Science Experiment

I am preparing to have pre-school at my house this week, and the letter I am teaching is the letter I. So we are going to do a science experiment with ice cubes.

Description: A fun science experiment to see what container makes ice cubes melt the fastest/slowest.

Items Needed: Several different containers (at least enough for each person inolved), an ice cube for each container, a stop watch, and eager and excited young scientists.

Target Age: Pre-school, and Kindergarten age (but it could be adapted for older children)

We placed one ice cube in each container and start the timer. Have each person choose which ice cube they think will melt the fastest. Then check on them periodically to see how they are doing. This is a very juvenile experiment with a lot of variables that could change the outcome, but for pre-school children, it is just right. Also, you can do different variations of this same experiment--how many minutes does it take for an ice cube to melt, use several of the same container to see whose ice cube melts first, etc.

As for time contraints, it really varies depending on the type of containers you use and the size of your ice cubes. For us, the ice cube in the glass mug melted first, and it took 47 minutes.

Our Very Own Art Gallery

I found this idea while attending a game night at the house of one of my husband's co-workers. All it is, is a ribbon strung from one side of a wall to the other with clothes pins placed on the ribbon. So, now when my budding artists finish one of their masterpieces, they can hang it up for all to see. (The trick is limiting the amount of paper hung on each clothes pin.)

Little Gardeners

'Tis the season for growing new things, and I helped my kids plant some seeds to watch grow indoors before we plant them out in the garden.

We planted bean seeds in plastic cups and placed them in plastic ziplock bags. They are currently sitting in our bathroom out of the sun, where they will stay until they sprout.

Once they have sprouted, we will take them out of the plastic bags and begin introducing them to the sun. Then once the weather is more consistently warm, we will begin introducing them to the outdoors during the day to harden them off. Then into the ground they'll go once it is safe to plant.

Post-Easter Fun

I don't know about the rest of you, but I always feel a big let-down after a fun holiday. This day-after-Easter is no exception. We had such a good time at our Easter egg hunts over the past couple of days; so, today, since my kids were a little restless (and high on Easter candy), we decided to have another Easter egg hunt. We still had all the eggs out from the real thing yesterday, so I had them to fill up a few eggs with small toys from the playroom then hide them for the other to find. They had a great time finding toys to hide, and you'd think it was Easter all over again when they discovered what was hidden in the eggs they found.

When We’re Helping We’re Happy!

A big focus at my house lately has been how to get my house clean and organized without having to do it all by myself, yet also teaching my girls that working together around the house can be fun. I started with a fun way that would get the girls attention. I made the job flower pot. The materials you would need for this are: a pot of some kind to hold the flowers, craft sticks, flowers cut from paper (I stamped mine and then punched them out), glue stick or hot glue, and a filler for the pot (I used wheat since I have quite a bit in food storage!) I made the flowers and glued them onto the craft sticks. Then I wrote jobs that my 4 year old could do on her own, or was ready to learn how to do on her own at the bottom of the sticks. (I put one stick in that said FREE DAY just to mix it up a bit.) Fill the pot with the filler and flowers and there you go! Believe it or not the 4 year old gets excited when I ask her to pick a job. It's a surprise every morning! Sometimes whatever her job is determines where I will start too. If she cleans her room, I clean mine!

 

Conference Ideas

This weekend is the general conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And it can be an incredibly uplifting weekend, or a frustrating and emotionally and physically draining time of year. The latter is true most often for those of us with small children. Gone are the days when you could sit in peace and quiet and listen to the messages given by these men and women of God. So, what can you do to help your kids be engaged in good/quiet things during conference weekend? (A question I ask myself every six months.) Here are a few suggestions and links to get your brain going: (If you are new to links, just click on the blue or gray words to go directly to the idea I am referring to.)

• The LDS Church website has a list that is worth checking out. The page I've linked is the Friend magazine, which has changed a lot with a lot of neat things for kids to do.
  
• I've recently come across a blog called BecomingLDS which recently had a list of ideas of things for kids to do during conference.
  
• Sugardoodle.net has a lot of different ideas for conference. Their full list is here. Included in that list are some conference packets. To get straight to those, click here or here. For younger kids, they have some conference coloring books. For those, click here or here.
  
• I found a great idea on a blog called lovehugsandgiggles. The idea is to do a conference wall where you have several topics that will likely be addressed in conference with pictures to go with them. Then each child has a set of apostle cards, and when one of the apostles speaks about one of those topics, they stick their card on that topic. She has several ideas in her post. If you'd like to read her whole post click here.
  
• Something that I've done in the past with my really little ones is to decide on one or two words that the child will listen for throughout all the sessions. Write the word on a piece of paper, and everytime they hear that word, they put a sticker on their paper. You could combine this idea with the conference wall idea by placing a sticker on one of the topics you have on the wall when someone other than apostle speaks on that topic.
  
• As was mentioned in lovehugsandgiggles blog, you could have a different simple craft prepared for each session of conference. I am planning to have my kids do some sort of beading activity, as well as having them decorate a picture frame with stickers, beads or buttons.
  
