Easter Fun With Kids! Let’s Celebrate!

Areyou looking for fun ways to celebrate Easter with your kids?  Here are some easy, fun ideas to help you!

1. Easter Egg Puzzle

I love this idea!! Double the fun!  In each plastic Easter Egg, you hide a puzzle piece.  Once the kids have found all of the eggs, they then have to work together to complete the puzzle.  As an added bonus, you’ll definitely know if there are any eggs that weren’t found..lol!

2. Confetti Eggs

This is a homemade tutorial from mynameissnickerdoodle.com.  If you’re short on time or not into doing this DIY, I found them at Walmart for $2.07 a pack (dozen).   They look like real eggs so if you pretend to break one on someone’s head they’ll have a  brief moment of freaking out before realizing it’s confetti.

3.Felt Bunny Ears

How adorable are these bunny ears?!?! The best part is they aren’t super complicated and will make a great addition to Easter outfits and pictures!

4. Ufufy Easter Eggs

Disney Family has some super cute egg decoration ideas!! Add a little construction paper and magic!  Wondering what Ufufy is?  It’s explained in this “Everything You Need To Know.”

5. 3D Paper Plate Easter Basket

This paper plate craft is easy and fun to do with kids of all ages.  It’s also a great gift for Grandma or Grandpa on Easter too!

6. Toilet Roll Bunnies 

Here’s a fun idea using toilet paper rolls and some construction paper!

7. Easter Bunny Banner

This easy, adorable and cheap banner will make a great additonal to your Easter decorations! Just some paper, a little cutting, and some string and you’re ready to celebrate!

8. The Easter Bunny Moves In

This is an adorable idea!  A door for the Easter Bunny to have access to your yard.

9. Jello Eggs

These Jello Eggs are the perfect substituion for those who aren’t into deviled eggs..an adorable one at that!

10. Follow the Bunny Tracks

The kids will get a kick out of this bunny trail showing where the Easter Bunny has been!

Bonus!

Download an Easter Matching Worksheet for some more Easter Fun courtesy of Education.com.!  It’s a great way to not only help kids learn some new words and hand-eye coordination skills!   For more great reading and educational resources check out Education.com!

What’s your favorite Easter Activites?

10 Kid Friendly St. Patrick’s Day Food Ideas

Looking for some kid-friendly St. Patrick’s Day food ideas? You’re in luck! I’ve rounded up 10 favorites for you to check out!

1. Fruit Tart 

Check out this Fruit Tart, it’s healthy, colorful, and fits perfectly into St. Patrick’s Day Theme!

2. Lucky Charms Milk Shots

Green Milk on St. Patrick’s Day? Yes!! An easy, fun breakfast or snack!

3. Green Pancakes!  (Gluten & Dairy Free)

Healthy and green!  Score!

4. Healthy Fruit Skewers

Fun and healthy, these fruit skewers are easy for kids to hold and enjoy!

5. Pot of Gold Chex Mix

Easy and sure to be a hit!

6. Mango Orange Green Shake

Smoothies are a great way to sneak in healthy nutrients to kids diets.  What better way than a fun green one on St. Patrick’s Day?

7. Pot of Gold Pretzel Treats

These are adorable! Kids are sure to find them awesome!

8. Jello Parfait

What’s a kid’s line up of treats without Jello?

9. Whoopie Pies

Cute, easy to make whoopie pies!  Using Pillsbury sugar cookies makes this super easy and quick!

10. Crème de Menthe Brownies

These might be my favorite :)!

What do you think?  Any of these that you are ready to try?  Let me hear your thoughts in the comments!

More St. Patrick’s Day ideas!

25 Interview Questions to Ask Your Child

Interviewing your child can be quiet entertaining. This is a great activity to do when the weather isn’t good and you’re stuck indoors.   Record their answers and date them, it’s a lot of fun to go back later and see their thoughts and replies. Not only can this be very entertaining but enlightening as well. It’s a great way to open the lines of communication with your child.  It can help you understand who they are and where their interest and curiosities lie.  As parents, we typically know a lot about their interest and curiosities but sometimes they’ll surprise you or throw in something new.

You can also pick a couple of these questions just to start dinner conversations or topics while driving in the car. Who knows where you will wind up once you get going!

1. What’s your favorite food?
2. What color do you like?
3. What does Mommy always say?
4. If you could go anywhere where would you choose?
5. What’s your favorite tv show?
6. What’s your favorite color?
7. What’s your favorite book?
8. Who is your favorite book character?
9. What time of year do you like best?
10. What does Daddy always say?
11. What is your favorite song?
12. What is something that makes you happy?
13. What is something that makes (Mommy or Daddy) happy?
14. How do I make you laugh?
15. What kind of work do I do?
16. If you had 3 wishes what would they be?
17. What makes you sad?
18. How old are you?
19. What are you really good at?
20. Hold old is Mommy?
21. How old is Daddy?
22. What’s your favorite thing to do with your (brother or sister)?
23. What do you want to be when you grow up?
24. What’s your favorite animal?
25. Tell me how you’d plan your best day ever.

