As a homeschool graduate currently homeschooling my own munchkins, I’m always looking for creative and inexpensive educational activities. I absolutely love dollar stores of all kinds for bargain educational supplies to use! They cost so little, and can cover so many different topics. One of my nifty finds has been these color sorting cubes. Being creative with them, I can come up with bunches of different ways to use these little boogers to keep my little smarty pants entertained and educated at the same time. I’ve used them for lots of different things, but I thought that I would share some of what we have done with them as fun & stimulating preschool projects.
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We started off the day simply. Since I’m a penny pincher from way back, I took two styrofoam plates we had used for our lunch, wiped them off, grabbed some colored markers, outlined and filled in half of each plate in the four different colors of her sorting cubes. I then asked her to put all of the cubes on the matching color section. As you can see, she did great. 🙂 She did this a few times before she was ready to move on to something else, so then I came up with a couple of more fun educational games for her…
Pattern and Varied Numbers
I flipped the two styrofoam plates over, and drew out the new projects with my trusty markers again. What, you thought mrs frugal was gonna use new plates? LOL On the left in this photo, I told her to follow the color pattern using two blocks in each rectangle. On the right, I asked her what each number and color was, then requested that she put the correct number and color of blocks in each rectangle. She really enjoyed this one, since it was a little more challenging. After a little while, she was ready to do something new with her color cubes, so Mommy had to come up with another challenge…
Counting and Sorting
For her last color cube project of the day, I asked her to put 4 blue cubes on the blue side, 5 green cubes on the green side, 6 orange cubes on the orange and 7 red cubes on the red. We did this same “game” with several different series of numbers. She really enjoyed the challenge of remembering how many went on which color, since it wasn’t written down.
Now that I’ve shared a few of the educational games we do with our color cubes, what are some inexpensive items you use to help kiddos learn? What do you wish you could find an educational use for?
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Does anyone else ever feel like cleaning in a house of small children is like trying to empty a swimming pool with a teaspoon? You may make a little progress eventually, but they will quickly fill any space you empty and mess any place you wipe and dump out anything you put away and…well, you get the point! I know that you can teach them to clean up and put away- and I do that- but it’s still a never ending task, and it takes alot of my energy to make sure my little ones actually follow through with their jobs. I have to get creative for them to care about keeping up with anything, and that’s pretty important because Mommy can’t do it all well alone. One trick that works pretty well with my children is that if you don’t pick it up, you lose it. If I ask my kids to clean up and they don’t, I give them warning that next time I say something will be while taking a toy. If it still doesn’t get done, I grab a toy they actually like (I’ve learned to not grab comfort objects or things they aren’t too fond of) and put it away from them. If they still don’t clean up, I take two…and it goes on from there. To earn back ONE toy, they have to clean up immediately the following clean-up session without argument or complaint. This is probably the most effective method for my independent minded oldest. She frequently doesn’t mind alot of punishments I can dole out, loves to argue, and lives to win. Since I won’t fuss with her, just say “You chose to lose a toy/two toys/three toys by not cleaning up when I asked” and refuse to engage, it’s not fun for her, and she hates losing things she loves. I’ve rarely had to go beyond two toys, even with her. 🙂 I also try to make it more fun for them to help clean up. They love it when we sing the cleanup song while we work. They really enjoy it when I make cleaning up a race! I’ll say “Can you pick up all of your toys before I can finish dishes? I’m pretty fast!” or “How many books can you put up before this song stops playing?” or “Do you think you can finish washing your fingerprints off the window before I can finish cleaning the bathroom?”. Sometimes I’ll offer a reward if they get it all done or if they finish in a certain time frame. These rewards are usually something like a snack or an extra book to be read during story time or playing with playdough or something. Almost anything can be fun for kids if you make it into a game. What are some tricks you have for cleaning up with kiddos?
