So I made a turkey body out of brown cardstock and cut 25 “feathers” out of red, orange, yellow, green and purple cardstock. I taped the turkey body up on the kitchen wall with a sign above it that reads “We’re thankful for…” Each night at dinner, my daughter, husband and I take turns taking a “feather” out of a jar on the table and writing one thing we are thankful for on it. Then we tape the feather up on the turkey.

This activity has been a great way to think about the many things for which we are grateful and also to learn about each other. I was surprised by the simple things that Ally is thankful for – her house, her family, food, her pets, etc. She hasn’t listed a toy or a single material THING.

My husband gave thanks for chocolate and our smiles. I’ve found that I’m most thankful for our vacations and family adventures together this year…and of course Ally’s grandparents, who babysit and allow my husband and I to have regular date nights.

As each day goes by and we countdown to Thanksgiving, our turkey gets more and more feathers showing all the joys and gifts in our lives. I know we’ll continue this Thankful Turkey project every year and make it a family tradition. I think I’ll take a picture of the turkey each year. It will be fun to see how the things we are thankful for change …or maybe stay the same.

Since she doesn’t like to take it and sometimes runs away, we don’t like to give it to her on a spoon for fear it will spill before we get it in her mouth. So we usually put it in a liquid medicine syringe and squirt it into her mouth a little at a time. But often she gags, lets the medicine run out of the side of her mouth or on occasion, she just throws up. My husband and I were getting pretty frustrated and felt awful that we were putting her through this.

And that’s when I thought up the perfect solution – to put our daughter in charge. Now I put the correct dose in a small cup and give her a drinking straw. I tell her she can take her time sucking up the medicine, but it all has to be gone. I think just by giving our daughter the control fixed the problem completely. She can sip the medicine at her pace and the drinking straw makes it go down easier. And a teaspoon of medicine looks like a lot less medicine when it’s in a cup than when it’s in a syringe.

Games/Activities:

1. Sugar Cubes – Staying with the tea party theme, have the girls see who can stack the highest tower of sugar cubes.

2. Tissue Paper Flowers – Take 3 or 4 pieces of tissue paper laid in a stack, cut into a square and do an accordion fold back and forth over the length of the square. Cut the ends of the folded tissue into a triangle shape. Take the scissors and cut a triangular notch in the middle of the folded paper. Wrap a green pipe cleaner around the notch in the middle to make a stem. Fan out of the pieces of the tissue to make flower petals.

3. Scavenger Hunt – Like Alice in Wonderland, have the girls pretend they drank something to make them very small. Then plan a scavenger hunt around the house or yard where they look for party favors that are up high, for example at the top level of a swing set, hanging from a tree branch, etc.

Favors:

1. Tea Cups – Find mismatched tea cup and saucer sets for each guest. Set the table with them and have the girls use them during the party to drink caffeine-free tea, punch, juice, water, etc. Then let the girls take home the cup and saucer they used as a party favor.

Food/Decorations:

1. Set the Table – Make a fancy tea party by setting the table with a tablecloth, white doilies and real flowers as well as the tea party cups and saucers.

2. Tea Party Food – Make tea sandwiches by making ham and cheese, turkey and cheese or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and cutting them into small pieces and putting frilly toothpicks into them. Cut up small pieces of cheese and put frilly toothpicks in them. Make fruit kabobs and mini cupcakes.

Activities:

1. Pin the Tail on the Pony – Here’s a classic party game that you can make yourself. On a poster board, draw a picture of a pony (a simple outline with eyes, mouth and mane added is fine) and then bundle lengths of brown yarn into “tails.” Give each child a tail and piece of tape. Blindfold them with a bandanna, spin them around and let the game begin.

2. Scavenger Hunt in the Hay – Hide piles of hay in different places around your yard. To keep the mess to a minimum, my friend put the hay in plastic wading pools she had borrowed from friends. Give the kids clues as to where the different piles of hay are located. Hide horse-themed trinkets in each spot so the kids can dig through the hay to find them. You could hide small plastic horses, horse finger puppets or horse stickers in the hay. Makes a great way for kids to find their party favors!

3. Rent a Pony – If it’s in your budget, find out if you can rent a pony to have at the party for pony rides. My friend rented one for her daughter’s fifth birthday and it was a huge hit with the kids. The kids took turns riding the pony – led by a trained professional – around the yard and neighborhood.

