I was reading an article today about the value of solo play for children.  I found it to be very interesting.  Of course as parents we know that it is important to spend time with our children.  But, it is also important for children to learn how to entertain themselves.  The age of the child will determine how long you would expect your child play alone.  According to the article at 6 months old a child may be content by himself for 5 minutes; at 12 months, for 15 minutes; at 18 months, about 15 to 20 minutes; and at 2 years, for about half an hour.  Check out the entire article right here.

Last night we were going to have pizza and then we realized that the pizza sauce we had wasn’t any good anymore. So, I found a recipe for some pizza sauce that was really good, so I had to share it.

Ingredients
2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
2 cloves garlic
3 tablespoons dried parsley flakes
4 teaspoons dried onion flakes
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
2 cups water

Directions
1. Combine tomato paste, garlic, parsley flakes, onion, oregano, basil and water in 2 quart saucepan. Cook over medium high heat until mixture boils.
2. Reduce heat to low and simmer 10 minutes.
3. Cool a little and spread on your pizza crust and proceed with remainder of your toppings.

When I made this I actually doubled it so that I could have extra sauce to freeze.  We used one last night and I put the extra in Ziploc bags to freeze for future pizzas. Although the recipe doesn’t call for it, we added some salt and some garlic salt to it for some extra flavor. It was really good and so easy to make.

In keeping with the theme of Spring I did an Umbrella Painting project with Hailey yesterday.

What you’ll need:

• -paper plate cut in the shape of an umbrella
• -card stock in the shape of a J for the handle
• -finger paint
• -smock
• -a place set up to put the project to dry when you’re done

Let’s get started!

Hailey had never finger painted before, so she was a little unsure of touching it at first.

Soon she was enjoying herself.

Finally she really got into it and got both hands covered in paint.

While Hailey was painting I kept a little dialog going with her.  I started out with some simple questions like, “What are we making,” “What color is this” etc.  And then I moved on to some more open ended questions.  Open ended questions are important because they enhance your child’s language.  Rather than a simple answer they have to think about their response.  Some good open ended questions to ask might include “What does it feel like,” “Why do you think the red and yellow turned orange” and ”What do you see.”  With a toddler you aren’t going to expect complex answers but you are still helping to expand their vocabulary and thinking skills.

Hanging the pieces up to dry.

The finished umbrella.

Oh my goodness, I have been neglecting this blog.  I was doing really good there for a little while and now I haven’t posted in several days.  The weather has been nice and we’ve been pretty busy being out and about. 

But, I realized that Mother’s Day is only three weeks away, so I thought I should post some ideas for Mother’s Day activities to do.  Of course I won’t tell you what I’m doing with Hailey for her grandmothers because I have no idea yet what we’re going to do then it won’t be a surprise.

Personally I love the homemade gifts from children for any occasion, so I am going to share some links with you to some sites that have cute ideas that your children can make.

• ChildFun Family Website- has a list of over 20 different activities.  They also have some Mother’s Day Poems.
• You can find many activities for Mother’s Day on the A to Z Teacher Stuff site. 
• At Family Corner you can find a variety of crafts, stories, recipes, etc for Mother’s Day.
• Kaboose has some adorable projects your kids can do for Mother’s Day.
• You can find cards, poems, crafts and more at DLTK.
• Free Kids Crafts has some really cute ideas for Mother’s Day.

There is a lot more out there, but I don’t want to overwhelm you with too many choices.  If you find a really spectacular site with Mother’s Day crafts please feel free to let me know and I’ll add it to the list.

This week we have started focusing on the letter B and we will continue to focus on it for two weeks. 

When I work on teaching Hailey a letter I try not to actually “teach” but rather look for those teachable moments.  When she brings me a book we can look for the letter B.  When she wants to color I can have a paper ready with the letter B on it and talk about the B while she colors. 

While we are grocery shopping I can point out all of the letters that are around us and make special note of whatever our focus letter is for that week. 

I have some foam letters and we play a hiding game with them.  I hide the letter and then say, “Let’s see if you can find the letter B.” 

There are endless possibilities for teaching letters.  For me, I think the important thing for toddlers is to have fun so that they think it is all a game.  Look for those teachable moments rather than trying to teach an actual lesson.  The lesson you are ready to teach when those teachable moments occur are the ones your child will remember.