I officially have a 4 year old, a 2 year old and a 6 month old.

And 0 minutes to myself each day.

But, I’m not alone in this, am I?

I have managed, by staying up till 2 or 3 in the morning, to keep my main blog (Following In My Shoes) afloat, but this blog has been woefully neglected.  Woefully?  Yeah, It’s nearly been a year since the last post.

I’d say that’s pretty woeful.

BUT, I’m starting to get little crevices of time here and there, so I have decided it’s time to start using this blog again to chronicle our learning.

So, “Hello” again!

The Little Lady and I came up with our Dr. Seuss bento, based on her favorite Dr. Seuss books: The Cat in the Hat, The Sneetches, and Green Eggs and Ham.

For the Star Bellied Sneetch — and The One “Without” behind it:  two pieces of garlic toast, cut out with an oval cookie cutter.  The star on the first on is a piece of colby cheese, adhered with cream cheese.

For the Green Eggs and Ham: a few ham rolls (previously dyed green thanks to a green apple juice bath (apple juice + green food dye)) and one hard boiled egg.  I was originally going to leave the egg whole and give it a green dye bath . . . then we reread Green Eggs and Ham and realized I would need to change my game plan to create eggs that looked like those in the book.    Soooooo . . . I just dyed the yolks.  Twas messy, folks.

For The Cat’s Hat:  simplest of them all — just a few apple sections with pieces of the peel removed.

This afternoon, we’re making Dr. Seuss cupcakes (which will be nothing more than REALLY colorful cupcakes) and red fish/blue fish fruit leathers.  Hopefully . . . that is!

March 2nd is the birthday for my daughter’s beloved Dr. Seuss — aka Theodor Seuss Geisel.

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The NEA has selected Dr. Seuss’ birthday for their annual Read Across America Day . . . so there’s a good chance if you have little ones in preschool or elementary, they’ll be enjoying Dr. Seuss on March 2nd!!

The past few days, I’ve been searching for activities for us to do next week — art projects, science project. . . anything that helps my little ones explore their world AND the world of Dr. Seuss.

I’ve found some great resources — if you know of some I haven’t covered, let me know in a comment.

Online Resources

Seussville — the official online home for Dr. Seuss’s colorful characters.  You’ll find printables, online games, activities, and tips for you as you read with your children.

Target — Saturday morning (2/26) held a reading session for kiddos to celebrate Read Across America; on their page for the event, you can find (pdf) Dr. Seuss printables.

A to Z Teacher Stuff — this site has a variety of lesson plans; age ranges/grades vary, but you can find ideas/lessons/printables for single Dr. Seuss books or entire thematic Seuss units.

Mrs. Jones’s Room — one of my favorite resources has a LARGE number of activities and printables.  FUN stuff.

The Virtual Vine — one of my favorite bloggers, @Milehimama, sent me a tweet with the link to this site — FABULOUS resource, especially for Dr. Seuss.  You can search by book to pick the activities you want!

Food

Muffin Tin Mom — last year, Michelle used Dr. Seuss as one of the weekly Muffin Tin Monday Themes; thanks to both her muffin tin creation and those of the people who linked up, you’ll find LOTS of great food ideas to bring Dr. Seuss’s crazy characters to the table.

Printables

I received these from an online share group; the sender had them on her computer but didn’t remember their origin.  My apologies for not being able to give you the source. 

Bookmarks

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Tick Tac Toe

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Memory Game Cards

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Are you planning anything special next week for Read Across America and Dr. Seuss’s birthday?  Share your ideas with me. .. I’m still working on my plans! 

Even in Houston, we have a taste of winter every now and then.  This year, we’ve had an abnormally large amount of COOOOOLD days — like many Houston mamas, I’ve had to come up with lots of fun “indoor” activities to pacify my housebound kidlets.

Months and months ago, I came across this Water Color Butterfly activity; I wish I could remember where I saw it, so I could give credit where it’s due. . . but, alas, Preggo Brain strikes again and I’m clueless as to the originator of this craft.

(sigh)

Both kidlets, despite the differences in their ages and motor skills, LOVED this activity.  I love it because it can be used to help develop fine motor skills (gotta build up those hand muscles with pre-writing exercises and activities) and to talk about color, butterflies, effects of water, etc.  LOTS of possibilities with this one!

Supplies:

• Coffee Filters
• Markers (we used Dot Markers)
• Water
• Spray Bottle, Dropper, etc.
• Paper to use as a barrier for your table (we used construction paper)
• 1 Black Pipe Cleaner per butterfly (for the antennae)
• 1 Colored Pipe Cleaner per butterfly (for the body)

Step One

Using the markers of your choice, have your Kidlet color the coffee filter. . .the more color, the better!  Saturate the paper. 

Step Two:

When finished coloring, give the child a Spray Bottle of water (or a dropper and a cup of water) to spray water onto the filter.  Don’t be afraid to get it “too wet.”  The more water used, the better of a “water color” effect you’ll see in the end.

Step Three:

Allow the wet filters to dry COMPLETELY — depending on humidty, temps, etc., it could take a couple of hours.

Step Four:

Take a black pipe cleaner and bend it into the shape of butterfly antennae.

Gather the dry filter in the middle and pinch it down.  Place the “antennae” at the top of the pinched filter and then wrap a second pipe cleaner around the pinched middle and the antennae, creating the body of the butterfly and securing the antennae.

That’s it!  We probably made 10-11 that day. . . and the Little Lady still asks once a week to make them again.

Have fun!

We are still making bentos and tot-schooling, even though I have been HORRIBLY lax at updating and sharing everything.

Monday, like the majority of the world, we celebrated Love with food.

• Heart shaped PB&J sandwich, decorated with a food-safe marker and a candy heart sprinkle (Wilton brand).

• Heart shaped Strawberries with a heart-pick for “stabbing” (both of my kidlets love using the picks to eat their food — great for developing those little hand muscles!).

• Pink Hard Boiled Egg — shaped with a heart shaped egg mold (so, so, so easy to make).

• Special treat – a juice box (we don’t drink a lot of juice around here).

Mr. Boy (17 months) wasn’t a fan of the egg, but the Little Lady was — that girl gobbled TWO down!!  I need to shape eggs more often for her — she really got a kick out of it.