All About Me: Birthday Questionnaire!

Last week we celebrated with my daughter as she turned 5. She is our only girl, and she loves everything about celebrations and parties.

I'm trying to do a better job commemorating milestones while my kids are little, and one way to do that is by printing this simple page and filling it out with them every year. I enjoyed the special moments we shared while my sweet girl answered questions about her current tastes and favorite things;  I know it will be so fun to look back on her answers 5-10 years from now.  It is easy to add a few more personalized questions to this list as well.

Maddy already loves her All About Me and this page is a perfect addition.  I look forward to celebrating more birthdays with our special girl, and using this simple page to reflect on how she is growing and changing each year!
And in case you were wondering, it was a Zhu Zhu pet party--we had a lot of fun making these cupcakes together. Oh Pinterest, what did we ever do without you!?

Make A Memory: How I Met Your Mother!

If you are looking to start a new Valentine's Day tradition this year, here is a great idea!   Even though my kids are 6 and under, I know they will enjoy hearing the story of how my husband and I met.  We have never shared this story with our kids before; what better time of year to retell our own love story (with each other and with our kids!) than on Valentine's Day!
I know my little girl will particularly enjoy looking through our wedding album and watching our wedding video.  If you want a few ideas to jump start this fun Valentine's Day idea, here is a free printable for you to download!

This would also be another another great page to add to your child's "All About Me" book!

This is a simple way to spend time together as a family sharing stories and experiences that will help your kids begin to grasp what love is all about.  Have fun and if you have another suggestion or story about how this works out with your kids, please share it here!

Bite-Sized Blog: On the Go Go Go Go.

The Future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.  ~C.S. Lewis

We are only two weeks into the New Year and I feel like we've been in fast-forward ever since the ball dropped. Yesterday morning I spent nearly three hours in the pediatric dentist's office with my big guy.  And I feel the need to stop right here and say there is a special, special place in my heart for these people. I'm convinced pediatric dentists and their aids are performing earthly purgatory or required penance.  

{I pause to applaud you here.}

Besides the dental visits, we have simply been on the move so much, I feel like I haven't spent as much time face to face with my kids. Whether sitting and talking with them, reading or playing—I have missed our slower moments together and I am hoping to modify our current schedule with much more down time very soon. I'm having a really hard time keeping them little.

So, I am going to keep this quick, but we don't want you to think we've completely forgotten about the world of blog-dom! We have lots of fun activities and plans coming up in the next few months, and as long as we survive trips to the pediatric dentist, we can't wait to share them with you.

Even in the middle of life at full throttle, I was reminded today that we can create special moments while errand-running and carpooling.  Here are a few simple thoughts if you are feeling stressed about being on the go and want to make the most of your time! 

Look Around, Be Creative.

It's amazing what happens when you encourage your kids to observe what's going on outside the car windows (or shopping cart). It's very easy to take a simple game of “I Spy” to the next level while driving in town.  Come up with a counting or matching game if you are stuck in traffic, or help kids admire big buildings and construction equipment. Once you look up and out—there are many things to see!  This is also a great way to encourage conversations about the amazing created world in which we live.  Check out contrasting colors in the earth and sky, etc.

Promote Interaction, Create Stories.

I have always enjoyed creating stories, so this is a timeless game for me. Once you take a moment to look around you, encourage your kids to come up with stories about what they see while they are on the move. 

For example: Yesterday we saw 2 really filthy semi-trucks beside us on the highway. The kids and I came up with many ideas about how the trucks became so dirty, where they had been and where they were going.  My big guy noticed 2 clean stripes on the side and it was fun listening to him hypothesize about this mystery.

Encourage your kids to be creative! This also helps them start realizing the world is bigger than their own house and street—many license plates tell us the other cars on the road are from very far away. What is their story? This can easily be applied to a trip to the mall or Target as well. Who do you see? What are they doing?

If you want to take this to the next level, here is a printable for your child's All About Me book (go HERE to start one today).  Continue talking about your adventures at home. Have your child write or draw a story here.  It might turn into wonderful essay material down the road--you never know!  

Go here to print this:

Give a little, Get a lot.

