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Welcome!
Hello! My name is Chantal and I am your administrator here at Super Moms! Before having my son and becoming a stay at home mom, I taught preschool and early childhood music classes for over a decade! Now I enjoy sharing my past exerpiences, craft and educational ideas, and early childhood knowledge with my friends online.
I hope you will enjoy my blogs and I hope you check back with me often! I will post general guidelines and ideas, and also seasonal craft and music ideas regularly. See you then!
Cheers!
Chantal
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St. Patricks Day fun!
I'm an irish gal born the day before St. Patty's day...so I love the holiday! :)
It can be so much fun with young children!
I'd like to share some early childhood ideas that I've used every year in my classroom and with my son!
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Shamrock Shakes:
Make your own shamrock shake with milk and Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream. Blend in a blender and for extra color add a bit of green food coloring!
Minty Water Play Water play is always fun...but it is especially arousing for the senses when you add essences! In a tub or bowl of water, add a few drops of mint oil and allow your child to play with their favorite water toys or measuring utensils.
Pot Of Gold It is so much fun to collect rocks outside and spray paint them gold for counting. After gold paint has dried, mark nuggets with permanent marker (1, 2, 3) or with black colored dots for a fun, St. Patty's day inspired math activity!
Blue and Yellow Make Green St. Patrick's day is a perfect opportunity to discuss colors! Try squirting yellow and blue tempera paint on paper, or a smooth surface with shaving cream, and allow your child to smear them together to understand this effect on their own!
Suggested Reading
Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Leoni
The perfect book for a precursor to discovering green...and one of my favorites! A story of two "color friends". :)
Green Pepper Printing
 Cut a green pepper directly down the middle to make a shamrock shape! Place on a shallow tray of green paint and make Shamrock Pepper Prints!
Lucky Charms Sorting and Counting
Buy a box of lucky charms and sort all of the different marshmallow shapes. Count and graph them! Older kids will LOVE this activity.
Two Cute St. Patty's Day Songs
Song for St. Patrick's Day tune:
To the Tune of The Bear Went Over the Mountain
We're wearing green for the Irish We're wearing green for the Irish We're wearing green for the Irish On this St. Patrick's Day
We'll dance a jig for the Irish We'll dance a jig for the Irish We'll dance a jig for the Irish On this St. Patrick's Day
Me Mither and Fither were Irish Me Mither and Fither were Irish Me Mither and Fither were Irish And I am Irish too
We kept a pig in the parlor We kept a pig in the parlor We kept a pig in the parlor And he is Irish too.
And if you like the leprechaun concept...
I'm a little Leprechaun
To the tune of I'm a Little Teapot
I'm a little leprechaun dressed in green
the tiniest man that you've ever seen.
If you ever catch me so it's told
I'll give you my pot of Gold!
Large Motor Idea Get some exercise and gross motor practice--great for any age! Trace green footsteps on paper and tape to the floor. Use for a treasure hunt, or just to walk and follow. Toddlers learning to walk will have so much fun following the prints. Older kids can "dance a jig" and follow more advanced footstep directions!
Better yet and if you dare...
Stretch out a large sheet of butcher paper, paint or stamp feet green, and dance to irish music. Make sure to display your fancy footwork afterward! :)
EXTRA RESOURCES
Printable St. Pat's maze for your older child
Lots of St. Patrick's Day Coloring Pages
I hope you've enjoyed these activities and have fun with your little one on St. Patrick's Day! :)
Thanksgiving Fun and Fall Ideas
The holiday season is upon us! I love making holiday art projects with kids because they are so festive, make great gifts for family members, and center peices for the holiday table!
We're getting started on fall over here with two fall art projects:
-Cupcake Liner Owls
It's a very simple concept--we just painted a paper plate with brown paint, and then added an orange triangle piece for the face shape, a folded orange diamond for the beak, and cupcake liner eyes. Inside the eye you can place a googly eye or button!
