Vintage Toy meets New

We have been cleaning out my mother in-law's closets, basement, a and barns in preparation for her moving. As we cleaned the basement, I discovered this vintage gem. My husband and brothers had played with it as children. I brought it home and cleaned it up.

I knew exactly the fate of this vintage tree house treasure. It will host hours of imaginative play - maybe Peter Rabbit's greenhouse, maybe a rainforest camp, maybe a hideout for animals.  The possibilities are endless.

Maybe I will do some garage and yard saling this summer to find vintage toys and give them another go round with a new generation.

Have a fun and playful day.
Mel

Safari Ltd Terrarium

Now that I am thinking about terrariums, I am on a roll.  Safari Ltd has new gnomes out this year that I think would be great in a terrarium.

Terrariums are easy to make and kids will love helping.  It's messy and creative and imaginative.  I once did a whole Earth Day celebration at the local community center.  Kids created mini terrariums with two clear plastic cups, moss, dirt, rocks, and small animals.  They LOVED it.  Parents were like, "I am so stealing this idea or a party or for Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts' projects." 

You give 12 kids the same materials to make a terrarium and you will end up with 12 terrariums that look completely different.  It's an open-ended project that the kids can take in all different directions.  And that's what is great about a project like terrariums - kids can make it individualized.

The steps are easy.
1. a few rocks in the bottom of your container, fishbowl, cup, etc.
2. potting soil on top of the rocks
3. moss and/or small plants on top of the potting soil
4. add small animals like Safari Ltd Toobs or happy meal toys or whatever you have
5. give it a good watering and keep it moist

Easy.

Are you now thinking about making a terrarium?

Have a fun and playful day!
Mel

Safari Ltd Terrarium by melanieshanks featuring wide mouth glass jars

Wide mouth glass jar
shopterrain.com

Love Notes for Kids

I am not a perfect mom.

I'm not.  By no stretch of the imagination will I win a Mother of the Year contest.  Being a mom is hard.  Being a mom of two teenage girls - it's hard.  Being a mom of a child any age, at any stage - it's hard. But being a mom also makes me happy, so unbelievably so. 

One thing that I know that I am good at when being a mom is encouraging,  My Grandma Helen always wrote cards for EVERY occasion - birthday, Christmas, if you had a car accident (not kidding. She sent me a card after I wrecked my first car).  She was a woman of Faith, a true Christian, an encourager through and through.  I think that's where I get it.

I leave notes for everybody - my high schooler, my college kid, my husband, nieces and nephews, friends, and family.  That's what I do.  It's my thing.  I am sure that it'll be on my gravestone - Mel sent a ton of cards.

This week is Valentine's Week.  Give a card on Valentine's Day, but do it on a Tuesday or a Friday - any day!

 Say "Thanks for being a great kid" or...

Today's a great day to have a great day - one of my favorite sayings from Joanna Gaines of HGTV's Fixer Upper.

Any day's a great day to encourage your little ones (or even your grown up ones!) What a great way to build self confidence and give them that little boost to get through the day.

Have a Fun & Playful day
Mel

Math Games Monday - Roll the Dice Games

Games are fun...and easy to make.

You need very few supplies - paper, glue, cutouts or stickers, 2 penguin game pieces, and a die.  My penguins are from Safari Ltd. Penguins Toob.

Simply map out a twisty path with your snowflakes and glue them on.  If you are using stickers, place them on.  Kids can help make the gameboard.

Roll the die and move that many spaces. Easy, peasy.  You can make these easy game for little money and for any theme you want.  You could coordinate your game to your child's favorite book or movie.

 OR if you have 2 players...you can use the penguins to take turns (patience is a good thing!) to see who reaches the end first.

 So that there's no hard feelings, I always say, "Kate is the first winner. Ethan is the second winner." I learned that from a veteran preschool teacher of 20 years.

 I used Safari Ltd. Penguins from a Toob, but you could use any animal as game pieces.  If it's snow-themed, you could use any polar animals or Anna, Elsa, or Olaf figures like these at the Disney Store as game pieces.

 The possibilities are endless.

Games are great for teaching taking turns, patience, counting, one-to-one correspondence, and family bonding time.

Have a Fun & Playful day!
Mel

Sensory Table

Sensory is the most fun (and usually the most messy!) and kids love it!  Whether you visit a play place like The Wonder Place that has an a-MAZ-ing water table or you have a small one like this Step2 one, or you have a simple plastic container, sensory can be explored any time.  The Sensory Table lets children explore textures, scoop and pour, act at imaginary scenes, explore habitats hands-on, and more!  I have many posts planned on Sensory ideas.

Have a fun & playful weekend!
Mel

Craft Day Tuesday - Small Shadowboxes

 Do you remember making dioramas as a kid?  I used to love getting an assignment where I could make a diorama instead of writing a book report...more fun and creative.  Well, on this cold and snowy day, I decided that we would do a mini version of a diorama.  Instead of a shoebox, we are using 3x3 jewelry boxes (found at Michael's for $.99 each but 1 box makes 2).

 Just a few supplies are needed: scrap paper, cotton, felt, stickers, glue, scissors.  I found these adorable fox and polar friends sticks by Sticko at Walmart.  Greta was so into this project.  She could do most every step.

 We lined the bottom of each box with a scrap of paper that I had.  Then, we just added tree cutouts, the stickers, felt or cotton, and a few plastic flowers that I had laying around.

 They turned out sooo cute.  You could hang on a wall, but we decided to tape ours to the frig.

 It's a beautiful little display of art, don't you think?

Math Games Monday - Love Birds

 Happy Monday!

I decided to do a series of Math Games Mondays for preschoolers.  I was talking to a former classmate who is in the international banking field.  She said, "I think I like preschool math the best - you get to "subtract" M&Ms. Sounds yummy to me!"

Preschool math is sooo important and easy to come up with ideas.  I saw these bird cutouts at my local Dollar Tree dollar store along with the acrylic hearts and an idea sparked!

I simply added a large number to each one and the number word under it.  Add a cup to contain the hearts and wa-la! you have the Love Birds math game.

Easy peasy, right?  You could do duplicate this game a million zillion times using any kind of cutouts that you find.  I had a set for each letter (monkey cutouts for M day, frog cutouts for F day, etc) when I taught preschool.  They got beat up some by all the little hands using them, but these games are cheap to make.

So the child takes a Love Bird. He can read the number or you can read it to him.  Then, he takes one heart at a time and places it on the bird cutout until he reaches the right number.  It is important for the child to count each heart that he places on there and physically slides or places the heart on the bird.  This is one-to-correspondence - an important preschool skill.

The child may need help and that's okay - it's bonding time.  He may want to add too many or not enough.  Just say, "Let's count together."  You can model counting each heart individually.  Children learning by watching us.  :)

Play as long (or short) as he wants.  The idea is to keep it fun and light.  It'll be so fun that they won't even know they are learning.  That is how children learn - by playing.

This game teaches number recognition, number word recognition, one-to-one correspondence, the value of each number, and counting.

Happy Monday & Happy Playing!
Mel

New in the Shop

Source: etsy.com via Melanie on Pinterest

Source: etsy.com via Melanie on Pinterest

Source: etsy.com via Melanie on Pinterest

Source: etsy.com via Melanie on Pinterest

Source: etsy.com via Melanie on Pinterest

https://www.etsy.com/shop/MelanieShanks

It's been a busy weekend.  I have made 14 new Fairy House Making Craft Kits in the shop (above).  These kits are individually, simply, beautifully packages in natural brown boxes and tied with baker's twine.  They would be perfect for that little Tinkerbell, for a fairy themed party, as a gift, or as a party favor.