Food, Family, Fun.

Muffin Tin Meals for dinner before we go Trick or Treating. Easy, Fast, Fun!

Amy

pineapple, ham, diced peaches

mac & cheese, yogurt with sprinkles.

Rose & Heidi had the same

Peeps ghost, ham, diced peaches, mac & cheese, yogurt with sprinkles.

I intended to make them all exactly the same as it's faster but Amy didn't want a peeps ghost, a simple enough change.

Sharing on Muffin Tin Mom

Most of these activities were found on my quest for worksheets the other day. I put them all together this morning for some at home fun work. I did not get much sleep last night and am hoping to have an easy, relaxing day with the girls. I don't even have to cook dinner tonight as my Granny is dropping some off -- even dessert!

Pin Poking Pages

(a great activity to develop fine motor skills and concentration)

from Confessions of  a Homeschooler - letter of the week P

from abcteach

Fun with Power Magnets

(one to one correspondence and just plain fun)

from 2 Teaching Mommies

I also printed one from COAH - same idea - different picture, and some of the other ones from 2 Teaching Mommies. So now they have a choice. These sheets can also be used with Do a Dot paints but somehow those always end up in a mess. I'm trying to avoid a mess today. We'll just have to see how that goes ;)

Pumpkin Pie Scented Play Dough

I made this a few days ago and let it rest overnight. It always seems better the next day. I used the play dough recipe from My Montessori Journey and scented it with Pumpkin Pie Spice. I like a lot of scent so I used about 2 tablespoons. I also added some colouring to make it more orange-y. The pumpkin pie spice adds colour too so it's came out as a pumpkin pie orange -- perfect.  We've already played with it yesterday and I am sure it will be revisited today.

Pumpkin Graphing Game

from 1+1+1=1

Amy is kind of obsessed with graphs.  I give her the one that goes up to 10 and Rose the one that goes up to 5. That usually works out evenly on time and they like to do it together and discuss their graphs and make predictions as they go. There are many styles of these available on the website and the dice are very easy to put together.

Monster Craft

I have a few of these left that I bought AGES ago from Oriental Trading. Years even. There are several monster styles packaged in kits. Everything is pre-cut and you just glue them to create a monster face. They always come out funny looking and everyone always enjoys this craft.

I also expect to have the kids ask to play with the Halloween Sensory bin again, so we'll enjoy plenty of sunshine today as well - as that is an outside activity, which will lead to more outside games I'm sure!

I've also already had one request to print more cutting strips from the other day since we used them all up. So I imagine there will be some more cutting and gluing today once I get that accomplished.

I have been doing my best to keep the girls entertained this week. I am not too keen on taking Emily out and about too much as she's only 3 weeks old so we have been working on fun activities at home. Here's a few things that we have done so far.

All of these activity ideas were found on Counting Coconuts. I lack the time to be creative on my own right now!!

Cutting tray

I purchased these graphics here and then made some very simple cutting strips. All three girls enjoy cutting so this was for everyone to work on. I didn't realise how much they loved cutting and I had to make tons more strips. Heidi chose to cut directly through the pictures and then cut her paper into 100s of little pieces, Rose cut hers neatly on the lines, and Amy cut out around the objects. Then I gave them all another sheet of paper and some glue and they glued their cuttings.

Tweezing Spiders

These little plastic spiders are getting a workout this week! Very easy activity and everyone is excellent at lacing but they still thought this was fun.

Pencil Sharpening

A family favourite activity. I only had two Halloween pencils around so only Amy and Rose had a turn. Heidi didn't seem to notice.

I also went online and found several different Halloween worksheets - colouring, cutting & pasting, patterning, etc. I printed some from abcteach and Enchanted Learning where I have memberships,  plus 2 Teaching Mommies, Confessions of a Homeschooler, and 1+1+1=1, This photo shows a few of them. If you are looking for some fun worksheets and activities,  I recommend all of these sites - not just for Halloween.

I should mention that our house does not have an area set up in the Montessori way with these trays all laid out in a certain spot. I do however appreciate the value of using a tray to define their workspace and contain all of their work items so we use them often for crafts and activities. They are especially practical for cutting activities and activities with a lot of parts. So on this day I set up the trays and put them all on the table and let them have at it.

I have some other crafts & activities planned so hopefully I'll have the time to get out my camera and share them! 

