Muffin Tin Monday

This week for Muffin Tin Monday, I bought a new muffin tin at a garage sale this weekend so of course we had to use it :) It's a lovely avocado green. The only bad part is that's it's a regular 12 cup size, so I had to think of 12 things to put in it!
I came up with a rainbow of fruits and veggies for the first 6 and then some other things thrown in for the rest.

Tomatoes, Carrot Sticks, Bananas, Edamame, Dried Blueberries, Grape Fruit Leather cut into stars, String Cheese cut up ("Because I'm baby Kahlen"), Mac'n'Cheese, Nutter Butter bites, Ranch Dressing for the carrots (and whatever else), Corn Chips.

She told me that she liked her fruit leather dipped in the ranch. She also thought about gagging when I told her she had to eat one of the tomatoes, but she made it through all right.

I'd say it was a hit :)

No muffin tin next week, we have VBS at Summitview Community Church and I'm teaching Kahlen's class. (Okay, we might squeeze one in for dinner, since she thinks Mondays are just for MTM :) )

~S

Preschool Planning - Zoo Animals

We started on a unit on Zoo Animals per the Hubbard's Cupboard 2's curriculum. Since I have to reformat it to work for me, I thought maybe you'd be interested in them too. Feel free to use whatever parts of this works for you!! I'm posting most of the files in pdf format so that more people can use them, however if you would like my original publisher files, please email me at theyoungns at gmail.com :)

Overview for the two week unit:
Zoo Animals Unit Planning Sheet

Detailed Activity List:
Zoo Animals Detailed Activity List

Some printables:
Zoo Animals Pages

Giraffe Printable:
Giraffe


Here are links to some other things I'm using:
Psalm 56:3 memory verse
Zoo Bingo cards
June Playdough
June Sensory Bin
Z is for Zebra from Confessions of a Homeschooler (using the do-a-dot page)

~S

Great Giveaways #10

Awesome! Just won a Bummis Swimmi swim diaper for Nate from Minnesota Mama's Must Haves, hooray!

Here are my finds for the week:
Jamie Soles CD at Raising Olives (Ends 6/10)
Strider Bike at One Little Word She Knew (Ends 7/1)
MobiGo at The Cloth Diaper Report (Ends 6/14)
Tiny Tush Elite Diaper at Home Grown Families (Ends 6/14)
Nifty Nappy Woolie Wrap at Mama to 3 Blessings (Ends 6/15)

PreSchool - Gardens & Flowers Week 2

Kahlen is 41 months old

 I decided this week that I'm going to start linking up to Preschool corner from Homeschool Creations as well. I feel like we're kind of between these two, more toward Preschool corner :) I tend to use our tot trays more like the workbox system that I've been reading about and less about free play. I'm guessing soon when Nate starts joining in, the trays will be out for him and we'll do more workboxes for Kahlen.

We are following the Hubbard's Cupboard curriculum for 2's called Joyful Learning. This week was our second week about Gardens and Flowers.

 Day 1:

We did our stART project first with The Sunflower House by Eve Bunting.

Next we made a new placemat. Because we participate in Muffin Tin Monday every week, Kahlen came up with the idea that she needed a muffin tin placemat since we have one for her regular meals with a plate, fork, spoon, and cup. Took me a little while to figure out the best way, but here's what we came up with:

I found some great printables over at The Ramblings and Adventures of a SAHM for shape tracing and letter find pages. I printed out the shapes one on card stock and laminated it. Kahlen's been doing pretty good with it, definitely good practice.

We also did the Find the S page. (You know, S is for Sunflower :) )

She wanted to sing the verse without my help, so of course I let her! It's amazing to me how fast she can memorize things, wish I could too!

Day 2:

We started with This is the Sunflower by Lola Schaefer. I was very impressed because she realized that it was a cumulative rhyming book like two other books we own but haven't read for awhile. When I started reading it, she said "Hey, Mommy! This book is like the Jack's house book!" Made me smile :)
We then made a sunflower from a paper plate. She painted the edge and did a great job putting paint only on the edge where I told her to.

