Helping Families to Connect and Thrive

Toddler Rainbow Collage Craft

03.17.20

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, friends! We are excited to share this adorable rainbow collage craft that is perfect for toddlers and big kids!

SUPPLIES:

colored construction paper (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, white)
paint brush
acrylic paints (several shades of each color)
glue stick
scissors
smock
wipes (we like to keep these on hands for quick wipe downs)

PAINT

Start by painting the individual colors of the rainbow on their respective colored papers. We used colored papers so the finished painting would be more vibrant.
I squeezed little dabs of red paint (using several different shades) directly onto the red paper and Cole began painting away with his brush and his hands. This kid is all about painting his hands and stamping them onto the paper, so I just roll with it. Also, given what an enthusiastic painter Cole is, I was focused on keeping the paint in the right place and so I didn’t take any photos of these steps!
Repeat painting with orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple papers.
Once the paints are thoroughly dried, you can tear the papers into little pieces. Keep the torn papers separated by color. Your kiddo can definitely help you with this step.

Please note that you can easily spread this project across several days to best meet your child’s attention span. We took four separate settings to complete this project— two for painting and two for the gluing.

COLLAGE

Take a piece of white construction paper and fold it in half. Then cut an arc shape starting at the top of the folded side and ending at the bottom corner of the open side. When you open the paper you have an even rainbow.

Flatten your rainbow-shaped paper, and use a glue stick to run a line of glue along the outer edge. Have your child press the red papers into the glue, painted side up. You may need to help with this a bit. Continue until you have covered the entire outer edge.
Next run a line of glue just inside the red papers and begin pressing the orange papers into the glue. It’s okay if they overlap the red papers a little.
Continue this process until you have filled the rainbow with color
Don’t forget to write your child’s name and date the back– your nostalgic heart will appreciate it years down the road!

Cole was SO proud of his rainbow and couldn’t wait to hang it in his art gallery. The color and textures really pop! It looks so cheerful up there!

BONUS craft idea: We made this sweet 4-leaf clover picture using Cole’s painting and our Silhouette Cameo. I had Cole paint with several shades of green acrylic (he used a brush and his hands) and let it dry thoroughly. Then I found a free 4-leaf clover outline by doing a google search, saved it to my computer, used the Silhouette to cut out a bunch of clovers from the painting, and glued them onto a piece of sturdy white paper. I made sure to cut the white paper to 5×7 first so that the artwork would fit into a standard frame if we wanted. If you don’t have a Silhouette there are two simple alternatives:

find a picture of a shape you like online, print it, cut it out and use it as a stencil over your child’s painting
find a picture of a shape you like online, print it on watercolor paper, have your child paint all over the BACK of that paper. Then when the painting is dry you can follow the shape on the non-painted side to cut it out.

You can find the four leaf clover outline we used HERE.

Looking for other St. Patrick’s Day crafts? We shared a 4-leaf clover potato stamping project HERE.

Wishing you a day filled with rainbows and the very best luck! Happy crafting!

70+ Ways to Spend Time at Home

03.16.20

For most of us, the practice of social distancing is new and somewhat challenging– especially during this period of uncertainty. I have seen several wonderful messages that encourage us all to use this time at home with our families as an opportunity to turn inward and connect more deeply, and that is what we intend to do.

As we begin a new week that is anything but ordinary, we thought we would share a list ways you can spend time at home. These suggestions are a mix of activities that can be done independently or together with your family.

We are seeking to create time at home that is balanced. Our daily family goal will be to do at least one thing to grow our minds, one thing to nourish or strengthen our bodies, one thing that brings joy to our hearts, one thing that is helpful to our home, and one thing that benefits someone else.