4. Hobby Horse Races – Almost everyone has a hobby horse, so before the party borrow them from your friends. At the party, have the kids “saddle up” and race around the yard.

Food:

My friend served apple slices and carrots for snacks since that’s what horses like to eat. She also bought horse-shaped cookie cutters to make horse-shaped sandwiches, cheese slices, etc.

Activities:

1. Make a Crown – When your little princess’s guests first arrive have a table set up for them to make a crown to wear during the party. You can buy inexpensive foam crowns at craft stores like Michael’s. For younger children, put each child’s name on a crown ahead of time with puffy paint. Provide the children with stickers and stick-on plastic jewels so they can make their crown unique. This is a great way to keep kids busy while you’re waiting for everyone to arrive. Makes a great party favor too!

2. Make a Wand - Buy large craft sticks and ribbons or crepe paper. Wind strips of ribbon or crepe paper around one end of the craft stick in varying lengths and use glue or pipe cleaners to secure. When you’re done, all the little princesses will have their own ribbon wand. Turn on some princess music and let them dance around swirling their new ribbon wands. Makes a great party favor too!

3. Pumpkin Coach – If your child has a fall birthday, you can buy small pumpkins for each guest and have them make their own pumpkin coach like Cinderella. Just set out paints, glitter and decorations and let the children use their imagination to turn a plain pumpkin into a magical princess coach.

Food:

1. Princess Shapes – Buy princess-themed cookie cutters and cut sandwiches, fruit, cookies and cheese slices into shapes like crowns, wands and slippers. It’s a great way to make sure little guests will eat up!

2. Make Pretzel Wands – Before the party, dip one end of a pretzel rod into melted chocolate and roll into colored sprinkles. Let stand on wax paper until chocolate hardens. Makes a great princess-themed snack.

3. Princess Cake – When my daughter wanted a princess cake, I decided I could make one myself. I simply made a cake in a bundt pan, as well as two in a round cake pan. When the cakes had cooled, I stacked the two round cakes on the bottom, with frosting in between and then put the bundt cake on the top. I bought an inexpensive princess Barbie, wrapped her legs in plastic wrap and inserted her into the middle of the cake up to her waist so it looked like the cake was her princess gown. Then I frosted the cake in pink and added star and flower sprinkles in a pattern to make it look like a princess gown. This cake was easy to make, came together quickly, and got lots of compliments from the guests.

Games/Activities:

1. Fairy Name Drop – Cut green paper into simple leaf shapes. On each one write a nature-inspired word like sky, rainbow, rain, snowflake, daisy, petal, etc. After all the girls arrive tell them you are going to find out their fairy names. Throw the paper leaves into the air over the girls and tell them to try to catch two leaves as they fall. When we did this at my daughter’s party, the girls loved running around the living room trying to catch the leaves. Then put the words on each girl’s leaves together to make up their fairy name. For example, Rainbow Sky.

2. Fairy Scavenger Hunt - When my daughter wanted a fairy party, I went looking for inexpensive fairy items to use during the party that could also be used as favors. I found fairy shoes (pink slippers with curled up toes) at the dollar store and $3 fairy wings online. I also bought some plastic ivy and ribbon from a craft store to make fairy crowns. I simply made a circle of plastic ivy that would sit like a crown on each girl’s head and then wrapped ribbons around the ivy to make it fancy. Then I hid these items around the house and gave the girls clues on where to find them. As they found each item they put it on and by the end of the hunt they were all dressed like fairies!

3. Make a Fairy House – Little girls will love to make their own fairy house. First collect items from nature, like bark, moss, leaves, feathers, sticks, shells, acorns, rocks, pine cones, etc. Give it girl a shallow container or tray filled with sand (Styrofoam take-out containers cut in half work well). Then let the girls build their fairy house any way they want. The sand at the bottom of the container will help hold sticks and bark into place so they can create a structure. You’ll be amazed at what they create! Then let the girls take their houses home to put in their own backyards. A great idea for a craft and party favor.

4. Make a Fairy Garden – For a simpler activity, you can have the girls make a fairy garden. Simply buy small flowerpots and have the girls decorate the outside with paints, stickers, glitter, buttons, shells, etc. Then have them scoop some dirt into the pot and plant a few seeds. Provide craft sticks and paper so they can make a sign to stick in the dirt such as “Fairies Welcome.” This makes a great craft and take home favor.