Princess Peach and I love our s’mores, but there isn’t always a bonfire and roasting stick available, so I’ve come up with some creative ways to get that ooey-gooey yummy fix. One of my s’more inspired concoctions is S’more Cupcakes. Lemme tell ya, we gobbled these right up! Not to brag, but they were so moist, just gooey enough and the flavors were the bomb diggety. They were also alot of fun for Princess and I to make together, which helped make this a recipe to keep in the “make again” file. Want to make these yourself? You know that you do! Who doesn’t love s’mores?? They’re basically a symbol of summer, and they include chocolate! Oh, and don’t get me started on cupcakes! They just make me happy! They’re a pre-portioned piece of cake and they bring back fond memories of childhood with every bite. Put those together, and you’ve got Heaven in your mouth! 🙂 On to the directions…
S’more Cupcakes
1 Devil’s Food Cake mix, following directions on box for mixing
12 large marshmallows (we used the ones made for s’mores, since they were flat)
1 cup mini marshmallows
1/2 cup of chocolate chips
Dropping in Marshmallows
Mix the cake batter according to directions, adding the chocolate chips. Fill each cup about 1/3 of the way with the cake batter. Drop three mini marshmallows in each cup. Finish filling the cups with the remaining batter to about 2/3 full. Bake in the oven according to the directions for cupcakes on your Devil’s Food Cake mix.
Before the marshmallow topping
When you remove them from the oven, flip the oven to broil. Place your large marshmallows on top of each cupcake, then pop them back into the oven. Broil until they puff up and are very lightly browned, watching closely, since they will burn very quickly. Remove, cool, and enjoy!
My kiddos absolutely drooled over these, gobbling them right up. They had a blast with the process of making them together, as well. My daughter loved adding the chocolate chips to the batter and dropping in the marshmallows. Both of my munchkins were mesmerized by watching the marshmallows puff up in the oven. They were so excited to finally get to chomp into these scrumptious bites of gooey goodness! You’ve got to try them, too! There are even coupons available to go with this yummy recipe! See below…
Sharing their cupcakes
What is your favorite kind of cupcake? Do you enjoy s’mores, or are you allergic to melty chocolate gooey scrumpdeliciousness? 😉For more recipes, please click the Chef’s hat!
A couple of years ago with one of my little riders.
Planning to travel this summer? Have small children? One of your big concerns is probably how to keep the little rascals entertained and happy on the trip to where you’re headed, right? Here are some of my tried and true tips for ways to keep toddlers and preschoolers happy while traveling!
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Snacks!!!Any parents know to bring something for the kids to munch on, but here are my tips to make this a success. Pack familiar favorites, as well as occasional treats and things they will like, but don’t really get at home. A treat they enjoy plain made in a cool shape can be exciting at this age! Make sure they are safe to consume while strapped in a car seat, and not overly messy. For children who are past the major choking stage, some good options are homemade cookies (like my super yummy healthy cookies or these less healthy easy cake mix cookies), raisins and other dried fruits, real fruit dye free gummies, goldfish crackers, cereals or mixes made with cereals, sandwich crackers, pretzels, grapes, bananas, apple slices, string cheese, etc. Some of these are assuming you are hauling a cooler, but that’s almost a given on a long trip with munchkins, isn’t it? 😉
Coloring books. If your children are a little older, make sure to get them some that also have appealing games in them, like mazes, color-by-number, dot-to-dot and things like that to keep them more mentally stimulated for longer.
Stickers. Encourage them to get creative. You could let them decorate their own activity boxes, notebooks, memory books from the trip or bookmarks & cards for family members using their stickers, like this set of 1,000 animal stickers for cheap or other varieties. You can also give them a little notepad and have them put a sticker in it every time they find a particular object you agree on them finding and counting, whether it be a school bus, fire truck, the same color of car that you are riding in, churches, fields of cows, seagulls….whatever would catch their interest and be something they would find plenty of without it being too terribly easy.
Electronic games. I rarely allow my children to play with their electronic games at home, so when they get them during a waiting time (like a road trip, when I need to make important phone calls quietly at home or while waiting at doctor’s office), it will hold their attention for a very long time.