This is a principle we need to remember in parenting as much as possible, but especially when life gets busy. If I give up control of the music playing in our car, the reward of happy, LOUD singing from the back seat is always worth it.

I recently noticed a kindred thread between two of my sweet friends: holey jeans.

As I think about the attitude and examples these ladies have shown me, I have much to learn.  Am I the type of mom who has chased on hands and knees and given piggy-back rides enough to warrant holes in the knees of my jeans? Whether or not you consider yourself a hands-on mom who gets on the floor with the kids, an ounce of interaction (on the floor or on the couch) will always be rewarded in the eyes of your child. In my opinion, holey jeans are a sign of a very blessed mom with very blessed kids. Patch up those jeans, stretch your legs and be interactive—it is always worth it.

For now, it's time for me to take a few deep breaths and get back in the fast lane. The laughing gas has worn off and it's time to lick our wounds with some tasty treats:  non-sugary, dentist-approved of course!

You will never find time for anything.  If you want time you must make it.

~Charles Buxton

T-Minus 6 days until Thanksgiving.

If you are like me, you are marking down the days until Thanksgiving is here.  I am so excited to sit around the table with loved ones and eat delicious food and relish in an entire day devoted to Thankfulness.  We are truly blessed.
Kylee and I are working on several Thanksgiving day activities, but I wanted to go ahead and post a few today. The first is a printable that allows your child (with help from you!) to create an acronym of THANKS. Take each letter from thanks and choose something that you are truly thankful for this year.  Then sign and date it and place it in your child's "All About Me" book!  Find this printout here.

Another quick thought is to print out these place mats for the kid table on Thanksgiving day.  Your child will enjoy writing and coloring on his or her special page.  Provide a few crayons and pens and let them decorate while you are fixing plates and setting the table.  If you want to laminate it and use marker instead, that would also be great.  If you decide to let your child decorate this printable as is, then when the day is over, this would also be a great addition to his or her "All About Me" book!

Thanksgiving, after all, is a word of action.  ~W.J. Cameron

Chilly Saturday Morning Paint Fest.

This morning we woke up with a sleepy, crabby little guy.  Normally we like to take it easy on Saturday mornings since our daddy typically has to work.  After a relaxing breakfast and some fussy-kid pampering, I gave in to the big kids' request for setting up the paints. 
We have had a cool snap in the weather, so while we wait for the sun to warm us up, the kids have been happily painting away at the kitchen table for most of the morning.  Sometimes I tell myself it is such a pain to get out the paints, but honestly the "big mess" is always worth it in the end!

I love the creativity of kids. They found one of our baby board books and went to work copying the images and words on their pages to create their own animal pages. We are going to put some of the favorite pieces into their "All About Me" books.

This is only a fraction of all the pages they have completed so far today!

If you are looking for a fun activity for your kiddies on these chilly Fall mornings, break out the paints and hand them a board book for educational references photos.  What a great exercise in painting, fine-motor skills, reading practice, and art!

Speaking of ART, be sure to enter our "Decorate your Mask" contest going on NOW. So far, your chances of winning are REALLY good!  Decorate a mask and enter your photo on Facebook to win an amazing original necklace! OR let your child decorate a mask to win a $10 Hobby Lobby gift card! The contest ends on October 26th. Check out the details here! Let your little artists go to work today!

"Art is not what you see, but what you make others see." Edward Degas

All About Me: Taste!

Today we are wrapping up our conversation about the 5 senses. If you missed the previous posts, check them out now! Yes, we are talking about taste—it is normally our favorite and most enjoyable sense, but it is also the one we often take for granted!

If you really think about it, and if you ask your child to really think about it, the sense of taste is truly amazing. Why do foods taste different? Why doesn't everything taste like a blade of grass or a piece of cardboard? Does taste serve any purpose in the big scheme of our overall health, or is it simply a wonderful perk?