5. A Fairy Hunt - If you have a backyard garden and nice weather, this is a wonderful activity. Make small fairy dolls using a clothes pin with tissue paper wings. (Or you can buy small fairy figures if you wish). Then before the party begins, hide the fairies in different places around the yard. Put them in interesting places like hanging from the branch of a tree, holding onto a flower stem, sitting on a rock, floating in a birdbath, etc. Then give the girls clues on where the fairies can be found. For example, “this fairy loves to fly really high” or “this fairy loves soft leaves” or “this fairy loves water.”

Setting/Decorations:

My daughter’s birthday is in March so it wasn’t warm enough to have her party in the yard. So to give her party the feel of nature, I bought an inexpensive canopy netting (I found one on eBay for $12) and then safety-pinned plastic flowers all over it. I pulled the netting out on the sides and arranged pillows inside to create a “fairy house” for the girls to play in. It was also a great place to take pictures of the girls during the party.

I also purchased cardboard flowers (or you could make your own out of construction paper) and hung them from the living room ceiling with green crepe paper stems hanging down, to give the girls the feeling of being really small like fairies. Finally, I got out our white Christmas lights and strung them around the room for a little extra twinkle.

Favors:

For my daughter’s party, the guests were able to take home their fairy gardens and fairy wings, shoes and headpieces. At the door, I also had made small bouquets of flower-shaped lollipops, which my daughter gave out as she was saying her good-byes.

I started with a small clay flowerpot and stuck in tufts of green tissue paper. Then I had my daughter make a flower-shaped card, which we attached to a green craft stick stem. On the flower card, Ally wrote, “Thank you for helping me grow! Love, Ally.” Then we stuck the card into the flowerpot with a gift card to a local garden store.

Both of Ally’s teachers loved the gift. And it was so simple to put together.

And it would be easy to change this idea into a gift from a whole class. Each student could make a flower-shaped card to create a whole “bouquet” from the class. A garden store gift card from the whole class could be tucked inside or a bunch of garden-themed gifts, like gardening gloves, clippers, spade, seeds, etc.

Ally and I sat down and drew pictures of different things we might see at the park. For instance, we drew pictures of a duck, a flag, a boat, a bug, a flower, a pine cone, etc. But instead of trying to collect things as you would in a typical scavenger hunt, we brought along our digital camera to take a picture of each item.

When we got to the park, Ally was so excited to search for each of the things on the list. I’ve never seen her so excited to spot a dandelion or an ant. And as we found each item, she snapped a picture of it with the camera.

The activity had Ally running all around and gave us a new way of looking at the same old park we visit all the time.

And later that day, Ally was so excited to not only tell her dad about the scavenger hunt, but show him the pictures she had taken.

Then there were the times when she was wiggling around so much she fell right out of her chair onto the floor.

My husband and I considered getting her old booster seat out of the basement if she didn’t learn to just sit still. But she seemed too old for that.

And as usual, when I couldn’t figure out how to solve the situation, I asked my friends and they had the answer. My friends, who are also the mothers of preschoolers, said that they got seat cushions for their daughters’ chairs and that solved the issue.

That’s when I realized the reason behind Ally’s squirming. I thought she was just bored. But actually, I think she just couldn’t get comfortable. When she sat on our wooden kitchen chairs on her bottom, she wasn’t tall enough to eat comfortably. So she would switch to sitting on her knees, but that’s not very comfortable on a hard wooden chair.

The soft chair cushion solved the problem immediately. It put Ally at the right height for the table when she’s sitting on her bottom. She no longer has to change position throughout the meal. She’s officially squirm-free.

Sometimes these kinds of problems have very simple solutions. Just ask your friends.

My daughter Ally, 4, made this craft last year with her friends during a play date and again at preschool and loved it both times. She still won’t part with either of her bottles of orange goo.

To get started, you need an empty plastic water bottle, clear Caro syrup and orange (or any color) food coloring. Pour the Caro syrup into the bottle until it’s about half full and drop in food coloring. Shake to create a colorful goo.

Then drop in various items like plastic spiders or pumpkins, beads, large confetti circles or other small items that can be found at a craft supply store and would fit through the opening of the bottle. For Thanksgiving, Ally’s preschool class dropped in small plastic items like butterflies, flowers, hearts and letters, etc. to represent the things for which they are thankful.