-Paper Bag Stuffed Turkeys
For this project, you need a paper bag (size is up to you--and a family of different size turkeys would be so cute!) We colored on our bags with brown marker, and then glued multi-colored feathers I had cut from construction paper. The feathers get glued onto the bottom flat part of the paper bag. After that, we stuffed the bag with tissue paper (or whatever you have to stuff with), and twisted the end to make the neck. I had pre-cut a face shape from cardboard to which the kids glued a beak, waddle and two eyes. Then we attached the face to the neck and it was all done! It makes such a cute centerpiece!
Other fall ideas:
Indian Corn Indian corn is an awesome science and art project all rolled into one. Kids will enjoy touching the texture of the corn and it can be used to roll intersting patterns into playdough, or onto paper with paint!
Bird seed play Older kids can play in a tub of bird seed/deer corn/etc. For extra fun you can add fall items like pinecones and acorns, or fall shapes. Kids will enjoy scooping and pouring the seed into cups. It's a great science and large/fine motor exercise!
Scented playdough It's fun to add essence like cinnamon, nutmeg or other fall scents to your playdough.
Playdough turkeys Make a batch of homeade playdough and tint it brown. Buy googly eyes and feathers and store together in a tub to make playdough turkeys when the mood strikes! I love doing these, they are so much fun.:)
Fun Idea Go on a fall nature walk. Bring a bag of popcorn with you, just for the animals. Throw handfuls as you walk. Did you know that you can pop regular corn in the microwave? You can dry pop corn in a folded paper lunch bag in the microwave, just as you would microwave corn. If you really want the squirrels on your good side, toss in a handful of peanuts.:)
Fall Book Suggestions
There are many out there but here are some of my absolute favorites!:)
Rosie's Walk
Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf
Nuts to you
Owl Babies
More Thanksgiving Links This link has more project ideas and also great books on how to inspire thankfulness in your child.
Hope you have a wonderful holiday season and thanks for reading!
Shapes and Colors, Fall Art and More!
I love fall! Along with the obvious change in scenery, Autumn brings with it an air of academics--fresh backpacks, sharpened pencils...
For our children who are not in grade or pre-school even, it seems so sad to miss out on this time of inspired learning.
For that reason I'd like to start with some ideas on how to get rolling with shapes and color learning!
HOW DO I REINFORCE LEARNING SHAPES?
Well, repetition (as usual) is key. Constantly point out the shapes of items around the house, and in books. Practice drawing these shapes whenever you can remember, with your child, using markers and crayons. Here are more ideas to reinforce the learning of shapes:
-Make a shape placemat. When Emmett first started learning shapes, I started with circle, square and triangle. I cut the shapes out, and put all three of them on the sticky side of a piece of clear contact paper, then covered it with another, so it would be fully laminated. Then, I used it as his placemat at the dinner table!
-Play games. "I'm going to put your toast on the circle. Can you move it to the square?"
ACTIVITIES TO TRY
-Toilet paper tube circles. Take a toilet paper or tube, put paint in a shallow tray, and make circle prints! You can also try it with a cup!
--Cap glueing Find circle milk caps, soda caps, jelly jar lids--and glue them onto a paper!
--Musical squares Instead of making square "art", try this physical activity! Tape fabric squares to the carpet or floor and try hopping from square to square while music is playing. Stop when the music stops! Sure to provoke some giggles, especially if Mom and Dad play!
--Pizza Pie Triangles I found this super cute slice of pizza clipart:
Laminate (or cover in packing tape) four slices, and get a round pan out of the cupboard. Talk about triangles and ask your toddler to help you make the pizza whole again. They will love putting pieces in and out and pretending to eat them. Make sure you call them "triangles" or "triangle pizzas".
WEB RESOURCE: Do try the shapes and color activities on this Fisher Price Learning Website. I highly recommend it. (And their other games too!) The games are colorful and age appropriate, and encourage your child to use the keyboard in an easy way!
Fisher Price: learning colors and shapes
About Colors...
There are so many wonderful color art projects and ways to encourage the learning of colors out there...have you checked out Perpetual Preschool yet? YOU SHOULD! There are many wonderful projects in all subject areas there.
Don't forget that science is an awesome way to talk about colors!
-Shaving cream tinting--drop food coloring in and talk about the different shades!