Our mouths are actually made up of almost 10,000 taste buds—on our tongues and all over the inside of our mouths. Although taste is the weakest of our 5 senses, it is amazing to think that as saliva breaks down foods, the receptor cells (in our taste buds) are sending all kinds of messages to the brain explaining the flavors exploding in our mouths. If it weren't for taste buds, we would not be able to enjoy eating at all. Although your child may not enjoy eating broccoli or salmon at this stage in the game, remind him that if it weren't for taste buds, a cookie and meatloaf would be interchangeable.

Our amazing taste buds tell us four things: sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. These sensory areas are located at different places on the tongue and mouth. 

Another amazing thing about taste buds is that everyone has a different sense of taste, and our taste—likes and dislikes, actually change as we get older. This is why adults are able to eat foods that a baby would never eat. Babies have many more taste buds than adults and as we grow they become less sensitive. Our unique sense of taste shows an awesome creativity; we are born loving sugars which naturally promote energy and growth. We are also born disliking bitter tastes which protects us from eating poisons. Isn't that mind-boggling? I wonder how many other protective features in my body I take for granted.

What can we do to share this amazing sense with our little ones? Start by observation. If you still haven't purchased a magnifying glass, you should add it to your wish list! If you have a magnifying glass around, pull it out and let your child take a closer look at your amazing tongue and mouth. Have her describe what she is seeing. You might want to use mouthwash before this “fun” activity! If you don't have a magnifying glass, head to the bathroom and check out your magnificent mouths in the mirror together. 

What do you see? Describe the bumps (buds), the shapes, and the colors in detail.

When you are through staring at each other's taste buds, take a minute to talk about your favorite food combinations. Warm chocolate chip cookies with cold milk? Gooey pizza and a fizzy drink? Salty chips or a crunchy apple? See if you can get those saliva glands to start working!

There are many different activities that you can use to experiment with your own “buds” or have a taste test at home. One suggestion is to pop some popcorn, divide it into several small bowls or cups and season them differently.  Try using salt, sugar, cheese, garlic, or anything else you have in your spice rack to sprinkle on the popcorn. Let your child try to identify the flavors and see what they like or dislike about it.

Next, prepare a mini-feast of sample snacks ranging from sweet and salty to bitter and spicy to downright grody. Have your child test the foods, then describe how each food tastes. Also talk about food textures.  Record (or have him write) his reaction along with a drawing of the sampled food. If your child is older, you may want to blindfold him or her!

Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert is a great book about taste if you want to read more with your child.

After you have finished your sampler platter, print this page for your All About Me book to record your child's memories! Find it here. 

**More Mud:

Talking about taste is a great reminder of the intricacies of our created human bodies. A great passage for further review is Psalm 139:13.

 For you created my inmost being;you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;your works are wonderful,I know that full well.

Finally, if you are looking for a way to record a funny story, a hilarious quote, or a memorable moment with your child, here is a page for you to print and add to your child's All About Me book! Someday he might appreciate reading about the time he decorated the house with Desitin, or the time she was convinced flying unicorns were first in line for the ramp of Noah's ark.

All About Me: Touch!

Next in our study of the 5 senses is Touch. The sense of touch is different from the other senses in that it is located all over the body, not just in one specific part. Along with the face, neck, lips, tongue, hands and feet, fingertips are one of the most sensitive areas of the body. In fact, each fingertip has about 100 touch receptors! We put our fingers to the test in a few different ways today.

The awareness of one sense is increased when we can't use other senses. For our first activity, we sat down at a table, and I blindfolded each child. Then I handed them an object and gave them a minute to feel it. As they ran their fingers over it, I asked them to note the shape, the texture, whether the same texture was on all of it or part of it, the size, etc.



I tried to find things they were not very familiar with. After a minute, I took back the objects and removed their blindfolds. Then I gave each a piece of paper and pencil and asked them to draw their best interpretation of what the object was like.



Afterwards, we had fun comparing the drawing to the actual object and talked about what they felt and imagined in their mind's eye. Turns out they both knew what their objects were--so they did a pretty good job with their drawings!



Next, I gathered some objects with different textures and hid them under the couch cushions: a piece of sandpaper, a soft piece of cloth, a hard marble, a cold ice cube (in a baggie!), cotton balls, a pokey leaf, a smooth book.