She then added the sunflower seeds:

Then the stem:

Finished product:

Next we did a number recognition/counting activity with fake flowers. There were four tags with the numbers 1-4 on them. She picked a tag, counted out that many flowers, then I tied them into a bouquet for her.

She then was to give them away to people she thought might like a flower. She gave two to Grampa and Grammy and I think we still have the other two, oops.

She traced one side of her shapes sheet that I made earlier in the week, but was not really focusing by that point, so we moved on.

Our last activity for the day was a running one outside. Yea, had a hard time getting her to come back in :)
We took a fake flower and placed it at the far end of the grass, and she had to run and get it and bring it back. I timed her so she could beat her own time.

Of course, she "made" me do it too. We each did it about 5 times before I called it a day.

Our next unit is on Zoo Animals. I'll be posting my planning sheets soon, so stay tuned!

~S

stART - The Sunflower House

 

Each Thursday A Mommy's Adventures does a great blog carnival. Read a story to your child; then accompany it by art.

Last week, we finished our unit on Gardens and Flowers from Hubbard's Cupboard.

For our stART project, we read The Sunflower House by Eve Bunting

 Since I got this book at the library, Kahlen's wanted me to read it to her over and over (and so I have). So when it was time to use it for school, she wasn't really paying attention to the story, but that's okay :)

After we read our story, we planted some little starter packs from Target. 

It was pretty fun because you place the soil pellets in water and watch them soak up all the water. I then let her fill the little pots with the wet dirt.

Then I held the seeds while she put them in the pot and then put more dirt on top. I decided this would be easier than trying to get her to only poke the seeds in a little bit.

Here's the finished product:

Good thing someone I know has a green thumb (Hi Mom), because I sure don't. Pretty sure none of these are going to come up, even though she's been really really good at watering them every day.

I'm thinking about getting little starters from my mom and pretending that her plants actually came up...Is that bad?
Oh well, maybe my little planties from my mom will survive:

This is my "garden" since I don't actually have a yard. There's a marigold, two tomato plants, two basil plants, and two lettuce plants. This was the day we planted them. Kahlen helped water them. I am still skeptical that they'll produce anything because they're all still looking pretty sad after their planting :(

~S

Wordless Wednesday - Enjoying the water at Oak Street Plaza

Find more of this week's Wordless Wednesday (or Wordful) posts at 5 Minutes for Mom
~S

Tasty Tuesday - Buttermilk Citrus Waffles

Welcome to another week of Tasty Tuesday here at The Young'ns!

Please link up your recipe at the bottom of the page. You can post a link to a recipe on your blog or anywhere else. In the title of your link, please leave your name too (especially if it's not a blog post) so I know who it came from :)

Also, feel free to grab my Tasty Tuesday button, it's on the left side, near my other button.

My kids would both live on waffles if I would let them. Usually about once a month, I make a huge batch and freeze them. Then all I have to do in the morning is pop them in the toaster, and tada! Breakfast :)

This recipe can be modified to be just about any flavor. I've made them cinnamon-vanilla and just plain, but my most recent creation was citrus and boy, are they tasty! This quantity will make roughly 2 dozen waffles (at least in my waffle maker), but you can halve it if you like.

{Ingredients}

• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp sugar
• dash of True Lemon (or cinnamon or what-have-you)
• 4 cups buttermilk
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, melted
• 4 eggs
• 1 tsp orange extract (or vanilla)

{Directions}

• Preheat waffle maker as directed. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and true lemon.
• In another bowl, melt butter and add buttermilk, eggs, and orange extract. Combine with wet ingredients.
• Cook according to your waffle maker's directions (Mine is 1/2 cup batter for 2 waffles, cook for 2 minutes)
• After they're cooked, place on baking sheet in single or double layer and freeze overnight. Place in gallon bag after they're frozen to keep for a long time. Makes for a super-easy, kid- and parent-friendly breakfast. For people who care if their food is hot, like grown-ups, put in microwave for 30 seconds before toasting. If it's for the littles, they don't seem to care if there's a few spots that aren't quite hot :)

~S