• My oldest is just learning how to write her letters, so I thought it might be a good idea to put together a page with all the apostles on it with a line underneath it so we could help her write their last names.
  
• One last idea is to put together a Conference Basket complete with activities, snacks, pencils, crayons, paper, and any other crafts or activities you have for them during that session. Click here to see a blog post about this.

If anyone has any other thoughts or ideas or things that have worked for you in the past, please leave a comment.

An Introduction

Hello Everybody...I thought that I would take a moment to introduce myself! As Heidi already mentioned my name is Hallie (pronounced Hal-EE). I am a stay at home mom with 2 adorable girls and one fabulous hubby. My girls are 4 1/2 and 17 months, so most ideas that come from me will probably work well for those age groups. Before motherhood, I was a Special Education teacher and loved teaching kids reading, writing and math. Also because of my job I had quite a bit of training in child behavior management. I am excited to help Heidi with this blog, but I will admit upfront that I am not as diligent a blogger as she. I will try to impart a little bit of knowledge and fun for your kids and mine! More later...

Get Moving!

Right now, the weather where I live is changing constantly. Last week, we were spending time outside riding bikes and taking walks. in gorgeous weather. This week, it has been cold and snowy, so we have been stuck inside with occasional short stints outside to play in the snow. It has been hard to get my kids moving and getting their energy out. So, here are a few simple things we have tried to get us moving.

Do some stairs. I don't know why, but my kids get a kick out of this. All we do is just go up and down the stairs. Sometimes we run, and sometimes we walk. It really wears them, and me out!

Wii Fit. The Wii Fit is really fun for my kids. They especially like doing the yoga moves and the running game. Since they are little, we are somewhat limited in the things they can actually do on their own. They can do most things with a little help. Sometimes, we'll have one of them do the running game while the other is doing stairs with mom or dad.

Jumping Jacks. My kids think that jumping jacks are so much fun. We just pick a number to count to and do that many jumping jacks. (Rocket science, I know!) My littlest doesn't have great form when she does them, but she still enjoys jumping around and counting with us.

New Author

Just wanted to welcome our new blog author on "You Know, For Kids!" Her name is Hallie, and she is full of great ideas. We are lucky to have her join us and look forward to the things she will share. Welcome, Hallie!

A Little-Known Holiday

Today is "Absolutely Incredible Kid Day." So be sure to tell your kids how absolutely incredible they are. Maybe you could even let them pick what to have for dinner tonight. Just a thought . . .

St. Patrick's Day Ideas

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Here are a couple of ideas of fun things to do with your kids today.

Check out this website: http://www.dltk-holidays.com/patrick/ It is one of my favorites for quick and simple ideas of crafts and other activities. One I found on there for St. Patrick's Day is to make a rainbow of handprints using construction paper. Cute & simple.

Another idea is to make a St. Paddy's Day meal. A friend of mine did this, and may still do this. She makes a special dinner using different green foods. Some of the ideas I got from her include:

Pesto Pasta

Green Salad

Green Vegetable -- beans, peas, broccoli, asparagus

Rolls with Green butter

Cookies w/ green frosting

And most importantly, remember to wear green or you might get pinched!

Not Quite Summer Idea

Since the weather isn't quite warm enough for some of those mid-summer outdoor activities, here's something that we do to appease some of my kids' desires. We will fill up the tub in our master bath and let the girls get their swim-suits on and go swimming in the "indoor pool." Hey, if you are feeling adventurous, you can get your suit on and jump in, too.

Disclaimer!

I just want to make my intentions clear about the purpose of this sight. I just want to supply some ideas of things you can do with your kids or grandkids. Some of the things I post may not work for you, depending on your situation. I have young kids, so that is what I know. (And I don't even claim to know a whole lot.) Maybe one of the ideas I post will allow you to think of something that will work for your kids. You are welcome to use whatever I post just as it is, or you can change it to work for you. This website is just a spring board for you to develop ideas of things your kids will enjoy doing.

Pirate Treasure Hunt

As I said at the end of my last post, this activity is a variation of the obstacle course and uses some of the same principles.

At pre-school, my oldest learned about pirates and came home with a pirate hat and a telescope (a colored paper towel roll). I was a little surprised that she, being a girl, was so excited about being a pirate. Since then, she has been talking about pirate treasure and making treasure maps. We happen to have a box that we sometimes use as a treasure box. So, I told the girls I would make them a treasure map and hide the treasure box. Because this was a semi-spur-of-the-moment idea. I didn't put anything special in the treasure box, it is just filled with different games and activities because that is where I store them. But, in the future, I could include fun treasures in the box: some of their favorite toys, a special treat, or even something new for them to discover.

Anyway, I've included the map I drew for this certain occasion. Don't laugh at it! The reason I'm posting my map is to show you that you don't have to be an artist to do something fun for your kids. As you can plainly see, I can't draw. My kids don't read yet, so I have to draw pictures of what I want them to do. I am (just barely) capable of drawing things that are recognizable to my kids. I did have to explain a couple of things to them, but once they saw what I was trying to draw, they immediately knew where they needed to go and what they needed to do.