They were very simple to make. Paint the toilet paper rolls and leave to dry.  Cut the hair, glue on the googly eyes and buttons, and draw on a mouth. I helped Heidi with hers and Amy and Rose did theirs by themselves. It was a bit messy during the painting but that was my first time painting with all three girls since having our new baby. I had waited until she was asleep to start - but that turned out to be a very a short nap. In any case, Heidi painted a lot more than just her toilet paper roll but it was all in fun - and it WAS washable paint ;)

Updated Oct 2012: There is a spider craft on there too - we made it also.

Who knew this would be such a hit!?! I decided to make a Halloween sensory bin for the girls to  play with outside this week. They LOVED it. It was very inexpensive to make since I had a ton of misc. Halloween items about; leftovers from Halloween parties past, trick or treat goodies and some pom poms from our craft bin. The only purchase was the black beans and yellow split peas.

There are too many items in here to list, but I will tell you about the most popular.

Foam pumpkin with pop out features (from a Halloween hopscotch game we have), plastic cauldron, scoops, wooden spoon, shovels, rats, bats, spiders, plastic flies, skeleton bones, pom poms, plastic witches fingers & plastic fangs.

All 3 girls spent a long time making up witches brews and hiding the "gross" items by covering them with the black beans and yellow split peas and giggling as they served me. I made sure that we played with this outside after the coloured rice disaster of months passed. It was surprisingly not very messy. Probably because the beans and peas are much larger than the rice, and I did remind them that there wasn't any more so if they spilled it all in the grass there wouldn't be enough left to play with tomorrow.

I think I'll make some more of these bins in the future -- but I am staying away from the rice!

Halloween candy - jack o lantern marshamllow, BOO chocolate, peppers, carrots, grape tomatoes ( tailored to individual tastes), orange kool aid, jack o lantern clementine, ham Pumpkin shaped sandwich, grapes with Happy Halloween flag.

 Rose's

chocolate chip cookies, clementine, orange pepper strips,

sunflower seeds in the HK cup (it's hiding near the bottom)

I only had one snack to make this morning. Rose has been at home and feeling sick, and today was hot lunch so only a snack box for Amy, and then Heidi only takes a drink to school on Fridays. Somehow we STILL just about made it out the door on time!!

string cheese, green grapes,

apple cinnamon rice crisps, jack o lantern clementine

Amy's lunch:

*failed* black cat rice krispie!, grapes, cantaloupe,

candy coated sunflower seeds, sealed PB sandwich

(Amy doesn't like cheese today - so none for her!)

Rose's lunch:

rice krispie, grapes, cantaloupe, candy coated sunflower seeds

sealed PB sandwiches with cheese toppers

Heidi's lunch:

peanut butter cookies, grapes, cantaloupes

candy coated sunflower seeds, sealed PB sandwiches with cheese toppers

They did not mind that their rice krispie treats did not turn out nicely. they were just thrilled to have one in their lunch. I don't know if it's technically allowed at school though - so we'll have to see what happens. I didn't make them myself - we had them from a bake sale :)

A quick little Halloween bento for Amy & Rose to take to gymnastics on Saturday. I saw the idea to use my dumpling maker for the sandwiches here. They loved their sandwiches this way and I will definitely make the same kind of sealed sandwich next week for school.

Amy's lunch

grapes, Nice cookies, cantaloupe, PB sandwiches, provolone jack o lantern

Rose's lunch

PB sandwiches, cheddar jack o lantern, Nice cookies, cantaloupe, red grapes

Hot lunches have started for everyone now - so every Friday all 3 girls will have a hot lunch at school. Amy & Rose will still bring a snack to go with it -  Heidi doesn't need to bring anything. It's a treat for the girls and a welcome semi-break for Mom as I imagine the mornings are about to get busier since our family has grown.

Amy

diced apples, boiled egg, goldfish, grapes

Rose

grapes, boiled egg, goldfish, diced apples

Lunch was mostly made by Daddy! This was a practice run of Daddy making lunch before I went into hospital to have our baby girl :) Daddy assembled everything the night before - except the sandwiches which I made quickly in the morning before school. It was a nice team effort :) The cute little ladybug cupcakes weren't made by either of us! We had been to a BBQ the night before and a friend had brought them. It was the night before my birthday and some even went on my surprise birthday cake as a decoration. The girls were thrilled to have extras for their lunch the next day :)

Amy & Rose had the same lunches:

Ladybug cupcakes, granola bites, string cheese, 2 grapes

honeydew melon, strawberries, vitamins

butterfly sandwiches

Heidi had a different sandwich -

I just used a single punch with a variety of shapes

bird, heart, fish, flower

At last our baby girl is here. Welcome baby Emily!

All of her big sisters could not be happier :)