to free airline miles.

Our manny Joel—yes, our nanny is a dude—will meet us for a lonely leg or two across the Upper Midwest’s corn fields.

Suddenly, Jim and I were jazz hands-cabbage patch-grocery cart excited.

Not everyone shares our enthusiasm.

My mother—and a variety of her grandmotherly girlfriends—report that we have, in essence, lost our minds.

“Why not hole up at the Gaylord Texan—they have two pools and air conditioning,” Meema asked, referring to a glamorous local resort.

But here’s what I know: You can’t create family lore if room service is available.

When it comes down to it, the most memorable lives are crafted by those who took chances, tried something new, got into some mischief.

So, for the next month, we’ll do just that.

We invite you to explore the American Southwest and Midwest with us vicariously.

We aim to update the blog daily, telling you about the places we’ve been, the people we’ve met, the fights the kids have gotten into…

We won’t even ask you to kick in gas money.

In return, we ask you to send us your travel tips—and some prayers.

Buckle your seatbelts: We’re off to build 30 days of lore.

The post Planning a Road Trip With Kids {Eight States, 30 Days, One Family} appeared first on Kids Activities Blog.

Echo

Toddler Activities from Familyeducation.com http://ift.tt/UyitoW Your baby or toddler will be surprised to learn about echos in this activity.

Pointing Power

Toddler Activities from Familyeducation.com http://ift.tt/1wgyflT In this activity, you will help teach your baby the names of objects that she points to.