Teaching Toddlers Shapes, Letters and Numbers

My favorite piece of parenting is watching my daughter learn.  It gives me such joy to see her understand something for the first time!  I’ve always heard that toddlers learn so fast, but I’ve never really witnessed it until Sweet Pea came along… and it is truly amazing!

Several months ago, Sweet Pea started learning her shapes.  We started simple with a circle, square, triangle, star and heart.  When she was in the mood, I’d grab her flash cards and we would go through a few of them.  But I wanted to challenge her a bit more… and give her an opportunity to follow simple directions.

Using Microsoft Word, I created these simple worksheets for her.  The concept is simple, create a table with 6 columns and 5 rows – increase your font to about 72 and type in whatever you are trying to learn or reinforce.  For the basic shapes, you will use the Insert and Symbol function and search for the square, etc.  I also created worksheets to reinforce her alphabet and number knowledge.

For starters, let me disclose that my daughter loves this kind-of thing.  Guess she has her mama’s nerdy streak – LOL!  Your child might hate it and that is okay.  At the end of the day, whatever method works for you and your kid – go for it!

Now, this example is of us reinforcing her knowledge of numbers. I gave Sweet Pea the worksheet and asked her to color all the number 1's pink.  She had to find her pink crayon and then she had to find all of her number 1's.  After she colored the last number, she had to count how many she found. In all of 5 minutes, we practiced our numbers, colors, following direction and counting.

I then told her to COLOR CRAZY… and color crazy she did!

For shapes, we had to upgrade Sweet Pea’s from the basic to the advanced (diamonds, trapezoids, pentagons, hexagons….  To create these, you will need to use Word's Insert and Shape feature and then "draw" them in your squares. Only draw each shape once... much easier to just copy and paste it into other squares!!

Learning + Fun = WIN

Valentine Day S'mores

A few weeks ago, I had a strange urge to make heart-shaped s'mores... so I hit the web, researching home-made graham crackers. My goal was to find a recipe that used the ingredients that I already had at home. I found this recipe from Annie's Eats. 

My crackers were actually crack-a-lackin {yes, yes I did just say that}... they were more like a cracker-cookie. This is mainly because I rolled my dough out a little too thick. However, they tasted truly fantastic and I liked the softer cracker-cookie - it made the s'more just slightly less messy.

Cut my heart out.

Too thick.

After you have followed the recipe for home-made graham crackers, then you need to assemble and bake your s'more. While baking a s'more indoors isn't nearly as fun as a campfire, it does get the job done.

Step 1: Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Step 2: Lay a graham cracker face down and place your marshmallows on top. Indoor s'more making might be the only reason for those strange flat marshmallows!!

Step 3: Bake for 3-5 minutes - until your marshmallow gets a little puffy and brown.

Step 4: Place your chocolate on the marshmallow and top with another graham cracker.

Cute.

Step 5: Squish it together and let the warm marshmallow melt the chocolate - MY marshmallow wasn't quite done {because I got impatient}, so I popped it in the microwave for 5 seconds.  That did the trick!

S'more Amore!!!!

These graham cracker-cookies are also great dipped in chocolate and decorated! The hubs LOVED these with a tall glass of milk. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Paint It Black

"I wanna see it painted black, painted black 

Black as night, black as coal" 

Paint It Black, Rolling Stones

My decision to paint my interior doors was an easy one and it was based on 4 main factors:

• I hate anything builder basic. Even when you spend money at the design center, you still end up with a house that looks like everyone else's....and NOTHING like those cool pictures on Houzz. I have the same issues with cookie-cutter landscaping, but that is a whole 'nother blog posting. 

• I have touches of black all around my house. A picture frame here, a knob there, etc., I felt like I needed a way to ties these items together. 

• I saw THIS POST and fell in love. Scroll down until you see the black door.

• I am a huge sucker for all things tan and black. Love, love, love.

Once my decision was made, I got started right away. You see, if I don’t immediately work on a project, my mind will chew on it at the most fun times {oh…2:00 AM to 5:00 AM}. Trust me, I don’t need more reasons to not sleep. Does anyone else get insomnia from home décor, or is it just me?? I was kind-of hoping to find a support group on this subject….

Here are two techniques that one can use to paint their doors:

(1) Removal of Door.  Honestly, painting it while it was lying down was not worth the effort of the removal and reinstall. Plus, you miss painting it in its room, under its specific lighting conditions.  This method took LOTS of time and four coats of paint, plus extra touch-ups once it was back on the hinges.

(2) Door on Hinges. This method takes three coats, but doesn’t take too much total time – maybe 3 hours (INCLUDING dry time).

Guess which method I used for the majority of my doors?? I'll give you two tries....

Painting Your Interior Doors Black

Supplies

Black paint, satin finish. I used "Broadway" Behr paint with primer added.

Small roller

Paint Brush

Thin Cardboard

Painters Tape

Step 1: Clean your door. I used the Lysol wipes for this task. 

Step 2: Tape off the handle, lock, hinges, etc. However, if you get some paint on the metal, it scrapes off super easily with your fingernail.

Before = Boring

Step 3: Paint everything you can with the small roller. I used a magazine (or thin cardboard) to place in the space between the door and the moulding.

1st Coat with Roller

Step 4: With your paint brush, paint any area that you missed with the roller.  Important:  Look for any drips and wipe them up... drips will ruin the finished look.

1st Coat Finished!

Step 5: Let this first coat dry for approximately 15-30 minutes. I live in a dry climate, so it only took 15 minutes.

Step 6: Repeat steps 3 and 4.

Step 7: Let this coat dry for about an hour or longer. 

Step 8: At this time, you have to retire your roller.  I'm sorry, but the last coat MUST be completed entirely with your paint brush. You can try it, but I guarantee you will regret it. 

All Three Coats -- Dry Time!

Step 9: Let it dry.

Step 10: Remove the tape and touch-up where necessary.

A GREAT tip: Keeping your moist {hate that word} paint brush and roller wrapped in foil will allow you to avoid washing your brushes/roller out between doors.