Mitten madness part 2

Part 2 of mitten madness

Kit #11
Mitten puppets.
I added a envelope of construction paper strips to make striped mittens.
Kit #12

Another set of mitten puppets. This one has feathers to glue on. Hmm... I don't see my Q-tip paint brushes in this picture I will have to go back and look to make sure I put some in the bag. If you are wondering why so many of them are so much alike it is because my goal is to have lots of stuff to keep her busy. Stripes one day and feathers the next or later in the same day are enough to keep her busy and happy. For her they are puppets that are a lot different. LOL!
Kit #13

Another book only this one was made after I found my paper punch I used ribbon to tie the book.
Kit #14
A mitten set with dots I cut out of foam. Foam is wonderful for little fingers. When Demi was 1 year old I would cut things out of foam and give them to her. I would then put dots of colored glue on papers for her to stick the foamies on. She is old enough now that she can pick up the tiniest of papers but we still like to use foam to glue on things.
Kit #15
Weaving mittens. I used the ugly construction paper for this because this is a craft that will get torn when she is doing it. I made up the traditional weave mats (the kind we all made tons of home when we went to school). I cut the strips thin and made sure they would fit LOOSE. Demi will try to do this project but most likely she will only put 2 strips in the mitten and she will not go over under all the way. Hers go under, over,over, over, under, under, over. LOL! She will most likely tear it in a few places and we will tape it when she is done and tell her she did a great job. LOL! When Travis was little I would do things like this hand over hand with him. With Demi I let her do it her way and offer to tape the broken spots when she is done. I don't care if she goes over and under with each one. If Travis does one he will cut his own mitten, fold it in 1/2, cut the slits in the mitten,cut the strips, and do the weaving all on his own. He will go over under all the way but he is 7.

Kit #16
This is a snowball mitten set. I made circles to mark the amount of snowballs to match the number on the mitten. I added cotton balls for the snowballs.

I had to search for something to trace around to make my circles. I was going to use a coin then I thought of a bottle cap. I grabbed this cap and I was going to trace around it to make circles but i hate tracing little circles. I then thought how dipping it in paint might work. It did work a lot better than drawing them. I was able to do each mitten in just a few seconds time.
Kit #17
Mitten number order. 2o mittens to sort out and line up in number order. I made them small like the ABC set.

Kit #18
Make a snowman. This is just a bunch of cotton balls, a piece of blue construction paper, a paint strip, and glue. I will tell her to glue the cotton balls to make snowmen.


Kit #19
Because I had blue paper and cotton balls in front of me. I thought paining with cotton balls might be fun for her and very quick for me to toss together.

This kit is just blue paper, white paint, a plate to put some paint on, and cotton balls to paint on the blue paper.I know the 2 snow kits above are not "mittens" and that does break a rule but because the stuff was on the table right in front of me from the other kits I was making I thought it would be silly not to stick it together, snap a picture, and toss it in a bags. By doing this I got 2 extra kits to keep her busy and they didn't take any time to make up.

Kit #20
Red Light Green Light mitten game.
I used red and green construction paper to make the stop and go mittens. I used the cardboard piece that was in my pack of construction paper pack for the middle layer. I glued them all together and in about 2 minutes time I have a game. We will play it just like red light green light only we will say stop and go. Sorry the colors don't look red and green in the pictures. Construction paper is hard to photograph plus the glue was still wet when I took the pictures. I can even see the wet glue on the green side.


I have many more kits already made up so I will post more soon. It takes me a long time to get the pictures uploaded. It is so funny that I can make up over 10 new kits in under an hour but it takes me over an hour to upload the pictures. I don't stay at the computer when it is loading them so it doesn't take that much of my time but I have to remember to keep coming back to upload more then I have to find time when my children don't need me to type up what they are.

Mitten madness part 1

I had to come back and edit this one because I just noticed I forgot to put the title on it.

I was in a rush to make up a bunch more craft kits to keep Demi busy for the next few weeks. My thinking went something like this...

I need to make up more things to keep her busy during the time I teach Travis.
I would like stuff that she will have fun with.
Of course it needs to be something educational.
Maybe a theme craft.
I could do a fall, Thanks giving, Christmas, or a New Years theme.
I love using themes but I never seem to have the time to post them on my blog. By the time I get some free time to take pictures of the final projects and find a bit more free time to sit at the computer to upload them the holiday is long over.
Maybe a theme that can last a long time and work for all my children.
Hmm... A theme that can work for anyone with children.
Lots of ideas start rolling around in my head but they all will take more time than I think I have.
I like to keep things simple and fast.
I don't want to spend a ton of time making things that my daughter will only use for a few minutes. I want things I can make up faster than she can do them.
Simple....
Maybe a winter theme. Hmmm... What goes with winter??? OH I KNOW! Mittens!!!! They are very simple! Hey I can draw mittens (or something that will resemble mittens) without searching for a pattern. Yes, I will start with mittens tonight.


