Tangram Activity Bag

I'm still here, and here's my 1st post bloggy drama post :)



Thanks to Amy at Let's Explore for this great tangram activity and links! To make this activity I printed the small tangram pattern and used it to cut tangrams out of craft foam. I put magnets on the backs of the pieces, so they would stay in place and be less frustrating for my girl. I printed the animal tangram pics, laminated them, cut them, and hooked them together using a book ring. Everything fit nicely in a zipper pouch. O is a little young (almost 3) to do tangrams on her own, but we've had fun doing it together. I'm planning on taking this activity on our upcoming beach trip.



Also, check out Let's Explore for free shipping on orders more than 25 dollars! I love a good deal on shipping :)

A Lot to Think About...

I'm not sure what's going to happen with this blog. I don't want to delete the blog...I enjoy sharing ideas with other mamas, and I just really like documenting our activities. This is the best time of my life, and I don't want to forget a thing. However, the thought of pictures of my child being on websites without my knowledge makes me feel sick. If this childcare owner was willing to steal images to use as her own, then what would stop some pervert from stealing pics from my site. I always thought that since there are so many, many blogs out there that no one would ever bother stealing my pics. Now I know that way of thinking was flawed. I have about 10 posts saved in draft, so I'll go ahead and post them over the next few days, and we'll just see where we go from there. Right now I think we'll try to watermark photos and be more careful about keeping O's face off the blog, but I'm not sure yet what our final decision will be. I just know that I'm really looking forward to having several internet free days at the beach next week!

Thanks for all of your comments and support, and please be aware that if people are stealing my pics then they may be stealing yours, too! It's just a coincidence that a loyal and kind reader recognized that the pics were stolen from my site and then notified me. Without her, I would have NEVER known. Thanks again, Elizabeth!

UPDATE: The owner of the childcare website has emailed an apology to us, and I can't ask for more than that :) She has asked that her personal info be deleted from the comments section, so I will honor this request. Thanks to all of you for your support :)

I am very upset...

A reader recently alerted me to the fact that images from my blog had been stolen and were appearing on a childcare website. It appears that the woman running the daycare is using stolen images to advertise her daycare and make it appear that these activities and pictures were taken at her daycare. I am shocked and wondering if I even want to continue to have a public blog. I am very glad that I have made an effort to keep O's name and face off of this blog, and I advise other mommy bloggers to do the same since you never know who is stealing your images and how they are using them. Here is the link to the site where the stolen images appear. You may want to check it out since you may find some of your own images on this site. Thanks to Elizabeth for alerting me to the stolen images!

Update: I put this in the comments section, but thought I should add it to the original post...Thanks for the support everyone! I just feel very betrayed since I do this blog to share ideas and build relationships with other moms. I never thought anyone would steal my images and pass them off as her own. Putting a watermark on my pics is a great idea, and I'll definitely look into that. I don't want to stop doing this blog...I really enjoy it (most of the time!), and I already have about 10 posts saved in draft :) It makes me feel sick that my kiddo could be out there in cyberspace in places that I don't even know about. I need to be even more careful about not showing her face. I often show side shots, but I'll have to do better than that and maybe just show her hands. I definitely need to put a note on my blog about not using my images...I've seen that on other blogs. Uggg. What a hassle! I guess I was just really caught off guard by this. Thanks again for your comments!

Also, Elliott has emailed the owner of the daycare to let her know that we will be contacting our lawyer if the images are not removed. Maybe this was an innocent mistake on her part...maybe she didn't know that it's illegal to steal other people's images, and she really does do all of these activities in her daycare and her clients know that the images are not her own. I'll never know, but I'd like to believe that. However, I am just really bothered by my child being on someone's website without my knowledge. I don't think I would be as upset if she had not used a picture of O on her website. It makes me wonder if my child is out there on other sites...this is definitely something every mommy blogger should consider.

UPDATE: The owner of the childcare website has emailed an apology to us, and I can't ask for more than that :) She has asked that her personal info be deleted from the comments section, so I will honor this request. Thanks to all of you for your support :)

Toothpick & Styrofoam Printing

The idea for this activity came from Young at Art.

I saved a take-out container for O, and she "decorated" it using a toothpick.
After she was finished making her design, she painted it.

We then we pressed a piece of cardstock over the painting and pressed down evenly.


O enjoyed this activity, but she wasn't nearly as interested in it as I anticipated. It just couldn't compare to the butterfly prints that we'd just completed :)

Painting with Ice Cubes

O and I made ice cubes for painting last week and finally painted with them on Thursday.
1st O poured water into the ice cube tray

Then she squeezed in the food coloring. She had a lot of fun mixing colors. We put straws in the ice cubes to use as handles while she painted.

We put the ice tray in the freezer and forgot about it for a week. I finally remembered, and O had lots of fun painting with her ice cubes :) She painted on posterboard with the shiny side down. You need thick paper since the ice cubes melt and things get quite watery :)

After she was finished, I put the ice cubes back in the freezer to save for another hot day!

Hammered Leaf Prints

O LOVED making hammered leaf prints this morning! (She loves anything involving a hammer. I guess all those hours spent with with Elliott fixing boats and cars have paid off!) To set this activity up, I found an old board in the garage (there's a never ending supply out there!), 2 tacks, and strips of an old sheet. I cut the sheet into small rectangles and tacked them to the board. O and I collected leaves and flowers this morning after our morning swim. To make the print, place the leaf or flower under the cloth strip (the leaves worked better when they were upside down), cover the leaf with the fabric, and hammer the leaf! It smells like freshly cut grass as you hammer :) We took turns hammering, and we were happy with the results!

