homemade "furniture"

Materials needed:

Large box

different fabrics

poly-fil stuffing

hot glue gun (do the gluing by yourself) or craft glue if the kids do the gluing

box cutter

My kids love to play with their animals and dolls.  They love making "beds" which means every blanket and pillow in our house usually makes it to the floor for the "beds".  So  I thought if we made our own special beds for their toys that would alleviate the problem (at least for a day or two).

First use a box cutter to cut a large box in half.  Since I have two little ones,  I used both parts of the box for two separate beds.  Of course,  I cut the box away from their curious fingers.  

Once the box is cut, the fun can begin.  The kids loved picking their fabrics to cover their boxes.  I had tons in my closet that never made it to all of those wonderful "projects" I had been planning on completing.  Carefully glue one fabric to the outside of the box.

After putting on the outside fabric,  fill your box with stuffing.  You can then put another piece of fabric on and glue to the bottom of the box.  Finish your beds by letting the kids add pieces of fabric and decoration.  Don't worry about getting everything perfectly straight or neat.....let the children do most of the work.  They take pride in their "very own" creations!

sorting

Materials:

Several small objects of same color  ( I got these small baby favors at Dollar Tree)

This lesson was entirely impromptu.  Not planned at all.  I was getting things ready for an upcoming baby shower and keeping my 2 and 3 year olds out of it was impossible.  I decided to let them help me sort the colors.  

I had forgotten what an important math skill this is.  They had so much fun sorting into sets that I think I may go get more after the shower!

What amazed me is I was being so narrow-minded and said lets sort these by color.  My two-year old did this for a while and said,  "Mommy,  we can put all the bears together too."  
There are so many math lessons you could teach with these.....I look forward to sharing them with you!

puzzle fun

Materials:

*Premade boxed puzzle (24-25 pieces)

I know I'm not telling you about anything new and groundbreaking here......but thought I'd remind you about puzzles.

I thought my kids would only want to play with the board puzzles designed for preschoolers.  Imagine my surprise when one day I pulled out a more complicated one for us to work on together.  My two-year old loves putting them together.  I do have to assist her but she puts many of the pieces together all by herself!  She loves bragging to me that she is "very good at puzzle games".

This is a fun thing for the 3 of us to do together for some quality quiet time.