Inexpensive Jello play

We played with Jello today instead of playdough. The basic qualities of Jello are a different than playdough, but the kids still enjoyed it. To do Jello play less expensively, purchase plain gelatin. It takes 4 packets to make a FULL batch (9 by 13 pan) of cubes. The cubes can be stacked, looked through, and eventually mushed up. Various themes could be ocean (blue), slime (green), etc. We used yellow today because it's the color we had left of the 4 pack of food coloring. To color it, I just put food coloring in the cold water. The basic recipe is 1 cup cold water sprinkled with 4 gelatin packets, then mix in 3 cups boiling water, pour into a container and refrigerate for a few hours. Happy playing!

Candy Cane Cookies

I'm not a fan of putting crushed up candy on cookies. I think it ruins them, but this time of year I struggle not to eat all the goodies and I don't like peppermint so I thought it might be a weight management tool ; ) And they actually did turn out cute and tasty according to the kids!

First we gathered candy canes. We had enough around that we did not need to purchase any. We sorted them by flavor (fruity vs mint), then put them in freezer ziplock bags. The thicker the bag the less chance of it puncturing. Next I showed the kids now to gently hammer the pieces through the bag. Gently is the operative word.

You could give each child their own bag to hammer, but we wanted to practice turn taking so we used only one bag at a time.


The recipe was simple. You can either make your own roll out cookies or buy the pre-made dough. After rolling out the dough and before putting the cookies in the oven, sprinkle the broken candies on them. Here they are!

Free Sprouts Deals

I signed up for the e-mail newsletter at Sprouts. It's kind of neat because each month they e-mail us a coupon for a free item. Last month we got muesli breakfast breads. A few months before we got lip balm. One time we got lemonade. This month we got "pho" soup base and sour cream. The sour cream we turned into veggie dip by mixing it with ranch dressing powdered mix. I wasn't sure what to do with the "pho" soup base. I was going to use it as broth in split pea soup until I smelled it and realized the flavor wasn't going to blend well. It had more of a gypsy stew smell to it (cinnamon, clove, pepper, etc) so I concocted this simple recipe. You can use fresh ingredients, frozen, or canned, your choice. It was fairly inexpensive too. Pretty much all the ingredients are on sale this time of year. As a bonus, we cooked it in the crockpot so I put the cut ingredients in a bowl, then had the kids spoon or pour them into the crockpot. There's no risk of burns because we "cook" cold, then I put it in the warmer after.

1 box "pho" soup base
1/2 onion chopped*
1 red bell pepper chopped*
1 sweet potato or yam diced
1.5 cups or 1 can kidney beans (although I think garbanzo would be good too)
spinach (about a cup)
1 cup diced ham

Put all items in a crockpot, turn to high for about 4-5 hours and dinner is done! We made some cornbread and everyone enjoyed! Okay, one person in particular under the age of 5 only ate the sweet potatoes and cornbread ; )

*instead of cutting pepper and onion, you can sub frozen "bell pepper stir fry". I've found it at Frys, but not Walmart.

Windy Day Fun

So this past week has been the best for weather since I think May! It's finally cool enough to go out at any time of the day without frying. Plus there has been a bit of a breeze. To have fun with that, we made grocery sack kites and windsocks. Both are simple and take about 5 minutes to make. The kids enjoyed hanging the windsocks inside the house as well as outside.

Directions for the kites are here! Thanks Michelle!

It doesn't have to be a windy day, nor do you need a lot of room to fly these kites...huge plus with little impatient people ; )



To make the windsocks, cut construction paper in half to make two long pieces. You only need one long piece per child. Allow kids to glue streamers from one long side. When the glue dries, roll the construction paper then staple the two short edges together. Finally, use a pencil to push holes through 2 sides of the windsock. Thread some yarn or ribbon through and it's done!

Toy Swap Tuesday

or whatever day of the week you want to do your toy swap! I do mine just between the toys my kids already have, but you could also swap out with a good neighbor or friend.

To get the kids involved, I have them pick up one basket of toys that they are ready to trade in for a "new" one. They aren't too interested until I say things like "Wow! Cool! Look at this!" or "Oh, look, Little Pet Shop!", then they get a hustling! Once they bring me the old toys, I give them a basket of new toys. I usually keep 4 blue baskets on the shelf. 2 are new toys and 2 are "old" toys, then the next swap, they can get two more "new". If I swap everything, sometimes people get mad that their Barbies are in the garage ; ) Swapping toys every couple of months keeps the kids happy and the living room cleaner!

Here's the storage in the garage:

Here are the happy kiddos playing with their "new" toys:
You can see the blue basket just behind the "new" toys. If I can get the camera to upload, I'll add a picture of how nice the shelving unit looks after!

Indoor Obstacle Course

Trying to beat the heat, we made an indoor obstacle course. We used benches, stools, couch cushions, a cooler, and some pillows. Someone was a cow jumping over the moon...listen for her mooing!

Making Human Cookies

We call this activity "making cookies". Basically we go through all the steps of making cookies on a big scale. The ball is the rolling pin. We "chop" the cookies with light karate chops. "Sprinkles" are tickles, and "eating" refers to pretending to nibble on the cookie. The activity is good for both tactile perception and sequencing because they have to remember the order of events.