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I Spy. This game can carry on quite awhile, just adjust it to your child’s capabilities. You can use this to hone their skills in different areas. Some examples? I spy something big/little/green/orange/soft/wet/tall/round/square/sharp/etc. It doesn’t just have
to be colors! 🙂 DVD player. In a modern age, I’m sure most parents think to bring a way for their kids to watch movies on trips, but it bears mentioning. This portable DVD player is a #1 best seller!
Children’s Songs. This one could drive a parent absolutely batty, but there are times when listening to 100 children’s songs and pantomiming along is the preferred torture. When your other options are whining, crying or bickering…who can judge you belting out “Twinkle Twinkle” complete with theatric gestures? 😉
Books. This may seem like a no brainer, but it has to be included. What I do to make books even more engaging for them to look through is to give them a “mission” to accomplish. “See if you can find the purple pony hiding in this book!” or for those who can count “Count how many fish are swimming through this book!” or any other searches you can send them through the pages for. This really appeals to my goal oriented munchkins, and can make half a dozen books last as long as 20 books might without the extra missions. This traveling book is chock full of travel activities!
What are some of your favorite tricks for entertaining little ones on the road? Need some money saving tips? Try my Cheap Travel Tips!
My kids give a whole new definition to the term “homewrecker”. There are times when the little varmints seem intent upon destroying our home and everything in it, nailed down or not. Take the first couple of days of last week, for instance. We had just returned from a short vacation, and our kiddos were excited to be home again. Their response to their joy at being back in their home sweet home? My little darlings turned into a two tot demolition derby!
The first full day at home was the beginning of the madness. My sweet little Peanut, who just turned a year old, pulled the leg off of our coffee table and then did his new-walker “monster run” around the living room trying to whack anything that couldn’t skedaddle. Princess Peach strewed every book she could find all over her bedroom floor while I thought she was nicely reading on her bed, and her baby brother thought the books were perfect for one of his favorite games, Shred The Paper. (I should’ve known better than to think the fact she was on her bed quietly looking at a book and baby was on the living room floor with a toy meant it was safe to go to the bathroom alone, for once.) While trying to fix a quick supper, with them right behind me, Peanut dumped out the trash can and was frantically trying to dig through it before I could grab him out of the mess. After supper, I thought I could do dishes with them in the kitchen with me. Nope! Baby Peanut was pulling them out and throwing them as quickly as I could set them in, and my daredevil Princess was stacking empty boxes to try to climb on the counters to get at things she wasn’t supposed to have. AVALANCHE!!! They both fought sleep until the bitter end that night, and since I didn’t even begin to detail everything the little boogers got into that day, it took me about an hour of clean-up once they finally lost their battle with the snooze monster for me to be able to go to bed that night. This is even after making my daughter pick up every single book and all the toys she had scattered hither and thither across our humble abode.
She colored her face with blue crayon
I figured by the second day that the gruesome twosome would’ve settled down a bit. They were pretty good while I took them to church and a fundraiser spaghetti dinner afterwards. Apparently, that was merely to lull their dear ol’ mom into a false sense of security.
The madness began again as soon as they got home. They found an open bag of potato chips, which they both proceeded to try to cram into their jowls as quickly as possible before I could deprive them of their prize. The result? Well, chips & crumbs from head to toe to floor….everywhere! They pulled out just about every toy they owned, and a few I didn’t even know existed anymore. When I attempted another ill-fated attempt at relieving my bladder, this time taking Peanut in there with me while I thought Princess was watching a cartoon, she climbed the counter and got into some chocolate. She had it half eaten and smeared all over by the time I got out. I even heard her opening the wrapper and hollered from the potty. Did that deter my determined diva? Nosirreebob!! It just made her gobble faster. This went on and on all day long, one thing after another.
