Guest Post

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Hi Everyone!

I'm guest posting over at

JDaniels4's Mom today!

Make sure to come visit us

and see what my post is all about!

Have a great day!

Lori

Reindeer Christmas Craft Guest Post

Hi everyone, 
I'm guest posting today at Cachey Mama's Classroom  for
Wish List Wednesday!


Stop by her blog and check it out!

Special Thank You's

I want to send very special Thank You's to these fabulous ladies for guest posting for me while my family and I were on vacation.

Critters and Crayons

Recycled Scarecrow Craft | Guest Post

HI, this is Amber from over at Living at the Whitehead's Zoo.  I was so excited to get to share a post here at La-La's Home Daycare.   I really wanted to do a post kid friendly , holiday or fall themed , and something I had not seen recently .

As I was brainstorming to come up with the perfect idea for this post I was pulling out my Fall decorations.   When I thought of course a scarecrow.  I love scarecrows and snowmen so if you follow me at the Zoo  you might catch a few more post about them.  Then I thought can I make a scarecrow with things I have around the house without going to the store to buy ten things.

As I brainstormed her is what I decided to use:

• 2 liter bottle empty
• one old child's shirt
• one old child's pair of jeans
• pillow stuffing
• 2 Gatorade bottles empty
• rubber bands
• piece of string
• google eyes
• 1 outgrown sun hat

For those of you who don't know me I have one rowdy two year old little boy so my projects have to go pretty quickly and be very toddler friendly if I want any participation from him.

Here are the steps to make our "recycled scarecrow"

1. Stuff shirt and pants will pillow stuffing (you could use hay or straw, we used stuffing less itchy and on hand) This is the part my 2 year old helped with
2. Once your stuffed tie off the ends of the shirt  with a rubber band
3. stick your 2 liter bottle into the shirt
4. stick 1 Gatorade bottle into each pants leg
5. Stuff the shirt half down into the pants and tie a string around the waste of the pants to secure
6. Secure the Gatorade bottles in the legs with rubber bands around each pants leg also.
7. Add google eyes to your 2 liter
8. Add your hat

So easy!  My little boy thinks we made a friend.  He calls him George.

If you want to make this more kid friendly or for a larger group you could do the following:

Add paint to the 2 liter and have each child shake the bottle to swish the paint around.  This will eventually paint the 2 liter.  If you used orange it would give you more of a pumpkin face.  Have each child bring in something to put on to your scare crow.  You could add patches to the jeans and shirt to have a selection of everyones clothes!  If you wanted to do many scarecrows you could let the children paint the 2 liter bottles into a face.  You can also add straw, or yarn for hair if you like .  We as you can see did not do that.  Most of all just have fun!  I think our George turned out kinda cute.

What do you think?

Thanks for having me by today Lori!

Read.Learn.Explore. | Cooking with Kids | Guest Post

My name is JDaniel4’s Mom and I host a parenting blog called JDaniel4’s Mom. I write about growing by learning, living, listening and living along side my three and a half year old son.

I am so excited about guest posting on La-La’s Home Daycare today. As the host of Read.Explore.Learn., I have been stopping by to visit and comment on the wonderful posts they have shared on my blog carnival. I am very thankful for the opportunity to visit with you.

Today I am going to share a wonderful children’s book called Cupcake I have come across and a cooking project my son and I did based on the book.

The plain vanilla cupcake featured in the book was very friendly and loved being a part of family of cupcakes. Each cupcake had been decorated with frosting and decoration of various kinds except him. He had no trouble with that. He loved being who is was.
When the day came to an end, he was the only one left on the platter. He is devastated that he has been left behind. He starts to wonder if there is something wrong with him.
Thankfully a plain green candle hears him and hops over to try to help him. The candle listens to his frustration about being plain and ordinary. Then the cupcake listens to the how the candle isn’t as fancy as his siblings either. They are various shapes and colors. This leaves them both sad.
The candle is a real problem solver and he decides to cheer the cupcake up by giving him various toppings like spaghetti, pickles, and pancakes. Each of the toppings he suggests is just not right.
Finally the candle hops on the cupcake to clear away a nut left behind from a topping test . The cupcakes realizes the candle belongs on top for now. The candle on the other hand thinks maybe they will try other things tomorrow. He believes a potato would look dandy.
I love that a plain cupcake and plain candle are just right. Nothing fancy needs to be on the outside to make them better or more appealing. There is an amazing life lesson in this revelation.

