Saturday, December 27, 2014

Top Parenting Posts of 2014

The Third Birthday: Celebrate and Reevaluate?

The end of the year is so exciting! It's time to look back and relive the best moments of the year, and to look forward to the future. Today I am sharing my most favorite parenting post of 2014 from My Bright Firefly.

 This parenting post is special because it's about a kid's third birthday. I thought it might be special and inspiring time for any parent. Baby and toddler years are all history. A little person is amazing, smart, and interacting in meaningful ways. This huge transition for the whole family is amazing! Here is one funny thing I noticed at a time, LOL: What's on Your Refrigerator Door.
 
 

Top Parenting Posts of 2014

39 of the best and most popular parenting blog posts at the end of the year for you. Please, look through, and hopefully, find some helpful tips or a fresh topic for discussion:


Why your husband isn't doing your a favor by watching the kids? How to stop yelling at your kids? What's the best morning routine? How to rock being a stay at home mom? Some tips and new approaches for a better sleep. Tantrums and other challenging behaviors.

You can find these and so much more here: This Year's Most Popular Parenting Tips.

Happy New Year!
 
 
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Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Snow: Create and Explore

Winter Preschool Activities: the Art and Science of Snow.

My Firefly explored the properties of snow in a free-play set up. Building a snowman and a winter scene with the cotton pads and a sensory bin was so much fun! She enjoyed these activities again and again. No glue was used: we played to explore using supplies as a construction set. For more winter fun activities, visit 21 Gorgeous Snowflake Ideas.


Preschool Curiosity: The Story of Snow

"The Story of Snow: The Science of Winter's Wonder" by Mark Cassino was our book for these activities (affiliate link below).



We caught the snowy days and brought some snow inside. Will it be more snow any time soon? Anybody is a fan of the white Christmas? The doll's bath tab with snow was placed into the sink. I offered a variety of cups and spoons for a free-play set up. At this age, we mainly needed to learn that the snow melts and turns into water.
 
I admire kids' curiosity and the ability to observe and soak in huge chunks of information. How to spark that curiosity? What would spark that awesome curiosity? If you know the answer, go with it! You will be rewarded by the joy and admiration in your kids' eyes. I was lucky to get the moment with a camera. That's why the picture below is so special to me.
 



 
Our little discoveries:
  • The looking glass helps to see pretty snowflakes outside, but as soon as snow is inside - the snowflakes are not visible any longer.
  • Snow cupcakes are made easily when the snow sat in the sink for a while.
  • The snow melts faster when the water is added to the tub.
  • "Squishy snow" is more fun... until it turns into water. 

Snow and Snowman Art Project with the cotton pads

My Firefly built a snowman again and again. We reviewed counting to 3, "stuck in between" (2 in between 1 and 3), and subitizing. What belongs with the scene? (snow, snowflakes, flowers, butterflies, apples).


Pictured below: our sensory bin of "building parts". There are different beans, shapes of pasta, googly eyes, pieces of drinking straw, etc. I keep it in a zip-lock bag and offer supplies in a tray when we need it.


We used Velcro Memo Board as a base. The elements don't stick to it, but the board helped to prevent everything from sliding around and defined the space for the scenes.


This activity was very engaging! I love when creativity and pretend playing are in use. I think it might be great for a quick and easy entertainment at a Christmas party.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!



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Friday, December 19, 2014

21 Gorgeous Snowflake Ideas

Snowflakes Made from Q-tips Cotton Swabs Challenge

This is a great party game for kids and adults alike - tested on our family. It turned out very engaging and fun! You can see 21 of our party winners here. I called it "Gorgeous Snowflakes Challenge"; and they are! These snowflakes make people get relaxed and creative; they make them smile. All you need is cotton swabs. For more Christmas ideas for kids, visit our 10 Fun and Easy Christmas Activities.


These snowflakes can be made as Christmas ornaments or decorations by gluing them together and onto the snowflake cut outs. We didn't do that. Instead, we created our snowflakes on the sheets of felt. Felt helped to keep the patterns nicer and prevented the elements from sliding around. Everybody submitted their snowflakes for a picture as they made them.