In the end, your child will have bottle of bright orange goo mixed with various beads, confetti and shapes which will ooze around inside the bottle as your child turns it upside down or rolls it around. Be sure to make sure the water bottle caps are screwed on tight and then wrapped with tape to keep them sealed.

We’ve tried to teach her color mixing with food coloring and paints. But then Ally’s preschool teachers shared a fun way to teach young children about mixing colors.

They suggested filling a Ziploc bag with cheap white shaving cream. Then squirt into the bag a drop of two different colors of paint, such as a drop of blue and a drop of yellow paint. Then seal the bag and let the kids squish the shaving cream and paint mixture around until the two drops of paint create a new color.

Ally loved this project and afterward was easily able to remember which colors combined to make green, orange and purple. And she liked blending colors to make more odd combinations – like what happens when you mix pink and brown?

The teachers said they also hide small items, like plastic trinkets, in the foam for the kids to find as they squish it around.

This makes a great rainy day art project.

To my surprise, what had her all worked up was a plastic cup with a bunch of craft sticks (Popsicle sticks) sticking out of it.

But then Ally explained to me that this was her “Can Do” cup, which features some of the things she’s able to do by herself or excels at now that she’s 4. Ally had decorated the outside of the cup with stickers. Then her teachers had asked her to name five things she’s good at doing. They wrote each of the things in Ally’s own word on a large-size craft stick.

Ally excitedly pulled out each craft stick to have me read about all the things she’s mastered. The craft sticks said things like “I can ride my bike all by myself!” and “I can put on my shoes all by myself!”

I can’t believe that Ally was so excited about these craft sticks in a plastic cup, but I realized that what she loved was being recognized for all the things she can do. My husband and I praise Ally a lot, especially when she learns or tries something new. But I could see that this cup was a new, fun way to celebrate her achievements and it made Ally proud to see those things written down.

Since she brought home her “Can Do” cup, I’ve added more craft sticks to the cup each time I notice something that Ally can do by herself. She loves to watch me write it out on the craft stick and once in a while, she asks me to pull them all out of the cup and read them to her.

This project is a great way to recognize “big kids” and celebrate all those little achievements that can be so big to them.

I love a good garage sale. And I recently hosted one with two other moms. Together we have five children so together we had a whole lot of junk.

But at our garage sale, and some others that I stopped at over the summer, I noticed that are new fun ways to bring in customers and make a little extra money too.

At our garage sale, my friends and I each baked something the night before, such as muffins or cookies, and then wrapped them individually in plastic wrap. We sold each for 50 cents the next day at the garage sale and the customers bought them up like crazy – especially those with children in tow. We used that extra money to cover the cost of our lunch that day.

And I saw similar ideas at other garage sales I stopped at over the summer. One group of moms had bought cases of juice boxes and had them in a cooler out in front for 50 cent each. On a hot summer day, the juice boxes were selling fast.

Another group of moms had bought a bulk box of Ring Pops and granola bars and were selling those at a pretty fast rate.

Another mom had a great idea for getting rid of all the leftover items when the garage sale was winding down. She said that at a certain time of the day, customers could make a donation that would go to charity, and in return could take any 10 items they wanted. Another woman had a similar idea. Her garage sale was going for three days, but on the third day, customers could give her five dollars in exchange for any five items they wanted.

These are just a few good ideas I’ve found. I’ll keep my eye out for more as I stop at more garage sales.

But now that I’m a mom, I find myself carrying around huge purses and tote bags because when you have kids your list of essentials grows astronomically. Now my essentials include things like wipes, hand sanitizer, sunscreen, my daughter’s sunglasses, crayons and stickers, water bottle, travel-size first aid kit, enough snacks to feed an army and extra clothes for my daughter. I’m lucky if I can find room to cram in my wallet, keys and cell phone. Forget about the lipstick.

So for awhile, by purse has pretty much been a mess of all of these items jumbled up together. But then I realized that I could put those freebie makeup cases I get at the mall cosmetics counter to work organizing my bag and grouping like items together.

Now I have one case that holds hand sanitizer and my first aid items. Another holds sunscreen and my daughter’s sunglasses. Another holds crayons and stickers for long waits at restaurants or doctor’s appointments. And my daughter’s snacks are packaged together in a 1 quart Ziploc bag with a little extra air for padding.

