Homemade Christmas Play Dough

Making Christmas play dough couldn't be any easier. Just follow the recipe from the play dough article from November of 2009. The white is simply made with no dyes. The red assortment was made with about 40 drops of red food coloring and 7 drops of yellow. And the green was made with about 20 drops of green and 7 drops of yellow, once again. Below, are some ideas for sculpted Christmas creations. The other colors utilized are the leftovers from the Fall collection of play dough.

Brothers: Sewn Letters Wall Hanging

I decided to make an experimental decoration for the boys' room. This ornamental wall hanging is composed of brown suede, scraps of random fabric, embroidery floss, and a stick from outside. I was going to make some cute lizards or turtles on each end, but I decided it was enough work spelling out an eight-letter word. One can easily adapt this creation to any word or phrase or use any material or use a rope, wire, or rod instead....This a fun, universal project.

Montessori Christmas Activities the Dollar Store Way

Montessori "jobs" for kids, or learning activities, can be adapted to any holiday or theme. Christmas time is filled with many possibilities. Currently, our family is on an extremely tight budget with this less than satisfactory economy. So, I have come up with a few educational ideas from simply visiting my local dollar store. I have many more ideas than listed here, but here are a few that Jaguar, and Bobcat for that matter, have tried.

I bought a package of small drum ornaments and a package of large ones. He used them as building/stacking blocks.


Jaguar also sorted the drums in categories, such as by color and by shape. Simple, but great for mind organization and the ability to discern differences and similarities.


We bought a package of Christmas erasers and utilized them for a simple matching game. Great math skill in the preschool years.



We grabbed a package of foam Christmas trees and some Christmas-theme foam stickers. Jaguar meticulously decorated his Christmas tree. This is a great spacial activity because it helps promote an awareness of placement and design.


We picked up a package of Disney Christmas stickers and stamps. Jaguar and Bobcat went to town with decorating their work. This stimulates creativity and imagination.


In the meantime, Bobcat found the tinsel and decided to begin decorating the tree. I thought it was a brilliant idea on his part and it is a great practical life activity to engage in decorating the Christmas Tree with family.


There are many more activities to come within the realm of Christmas, but right now we are working on Hannukah. So, we will get back to Christmas after the eighth day of Hannukah, and then Kwanzaa thereafter. What a festive month December is!!! Have fun creating jobs for your young ones.

Nutrition Lessons - Part II

The kids were getting bored of the original setup of the living room shelf, which is to be expected. So, I decided to change it to the parallel of our theme (or one of them): Nutrition. We have tons of wooden and felted food, so I decided to decorate the shelves with yummy and nutritious food. In addition, Lynx's human body puzzle is placed in the mix, just in case Jaguar gets interested in our parts and bodily functions (he was today at Bobcat's doctor appointment). There is a healthy veggies and fruits ABC book atop the shelf. There is also a wooden vegetable puzzle down below.

As I mentioned previously, I was going to be taking the food advertisement cut-outs to utilize them for a food pyramid. Jaguar took each of the cut-outs and decided what food group they each fell into, and then he pasted them in place.


Jaguar took his Melissa & Doug pizza making set and sorted the toppings. There are 3: mushrooms, peppers, and pepperoni. He organized them into 3 bowls. Bobcat did this earlier in the day, but nto quite as thoroughly.

This activity required Jaguar to sort felt food into the 5 main groups: Fruits, Veggies, Grains, Proteins, and Dairy. He enjoyed figuring it out.


