Today is my son’s 16th birthday. Seems like just yesterday he was a toddler climbing on the furniture and exploring everything life had to offer.  As parents, we encouraged him to try new things and gave him plenty of opportunities to try out his creativity.  Crayons and glue were always close by. Yes, sometimes the house did get messy, but children thrive when given the encouragement to use a variety of media to express themselves. I was watching a video clip the other day from the Octomom’s blog page (don’t ask me why I was there, curiosity I suppose) and her parenting advice was to keep crayons and markers out of the house in order to sustain a clean home.  This broke my heart, the very symbol of childhood taken out of the home. I’m sure she is doing the best she can with what she has to work with, but children that are denied the means in which to create often suffer in many academic and social ways later in life. There is much research to support this. (You can google for more information or if you would like to message me, I can send you some articles to read.)  As my son grew, we replaced the crayons with lego.  Mountains of lego were ever present and at times I thought I would scream from all of the lego everywhere. But he began to build some fantastic lego creations, even winning some awards which earned him some cash!  Music was another form of creativity we offered to our children. At a young age, we encouraged our son to try out his dad’s instruments. We bought him a small drum kit and let him bang around on it.  Again, one might wonder why in the world would you allow a child such freedom. First of all, we did set boundries. No banging after certain hours and because we loved our son, we wanted him to explore different interests in order to give him the confidence to pursue his dreams as he grew up. Whether those dreams involved the arts or not was irrelevant. What was important was that by giving him the opportunity to explore creativity in a safe and secure environment, he felt loved and encouraged.  What are my son’s passions today? He is a very talented musician who plays a variety of instruments! Did all of the creative opportunities we allowed him to explore as a young child contribute to his confidence to pursue music? You bet!  In the classroom and in the home, make sure to offer variety and opportunity to create, explore and to be encouraged!    (photo is of my son Matt at age 6 working on a keyboard composition.)

Short on time and cash? No problem!  Here are some quick and inexpensive valentines for you and your child to make. These make perfect classroom valentines or just a special valentine for a special little someone in your life. 

We made these King and Queen Valentines by cutting out crown shapes and letting the children glue on hearts and jewels. Two holes were punched in the side for the lollipop.

These simple cards were made by placing a box of smarties and reeses pieces on a piece of card stock. For the smarties, we cut out a pocket shape of blue card stock and taped onto the smartie box to look like it was coming out of a pants pocket. So cute!

Another simple candy card to make is the lifesaver card pictured above. Simply cut out a strip of card stock and fold to make an envelope. Place candy and saying inside, fold and tie with a ribbon. Children love these! Another variation could be to use tootsie rolls , gum or other candy for the cards. Get creative and make up silly sayings to go with the candy you are using!

If you prefer not to use candy you can opt for the following valentines. 

Wrap mini packages of microwavable popcorn in red paper.  Add caption and hearts for a cute classroom valentine. Or dress up a package of nuts for a special treat with the caption “I’m nuts for you!”  Just make sure there are no nut allergies before handing out these.

Hope that these ideas have inspired you to get creative and remember it isn’t the gift, it is the thought that counts! Happy Valentine’s Day!

To make this beautiful butterfly collage, simply cut out various heart shapes and let your child glue them onto construction paper in a butterfly shape.  This makes a lovely placemat for a Valentine party when laminated.

Here’s a simple yet fun math activity to do for Valentine’s Day.  Cut out heart shapes and write numbers on them. Laminate if you are using them for a classroom. Have children count out heart candies and place the correct number onto the heart shape cut-out. 

There has been much debate on whether or not classical music is beneficial to the development of young minds.  It is my experience that classical music does indeed benefit children of all ages. Children love to hear the different sounds orchestral instruments can make. Letting children listen to various types of music helps to develop creativity within the young mind. Classical music serves as the foundation on which most styles of music are built upon so by exposing young children to Bach and Beethoven, you are helping to foster a love of music which can last a life time.  Because it is close to Valentine’s Day, I have been playing various classical love songs for the children and to my surprise they have quite enjoyed this exercise.  I keep a variety of instruments close by so that they can experiment and try to mimic the sounds and melodies that they have listened to. By encouraging children to try new sounds and songs, you are giving them the confidence to become musicians and to appreciate music.  Here is a short clip of my two little ones trying out the love song, “Habanera” from the opera Carmen.  I guarantee it will put a smile on your face!

If you aren’t fortunate enough to live in the north where snow falls freely, here is a fun way to play in the snow without the cold.  Using a basic shaving cream, spray cream directly onto table, window, mirror or bath surface.  Kids can use fingers to make pictures in the “snow”.  I use a sensitive based cream for my kids because they have dry skin in the winter, but any cream will work nicely.  My kids LOVE to play with shaving cream in the bathtub. They could stay in there for hours if I let them. When teaching, I spray the cream on tables and let the children play with cars, cookie cutters and other toys in the “snow”. This is such a fantastic activity for pennies. We get our shaving cream from the dollar store and it lasts for several play times.  (This picture of my daughter playing with shaving cream was taken right before her bottom tooth fell out! )

What could be more fun on a cold winter day than to create a painting of a polar bear!

The process is fun and the outcome is frame worthy.  To make the prints, simply trace a bear shape onto a piece of cardboard and cut out. The outer layer of the shape is what we used for the stencil.  Using white paint, fill in the shape. When the painting is dry you can add details, glitter and snowflakes. This method of stencil painting can be used for many other shapes and seasons. Use your imagination and have fun!

Every new year welcomes many new year’s resolutions and for this year, mine was to start a blog!  For several years I have been asked to share some of my creative ideas for lessons and crafts geared towards young children but for one reason or the other I could never find the time to sit down and do this. Okay, the real reason is that I am severely technology challenged and in order to figure out how to actually create a blog, I had to wait until my kids reached the teen years so that they could show me how. This is somewhat of an embarrassment to me as I do hold a Master’s degree in education! Well, now that I have come clean, on with the good stuff!

January is a great time to connect with your children. Christmas is over and life’s basic routines start up again. Begin the new year by making a goal journal with your children.  Have them write down goals that they would like to accomplish during the year. Make sure that they are realistic so that the child will not get discouraged.  Some of the goals my kids have chosen included ; learning how to jump rope,  reaching the next level in a video game, writing in cursive, and so on. Whenever they reach the goal, write the date and any information pertaining to the goal achievement in the journal along with a photo or drawing of the event.  Keeping these journals fosters self esteem and pride at a young age as well as develops life long skills that carry way into adult hood!  This is also a great activity for a classroom and even for those of us who are already grown up! There are always new things to accomplish and learn no matter how old we are are.