--Color Nature Walk Fall is a great time to learn the colors red, brown, yellow and green, simply through leaves! Take a paper bag on a hike, fill it up, and then dump it out on the kitchen table when you return. Classify the different leaves into piles or better yet, bowls!
--Be redundant Have a week where you eat "orange" foods, color with only "orange" crayons, play with "orange" toys--you get the idea!
Your children won't be bored--they will learn the color!:)
COMBINE THESE IDEAS Into a clear peanut butter jar! Try putting different shaped and color objects into a container that your child can see into! Maybe you will want to seperate the colors from the shapes. Either way, by making the jar ahead of time, your children will help to remind YOU when it is time to review...and you won't forget this way!
BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS:
Cat's Colors by Jane Cabrera
Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Eric Carle
Food for thought by Saxton Freymann
APPLE INSPIRED BOOK PROJECT:
 
Ten Apples Up On Top
To start, I had Emmett color an apple coloring sheet that I slipped into the box I always use for our book projects--the one that I taped a page protector to!
Then, I added in "Ten Apples Up On Top" along with the lion from the story, and ten laminated apples (I stored them in a plastic baggie inside the box). If anyone is interested in doing this project, please email me and I will send you the printable pdf for the lion and apples!:)
He loves to stack the apples on the lions head and count them. The "Book in a box" project is SO much fun--give it a try!
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Feeling inspired? Go start some color and shape projects with your kids!:)
FINAL NOTE: Never miss an opportunity to point out what color or shape ANY object is to your child; grasp the teachable moments.:)
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SUPER MOMS BLOG CONTEST CHALLENGE:
Share or create a unique shape activity or idea for a shape not mentioned in this blog (oval, star, rectangle, etc)--in art, science, music or reading! This can be done in the comment box or in the "Crafty Kids, Brainy Babies" forum on Super Moms!
More random fun...
As we enter the dog days of summer and the pools are already starting to be drained, the sand boxes are getting low and so are the ideas for something fun to do!
Two simple things you may have forgotten about that are so much fun for kids of all ages, and are free if you have them at home! If not, they are both only 99 cents a piece!!!
Shaving Cream Play
A 99 cent can of Barbisol can be a really amazing tool! It wipes clean off every surface I've ever seen--even clothes (which it doesn't wet--when you wipe, it comes off dry!). Drawing shapes and just feeling the smooth and creamy texture of the foam, and smelling it's fragrance, is an awesome sensory experience for the young child!
It can also be an awesome opportunity for fine motor drawing, and practicing pre-writing skills such as writing letters!
Add fun tools like sand box rakes, koosh balls and paintbrushes to experiment on playing in the foam!
Watercolors
You can buy an old fashioned watercolor kit at just about any dollar store or supermarket. And it's amazing how much it will hold even the toddler's short attention span. Dipping in the water and then in the paint is so much fun. If your child can't grasp the concept of the paintbrush right away, teach them to dip their finger in the watercolor paint while wet and make finger print pictures!
We all know how to do it...but have you forgotten about watercolors? They are so fun, and look so pretty when they are done!:)
Home made watercolor tip: Try using shallow trays with water and food coloring for an easier watercolor method!
THANK YOU NOTES--a quick tip
I'm very big on thank yous! And I think it's great to start young. It's always nice to have your child personalize their thank you card at the level of their ability...but my tip isn't so much about what's inside the card, as much as it is about the CARD itself!
Quick Tip Every time my son fingerpaints, I always have him paint one extra piece of large construction paper. Later, after it dries, I cut that piece up into about six small rectangles and fold them in half. I stash these as quick thank you cards that can be written on in a dash. They are already personalized with Emmett's artwork! Love it!
Plastic Bag Kites
These don't look spectacular but they fly well and they are a total HIT with the kids! Just take any plastic bag, decorate it and attach streamers (or skip the decoration altogether) and then tie the handles together and attach a string as a handle! This makes a great windsock or kite that will really catch air well on a windy day. Kids love to run with the kite flowing behind them.
Cheap and a great lesson about science for older kids!:)
Last but not least...
Check out this neat song
"The Kite!"
Lyrics:
Blow, wind, blow, wind,
Fly, kite, fly!