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Great Book Ideas to Check Out With Your Kids…Including an E-Book Selection

*This post includes affiliate links, meaning if you decide to purchase something from it I may receieve a small comission at no additional charge to you.*

Books can make you laugh, take you on an adventure, and teach you something…sometimes all in one.  Here are some great kids books that you should check out! There are some of my family’s absolute favorites.  I’m sure you’ll notice a bit of a trend, however, if you’re a parent you’ll understand if you’ve had kids that are 4 and 6.

You’ll notice that Pete the Cat is by far a big favorite.  He’s funny, entertaining and there’s always a good lesson behind his stories which I love. “The Book With No Pictures” is a must for every child I think.  It’s funny, creative, and uses a lot of imagination.  With any of the books below, you won’t go wrong though!

1. The Book With No Pictures– B.J. Novak
2. Pete the Cat’s and His Four Groovy Buttons– Eric Litwin and James Dean
3. Pete the Cat and The Missing Cupcakes– James & Kimberly Dean
4. If You Give A Mouse A Cookie– Laura Numeroff
5. If You Give A Dog A Donut– Laura Numeroff
6. If You Give A Moose A Muffin– Laura Numeroff
7. If You Give A Cat A Cupcake– Laura Numeroff
8. The Cat in the Hat– Dr. Suess
9. The Kissing Hand– Audrey Penn
10. The Pigeon Wants a Puppy! Mo Willems
11. The Pigeon Needs a Bath! Mo Willems
12. Any Curious George Book
13. There’s a Bear On My Chair by Ross Collins
14. Please Mr. Panda by Steve Antony
15. I’ll Wait Mr. Panda by Steve Antony
16. Pete the Cat and the Cool Cat Boogie– James & Kimberly Dean
17. Any Pete the Cat book– I could list them all. He’s one of our favorites! We have a lot of different ones.
18. Iggy Peck, Architect by Andrea Beaty
19. Click, Clack, Moo Cows that Type by Doreen Cronin
20. Knuffle Bunny A Cautionary Tale by Mo Willems

Great Books Available Through The epic! App!

If you use the epic! app, these are some great books that are available.  I love this app because we can try out books (without having to visit the library) and we can read them as much as we’d like without having to worry about where we can store them. There are a ton of books that you can get through epic, even ones that will read to your child.  They have fiction and non-fiction books, as well as instructional videos available.  The books below are some of our favorites that we’ve checked out on epic! There are these and more great kids books that you should check out through the app!

1. Bernstein Bears and The Neighborly Skunk
2. The Octonauts & The Sea of Shade
3. Thomas the Tank Engine
4. Clifford The Big Red Dog
5. The Magic Schoolbus
6. Discovery Series- Baby Monkeys, Baby Dogs, Baby elephants & more!
7. National Geographic Little Kids Look and Learn- Opposites!
8. Bear Says Thank You by Michael Dahl
9. The Itsy Bitsy Spider
10. Brands We Know- LEGO by Sarah Green (This book is cool for kids that are a little older but my kids love Legos though and found the information very interesting)
11. National Geographic Kids- Amelia Earhart
12. Dino-Dancing by Lisa Wheeler
13. Follow That Fraggle! By Louise Gikow

Books are a GREAT way to take an adventure but stay in doors!  Do your kids have a favorite book? Share them with us in the comments!

Looking for More? Check out this post!

40 Cold Weather Activities with Kids

It can be a bummer in the winter when you’re stuck inside because it’s too cold to go out. We’ve recently had a cold snap here in Florida that has made us put on closed toe shoes!  Here are some ideas to help you prevent from going stir crazy and getting cabin fever.  These are some fun, easy ideas to do right at home! Not only are they entertaining but a lot are educational as well!

*This post includes affiliate links which means that if you choose to purchase using one of them I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you*

The List:

1. Play dress up. Pirates & Princesses or Superheroes & Villans are always a hit at my house.
2. Create something cool with Legos. The possibilities are endless!
3. Finger paint – for really little ones you can do this with yogurt!
4. Organize Pictures- The kids can help! If your kids are like mine they’ll love looking through memories.
5. Use sticky notes and let the kids write captions for family photos (Just make sure they don’t write on the sticky note on top of the picture).
6. If you have a pet, put them in another room- hide a treat and then let them out to see if they can find it. If you have a dog and it’s like mine you can also hide their ball and then ask the dog where the ball is so they search. (Warning- There could be 1 or 2 side effects…some dogs think they can talk and will look and bark at you when you ask. The other is that you may be playing ball  for the rest of the day or your pet will drive you nuts)
7. Learn how to fold some easy origami
8. Make paper airplanes
9. Play with water beads (Check out this water beads, ice, and fake snow activity!)
10. Have your kids make up a show and then record it.
11. Interview your kids and record their answers. You could do a range of interview questions. 12. Record your child explaining how to do something. This could be something like- making a food item (cookies, sandwich, pizza, ect), putting a toy together, brushing their teeth, anything that has steps to it.  For example, first you take the dough out, then you put the sauce on  it… It is entertaining and it helps them learn to express themselves and think through a process.
12. Let your child do product reviews and record them. This can be of anything. Their favorite toy, a tv show, laundry detergent, anything that they can give their opinion on. Have them tell what it does or what it is about and what they think about it.  You may be surprised at the thoughts they have on some everyday products. Encourage them to sit up straight and make eye contact.  It’s good practice and will help them be more comfortable as they get into school and have to do reports in front of people.
13. Learn something new! There are lots of free online classes that you can watch together or you may have something new you can teach them.
14. Make Forts
15. Popcorn & a Movie- You could choose a new one or a classic to introduce them to! I also like to do this with old tv shows like “The Little Rascals” or “I Love Lucy”.
16. Bake something
17. Have a Dance Party
18. Exercise- Babble  has some great suggestions
19. Make Hot Chocolate and Tell Stories