I introduced the supplies one at a time. First, I offered full size swabs and gave people a minute to start creating snowflakes. Then I added the swabs cut in half which increased the difficulty level and the creative fun. After people got their snowflakes made and photographed, I threw in some sparkly decorative balls, and finally, Christmas stickers and jingle bells.


My Firefly painted the Q-tips with glitter the night before. It was a fun activity for her all by itself. She dipped the tips into the white glue and into a bowl with glitter. We painted some sticks at one end, and the others - at both ends. The glitter flaked off a little during the game. Nothing was messy, just some specks of glitter got caught up in the felt.

This is a fun art and math activity combined: a great opportunity to explore patterns and symmetry hands-on. Depending on the supplies used and the age, the patterns created can be quite challenging. As you can see below, there are some mistakes in patterns.

 

Snowflake Pattern Activity for Preschoolers

"The Gorgeous Snowflakes" challenge for preschoolers:
Winter Fairy is getting so happy that Christmas is coming! She decided to pretty up her enchanted forest with the festive magical snowflakes. Can you help Winter Fairy and create some Christmas snowflakes for her?

My Firefly, at 37 months old, could not make a perfect cross from just 4 sticks without assistance. It was nice learning experience for her. I modeled the first patterns with her watching a pretty symmetry made one stick at a time. Then, I let her add a stick or two to the premade pattern. She tried creating her own patterns - way to go.


If you decided to make some snowflakes, I'd love to see them! Please, share your pictures on our Facebook page. And have a great party!

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Sunday, December 14, 2014

10 Fun and Easy Christmas Activities

Books, Crafts, and Activities for Toddlers and Preschool

The faster Christmas is approaching, the more fun and exciting are activities with family and friends. I want to share our collection of 10 kids' events we had. They include Christmas children's books, arts and crafts, games, cooking, and hands-on learning in a process of getting all the fun.


Christmas Holiday Cookies: Decorate and Enjoy. "The Mitten" by Jan Brett. The wonderful artwork of the book has inspired us to decorate our Christmas cookies. My Firefly tried to copy my work and play with colors of the icing.

Christmas Sensory Bin. I included the tongs and different jars for transferring and pouring practice - great for fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination... and developing pretend playing. We helped animals move around while discussing what each of them likes to do. Well, the penguin pom-poms mainly liked to be peeled and ripped apart.

Birds, Beans, and Play Dough Ornament. "Bring On the Birds" by Susan Stockdale. Kids practiced making a play dough ball first. Then they decorated each bird with the beans or pasta from the tray.

Kiss under the Mistletoe. A little mistletoe left shining in the sun on the snow. My Firefly chose the colors of the snow that she thought might be seen when the sun is shining. We had fun hand printing and stamping.

No-Glue Musical Reindeer. Frozen: "A New Reindeer Friend". The kids loved their newly made reindeer: how he nods his head, the fun antlers and a soft tail, and  dancing with the merry jingling animal.


Bunny and Puppy Ornament and Play. "Quiet Bunny and Noisy Puppy" by Lisa McCue. We made silly faces and animals from the scraps of felt and all the supplies at hand. Each animal has its own "house" - low case b and d letters we needed to review.

Story Telling Ornament. "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!" by Dr. Seuss. We collected different beads we had to create a Christmas ornament that can tell a story.

Bear Cave Christmas Ornament. "Bear Stays Up for Christmas" by Karma Wilson. She got a thin stick, a decorated sparkly stick, a chenille stem, and some tinsel - a great opportunity to explore thick and thin, and how easy it is to cut different materials.

The Mitten Activities and a Sensory Bin. "The Mitten" by Jan Brett. Invitation to Explore: Mittens and Gloves. Pretend Play: Together in the mitten.

 
Elf on the Shelf - Part I. The quiet arrival. Tricks in the bathroom. Dancing and playing snowballs. A party with friends.
 
Quick and Easy Elf - Part II. Elf shares candies. Elf is into mischief. He got touched - is he sick? TPing a spare bedroom. The romantic vacation.
 
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Friday, December 12, 2014

StoryTelling Ornament

Book Inspired Ornament Preschool Activity

How the Grinch Stole Christmas! A story and a spirit of Christmas My Firefly loved. Who knows how much they can actually understand at this age? We collected all the different beads we had to create this Christmas ornament and a story telling prompt. She practiced her fine motor skills in a fun and creative way; and made her little stories in a process. You can also take a look at another book inspired Christmas ornament here: Bear Stays Up: Bear Cave.

