Making Traffic Lights Preschool Craft

My son and I have a routine. In the morning he has free time, he can play as he like or watch cartoons. He can color or grab a stack of books to look at. While he has free time I work. At 10 a.m. He gets his notice that we will clean the living room together when am finished cleaning the kitchen. 

Roo takes advantage of that notice and plays as hard as he can while I work in the kitchen. If it appears that he is having a especially good time I might dash in to make beds and start a load of laundry so that he can extend his fun.

When the chores have been taken care of Roo and I pick up all of the evidence of his morning fun. 

When the blankets, pillows, toys and books have been put away and the carpet has been vacuumed it is craft time. Harper likes this part of the morning because it is her chance to get on the floor and roll around.

Each week I have 2 planned crafts and I offer Roo the chance to choose the other 3 activities for the week. Last week he told me he wanted to make a "red light". 

Hmmm. That is easy peasy! Even I can manage this one without incident!

To begin the craft we got out the disposable plates I keep in our craft supplies for projects like this one, and 4 sheets of construction paper in red, yellow, green and black. I grabbed a tube of glue and we sat down to create.

I had Roo help me tear the paper into small pieces. I thought this was a good way to work on fine motor skills and develop his pencil grip.

 

Next I tore the black paper into 2 strips.

I made 3 circles of glue on each paper.

I demonstrated what I wanted Roo to do. Place the little bits of paper onto the glue. At first he wasn't sure why I wanted to keep the colors separate. 

But then he saw what we were doing! How cool! We had 2 "red lights" and he was ready to play. There was no waiting for the glue to dry!

And yes, that is a spider riding a motorcycle on the tracks!

2 "red lights" were not enough. With big blue eyes Roo begged "More Red Lights Please!" So we made another one with bits of paper on one of the plates we had used earlier.

I had a happy little boy who was very interested in daily craft time and who found inspiration in our craft to jump into a serious session of imaginative play. I felt accomplished that we had a smooth craft session, we worked on fine motor skills with a high interest creation. 

I am thinking of a better option for red lights for Roo. Maybe painting them on clothes pins so he could set them up by the train tracks. What do you think? What would you try?

A Clean Home Challenge: Crock Pot Cleaning

I love my crock pot. I use it often! Several times a week I prepare something fantastic in my beloved crock pot. With a new baby I don't know how I would manage to prepare dinner without it. The last time I put my favorite small appliance to use I realized the interior was looking pretty funky and I made a note to clean it.

Now, how does one go about cleaning a crock pot? I saw a lot of suggestions online, from using a general cleaner, to using oxi clean, brillo pads and so on. I thought there had to be a less expensive way to maintain my crock pot so I kept searching. Someone suggested using a baking soda paste and I was anxious to try it. I had a box of baking soda in my pantry and the idea of cleaning without a harsh chemical really appealed to me.

This is what my crock pot looked like before I cleaned it.

I made a paste of 3 tablespoons of baking soda to 1 teaspoon of water.

                     Then I rubbed the paste into the base of the crock pot.

               Let this sit for about 20 minutes, then use a damp rag to wipe the baking soda off.

The baking soda scrubbed much of the dingy baked on mess out of the crock pot easily.

While the crock pot wasn't restored to its brand new splendor, it sure looked a lot better!

If you have very stubborn stains after the baking soda scrub you can apply dish soap to the stubborn baked on spots and let it set overnight. The dish soap will break up the baked on residue and will wipe off easily with a damp towel. My crock pot wasn't that bad so I didn't require this last step, but I feel confident it would work because If I have a baked on mess on any dishes this is the method I use. 

If your crock pot needs a good cleaning, this method will work well for you and it will only cost you pennies.

How do you keep your crock pot clean?

Recycled Heart Shaped Crayons

Over the years my husband and I have created a bucket of crayons. When we find them around the house (which is inevitable when you have little kids and encourage them to create) we toss them into a plastic pail. One day last week I got the pail out and turned to get the cardboard we were going to draw on. My cute little boy giggled and dumped roughly 300 broken crayons on the floor...

