Where Have You Been?

Long time not post. Seriously long time. I have been busy with my two boys, ages 4 and 6 (almost 7 he says). We have been playing, doing homework, reading, and visiting local parks and musuems. I have been working with my toddlers in my parent-child classes. I have been learning to sleep all night after four long years of interuppted sleep.

I have not been inspired to write and post, although I have tons of pictures of all the fun arts/crafts we have been doing. I have over 200 photos in my camera roll ready for me to clean up and post. I just do not have the energy to do it. I blame part of it on our long winter. I also blame it on the main distractions in my life; Facebook, Pinterest, and the Internet in general.

I now have the attention span of a gnat. Thank you Internet.

Today I tried playing in the sandbox with my 4 year old and I could not stop looking at my iPhone. Yes, I was emailing back and forth with my son's principal, but that is just an excuse. I could not sit down and give my son five minutes of undivided attention. It broke my heart when I realized it. My oldest was pre-smart phone. No Facebook, no Pinterest. I sat for a good 45 minutes and would pretend I was Dora. My youngest doesn't even get five. Sigh. I give my toddlers in class more attention than my own son!

I have been reading fellow bloggers who feel the same way; the Internet is getting in the way of being the parent you want to be. This brings me to my point.

I will be doing this instead of blogging this summer:

Taking time out to watch the little things. 

And this:

Not the best picture, but this is our new (used) camper! We already have 5 trips planned.

So you will not see a whole lot of me, but I hope to come back refreshed and eager to post. I have set some rules, only post once a week and if I don't post then don't feel bad. Also, I post at www.playawayonline.com. It is our site for our mommy and me classes where I do all our activites. We redesigned it and it has a blog right on it.  I may combine the two sites so I don't feel the pressure to post twice.


How do you feel about technology? Has it caused problems in your life?

Sun Bursts At PlayAway

I don't know about you, but during these winter months I crave sunshine. This past week it has snowed every day, with only a few peaks at the sun. What better time to have my friends make a warm and sunny art project.

Supplies: Black or purple construction paper. Construction paper cut out circles, orange, yellow, and red paint, and plastic wrap.

Place drops of yellow, orange, and red paint all over the white circle or sun. Place plastic wrap over paint and have child smack the paint. The kids love this!

This is after it was smacked a bit.

Remove the plastic wrap and dispose of it. Then if you want you can use your finger or show the child how to make rays around the entire sun as I have done below.

What do you think? Simple and fun. It was my kind of project.


Here are some other great sun projects:


My Buddies and I created suns.

Sandpaper sun by No Time For Flashcards.

Blast Off With PlayAway

Today is a quick post. I have been super busy with class, my son's preschool, and the PTA. I tend to over extend myself at times. Hence, the quick post.

This week at PlayAway we focused on the moon and outer space. It was a simple craft and all my friends had fun.

Supplies: rocket ship cutouts, cut outs of squares and circles, black construction paper, star stamps, and white paint.

I made this art project work for my 1-2 and 2-3 year olds. My 1-2's stamped stars on their paper where I had already glued a rocket.  My 2-3's glued the rocket on, made windows out of shapes, and stamped stars.

We played in our magical purple sand and read Good Night Moon. I also did a fun color identifying game on the felt board. I had rockets in all different colors and had my friends help me identify which color was which.

Here are some other great moon activities:

KC Edventures gives you some great moon books.

Inspiration Laboratories  has an Eric Carle inspired activity.

Head on over to Twodaloo for these great Good Night Moon activities.

Starry Night at PlayAway

Happy Hooligans inspired our star theme at PlayAway this week. I loved her activity so much, I thought why not try our hand at Van Gogh's The Starry Night.

Supplies: Cardboard (I used cereal boxes) wrapped with tin foil, washable paint, cotton balls and/or paint brushes, and star cutouts (optional).


I made this a two step process. We will paint one day, let it dry, and then glue our stars on the next day. Today we painted. I placed drops of blue and black paint on the cardboard that is covered with tin foil and had my friends paint with cotton balls.

Then I added drops of white and yellow. At this point many of my friends decided they did not like to get messy, therefore switching to paintbrushes. The paintbrushes gave more of the Starry Night feel to the painting.

After they dried we glued on our stars.

Our sensory bin was full of our magical purple sand and stars. I had three star cookie cutters and a handful of foam stars that we use in lacing. Caution the foam stars are very small. Always have an adult supervising small children or they can choke. We counted our stars, and we compared sizes of stars. My friends loved this one so much they spent 10-15 minutes at our sensory table.

We supplemented our theme with a few great books:

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star by Jane Cabera is a fun twist on the original song. I did sing the entire book and it seem to do the trick. All my friends sat for the entire book; no small job for 1-2 year olds.

I will post our complete project when we finish next week. 

Here are some other great star activities by great kid bloggers:


The Imagination Tree: Van Gogh Finger Painting

Happy Whimsical Hearts: Magical Starry Night