Being creative / My storage secret

I was always a creative person, but not as much as I am today. Being around kids and trying to think of new ideas has brought the creative side out of me. Now somebody can give me a paper towel roll and I think hey I know what I can do with that. As before I would think what in the world you want me to do with that. Why are you giving me a empty paper towel roll.

Now I look at everyday items in a different way. You know those plastic crystal light or tea containers.

The paper comes right off. I store my craft sticks and other craft stuff in them. I write what's in it on the top of the clear cap and stick them in my drawer. There are a number of things you can put in them. I have one for paint brushes, Ink pens, markers, tootsie rolls, suckers, cotton balls. My favorite one is bulletin board borders. I wrap them in a circle. Tie it with a rubber band and they are just the right size to store them in. Also don't throw away the little cups that come in the containers. Those are the perfect size to put small amounts of paint in them. My kids don't make a big mess with them. Then wash them out and stack them back in the containers.

I just got back from browsing at the Dollar tree store we have here in town. If you have one in town and never been to it. Please go. Everything in that store is a 1.00. They have their Halloween stuff out. I found some of the foam craft cut outs. They have bats and pumpkin shapes. The best thing is they were self adhesive. So no glue is involved. I bought a few packs. In each pack they had 140 cutouts. When I went home I stored them individually in a divided storage container.

I labeled it Halloween cutouts and will bring them to work to put in storage drawers. They have different size containers. Mine has 18 holes.

I also bought a few Halloween decorations for my classroom. There was a lot of cute things. Some holidays I buy something for the kids. At Walgreen's they sometimes have those plastic tumbler kid cups 8 for a 1.00. Every holiday they have a different kind. I buy enough for my kids and I buy little tiny things to put in them. At the dollar tree they had lip gloss for girls. they where 3 in a pack. I always buy sets Then separate them in each cup. A lot cheaper that way. So I buy little things for girls and boys. Then I stuff it all in the cups and wrap them with a to: and from: note on them. Just a little something special from me. Next week I will be posting some of the crafts we are doing.

A Little Humor

Just wanted to post a little humor for today. This is from an email I received

Summary of Life

GREAT TRUTHS THAT LITTLE CHILDREN HAVE LEARNED:

1) No matter how hard you try, you can't baptize cats.
2) When your Mom is mad at your Dad, don't let her brush your hair.
3) If your sister hits you, don't hit her back. They always catch the second person.
4) Never ask your 3-year old brother to hold a tomato.
5) You can't trust dogs to watch your food.
6) Don't sneeze when someone is cutting your hair.
7) Never hold a Dust-Buster and a cat at the same time.
8) You can't hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk.
9) Don't wear polka-dot underwear under white shorts.

GREAT TRUTHS THAT ADULTS HAVE LEARNED:

1) Raising teenagers is like nailing jelly to a tree.
2) Wrinkles don't hurt.
3) Families are like fudge..mostly sweet, with a few nuts.
4) Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground.
5) Laughing is good exercise... It's like jogging on the inside.
6) Middle age is when you choose your cereal for the fibre, not the toy.

GREAT TRUTHS ABOUT GROWING OLD

1) Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional.
2) Forget the health food. I need all the preservatives I can get.
3) When you fall down, you wonder what else you can do while you're down there.
4) You're getting old when you get the same sensation from a rocking chair that you once got from a roller coaster.
5) It's frustrating when you know all the answers but nobody bothers to ask you the questions.
6) Time may be a great healer, but it's a lousy beautician.
7) Wisdom comes with age, but sometimes age comes alone.

THE FOUR STAGES OF LIFE:

1) You believe in Santa Claus.
2) You don't believe in Santa Claus.
3) You are Santa Claus.
4) You look like Santa Claus.

SUCCESS:

At age 4 success is . . . not piddling in your pants.
At age 12 success is . . . having friends.
At age 17 success is . having a drivers license.
At age 35 success is . . having money.
At age 50 success is ... . having money.
At age 70 success is . . .. having a drivers license.
At age 75 success is . . having friends.
At age 80 success is . . not piddling in your pants.

