The One With April & May's Craft Line Up

As I mentioned in my last post, we've been creating a lot more than usual.  It's been fun & some things were helpful, so I thought I would post about it.

We made a doll house out of card board for Paige's smaller toys. Thanks to a similar idea from Pinterest.

It's not quite as pretty as the pinterest version, but we had fun making it together, so that's all that matters, right?

I felt like Paige was wanting to watch tv more than I would like (thanks to her getting sick), so I decided it was time for an intervention... well an intervention of sorts :)  I was ready to teach her some responsibility & some work ethic (as much as you can teach a 3 year old), so I decided she was old enough for a chore chart.  

I saw this idea & decided to tweak it a bit.  I used a larger paper & Velcro (because that's what I had on hand).  I used the chore images from this cute idea.  I debated on doing the latter (and still might one day), but I thought this one would work a bit better for now.  Her chores are: go potty, brush her teeth, eat breakfast, get dressed & read scriptures.  It's rough being a 3 year old... :)

We do our "chores" first thing in the morning then she can play &/or watch a little bit of tv.  She really loves it.  She goes to get her chore chart every morning (without me mentioning it) & then she tells me which order we are going to do things.  She really loves closing each one as she finishes it.  

*a word to the wise:  after a while, this chart will get pretty worn out.  I was considering laminating it, but didn't think that would work well with the folds, so I just reinforced the folds with tape on the inside and outside.  It's worked well.

Along those same lines, I wanted to encourage her to want to help more (instead of just wanting to watch tv), so I made a helper chart.  I put pictures of different Disney movies where they are helping to clean.  She gets a sticker every time she helps & she loves it.  I even let her pick between watching tv & helping with dishes or laundry occasionally & she often chooses to help me.

You're welcome to download it here.

In preschool, they are working on name recognition, so when I saw this idea, I had to jump on it.  It's basically like a puzzle of her name & she matches it.  I laminated it & used the Velcro again.  She's awesome at it, but it's still fun for her.

I also saw this idea, and loved it, so I tweaked it a bit & made my own.  It's a binder with some dry erase crayons (in a pencil case) with some pages I printed off (info below) on card stock for her to trace.  

Apraxia can make it really hard for kids to write (their brain has a hard time telling their body what to do even though they want it), so I decided to use it to help her learn to write (especially her name).  Since I made this last month, I've noticed a difference in her drawing, too... it's not just scribbles anymore, so I guess this has paid off!  

I made some pages that had pictures of each person in our family, with their name written below a few times so she could practice writing all of our names.  I just used Word & copied & pasted some custom handwriting work sheets.  I think it was this one, if I remember correctly.

It also allows me... ahem, Paige to use her creativity...

A: Name & First Letter Page Trace found here

B: LDS Church & General Conference Pages found here

C: Hidden Pictures found here

D: Trace-able Pictures & Shapes found here

I will also be adding this one to the book soon & will continually be adding more as she gets older.

I also made some sign language thank you cards to give (tied to their bananas to give to the people who joined us for the 2013 Apraxia Walk).  On the front was a picture of Paige saying thank you in sign language (her hand moved in that way & on the back it said 'Thanks! Love, Paige' in traceable writing so Paige could practice writing her name.  

I kind of loved how they turned out & I'm nervous for how I'm going to top them for next year!  They may or may not have been a big hit.  :)  Good thing I have a whole year to figure it out.

For mother's day & teacher appreciation day, I decided to have Paige do a little something for her preschool teachers & for some of her grandmas.  Of course my idea stemmed from yet another idea on pinterest, but as usual, I tweaked it a bit for us.

I just wrote some prompts, asked Paige what she wanted to fill in, then I wrote it for her.  So far the teachers have loved it & I am sure the grandmas will, too.

Paige also learned how to write her P's all by herself & on the Mother's Day cards for her first time, too!  I can't think of a better time to learn.  :)  She's got pretty great timing.  I'm super proud of her & I guess some of the activities above have been working!  

PS - I linked up here, here, here, here, here & here.  :)