Straw Painting

This week we have decided to work on our blowing skills. Many children, including my own son have problems mastering the suck and blow functions. This makes whistles, bubble blowing and straw drinking difficult. As a way to combat this we did some art, since art always makes life easier.


You will need:

Paint

Water

Spoons

Straws

Construction Paper or Card Stock

Containers for the paint

Put paint into the containers. We used about 1squirt of paint. Now you will want to add enough water to make it a little runny. In the picture above, two of the colors are mixed with water and two are not. It does not take much water or paint. Using your spoons, scoop some of the watered down paint onto your construction paper. We put 4 colors on at a time before we started using the straws.



Once you have the paint on your paper, pick up your straw and blow through it to move the paint around on the paper. Periodically you are going to want to turn your paper around and blow the paint from different angles.



We had lots of fun doing this. Not only did we work on our blowing skills but we also learned about mixing colors. Since we used four colors, it was fun to watch the colors mix and mingle to create new colors.

Children's Garden

Metal Fence with Cutouts from Children's Artwork

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Marcia Farris, Director of the Arboretum in Lexington, KY. If you live in the area then I am sure you have visited the Arboretum numerous times but I was interviewing Marcia for something very special. They have opened the new Kentucky Children's Garden. My family made a visit to the Arboretum the day of the grand opening and we were excited to see the diversity offered in the Children's Garden.

The Butterfly Garden

Marcia was kind enough to take some time out of her busy day to sit down and discuss exactly how this garden came about and what the plans are in the future.

In 2004, the Arboretum hired Herb Schaal of Fort Collins, Colorado to be the conceptual designer of the garden. Once they discussed all the options and were able to narrow down the choices, they began fundraising to make their dream a reality. As of 2011, they have raised $1.2 million of the needed funds and only have $80,000 more to go for completion.

Spider Labyrinth Garden

This dream came about as more and more families came to the Arboretum for walks, family time and classes. The Little Sprout classes offered at the Arboretum were filling up and the staff was being forced to turn away children that wanted to enroll in the classes. They knew that the interest in outdoor and environmental activities could be sustained and that the 25 square foot garden plot that was currently being used as a Children's Garden was inadequate for the volume of visitors.

Pond with Rock Path Bridge

The new Children's Garden is situated on 1.85 acre of the Arboretum and provides an environment for hands on usage, exploring and learning for kids aged 2 and up. There are areas to get in a creek, plant flowers, crawl through butterfly antennae, walk through a labyrinth and so much more.

Pathway with Fossil Imprints

They currently have installed a butterfly garden, a birthday garden, a creek and pond area, a spider web labyrinth, tall grass prairie, Native American area and a cave. Once more funds are raised they are also planning a few other things like a short grass prairie, Pioneer garden, transportation garden and fairy garden.

Native American Garden

As you go through the garden paths you will see animal tracks and leaves imprinted in the paths. These tracks are a history of our state and the animals that have been in our area. At every turn there is something to learn, whether parent or child. They have great raised beds that include a sensory area with soft plants and smelly plants; a barnyard garden with plants named after barnyard animals and an Alice in Wonderland Garden that contains the plants Alice encountered (minus the talking).

The Cave

If you have not visited the new Children's Garden I hope you will put it on the list of things to do this summer.

Wordless Wednesday - Scary Times

Are you sure this is safe??

Tuesday Teachings - Life Cycles

We recently ordered the best books about Life Cycles. They are by David M Schwartz and one of my favorite things about them is that they contain real photos of the animals and plants instead of illustrations. The photographer for the books is Dwight Kuhn. Below is a picture of the Monarch Butterfly Life Cycle book and the link to purchase.

They have a large variety of books including: Bean, Wood Frog, Horse, Ladybug, Sunflower, Fighting Fish, Chicken, Hummingbird, Maple Tree and Jumping Spider.

Prior to receiving these books my child had zero interest in life cycle activities. I had tried numerous times to get him interested but to no avail. Once we got the books everything changed. In the last week I have read each of these books to him numerous times, I can almost recite these books!

I immediately thought back to an activity that I saw online a month or so ago on The Crafty Classroom. I marked it in my "Inspiration" folder and I am now inspired. I made Life Cycle stamps for my son to play with. It was easy and he loves them.

Supplies:
Craft Foam
Pencil
Wood Block
Glue
Scissors
Stamp Pads

I used an old book that we got at a yard sale last year for my inspiration photos and then I sketched the designs lightly on the craft foam. Once I was happy with the design, I went back over the pictures pressing hard to make the design stay indented enough to use as a stamp.

Once the pictures are completed, cut them out leaving a small border around the pictures and glue them on to left over wood blocks. We used alphabet blocks that we had duplicates of, you could also use just one block and put one picture on each of four sides. Once the glue is dry, start stamping!

I am also planning on going back and making life cycle stamps for other animals and plants. Next up will be the frog.

Monday Meanderings - Healthy Eating

The United States Department of Agriculture made a huge announcement last Thursday. The Food Pyramid that was revealed in 1992 has been replaced by the new My Plate.

As you can see on My Plate, half of the plate is filled with fruits and vegetables, grains and protiens fill the other half and then there is a seperate small plate to represent dairy. This is an easier picture for citizens to understand and comprehend as we go about our meal planning. In addition to the recommendations above the USDA also recommends that at least half of yoru daily grains be whole grains and that your dairy be fat-free or low fat (1%).

You can read the new dietary guidelines here. They have not updated all of the guidelines yet. I was hoping that they personalized recommendations for preschoolers would be completed for this article but as of yet they are still updating them.

Here are links to some great resources for keeping kids healthy.

First we have Kids Health which is dedicated to keeping kids safe and healthy. They have a variety of articles on the website from social-emotional to weight loss and healthy recipes. Here is a link to a quiz for kids entitled, What is the right size for me?

Next is Eating Well Magazine with a list of great recipes for kids and families. Personally, I am going to be trying out the spaghetti and meatballs very soon. It looks delicious and you get six servings and only use 8 ounces of meat! Economical, healthy and looks delicious.

Have you heard about Super Healthy Kids yet? If not, you should really drop everything and head on over to her website. She sells a plate that is perfect for kids to use for portion control and it fits the new dietary guidelines. She has been selling the plates for a few years now and has great testimonies from parents that have used the plates to change thier families eating habits. She also has some amazing recipes on her blog. I made her 100% fruit rolls and they were really delicious!

Wordless Wednesday - Calling My Buddies

Calling my buddies for a road trip!