Halloween Noodle Necklace

Here is a simple, easy, and cheap craft. A Halloween noodle necklace. I will be doing this with my class tomorrow. I painted the one in the picture. Of course when a child paints, it might look a little different.

All you need for this craft is

Penn pasta noodles

Yarn

Orange and Black paint

Paintbrush

1: I first strung the noodles onto the yarn before I painted them. Depending on the age of your child they might be able to string it on themselves.

2: Paint away!!! Let dry!!!

Back yard pumpkin

I am in love with this pumpkin craft. I found this photo in The October Issue of good housekeeping magazine.

There was no directions, but obviously they used broken old tree branches and hung bat cutouts. I'm guessing they cut out the stem in the pumpkin and made a hole for the Branches.

Next to the pumpkin is candle holders wrapped in pattern paper with a bat cut out in the middle. Then next to the candles are just candy filled cones made out of black paper dollies sitting in a basket.

I will have to try that pumpkin out. I know the store sells mini pumpkins. I will have to get some for the class. and of course our playground has broken branches from the trees. So I can take the kids and let them pick there own small ones for their pumpkins.

Old broken crayons

If you have a bunch of old broken up crayons don't throw them away. You can melt them and make big round colors for small hands. I found this site http://craftydaisies.com/2007/07/26/crayon-nibbles/ Click to follow directions.

Just a few ideas. Since it is October you can melt orange and black to make Halloween colors. Also Christmas colors for Christmas time.

When I tried it I used the broken jumbo colors. They did not melt as well. So I recommend the regular size colors.

Vacation / Halloween Is Coming

Well I did it. The whole daycare was asking what was I waiting for. I finally used some of my vacation days. Thursday (Today), Friday, and Monday I am OFF!!! No screaming kids. No singing wheels on the bus and ABC song. No repeating do you need to potty 100 times. So Including the weekend I have 5 days off. Which will be probably over in a blink of an eye, but I am trying my hardest to enjoy it.

I can not believe it is October already. Halloween is approaching fast. So that means I have to think of new crafts to do with the kids. The hard part is last year I had three year olds. This year I have twos and threes mixed. So I have to think of something fun for the two year old aged group, but not boring for the 3 year olds. It might not look like a big age difference but mentally there is a difference. Some know how to express themselves some do not. I don't think we can go wrong with paint though. I think all kids love to paint. Even though not all adults like to let them paint. Because it can be very messy. Especially with 11 at one time. So one of the crafts I thought up was stringing the penne pasta noodles into a necklace and letting them paint it orange and black for Halloween. Next week that's what we will be doing. It will be a messy art week. I will take pictures of the crafts we do and post them with directions on how we made it.

I have added many different craft sites that I visit. Hopefully my blog will help someone. Either if your a daycare provider, teacher, or just a stay at home mom that's looking for new things to do.

Sickness is in the air

Few of the kids had been out, because they were sick. It is not even winter yet and the kids are getting sick or just look sickly. So of course I always wash their hands and keep them clean, but now I am doing it more than usual. Better safe than sorry, as the saying goes. Also I have been spraying everything with Lysol and cleaning the toys. I'm even taking vitamin c. I'm not a health nut, but I really hate being sick. If your weak in the stomach please turn away now. This afternoon was one of the grosser moments of daycare. We went outside to play again. One boy kept holding himself so I thought he needed to potty. Since the 4 year old teacher was outside she watched my class while I brought him to the bathroom. He went potty had a bowl movement. So we were good to go. Back out side we went. He was playing again until he came up to me holding himself again. Then all of a sudden it happened. Diarrhea was coming out. we hurried to go back inside but more came out and I was not about to go inside on the carpets to bring him in the bathroom. Another teacher helped me strip him down and hose him off with the hose. I then wrapped him in a towel and brought him inside to the bathroom where we have a huge plastic sink type thing where we can stand the kids in. For this exact reason. So I washed him with baby body wash and changed him. Of course I felt bad for him so I gave him a sucker after. But that's all in the life of a child, and sometimes that life is gross.