Cut to the grand finale of that lovely day…
The Princess’ Potty
At one point I thought I could keep an eye on them and check my messages online, since I hadn’t been on a computer for a few days. Princess Peach took off for the potty as I was logging on. I gave her a minute to do her business before I followed. BIG MISTAKE!! By the time I got in there, she had crammed a ton of toilet paper into the toilet and repeatedly tried flushing it. Can we say FLOOD??? Yep, it was an overflowing mess! Did I mention that my husband was on duty at the fire department? But of course he was! 😉 As yours truly was hurriedly turning off the water and ordering the incorrigibly cute culprit to timeout, Peanut was trying to swim in the mess. Once I got the floodwaters to shop rushing, I had to strip him down to a diaper and toss him into the playpen. Picture this: Screaming Peanut, ringing phone, whining Princess and mumbling Mommy rushing back and forth with a bucket tossing water outside, plunging, hauling buckets of water, plunging again, yadayadayada. It took about a dozen cycles of plunging and water hauling to get the toilet fixed up. After that I had to remove everything from the bathroom, clean everything, put back what I could and explain to Princess Peach exactly why Mommy was so far beyond irritated with her at the moment and why she should never do that again. Of course, next it was baths all around and off to beddy bye. Also, of course, they fought sleep yet another night to the bitter, nerve wrecking end!
Now, I don’t think any of these things are all that unusual in a day of life with munchkins. They just went on an absolute homewrecking spree there for a few days! This wasn’t even the end, since the next week included another flooding of the toilet, painting the bathroom with pink toothpaste, many more raids of forbidden snack stashes, destroying of items they shouldn’t touch, etc. My nerves have yet to settle down, since both of my kiddos are in some high maintenance stages right about now. Why am I sharing this? Maybe ’cause I’m a mess of a mom sometimes, and am too tired to care that everyone knows. Maybe to let other mommies who want to go outside and howl at the moon in frustration know that they aren’t alone in loving life with their precious children at the same time as wanting to crawl into a hole and cry. Maybe ’cause life is crazy, but it’s meant to be shared. Maybe so these little lunatics I am raising can look at this later when their own progeny are driving them up the walls and see that it’s just the way things are sometimes.
I’m convinced that God made children adorable and innocent so that at times like this, when they make their parents want to scream, howl and have a toddler sized meltdown from frustration….we look at the source of our frustration and think “You’re lucky you’re so stinkin’ cute, kid!”. LOL
My messmakers
Off to make sure Princess Peach isn’t wrecking havoc in the temporary silence of a napping Peanut. If your kids are at home and quiet….CHECK ON THEM!!!! 😉 I have to add that the little booger was yet again brushing the walls with pink toothpaste, as well as dumping water all over the floor and squirting pink toothpaste into the sink to use for her painting. I shouldn’t have left her alone, because she’s rarely behaving if she’s quiet lately. What’s a mommy to do??? Gotta laugh or cry! *laughing now that I’ve cleaned the bathroom and let her out of timeout* LOL! AHHHHHH!!!!
Anyone else had fun times like this?? Tell me I’m not alone, y’all, pleeeeeeease!!! 🙂
My five year old is very strong willed and thrives on winning arguments at all costs, while I’m more laidback and cannot stand to fuss with people.
She is a potential future trial lawyer, while I’m more the diplomat type. If you think this causes issues in my ability to parent her without getting stressed out, then you are tee-totally correct!! I hate to be confrontational or aggressive, but there are many times that I must. She loves to win, but she has to lose on a regular basis for the good of all mankind. 🙂 She’s a future leader, but she has to learn to challenge those leadership skills in a healthy manner.
Because of the difference in personalities, I’ve learned that a big key to retaining my sanity is in choosing which battles to start with my strong willed child.
If I start a battle, I have to win it. With a child who likes to win, this means that starting a battle can potentially be a huge commitment of my energy and time. I have to think before I start “Is this a battle worth waging? Does it really matter? Will it make a difference in the kind of adult she will become? Could someone be hurt- either physically or emotionally- if I choose to let it go?”