 A wonderful tradition to hand-made an ornament with the special memories attached is on our family's to-do list every season. The exciting part is to choose the one - the perfect one to make. This post is part of "10 Days of Kid-Made Christmas". You can find links to more Christmas ornaments that are made by families and are inspired by kids' favorite books at the end of this post.


How the Grinch Stole Christmas

We used chenille stems for beading. Each stem symbolizes its own little story or a character. Then I got the stems together and decorated the free ends with beads to make the ornament.

There are many possibilities and ways for creativity here! My Firefly will enjoy retelling her stories with beads in her hands and the visual clues - these two relax and inspire kids to talk - so great for speech and language development! And with the Christmas spirit behind all that... I am looking forward to play with her using this ornament.


Red stem: a smiley Who-person with scraps of ribbons for hair and jingle bells.

The best way to spread Christmas cheer
is singing loud for all to hear.

Blue stem: hearts

And what happened then...?
Well... in Who-ville they say
That the Grinch's small heart
Grew three sizes that day!


Green stem: we decorated a Christmas tree that Cindy-Lou Who spotted got stuck up the chimney.

"Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store."
"Maybe Christmas... perhaps... means a little bit more!"

Gold stem: Max and his big golden horn looks funny with his body made of the pine cone.

Did that stop the old Grinch...?
No! The Grinch simply said,
"If I can't find a reindeer, I'll make one instead!"
 

10 Days of Kid-Made Christmas

A wonderful tradition to hand-made an ornament with the special memories attached is on our family's to-do list every season. The exciting part is to choose the one - the perfect one to make.

70 Ornaments made by families and inspired by the favorite children's books! The series runs from December 1 to December 12, 2014 and hosted by Mama Miss. You can follow all the Christmas Fun with books and ornaments here:  Landing Page.


Check out what is getting published today!


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Sunday, December 7, 2014

Bear Cave Christmas Ornament

Book Inspired Ornament Preschool Activity

Bear Stays Up is a wonderful story and was an inspiration for us to make a couple of Christmas ornaments. My Firefly loved building bear caves for a comfortable hibernation. She practiced her scissor skills - her favorite activity at a time. You can find the collection of our Christmas Activities here: 10 Fun and Easy Christmas Activities.

A wonderful tradition to hand-made an ornament with the special memories attached is on our family's to-do list every season. The exciting part is to choose the one - the perfect one to make. This post is part of "10 Days of Kid-Made Christmas". You can find links to more Christmas ornaments that are made by families and are inspired by kids' favorite books at the end of this post.


Bear Stays Up for Christmas

My Firefly loves Karma Wilson's series of bear books. "Bear Stays Up for Christmas" is a lovely story of the bear's friends who helped him stay awake during the Christmas night. The bear enjoyed all the festive activities with his friends, made them some Christmas morning surprises, got a cozy blanket as a gift from friends, and fell asleep.


Bear's Cave Christmas Ornament

I love when My Firefly is into making discoveries! She got a thin stick, a decorated sparkly stick, a chenille stem, and some tinsel - a great opportunity to explore thick and thin, and how easy it is to cut different materials. She discovered that a chenille stem is very strong and difficult to cut; the decorated stick is nice and easy; the tree stick can be cut at the thin end, and can be broken at the other; and of course, cutting tinsel is fun.


We bought these clear plastic ornaments at Oriental Trading. They open and close easily, and My Firefly's little fingers can't get them apart - which is perfect for us. I laminated pictures of the bear to put inside. The goal was to stuff them at several levels to keep the 3-D effect. The picture inside has stickers on both sides, then sticks and tinsel, then stickers on the walls.


The 3-D effect of the ornaments made them difficult to take a good picture. I think, they look better in real life.


10 Days of Kid-Made Christmas

A wonderful tradition to hand-made an ornament with the special memories attached is on our family's to-do list every season. The exciting part is to choose the one - the perfect one to make.

70 Ornaments made by families and inspired by the favorite children's books! The series runs from December 1 to December 12, 2014 and hosted by Mama Miss. You can follow all the Christmas Fun with books and ornaments here:  Landing Page.


