Much to me and my husband's disbelief, our little girl turned two recently. (Two! I'm officially no longer a mama with babies at home.) To celebrate, we followed our new family tradition and had the grandparents come play with C while we took S out on a special outing with mommy and daddy in the morning. When S was born, we made a point of all coming home from the hospital as a family - which means that this was quite possibly the very first time S has ever had both parents all to … [Read more...]
Summer Fun for Everyone: Finger Knit Bracelets
I'm guessing that knitting isn't high up on most of your lists for summertime fun. But I'm here to change your mind. In fact, I'm at eHow this week talking about the perfect summer knitting project: finger knit friendship bracelets. As the name implies, this is a needle-free type of knitting suitable for kids of all ages. It's a great way to get your littlest little ones in on the summer-friendship-bracelet-making fun and it promotes fine motor skills to … [Read more...]
Creating Art with Nature
I've been really inspired lately by a concept known as "invitations to play". The steps involved are about as simple as they come: Find some interesting materials Lay them out in an appealing and accesible way Watch the children be drawn in like moths to a flame Recently I decided to try the technique with a mix of art materials and found nature objects. To add to the fun, I set everything up in our playroom while the kids were napping and just left it there for them to … [Read more...]
Play: DIY Body Paint
A few weeks ago C finished up his first year of preschool and they had a little carnival to celebrate. (I'm not even going to talk about the mini panic attack I had at the realization that my baby will be heading off to real school in a couple of years - nope, not gonna talk about it.) Anyway, a few of C's beloved teachers offered up their face painting skills at the festivities and I asked the kids if they'd like something painted on. At the time they only had eyes for the … [Read more...]
Life-Size Building Blocks
Happy Monday everyone. I'm pretty thrilled to be able to announce today that Allison of All for the Boys will also be joining the MPMK team as a regular contributor. If you've been paying attention, then you already know I'm a fan (featured her here and here). As you'll see from today's post, her ideas are spectacularly fun but also remarkably simple. You really won't be able to resist trying them out at home. It's no secret that we love forts, tents, and hideaways … [Read more...]
Father’s Day Craft
So remember last week when the Elmer's Craft it! giveaway began? Of course you do, entries have been nuts - apparently you guys are really excited about possibly being one of two winners of $250 worth of craft supplies (you can still enter here by the way). Well, I promised I'd be sharing what I've been up to with my shiny new box of supplies and today's the day. I thought it would be fun to challenge myself not to spend any money on additional materials (not too hard … [Read more...]
Simple Print Making
I can't believe it's already Wednesday, short weeks always seem to wreak havoc on my schedule. Plus today was C's last day of preschool (Aggh! He must stop growing. Right. This. Minute.) Anyway, no more school means it's time to start stocking up on ways to engage the kids over the summer. Kaley's gorgeous DIY play dough post was a good start and I'm at eHow this week posting on another kid art classic: bubble wrap print making. Did you ever try this when you were young? The results … [Read more...]
Playgrounds Gone Natural: Play Gardens
photos counter clockwise from top: The Imagination Tree, Pinterest, Paint on the Ceiling After first writing about playgrounds and backyards going natural, I was so excited to hear you all wanted to come along on my journey in building S and C their own natural play space. I've thought a lot about how best to approach this new series and I think the simplest route is to use each post to spotlight a different possible element. Today we're talking about play … [Read more...]
Don’t Forget Teacher Appreciation Week!
The title of this one is a little misleading. These pretty pencils aren't actually dip-dyed, they just mimic the look that's so popular right now. You see, ever since these cheerful spoons started popping up all over Pinterest, I knew I wanted to put my own spin on them. Pencils seemed like a great mini-project to try out the technique. Plus one of the biggest perks of being a teacher has to be having an excuse to collect pretty school supplies (that and the whole helping to shape … [Read more...]
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