Bake This is the perfect time try out some new recipes or make your longtime favorites! We like to make cookie dough, roll it into balls, and freeze them so that whenever we want cookies we can bake a few of them fresh!
Have a dance party
Go on a color scavenger hunt This can be done indoors or outdoors.
Craft Come up with your own projects or turn to trusty ol’ Pinterest for some inspiration. We do a mix of both. We especially love seasonal crafts, so right now we’re thinking all things spring! Here’s our Spring Craft board, our Easter Crafts board, and our St. Patrick’s Day Craft board.
Build an Art Cart Our Art Cart houses the majority of our arts and crafts supplies in a neat and easily accessible system– we love it! We will be sharing more information on how we set it up and what supplies are inside soon!
Organize your family photos I’ll be using this time to catch up on our family yearbook.
Animal Workouts These work outs are accessible if you have an Alexa. Isla LOVES them!
Make your own Connection Tree We developed seasonal Connection Tree activities to help our family bond and provide opportunities for our children to grow through reflection and discussion.
Create a family motto Take time to talk about your beliefs, values, and how you want to work together as a family. Write out your motto, frame it, and display it in your home.
Build a fort This can be something your kids do or can be a whole family collaboration! Fill your fort with comfy pillows and cozy blankets, so you can snuggle up inside together. Read, write, draw, and play games in the fort. The creative possibilities are endless!
Take a neighborhood walk and make a collection
Construct a wind chime Use beads or found objects from your walks. There are countless ideas on Pinterest!
Give your pets a little extra love and look for a way to enrich their lives— teach your dog a new trick, bake homemade treats, make your cat a new toy, spruce up your caged pet’s habitat.
Plan/research your next vacation
Write letters This is the perfect time to reach out to people you love and catch up! Isla has been eager to establish a group of pen pals, so we will definitely be working on that in the coming weeks. Encourage your kids to make their own cards. You can fold craft paper, or use blank cards (we keep a full supply of white cards and kraft cards these in our Art Cart)
Rearrange your bedroom
Pop some popcorn and have a movie marathon I am so thankful Isaac got us Disney + for Valentine’s Day! We are definitely going to enjoy a lot of cozy movie nights together!
Try out some fancy new popcorn recipes or invent your own! Pinterest has a gazillion ideas. I can’t wait to make some savory truffle popcorn!
Draw portraits of your family members
Go on virtual museum tours
Think up compliments for each member of your family and share them at a meal time
Write a story Work together as a family to write a story or have your kiddos make up their own. If they are not yet writing independently, have them plan the story by drawing pictures and then you can help them fill in the words.
Play outside
Use Go Noodle to get your kids moving. Isla participates in these interactive videos at school and LOVES them!
Have a sock snowball fight Perhaps this is the reward after everyone pitches in with the laundry?
Puzzles
Meditate/Pray
Have a sing along
Play board games (Sorry, Sneaky Snacky Squirrel, and Memory are a few of our favorites!)
Do word searches, Sudoku, and look for hidden pictures Highlights Magazine offers a variety of online games and puzzles, and if you google “hidden pictures” you’ll find all sorts of printable options.
Paint
Read Read alone, read together. If you’re looking to round out your kids’ seasonal libraries, here are our favorite St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, and Spring books for kids.
Listen to a podcast/e-book
Draw with sidewalk chalk
Start spring cleaning early Sort and set aside items to donate, deep clean those corners, bring out the spring decor.
Make bookmarks Draw, collage, or use pressed flowers to make designs.
Work in the garden Clean up garden beds, weed, build planter boxes, start seeds.
Go on a hike Just do your best to steer clear of others while you’re out.
Have your kiddos make up a play Or work as a family to make up a variety show. Have you ever seen that scene on Dan in Real Life? Turns my heart to mush every time!
Create art with your recycled materials
Build a birdhouse You can even use recycled materials for this!
Make a flower crown You can use real flowers, synthetic flowers, or paper.
Do yoga Cosmic Kids is a great option!
Make a potato stamp
Make a collage Use magazines, old cards, scraps of wrapping paper, photos, or paintings to make something beautiful!
Play hide and seek
Research a topic of interest This is also a great time to dive into your children’s passions and curiosities. We’ll definitely be incorporating more pirate activities in our daily lives.
Create something with Play Doh or clay
Play in the bath For the kids, blast some happy music, fill the tub with bath toys, blow bubbles, or even indulge in our new favorite bath tub treat, a cup of cocoa!
Donate money or supplies to a local food bank There are so many families around us who are struggling for basic necessities. This is the perfect opportunity to give back.
Make your own body scrub You just need sugar, coconut oil, and a scented oil of your choice.
Draw or color
Make wildflower seed bombs
Play “I’m thinking of a thing” or “20 Questions”
Decorate cardboard cars for a drive in movie night
String necklaces This is great fine motor skills practice and keeps kiddos busy for extended periods of time. If your child finds the string challenging, they can thread pony beads onto pipe cleaners. Obviously, working with beads may not be the best option if you have babies or toddlers who still put everything in their mouths (ahem, Cole). They could make a cereal necklace instead!
Make new music play lists
Tackle a home project you’ve been putting off for a long time such as reorganizing a closet, putting up shelves, a small painting project, etc.
Cook together Teach your child basic food prep skills, simple recipes, and make up recipes of your own.
Write in a journal Start a journal or get back to journaling
Get a jump start on your bunny duties and start planning Easter baskets
Talk! Use this time of togetherness to reconnect and share with one another. Not sure what to say? Just google “Family conversation starters” and you’ll find gazillions of topics!
Work on a collaborative art project
Play Minute to Win It games
Set a family fitness goal Decide on a number of steps you’ll take, do push ups together, complete a workout video together, and cheer one another on!
Make your own pizza night You did just work out together, after all!
Develop/search for crafts that relate to the movies you watch and/or books you read together Not sure where to get started? Just head over to Pinterest. Say you watched Moana– just search for “Moana crafts” or “Moana activities” for a little inspiration. Or take it a step further and enhance your learning with a good ol’ Google search– research the South Pacific, the cultures that inhabit that region of the world, volcanoes, coral reefs, wayfaring– you see where I’m going here? Pick a topic of interest from the book or movie and learn more about it!
Skype or FaceTime a loved one
Look for something you can assist with or tidy up without being asked
Learn about native plants near you Go on walks and identify as many plants as you can.
Parents, tell your children stories from your own childhood
Brush up on a second language There are numerous online learning platforms and we’ve heard great things about Duolingo from friends.
Have an egg hunt Well, it may be a touch early for an Easter Egg hunt, but use the concept to hide items around your house for your kids to find! Perhaps consider a small prize for them working together and finding them all?
Educational screen time There are numerous online resources that are graciously offering free access during this period of social distancing. BrainPop and BrainPopJr have been favorites since my teaching years (they have a great free video about the Coronavirus for kids) Our school also provided this list of Amazing Educational Resources.
Form a family band— bonus points for building your own instruments out of recycled materials