After discussing this lesson, we decided to make plain white cupcakes with white frosting.

JDaniel  helped with the mixing.



While I put the batter in the liners, JDaniel sampled it in his own tasting bowel. If I give him a tasting bowl, he doesn’t dip his hand in the mixing bowl until I am done.



Despite the knowledge that plain cupcakes are just right, we decorated ours with sprinkles.



I think they turned out well!


Deirdre Smith
JDaniel4's Mom
http://www.jdaniel4smom.com

Crayon Leaf Printing | Guest Post

Guest Post from Critters and Crayons

The Critters And Crayons CRAFTLESS Series isn’t about showing you the beautiful things we can make. It’s about showing how much fun we have together despite my total lack of artistic ability. My 2 and 4 year old put me to shame in the arts department. When you’re CRAFTLESS, crafting with your kids is about the experience and the laughs. Anything beautiful is a happy coincidence. We try to recycle, re-purpose and re-use the things we have around the house.

It's now Fall. It's still really hot. We've been wanting to walk around the little pond by our home after pre-school for many days now, but it's still hovering over a hundred. The good news (sorta) was that today, we were three minutes late past the 15 minute grace period and were locked out of our Montessori classroom.
It doesn't matter why we were late. I knew the rules when I signed up. Those are the breaks, sometimes.
But, for the record, the truckers on the road didn't cooperate with my hasty timeline. And my son had been up all night unable to swallow because he'd contracted Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease, probably on a playground somewhere. The canker sores on his mouth had spread to his throat. A rash had assaulted his bum and the bottoms of his feet. There were other unpleasant things I won't describe. He was generally without much joy until the symptoms subsided.
The good news is that we had made it through the worst, most restless, too-painful-to-breathe-or-swallow night and he was feeling better. So, on the day my daughter was locked out of school because I failed to leave the house on time to avoid waking him from the sleep I knew he needed, he was pretty functional. This would be a good day together.
So, we went to the pond in the morning, when it was a cool 90 degrees. Yes, I mean that. Ninety degrees is a veritable cold front around here. Homeless people wear blankets, I swear.
They took their baskets to collect leaves that they would press and imprint:

We had a lot of fun looking at all the patterns. We tried our best to find leaves that had already fallen but that weren't too brittle to color over.

And, we came home and spread out our fare.
The kids helped to lay the leaves in pages of heavy books for pressing.

We ate lunch. We went to see the doc about my son's Hand, Foot and Mouth ailment. We rushed back to change into a leotard and make it to gymnastics. And, then we rushed home for dinner. When we got back, the kids darted for the books to see if the leaves were flat now. They were.

All we needed now were crayons (in that nifty travel roll my friend made for us. You can buy one here), and some tracing paper. If the work area you're using is uneven like ours is, it's a good idea to also put a coloring book or something under the leaf you will imprint so that it's resting on a smooth surface.)

And that was it. We just colored back and forth over the leaves and watched the outlines and veins and seams emerge like magic. (See how that crayon roll opens up. These things make awesome gifts.)

This is a very simple activity that helps our kids learn to appreciate the beauty and diversity of nature.

She did that all by herself!

Here are some of the other things we made:





This craft took us the whole day to finish with all the steps. There are special bonding and teachable moments during each phase.
The kids were excited to move to the next task each time we completed one.
I think I was supposed to feel punished for not getting my daughter to school on time, but I'm thinking of framing one of these babies and attaching a Thank You note for giving us such a wonderful chance to get to the pond in cool sunlight hours. :)
Some people might say our imprints came out too well to be craftless, and I respond that we got pretty lucky with this craft experiment. This is a really hard craft to mess up. The leaves are already so beautiful and you don't have to color in the lines. It's the perfect craft for The Craftless.
Happy Crafting! I hope it's good. But, if it's not. That's okay.
If you do something like this, go ahead and shoot your photos to crittersandcrayons@gmail.com. We'll add them to the C&C Fan Craftless Craft and Hopeful Cooking Photo Album on Facebook!