That folks is the beginning of my mitten madness. I already have enough mitten kits made up to keep my children busy for the next month or two and enough more ideas to keep them busy until spring. I have pictures of most of them so now I need to do is post pictures here to share them with you.

I gave myself 3 rules before starting this.

Rule 1.
All my kits have to be mittens. LOL! I have a habit of getting off track with things like this. Often I start simple projects like this and it quickly goes from something like simple paper mittens into other things like dress up costumes or some other crazy thing. When I started this last night I thought I was only going to make up 2 or 3 mitten kits. Once I got started I couldn't seem to stop so what started as 2 or 3 kits is now 40 or 50. LOL! I guess things do go much better when I keep focused.


Rule 2.
I have to keep all my mitten kits simple and FAST to make up. I can not spend a lot of time on them. I will need keep focused on how short Demi's attention span is. It is silly for me to spend 1 hour making something she will only use for 5 minutes. That is the one thing that I always seem to forget when I make her things.


Rule 3. I will NOT buy anything to make my kits. I am going to use ONLY the things I have at home already to do this project. I do always have craft supplies around but now is the perfect time for this challenge because I am out of many of my normal craft supplies that I like to keep on hand so I will be in the perfect situation to show others how I make due with what I have on hand.

I am sure most of you are familiar with most of the projects they are the well known cut, paste, paint, count, match, lace, and such the normal craft learning projects for young children. I am just going to do them all with just mittens. In under an hour last night I made up a ton of simple kits. I seem to work best at 1 am. LOL!

I started by making up several paint sets for the kits. Below you can see I used a frozen waffle box to put my paints drops on. It is tempera paint just like I posted in my last post.



After my spots dried I cut the paints into strips. I then glued on bottle tops to use as water cups.

Mitten Kit #1

I drew free hand a simple mitten shape. I then used that mitten to trace others on a page so they would be close in size to each other. My printer is out of ink and I said I would NOT buy anything for this project so drawing all of my mittens is what I needed to do. I drew them very fast keeping in mind that my girl is 2 years old and will not care if my mittens are a little off. LOL!

I then cut off the bottom 2 mittens on the page. I cut all the way around them. I did draw a line for a cuff just because I thought they would look a bit more like mittens with the line. LOL!
I then added Q-tips for paint brushes and a glue stick for kit and it is done.

I put it all in a brown lunch bag to store until we plan on using it. I put a number 1. on the outside of the bag because I only have 4 glue sticks. When kit one is done I will move the glue stick from this kit to another bag. I will know that only the first 4 have glue in them. Doing that I hope will save me from having to look for glue when I am in a rush. In my house whenever the baby needs to be fed or when Travis needs help with school that is the same time Demi yells to glue and I can't find the glue sticks. I hope this system fixes this problem.

Directions.

I will add water to the bottle top on the paint strip and I will tell Demi to paint the cut mittens then match them up to the ones on the paper and glue them in place.

Mitten kit #2

Same kind of kit as kit one. It has 2 mittens on a half sheet of paper, 2 mittens cut out, and a paint set but this one I added in some tiny polka dots. Rule #2 was to make them up fast. I couldn't find my paper punch so I cut them out by hand. YES they are not perfect circles but I cut out a ton at a time and if my children say anything I will just point out how hand knit items are never perfect circles. LOL!


To put the dots neatly in the lunch bag I made up a simple envelope. I didn't waste time taping it shut. I figured just folding it would keep them from going all over inside the bag.


Mitten kit #3
This kit is a lacing set. I used a cracker box to make this. I traced around the outside wider than the mitten. I could have just made a larger mitten with holes on it and skipped the drawing on the inside but I plan on letting Demaris decorate the mitten and I thought the holes might get in the way with the decorating. In the past Demi has filled in lacing or brad holes (with glue, paint, paper, and such) on craft projects. Doing it this way I can tell her to decorate the mitten and leave the holes for the pretty ribbon. I used thin ribbon with a piece of tape on the end for the laces. Yarn, shoelaces, or string would work just as well. The ribbon was right next to me so it was quicker using this than going to get the laces or string that was in another room. I was able to stick with rule 2 and do it fast. I tied the ribbon to one of the holes so it wouldn't get lost.

I made up 2 of them. One has less holes than the other. Demi often looses interest with lots of holes.
Mitten Kit #4
Pattern mittens.
I cut out a bunch of mittens out of 2 colors of construction paper. I then cut strips of card stock and glued squares of the same colors in a pattern on them. Demi will copy the pattern on the cards with the mittens. I will add more colors and patterns if she still has an interest after doing this set. This thinking keeps me on track. I am keeping in mind that my toddler often looses interest fast with stuff like this.