Check out what is getting published today!

You are very welcome to follow us here:
 


Saturday, December 6, 2014

Land, Air, and Water. G is for Globe.

Montessori Inspired Land, Water, and Air Preschool Activities

For our letter of the week, we discovered hands-on what can be found and sorted through objects of the land, water, and air. The Runaway Bunny gave us lots of motivation for the activities. And playing with the globe always spikes curiosity and ever so cute! This post is part of our "Creative ABCs" series. You can find our previous letter of the week activity here: Frozen. No-glue musical reindeer.


The Runaway Bunny

"The Runaway Bunny" by Margaret Wise Brown visits a trout stream, climbs the mountain, plays in a hidden garden, flies with birds, sails, performs in the circus, and finally gets a carrot at home. My Firefly loves this book and "reads" it all by herself now.

Pictured below: some books we enjoyed for this theme.


Land, Water, and Air Sensory Table

All we had to learn:
1. We live on Earth
2. Our Earth is made up of land, water, and air.

The sensory bin was a success. The kids understood the concepts easily and were able to sort through the things with no problem. Their new developing sense of order of the universe around them is so exciting to watch!

Air: What can be there if we cannot see anything?

Kids knew that birds and planes fly up high somewhere there - where there is no land or water... But what can be there if they can't see anything? We had a couple of experiments:
  1. Blow on the hand. What do you feel?
  2. Wave in front of the face. We feel air moving, but still can't see it. Is it real?
  3. Use a fan on different settings (if kids are not scared of the sound; and under the supervision!). Now, that proves that there is air around, we just can't see it :)

We explored the sensory table without toys first.
 
Land: colored ice.
Water: aquarium rocks and decorative glass beads, plastic sea weeds we had on hand.
 
Then kids took turns to take a toy from the box and place it into the correct area of the small world. We discussed the things along the way. At the end Mommy couldn't help herself, but make a couple of "silly mistakes" which made the kids laugh - a good sign of understanding.

Globe Preschool Activities

I keep posting our letter of the week activities without explaining if we ever work on an actual letter. We do (thanks for your questions, dear readers!). My Firefly is currently 37 months. We work on the initial sound and letter, and clap and tap syllables of the word. We also use the given word in sentences during the activity. After that, we move to our reading curriculum and the review of sounds, rhyming, and letters.
 
At our first introduction to the globe, we found land and water on the globe, and waved again to see that air is still there - all around us. We talked about the globe as a model of Earth and made it rotating. We tried to find a place where we live on the globe - not very successful at a time.
 
My Firefly was very interested and seemed to understand. They grow so fast!
 

You can find our collection of the Letter of the Week books and activities here: Creative ABCs.

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Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Quick and Easy Elf on the Shelf - Part II

 Elf on the Shelf Activities for Preschoolers

Such fun and bonding activities we had! I didn't stress too much with relocating the elf if I was busy that day. That also gave other family members the opportunity to get creative with the elf on those days. You can see our previous Elf on the Shelf post here: Elf on the Shelf - Part I.


Elf On the Shelf shares candies.

He was sorry for partying too much the previous night and decided to share some fun with people in the house. He prepared a bag of candies for each family member. The bags had stickers with names on them so that everybody would get surprised to find the set of their favorite candies. They were two easy nights on me because elf decided to stay on the kitchen isle for 2 days.

 

Elf On the Shelf is into mischief.

He climbed onto the tree and took Daddy's spare glasses, my son's remote, and My Firefly's favorite cup with him.

 

Elf On the Shelf got touched

The most terrible thing had happened! He was hanging in the breakfast nook above the table. My little climber managed to get to him: he was not high enough! We were concerned that he'd get very sick...

Elf On the Shelf TPing the room.

On the same day, he wanted to prove to us that he is well. He gathered ALL the toilet paper throughout the house and TPed the spare bedroom. On the brighter side, that was my son jumping into the fun. So much for sharing happiness and joy through this holiday season :)

Elf On the Shelf on the romantic vacation

He knew that I am a little bit tired of taking care of him every day. So he took a short 2-day vacation with butterflies and flowers. Who could wish for anything more, right?