On and on you go, wind,
Fly, kite, high!
Out sweeps your tail, kite,
Tug on the string;
Far away you sail, kite;
See how you swing!
Want to see how to make the sign for kite in American Sign Language? Check it out here! ASL for kite
Sound clip:
<![CDATA[Your browser doesn't support the EMBED tag, but you can still listen to the music on this page by <a href="lyrics/midi/k012.mid">clicking here.</a>]]>
More songs can be found at http://www.kididdles.com/. It's one of my favorite websites for finding fun kids songs. It's really a bonus that almost all their songs have sound clips with the tune! They even have a binder/songbook idea on the front page that is free to download. Cool!
Ideas for summer play, fun things and more.
It's been a long time since my last blog--I apologize! I hope you will enjoy some of the ideas I have for you this time around, so let's get started!
Some fun random activities for summer...
Cheerio scooping!
It's a fun acitivity and a snack all in one! I don't mind the whole playing with your food idea here. I think the benefits of scooping and pouring (problem solving, math, fine and large motor) outweight the downfalls! (The mess! LOL.)
To avoid a longwinded pickup, I just spread a blankie on the floor. At the end, we wrap up all the cheerios, including the ones we played with, take it outside, and feed the birdies! :)
Basically you just get a big ol' tub of cheerios and some things to scoop with--spoons, cups, and bowls!
Here is a video of Em enjoying this activity.
http://s35.photobucket.com/albums/d160/CHANTRON/?action=view¤t=playingwithcheerios.flv
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The Dougnut Song!
You'll need construction paper cut into doughnut shapes, as many colors/doughnuts as you like! Older kids can help decorate. If you are able to laminate, they will last longer.
Lyrics:
Down at the corner at the bakery shop, there were ____ little doughnuts with sprinkles on the top.
Along came ______ all alone, and she/he took the _______ one home!
*Insert number of dougnuts, child's name, and the color!
When I do this in my music class, I let the older children pick their own color. However with younger kids, I hand them the color and say the name of it, to help encourage the learning of the colors. Don't forget to use this as a great opportunity to count and work on math skills!
Listen to Emmett and I singing this song
http://www.supermomsonline.org/Channy/dnsong.mp3
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Plant a (pretend) flower garden!
Mom likes to work in the flower garden, so does baby!:)
This is an inexpensive idea that I have used every year in my water and sand table--and it's great for your sandbox at home, or just a patch of plain soft dirt in the play yard!
Find the most inexpensive yet sturdy fake flowers you can get (lots of selections at the dollar store!) and bring along shovels and digging tools. Show your child how to plant the flowers! (Watch out for sharp ends or wire that is showing after time).
So much fun, and looks good too. I promise it will keep your toddler busy for at least 5-10 minutes, haha!
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Make homeade bubbles!
-1 tbs glycerine or corn syrup
-2 tbs dish soap
-9 ozs water
There are so many fun things to make bubbles with besides storebought things. Canning jar rings, potato mashers and sand strainers all make fun bubble utensils. Whip up a big batch and pour into into a big bowl for easy access.
*You can also add a drop or two of food coloring for color, or extract for scent!:)
Good Morning Surprise
We all get bored with our things at times. So do our children! It's not that they need more and more NEW things, they just need NEW ideas on how to play with them.
The picture above was taken the other day. I set this up on our coffee table after Emmett had went to bed, so that he would see it first thing in the morning.
Although he loves to play with his blocks and his farm seperately, we hadn't incorporated the two together for more advanced play. Setting this up gave him a pleasant morning suprise and encouraged him to try playing with these toys in ways he hadn't previously thought to. (Breaks the doldrums, but also builds new neurological pathways....YES brainpower!:) )
Just a little reminder to take time out of your day...to play with your kid's toys!:)
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Some awesome summer ideas for kids of all ages, and especially your older children:
http://summer.about.com/od/craftsfunactivities/a/summerfun1.htm
http://summer.about.com/od/craftsfunactivities/Crafts_Fun_Activities.htm
Spring Art and things for the rainy days to come!
Well, Spring is officially here!
