Mommy Group

While the thought is in my head, I thought I would share what types of activities I'm doing with some of the other young mommies in our new town. The ages of our children range from 2-5 and there's a good mix of girls and boys. We meet twice a week and do a craft one day and "field trip" the next; I use the term field trip loosely because sometimes its just to the park for a picnic. Our kids are all at different phases and stages in their development so we try to create crafts that have simple modifications to adjust to their skill level. Here is a few of the crafts that we've done:

Making snails- colored the paper plate, glued pre-cut tissue paper on, then for the body, some kids cut it out themselves and others had their mommy's do it; then it was the same, color, glue and eye on and attach to the paper plate (the shell). 

 Apple Orchard- cut tree trunks from brown paper, and leafy tree tops from green paper, then glued the on a blue piece of paper; some of the older kids could probably do most of that cutting themselves. Then let them use their finger to make apples on their trees; some used their finger and others used their hand. I think you can see a hand print on the middle tree. :)

We've also attempted making playdough and using our playdough books and tools for fun, but the recipe we used was a no cook recipe and did not turn out well; from now on we will be using the cook up and cool it off. The kids did like mixing in the food coloring into their playdough; that part was a little difficult and the two-year-olds needed help manipulating the dough, also their hands were dyed whatever color they happened to choose.

Tambourines- use two paper plates, we decorated them with stickers, but you could use markers, crayons, stamps, or paint (but you would have to wait for that to dry). Then add a few beans and stapled the two plates together; we also added streamers (tissue paper) for some fun. This would be an activity to take outside after and play music to march to or just let them dance and play.

Another really fun one was dipping and eating chocolate dipped strawberries. We did not give the kids hot melted chocolate, we just had the pre-melted chocolate and caramel, so it doesn't taste as good, but the kids seemed to love it. We also gave them sprinkles to roll the strawberries in, which come to think of it we could have used a variety of other items to decorate with, but they seemed happy with what they had.

Now onto field trips:
The apple orchard- we got to see the apple orchard, which they loved running up and down. We also got an apple to taste and saw how the machines work to sort and clean the apples.

 Eileen's Cookies- We went on a tour of the cookie shop and they explained how they make their cookies. After the kids each got to frost and decorate their own cookie which then they immediately consumed happily.

Some of the others were picnics to the park, Cottonmill (which is a larger park with trails, a pond for fishing, play areas and a petting zoo) to see the animals or go on a hike on one the trails, and over to the Archway to feed the fish in the river.

I think I've caught up on everything and I will do my best to keep it posted. When I write it all down I feel like we've been busy.