This was a week worth of elf fun. With our crafty 25 months old toddler, I need to make sure the elf is high enough.

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Sunday, November 30, 2014

Book-Inspired Christmas Craft and Game

Quiet Bunny and Noisy Puppy - Low Case b&d Match

Christmas Read and Play ideas! We have read a fun book, made a fun Christmas decoration, engaged in a fun creative play, and reviewed low case b and d letters in a process. Please, visit our letter of the week activities here: Creative ABCs.


Quiet Bunny and Noisy Puppy

Our favorite book of the season is "Quiet Bunny and Noisy Puppy" by Lisa McCue. This book is one of a series of beautiful books about Quiet Bunny discovering the world. My Firefly loves all the books in the series, and this one is no exception.

Quiet Bunny is alone in the winter forest. His friends either hibernate, or flew away - there is no one to play with! This changes when a cute puppy comes from a farm nearby.

Low Case b and d Play and Review

Since it's a pretty kid-made Christmas decoration, it's always up for a quick review of the initial sounds and object to the letter matching. Can the animals find their homes?


Easy Christmas Ornament Preschoolers Can Make

Kids were given Bunny and Doggy silhouettes and letter cut outs. The supplies we used are pictured below. We cut ears, tails, and a bow from felt, used pom poms for noses and a bunny's tail.


Kids also enjoy the extension activity: making silly faces and additional animals from the scraps of felt and all the supplies at hand.


Christmas Read and Play Fun


Many Exciting Read and Play books and activities for December can be found here: Christmas Read and Play. What is your favorite Christmas book?

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Friday, November 28, 2014

Kiss under the Mistletoe

Mistletoe Art Preschool Activities

We learned a new tradition, sang a song, painted "Kiss under the Mistletoe" picture, and for our first ever art appreciation activity, observed a painting. All was a great success and joy. I guess, with the little ones, it's all about getting them interested and engaged. You can find the inspiration for our painting activities here: 30 Merry and Bright Paintings and Paints.


Art appreciation preschool activity: Mistletoe

Up for our observation was "It's time for mistletoe and holly... Daily oil painting by artist Deb Kirkeeide" which we found here: http://www.dailypainters.com/paintings/30826/Its-time-for-mistletoe-and-holly-daily-oil-painting/Deb-Kirkeeide.%20The simplicity and beauty of this painting allowed the beginner's attention to detail.

A little mistletoe left shining in the sun on the snow. Questions we discussed:

What color is the snow? What colors we could see if the sun light reflects from the white snow? (This question appears complicated for little ones. It happened that we recently played with the sunlight and reflections which helped: http://www.mybrightfirefly.com/2014/10/space-preschool-activities.html)


How many berries do you see on the picture? How many leaves? What are their shapes?
Can the sun light make the berries and leaves sparkle? Have you noticed it on the picture?
Do you like this picture? Why?

After the discussion, My Firefly chose the colors of the snow that she thought might be seen when the sun is shining. Here is here palette:


Easy paint project for kids

We used watercolor paper, but tempera paints for this activity because we needed to make handprints and stamping.

The snow is painted on wet. My Firefly "painted" the paper with water first. That turned out to be a great activity. She was motivated to practice horizontal/ vertical strikes since it is a sensory activity with water. Then she got a small brush and her colors. I removed brown from the plate because that's what she'd get when mixing several colors together.


Kiss under the Mistletoe

The paper was still a little wet when we painted the mistletoe. Leaves are handprints. At 36 moths old, My Firefly was able to paint her left hand with the dominant right hand holding the brush. I helped her with the prints to make sure she wouldn't smudge the print. Berries were made by stamping with the empty water bottle. If it's more comfortable, only a cap can be used to stamp. Finally, we shook some glitter over the wet paint.


We didn't know better, but dancing with "Mistletoe" by Justin Bieber. All My Firefly heard was about playing in the snow, Christmas lights, and following the star. She sang "With me... Under the mistletoe" and gave me some kisses and hugs. It was pretty cute.

More Winter Art Ideas from My Bright Firefly

21 Gorgeous Snowflake Ideas
The Art and Science of Snow
30+ Merry and Bright Paintings and Paints
Process Art: Christmas Handprint and Glitter Wreath

(Click on the picture below to enlarge it.)


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