Mitten Kit #5
story book mittens. This book I will just give her to use however she wants. A book shaped like a mitten will make her smile and even with nothing special to do with it but use a set of crayons on it will keep her busy for some time.

Mitten Kit #6
More storybook mittens.
This one is just like the other one (I made up a large stack of them). I will have her decorate the cover and then have her tell me a story about the mittens on the front and back cover. I will write the story on the pages on the right side and we will together make pictures to go with the story on the left sided pages.
Mitten Kit #7
ABC letter match mittens

I know I promised not to buy any supplies so for this so I had to shrink down my mittens. I did start this mitten project with almost a full pack of construction paper but I know with projects like this I run out of paper fast. I have many more things to make up with colored construction paper so I need to find ways to use less.

The picture below shows how much smaller my ABC mittens are than the other mittens I have made.
I am sure you can guess the object is to match the upper case letter to the lower case letter.


Mitten Kit #8
furry mittens
I cut out some red mittens sorry this set doesn't look the same shape as my other mittens. I told you I am not using a pattern. My daughter will not care I thing they still resemble mittens. Anyway, I am adding cotton balls to this kit. I plan on showing her how to pull apart a cotton ball to make fur for the cuff. She can then glue it into place. BTW the fur laying on the bottom of the right mitten is just one cotton ball pulled apart some.
Mitten Kit#9
sparkle mittens

I don't see any gems, sequences , or others sparkles in my craft box so I am using glitter paint, glitter glue, and shiny ribbons for this kit. Other things that would work is aluminum foil, foil wrapping paper, tubes of glitter, or shiny buttons.

Mitten Kit#10
peekaboo mittens
This one is my favorite so far! I must think better and be more creative when I am tired. I made this one up VERY late at night! I was so tired I could hardly keep my eyes open when I got the idea and made this one.
I cut mittens out of a cracker box so they would be stiff. I drew and cut out a simple set of eyes, nose and mouth for Demi to glue on (Travis can draw a face right on the plate if he makes one). I cut some yarn for hair. I am not wasting time digging out other colors of yarn so if Travis does one and wants brown hair he can paint the yarn or color it with markers. I will be teaching him to use what we have. LOL! I added in a set of paper mittens to cover the brown cardboard. I don't care if my children choose to cover up the brown but I thought I should stick a set in in case they said the brown was ugly. I didn't add a paint set in this bag. I did add some stickers and things to decorate the mittens and a small set of colored pencils. I added brads to make the hands play peekaboo. I have to thank Kate for inspiring me to use brads for children's crafts. She had a bunch of brad crafts on her blog a long time ago. I LOVED seeing her crafts with movable parts and I quickly became obsessed with making movable crafts with my children. My family has been big brad crafters from the day she shared hers. LOL! When I started my mitten theme I knew I needed to make a pair movable with brads my first thought was just hands waving hello and goodby. When I was trying to think of something to attach the moving hands to I thought of paper plates. I started thinking the plate was a bit small for hands unless I made them smaller. That is when I got the thought to use the plate upside down for a face and add mittens to play peekaboo. I was so excited when a paper plate face popped into my head! I hope my children like this craft as much as I think they will. Below is a picture of the stuff laying on the plate so you can get an idea of what it will look like.


I didn't bend the brads but I am sure you get the idea. The hands nose and mouth are all drawn quick free hand. I cut them out for Demi to glue on. The face might not look like this when finished because Demi puts mouths on upside down most of the time. LOL!
This kit I have stored in a brown lunch bag like the others only I had to bend the plate a bit for it to fit inside.



That is all for now. I have a lot more mittens to share when I get back to the computer.

What we have been up to.

OK, here is some of what we have been doing.


Demi yells to do school with Travis every day now. If I have enough stuff for her to do she will sit for all of Travis's school (several hours). I found a few old brighter vision workbooks in a box in the garage. They are a few that Travis never finished up when he was little. Demi LOVES them. She had lots of fun with them over the last week or so. I don't make her stay at the table with Travis but as long as she is happy doing school with us I let her stay and join in.

Travis is a wonderful student! He does so well with all his school. Most days he asks for extra work in all subjects.
The baby sleeps well in the morning if I have enough stuff to keep Demi busy/quiet.

I have been using a lot of the crafts on DLTK to keep Demi busy. She can't cut them out but she does a wonderful job with using glue to put them together. I print out some in black and white and I noticed she tries to color in the lines. Most of the time I give her some quick directions and let her do what she wants. I don't care if she does them correctly or not. I am very surprised to see she does them right almost all the time. Travis was reading at her age but he could not do glue crafts on his own. I remember doing them all hand over hand with him. Demi shows no interest in reading yet but she is terrific with glue . I try to give Demi the same subjects Travis is doing at the same time he does them. If he is doing math I give her things to count or numbers to play with. If he is doing writing I give her paper and pencils, for reading I give her books, and so on. Last Friday Travis was doing a spelling test. This was right after he had done writing so Demi still had a small tablet on her tray that she was writing on. Travis would say NEXT every time he finished writing his word so I would say the next word. After the 3rd word Demi YELLS out NEXT before Travis got his word on his page. I turn and looked to see her with her notebook and pencil pretending to write the spelling words. LOL! Anyway, I thought if I wrote this it might help a momma who has a school age child and a preschooler out with something to do during spelling time. Travis seems to love the idea that his little sis is trying to things the same way he does.


