Buttoning

Some motor skills take some practice to achieve & learning how to button is one of the more difficult ones. In order to assist Gabriel, I created this colorful, fun little felt button exercise. I re-used a linen bag that came with shoes as the base which made it useful two-fold; one as the button exercise & two, as a carry bag. We keep small, quiet puzzles & busy things in there for church. 

 

Materials: 

Felt sheets

Buttons

Needle & Thread

Easy to do- just cut the felt into equal-sized squares... Create button-holes on one piece & sew the buttons on!

<3 Lishie & Gabriel

Visit my Food Blog: DeLish

Tubes in Space...

Tubes in Space

Gabriel is still on a space kick so this is a recent craft I've had prepped & put aside for  a good day. The astronaut template is from a site called DLTK's Growing Together site. It's great! I've gotten other ideas/print outs from this site too (see Elmo tube below!)

Astronaut 

We printed the non-colored astronaut & Gabriel colored it. Then, hand-over-hand, I assisted with the cutting out & gluing of the pieces. We then embellished with extra bits of cast off tinfoil I had kept for this purpose (pieces too little to wrap anything in) & a star sticker.

Then we created a rocket with a paper towel tube. I keep all of my paper towel tubes for crafts. This is simply a red sheet of construction paper glued onto the tube then embellished with star stickers. The point/top is a circle turned into a cone, covered in tinfoil. The bottom "feet" of the rocket are triangle-shape bits of the tinfoil. The background of Space is a black foam square with Dover Publications GLOW-IN-THE-DARK (how cool?)stickers adhered to it!Gabriel had a great time with his space set :) 

Here's the Elmo he & I did when G was about 8 months old:

Elmo

<3 Lishie & Gabriel

Visit my Food Blog: DeLish

Re-Purpose

Yeah, I kind of re-purpose everything, or try to... So much so that when I ask my hubby not to toss something, he says, "What are you going to make with it?" Ha... Re-purposing, or up-cycling is good all around... for the environment, to save money & for the recipient. Here are some re-purposed, up-cycled goodies for Gabriel:

Dish washing soap bottle for Bubbles

Gabriel LOVES bubbles. Anytime is a bubble time with us... inside or outside... I carry a little bottle in my bag at all times! Sesame Street had a Bubble Fest Episode. Part of it was the scienec of finding the right homemade mixture to create the perfect bubbles... This is what they came up with:

Bubble Formula=1/2 cup of dishwashing liquid & 4 cups of warm water
I fill the plastic dish soap bottle then refill a couple of little bottles, here & there.

Produce Holder as Sand Mold

Which one is the re-purposed item? I bet you can tell but does it really matter to your child? Those plastic containers make great sand toys once they are washed with warm, soapy water. This blue one originally housed button mushrooms.

 Paper Towel Tube Robot

I do a lot of crafts with paper towel tubes so I always save them. This one was for a sniffly, sick G... it took 3 paper towel rolls & string & a hole punch...

 Priceless

<3 Lishie & Gabriel

Visit my Food Blog: DeLish