Kidspace Museum, Pasadena CA

We took the kids on a 2 week vacation and this was one of our stops.

Kidspace

We had been there once before, when we only had 2 kids and thought now that we have 5 it might be fun to go again! It is a great place and here are some highlights.

Digging Deeper Exhibit is where all these "bug" themed pictures are from.

The new baby is sleeping behind this old baby. :)

This exhibit sparked a lot of questions in my family, so we will be doing bugs for the next few weeks.

I hope you like it! Also, if you have any ideas, please let me know!

Soap Clouds

A fun experiment, for, you know, when you need to wow your kids!

You need a bar of Ivory Soap.

Not Dove, not generic, not caress, IVORY.

Like this...

 don't do anything to it. just pop it in the microwave for 2 minutes.

 It grows and grows and grows and grows. It starts to change around 20 seconds.

 I let the kids play with it. 

It looks so fluffy and fun huh? It doesn't FEEL fluffy. You need to try it!

They tore it, and smashed it, and then put it nicely in a bowl for tomorrow's experiment. 

I have 4 posts in this series for you to do. So, you can buy a 3 pack like I did. :P 

Didn't any of you do this in Middle School? So fun!

PS - 1 bar is only .88 cents at W.

Worth it for good "clean" fun!

This was one of our Spring Break Activities. Try it!

Melted Bead Art

Do you remember doing this as a kid?

I don't remember what it is called but Michael's sells these kits for $2-$5 and sometimes they are on sale for $1.

I found this at Ikea for $8

 I love these beads. So many possibilities. :)

 So much focus and determination.

 It comes with waxed paper, you iron it for a few seconds, or until the holes disappear. This is a debate in my house. My friend says the debate in her house is whether you iron both sides or not. 

Everyone has their thing right? :)

I used this for a Spring Break activity when it was "quiet activity"

We turned them into magnets for the fridge.

So fun and we can play again and again since we have 2,344 beads left. :)

Printable Christmas Tags!

My kids love to color, so the gifts that they exchange for each other gets "original" coloring artwork with the package!  Sure it gets tossed with the wrap, but it is a perfect quiet activity while you are counting down the days till present time! :)

HERE is the TAGS

HERE is a fun Christmas Coloring Book

Have fun!

Pop Rocks

My son picked "try a new candy" for one of our summer fun things this summer.

So Pop Rocks was it! I had never had them, and the kids had never had them either.

 After we had them we put them in water and then in a small amount of soda.  The kids went wild!

Just a fun weird activity to do in the afternoon. :)

Community Helpers - 7

I have a son who is OBSESSED with community helpers.  So of course we have dress ups AND vehicles for each job.

So we talked about the vehicles and who uses them and what they do.  Luckily we have all of the toold and gear for each vehicle.

Thanks to Imaginext - the coolest boy toys EVER!!

Not pictured is the mail truck, police motorcycle and trash truck.

Love this unit!

Schedule for Toddlers - 6

7-8               Breakfast, practicing letters and morning review of the day.

8-9               Morning Task Sheet, get ready basically tidy up and morning chores.

9-10             Free Play w/Mom - No chore time slot...you will be amazed how much your kids will love this!

10-11           Quiet Activities

11-11:30       Clean Up

11:30-12       Lunch

12:00-12:30  TV/Show

My kids have a few favorite shows that they like to watch like Super Why, Tom and Jerry...really anything that is 30 minutes is perfect for this particular time slot.  Plus I use it as a schedule filler so I can clean up lunch or get them ready for other activities later in the day.

"After this show it's time for nap"

I never get fights if I let them watch something right before nap.  

I also rotate who gets to pick the show although if there is a fight on the show I usually pick for them.

Arthur is EVERYONE's favorite show!

After the show we head up the stairs and take a nap.

12:30-3:00 Nap

All of my kids even the 4 year old take a nap.  Granted his isn't as long as everyone else's but he knows that he needs to take a rest for at least 1 hour.  

If he wakes up early he uses this time to read or play his Leapster basically he knows that he needs to be in his room doing quiet things until 3pm.

During this time I usually get my stuff done, or read a book, or take a shower. :)

This time is my "me time" my "get the laundry running and folded" catch up on a book, sew whatever I want to do.

I know that a lot of kids don't nap anymore so I would suggest getting a timer and starting out small - 45 minutes of quiet time then move it up to an hour then an hour and a half.

Give them things that they have to do in a secluded area so they themselves can wind down and relax. 

Hope this helps!

Schedule for Toddlers - 3

Sorry this is later than the others - my kids needed some much needed time with their cousins today! :)

So far we have: 

7-8 Breakfast, practicing letters and morning review of the day.

8-9 Morning Task Sheet, get ready basically tidy up and morning chores.

9 is our play time.  It is the only time I give them 100% of me.  We play or dance or read. They get a full hour of time with me and on the weekends we try to still schedule in free time with just Mommy and Daddy.

The best part of my day is this hour where they TELL ME what we are going to play or how we are going to play.  Here is one of my favorite times last Christmas - 

Last year being 2009 - wow time flies!

I hardly ever take pictures during our hour because I want them to remember how much fun we had and all of the giggles we shared. Seriously our lives can get so busy and our houses can get so messy but sometimes we need to just sit back and "play" with our children.  I hope I can keep this up as long as possible because it is secretly my most favorite time of day.   I hardly answer the phone when we are playing because I don't want it to come to an end.  Try it.  Even if you can't do it every day your kids will really benefit from you dropping everything just to play with them. :) Okay off the soapbox.

Fall Manipulatives

Learning Resources had these Fall Pattern and Sequencing Cards

So I bought them for $5 at the school's book fair.

It comes with 18 counters and 14 sequencing cards. They are double sided and get harder each card.

 It is neat too because it has other activities you can do and fun facts about owls, bats and squirrels.

This is just a fun activity you can do with your kids that is neat and clean and fits in a gallon size bag! Haha

HERE is their website.  I am not endorsing them or anything but it is another cool place to find educational toys.  Like I said earlier I found this game at the elementary's book fair.

Pop and Catch

This week is cheap and fun weird toy week.  Yup you read right.  We are going to start with...

The Pop and Catch...a $2.50 toy found in the easter section at Walmart.

You shoot the trigger and the ball comes out.

Let's do it!

Woah!

Nice Catch!

This is what we do when it was 65 all week and then we get hit with 9 inches of snow the next day.  Gottta love Colorado!