A LITTLE SPRING ART
We celebrated by making this cute simple art project to hang on the door:
Obviously it doesn't need too much explaining! The flowers were plates that Emmett enjoyed painting with a roller painter. We then sprinkled them with glitter, and after they had dried, I cut them into fun shapes.
We made a grass border with his handprint and green paint, and he helped glue the butterflies on. The flowers have a green craft stick stem, and it's all on a simple piece of construction paper.
Makes me feel like Spring when I walk through the door!:)
Next up, another book project! My son's favorite at the moment is Go Dog Go (Dr.Suess) so I decided to elaborate on that a bit.
GO DOG GO BOOK PROJECT
Things in the book project box (which is a small white box that I taped a plastic slip cover to--the coloring sheet slid in, and doubled as a holder/cute cover for the box!):
1) A car, and a dog ofcourse!
2) The book
3) A homeade puzzle! I made this by scanning and printing a pic from the book, which I then glued to a square of scrap cardboard I had. I also covered the entire thing with packing tape to make it more sturdy/a little "drool" proof". I then cut an inner square out of this peice, and took the small "frame" that left me with, and glued that to a full cardboard square the same size. The next step was to cut the picture piece into a few small puzzle pieces. For toddlers I think a good rule of thumb is 1-2 pieces per year of age! (Or what you know your child can handle). After I had cut them, I traced the pattern underneath so it provided a clue on how to put the puzzle together. It took me about 15 minutes and cost me ZERO dollars, and I know my son will just LOVE it!
4) A coloring sheet I also made, and the primary colors that are the "theme" of the book. Want the Go Dog Go coloring sheet? I'll share it with you!:) Here it is!
http://www.magicroot.net/GoDoGo.pdf
And finally.....
Have you ever bought a pack of expensive stickers, watched your child stick them to a plain peice of paper (that will inevitably end up in the garbage after a brief stint on the fridge), and though...what a waste?
Bored on a rainy day and want something that will keep your toddler busy for at LEAST twenty minutes, I promise?
HOME-MADE STICKER BOARD
These are SO easy, so cheap and so fun to make. All you do is take a piece of cardboard and tape some wax paper to it, waxed side up. I then taped mine to the wall so my son could access it while standing up, but you don't have to do it that way if you are afraid stickers might end up on your wall!:)
If you use white cardboard, or glue paper to the cardboard before you cover it with wax paper, you can even make a "scene" for the stickers. For example, if you have animal stickers, you could make a forest play area and then cover it with wax paper.
I absolutely love this because stickers peel back on and off, one million times! The sticker is re-used forever and kids really enjoy sticking and resticking. Fun, simple, cheap!
Hope some of these ideas help entertain your little one on the rainy spring days that are heading our way!:)
Encouraging Vocabulary in Toddlers
For toddlers, speech development greatly varies. No matter what your child might be saying or doing, encouragine vocabulary acquisition, reading, and talking about everyday things with your child is ALWAYS a good thing!
Flashcards are great--when you can remember to use them. So I want to share with you an idea two ideas that will be a little more friendly. Also, they are a little more attractive to your toddler than the average flashcard.
My Word Book!
This project is really easy! All I did was take a small scrapbook, or you can use a simple photo album that you have on hand or buy from a dollar store, and fill it with my own pages. You can also fill it with the flashcards that you already have, or you can print your own vocabulary on index cards or standard paper. I really like this idea because
1) You can highly individualize the vocabulary to suit your child
2) As your child masters words, you can remove them and add new words
3) It goes right on your child's bookshelf and trust me, it WILL become their new favorite book!
I highly recommend taking pictures of everyday objects that are actually IN your home for this. I used a real picture of my sons cup for "drink", and so on and so forth.
How can I use this idea with my older preschooler/toddler?
Obviously, the first step is to make the vocabulary more complex. The next step would be to drop the pictures and begin using sight reading words instead. AHA!
Another fun way to do sight reading words or words for vocabulary is in a peanut butter jar. A clean peanut butter jar is so great because it is the perfect size to fit index cards, kids can see what is inside, and they are engaged by seeing it, opening it, and reading the contents with you.
See, wasn't that so much more fun then the flashcards by themselves? :)
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