More Mo Willems

I love reading to my kids, but I love it even more when I am entertained as well. And Mo Willems entertains with the best of them! Who thinks of a name like Reginald Von Hoobie Doobie? Mo does.

Our librarian was kind enough to tell us about the Pigeon Presents! website. It has great stuff: coloring pages, recipes, word searches, online games. Try the Elephant and Piggie Dance Game. Oh, we laughed and laughed.

Pop-up Cards

I may be showing my inexperience in craftiness, but before today, I had never made a pop-up card. We found it quite enjoyable. Here's a quick tutorial:

1. Draw an object on cardstock. We used the 1-2-3 Draw Cartoon Aircraft for a little help. Then cut out the object.

2. Cut out a rectangle, keeping in mind the size of card you would like.

3. Fold rectangle in half.

4. Make two parallel cuts on the fold.

5. Pull out the area in between the two cuts so the area pops.

6. Glue object to pop-out area.

7. Done!

Handwriting

I have a five year old that needed practice writing his letters in the correct direction and a three year old that needed help tracing her letters. Why not do it all at the same time? Using the Aquadoodle Wall Poster, one wrote and one traced. I love it when they help each other.

Then all three got in on the action.

Something tells me my baby is not ready for painting quite yet (and really thirsty). As far as art mediums go, I suppose water is as non-toxic as you can get. Mess-free, toxic-free, whoever invented the Aquadoodle is a genius.

Don't Eat Pete!

Oh, how we love this game. We just played it tonight, and this time I laminated it. We love it that much. Sparkle Power has a charming printable version with instructions.

What's on the menu?

Not really a fan of grocery shopping, or any activity that goes along with it (planning the monthly menu or putting away groceries). So I enlisted a little help (not with the shopping part, I go that alone). Today I pulled out a few cookbooks, and asked each child to go through and find a few meal ideas. And they came up with some good ones! As an additional benefit, they got in 20 minutes of reading stamina without even realizing it. I was very pleased with myself.

Road Travel Games

While planning our long trek, I found these websites useful:

Wonder Time Travel Board

Family Fun Puzzles & Games

Moms Minivan Printable Car Activities

Crayola Traveling Games

Scholastic Travel-Time Activities

Nick Jr. Travel

May your road trip miles pass quickly!

On the Road

We just got back from a 1600 mile road trip that was not entirely unsuccessful. The kids did much better than I expected. A few of my favorite items:

1. Printable map: we checked off each state as we found the corresponding license plates. Educational and fun.

2. Chicken Socks Totally Tape: hours of entertainment (hours!) for my 3 and 5 year old. My 3 year old needed help tearing, but had lots of fun applying the tape.

More road trip ideas to come!