Spider Oreo Snacks

Halloween is just around the corner and this fun Spider Oreo snack from Oopsie Daisy is a fun activity for your kids. 

(click here for tutorial)

Fun Fall Activities

Are you looking for some fun fall activities to do with your children? Check out this great post from Sweet and Lovely Crafts. Trust me you wont be disappointed.

Stranger Danger

This week in preschool we are talking about stranger danger. While researching this topic on the internet I came across the below information from www.pollyklaas.org . I thought it had some great pointers of how to teach your children about the dangers of talking or interacting with strangers. 

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TALK TO STRANGERS

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Children often hear "Don’t talk to strangers” or "Stay away from strangers.” We've given a great deal of thought to these stranger warnings, and would like to share 4 important observations. Children and Strangers 1. Children often think "strangers" look bad or mean or dirty. They can think that if someone looks nice, that person is not a stranger. Fact: Many molesters know this and purposely dress nicely so they can more easily lure children. 2. Children can become confused when given rules like "don't talk to strangers" while their parents say "hi" to people on the street and chat with the grocery clerk. Children can: Think if a person has spoken to their parents just once, then that person is not a stranger. Decide that if their parents talk to strangers, they can too. 3. If a child is lost or has no trusted adult nearby, everyone is a stranger to that child. How is your child going to find help without talking to strangers? 4. The great majority of people who abduct or molest children are not strangers, they already know the children they harm.

Instead of "don't talk to strangers," we strongly suggest you teach your children to watch out for dangerous adult behaviors. You can teach you children these 4 simple rules.  

Dangerous Adult Behaviors

1. “If any adult or older kid offers you anything without asking me, step way back, yell, “NO!”, run away,
     and tell.” (This applies to candy, pets, treats, job offers, photographs, rides on motorcycles, etc.)

2. “If any adult or older kid asks for your help without asking me first, step way back, yell “NO!”, run away
     and tell.” (This applies to mailing a letter, picking something up for an injured person, approaching a
     car to give directions, doing yard work, looking for a lost puppy, etc.)

3. “If any adult or old kid asks you to keep a secret, step way back, yell “NO!”, run away, and tell.”

4. If any adult or older kid touches your private parts (parts covered by a swim suit) or asks you to touch
    your private parts or somebody else’s, step way back, yell “NO!”, run away and tell.”

Also, you can teach your children ways to identify people they can ask for help, like store clerks and women with children. Our free Child Safety Kit has many ideas to help you teach safety by playing “What If…” with children of all ages. 

We recommend you reassure your kids that you won't be mad if they make a mistake. It's part of the learning process.

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An activity that I did with Colton was I showed Colt pictures of: 

Fireman

Police Man

Store Clerk

Ordinary Man or Woman

We talked about each of the pictures first asking Colton if they were good or bad. Then second I told him what their responsibilities were and how they could help him if he couldn't find mommy or daddy. For the man and woman I explained to him that not everyone is bad but that bad people sometimes dress up to look like they are good people and that it is better to not go to anyone but police officer, fireman, and store clerks.  

I decided to use real images that I found on the internet instead of cartoon because I figured it could help him to recognize them in real life. 

1,2,3,4,....... game

Counting Flashcards

Material: 

10 3x5 cards

marker

We have been working on counting to ten with little man. I saw this game in a magazine and thought Colton would have fun. I wrote a number on each of the cards then mixed them all up and let Colton put them in order. He had fun and I enjoyed watching him learn. This activity is a good one because it teaches the kids how to count and how to recognize the numbers too.

Butterfly

Materials: 

1 Popsicle stick

1 coffee filter

2 big pom poms

1 pipe cleaner

crayons

tape

glue

Colton made this cute butterfly at church the other day. I thought it was to cute to not share. By looking at the picture I would assume that you would be able to figure out how to make it. From what I can tell here are the directions.

1. Color the coffee filter.
2. Tape the coffee filter to the popsicle stick to look like a fan.
3. Glue the two pom pom on one end of the popsicle stick.
4.  Add the pipe cleaner to the other end to look like antlers.
5. Draw eyes on above the pipe cleaner.

SORRY! Counting

Materials: 

1- Parkers Brother SORRY! game

Colton has really got into playing games lately with his favorite game being the classic game, SORRY! It was a childhood favorite of mine too so it's fun for me to play the game with my son now. SORRY! is a great game to teach kids how to count and why not have fun while learning. I love that Colton doesn't even realize that we are teaching him. Make sure to allow to let them count along with you so that they can soak in all the knowledge. 

School is now in session!!

It's back to school time which means it's time to start up Mommy School again. I've got some fun ideas planned so make sure to come back often.