Okay. That is just insane. Why is there a pail with that many broken crayons in it? Who wants to use a tiny little crayon? But... I hate to throw away something I can use in another way. Of course, I thought... I could make candles, use the crayons to color the wax, blah blah blah. I don't have time to make hand poured candles. I also don't want to invest a ton of money into reusing broken crayons. So scratch that idea.

The pail went back to the normal spot and I moved on.

A few days later I saw silicone molds at WalMart in heart shapes. I found $3 and some change to be a better investment and a way to use the broken crayons.

I went home and decided oh this is such a super easy idea! Even I can do this without running into a snag!

So I grabbed the pail of crayon mess and thought I would slip the sleeve of the crayon right off and be in business.

Not so, I quickly found out as I was digging at the paper, getting wax under my nails and rethinking the entire thing. What a pain in the butt! {Mr}Adam, darling husband, came to the rescue. He kindly used his pocket knife and helped me to cut the paper so it was easy to peel off.

 After the paper was removed I broke the crayon (if it wasn't already broken) in half.

 I filled the silicon molds to the brim with broken crayons. I went for general color mixture. (All shades of red mixed together, all green, etc.)

 After about 7 minutes in a 350 degree oven they were completely melted.

I could have added a few more broken crayons to make a thicker heart crayon or taken a few away for thinner ones. I liked the ones I made as is.

I allowed the melted crayons to cool completely in the silicon molds. Getting them out of the molds was as easy as could be.

Since this was one project I know I can handle and repeat without any issue I decided to give all 30 that I made to {Mr} Adam, husband extraordinaire, for the classroom Valentines Party.

After my husband stepped in and helped me with the crayon sleeve this project was really easy and fun too. I am planning to find other silicone molds and try different designs.

On a side note, I had 2 odd shaped ice cube trays. One was an ocean them, one an ice tube type. I decided to try these out too.

While it did work, I found the silicone option to be easier. With the ice cube trays I found I had to give them a light spray of cooking spray stuff. Then I had to wipe down the recycled crayons after removing them from the mold to make sure they weren't greasy. (For my time and effort I prefer the silicon trays).

I realize this would have been perfect for a Valentines Day post, but it is really a perfect after Valentines Day craft because you can probably get the silicone molds super cheap on clearance now.

The next batch I make I think I will add one color that is off in each one. I am thinking one blue in a group of green. One red in a group of pink and so on to make the colors unique and fun.

This is the end result.

They were pretty cute and I was thrilled that I made this with next to no drama.

Until next time,
Sweet Silly Sara

Tell Me About It Tuesday #6

Welcome to Tell Me About It Tuesday and Thank you to our hosts                                                             
  

                                                                   Sweet Silly Sara

                                                          
   Woman of Many Roles

 Saving For My Family

The most popular links from last weeks party was:

How to Make an XO Band Bracelet by Kids Activities Blog.

April's favorite was:

Double Chocolate Brownies by Pretty Scraps

Jacqui's favorite was:

Tiramisu Cheesecake by Live a Sweet Life

                                                             Sara's favorite was

                                  Home Brewed: DIY Vanilla Extract by eightymphmom

Starting this week we have something new to bring to the table for all of you awesome, inspiring chicks that link up with us every week!

Every post linked up will be visited and pinned to our Tell Me About It Tuesday pinterest board. Yay!


Thanks to everyone that linked up at last week's party!

We welcome you to link up your posts! Feel free to share anything except giveaways, etsy shops or anything you are selling.  Please visit a few links and show some love to your fellow bloggers.

Please note by linking up you give the hostesses permission to use your post in round ups and we may feature you or share your post via social media.

An InLinkz Link-up

Free 2014 Printable Calendar

Remember a few days ago when I mentioned the calendar battle with my son? I caved and gave it to him, he promptly destroyed it. I considered buying another one, but why waste money when I know it will become fair game to my curious preschooler eventually.

Well, instead of buying a new one, I started using this 2014 calender in combination with my birthday checklist printable and my post it notes on a mirror method.

The best part is, I can print this a million times and let my son color on it, point out the numbers and letters and do whatever a 3 year old boy does with paper.

Print this 2014 Calendar

Thanks for dropping by! I hope this printable calendar helps you keep track of your life.