Sending our love and best wishes to you all for a happy, healthy, connected stay at home.

Positive Self-Affirmation Blossoms

03.15.20

Like the trees around us, the branches of Isla’s Connection Tree started the new year bare, but are now beginning to bloom! Inspired by the gorgeous cherry blossoms everywhere, Isla’s tree is filling with cheerful color and positive self-affirmation blossoms— a beautiful visual she can look to whenever she needs a reminder of just how darn awesome she is!

We developed seasonal Connection Tree activities to help our family bond and provide opportunities for our children to grow through reflection and discussion. We look for ways to mirror the natural world whenever possible with our activities, so each season focuses on something different— the first months of the new year are all about setting personal goals, and spring will focus on building confidence through the use positive self-affirmation blossoms. It is so important to help our children learn to recognize their gifts, believe in themselves, and develop the tools to overcome the negative thoughts that try to creep into their minds.

Supplies:

Water color paper
Water colors
Craft sponges
Tooth brush (Brand new, for art projects ONLY. We picked ours up at Dollar Tree)
Scissors
Scotch tape

Instructions:

Use craft sponges to dab the water color paper with two or more tones of pink watercolor paint. Leave little white spaces and allow the different colors to blend together. We painted 3 full sheets of paper.
When the paint dries, load the toothbrush with a darker pink/red water color and splatter it all over the painting. It’s a good idea to test your splattering out on an extra piece of paper first.
When the paper is dry, cut it into blossom shapes. Ours are cloud-like, to mimic a cluster of flowers.
Discuss the concept of positive self-affirmations with your child and encourage them to think about what they do well. Write the affirmations on the blossoms and add them to their connection tree with a small roll of tape.
Refer back to the blossoms regularly, such as during your child’s bedtime routine, when they first wake up in the morning, or when you see them displaying the positive characteristics they identified.

Painting the blossoms is definitely fun, but the conversations you will share as your child comes up with their positive self-affirmations are definitely the best part of this project! When starting out, you will likely need to define affirmation, and perhaps help your little one generate ideas about what they do well. I told Isla that positive self-affirmations are encouraging statements you make to yourself about yourself. They can highlight something you know, something you do well, a way you have improved, etc. I also explained that it is SO important for us to recognize our gifts and acknowledge what we do well to keep our hearts and minds strong.

Writing positive self-affirmation blossoms can be part of your nightly bedtime routine or something you do a couple of times a week. It’s up to you! The only thing we suggest is that it be an ongoing practice during the spring months, rather than a one time event. This encourages numerous opportunities for connection, reflection, and confidence building.

