Christmas Countdown: Snowman Placemat

When I was a preschool teacher, whenever a new child joined our class they made their own placemat for lunch and snack time. I don't know why it has taken me this long to have Zel make one, but it has finally happened. I printed a coloring worksheet with his name on it from this site and put it on his easel. I had him use watercolor so that it would dry quickly and also because tempera can get kind of lumpy. Zel was pretty excited to paint a snowman and to use the watercolor. As soon as it dried I used contact paper to laminate it and put it at his place at the dinner table. Zel wanted to do more snowman stuff so we watched Frosty the Snowman too!

Countdown to Christmas Activity Calendar

I've seen a lot of advent calenders going around Pinterest and decided that it would be fun to do one with Zel this year. I made it a countdown because that seemed more exciting and to me, the word advent makes it too religious.

The countdown from little eco footprints is the first calendar that got my attention. I loved that it was nature themed rather than all Christmas or religious. During our outdoor playtime, we searched for the best leaves of all different colors. Once we started setting up the calendar, I realized that I didn't have enough clothespins. I decided that it would be much easier to just write the calender on the window with window markers and use the leaves for one of our activities.

I didn't want to just have a list of activities since that wouldn't be very exciting for Zel. I came across the advent jar from mess for less and knew this would work for us. I had recently purchased a pack of colored popsicle sticks and my mom always has a million extra glass jars around the house. I picked activities that I knew Zel would enjoy and would take little preparation. I used some Christmas projects and activities, some Hanukkah stuff, and a few projects and outings that are fun anytime of the year.

Unfortunately as I was writing this post, Google told me that I reached my photo limit. So please check out the blogs that inspired me to do this project and go to the Z is for Zel facebook page to check out our photos from Christmas countdown activities until I solve this photo dilemma. I will also be posting Zel's activity choice each day on facebook and I will write up blog posts on our favorites...Stay tuned!

Update: Thanks to my fellow KBN bloggers I figured out how to add more pictures!

Lollipop Lunch

Ever since Zel was given a lollipop several months ago, he has been obsessed. He asks for one every single day and it's only gotten worse since Halloween. Well technically he asks for a "p pop," but a lollipop is what he wants. After trick or treating, he was the happiest boy in the world because I let him eat two lollipops at once. I've never seen him more content. I remembered a trick that I used several months ago to get him to eat a healthy lunch using his love of lollipops. I told him that he could have a Lollipop Lunch!

I used mini meatballs, cut up apples, and peas and stuck them on toothpicks. At first he was not too happy about the fact that there was not an actual lollipop, but then he tried a few bites and realized how fun it was to eat with toothpicks.

Jack O Lantern Activity With Felt

I was searching for a fun and easy to make Halloween craft for Zel. I discovered a Felt Pumpkin Faces Activity on Two Big Two Little. I have an abundance of felt with my crafting materials and I was excited to see that there was plenty of black and orange. Rather than buying a pumpkin shape, I cut one out of felt and hot glued it onto some cardboard. On the back I wrote "Jack O Lantern" so that Zel could point out the letters.

He has had a lot of fun with this. I love it because it gets him talking about shapes and parts of the face. He loves making all sorts of silly faces then running to show them off to everyone in the house. Another thing he enjoys is dumping all the felt on the floor, but luckily there isn't too much of it.

Rainy Day Outing: Pet Store

When we lived in the Pacific Northwest, we were used to the rain and discovered many fun things to do out of the house. Now that we live in the Southeast, sometimes it is so hot in the summer or there are too many mosquitos that going outside isn't an option and I haven't come across as many fun, indoor places to bring young children. I've found that the pet store is a fun and free place to bring the kids.

I started using the pet store as an outing when I was a preschool teacher. I used to take my class on walks to our local Petco. There are tons of animals for the kids to see. The fish and the rodents are always a hit. The reptiles and amphibians can sometimes be harder for the little ones to see. Zel wore his Nemo shirt because he was so excited to see the fish. We like to play with the dog toys and even try out some of the dog beds and houses.

Letters and Rice

Sorry it has been a while since my last post. We made our move across the country. Our stuff and cars have finally arrived, although most of it is still in boxes. We have really enjoyed spending so much time with family (and being able to go on some dates with my hubby too!). Zel took a few days to adjust but he is loving all of the attention. There are perks to being the only grandchild!

For the past month, Zel has been very interested in letters. I used a reward certificate from Toys R Us to buy him an alphabet puzzle. Before I bought the puzzle, he already knew some capital letters. After a few days of playing with the puzzle, Zel had learned all of the capital letters! I am such a proud mama. I wanted to make sure that his letter puzzle stayed fun, so I tried to think of how we could play with it in a fun, alternative way. I saw a pin about searching for letters in colored rice from Teach Preschool. I modified it by using non-colored rice and letters from Zel's alphabet puzzle. Zel enjoyed putting the letters into the rice, but he seemed completely uninterested in searching for the letters to place back into the puzzle. However, he found that he could fill the letters on the puzzle board with rice.

 He had a lot of fun trying to do this carefully with a measuring cup and his hand and also by throwing the rice (this was an outside activity).

We talked about which letters he was filling with rice and that throwing the rice didn't seem to fill the letters very well no matter how fun it was.

We learned our letters, practiced fine motor skills, and had a lot of fun!

Independent Sandwich Preparation + Link of the Week

Feeding a toddler can be difficult. Some days Zel is a never ending abyss eating anything and everything, while other days he seems to survive off of a few bites of food. Forcing food upon your child never works, so parents have to figure out gentle (or sneaky) ways to encourage their child to eat. One way that I do this is by letting Zel make his own sandwiches. I cut up some bread and gave him a heaping spoonful of peanut butter and a child sized butter knife. I showed him how to use the knife to spread the peanut butter on the bread then let him try it by himself. Sometimes it takes a little restraint to stop myself from doing it for him or keeping him from getting too messy, but I find that he enjoys the food so much more when he does it all by himself. This is also great fine motor skills practice too!

Eventually he forgot about trying to spread the peanut butter and just ate it with a spoon (I've been know to do this myself).

I also wanted to share this adorable snack idea from Creative Kidlets 101 that I found on last week's Kid's Co-op Link Up: