Vroomiz

When it is cold or rainy - we are always looking for somewhere with indoor fun to enjoy.  This past January we discovered Vroomiz - a Kid's cafe and playroom that we have frequented for playdates many times.  

 Instead of a sand box, they have a "brown rice box".  

It is amazing and probably where we spend most of our time.

Why didn't they have places like this when I was a kid?! :)

Marc sings!

This is from November 6th... a little late, but much too cute not to share with you! Enjoy!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

We LOVE playgroup crafts!

Tomorrow we are reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar at playgroup and found LOTS of fun craft ideas on Pinterest to try out.  I opted to try two of them - both with paint, but one using your toddler's hands, and the other your toddler's feet.  

Marc and I tried out the hand craft first - creating a caterpillar out of Marc's hands.  He had a lot fun painting his hand and stamping the page - but this was very mom-intensive to keep it from getting too messy.. perhaps I wouldn't have been too worried about the paint if I put down newspapers or something to protect the floor.

We thought this caterpillar was SUPER cute.. even though Marc got over-zealous with the hand stamping and created a hump-back caterpillar.  Oh well, we still love it!

Verdict: This craft is possible to replicate at playgroup - but will need some serious guidance from adults. It is quick and a fun way to remember the story.

The Caterpillar Foot craft was a little more involved..

Marc laughed as I tickled his tows with the paint brush - and didn't quite understand what was going on when we placed his toes on the paper (there was a lot of paint, so we made several caterpillars). I definitely could have explained what we were doing better to him!  Marc really enjoyed this- and wanted to do it to his baby sister, Emmalyn, as well.. :) She definitely had no clue what was going on!

While we waited for the toe caterpillars to dry, Marc and I had fun painting leaves and fruit for the caterpillars to eat. 

Then I helped him paint the faces and feet on the caterpillars...

...and we continued to paint while we let it all dry.

Then I let him practice cutting while I cut out the caterpillars, fruit and leaves - pulled out the hole punch and then put it all together on another piece of paper.

Verdict: This craft was way too involved for a toddler - so finding a simpler way to reproduce it at playgroup will be necessary.  Having paper with fruit or leaves already on it to let the kids color and then using paint or a stamp to put the toes on and draw the face and feet would make it do-able.  

Looking forward to sharing this one tomorrow!

Are You My Mother?

The Seoul International Playgroup has resumed for the school year, with a new format. The leadership team is taking turns planning and leading playgroup to allow for mom's to miss when needed (kid is sick, appointment, etc).

Playgroup usually follows this pattern:
Free Play
Welcome Song
Circle time (Bible verse, songs, story time)
Snack
Free Play
Craft
Free Play
Clean up

We try to coordinate the activities for the day - usually surrounding whatever book we have chosen to read.

Today was my first playgroup of the year - and my first time to lead the group. We read the book, "Are You My Mother"- and did a bird nest craft to go along with it.  Thank-you, Pintrest, for your unfailing supply of craft ideas.

To prepare, I drew a picture of a Mother bird and a baby bird on thick (cardboard) material and cut it out.  I then traced it onto other colored pages (you could have older toddlers/preschoolers do this!) and cut them out so they would be ready to use.  Using a paper cutter, I cut thin strips of brown construction paper and then further cut them down to a fourth of the length of the paper to make twigs for the birds nest.  

Marc had a great time using a glue stick on the paper plate, placing the "nest" material on the plate -he opted out of the brown "twigs" - and then putting the baby bird in the nest with the mommy.

Of course, it was not complete until he colored the birds.  

This craft was so easy to do and the final product is so cute!  Marc was so proud of his handiwork that it was the first thing he showed his Daddy when he came home from work.

 We are looking forward to more fun crafts to come!

Busy Bag Exchange

 Last Spring, a friend emailed a bunch of mothers with toddlers asking if they wanted to be a part of a Busy Bag exchange over the summer.  She assigned us all different reusable craft projects to put together that would occupy and teach our toddlers. A lot of the busy bag ideas came from here.  I enthusiastically signed up to be a part of the exchange - and, of course, I waited until the last minute to complete the project. (I don't recommend this - it takes longer than you think it will!)
 I was assigned a cupcake busy bag and instructed to make enough for the 20 moms that signed up (myself included).