If my daughter wants to wear a big pink straw hat, black striped shirt, red lady bug wings, purple pants, red lobster beads around her neck, and pink & purple butterfly boots with sparkly sunglasses to the grocery store….why say a word? It doesn’t matter what anyone thinks about her clothing. She is clean, well cared for, ultra confident and happy, and doesn’t care about public opinion any more than her mommy does. If I were embarrassed by it, I still think it’s something better to just let go, but I’m not.
On the other hand, if my little monkey thinks it’s okay to use her bunk bed as a launching pad or monkey bars, we are waging war. She could seriously injure herself, and not following her safety rules is a non-negotiable point. She was informed we could take it away, and have no problem leaving her with just a mattress on the floor to sleep on. Since she loves sleeping in the “princess tower” she has made of her top bunk and knows that I don’t make vain threats, she decided this was not a battle worth trying to “win”. However, if she had tried… the princess would be brought down to earth with just a mattress for awhile.
When my creative soul was determined to “cook” using baby foods my son no longer ate that were still in date and other interesting ingredients and make a big sloppy mess, I let her have at it. She mixed up apple, strawberry banana, peach and pear baby foods with banana chunks, cheerios and saltine crackers, served it up for her brother and herself for an afternoon snack, made a HUGE mess….and they were so pleased with the disgusting slop that they gobbled it up and got it all over themselves, requiring a bath after their childish attempts to clean up the wreck they made and my finishing the process. Did I eat any? Nuh-uh! Was she happy? Yep! This made them so joyful & wasn’t worth fussing over, even though it was annoying to me.
Alternately, when she chose to channel that creativity into using my walls, doors and furniture as the pallette for her artistic
One of MANY unauthorized wall art projects! Saying NO!!!
ventures, she lost the freedom to take her art supplies away from the designated art areas in the house that Mommy can supervise fairly well. I allow her to freely decorate boxes and and different items, as well as draw and color to her heart’s content, but I can’t have a rogue artist redecorating my whole daggum house to the taste of a sneaky stinker of a five year old!
When my daughter created an alter ego for herself named Peppermint Candy who was apparently a caretaker of all flowers and rocks everywhere she went, I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. When I thought about it, though, she was just using her imagination and not trying to be defiant or cause trouble. I decided to just play along. She soon got tired of it, although she still creates alter egos occasionally, and it didn’t hurt anyone in the long run.
However, during that same phase she decided her little brother was the arch enemy of aforementioned alter ego, and would scream, yell at him and call him names for coming near or trying to play, I quickly put a stop to it. Her imaginary identity wasn’t going to be allowed to be mean to her real little brother and hurt his real life feelings. She waged war on this one, since she insisted he wasn’t really her brother, but an evil genius inhabiting his body. Mommy won, though. Life is not pleasant when you lose toys and movies every time you are mean to someone you are around 24/7. 😉
I have to make a side note about the importance of never, ever, evvvvverrrrr making threats you don’t intend to follow through with if you were blessed with a strong willed child.
A strong willed, intelligent child is NOT the person to tell you will stuff her in the trunk if she doesn’t stop screaming in the car. She is going to see if you will do it….and you won’t, if you’re like 99.99% of parents who make this kind of threats. It will be filed under “Threats mean nothing” and “If I push hard enough, consequences will go away”, and weaken any authority you may have had to begin with. You are better off to allow the screaming to go unchecked than to make threats you won’t follow through with, although it may not be ideal.
If you have a strong willed child- or any child- whom you find yourself arguing with all too often, maybe you should step back and think about what battles you are choosing and whether they are worth losing peace over.
Sometimes your child really is just being a child and an individual, and not trying to drive you crazy. Other times it’s an issue of respect, safety or long term effects. If you feel like you live in a war zone, try to think about what battles you are starting and which ones you could easily just let go without harm.
If all else fails, when it’s not important, just start singing “Let It Go” to yourself! 😉
Have you ever had a time when you were struggling with life and worrying over something, and would just like a hug or some comfort?
