Emily's Artwork For Dad

 One of the things on Craig's Christmas list this year is an art project from Emily. I wanted it to be something pretty cool that he could easily display on his desk at work. I saw a few examples of this style of art on pinterest and so I thought Emily would have a lot of fun with this.

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DIY Reindeer Ornaments

This is an oldie...but a goodie!! I made these ornaments with my mom when I was super young, and I had a blast making these with Emily this year.

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DIY Discovery Bottle

I have seen so many tutorials on how to make your own discovery bottles, I seen them in stores (whether in a bottle or in a bean bag)...and so I decided to try to make my own. They looked super easy.

MATERIALS:
~ Empty Plastic Bottle
~White Rice
~Variety of small recognizable objects (buttons, charms, etc)

I found all of my small items at a local craft store. They have a small jar with random buttons that I chose from. I also bought a couple of button sets to use as well. Before I placed the objects in the empty bottle, I put divided them up by similarities and took pictures of each of the sets. Then I put a few items in the bottle, followed by some rice...then a few more items, and little bit more rice. Repeat those easy steps until all of your items in are in the bottle. I left a few inches at the top of the bottle so that there would be plenty of room to shake the rice when searching for the different items. Once it was done, I hot glued the lid onto the bottle so that Emily couldn't open it up in all of her curiosity.

Preschool At Home

Emily's Preschool Board/Center

Now that I am a stay at home mom now, I wanted to try and provide Emily with some sort of a preschool education a few days a week. Since I teach middle school, I really have no clue as to what is appropriate for my 3 year old to learn...so Pinterest to the rescue. 

In the corner of our dining room, we already had an IKEA table set up where Emily does her art: playdo, finger painting, coloring, etc. The thing I love about this table is the drop leaf. It is easy to extend when Emily works on her art, and easy to close up when she's done. 

I decided to spice the corner up a little bit so that it could evolve into her little school corner. I added two drawer sets from Michaels to organize her art supplies, school supplies, writing aids, etc. I found the perfect link to great preschool board, along with free printables at, "A Day In The Life of a Classroom Teacher". It's no secret that I like things to look pretty, so I immediately fell in love with her preschool board and I was on cloud 9 when I saw she included free printables for the days of the week and the months of the year. I already had a classroom calendar, and I found the counting straws piece at JoAnn Fabrics. 

The board quickly came to together. I laminated the free printables, cut them out and used puffy stickers to attach them to the board...to give it a little fun dimension. On the bottom left side, I attached flash cards that can rotate as we learn them: Letters, Numbers, and Colors. I also found a set of cards that focuses on 3-Letter words, which is what you see at the far bottom of the board. The fourth set of cards (that you don't see on the board yet, but I plan on putting them below the calendar portion) focuses on sequencing. They are sets of three cards with pictures on them and Emily has to figure out the correct sequence that they are supposed to go in. For example, a set of cards would have a picture of a girl planting seeds, then watering the seeds, and then watching the flowers grow.

So far, Emily LOVES playing school. I found some great songs to help her learn the days of the week and the months of the year from: ABCTV123. Emily learned the days of the week super fast and she won't stop singing the song...even late in the night when she is in bed alone. (Craig and I randomly hear her singing this song from our video monitor. It's hilarious).

Days of the Week Song

Months of the Year Song

Now, just because Emily can sing the days of the week, does not mean she knows what any of it means. At her bedtime, we always talk about all of the things that we did "today" and she talks about things from previous days..."No, Emily...we did that yesterday." "Emily, we didn't do that today." So there are three labels on the board for the days of the week: "Yesterday was", "Today is", and "Tomorrow will be". It is finally starting to make sense to her. To attach the labels, and be able to move them each day, I stuck them to the front of cloth pins. It works perfectly.

 I found some personal white boards for Emily to practice her letters and numbers. Right now, she starts off trying to trace my letters and write her own, but after about 30 seconds (if that) it turns into writing a ton of circles. A new product that I just found are the new crayola white board crayons. I started with her using white board markers, but that just turned into a disaster with her pushing way too hard, but these crayons are great. They even have a crayon sharpener on the back of the box! PERFECT!!

It is so fun watching her learn. She loves going over the board, singing our new songs, and practicing her writing.

Emily's A Pro!!!

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