The kids took turns reaching in without looking, and I asked them to describe what they felt. It was fun to see how many describing words or adjectives they could come up with.


Finally, we worked on this Touch page for our All About Me book.

You can print it here. I cut some pieces of fabric, sandpaper, shiny posterboard, and bubblewrap, and they glued them above the right describing word.



A couple of books you might want to find on your next library trip are: Find Out By Touching by Paul Showers and My Bunny Feels Soft by Charlotte Steiner.


And of course, touch is very important through hugs and cuddles, so be sure to give out lots of those today!

All About Me: Sound!

I make a great noise
Of rustling all day
Like rabbit and deer
Running away.

This week we are focusing on the 5 senses. So far, we have covered sight and smell.  Today we are turning our focus to hearing!

Of course we want our kids to become better listeners.  Can teaching my kids to listen and observe (both quietly and while discussing loud sounds!) help them fine tune their hearing, and listening? Since sound is a sense that is frequently triggered by stimulation (i.e. when the baby hears a marching song he wants to stomp his feet!) we might overlook it in our sensory training. Today, during our ongoing 5 senses week, we are going to focus on sounds.

One of the best and most important ways to learn about sound (or any concept for that matter) is through the use of music. Just ask my mom.

Using music, we can teach rhythm, motor skill development (dancing), loud vs. quiet, etc. We can also use music to talk about emotions. Is this music relaxing or sleepy? Does this music make me want to march? Is this great music for twirling? Basic childhood songs are also a great way to learn about numbers, ABC's, animal sounds, and on and on.

One fun way to teach your child about sounds and music is by creating homemade instruments. Any contained bottle or jar filled with rice is an instant “shaker.” And what child doesn't love to beat on pots and pans with a spoon?  

For our purposes today, I was excited to make use of the 6 trillion Easter eggs sitting in a large bag in our pantry. They made lovely concealed noise-makers! I filled each egg with something different: rice, candy corn, beads, rocks, marshmallows, and noodles.  I took the kids outside where we shook each egg, then guessed what was inside. They really had fun opening them to see if their guess was correct!   

In addition to music, there are many listening activities that you can regularly do with your child—whether you are in the house, in the yard, at the park, or walking down main street. What is that noise? Can you hear that? What do you think it is?  Today we sat under a tree with our eyes closed and heard a car passing, a bird, the dog panting, and a jet flying above, all in just one minute.

Fortunately, we have “The Ear Book” by Al Perkins checked out from the library this week, so it worked out perfectly to read on our Sounds day!  The other amazing book on sound is Polar Bear, Polar Bear What do You Hear? by Eric Carle. There are many other great books that focus on Sounds and Hearing; we also have several books with sound effect buttons—those would be great, too.

To incorporate all of this learning into your child's All About Me book, here is a new page!  After you have spent time listening and discussing all the sounds around you, have your child write a list or draw her favorite objects on this page for her book.

**More Mud:

If you want to take Sounds and Listening to another level, you could talk about the story of Samuel in the Bible. What did Samuel hear? How did he respond? Samuel 3:10. Other optional verses are Mark 4:9, and possibly Rev. 3:20.

Enjoy making sounds and listening with your little ones today! And here is a great Fall poem by Robert Frost:

Gathering Leaves

Spades take up leaves
No better than spoons,
And bags full of leaves
Are light as balloons.

I make a great noise
Of rustling all day
Like rabbit and deer
Running away.

But the mountains I raise
Elude my embrace,
Flowing over my arms
And into my face.

I may load and unload
Again and again
Till I fill the whole shed,
And what have I then?

Next to nothing for weight,
And since they grew duller
From contact with earth,
Next to nothing for color.

Next to nothing for use.
But a crop is a crop,
And who's to say where

The harvest shall stop? 

All About Me: Smell

It is 5 Senses Week here on The Mud Pie Makers, and today we are thinking about our sense of Smell.

To get our Sniffers engaged, we first walked from room to room in our house, looking for interesting things to smell. In the bedrooms, we sniffed the clean bed-sheets, crayons, and stinky shoes. In the bathroom, we smelled the soap, the toothpaste, and the shampoo. In the living room, we stopped to sniff the fireplace, and in the laundry room we compared the smell of dirty and clean laundry.

