My recreation this week has been taking a break with a cup of coffee or green tea and indulging in snacking on WordPress. Sugar free but sweet just the same. Some have said that I should not bothe…
Source: Mention in Dispatches – Peacocks, Heads of Saints and Play dough!
Fun collection of weekly posts. Raising my cup of tea to you, Sally! (PGTips)
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Just because I appreciate you. |
By Angie Quantrell @angiequantrell
Happy April!
appreciation
for friends, family, and like
thank you, dear heart true
~ Angie Quantrell
Have a beautiful first day of April. Just because.
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Just Because cards by Angie Quantrell |
Note: Here is a list of materials I used when making these greeting cards: cardstock, old fashioned library cards, brads, washi tape, glitter tape and glue, rubber stamps, ink pads, watercolor resevoir paint brush
You can see more card creations and cards I love on my Pinterest Rubber Stamping board. The link will take you right to my board. @AngieQuantrell
We often support schools and communities with promoting summer reading. We want students to continue their “readerly lives” over the summer. A few years ago, we were researching ideas to get book…
Source: Top 10 Reasons to Create Little Free Libraries in Your Community by Tammy Mulligan and Clare
I want to do this at my house! There are 3 little libraries in our neighborhood. Love them!
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Pumpkin spice black pepper orange play dough – lots of fun! |
By Angie Quantrell @AngieQuantrell
Play dough is one of the absolute best toy/manipulative/sensory activities available to kid-dom!
I kid you not. Snicker, snicker. And not the snicker of the famed chocolate and peanut variety.
This is the best and most versatile recipe I’ve found. I have used it for over 20 years and have only rarely uncelebrated failure.
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Tools make all the difference. Cutting, chopping, manipulating, and making prints are great activities for little hands. |
Best Ever Play Dough Recipe
3 cups flour
1 cup salt
2 T. oil (vegetable or baby oil)
1 T. alum
3 cups boiling water
Paste food coloring (add to boiling water to melt and mix it)
1. Put dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Stir well.
2. Drizzle oil over dry mix.
3. Stir food coloring into boiling water. Pour over ingredients.
4. Stir well with a wooden spoon and spatula.
5. Turn out onto a counter. It will be hot, but you have to knead the dough while it is hot to activate the ingredients. Knead the dough and scrape off sticky bits with a spatula. Don’t worry, it will get less sticky as it cools. If it is horribly sticky, add tiny bits of flour as needed.
6. After the mixture is well mixed, cool completely and store in a lidded plastic container.
7. Enjoy!
This is the basic recipe. I often add spices or textures like pumpkin spice, cornmeal, or cocoa. Play with the recipe. It’s worth the mess.
Today Donavyn and I made play dough. He wanted orange, so we made orange. I wanted a scent, so I added pumpkin spice. He also wanted to dump pepper, so we added pepper!
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Old tires make great tracks. |
Together with play dough, tools and toys add to the experience. Be creative and grab things that make patterns, cut, chop, shape, and can be used to interact with the play dough. Avoid using anything you truly love. The salt and necessity of a good wash can potentially destroy special items. Stick to the eventually-disposable toys and you can dump your worries in the trash.
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Even the sides of tires are interesting. Even this 53 years-young kid loves to play with play dough. What’s your favorite sensory toy? |
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Monet expressing her cat-ness yes, I am Gray Queen royal bed and rest doth call stop bothering me |
by Angie Quantrell
Last night we had a certain granddaughter spend the night, as this morning Nana accompanied her to the Capitol Theatre to watch Curious George. Loads of fun. But this post is not about the theatre and sitting in the very top balcony right against the railing and Nana worrying about Khloe toppling over and she (Nana) spending time calculating the lowered risk due to bodies of other students right below who would break the fall.
No, this story is about our drive home. It wasn’t a really long drive.
But the sheer number of words far exceeded the distance we traveled.
That bit of time spent in the car was filled with language. Wheelbarrows and buckets and shopping bags of words and songs and expressive language.
First, we learned what Khloe liked. And what she loved. This changed with each new view of things we drove past.
Then we heard some songs. On repeat. On repeat.
