mama smiles

Exploring Geography: Texas

maryanne — Thu, 17 May 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Today’s post comes from Ticia, who blogs at Adventures in Mommydom! Ticia homeschools her twin sons and their younger sister. I am constantly learning new things through her blog! She has a great way of planning hands-on, highly interactive lessons. I especially enjoy her Science Sunday linky and her 50 States Study series. And I have her portable writing center on my “to-make” list! She also has a fabulous sense of humor!

I’ve thought long and hard trying to come up with what is distinctive about Texas. It’s a big state, so that would really depend on what area you’re in.

I thought about sharing the Alamo, where Texans took their stand and said they were not going to surrender, but the computer ate my pictures of the Alamo. We have NASA, but the last time I went there I was in Junior High, so no pictures for that either.

Finally, I knew what to talk about. Texas is crazy hot 9 months out of the year, I only exaggerate slightly, but for the month of March and part of April we have the most gorgeous hillsides you’ll see.

They’re covered in bluebonnets, those are the state flower. There are many different shades and varieties. There’s even a rare version called "Alamo’s Tears," that is red. Every year you can find the hillsides of Texas covered in flowers and families making the trek to get pictures of their kids in the flowers.

Some years the fields are blue with flowers, other years, like last year, you only see a few sparse ones because of droughts.

But, there’s a story called “Legend of the Bluebonnet,” that tells how we got our precious flower. A young girl gave up her favorite thing to help her village, and she was rewarded with the most beautiful flowers.

Ages ago we made bluebonnets to help us remember the story. It’s a fun easy project that just takes poster paint in a couple of colors and children willing to put their hands in paint.

Well, that’s my very anecdotal story about Texas, this doesn’t tell you super a lot about the state, but it tells you about the thing I think of most when I think of Texas.

Thank you, Ticia, for this lovely post! I always enjoy seeing bluebonnet photos, and hopefully I’ll see them in real life, someday! And I had no idea there were red bluebonnets!

Interested in guest posting for this series? Email mamasmilesblog at gmail dot com!

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Tommee Tippy Sippy Cups + Giveaway!

maryanne — Wed, 16 May 2012 11:00:00 +0000

All three kids have loved the Tommee Tippee sippy cups I reviewed a couple years ago, so I was happy to give their Explora Sippy Cups a go! Lily was a fan, as you can tell! She loved the colors and the details of the pictures, and how it’s a more grown-up-looking cup rather than having a pronounced sippy spout. It uses the same valves as the earlier-stage Tommee Tippee sippy cups we own, so it still doesn’t leak and is easy for kids to use. We’re at the stage where we use regular cups for meals, but sippy cups are great for hikes and long car rides – and that’s where the insulation feature combined with the big kid look of these Explora cups is excellent!

Tommee Tippee sippy cups are now available at Target, both in-store and online (LOVING Target’s newly-expanded range of baby products!) The cups change based on your child’s age, and they have a line of baby bottles as well.

Intrigued? One product from the Tommee Tippee Explora line is available for a reader of this blog with a US address! To enter, please fill out this form with your name and email address. Want an extra entry? Head to the Tommee Tippee Explora Sippy Cups page on Target.com to find your favorite cup, and comment with a link to that favorite! Make sure the name in your comment matches the name you used to fill out the form! This giveaway will run through May 20th, when a winner will be chosen via random.org. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to my notification email, before a replacement winner will be chosen.

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"I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Tommee Tippee Sippy Cups. I received a Tommee Tippee Explora Sippy Cup product as well as a promotional item as a thanks for my participation."

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All Year Round: Celebrating Summer!

maryanne — Tue, 15 May 2012 11:00:00 +0000

It’s time for the summer edition of the All Year Round Blog Carnival, which is cohosted by sunnydaytodaymama, Mama Smiles, Winding Circle, The Mahogany Way, Smiling like Sunshine, Home Baked, famiglia&seoul, All Things Beautiful, Like Mama~Like Daughter, Plain Vanilla Mom, Little Homeschool Blessings, and Simple Whimsy! I enjoyed seeing all of the wonderful links in the Spring Edition of the the All Year Round Carnival – wonderful crafts, and so many posts celebrating the beauty of getting outdoors and making the most of nature!