We used the guidelines from Money Saving Mom and got to work tracing and cutting out felt.  

It was a lot of cutting! I definitely enlisted help for this part!

We finally got all the bags put together and ready for the exchange.

Wouldn't YOU want to make one of these cupcakes?!

We got together this past weekend to swap busy bags - what fun!  Everyone gave plenty of "ooohhs and awwws" for each of the crafts, excited about the fun projects to do with their kids!  It turned into a great social event for me, and I came home bearing a huge bag full of "presents" for Marc.  We are definitely looking forward to getting to all of them. Below are a couple of the other projects we got from other Moms (matching color pom-pom balls with color dots on the left and making a shape - or whatever we want - on sandpaper with yarn on the right).  I have pictures of my son playing with them, but they would be inappropriate to post since we are potty training this week. :) It has actually been perfect timing for this busy bag exchange - giving me lots to do with Marc while keeping a close eye on him and the potty.  Fighting!

Elmo's Birthday

Today at our house, it was Elmo's birthday.  If you ask Marc, Elmo turned 2 years old.
Lucky for me, I had a 2 handy from my birthday a few weeks ago.

We had a marvelous time inviting guests,

 singing to Elmo, 

wearing party hats,

and eating "cake" (chocolate zucchini bread).

Marc was about to dig into his cake when he looked up at me and said, "Ice pream! Need Ice Pream!"
A boy after my own heart.

Ok, Marc - let's get some ice cream.. never mind that it is still morning. (He doesn't have any idea about the concept of a "treat" yet - in terms of asking for something sweet after dinner - anyway.)
I pull it out and he responds with a hearty "woo-hoo!"

Here's to you, Elmo!

a lesson in camouflage

One of Marc's favorite places in our house is the bathtub.  Jarrod and I have to spell the word if we talk about it and are not ready to act on the consequences of saying it... Marc running into the bathroom striping off his clothes and repeating, "bathtub! bathtub!" :) He LOVES the bath.

Recently, he had discovered a love of finger-painting, as well, which always lands him in the bathtub (bonus!).  But in an effort to expose my kid to a variety of educational and fun experiences, we took the opportunity during Spring Break to make another attempt at finger painting - with Daddy at home to take care of Emma while Mommy monitors Marc's mischief. And after painting four pieces of paper - and the table - with our home-made finger paint, Jarrod suggested that he finish using the paint in the bathtub (seeing as though he needed a bath anyway).  Marc was delighted.. he got to finger paint. In the bathtub. Double bonus!  So much so that every time I tried to turn on the water to start cleaning up, he would say, "no", until all the paint was gone.  It really was a brilliant idea - a way to contain the mess and let it explode at the same time... and during this experience, I discovered that Marc has an innate talent for camouflage. :)

camouflage |ˈkaməˌflä zh; -ˌfläj|nounthe disguising of military personnel, equipment, and installations by painting or covering them to make them blend in with their surroundings : on the trenches were pieces of turf, which served for camouflage |[as adj. ] camouflage nets.verb [ trans. ] (often be camouflaged)hide or disguise the presence of (a person, animal, or object) by means of camouflage : the war area had to be camouflaged with mud | figurativegrievances should be discussed, not camouflaged.

First: Survey your surroundings and apply a base coat. If you can't blend in with the surroundings, make the surroundings match you! 

Next: Make sure to cover your entire face. This may or may not involve the inside of your mouth. In which case, make sure that your camouflaging material is made out of flour, sugar, and water.Finally: Ensure that all articles of clothing are also well disguised to blend in with the surroundings. 

Since this is clearly only an exercise - with limited time and materials - Marc had to stop before completely camouflaging the tub and himself.   That's okay. You get the picture.

Obviously, cleaning up after yourself is a HUGE incentive for future such experiences. Good work.

And that, my friends, is a well-earned bubble bath.