Books and Giggles
Here’s a way to celebrate spring with a butterfly craft for preschoolers. It uses a simple technique that kids love – painting on coffee filters with watercolors! I’ll share a few tricks for setting this craft up and making it extra fun. If you’re a teacher, you’ll like that this butterfly craft uses inexpensive materials…
If you have a preschooler, you may be starting to think about how to help your child succeed in school. Reading aloud is always a great place to start. You can get a lot of mileage out of well-chosen books.Today I’m sharing five kinds of books you can read aloud to your preschooler. The variety…
Whether you’re thinking of spring gardening, healthy food, or the Easter Bunny, carrots are a fun craft theme for kids. Plus, working with small stamps is good fine motor skill practice for preschoolers. You can easily cut up a small red potato in the shape of a carrot. Use the rounded edge of the potato…
We’ve all been there. Your child goes to pick out a book for you to read aloud, and you cringe. Not that one again, you think. You’re sure you’ve already read it 97 times. Why do kids want the same books over and over? Is it meant to drive you crazy? It sure feels like…
Learning ABC’s and their sounds takes time and practice. If your child likes stickers, he or she might enjoy this simple letter sticker activity. I chose foam stickers because children can feel the shape of the letters as well as see them. All you need are some foam alphabet stickers and paper. You can…
The notable children’s book If You Plant a Seed by Kadir Nelson is a sweet story that teaches kids about kindness. To go along with the book, you may like to do a special kindness activity. This one is perfect for spring. (Or even late winter.) (Books and Giggles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC…
Nothing brightens up a dreary winter window like a suncatcher. Heart-shaped Valentine suncatchers are even more cheerful, especially when kids help to make them. I’ve rounded up 18 gorgeous examples, made with a variety of methods. There’s something for every age child and every taste. When I created my own Valentine suncatcher, I did a…
Today I’m sharing an easy dog craft based on one of our favorite storybook dogs. It’s a simple activity great for preschoolers, but also fun when adapted for toddlers or kindergartners. I counted 8 different Muddypaws books on Amazon. Each is written by a different author, but all are sweetly illustrated by Simon Mendez.(Books and Giggles…
We do a lot of picture book-inspired crafts here, but this Christmas one is special. On one hand, it’s a fun holiday craft for kids. On the other hand, it’s a lesson in art and observation. (Books and Giggles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to…
Sometime you need a simple, quick holiday craft for kids. This candy cane ornament is just that. It’s a step up from the traditional twisted candy cane pipe cleaner craft, but not much harder to do. These decorations could also be used as a topper on a wrapped gift. If your child enjoys this little…
Open-ended toys make great gifts! They often can outlast other toys with more bells and whistles. You can’t always tell on Christmas day which toys will be the winners. Sometimes the toys that allow open-ended play are what get played with the most over the long haul. Toys that only do one thing can get boring quickly. That’s because kids…
Today I’m sharing a fun and simple set of fine motor skill activities. You can do it with toddlers, preschoolers, or elementary aged kids. All you really need are dried beans from your pantry. Montessori-Inspired Toddler Activity My kids all attended a Montessori preschool. One of the earliest activities they learned there was spooning beans….
Books about storms can help calm children’s anxieties. Here we’re sharing the ten best books we found about rainstorms, thunderstorms, and hurricanes. Rumble, crash, boom! Thunderstorms can be scary for little kids. If your child is afraid of thunder, being calm and empathetic can help. So can reading books about storms. Storm Season Here in Texas,…
If you have a preschooler who is ready to learn a few early sight words, this quick project is for you. When my twins were at that stage, I made them tiny, personalized books. My results weren’t beautiful, but my girls loved them. Mini-Reader Suspense Part of what sparked my kids’ interest was watching me…
In Montessori programs, teachers introduce the ABCs with sandpaper letters. These are boards, maybe about 4″ x 6″, with the letters on them in a rough, sandpaper-y texture. Children trace the letters with their fingers and say the corresponding sound. Most Montessori children do, that is. Not my son. He didn’t like the feel of…
I saw this display in my grocery store last summer, and I couldn’t decide how I felt about it. On one hand, I was glad to see that they are supporting literacy in young children. On the other hand, I was kind of offended. Only 3 times a week? Why not 3 times a day?…
Realizing you can skip pages or parts of pages when you read aloud to your little kids is liberating, even if you do feel a little deceitful about it. There’s really no reason to feel guilty. In our house, we did plenty of book shortening until the kids got old enough to catch on to…
I was instantly in love with the adorable animal drawings my twins brought home from their Montessori preschool recently. During free play time at the end of the day, they’d used the standard Montessori material called a metal inset to trace ovals. In Montessori, kids usually have a prescribed way of working with metal insets….
My twins love scissors! They can spend a really long time cutting, taping, and gluing. We started working on scissors skills when they were about two. I wish I’d had this awesome tutorial on how to hold scissors. It would have been so much more fun! Once they learned the proper grip, we had them…
I love eavesdropping on my 5-year-old twins while I drive them to school. Behind my driver’s seat I hear, “Ask Mommy — she’s been around the whole world.” Then the reply: “Yeah, but she didn’t go to Texas.” It’s true. Before kids, before husband even, I took a budget backpacker trip around the world. I visited twenty countries…
This is Part Two of a Three Part series. Be sure to check out Rookie Mom Reading Mistakes Part One if you missed it. I hated not knowing what type of reader my son would turn out to be. It was really hard standing there with him at age four looking up at age 7 or 8….
This post is the first in a three part series. You know what teachers have that parents don’t? Do-overs. There aren’t nearly as many do overs in parenting. When I taught sixth grade Reading and Social Studies I loved being able to revise lessons on the fly. When something didn’t work with the first class, I could…
You know when your kid finds a book that they want you to read over and over? Recently, one of my 5-year-old twins latched onto the book Tiptoe Joe by Ginger Foglesong Gibson. I totally haven’t minded. When a book opens with a cute rhyme like “Tiptoe fast, tiptoe slow. Say hello to Tiptoe Joe” across three…
My (beautiful, strong-willed) kids like to decide for themselves which clothes to wear. I’m okay with this most of the time, as long as they are seasonally appropriate. The problem for us here in the South is that the season doesn’t always predict what is appropriate. We can get a 70 degree day in January, followed by a…