Happy Monday!  Building toys are one of my favorite things because they offer so many opportunities for open-ended, creative play.  From today through next Sunday (11/15), our entire Build category is 15% off. We have a nice assortment of quality building toys that would make lovely gifts!

Shop for Building Toys at Let’s Explore!

Have a great day!

Have a great day!

Begin removing animals from the board by following two simple rules: color follows color and species follows species. So, if your first animal off the board is a yellow hippo, you can choose something yellow or another hippo to follow. The animals have to stay in their rows, and you cannot jump over another animal to get off the board.

AnimaLogic can be played by one person, but a little teamwork is fun too! My girls really dig logic games like this, plus I have seen the little animals being played with outside the game. A very fun way to build critical thinking skills! You can get more info about AnimaLogic at the Let’s Explore Shop:

Have a great Friday!

P.S.  Just a friendly reminder that the $2.99 flat rate shipping special at the Let’s Explore Shop ends on Sunday 11/08!

We started with making a list of all the things we are thankful for.  The girls each circled the things they are most thankful for, so we could save those ideas for the end of the poem.  We plugged their words into a simple poem structure:

I’m thankful for _______ and ________ and _______.

I’m really thankful for ___________.

I’m thankful for __________.

(repeat above line as many times as you like!)

But most of all, I’m thankful for ___________.

I printed their poems on watercolor paper.  We covered the poem with a leaf-shape cut from clear contact paper (just like we made our initials a while back).

The girls painted the whole page, let it dry, and then peeled off the contact paper leaf.  Beautiful!

If you have a fun way you are helping your kids focus on gratitude, I would love to hear about it!

P.S.  Just a friendly reminder that the $2.99 flat rate shipping special at the Let’s Explore Shop ends on Sunday 11/08! 

So cute, right?  She was immensely pleased with how this turned out!  We basically followed the instructions at Deep Space Sparkle, first drawing the hills, sun, and clouds with oil pastels.  Delaney spent a long time carefully painting her farmland with watercolors.  While the background dried, we worked on cutting and assembling the scarecrow.  I did make her some little tracing templates for the shirt, pants, and hat.  She rummaged through our box of scrapbooking paper scraps to choose just the right outfit for the scarecrow.  Last step was adding buttons and taping the whole scarecrow to a craft stick.  We used a generous amount of white glue to attach the scarecrow to the background.

While we waited for the glue to dry, we read one of my favorite fall books, Scarecrow by Cynthia Rylant.

The illustrations in the book are gorgeous, and I enjoy the simple, poetic descriptions of life from a scarecrow’s perspective.

Hope you are enjoying some beautiful autumn days in your neck of the woods!

Happy playing!

Happy November!  Enjoy $2.99 shipping on any size order at the Let’s Explore Shop this week.

Check out our Holiday Gift Guide, too!

Where did this week go? I have an arm strap repair on Tinkerbell’s wings and a Strawberry Shortcake hat to finish up tonight – Natalie sprung a costume change on me Wednesday afternoon, from Wendy to Strawberry Shortcake.  Thank goodness for the Strawberry Shortcake sundress Grandma found on the clearance rack!

We did sneak in a second pumpkin patch trip, where Delaney was thrilled with both the baby pigs and all the rotting pumpkins in the field!  The enormous cinnamon rolls were really good, too….

Wishing you a sweet and silly weekend!

P.S.  You can still take advantage of the free Crayon Rock Mini Bag with $25+ orders through the end of the day on Saturday (10/31/09).  Use the code FREEROCKS at checkout! 

Natalie adapted the recipe a bit – she used chocolate chips for the eye centers and the brow line.  Also, an apple slice was used for the beak instead of the cheese – Natalie was really grossed out by the thought of the cheese with the peanut butter!  It was a fun and simple snack that was easy to assemble.  Yum!

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On a side note:  After updating our security certificate a few weeks ago, some people have been having trouble accessing the Let’s Explore Shop.  Even though the site IS secure, it might show up un-formatted, with a bunch of text links down the left-hand side.  Not good!  If this has happened to you, I would really appreciate it if you would drop me a quick e-mail and let me know  (amy@lets-explore.net).  We’re trying to get it resolved as quickly as possible!  Thanks for your continued support of Let’s Explore!

Happy Monday everyone!  I have a special promotion going on this week – spend $25 or more (excluding shipping) and I’ll include a FREE Crayon Rocks Mini Bag with your order!  These little green velvet bags filled with 8 fun Crayon Rocks are adorable!  A great little gift – stocking stuffer, maybe?

To get your FREE Crayon Rocks Mini Bag:

• Create an order of $25+ (excluding shipping)
• Enter the code FREEROCKS in the promotional code box

That’s it!  No need to add the Crayon Rocks Mini Bag to your cart.

This special offer is good through October 31, 2009

or while supplies last!

Enjoy!  Click here to shop!

I have a handful of posts already published, so you can get a little taste of what’s to come.  Even if you are not a homeschooler, I think you will find lots of fun activities and projects to share with your kiddos at Early Bird Homeschool!  I hope you’ll stop by and say hello – it’s lonely over there!