Zehira gets lots of love from her brother and sister. BTW the red mark on her head is not a bump. I am guessing it is a mark from how she was laying before her brother picked her up.


The children made Dino's this weekend. This is Travis's Dino eating off a playdough tree.


This is Demi's tree (that is what she told me it was).The bathroom remodel is going MUCH better! We have a tub and shower! We don't have the money to replace the rest of the room yet so this project will have to go on hold for a bit. I am happy we have no leaking pipes and everything is working. I don't like the missing floor blocks in front of the tub or the missing ceiling blocks in the shower but I will have to live with that for now.

Demi helping with the tools. Her favorite thing to do with Daddy nowadays.
Demi with more tools.

Travis holding up a large piece of the shower wall.

Demi being her funny self.

That is the HAPPY things we have been up to. The not so happy things in my house right now is when Demi is not doing school with brother she is pretending to be a baby. Today she climbed into the playpen and messed her pants. She told me she was a baby. UGH! That isn't the only not so happy parts of my day Zehira has reflux so she is upset for hours at a time EVERY night and a little bit during the day. I walk, sing, and cry with her for hours every night. I was starting to think my baby hated me! The doctor said it is just reflux. Good news is Zee has just hit 10 pounds and she is growing well. She does smile and is wonderful when she isn't in pain screaming at me. Having to be up late every night with her screaming and then getting up early every morning (Demi now gets up at 5-5:30 am) this has kept me away from the computer. A few nights I only got 2 hours of sleep. I hope to get more computer time when this phase passes by!

Painting idea.

I was cleaning up some Tempera paint off the kitchen table several weeks ago when I got this idea. I thought about how a wet cloth on dry Tempera paint makes the pant spread the same way it does when the paint is fresh. This gave me an idea on A cheap low mess toddler paint set!!! I put a few large drops of paint on a stiff paper paper, paper plate, card stock, or cereal/cracker boxes. I let them dry then store them with art supplies. When I don't have time to grab a bunch of paints for Demi to paint with (because I am helping Travis with school or caring for the baby) I can hand her the dry paint blobs and a few wet Q-tips and let her paint. She can't make much of a mess with them because it is a LOT less paint than I give her at our normal art or craft times. plus it is watered down it wipes up Very easy!

I wanted to take pictures of my new craft kits I made up for her using this idea but I can't seem to find time to take the pictures (I have a baby in my arms most of the time nowadays).

Below are the pictures I took when I first tried out this idea. I will try to get pictures of my craft kits soon as I find myself with a few free minutes with no children in my arms or lap (might be a long time before that happens).



I am sure others have thought of this idea before. I wish I would have known to do this years ago. About 4-5 years ago when Travis was little I use to have a group of children(1-4 years old) over once a week to have a craft/play time. This idea would have been perfect back then.

Just in case I don't get around to taking pictures of my craft kits I will write it out now to give you an idea. I took cereal and cracker boxes and put drops of paint on them. I put the paint in rows and once dry I cut the boxes into rectangles. Each rectangle has several colors on it. I left a space on the cardboard with no paint to glue a cap (milk jug cap, juice bottle cap, soda cap any cap works). I then draw or print out a page for her to paint. She loves using glue so I add something to glue on the page. I then put the stuff all together with a few Q-tips and a glue stick and it is all ready. It takes only a second to grab and add a few drops of water into the bottle cap and give it all to her. She is 28 months old and can do the activities alone without my help. It keeps her busy and quiet for15-30 minutes or even longer. It is enough time for me to give Travis a lesson (a long lesson might use 2 kits), feed or change the baby, take a phone call, start dinner, or fold a load of clothes. It is the perfect thing to give me a few minutes when ever I need it! I think this would be good for school time for many children. I think it would be perfect for the moms who don't like paints/paint messes. I am not ever worried about paint messes but I do struggle often with teaching Travis, caring for Zehira, and finding ways to keep Demaris busy. My 2 year old has more control of our day than the rest of us. She is often LOUD. She screams when she is mad and even when she is happy she is far from quiet. Travis can not learn or concentrate on school when his sister is being loud. Baby Zehira can not sleep when her sister is loud. I can not focus and keep things moving along hen Deimi is having a loud day. I guess what I am trying to say is little dry drops of dry paint have made my life easier and my house less noisy for right now. LOL!