Kid's Co-Op # 12

Is it me or is Friday just coming faster and faster?  Here is this weeks Kid's Co-op. I think I have the list for you this week, lets see.  Yay, it worked.  Hope you find something fun!  Happy Friday everyone.

Mud, Mud, Mud!

I have been seeing all these mud posts and wondering why now?  Well, I guess there is an International Mud Day(IMD) I never knew about.  June 29th marks this day.  I have 2 boys, one which is old enough to play in  dirt, rocks, and sand all the time.  He doesn't need a holiday day to make a mess.  We have never gotten in the the mud though.  Another great sensory play activity.  I though at 3 1/2 yr, why not start now.  As a child I loved playing in the mud.  Making mud pies and adding rock as toppings.  It makes me smile just thinking about it.  This day was as good as any to start.  When little brother was sleeping we set out to have some mud fun!  My son helped me get all the toys and gear out.  I brought the watering can and we added water to a dirt spot we have in our yard.  It stays this way because he already plays in the dirt here a lot.  I know when I was little people said "God made dirt so dirt don't hurt".  Well, dirt can house parasites and fungus, so do play at your own risk.  We had a good time and then came in and cleaned up well.  We also hosed down before we came in.  I hope you can have some fun in the mud too.  If you do not like dirt maybe try sand or another alternative?  A rock hunt is always fun too. You don't have to play in the mud for IMD  just get out and enjoy the earth.

" Almost all creativity involves purposeful play" Abraham Maslow

Bring some toys!

Play in the water or lake as Liam called it.

Scoop up water and mud with a truck.

You can't have just one truck, you have different ones for different jobs.

Half way in just a little messy.

Hard at work.

As the water dried he had to add more.

Now he is getting muddy:-)

I am surprised he came out this clean.  If we had more than an hour out there he probably would have been covered from head to toe.

Hope you enjoy International mud day too.

Please do come and visit us again. We would love to have you back:-)

All kids are different and only you can decide how you let your kids play. Please keep this in mind with any post you read of mine!

Check out our pinterest board, Fb page, or twitter page

We linked up at Family Frolics! Check it out.

Jello Excitement(sensory activity for the kids): red, white, and blue style

My oldest son was walking around a little bored, so I decided to try and create something for him to do.  Daddy was home so I set them up with some jello excitement.  Here is what we did.

 I got out a bucket and put bowls inside it.  One had jello, one had plastic ice cubes I found at dollar tree the day before, and whip topping.  Since our 4th of July holiday is right around the corner I went with the red, white, and blue theme.

 He ( 3yr) loved the plastic ice cubes!  I should go back for more:-)

 Checking out the jello.  He then asked for more!  We have jello cups he asked for at the store he is not eating so we used those.  Might as well play in it before you trash it?

 Touching the jello and feeling the texture.

 Yay, daddy got to play today.  They boys love to spend time with daddy.

 One exciting creation.

 Just getting started.

 The little plastic ice cubes, can you tell I like them too.

 Let's make a mess!!!!

 Figuring out how to use the whip topping.

 Mashing it all up!

 I think it is great that kids enjoy messy play. It is great for them to use their imaginations and explore new things!

 He is serving up his latest creation.

 Seconds please.  And no we didn't eat any of this play food although it was safe to eat.

Hope we see you back for our next creation!

Please do come and visit us again. We would love to have you back.

All kids are different and only you can decide how you let your kids play. And with what materials you let them play with. My children are supervised when playing. Please keep this in mind with any post you read of mine!

Check us out on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Sulia, Google+,

and our G+ community, All Things Kids.

We linked up at Sun Scholars, go check it out!

The Very Busy Spider book with snack and simple activity

We went to the library to play with their puzzles and get out of the house. Of course we came home with books.  This is one of them we came home with: The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle.  I have been trying to do little snack and crafts with my boys this summer.  I used this book to make a snack and a simple activity.

Spider sandwich:

I ended up making my son a spider sandwich that day at lunch after reading this book that morning. 
This was not planned ahead. I just grabbed things we had on hand to make the best spider looking sandwich I could. I used cheese puffs as legs, m&m's as eyes(you could use raisins), and a glass to make the circle for the body.

This is how I cut out the body in above picture.