I hope you’ll link up your old and new summer posts! The linky will stay open until September 1st, when we’ll switch over to autumn. Here are a few of our favorite summer activities:

What are your favorite summer activities? I hope you will also share them at this afternoon’s #creativekids twitter party, hosted by me and Rainy Day Mum at 3pm EST today!

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Small Hands Creating Hope

maryanne — Mon, 14 May 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Several weeks ago, I approached a group of kid bloggers and asked if they could make a project with their kids that would symbolize hope in the face of cancer. The response was tremendous, and I was able to compile their projects – many with tutorials – into a beautiful book.

I am so excited to be a part of this wonderful fundraiser for the American Cancer Society, and to be working with an incredibly talented group of bloggers who focus on fun, creative, and educational activities for kids! Each of us has worked with our children or students to create a craft that could be made by or for someone facing cancer. The projects in this book are stunning, and several include tutorials so that you can use to recreate the crafts at home with your own children or students!

We are sending the ebook version of this book out to anyone who donates at least $15 to the American Cancer society. An email with the download link, as well as a second link that allows you to purchase a hard copy of the book for an additional $10.52 will be sent once we receive your donation. The button below will take you directly to the our team page at the American Cancer Society, where you can make your donation:

If you donate but do not receive this email for any reason, or if you have trouble with the download, email smallhandsproject at gmail dot com.

I compiled this book as a way of celebrating thirty years of cancer survivorship – I went into surgery on May 14th thirty years ago! We are hoping to raise $3000 by July 4th (my 32nd birthday). We are running a blog hop to celebrate and raise funds so that, in the future, thirty years of cancer survivorship will be the norm, not the exception! Learn about each of the bloggers who participated in the book by visiting each blog on their assigned dates – some of the bloggers are running celebratory giveaways, too! I’ll be running a giveaway May 21st, so be sure to check back or subscribe to my blog (top right-hand corner)!

14 May Mama Smiles
15 May Artsy Craftsy Mom and Rainbows Within Reach
16 May B. Inspired, Mama!
17 May Rainy Day Mum and Imagination Soup
18 May Inspiration Laboratories
19 May Experimenting Mom
20 May Outlaw Mom
21 May NurtureStore
22 May Living Montessori Now
23 May Mess for Less
24 May Having Fun at Home and CraftoArt
25 May Mama Mia’s Heart2Heart
26 May Angelique Felix and Sense of Wonder
27 May Sun Hats & Wellie Boots
28 May Duck Duck Octopus
29 May Smiling like Sunshine
30 May Mommy with Selective Memory
31 May One Perfect Day
1 June The Educators’ Spin On It
2 June Kids Stuff World
3 June Rainy Day Mum
4 June Teach Preschool
5 June Dirt and Boogers
6 June Creative Connections for Kids and The Golden Gleam
7 June Montessori Tidbits
8 June Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas
9 June The Iowa Farmer’s Wife
10 June Scribble Doodle and Draw
11 June Learn with Play
12 June Kitchen Counter Chronicles
13 June CRAYON Freckles
14 June Glittering Muffins
15 June Wise Owl Factory
16 June Crafty Maa
18 June Lessons Learnt Journal
20 June Growing a Jeweled Rose
21 June Growing Play
23 June JDaniel4′s Mom

We would love for you to support our project by posting the button in your sidebar for the duration of the event! You can grab the code below:

Thank you for your support!

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Learning Laboratory: Overcoming Bug Phobias

maryanne — Mon, 14 May 2012 11:00:00 +0000

My kids are slowly, but surely, overcoming their bug phobias! Here are a few things that have helped:

Letting them wear protective gear – like my gardening gloves on Emma, above.
Encouraging natural curiosity – even when it means they dig up part of the sidewalk searching for ants.
Examining bugs with them.
Borrowing lots of bug books from the library.
Spending time outside with them, with bugs around. Eating dinner and playing structured games outside is especially helpful – they have something to focus on other than the bugs.

