The idea for our beanbags came from the Martha Stewart show. One night I decided to search my On demand tv channels and found some videos from this show (which was the first time I watched it). For a long time, I was looking for an easy and not-sew-needed beanbags for those rainy and cold days.

So, what’s better than duct tape beanbags??? Easy duct tape beanbags made by my 3 years old girl….She made them!!! (with some little help from mommy)

Here are our beautiful beanbags (and discovery bags at the same time):

How did we do them?

• Recycle those rice and beans from your sensory box. Bye bye farm animals!

• We recycled some vinyl bags we got from plastic toy animals I bought a time ago at a dollar store (I knew I would use them some day!) But, Martha used a clear vinyl shower curtain and cut it in squares. Also, 2 Ziploc bags (one inside another) can do it, or not? Grab some foam stickers, beads, small toys or treasures for your discovery bag or you can leave it plain.

• Fill it up!!! Great fun Montessori practical life practice for your Kid….

• Put your treasures inside (we got some bottle cap with her first name and last name written on them for name recognition practice)

• Now is mommy’s time to help closing the bags with some duct tape. If the kid is older, maybe can do it by him/herself. Put duct tape by all the sides front and back.

• And you are ALL SET to enjoy your hard work.

First attempt!!!

Second, third, fourth….attempts!!!

SCORE!!!

This is such a FUN game and it’s better when you made it ALL BY YOURSELF!!!

For mommy, it was an opportunity to teach my baby to Don’t GIVE UP after trying to score 5,6,7,8 times. She was getting FRUSTRATED but with just a POSITIVE stimulus she learned to tell herself to keep trying…(it was such a cute moment hearing her to tell herself to keep trying) until she got it! She was so proud!!! The last 2 photos are her victory dance moment! lol

Other DIY bean bags resources:

1. How to do your own Bean Bags (if you like to sew) and a cute recycled toss box.
2. Tutorial and pattern: Counting bean bags from Chez deeper bebe. Good for learning your numbers tossing your bean bags around the house.
3. Bean bag toss game for fourth of July carnival from Roots and wings have a great tutorial for DIY.
4. DIY bean bags from old jeans pockets at Chica and Jo. Cute bags.
5. And if you have a baby or a toddler here at The Spaghetti Westerner is a great twist to bean bags using plastic bananas plus a cute sock monkey theme DIY toss board.

Take care and have fun on your rainy, sick or next to come cold days!!!

Linking to:

Here’s just an easy and fast lesson: Hot or Cold!

Pinky knows this for a long time now but practice makes perfect and with these great cards and the pointer it was fun pretending she was my teacher.

The first set is from Filefolderfun.com.

The second set is from Montessori Print Shop. Sorry, it was a Freebie when I got it but the price is reasonable. We love their products because they use real pictures (this one has a control sheet) and you can find almost every theme that you can imagine to complete your unit. Furthermore, every now and then they have amazing FREEBIES and kindly host great GIVEAWAYS (we won one already, yupi!!! but I am so lazy didn’t have the time to post about it, yet). So, check their blog and sign up their mailing list…therefore, you won’t miss any opportunity.

In the last picture, I was using the light color stick to check with Pinky her work while she was checking with the brown one (I know this isn’t a great thing to do but following MY child, she loves it!)

We did some easy activities like talk about what things she thinks are cold and which are hot. I use for reference our refrigerator and freezer for cold (she was happy to keep the door open and had liberty to search inside it) and the microwave, stove and oven for the hot things (don’t worry, she didn’t got to search inside them, lol…..she uses to help me sometimes when I am cooking, so she knows already that they are hot).

After that, we used her play kitchen to check which food might be cold and which one might be hot. (Beware, later you can find some plastic food inside your refrigerator!!!!)

Here are other great sites with activities about Hot and Cold:

• At Glitterful Felt Stories- How to do your own cards using index cards and hot/cold items from magazine's or newspapers. Also, how to play an Hot and Cold preschool opposite game with a video.
• Ice cream toddler and Preschool unit from Spell Outloud. There’s an easy Hot and Cold sorting activity for a Toddler plus other great printables about ice cream (cold).
• At Preschool Printables you can find some ideas for a Science Center Fun with hands on activities, questions about Hot and Cold things, opposites, etc.
• If you have a toddler that you want to start teaching about Hot vs. Cold, at Fun & Engaging activities for toddlers are some amazing ways to teach about cold.  

Be warm my friends!!!!

Linking to:

 

Here’s a great article at Living in the Family Room Blog- Martha Stewart. and very useful for mommies like me whom have kids classmates with food allergies. Also, there's a great book giveaway!!!

Check it out!!!

Last July, my little princess turned 3 years old. As for her, she’s a BIG Girl….

Little Princess Birthday party in Puerto Rico was a total success! She was so happy and having a great time, just like everyone else. Also, mommy was having such a great time with an allergic reaction because of the balloons (I am allergic to latex but there wasn’t anybody else to arrange the balloons around the place….plus I am a party decoration Obsessive-Compulsive person!…besides, nothing that a pill couldn’t handle… ;D)

Pinky wanted a Thinker bell and fairy party theme so she made me buy some cups, napkins, table cover, Happy birthday banner and plates. The rest of the decoration was “perfectly” made by MOMMY!….just putting some skills to work, after a long resting time and ALL the kids to don’t bother me help…..

We had lots of delicious food (thanks to Grandma and some neighbors), juices, sodas, water, cake, ice cream and COFFEE, of course!

Can you tell that we were on an Hurricane warning that night (Irene)? 

Here’s our fairy decoration on the garage.

Tinker Bell and Cinderella with the cake

The bouncing castle. It was too much fun!!!

The swimming pool. While the small kids were bouncing, the big ones were in the pool and vice versa. Every one was busy!

After the pool, more bouncing and then…

Cumplea~os Feliz song!!!

I love you more and more each day my little princess!

 

Our Summer vacations were a TOTALLY fun experience and PR was as beautiful as always.

Pinky was so happy to have open spaces available to explore, play, learn and share with her cousins and new friends. She surely had a great time!

Here is just a little bit of PR’s beauty:

Excited to aboard the plane. Puerto Rico here we go!

She was in love with her cousins’ dog John…at the end she was saying that he was hers. We don’t have pets; therefore, she learned how to take care of a dog as the correct way to pat him.

In addition, big open and free spaces to play were a plus! And we did see a RAINBOW!!!!

And…..some extra surprises on the way!!!

I think she didn’t like the millipede!!!  lol lol

Disclaimer: The roach was dead before we found it…we didn’t have nothing to do with it, just take a picture for our records….jajaja..

More to come about Puerto Rico!!!

La isla del encanto!!!