Category: Everyday Learning

Swallowtail Butterfly Bank Checks for Kids

When I created credit cards and play money for my daughter, I showed you a process to inspire and guide you in making your own play money for kids.

This time, I wanted to focus on a project that you could instantly download, print and share with the kids in your life.

Enter this fun Swallowtail Butterfly Bank Checks for Kids project!

After several weeks of Miss Leyba insisting that she should be allowed to write in mama’s checkbook (yes, I’m old fashioned like that and still use one!), I decided she needed a checkbook of her own.

I created these checks with a Swallowtail Butterfly theme and printed out several pages worth (each page has three checks on it). Then I cut the individual checks down to size and stapled the left hand side together to form a book of sorts for her to write her checks in. Easy!

Now my daughter has play money, credit cards, and these bank checks in her own wallet.

Download Swallowtail Butterfly Checks here!

Wondering about the “Bank of West County” and butterfly theme?

We live in Western Sonoma County, more commonly known as West County, and we have lots of Pipevine Swallowtail butterflies. (The actual butterfly images on the checks are of a different Swallowtail and come from DK Clip-Art.) The West County theme seemed fitting and a tad bit educational. (We’re all about Everyday Learning in our house!) What kids aren’t into insects?

Enjoy.

Orange Play Dough Birthday Cake

Every few weeks Miss Leyba requests that we make play dough. Usually purple, red, or blue play dough. This week I suggested we make orange play dough for Halloween and, amazingly, she agreed, the exact opposite of typical toddler behavior around these parts right now.

Picture endless games where I say, “Whatever you do, don’t drink that apple juice!” to which she replies, “I’m drinking it! Open your mouth and act surprised!” I completely anticipated having to say, “We can make play dough in whatever color you’d like, but NOT orange!” to sway her. I should have known she’d go for anything Halloween related. That’s the hot topic here these days.

So we made deliciously orange play dough together.

The recipe we use is from Green Crafts for Children, a wonderful book full of art activities using natural, recycled, and found materials.

It’s your basic cooked play dough recipe incorporating 1/2 cup salt, 1 cup flour, 2 tablespoons cream of tarter, and 1 tablespoon oil; we then add 1 cup of water mixed with food coloring and stir the dough while slowly heating it on the stove.

After a brief cool-down period, the dough is ready to go and it’s time to make birthday cake!

She made the cake and birthday candles with flames by herself. Then she insisted on making a total of three cakes, one for each of us, and singing many rounds of “Happy Birthday” while blowing out candles and then cutting and serving us cake. What a generous hostess!


Video: Happy Birthday Play Dough Party from Carrie on Vimeo.

I ask you, who doesn’t love birthday cake?! Especially when it’s orange, made of play dough, and cooked by this cute little girl! It’s irresistible.

More Great Art Books for Kids

A second post in my Art Appreciation for Toddlers series.

Our dear friend Alice found and sent us these phenomenal books by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York that teach the alphabet and numbers utilizing famous works of art from their collection:

Museum 123:

Museum ABC:

Both books do a great job of featuring prominent works from artists around the world and throughout the centuries, not just focusing on the last hundred years but showing ancient works as well from a variety of countries and cultures.
Continue reading More Great Art Books for Kids

Letters Everywhere

Everywhere I look my two and half year old is practicing writing her letters.

And, no, I haven’t taught her this. She’s figuring out how to write them herself, only occasionally asking me for assistance.

She’s known the names of all lowercase and uppercase letters for about a year now. She’s constantly calling out from the back seat of the car, “Mom, I see a really big S!” (When she isn’t busy backseat driving, saying instead, “Stop, Mom! STOP! The light is red!”)

She’s slowly learning to recognize some words. She reads her name. She knows “Mommy” and “Daddy” without hesitation.

For the last month or so, she’s been constantly play writing with zig zags on the paper, as I wrote about just last week.

But rather suddenly it’s morphing into something else.

On pieces of paper, on the front porch in chalk, she’s practicing her letters.

H (“for Hana,” her friend)
D (“for Daddy!”)
O (“It’s a circle!”)
i (“With a big dot!”)
etcetera

And so it begins…

Toddler Writing

Like Mama, Miss Leyba loves to make lists.

Shopping lists.
To-do lists.
Book lists.

Like Mama, Miss Leyba loves to write stories.

She has even been known to say, “I need to do a blog post.”

That was a direct quote. I even twittered it for her.

Like Mama, Miss Leyba loves to write letters.

“Dear Momma, I’m glad I love you so much!”

“Dear Dadda, I love you so much! I’d like to do this again!”

While I never seem to find the time to write letters, Miss Leyba is very good at making the time for this favorite activity.

Unfortunately she still has to wait on me to mail the letters.

Right now we have two letters to mail internationally (one to France, one to Afghanistan), waiting for me to take them to the post office to get the right postage.

Sigh. I’ll get to it eventually. Sigh. I mean soon.