Do you have kids with bug phobias? How have you coped?

Learning Laboratory is a space to share hands-on, fun, and creative learning activities! Linking back through either my button or a text link is always appreciated! Here are a few of my favorite posts that were linked up last week:

Make cute traffic signs for your child’s toy cars with this road signs printable from Doodles and Jots.
Help the kids make this Mommy’s sleeping sign from B. Inspired, Mama! as a belated mother’s day gift. :)
As a huge fan of child-created games, I love this baby and mummy matching game from Rainy Day Mum.

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Motherhood and Sunshine after Rain

maryanne — Sun, 13 May 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Happy Mother’s Day!!! Mike tried to get a picture of me with all three kids, but sometimes (usually) that just doesn’t work. Lily, though, never runs out of hugs!

We are enjoying nice weather this weekend, but it rained for most of this week – so much so that we had this frog hopping repeatedly into our sliding window! I say he was trying to get out of the rain, but I’m sure it’s more likely he saw his reflection. Or something…

The sun finally returned on Friday, and we spent the day outside. Living in New England has taught me to seize every moment of good weather!

Johnny found the perfect stick, which made his afternoon:

Emma found a pet caterpillar, and carefully constructed a house for him:

And Lily spent the afternoon bringing me flowers:

Lots and lots of flowers!

It is wonderful to be a mother!

Link up your week at the Afterschool Blog Hop, hosted this week at Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns!

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A Book for Mom–and a giveaway!

maryanne — Sat, 12 May 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Emma asked me to help the kids make Mother’s Day presents for me, and so I thought it would be the perfect time to make the craft I had planned to go along with the book, I Love You More Than Rainbows, which we had been sent by the author to review. I helped each child create a miniature book out of a regular sheet of printer paper, and they set to work!

Lily made me a book full of babies! She is working hard to keep up with her artistic brother and sister – and doing quite well for a two-year-old! I was particularly impressed by the variety shown in the different babies in her book!

Johnny was in a very silly mood, so his book is mostly blank due to much clowning around. Well worth the fun!

He did draw Spiderman’s mom and baby sister. Can you tell that he knows nothing about this superhero beyond what he looks like and his name?

Emma took the task very seriously, and definitely based her book off of the children’s book I had shown her for inspiration.

I love that I’m drawn inside a heart for the cover :)

She loves me a lot! More than dollars:

And even more than food!

I Love You More Than Rainbows is a very sweet book with fun illustrations showing all the things people are more important than! Author Susan Crites sent me two copies – one board book and one autographed hard cover. She said I could do whatever I liked with them, and I would love to send the autographed book to a reader of this blog who thinks their family would enjoy it! If you would like me to put your name in the hat for random.org to choose from, fill out the form below – You have until 7am EST Wednesday, May 16th to enter, and I will ship the book anywhere in the world:

Sharing this post at Smiling like Sunshine.

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Journaling for Littles

maryanne — Fri, 11 May 2012 11:00:00 +0000

I think that providing a space for children to journal is one of the easiest ways to promote literacy in early childhood education! This is something my mother provided for me as a child, and it’s an activity my children enjoy from a very young age! All that is needed is a book – it can have lines, or blank pages. My children “write” (as two-year-old Lily is doing above), and draw – often narrating while they draw, as four-your-old Johnny is doing below:

These journals also make for wonderful childhood memories! I have my first journal, with a few entries my mother wrote in, then pages of scribbles, drawing, and even early written entries! It’s a fantastic record of my own early childhood! I’m sure it has something to do with the fact that I find writing fairly intuitive as an adult – as well as the fact that I have kept a journal every day since the end of October, 2003 – and quite frequently leading up until then!

Do you have a journal from your childhood? Do you keep a journal now?

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Exploring Geography: Washington State Salmon!

maryanne — Thu, 10 May 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Today’s post comes from Marnie! Marnie is a wife, mom, daughter, twin, little sister, career woman, runner and writer for Carrots are Orange. She hails from Maine, a wonderfully down to earth place to grow up. Marnie moved to the west coast in 1999, and currently lives in Seattle. Here are three posts I love from Marnie’s blog: Paint in a Box – Sensory Madness, Infant Ball Pit (brilliantly simple DIY version!), and Earth {A Play Date}.

