How does one raise a reader?

In all honesty actual reading isn’t on top of my priority list at the moment, well not for Aidan at least.

He will be three soon and I don’t expect him to be reciting sonnets, but I do want him to love books and reading. There is something so special/magical/uplifting about being able to immerse yourself in the written word. Also you can then use sentences like “immerse yourself in the written word” quite successfully-hehe.

Right now I’m working on helping Aidan recognise letters of the alphabet, he is pretty much only interested in the letter A because A is for Aidan.

Here are 6 tips/games I’m using to get Aidan more interested in the other letters…

– I let him trace the letters using colourful stones or beads

– We play a treasure hunting game where we collect pictures (he loves taking pics) of objects that start with a specific letter… ants, apples, antelope (we don’t have antelope or artichokes) he suggested a picture of himself and of this blonde haired Aidan he met once.

– I let him go through my old magazines with a highlighter looking for specific letters

– I let him colour/paint/collage (you know this means tear off paper and  haphazardly glue onto letter right?) the letter of the week

– I use things like scabble or bananagram tiles and have him pick out the letter of the week

– At the end of the week I want to give him a felt letter signaling that he knows that letter now (just thought of that now-don’t you just hate me… we are heading to C now so I better get working on that)

We also read pretty regularly, very regularly. The Kid’sBookClub means we are building quite the collection. The service gives you the chance to build up a library that grows with your kid at the steal of R145 per month. That is two books and two magazines which is AWESOME.

Any more tips on raising a reader???? DO SHARE!

Make a snow-less snowball fight kit

I made a snowball kit and it’s a blast! I love making gifts for Aidan. I love that it’s something only he has and that I can put extra love into it without breaking the bank. He has a thing for hand made presents, he gets super excited “You made that just for me” so I’m going to exploit that while I can (before he wants the latest consoles and things)

snowball
Last year I made him STOCKING FILLERS which were really quick and easy and lasted him most of the year.

He has a thing for the movie Frozen (That craze just isn’t dying out hey) but all the frozen toys are either ridiculously girly or ridiculously pricey and although I don’t limit him when it comes to WHAT HE PLAYS WITH  I thought why not go out of the box and make him something “frozen related” instead. So I came up with this snow ball fight kit.

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“First Christmas” ornaments for kid to make

So it’s Aidan’s first Christmas, no I’m not suffering from amnesia, I know he is almost three and we haven’t only recently become Christian, so that statement is technically false… It’s his first Christmas in the sense that it is the first time he is able to understand and verbalise his interest in Christmas.

He is mesmerized by the trees and décor in the shops and he is very interested in the story of Christmas which makes it the perfect time to share our beliefs with him.

Rob and I believe in God and our spiritual relationship is very important to us but we also believe that there are many ways to serve God (no one way is the only and ultimate-don’t stone me for that, thanks) and for that reason we research and respect other religions and want to share that belief with our kid.

Even so, we believe it is very important to share the story of the birth of Christ with Aidan so I’m desperately looking at ways to share this with him in a fun informative way.

He is a deep thinker and I do not want to confuse him. He already asked “Why does Father Christmas bring presents and not the wise men like in the story”… so ja, there’s that – he is tricking me up at the age of 2 people!!!

Here are some Christmas Crafts I found on the net… I’m considering doing one for every night of advent (because I’m high) a little ornament every night is sure to go down well with my little crafter and next year I will try this ADVENT STORY which seems amazing 🙂

CLICK THROUGH:

DIY Santa Clause Gift Tags Using Soda Can Tabs! Cheap Christmas craft for kids to make too! | CraftyMorning.com:

Clothespin Angel Craft Using Doilies - Christmas/Religious craft for kids | CraftyMorning.com:
How To Make Salt Dough Ornaments - Fun, easy and makes a great keepsake! #homemadeornaments #holidaycrafts #saltdoughornaments:

Sock Snowmen | Click for 25 DIY Christmas Crafts for Kids to Make | DIY Christmas Decorations for Kids to Make:
Candy Cane Ornaments    Heres an easy craft to do with children: Create pipe cleaner candy canes to hang on your Christmas tree. Fun for young children to make and give as gifts, too. The following items can be found at your local craft store.:
Fingerprint Heart Ornaments | Mama.Papa.Bubba.:

Yarn Christmas Ornament- kids christmas party idea:

Craft hacks for kids

Aidan is two and a half which is roughly the same amount of time he has been involved in arts and crafts.
He honestly loves creating and when he saw the Santa Sack I made him (I also happen to be selling these through Oh!Boy) he immediately asked if Santa could fill it with crayons and glue – That is how into arty things he is (for now)… So I thought I would share some of the “hacks” I use to keep the mess and cost down when crafting, because the holidays are coming up and the “how do I keep my kid busy” question is about to rear it’s ugly head 🙂

1. Chalk board paper…

This is extremely quick and easy, basically a roll of contact paper which can turn any surface into a chalk board (Sidebar: every surface in my studio/office is already a chalkboard to keep Aidan busy when I work) You can stick a piece of this down anywhere which is pretty great for play dates and it comes off really easy also it’s around R30 a roll at places like Makro and Game

2.  Ice-cube tray painting…

Aidan loves to paint but I am not nearly ready to let him run wild with the paint so I fill these with different colours and it keeps the mess down (you know as down as it can be when a two year old paints)

3. Get a smock…

If you don’t have a fun little apron like the ones I’m selling at Oh!Boy (shameless self promotion) why not make one from a t-shirt like I showed you here…




Make this 5-minute smock
Play apron
Or buy this

4. Craft on the go

Why not convert a old DVD case into a travelling art station you can use with dry erase crayons and as a play dough mat – I showed you how to do it HERE

 

 
 

5.  Foam stickers FTW!

Aidan loves stickers but the paper ones end up with me having to loosen them for him (Ain’t nobody got time for that) So the foam ones are great and are rather inexpensive. Under R10 a pack.
And bonus, if you stick them on a hard surface like a big lego it becomes a paint stamp which you can just dismantle when you are done

Toddler boardgame DIY (Mary had a little lamb)

This week we finish off our Nursery Rhymes with Mary had a little lamb 🙂
I really had to think good and hard to get to a DIY because I have just been too busy with my own little lamb – but I think I nailed it with the toddler board game  – I am super modest, can you tell
Here we have it; a board game your toddler can get involved in 🙂 and I even made the printable available  … download toddler board game HERE

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DIY spinning flower plate

For today’s nursery rhyme we are doing Mary quite contrary. I don’t really know the meaning behind it just that it gives me this whimsical feeling and what is more whimsical than spinning flowers 🙂

I did this craft with Aidan and as you can see it was a hit

U need paper plates with two small holes in the middle, string, paint, scissors (although I did not do this I think it would help to glue two plates together for firmer spinning flower)

Paint your boards into bright flowers and leave to dry 
String through the hole, you want it to be a loop. so you have a long piece of string
put one side in one hole and other side in other hole then knot the pieces together

Then spin and pull 🙂 

That’s it from me don’t forget to take a look at what the others came up with:

LUCHAE
RUTH