Lightning Bug Literacy

Turkey Keepsake

admin — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 09:28:04 +0000

My word, it has been awhile! This past few weeks we have been busy trying to get our website up to date with its new template, which simply never goes as planned. We had anticipated it only being down a week, it has been much longer … we thank you for hanging with us!

As we all know, Christmas is sneaking up on us, but Thanksgiving isn’t sliding by unnoticed. With my wee ones this week, we have a had a great time exploring the world of the Turkey Footprints … you know, the one everyone does, with the feathers behind it?

Well. I decided to jazz it up a bit. We did your typical brown footprint – which is absolutely a kick in the pants with these kids as they giggle and wiggle over their feet being paintbrush tickled. As it dried, I scribed their names, year and “Happy Thanksgiving” around a simple brown metallic charger.

Then, we coated the charger with a layer of modgepodge and laid down the feathers. The kids had a blast sticking it to the sticky surface and trying to avoid getting their little fingers all gooey. We spread another layer of modge podge, and added our “turkeys”. I have never heard so many giggles over a silly little turkey! We finished it off with another layer of modge podge and waited for them to dry.

Wallah! A simple and fun craft that can be on display year after year, reminding you of those sweet little chubby feet that once danced on yours!

Get a Melissa & Doug 25% Off Coupon When You Take the North “Poll”

admin — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 03:10:03 +0000

When I discovered Melissa and Doug toys, my whole world changed! Suddenly, pretend playing with my 3 year old became easy and fun and I felt at ease when my 1 year old mouthed every toy that passed through his hands. When you look in our living room toy box, the majority of our toys our Melissa and Doug, making our playtime educational and SO much fun!

As they gear up for the winter holiday season, Melissa & Doug want you to tell them which of their educational toys you think is the best! Just click on the image below to place your vote in the North “Poll!” You’ll Get a Melissa & Doug 25% Off Coupon** to use at MelissaAndDoug.com just for voting!

Hurry and vote! What a great opportunity to score a fantastic coupon!

Monster Mash

admin — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 11:38:36 +0000

Last week was full of imagination building activities and this one was one of our favorites.

We whipped up a batch of our Monster Mash Mash and set forth on creating unique monsters. We used different sizes of chenille stems, sparkly pom poms and colored wiggly eyes *with eyelashes, of course!*!

Even more fun was transforming them, as we tried to dig all the monster treasures back out for our next go-round. We poked and prodded and picked and squished them all back out, only to do it again!

Mini Volcanos

admin — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 11:45:14 +0000

I’m sure we all remember the day of the volcano experiment in elementary school that wowed us beyond belief and probably changed our lives forever in some way shape or form.

Last week, my little girl discovered her very own volcanos for the first time. We have a friend come visit a few days a week and I’m always hunting for ideas to keep them engaged, learning, imagining and away from the tv. I think this was one of our favorites so far.

We dumped a bit of baking soda in each of the 12 cups in our silicone muffin tin. Then in dixie cups, I added vinegar and food coloring to each. The girls grabbed their droppers and set to work … each girl added her own touch of color to each volcano and oohed and awed as each one “erupted” (i.e. fizzled). This was fantastic in indirect teaching of mixing colors as the girls mixed and matched as many colors as possible.

Save the Spiders!

admin — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 18:34:38 +0000

Awhile back we discovered sensory baths … coloring the water and even adding a drop of essential oils to liven it up a bit (as if a child couldn’t spend hours in there anyway). We eventually turned our baths into a pond, rainforest and more.

During our Halloween unit, we decided to do it up once again! Ready?

This idea actually came from Counting Coconuts and her spider sifting idea, which we replicated. Then we simply moved those creepy crawly little guys straight into a lime green bath tub!

We used a variety of rescue tools to save our spiders from the murky waters and had a blast counting how many each of us could get. We had many giggles as we raced to the get the very last one. What a hoot!

Our Elk Festival

admin — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 11:43:50 +0000

A few weekends ago, we cozied up in the Rocky Mountains (so stinking beautiful) for our annual family trip to the Elk Festival. ELK FESTIVAL, you ask? Yep! I’m a vegetarian.

In this small tourist town in Colorado each year around October, the Elk migrate down into the town and are at eye level with the tourists. We stay in a cabin and can often times here the elk bugling in the forest. They hang out on the golf course, or other areas that are easily accessible to tourists.

What an awesome gift to give my kiddos … the opportunity ot see and hear these wild animals up close and personal. During this particular trip, we were given the opportunity to see two very large bulls contesting a group of females. Their bugles were loud and very clear. No, elk aren’t very exciting animals, but ya know – seeing them in action is much more titillating than a mere picture in a book (though that’s awesome, too).