5 Little Ducks – sang as many times as the number of ducks in a barnyard
1, 2, Buckle My Shoe – sang enough times to cover a classroom of buckled or velcro’d shoes
Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes – sang more than the number of students in her school
1, 2, 3 Jesus Loves Me – new to me and performed for several miles
The Days of the Week – sang a conservative estimate of at least 3 months worth
Row, Row, Row Your Boat – sang enough times to sink a boat, even though one of us (the youngest) got side-tracked and giggly about the ‘life is BUTT a dream.’ No amount of explaining could get her opinion of but to change.
Now Nana is used to this fun with words, but Papa not so much. He tried several times to derail the music train, but it kept right on chugging, occasionally switching tracks, but steadfastly choo-chooing down the path. Who needs a radio anyway?
All this to say, the girl is enjoying language. And singing. And silly words and word games and entertaining herself.
Be silly. Sing songs. Get giggly. That’s what it’s all about.
Other than the Hokey Pokey.
Homemade sauces are a cook’s most valuable asset. The béchamel, the hollandaise, the mornay, the romesco—they’re all lovely. You know what else they require? Time. On Mondays, I have a lot of things: an onslaught of work to complete, laundry to fold, blog comments to respond to, events to plan, babies to make giggle, and […]
Source: Salmon with Homemade Teriyaki Sauce
This recipe sounds delicious! We love salmon and have recently been enjoying teriyaki salmon – but the store bought sauce is soooo salty. Thanks, Vicky, for this recipe. Can’t wait to try it.
Sunflower House
By Eve Bunting
Illustrated by Kathryn Hewitt
(Voyager Books, 1996)
I have been reading tons of picture books lately. At least my back considers the weight of them to be tons as I haul them back and forth to the library.
Sunflower House is a colorful story about a child who plants a sunflower house with his parents. I suppose that is where the name for the book comes from, right?
Father and child first removed grass to make a large circle, leaving the middle of the circle grassy. Seeds were then planted in the soil and the waiting began.
Once the sunflowers began to grow tall, the child invited friends to play in the sunflower house. Eventually, the sunflowers grew so large and wide that the parents no longer fit inside and the flower house became a kids-only place to enjoy nature.
I love the idea of creating a fun space for children by planting sunflowers. I am considering it for this summer…if I can find a place that my husband won’t mind too much if the grass is removed and seeds upon seeds will eventually fall and resprout next spring!
KID KANDY:
Plant a Sunflower House
Materials: sunflower seeds, large area to plant, yard tools
1. Read Sunflower House. Once you see the pictures you will know how to plant one.
2. Choose a sunny location for your sunflower house. They love the sun. Remove grass to form a ring of dirt around a circle of grass. Make your ring at least 4 feet in diameter. Sunflowers get HUGE!
3. Plant seeds in the dirt. Water them and wait.
4. Once the seeds have sprouted, watch them grow. You can pull weeds but only after you make sure you are not pulling up sunflowers.
5. After the sunflowers are as tall as you, the house is ready for play. Of course, it will keep growing, especially if you have planted JUMBO sunflowers.
6. What to do inside a sunflower house?
– rest on your back and look at the sky
– watch birds that flock to eat the seeds
– listen to the bees buzzing as they pollinate the flowers
– have a picnic in the sunflower house
– invite friends over to play
– campout overnight in the sunflower house
– look for insects that live in and around the flowers
– draw your sunflowers or the sunflower house
– use a magnifying glass to look really close at the plants and animals
– take photos of your house
Isn’t that a fun project? What will you grow next summer?
Thanks for reading!
What a whirlwind!
But the desire to love and welcome them makes it all worth while.
Even when one has to borrow a sewing machine (since hers is broken), one has extra furry help (though it is not requested), and one has to shuffle to meet all those little deadlines so all could enjoy the parties.
Baby quilts are my favorite gift to make for newborns. The last go-round included several boys, so this crafter was excited to add some pink and flowers!
Love them, snuggle them, wrap them in quilts.
Congratulations mommy’s, daddy’s, sisters, and brothers
(and grandmas and grandpas).
Wrapped in love.
Way to go, Amplify!
I am thrilled to count myself among the ranks of children’s picture book writers. I believe, whole-heartedly, in the power of picture books. Of course, there are thousands of reasons to love pictur…
Source: Top Ten Reasons Picture Books Rock…
Picture books rock! Thanks, Michelle!
Love, Laughter, and Life 