St. Patrick's Day Fun Schooling

I must admit this is the first year we have had a St. Patricks Day celebration, but I decided it was high time we rectified my negligence with some special fun schooling. I'm always up for any opportunity to celebrate life and learn with my family. It seemed all the more important to celebrate St. Patricks Day this year, with all the upheaval that is currently going on with the Corona Virus and quarantines. I am doing my upmost best to keep my family's life as normal as possible. After all it isn't their fault that this is happening during their little lifetime.

Thankfully there are so many free and cheap resources out there to help celebrate nearly every occasion. All it takes is a little time and intentionally research. Planning fun activities with your children does NOT have to be complicated or costly. Pinterest and the Dollar Store are my go-to places when I'm trying to put together a family celebration. But, don't freak out and think if you can't go over the top that your family will Not enjoy your special surprise ~ they don't care about the details, they only care that YOU tried and made THEM a priority.

When every one went to bed, the night before St. Patrick's Day, I set the table with festive tableware and decorated with supplies found at the Dollar Store and dollar spot at Target.

We made dyed green, chocolate chip muffins for breakfast. 

I printed off some coloring sheets found at Teachers Pay Teachers as well as an interactive notebook so we could study more about St. Patrick and how the holiday is celebrated. We also watched some Irish dancing on YouTube. 

Our sensory box included little green pots, foam clovers, plastic gold coins, pinchers, and dyed green white beans. I also found two St. Patrick Day necklaces that I added after this picture was taken.

The littles made a rainbow craft. I cut out a cloud that they colored and then they glued rainbow strips of construction paper to the cloud.

We did a fun science experiment with Skittles. 

We placed Skittle candies on a plate in a repeating pattern and then poured hot water in the center. Just enough water until it touched the Skittles. The hot water melted the color of the candies creating a rainbow of water.

We were super stoked about this activity, because so many of our projects do not turn out; but this one turned out perfect!

Last we made Rainbow Snack Bars 

My family loved the snack as it was a fun variation of Rice Krispie Treats. 

RAINBOW SNACK BARS

3 Tbsp butter of margarine

10 oz package of miniature marshmallows 

6 cups rainbow round cereal

Spray 9x13 baking pan with nonstick spray and set aside. Pour cereal into a large bowl. In a medium sized pot melt the marshmallows and butter, stir continuously. Pour melted marshmallow mixture into cereal and stir. Coat hands with nonstick spray (if necessary) to mix thoroughly and pour into pan. Lightly smash into pan, spreading evenly. Let completely cool and then cut into bars.

As you can see I didn't spend a whole lot of money and we didn't go overboard celebrating St. Patrick's Day. We enjoyed some quality family time and made some amazing memories. As I have mentioned many times before, yes it took a little bit of my time to put this together, but in reality it didn't take more than an hour, and it was well worth it to me. Even if there wasn't things going on outside of our control, requiring us to spend more time at home, making every day count and living it to our fullest should always be a top priority. Never waste a single moment God gives us to live ~ for our lives are a precious gift from the Lord.

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer

Winter/Snow Totschool Week

I planned our winter/snow tot school week to fall at the end of January, just when we were beginning to all wear thin of being cooped up from the rainy, cold weather down here in the Deep South. Yes, we still have a couple more months of winter, but thankfully we will start to see some warmer days sprinkled into the weeks as we get loser to spring. My people do not do well being trapped inside for days on end ~ we need the fresh air to stay sane, lol.

I planned for five winter/snow activities for the week including one snactivity. The above picture was our 'melted snowman' snactivity. The children placed large marshmallows on graham crackers, then I melted them in the oven on broil and smashed the marshmallows down with a spatula. Then they made faces with candy corn and chocolate chips. It was a HUGE mess, but the children seemed to like it so I'm calling it a win, even if some had to go straight to the tub for a bath to get unstickified.

Our next project was to make snow paintings with clothes pins hooked to cotton balls and white paint. Super easy and super fun for my kiddos who love to paint.

Always major drama trying to get the tot school pics {{sigh}}.

Then we made paper plate penguins. I cut a heart out of white construction paper that they glued on to the paper plate. Then I used one of my circle punches for the eye pieces and my heart punch for the feet. Next I cut an orange nose and last I gave the children a pile of torn black construction paper for them to glue on the plates for the body.

Another winter/snow project was q-tip painted snow flakes. A super easy craft ~ I cut narrow rectangle strips of blue construction paper and then glued them like a snowflake, then the kiddos just painted white dots with a q-tip on the snow flakes.

Painting and glueing, if you haven't noticed are my go-to crafts for my kiddos.

We also made paper melted snowman. I used my circle punches to cut out eyes and a mouth. Then I cut out an orange nose and used my square punch for the 'body'. And last I cut long narrow rectangles for the arm pieces.

With instructions the children then glued all the pieces down onto their paper. I give the pieces out in sections so they didn't get glued in the wrong place.

Our last winter/snow activity was to make 'snow'. We used 1/2 cup regular white shampoo and 3 cups baking soda to make our 'snow'. The littles had a blast playing with their little animals in the homemade 'snow'.

As always I am so thankful to have planned our school year down to every last detail. Because I'm not going to lie, with a new baby and a house full of children and a bazillion other responsibilities, I highly doubt this fun themed tot school week would have happened. None of these winter/snow themed activities were complicated, but they do take a little bit of time to plan and coordinate. There's always a time and palace for spontaneity, but planning ahead has its benefits too!

With Love & Hope,

Jennifer