Off Topic Saturday

I doubt I will actually keep a day of the week for off-topic posts, but this family activity is so awesome I had to share!

http://www.education.com/activity/article/set-giant-building-blocks/

We just had a big move (see last post), so those boxes will be easy to come by for us! I may use ads / newspaper in place of construction paper, since several of our boxes will be VERY giant. ;)

Will update with pictures once we've constructed something!

P.S. This comes from a list of awesome activities, crafts, and games to play with your child during "Screen-Free Week," which is officially April 18-24. There are a lot of great ideas, so if I get a lot of interest, I'll post that link as well.

Education.com has a lot of great resources for all kinds of parenting ages / topics.

Frugal AND Fun (Part 2)

We spent the morning building sculptures out of mini marshmallows, jumbo marshmallows, and toothpicks. This worked out a lot better than it had in the past with the pink heart shaped marshmallows. For some reason even the littlest of these barrel shaped snacks just work better as a support. Connor seemed much more interested in spearing them into his mouth after the first or second of our creations. I was able to snap this before he moved the sculpture into his stomach.

Connor is not a huge fan of drawing. He much preferrs messy painting, which I can only tolerate so often. I love this form of building because it is easier and cleaner than blocks or leggos can be, stimulates small muscle development, and works as a snack, too!
We then headed off to the library, where we checked out a variety of transportation-related books and Blueberries for Sal, which Connor loved despite the monochromatic pictures. I owned this book as a child, and it made me so happy to see him enjoy it.

After reading every single one of our 4 books, Superhero ABCs, and two other books he nabbed from a display shelf, I finally hearded him out. We ran over to the beach for some of our other favorite activities-- throwing rocks:

Watching trains:

and playing at playgrounds:

If it looks much to cold, cloudy, and windy to be at the beach, well, you're probably right. But being wrong never stopped Connor and I from enjoying a rare dry day!

We had an awesome time, all for the price tag of $0.

Freaky

This experiment in limiting TV / media has led to a strange side-effect. I feel like I should be saving a lot of the stuff we recycle! I actually got a bit miffed at Aaron a few days ago for RECYCLING a toilet paper tube. Didn't he know we were saving those for noise-makers?

We've managed to use a corn starch can and rice as an awesome shaker AND drum, Lincoln logs as drum sticks, pots and pans as drums, Lincoln logs as trumpets and flutes, and silverware as cymbals. There was a lot of music-making. Connor's favorite song is “I've Got A Feelin” by the Black Eyed Peas.

Later, pasta was incorporated into the rice and with a few large plastic cups, became a great experiment in pouring and measuring. There was a lot of mess, I'm not going to lie.

I learned the hard way that this was an activity best used when you're NOT making dinner.

I feel like I am skipping a lot of topics here, but we went to opening night of the Children's Film Festival last night. They happily only showed about 10 minutes of awesome children's animation. The other hour was filled with the rollicking music of Caspar Babypants.

We had an amazing time! It was so fun to dance, sing, and take a million pictures. I thought that I was ending this month's resolution on a low note after the attendance at the film festival, but the emphasis here was not on TV or movies. I was so glad I went, and Connor had a great time retelling the story of “Tally Ho, A Pancake” to his dad and anyone else who would listen.

I guess the most important thing I learned from January's resolution was that TV isn't necessary to me getting things done. I now know that there are SO many easy ways to distract my preschooler. I also know that limiting TV and media led to Connor being more happy about playing by himself and finding new things to play with.

I was very vindicated and happy when I saw this article in February's “Parent Map.”

February's goal is money / finance related!