“I am pashent with Cole” Oh, yes you are, sweet girl!

The amount of time you spend on this activity may vary. One day your child may come up with several positive self-affirmations, another day they may struggle and you can step in and share something you admire about them. You can also use guiding questions to help them identify personal strengths:

“What is something you do well?”
“What is something you have worked hard to improve?”
“How do you help our family?”
“What is a way you show kindness?”
“What is something you are proud of?”

As your child shares their thoughts and reasoning with you, be sure to continue the conversation. Point out times you have seen the behavior, ask them to elaborate or give specific examples, ask how it makes them feel to know they have strength in a particular area.

Isla writes her own self-affirmations. While we help her to sound out the words, we embrace inventive spelling so that she builds confidence in writing independently. And it’s so true, our “advenchurus” and “curyus” girl can “sawnd awt wrds” all by herself!

I am truly grateful to be able to support Isla’s confidence in such a fun and creative way, and I am SO excited to see all of the different strengths she identifies in her positive self-affirmation blossoms over the coming weeks! We’ll be sure to check back in to share her tree at the end of the season and will also share an adapted project for toddlers later this week, so be sure to check back in!

If you’d like to see how we use our connection tree throughout the seasons, you can click the links below:

Winter

Summer

Fall

Christmas (Yes, we know it’s not a season, but we give the tree a special makeover for our favorite holiday and hang all our advent activity ornaments on it!)

New Books for St. Patrick’s Day!

03.10.20

Holiday books just may be my favorite thing to collect and gift our kids! Today we’re surprising our wee ones with these wonderful stories.

Fiona’s Luck is a tale of a very clever girl who uses her wit to outsmart the leprechaun king and win back good fortune to the Irish people. We’re always big fans of stories with strong, capable female protagonists, and I just know Isla is going to love this story!

How to Catch a Leprechaun is a playful rhyme about a Leprechaun who can get through every trap set out for him. It’s imaginative, silly, and sure to get our little ones dreaming up all sorts of ways to try and catch a leprechaun.

I’ve started putting together a collection of the St. Patty’s Day favorites we have, as well as titles we hope to add to our holiday library. You can find them all on our Pinterest account. Head on over there to check them out– perhaps you’ll find a title or two you’d like to add to your St. Patrick’s Day book collection!

*This post contains some affiliate links, meaning we may receive commissions for purchases made through the links on this post. All opinions are our own, and we only endorse products that we truly love and use ourselves. So, if you see something you genuinely would like to buy, we would greatly appreciate if you use the links we provide. Thanks so much for your support, friends!*

Four Leaf Clover Potato Prints

03.06.20

It’s hard to find a more appropriate tool than a potato for a St. Patrick’s Day craft, am I right?!

Isla and I had a grand time creating and stamping this sweet little four-leaf clover design! There were lots of happy squeals of excitement when the print came out just right, and lots of giggles when our stamp looked more like a green blob. Potato stamping isn’t the most precise art project, but it really is fun and the results can be super cute!

We attempted to make a few really clean prints of a single four-leaf clover that we could frame (got two!), and if the print didn’t work out, we’d just stamp a whole bunch more around it and cut out the best clovers for card making. It would also be so cute to string a bunch of these together in a little garland, turn them into magnets, or add them onto bookmarks. The possibilities are endless!

6 Tips for Making Your Own Potato Stamps

Use a large kitchen knife to cut 1/3 of the potato off in a very straight line (otherwise parts of your stamp won’t touch the paper.
Carefully use exact-o knives for the carving– slow and steady wins the race… and ensures you keep your fingers
If you have a small cookie cutter in the shape you want to stamp, it is super helpful to press the cutter into the cut end of your potato and then trace those lines with the exact-o blade (we did not, so I just free carved ours and embraced the quirks as charming)
Dry your potato stamp thoroughly with paper towels before pressing it into paint (we used acrylic paint)
The edges of your stamp can start to wear down a bit, so if this happens you may have the best results if you press it straight down and then gently roll it in a circular motion to ensure all the edges touch the paper
Be patient, have fun, and don’t expect perfection– it is a stamp made from a potato after all!

And as perfect as a potato stamp is for St. Patrick’s day, it certainly doesn’t have to be limited to that. A potato stamp can be used for all sorts of projects! A few years ago we made the cutest tulips using the same stamping technique and we absolutely love them.