Now I can reach in my purse and quickly find what I need. And having items like sunscreen and hand sanitizer in their own zippered cases means I don’t have to worry about leaks and spills ruining everything in my purse.

Until I can go back to carrying a tiny purse again, I’ll have to settle for having an organized one.

Buy it: Guess How Much I Love You

Buy it: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

Buy it: Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus

Buy it: Toes, Ears and Nose

When my daughter Ally was born, we, of course, got many great gifts. Friends and family gave toys, stuffed animals, blankets and countless adorable pink outfits.

But one of the best gifts we got was a collection of picture books and board books that we received from a group of people I knew from work. This group of about 10 people all went together and bought us a bag filled with wonderful books (many of which I had never heard of as a first-time mom). There were four Sandra Boynton board books, “Guess How Much I Love You,” “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?”, “Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus” and “Toes, Ears and Nose,” among others.

These were some of the first books we had for Ally and we read them all the time. Both Ally and I got to know them all by heart. They have become part of her childhood. And every time we read them, I remember the group of people who gave them to us.

And while it’s wonderful to receive baby clothes and blankets for your newborn, eventually they will be outgrown and packed away. But Ally and I still read “Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus” and “Guess How Much I Love You” all the time. So if you’re looking for a great baby gift that will be appreciated and last for years, consider picking out a collection of great books.

Our gift of books has been treasured for four and a half years and counting…

My friend covers her 4-year-old daughter’s artistic creations with clear contact paper and turns them into fun place mats for the whole family. She said they hold up well to multiple uses and being wiped clean. And her daughter enjoys seeing her artwork being displayed in a new way.

My friend said that she and her daughter also make place mats for special occasions, such as Thanksgiving, by making collages of holiday cards and her daughter’s artwork and covering them with contact paper. She said it’s a fun way to decorate her table for the holidays and everyone can take home their place mat as a party favor.

But now that Ally’s 4 I wanted to teach her some important phone numbers such as her daddy at work, her grandparents and her aunts. And I wanted to have these phone numbers posted in a way that would be easy for Ally to read so she could dial them without our help.

So I made a picture phone number list. I printed and cut out some head shots of each person and wrote their phone number next to the picture, each in a different color. Now when Ally wants to call her daddy at work, she looks for his picture and then punches in the phone number next to his picture.

The picture phone list has also gotten Ally more interested in practicing making phone calls. (The new Disney Princess phone we bought her didn’t hurt either). And now I have a little more peace of mind knowing that if she needed to make a phone call on her own, she could do it.

Both Ally and I were excited when she opened this present and now, two years later, Ally and I are still appreciating that same gift.

Ally uses art supplies almost daily and we’re still using many of the same supplies my friend got for her. What’s great about this gift idea is that kids can never have too many art supplies. And while kids may grow bored with other gifts like toys and games, art supplies last a long time and can be used in different ways as children grow.

So if you need to buy a gift for a kid who has everything, art supplies are a great way to go. This gift can also work for any budget too, since you can decide how much you put in the bag and since many supplies, like crayons and glue sticks, are inexpensive.

It’s a great gift idea for a child of any age, and is sure to be enjoyed for years afterward.

It’s almost too easy. Just fill up your child’s plastic sand buckets with water and find some paintbrushes in various sizes. We use inexpensive paintbrushes from the hardware store. Then let your little budding artist go to work.

The pictures or letters they paint will show up on the sidewalk as they get the cement wet, but will quickly disappear as the sun and heat dry them up. So they can keep on painting all day long. This activity would also work on a wooden fence or on the bricks of a house or patio.

You can also fill spray bottles with water and let your kids spray the sidewalks too.

My daughter Ally, 4, and her friends just seemed to like the idea of “painting” and getting everything wet.

This is also a fun way to have your children practice writing their letters.

However, sometimes Ally would mix up her shoes and put her left shoe on her right foot and her right shoe on the left. Then she would get frustrated that she had done it wrong. Her disappointment seemed to take the wind out of her sails.

I knew she would learn her left shoe from her right eventually, but while we were waiting for that day I wanted to give her a way of telling which shoe was which all by herself. So I bought some fabric paint and put a dot on the inside of each shoe on the inside edge. Now all Ally has to do is line the shoes up next to each other, and if the dots are next to each other, she has the shoes the right way. If the dots are far apart, she knows to rearrange them.