  The kitchen had lots of good things to smell...we pulled out fresh fruit, spice jars, chocolate, a cut onion, coffee, and garlic.

  Later we went outside to enjoy some outdoor smells. Someone was burning leaves...definitely a favorite smell of fall! We also got down to smell the dirt and some flowers.

After all the smelling, we talked about memories of smells. Were there any smells that made them remember a trip or special day? Did smells ever make them hungry, or make their mouth water? Were there any odors that made them want to get away quick?

Finally, we settled down on the couch and read the story of The Gingerbread Man. Mmmm...does anything smell more delicious than baking gingerbread??

  Afterwards, each of them got to decorate their own Gingerbread Man on this printable page here. After coloring and filling in other favorite smells, we placed glue on the tummies of the gingerbread men and they sprinkled some ginger and cinnamon spices onto it.

 

We let it dry awhile, and then it was a yummy scratch 'n' sniff page to put in their All About Me book. You can get more printables here and some ideas for starting an All About Me book for your child here.

  Have fun enjoying what the nose knows today!

All About Me: Seeing!

Shamefully I admit that I waited until today to start our "All About Me" books from Kylee's great post back in May!  It all started here.


This week I am going to start a book with my 4-year old daughter, as a way to incorporate some pre-school learning and bonding time! Kylee has all the details displayed on the blog if you want to know how to get started.  I am also working on some printables in case you are looking for some uniformity in your book, or if your child is not writing yet.


Today we are going to work on the first page of our "All About Me" book, which will include a self-portrait.  Some kids enjoy drawing more than others, but even if your child is not a budding artist, this is a great opportunity to help him/her learn about seeing and observation.  So, as we launch our 5 Senses week, encourage your child to observe and see as much as possible during this exercise.  


If you have time to head to your library or if you already have this book on hand, Brown Bear Brown Bear, What do you see? by Eric Carle is a very appropriate book for this project.  This adorable book will boost their creative thinking and help your child focus on understanding what it means to SEE.  Plus it's just a great book.


The first page of our "All About Me" book will look like this.  If you want to print your own, go here!  I have several other printables started and will continue posting them throughout this week:

To get started, I set up a mirror at the table.  Unfortunately I could only find a gigantic full-length mirror--a smaller one would have been better!  I encouraged my daughter to draw what she was seeing.  Kids tend to draw portraits based on a stick figure image in their mind as opposed to what they are actually seeing. For this project, I really wanted her to SEE her eyes, nose, mouth, hair and encouraged her to describe what she was seeing as she drew.  I would also encourage them to start with a pencil, but then use LOTS of color for the finishing touches. 

This is also a great time to introduce basic size and proportion to your child.  While she is drawing, ask her simple questions:  Are your eyes bigger or smaller than your mouth? Is daddy's face bigger or smaller than the baby's face?  This will help your child SEE, as opposed to drawing only from imagination, although drawing solely from the imagination is also a wonderful activity!

Next she drew a lovely portrait of our family! This printable is here.

The first two pages of her "All About Me" book are finished!  Next, I will hole-punch and place them in the binder.

**More Mud:
If you want to take SEEING to the next level, take your kid(s) outside and inspire them to really SEE!  Have them pick out several things, then observe them closely.

Ex. A mushroom!

My daughter asked to go get a magnifying glass. It really helped us see even more closely!

Ex. Observe all the textures in bark on a tree!

After we finished observing outside, we came back inside to finish our next page in the "All About Me" book. This page is all about seeing!  Have your child draw, describe in writing, paste or tape objects (a leaf, a blade of grass) onto this page. If you want to print this page, go here.

**In addition to all the learning that goes along with SEEING, this is also an opportunity to discuss the wonders of our created world.  Take the time to ask a few questions: Look at the details in this bark, leaf, mushroom.  Could you make that? Isn't it amazing? Suggested references are Genesis 1:1, Psalm 104:24-25, Colossians 1:15-16, Job 26:7-9, 11-14.  

Enjoy a fun time of observation with your child making your "All About Me" book this week!