The last nutrition-related activity with Jaguar today was the traditional baking of bread. We made a banana walnut bread in the bread maker. It was really tasty, but not as tasty as it could be....I have yet to find a bread maker recipe that I personally recommend. Regardless of the outcome, the process was fun and enriching for Jaguar. :)

Nutrition Lessons - Part I

We are sort of working in conjunction with our Montessori preschool, by accident actually. Each month they pick a few themes to follow along with, and so do we. This particular month, I chose nutrition, Native Americans, autumn, and harvest. To coincide with our nutrition home school studies, Jaguar was challenged to place each of the grocery store advertisement cut-outs in the correct pile. Each pile represented a different food group, and amazingly he caught on to the differences pretty quickly. These are the piles he so proudly made. I was originally going to mount each of these on index cards, but I then thought we could make a food guide pyramid on poster board and then he could arrange these cut-outs in their proper food group, creating a visual collage of colorful healthiness.


Jaguar also played a game of determining which food did not fit in with the other 3 in a given group. Below are a few of the arrangements he had to figure out. Once he figured out which food did not fit, I would have him explain to me what food groups each of them were in to double check his answer and reinforce his understanding of the variety and categorization of nutritious food.

Never Too Old to Play with Play Dough

Play dough is one of the age old activities for young children. However, working with your hands to mold artwork is beneficial for any age and can bring a family together in a fun, often funny manner. Play dough can be easily made at home, where you know the ingredients are safe (in case your little ones munch a few pieces). In fact, there are several recipes that can be utilized, including edible picks that include peanut butter and honey. They are quite easy to find on an internet search. I chose to use a traditional recipe, as shown below. I made 5 different colors with food coloring to represent Autumn colors. We all had quite a bit of fun creating, cutting, rolling, molding, cookie cutting, mashing, building...Well my husband and I just molded a turkey and a couple of faces...The kids really did all the work.

Recipe for Play Dough
1 cup flour
1 cup warm water
2 teaspoons cream of tarter
1 teaspoon oil
1/4 cup salt
food coloring

Mix all ingredients (add food coloring last). Stir over medium heat until smooth. Remove from pan, let cool slightly, and knead until blended and smooth. Store in a plastic bag or airtight container when cooled.

Making Montessori Materials - Part II

Sensory experiences are critical to developing children, especially in their younger years. According to Maria Montessori, among these sensory experiences are not only smell (olfactory), sight (visual), touch (tactile), taste (gustatory), and hearing (auditory), but also weight (baric), temperature (thermic), muscular awareness of shape (stereognostic), and colour (chromatic). Today, Jaguar and I utilized Montessori scent bottles to flex his sense of smell and ability to match common aromas. I could have bought an expensive Montessori set, but I decided it would be easy to make on my own. I saved 8 baby food jars from Bobcat and filled them with 4 different spices: parsley, oregano, basil, and nutmeg. I then made a blindfold for Jaguar to wear while he matched each smell with only his nose and his hands manipulating each jar. He had fun doing this, and once he properly matched everything, we took off the blindfold and rematched the smell with his ability to see what he was smelling, and we also named each spice so he knew exactly what he was sensing.

Making Montessori Materials - Part I

There are so many ways to save money when homeschooling your child or just giving them gifts that are developmentally geared for their age. One way to save is to make your own materials. Though there are many things that would be easier to buy premade, there are also many other things that could be created with improvisation and the right materials. I have made a couple items so far, with many more in mind...hopefully to be made before Christmas.

This is a set of counting beads that I made for Jaguar as a Christmas gift. These are great for all sorts of mathematics. I simply utilized beads, wire, and a cheap craft box. These are just flashcards I made, mainly for Jaguar. I used old magazines, other publications, and computer images. I simply glued them on index cards and organized them in a recipe box from the Dollar Tree. There are about 7 of each letter. There are so many ways to discover language and reading with these cards, and they are fun to make!

Likewise, I decided last night that Jaguar can easily begin learning to read the clock. So, I made 24 cards, each with a clock on them. Half of them have the time on every hour and the other half has the times on every half hour.

There will naturally be more items. I have already made one zipper frame. I have yet to make make at least 4 more. I plan on making puppets for Bobcat, as well, and a fabric box and matching ricebags in various textured fabric....My husband plans on making a pink tower, brown stairs, maybe even a dollhouse..... We will see in later posts as these couple of months progress.