Preschooler Activity for the Letter J

For the letter J, we made jelly fish! 

Here's the materials you'll need for this one:

coffee filters

light pink toille (use blue for boys!)

pipe cleaners

clear plastic cup

scissors

glue

tape

We cut our pink toille into squares and laid the coffee filter on top. Then we cut around the coffee filter so that the fabric was about the same size as the filter, enough to cover it completely.

We put some glue drops onto the fabric to attach it to the filter. It didn't hold too well, so I think you can skip this step and they will stay together just fine.

The only plastic cups I had were really deep, so I ended up cutting a few inches off the top. Then we taped the yarn and pipe cleaners onto the inside of the cup for the jelly fish's tentacles.

I cut a hole into the top of the cup and ran the end of a piece of yarn through the hole and both the fabric and the coffee filter, tying a knot at the bottom to keep it in place.

Follow this activity up with a good book about jelly fish and/or a trip to the aquarium!

(Or just let them watch Finding Nemo while you get some things done...)

JJ Cole Diaper Bag Review

Well here she is. 

As mentioned in my last post, I finally decided upon my new companion, the JJ Cole satchel diaper bag in Licorice. I chose the faux leather for looks and wipe-ability. The faux leather option only comes in cafe (a beige/brown) and licorice, which I'm liking. I've been using the bag for almost a week now, and so far it's a nice fit for me.

It comes with seven exterior pockets and four interior. I really like the two smaller exterior pockets for my keys, lip gloss, and smaller items. I do wish it had a key clip inside the bag, but so far the smaller exterior pockets are working just fine. The pockets on the outside ends are deep and plenty big enough for bottles and/or my massive bottle of sanitizer I like to keep on hand. I can easily slip my phone in there as well.

It has a padded shoulder strap, stroller straps, and the little feet on the bottom so it won't get dirty when it's on the ground. I like that the handles are big enough to fit over my shoulder easily. The interior fabric looks a bit cheap to me, but it's really easy to clean and I like the lime green accent, so it works. It comes with a diaper changing pad that folds up small enough to fit into one of the four interior pockets.

And so, I'm happy with my choice! Hope this has been helpful to some of you moms out there, carrying the world on your shoulders.

Preschooler Activity for the Letter I

Here's a fun one for the Letter I. I had grand ideas about making homemade ice cream with my 1970's ice cream maker we inherited from my grandparents...and then luckily thought of this idea which was much easier. I had some tiny ice cream cones on hand that we painted with brown paint...

I ended up giving the girls two cones--one to paint and one to snack. I was afraid that they'd nibble on the painted one when I wasn't looking.

Then we used small styrofoam balls for the ice cream scoops! I had the girls paint them and let them dry for a bit. Then we decorated them with googly eyes and beads and sparkles to make them fancy.

We attached the scoops to one another with toothpicks and added another toothpick at the bottom of the first scoop to get it to stay in the cone.

"I" is for ice cream! Just as memorable as the home-made stuff.