One exciting part about living in Washington State is being so close to nature. We are surrounded by beautiful mountains, bodies of water and parks. We celebrate outdoor living and love to breath in the fresh air whenever we get the opportunity. Salmon are a big deal in Washington State. The species of Salmon are interesting creatures, especially to children, because they move up from rivers from the sea to spawn. They move from fresh to salt water and back again. With this fascination we all have in the Pacific Northwestern part of the United States, I decided to introduce my almost three year old to the Life Cycle of a Salmon. As usual, my goal with introducing new topics, especially ones as complex and robust as exploring the Life Cycle of Salmon, is to familiarize my son with the topic and help him to feel comfortable with the new words and ideas. So I gently introduce the ideas through collaborating with him on projects and being with him as he works talking as he colors or creates art, or views a video, for example.

EXCURSION TO A FISH LADDER

In order to prepare him for the exercise we went on an excursion to our local Locks, where not only can you see boats pass from fresh to salt water, you can also see the swarms of salmon making their way through a fish ladder.

The locks are also extremely interesting from an engineering standpoint. Watching the "boat elevator" as the water fed out and then back into the locks was captivating even for our 15 month old.

Very briefly (for us parents and educators), the locks and associated facilities serve three purposes:

To maintain the water level of the fresh water Lake Washington and Lake Union at 20 to 22 feet above sea level.
To prevent the mixing of sea water from Puget Sound with the fresh water of the lakes (saltwater intrusion).
To move boats from the water level of the lakes to the water level of Puget Sound, and vice versa.

The Fish Ladder was amazing, like being at an aquarium but better. We had a view of the migration of these salmon. The ladder also had a display of a timeline of salmon eggs with a magnifying glass for a good close up.

SALMON RELEASE

We also have the amazing chance to participate in a Salmon Release with my son’s preschool class. These children watch these eggs grow over time until the fry are ready for release into a nearby creek. A wonderful hands on learning experience for these preschoolers. The fry will grow to be smolt, then make their way to the salt water in about a year’s time.

BOOKS

No activity would be complete with a book in our home. Here are a few that we used to supplement our son’s learning:

Life Cycle of a Salmon by Lisa Trumbauer

The Magic School Bus Goes Upstream by Joanna Cole, Bruce Degan and Nancy Stevenson

Salmon Forest by David Suzuki, Sarah Ellis and Sheena Lott

The Life Cycle of a Salmon by Bobbie Kalman

ART

Check out this FREE Life Cycle Printable. We colored and chatted about the life cycle as we colored together.

This printable is also a good one but you have to pay for full access.

SENSORY

We used water beads to simulate eggs, then used play dough to create fry, smolt and finally mature Salmon. Playing and creating with play dough was not only fun but it was effective in working and talking with him about the Life Cycle process.

TECHNOLOGY

This Discovery Channel You tube video is excellent and short
This website is interactive and has a great overview with visuals that captured my son’s attention.
Sammy the Salmon is an interactive, extremely resourceful website created for kids.

Other resources:

For older children, this activity book and this one are excellent.
Salmon Life Cycle chart from Wikipedia

Thank you for choosing to read this post today! Marnie

Thank you, Marnie, for this incredible post! I learned a lot about salmon, and will be coming back to the resources you’ve shared!

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Fingerprint storytelling

maryanne — Wed, 09 May 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Some free play with a stamp pad and some paper led Emma to create these two stories. Money was clearly on her mind (she recently earned for first dollar, but has yet to figure out what to do with it). For the top story to make sense, you need to pay attention to the “P” and “R” signs on her thumbprint people’s hats. The text at the bottom reads: “A robber took a monster’s money. The monster was sad. The police put the robber in jail. And the police gave the monster back his money.” I love that the policeman tells the monster that he loves him. :)

In the second story, our family has magically acquired a LOT of money. Maybe that’s why we like our monster?

Has a new art medium inspired your child to tell stories?

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