Here is an explanation of my map:

Step 1: Start in the brown bathroom, which is my bathroom because the seat cover happens to be brown. (I know it sounds gross, but that is how my kids differentiate between our bathrooms.

Step 2: Go to mommy's room. My favorite color is yellow, and at our house, when my kids draw pictures of us it is always in our favorite color. So anytime that a person is drawn in yellow, it represents me. Then I drew a bed with a blue blanket, which is what color my quilt is on my bed.

Step 3: Go down the hall. This is a simple drawing of the way our hallway looks with an arrow to show which way to go.

Step 4: Go to the piano room and play 5 notes on the piano. I've drawn piano keys and five music notes. They had to count how many notes were drawn in the picture so they could play the right amount.

Step 5: Go around the kitchen table 5 times. Pretty simple, once they knew that picture was of a table.

Step 6: Go down the stairs, and X marks the spot.

Obstacle Course

This activity can be used in two ways:

1. A spur of the moment activity to get your kids moving.

2. A more involved learning activity that takes a bit more planning.

Let's talk about #1 first. My kids like to watch movies and tv shows, and will often choose to do that if I give them the option. So, sometimes I'll ask them if they want me to make an obstacle course for them. They will say yes every time. All I do is give them a starting point, then give them three or four other places to go in the house and do some sort of exercise. This could also be done outside.

Here's a quick example:
1. Start in the playroom.
2. Chasse' or gallop down the hall. (My oldest is in dance, so we sometimes practice her dance moves)
3. Do 10 jumping jacks in the piano room.
4. Skip to the kitchen and around the table 2 times.
5. Go up and down the stairs 5 times.
6. Run back to the playroom.

On to #2. This one takes a bit more planning, but part of the fun for my kids is getting everything set up, so be sure to involve them in that process if you can. What I try to do is send them from room to room and have different learning activities or just some movement exercises in those different rooms. The fun thing about this is that after you've gone through it once with them, they will often want to do it again and again. So tell them to see if they can do it all by themselves, thus giving you a little break while they do some structured activities.

Here's an example of one I did a while back. I'll try to explain a few of the steps:
1. START in the PLAYROOM
2. CRAWL through the TUNNEL -- We have one of those expandable tunnels they use for little kids' gymnastics, but you could just have them crawl to their next spot if you don't have something like that.
3. RUN down the HALL to the LIVING ROOM
4. CLIMB over the CUSIONS -- I just put a bunch of old couch cusions in the entrance of the room that they had to climb over.
5. SORT all the SHAPES by COLOR -- In this room, I just had a bunch of shapes cut out from construction paper spread around the room. They just had to sort them by color, but they could also be sorted by shape.
6. CLIMB back over the CUSIONS
7. RUN to KITCHEN TABLE
8. RUN around the TABLE AND COUNT to TEN -- I had them run around until they got to ten. Since I did this a year ago, I only had them count to ten. Now that they are older, I would probably have them count to twenty or thirty.
9. RUN to GIRLS’ BEDROOM
10. STEP over STOOLS -- I just put a couple of step stools in the doorway of their room they had to step over. It wasn't much of an obstacle, but added a little more variety.
11. PUT TOGETHER one PUZZLE -- I actually moved their little table from the playroom in their, which they thought was fun, but this could have just as easily been done of the floor.
12. STEP back over the STOOLS
13. RUN to the STAIRS
14. PICK UP one TOY at the bottom of the STAIRS -- I just put a few toys at the bottom of the stairs to give them more incentive to go all the way down to the bottom.
15. RUN down the HALL
16. CRAWL through the TUNNEL -- This was fun to watch them try to crawl with a toy in their hands.
17. FINISH in the PLAYROOM

For my next post, I will include another variation of this same idea. Enjoy!

Snowy Day Activity

We have been promised a big snow storm today, so I thought I'd post something that we have done in the past on stormy days. We currently have an unfinished basement, so we like to bring the kids' bikes downstairs and let them ride around down there, out of the cold and snow. This could also be done in your garage if their's room. Lots of fun and some exercise, too!

You Know, for Kids!!

Welcome to the 'grand opening' of a blog that is all about the little ones in our lives. The purpose of this blog is to give parents and grandparents a resource of activities to do with their kids. This may include places to go, crafts to make, activities to do, rewards to give, behavioral tips, motivational tools or any other ideas of ways to help us be better parents and grandparents. Anything that’s, ‘You Know, For Kids!’

Friday Fun!

Activity: Homemade Box Cars

Ages: 2+ years old

Materials: card board box, crayons or markers, scissors, construction paper

Fridays can get monotonous around my house, so I decided to help my kids make box cars to sit in while they watched a movie. Because my kids are younger, I had to do a lot of the accessories myself. Therefore, we kept things pretty simple. The kids got to decorate their box with crayons (young kids=no markers) while I added a steering wheel, headlights, and wheels in their chosen colors. (If you have older kids, they could decorate their cars to their hearts content.) When we were finished, we all watched the movie "Cars" while they sat in their box cars.