This morning I was not feeling well and was just really overwhelmed by everything I needed to do and discouraged with my growing limitations and discomforts of pregnancy. I didn’t even want to get out of bed, so I just grabbed my phone to look at what was new on Facebook for a few minutes. If you’re familiar with the feature they have where they show you memories from that same day in previous years, it’s one of my favorites. I came across this one from 2010, and it touched my heart in a way it needed this morning…
I found a little poem card my mom gave me sometime. It made me cry, but it is exactly what Mom felt about me while she was alive & like a much-needed message from her now. It begins…
” Daughter, today and always, please know that I see you. I see the path that you’ve made that’s all your own. I see the many talents & gifts you have to share…
I see your brilliance, your enthusiasm, and how deeply you care and hurt sometimes. I see your hard earned wisdom, your soft pure innocence, your courage and compassion…
I see what a difference you make in this world, and I hope you know how very much I love you, and how proud I’ll always be to have a daughter as wonderful as you are.”
I am so blessed to have been raised by a mom who genuinely loved me & showed it each & every day of her life.
I have no regrets in my relationship with her. We had our fusses at times & nobody’s perfect, but we communicated our feelings to each other while we still had time. Cherish every moment with your loved ones. Let them know what they mean to you. The impact of your relationships will live long after you are gone.
I was given a gift card to The Bird & Elephant Etsy store as a prize in an amazing contest I won awhile back. I was excited looking through the shop, because she has a wide assortment of gorgeous prints and reasonable prices for custom products. She makes a variety of adorable items, such as reversible custom bibs, wooden teething rings, soft blocks to play with, burp cloths and more! I wound up using my gift card on a whole slew of bibs, since that’s something I actually need even for a third child. I also got a masculine- yet oh-so-cute– moustache camo bandana style bib for my toddler.
Not only are these reversible bibs adorable, available in multiple sizes & shapes, and come in a large selection of awesome custom prints and colors, but they are a great quality! Even my husband- who is not easily impressed- was surprised at how well made these bibs were. Our little guy loves his bandana bib, and looks pretty doggone handsome in it, too! I’m really looking forward to putting our newest addition in her bibs and seeing how adorable she’ll look while keeping clean!
Which pattern is your favorite? I think the butterflies and the moustache camo are my personal loves, but I have a hard time choosing. They’re just all so vibrant! 🙂
Click the link below to shop for the cutiepies in your life! 🙂
Yep, you saw that right! Ramen Noodle Crust Pizza it is! I have been trying to cook from the pantry a lot, and happened to have ramen noodles and pizza topping ingredients galore, so I made this concoction. It was quite a hit with my kiddos, and a super simple cheap weeknight meal! 🙂
All I did for the “crust” was boil a pack of Ramen noodles while preheating the oven to 400 degrees, then mixed it with 4 eggs, a generous sprinkling of Parmesan cheese and some garlic powder. (If my husband had been home, I’d have doubled that.) I spread it on an oiled baking sheet.
The toppings were just the typical stuff I would put on a pizza. Tomato sauce with seasoning to taste, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, lots of spinach and onion. I baked it for about 10 minutes, and it was ready to slice and serve. It wasn’t quite as sturdy as regular pizza crust, so we ate it with forks. It was really quick and tasty, though! 🙂
Anyone else have weird- but delicious- uses for Ramen noodles?
I’ve been extraordinarily busy the past couple of weeks, so maybe some of you have noticed the absence of my Winning Wednesday posts. It’s back today! Let me know if you’ve missed it. 🙂 I have some great low entry giveaways to share this week, so your odds of winning something are really high if you do all of these entries!!
Any bloggers or small businesses with current family friendly giveaways are welcome to post links to one or two of those giveaways with a brief description in the comments section. If you have an upcoming giveaway you would like to be featured, please contact me via my Facebook page with details. This will continue to be a weekly feature here on Penny Pinching Peach if there is consistent interest, so give a shout if you enjoy these lists and let me know if you entered any contests! Oh, and definitely come back and let me know if you win something, please!!!
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