F Week- Homemade Fish (or Any Shape) Crackers

So, Pinterest has become my new source of inspiration and a great way to organize and remember all the projects I want to do with Trip (and plenty of other non-letter-of-the-week-related crafts and recipes). When I saw a pin for homemade whole wheat goldfish, I knew I had to make them. 

All of the ingredients just go in the food processor,

 and a few minutes later, you can roll out the dough and get to cutting.  I had intended to hand-cut lots of fish and footballs, but that was way more tedious than I had expected. I ended up making a few of those, but mostly made flowers, Fs, and faces since I had cookie cutters for those shapes.

After a little baking time, you have some wonderfully crisp and cheesy crackers.

They were so delicious that Trip, Daddy, and I devoured almost all of them that afternoon. Trip made quick work of the last ones the next day. They were truly wonderful and will be included in our letter of the week activities again soon.

F Week- Flubber

The highlight of F week was definitely flubber. Trip is in love with the stuff (as are all of the adults around here who have played with it) and asked to get it out several times a day.

I followed a recipe that my college early childhood professor had given us in class all those years ago. I've had it neatly tucked away in my recipe binder and it was so fun to pull it out to make for my own child.

It's so simple- 

• Mix 1 1/2 cups water and 2 cups white glue in a container. 
• In another container, mix 1 1/3 cups water and 3 teaspoons borax. 
• Mix the two together and stir until the flubber forms. It may be a little stringy at first, but it will quickly form a nice rubbery ball.
• Store in an airtight container when not in use.

What you see in these pictures is half of this recipe. A half recipe was plenty for us, but if you're making flubber for more than one or two children, I would suggest making a whole recipe.

What a fun texture!

It's fun to poke with a fork and cut with a butter knife.

We also had lots of fun punching it- it has a great rubbery texture. Fish wasn't so sure about all of the punching as he got jostled around.

We left the fork in the bowl for a few minutes, and got a great fork print.

Hand prints

and cookie cutter prints are fun as well.

One afternoon, we were letting it slowly ooze out of our hands and Trip got an amazing amount of flubber to hang from his arm.

If your children are two or older, you have to make flubber for them. It's such a fun pastime and will keep them entertained for hours.

F Week- Fish!

Trip got a very special surprise for F week. We have been talking about getting him a fish for months now, but have never made it to the pet store when we have been in a larger town. Daddy had to drive the 100 miles to the nearest town that has a pet store on some other business, and he decided to make the extra stop to get Trip a fish. Fish arrived home after Trip was in bed, so the next morning, he was waiting on the table when Trip sat down to eat breakfast.

Trip has enjoyed having Fish next to his place at the table. He especially likes to feed him his fish food each morning. So far, he has been kind enough not to share any of his food, utensils, crayons, playdough, or flubber with Fish.

F Week- The List

F week was lots of fun. I chose F as our letter last week because it was the beginning of the NFL football season as well as the first games for our town's high school and middle school, so we have been a little football crazy around here. From now through January, our living room will be full of kids and adults enjoying football games each Sunday afternoon and Monday night. Trip loves to watch football and try to play it, so focusing on the letter F seemed appropriate. 

This week, look for these fantastically fabulous activities:

• our new friend, Fish
• flubber
• homemade fish crackers
• F-themed hide and seek bowl
• football team matching cards and homemade football book
• funny face magnets
• colored fizz and bath fizz
• growing foam farm animals

You can see my brainstorming list here.

P Week- Postcards and Packages

As a special treat for P week, I asked a few family members to send Trip a postcard. He was so thrilled to go to the mailbox and find something just for him! He got two postcards from Grandpa Noni in Oregon with P things from their house, a pelican from Gram and PawPaw in Florida, and a pretty picture from Missouri from Uncle G, Aunt T, and Cooper.

 

 

Trip's cousin Cooper is doing a letter of the week too, and they just happened to be doing P the same week as us, so we had a great time exchanging packages for the boys.

Trip got a package with pictures, a plate with pumpkins on it,

colored pencils, and paints.

The pencils had to be dumped on the floor right away,

and then tried on the plate, the packaging paper,

and the pictures.

Then, we had to try out the paints, of course. Thanks, Aunt T for the great package. Trip was thrilled to get it and has been enjoying everything you sent!

I had lots of fun putting together Cooper's package. We sent a placemat, magnetic pompoms, paint with water pages, pictures, pool and farm I spy, pictures, a pumpkin book, a tiny puzzle, a pencil, a pen, and some foam letters.

P Week- Hide and Seek Bowl

After a week off from a hide and seek bowl for I week, Trip was excited to get back to the "towel game," as he calls it (because we always put a towel on the floor to contain the pasta and objects that come out of the bowl).

This week I included:

• a penguin
• a panda
• a pink pencil
• a purple pencil
• a potato
• a paper punch
• a pumpkin
• pencil paper
• a puzzle with palm trees
• a pig
• prince and princess finger puppets
• a pen
• foam, pipe cleaner, and magnetic Ps

all covered in our alphabet pasta.

P Week- Magnetic Pompoms

When I saw the idea of magnetic pompoms on Fun & Engaging Activities for Toddlers, I put pompoms on my shopping list right away. All you need to make them are pompoms, magnets, and glue. I used some magnets I had received to promote a new product and just cut them up to be small enough to fit on the back of the pompoms. Since the pompoms are light, the magnets don't have to be super strong, so you can use magnets you get for free from promotions and businesses (just make sure they're not too flimsy). I used hot glue, but a tacky craft glue or super glue would work too.

Trip loves to play with these simple toys. I printed out some letters for him to put pompoms on, knowing that at 25 months, he wouldn't be ready to just put them on the letter yet. He liked rolling the pompoms on the cookie sheet and watching them stick to it.

Then, he had lots of fun dumping everything on the floor and doing it all over again.

Eventually, he will get to the point where he can put a pompom on each circle to form the letters. I found the letters we used from Making Learning Fun. This could be a fun activity to do in the car and the printables could also be covered with stickers, bingo markers, or circular magnets.

When we first got these out, Trip saw the large yellow pompom and said, "Big Bird!" The red one was Elmo, the blue one Cookie, and the green one Oscar. Another yellow was Zoe and a blue was Super Grover. The white one was a snowball. I love to see him make these great connections!