Bi brother helped me add the cheese puff legs and I added the m&m's as eyes.  We did peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  He really liked it and ate the whole thing!

Simple spider activity from the heart:
I didn't have any spider activities planned for us.  When big brother's great grandma stopped by for a visit that week they came up with an unplanned activity.  It is so simple but so precious to me.  While reading they drew pictures of spiders and webs.  I love that they bonded over this book.  My grandma is here visiting from Florida.  We love any time we can spend with her.  I love that her and big brother'so to activity seems to be reading.  When she got here she brought gifts & books!  Yay, we love books.  So if you are looking for a simple activity to go with a book draw a picture with  your child:-)

Big brother and his great grandma.

Drawing the web.

Love these hands from both people here in the picture.

Priceless memories made while reading a book.

Their picture.

I know big brotehr enjoyed his time with Grams this day and I know I will hold this memory in my heart forever.

What are some fun spider activities you love. 

Please do come and visit us again. We would love to have you back.

All kids are different and only you can decide how you let your kids play. And with what materials you let them play with. My children are supervised when playing. Please keep this in mind with any post you read of mine!

Check us out on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Sulia, Google+,

and our G+ community, All Things Kids.

Here is a link to Z is for Zel, there are a few spider related activities over there.

Colored noodle fun for 4th of July

Colored noodles have been all over pinterest and my face book page since I follow several blogs.  Here are 2 blogs to check out and how they used noodles to have fun:
http://www.theimaginationtree.com/2011/07/messy-play-rainbow-spaghetti.html
http://www.plainvanillamom.com/2012/05/alphabet-soup-my-first-sensory-bins.html?spref=fb.  

I thought this all looked like such fun and wanted to let the boys try it out.  We love to make a mess over here and this looked perfect.  What a great way to try out your senses by playing with noodles.  I did this with my oldest son when he was young but it was just plain pasta on his plate while sitting in his highchair.  Wow, I never thought of adding color.  So, this was new for me to add some extra fun to it for the boys.  This is my now youngest sons first time playing with noodles.  Since 4th of July is right around the corner for us, I made the noodles red, white, and blue.  I also used some star confetti I found at Walmart.

What you need:  Cooked noodles ( I use lots of oil when cooking), food coloring, bowls of water for each color you want, a strainer, and something to mix with.

What to do:  I had left over spaghetti noodles, I took and added them to a pan of water and oil and re-boiled.  I then took a portion out and  added it to the bowl of water and food coloring, I had set aside.  I left them for over 15 min to change color.  I then strained the noodles and sat on a paper plate.  I got out a rectangle sized plastic bowl and filled with red, white, and blue  noodles.  No need to dye the white ones:-)  I added some star confetti on the top and set out bowls, plates, spoons... for my son(3yr) to play in with his noodles.  I also set out plain noodles for my youngest 1yr and a pan, bowl, and spatula for him to play.

My oldest was really excited to get started and had a lot of fun playing with the noodles.  He did want to know why I put stars in the food.  I told him it was ok because we were just playing today.  My toddler had never played with noodles until today.  When I set them out for him he started shaking his head at me.  I think he thought he had to eat them,lol.  He doesn't really like noodles.  Once he realized he could just play in them he was ok.  Both boys seemed to enjoy themselves and I could see us doing this again in the future.

Here is what my oldest played with.

Hands in!

Love his creation:-)

Love the colors of the noodles.

Here are my tot's noodles.

At first he wasn't sure, then when I took the bowl away he wanted it back.

Pouring out his noodles.

Making some noodle yummies!

He wanted to touch the camera and I was talking to him saying oh no, you cant touch this:-).  He though it was funny!

It was a little hot outside, and daddy came back home.  At this point the boys wanted to go see daddy!  We did play about 20 min with the noodles and they both had fun.  Look forward to finding more ways for them to play with noodles.

 Please do come and visit us again. We would love to have you back.

All kids are different and only you can decide how you let your kids play. And with what materials you let them play with. My children are supervised when playing. Please keep this in mind with any post you read of mine!

Check us out on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Sulia, Google+,

and our G+ community, All Things Kids.

More sensory fun you may like: Messy jello fun and fruit salad pool.


We linked up at rainy day mum-tuesay-tots