Read Books- Need some ideas? (Book List) 

1. Play Games- a couple of our favorites are “Pop the Pig” and “Shark Bite”. I especially like these two because they are great for young kids. We enhance these by incorporating questions, or making them use a specific word in a sentence, or spelling a word before rolling the dice (for my 6 yr old, my 4 yr old likes to attempt it too though. Let’s just say he spells dog  and cat a lot…lol). Here’s a cute bowling game from Babble also!
2. Organize something. It’s a great time to go through clothes and closets to take out what they’ve out grown. You can also organize books, your cabinets, or pictures and let the kids help.
3. Have a Tea Party
4. Make puppets! Use paper bags, or socks…be creative!
5. Magic Carpet Ride – You can do this if you have a rug on your floor , or you can even throw down a blanket to use. Then go on your adventure!
6. Make slime– You can just make slime or add to it!
7. Paint Rocks– any rock will do, we like to get river rocks from Lowes or Home Depot
8. Hide and Seek- Need a moment of silence? LOL This is a great way to break up the day!
9. What’s missing? Get some objects (toys, blocks, picture frames, ect) have the kids look at them and then have them go out of the room or close their eyes and remove one of the objects. They then have to figure out what’s missing. Then it’s their turn!
10. Sensory Play with Rainbow Rice!
11. Be an Engineer using straws and playdoh
12. Play- If (This)….Then (That). Give a situation, for example- If “I open all the windows” Then “it will get really cold in here!”  My son’s favorite question is always If “you give a mouse a cookie” Then “he will ask for some milk!”
13. Make your own snow!  If you’re somewhere like me in Florida that never gets snow, this is SUPER cool!
14. Make cards, or write letters to family members just to say hello and mail them.
15. Play Simon Says
16. Play Musical Chairs- If you have Alexa she can play with you just say “Alexa, start Musical Chairs”
17. Teach the kids how to separate laundry (My 6 year old is sooo into this! It’s her job and she gets upset if someone does it for her…lol!)
18. Have a race with toy cars- you can improvise and make your own ramp or race just race them across the floor.
19. Play I Spy – This can help practice colors and shapes. It’s a great way to help your child remember them and recognize them without it feeling like work.

A Review Of Loog Guitars

*I received a gift card to put towards this purchase from Share-a-sale, however, the thoughts and opinions are my own*

I purchased a Loog Guitar for my son’s birthday.  Last year on Christmas we had gotten a Schoenhut piano for him and my daughter to share and they love it.  He also has some bongos that he loves to beat on and sing songs.  There’s a lot of guitar players in my family and it seemed only natural that he would love it too.

Quality kids guitars aren’t easy to find.  That’s what I love about the Loog! The Loog Guitar is a child-sized, 3-string guitar that tunes like a regular guitar, plays like a regular guitar and even sounds like a regular guitar.  The really cool thing is that learning finger placements for the Loog will translate over to a six string as well!

My son just turned 4.  He carries this guitar around everywhere!! He’s so excited about learning and makes up songs and sings them while he plays.  His songs sometimes go like this-

“I’m grumpy, I’m grumpy, my mommy makes me go to bed, I’m grumpy”

So maybe he’s got a career in country music? Just Kidding! Seriously though, it’s been proven that music offers many benefits to kids.

Music stimulates the brain regions that involve reward and emotion.  It also teaches kids to listen.  It’s been shown that it also helps them pick up foreign languages and detect speech in noises.  Not to mention, kids who study music are also shown to have higher SAT scores.

Six Benefits of Music Lessons from Parents Magazine.

10 Ways Music Benefits Kids- from sheknows.com

25 ‘Note’ worthy Benefits Of Playing A Musical Instrument

Teaching Kids About Playing Guitar

Loog Guitars come with flash cards that show finger placement as well as an app you can download for iPhone or iPad! The app has finger placement and games

The really cool thing is that does sound like a guitar and is made well overall.  I wish I had ordered the strap to go with it, I think it would come in handy.  That will be my next purchase with Loog!

Have you tried a Loog Guitar or another instrument with your child?