Growing a Sunflower House

O's sunflowers are growing fast, too! We planted them in a square to make a sunflower house. We hope that we'll have flowers soon. O was excited that the sunflowers are already taller than she is! The Sweet Pea teepee and Sunflower House are right next to each other, and we decided to do both so O and her cousin, M, will each have a house and be neighbors :) Now we just have to get M to come visit!

O's Sweet Pea TeePee

O's sweet pea tee pee is growing and growing! She was thrilled to find tiny flowers inside her tee pee. To make the tee pee we bought bamboo poles (5) from Lowe's, stuck them in the dirt in a tee pee shape, and tied them at the top with a rope. We then planted several sweet pea plants around each bamboo pole. I am amazed by how quickly the sweet peas have grown!

A New Spin on Matching

Since matching pictures has gotten a little too easy for O, I decided to spice it up a little! I found a small butterfly calendar at Michael's and cut the pictures out and laminated them. I then cut the tiny pictures that were on the back of the calendar and laminated them. O had to look VERY carefully at the tiny pictures to find the matches. (Next time we may incorporate the use of a magnifying glass into this work.) This was a lot of fun, and she was very curious about how I cut out the tiny pictures. She's a little obsessed with cutting :)

Father's Day Interview

After O and I did the Mother's Day Interview, Elliott wanted me to do an interview with her about him. I told him he had to wait until Father's Day :) So here it is:


I really love it when my dada loves to write with me.

My dada likes to sing with me.

My dada always tells me, "to set my tinies out"

The best thing he does is write.

It makes him happy when he hugs me.

My dada loves me.

I like it when he plays cartoons with me.

The best thing he does is play with me.

When my dada loves to fish with me and he loves, loves me.

My dada’s favorite household chore is play car.

My dada’s favorite TV show is Obama.

If he could go on a trip, he would go to St.M.

I love my dada because he hugs me!

World Map Rug

O and I are both SO excited about our new world map rug! She was so excited that she was running around the house screaming. This is very uncharacteristic behavior, and I asked her why she was screaming. She said "Because I'm SO EXCITED about my rug!" Who knew that a rug would be so exciting for an almost 3 year old? :)

The rug just arrived today (Thursday), and we've already had so much fun with it. I found all of my old Beanie Babies (O was very excited about this, too!), and we put them on the correct continents. We also stepped from one continent to the next while singing the continent song. She loves marching around in circles on the rug while singing the continent song :) What a great buy!

Art for her Sister

O was very excited when I asked her to do a painting on canvas to hang in her sister's room. Here's her masterpiece! I'm planning on having O and M (my niece) do several paintings to hang in the baby's room. They both seem very honored by my request :)

Resist Painting Silhouette

After seeing this great idea, I knew we had to try it! Since I'd already made a silhouette of O for Elliott for Father's Day, I just traced around that silhouette on contact paper and cut it out. I then pressed the contact paper silhouette onto an 8 x 10 canvas, and O painted. Instead of watercolors, O painted with tempera paint. She really enjoyed herself, and I was surprised by how into it she was. She was kneeling down to get eye level with the canvas as she painted :)
I am so happy with the end result, and I think painting will make a great birthday present for O's Guh-guh! I am also looking forward to trying this same technique with handprints, which would make great Christmas gifts for grandparents!

O asked to do more sticky paper paintings, so I cut out another silhouette on Thurday. This time we used both pieces of the contact paper, and we are so happy with the results!

Here are the paintings before I pulled off the contact paper.

Here they are after removing the contact paper.
Elliott really likes this one...good thing since it's going to be his birthday present!



O wants to hang this one in her sister's room :)

I am also really excited about turning these paintings into scrabble tile pendants!

More Rock Activities

Here are the last of our rock activities.

We broke open geodes with a hammer and marveled at the beauty inside.
O was actually a little disappointed after she opened the geodes. She thought they were going to have jewelry inside that she could put in her jewelry box :)
Since our book discussed pyramids, we decided to make a pyramid out of family reunion cups (we reuse these cups every year at our family reunion).
O also wanted to make a Sphinx, but I couldn't come up with a way to do that. Maybe we'll try to make a sand castle Sphinx on the beach tomorrow. In addition to these activities, O sorted her rock collection into an egg carton, we learned the sign for "rock," and we learned the Spanish word for "rock."

Making Hot Crayon Rocks

Since our weekly book is about rocks, I decided that making hot crayon rocks would be a good art project (after seeing them on The Artful Parent). O was SUPER excited and waited in her Kitchen Helper the entire time the rocks were in the oven.
We got off to a good start, but I eventually took O's gloves off (I had her wear gloves so she wouldn't burn herself) since it was hard for her to color with them on. Mistake! She accidentally touched a rock and burned her finger. I think it scared her more than anything since it didn't even leave a mark, but I felt awful. She didn't want to participate in the activity after that, but she didn't mind giving me directions on finishing the rest of the rocks :) She was ready to color more rocks after they had cooled off, and she was disappointed when it didn't work.
This is not a project I would recommend for 2 year olds! But we did have fun despite O's injury :)

To make the hot crayon rocks, heat your rocks on a foil lined cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. We then placed them on a cutting board, and colored them with crayons (with the papers peeled off). Oh, and don't let your kids remove their gloves or oven mitts!