Ally was so excited about her shoe dots and immediately got the hang of matching them up. Now she shows off to anyone who will watch how she matches up the dots to put on her shoes. And she hasn’t mixed up her shoes since I put the dots inside them.

I know someday she’ll be able to tell her shoes apart just by looking at them, but until that day, Ally has her confidence back that she can put on her shoes all by herself.

Usually that has meant taking Ally to the local pottery place to paint a plate, bowl or mug. And while these gifts are always enjoyed and cherished, I think Ally’s relatives are coming to expect them. Also, with a big family, all that pottery studio time can get expensive.

So I started looking for easier and more inexpensive ways for Ally to create one-of-a-kind gifts for her loved ones. And one great idea was to have Ally paint and decorate flower pots. 

First Ally and I went to the store and picked out an inexpensive brown clay flower pot, a plant to go in it and some potting soil. The total was about $10. When we got home we gathered some paint, paintbrushes and an old t-shirt of my husband’s for Ally to paint in and Ally painted the pot all over. After it dried, we found odds and ends from her art supplies box to glue on the sides.

Depending on whether the flower pot will be inside or outside, you can decide whether to glue on foam pieces, buttons, shells or ribbons, etc. or leave it plain. 

Ally has created a few of these flowerpots now and they have all been received with excitement and are proudly displayed on relatives’ porches, decks and patio tables. Ally loves giving her one-of-a-kind gifts and seeing the plants grow when she goes to visit her grandparents and relatives.

So the next time you’re stumped for a gift idea from your kids, the answer may be as simple as a quick trip to a garden center or a quick walk out to your garden shed. 

This mom said that she solved the problem by buying a large bath towel or bath sheet that matched her car’s upholstery and then laid in down in the backseat, covering both the seat and the backrest. Then she put her childrens’ car seats on top of the towel and secured them. Now when her kids eat in the backseat, the towel catches and absorbs the juice box spills and the ice cream drips and the graham cracker crumbs.

She removes the towel when it gets too dirty, washes it in the washing machine and puts it back in the car. And while its hidden underneath a towel for now, someday when she can show it again, her car upholstery won’t be forever ruined. 

So this summer I came up with a new idea for sidewalk chalk. Ally and I used sidewalk chalk to draw an elaborate “neighborhood” of streets, houses, bridges, traffic lights and signs on our driveway. The whole “neighborhood” was just the right size for Hot Wheels cars.

Ally and I sat there driving our different Hot Wheels cars down the streets – stopping for traffic lights – and then continuing on to park in the garages that we had drawn next to each house. We even drew a fire station for her Hot Wheels fire engine. Ally loved deciding which car belonged to which house; making up stories for where the cars were going and naming each of the streets. I loved that it was a new way to play sidewalk chalk and a new way to let Ally be creative.

So one day, I took a quart-size plastic sealable bag and put her snacks into that and then right before I sealed it shut, I blew air into the bag to inflate it. The air cushions the snacks inside the bag from getting crushed when my purse gets tossed around. Now Ally’s snacks stay in good shape no matter how long they’ve been in my purse.

And I can find the snacks easier since they’re all together in one sealed bag.

Now I let Ally play with her Colorforms on one of our living room windows whenever she wants. It’s such a simple and easy idea but it has made the same old Colorforms new and exciting again for Ally. Now she makes up stories as she arranges them on the window – combining her Dora the Explorer Colorforms with her Fancy Nancy and Thomas the Tank Engine Colorforms. 

The only drawback is the finger smudges on the window, but let’s face it, they would have been there anyway. 

I always make Ally take down her Colorforms when she’s done playing, mainly because I don’t know how they would do sitting in the hot sun of the window all day. 

To make the phonics lessons a fun project for the two of us, I decided that Ally and I could make a phonics book together. First Ally and I went to the store and she picked out a pink three-ring binder. We also bought some clear protective binder pages and paper.

Then we got to work cutting out pictures from magazines that would be easy for Ally to identify and making collages of these pictures for each letter of the alphabet. The collage for the letter “B” had pictures of books, birds, blocks, buttons, a bear, etc. Ally helped me put the binder together and decorated it with letter stickers.

Now from time to time, we go through Ally’s “special book” (as she calls it). I start by asking Ally what letter is at the top of the
page and then Ally names aloud each picture on the page, which starts with that letter. Then I ask her tell me what sound that letter makes.