Secret Messages

admin — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 11:40:35 +0000

In our day to day lives, sometimes we forget about those classic projects that you and I remember so fondly of when we were little bitty. For this project, all you need is a white piece of paper, white crayon, and water colors!

On the white paper, write a secret message for your little bitty to “decode”. Let them paint over it with water colors and watch it slowly appear. This is great for special messages, a daily sight word, using beginning sounds to figure out a secret word, etc. So much fun! It’s also wonderful for a little note from mommy to daughter…

Feeling Feathers

admin — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 11:00:56 +0000

In our Little Bug Learning School we are working hard to learn about our forest friends! Part of our exploration is learning about nocturnal animals, such as the owl and the bat! Ready for two of our favorite stations so far?

Our Owl Sensory Bin!

Our Owl sensory bin is filled with dyed black noodles, earth tone feathers, owl beads and trees, small branches, rubber mice, a wooden owl and letter Os! We’ve had so much fun with this, though the little grey mouse looks quite realistic at midnight when you’re not really sure what you’re seeing.

We also stumbled upon a bat cookie cutter in a Halloween goody bag from Oma! We made up a batch of black Mash Mash and have had a blast making our very own bats!

Fairy Fun

admin — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 10:57:43 +0000

This past weekend we celebrated my Little Bug’s 3rd birthday and had so much fun! Here are a few snapshots of our favorite parts of her day…

The girls each got a pair of fairy wings, pixie dust (sand/glitter mixed), a fairy wand, and Tinkerbell chapstick to set their imaginations on fire.

We dined on fairy sandwiches, “twigs” (pretzels) , “toadstools” (string cheese w/ cherry tomato toppers), and fairy juice (strawberry lemonade). On the table was “Fairy Fluff” (pink marshmallows, strawberry malt balls and of course, pixie sticks The table was adorned with our centerpiece and a letter “D” lit up in pink Christmas lights (under tulle).

The girls also got to make their own fairy village, with of course, the gals from Tinkerbell. We filled our bowls with dirt and added stones, fairy homes, moss, flowers, acorns, and butterflies!

As we sang to my birthday princess, the girls dined on butterfly cupcakes – simply pink cupcakes inside the flower themed liners, and topped with a craft butterfly! FUN!

We also had fairy playdough for the girls to play with while we waited for our guests to arrive, and each of the girls walked away with their very own pixie dust.

What a magical day!

Pumpkin Oatmeal

admin — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 11:29:57 +0000

Alright. Confession time. Raise your hand if you ever have trouble getting your kids to eat vegetables. Anyone? Anyone. Anyone? Well. I still have 2 hands raised for my other three kids … my daughter, son, and my husband.

It can truly be a struggle to get these people of mine to eat a balanced diet, complete with their daily servings of vegetables. It’s kinda easy for me because, well… I’m a vegetarian. I kinda have to.

So, when a dear friend of mine sent me this recipe, I jumped all over it, and feel obligated to share it with the world. It. is. amazing!

Oatmeal with Pumpkin

from Jessica Seinfeld, Deceptively Delicious

1 C Milk

1/4 c packed brown sugar

1/4 c pumpkin (or sweet potato) puree (either canned or fresh)

1/4 t cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice

1 t vanilla extract (optional)

1 C old fashioned oatmeal

1 t creamy peanut putter (optional)

toppings- nuts/dried fruit (optional)

warm maple syrup

Bring milk, vanilla, sugar, spices and pumpkin to a boil, and reduce heat. Add in oatmeal and peanut butter and simmer for 2-3 minutes until is creamy in consistency, and the oatmeal has reached your desired consistency. At this point I also added in flax seed meal for heart health! Let cool and top off with dried fruit, nuts and warm maple syrup! (I used dried apples, sliced almonds and honey). Be prepared to have pumpkin oatmeal requested for breakfast again and again!

This recipe was absolutely delicious- both D and I absolutely loved it and had it for lunch! We will be making this over and over again throughout the year …

On another note, there is a lot of “controversy” in mommy and nutritionist land about hiding vegetables in other foods, and I really don’t have an opinion either way. Some people say that kids (and I suppose adults, too?) should know when they are eating vegetables, and have the option to make the choice. Others say hiding vegetables is one way to simply “make” kids eat them! I say, a combination of both, or either/or … I’ve given up the desire to judge other parents, and hope you have, too! Whatever works is right for me! With this particular recipe, I didn’t bother to “hide” it … I told my daughter that there is pumpkin in it and she still gobbled it right up! Now my husband? Well, let’s just not tell him.

Thanks, Tonia, for inspiring us to explore this recipe !!!!