The phonics book has really helped Ally to learn her letter sounds and also to understand that some letters have more than one sound. And since I wrote out the words under each picture, the book is also teaching Ally word recognition.

This was a fun project for Ally and I to do together, and Ally is always excited to look through the book since she helped create it. And if she learns something while we’re looking at it, all the better.

Since we made the pictures ourselves, Ally thought it was lots of fun. And since she drew half of the pictures herself, it was extra special – particularly since often Ally was the only one who knew what her pictures were.

Since then Ally and I have made more Memory Games. Ally has written her name or letters on the cards for a word/alphabet memory game and recently we made a fairy princess-themed game, which had Ally drawing carriages and magic wands.

Since you’re making your own Memory Game, use it to practice whatever skill your child is ready to learn.

You could draw a picture of a cat, dog, car, etc. on one card and then write the word to match it on another card. Or, for example, draw two apples on one card to be matched with the number 2 on another card. Another idea would be put uppercase and lowercase letters on each card and then have your child match them up.

This is a game that’s easy and fun for families to make and can be adapted to any age or skill level.

I found an old second-hand coffee table in our basement and painted it. Then I put the table in the corner of Ally’s playroom. I divided her art supplies into a three-drawer storage container that sits next to the table and into a couple of tubs that slide under the table. I also bought stacking plastic shelves from an office supply store to separate her white drawing paper, construction paper and coloring books.

Now our budding artist uses the table and her art supplies every day because everything is together and within her reach. And best of all, since I don’t care about the coffee table, it can be smeared with paint, glue and Play-Doh without costing me a bit of stress or clean up time. And since her art projects aren’t on the kitchen table, they can be left out half-finished.

I also a bought the Work of Art Clips from Land of Nod ($12.95), which is a like a clothesline with decorative clips to hold your child’s artwork. The string and clips were easy to install on the wall over Ally’s table and give her a place to display her latest creations. I love the art clips because they allow us to have rotating artwork for Ally’s playroom wall and gives us a place other than the refrigerator to showcase her artistic talents.

When my daughter turned 3, she was ready for the safety rail to be taken off her bed. But my husband and I were still nervous about her falling out of bed. So we bought a swim noodle and stuck it underneath our daughter’s fitted sheet and positioned the noodle along the edge of her bed. Now our daughter can climb in and out of bed easier, but the noodle provides enough of a bump at the edge of her bed to keep her from rolling out.

When my daughter sleeps over at my mom’s house, she sleeps in my mom’s guest room which has a very high queen-sized bed. My mom also bought swim noodles and put them under the fitted sheet. To keep her in the middle of the bed, my mom pushes the noodles toward the middle of the bed on either side of my daughter so she never gets close to the edge.

To make the calendar I bought a piece of poster board, multi-colored index cards, velcro and stickers.

First, I used a marker and divided the poster board vertically into seven equal rectangles. Then on the left side of each rectangle I put a velcro circle, where my daughter could attach an index card reading “Today is…” She moves this index card down the calendar each day.

To the right of the velcro circle I wrote the day of the week inside each rectangle. To the right of the day, I put two more velcro circles. Then on the index cards I wrote each of my daughter’s activities and used stickers or drawings to help her identify each activity. For example, I put a ballerina sticker on the index card for her dance class and a book sticker on the index card for a visit to the library. I put velcro circles on the back of each index card so they can be attached next to any day on her calendar.

Every Sunday night, I go to her calendar and attach the cards to plan her week. We have index cards for school, dance class, play dates, trips to the museum, trips to the library, holidays, birthday parties, etc. We also have index cards to represent each of my daughter’s grandparents, relatives and babysitters so she always knows who is coming over  and can looking forward to their visit all week.

This calendar is easy to make and can be customized for any child and his/her activities. In addition to helping my daughter understand the days of the week, this calendar has also taught her letter and word recognition. When she asks me which day is Monday, I say that it starts with an “M” and she looks for it that way. It has also helped her to recognize words like “school” and “dance,” which are on her calendar every week.

The plastic caddies designed for hauling cleaning products around the house are also perfect for storing and carrying sidewalk chalk and bubble supplies. The caddy can hold bubble supplies upright so there are fewer spills and leaks. And the caddies allow you or your child to carry the items with one hand from the house or the garage out to the sidewalk.