Welcome to another Rocking Motherhood Monday!  I am so excited to be sharing what I call “A Day at the Beach Sensory Bin!”  If your kiddos are anything like mine, they love anything that has water, animals, and sand.  Mix that with a little sunshine, which we have recently experienced, and you have the perfect day for this sensory bin!

As an educator, I think it is important to teach each lesson in a variety of ways, since children learn in different ways and at different rates.  For this reason, I absolutely love sensory bins.  A sensory bin is exactly what it sounds like… a bin filled with objects that allows your child to have a tactile experience.  A sensory bin is a great way to help develop a child’s language, expand their imagination, or increase literacy through story telling.  In general, a sensory bin is a wonderful tool to allow the child to explore, interact, and be part of the learning process.

A Day at the Beach Sensory Bin Supplies

• Seashells
• Ocean Animals
• Water
• Rubbermaid Bin
• Sand
• Basil (sea kelp)

Put the items in the Rubbermaid bin and build a beach.  This activity is geared towards three year olds, but my younger child (under 2), had a blast participating.  Here are some pictures of our sensory bin…

A Day at the Beach Sensory Bin Lesson Outline

The goal of this lesson was to learn about the beach and the creatures that live in the ocean.  I also wanted to discuss activities that can be done while at the beach.  Here are some questions to get you started… remember, though these will get you started, the learning and fun really is endless with this activity.

1.  What kinds of animals live in the ocean?
Allow them time to shift through the water to find the different animals and name them.  I also took it one step further and talked about each animal that she found.

2.  What kind of things can you do at the beach?
We talked about flying kites and what makes kites fly, running in the sand, playing with a beach ball, building a sandcastle, looking for buried treasure, swimming… the list goes on and on.  I also made sure to discuss beach safety and how important it is to never turn your back on the water.

3.  Comparison of the different shells in the sensory bin.
We looked at the color, shape, and size of each shell and then we talked about which ones were the same and which ones were different.  We also counted the shells.

I will warn you if you decide to do this activity that there will be tears when is it time to clean up.  I had two hysterical children because I eventually poured out their ocean!  All in all this activity was such a fun experience for both of my kiddos!  A Day at the Beach Sensory Bin has already been requested for tomorrow’s agenda!

I hope you have enjoyed today’s Rocking Motherhood Monday activity.  If you are looking for more hands-on activities, please be sure to check out my Story Rocks Tutorial or venture over to Living Montessori Now with Deb to check out some of her great educational activities!

Cheers,
Lisa

This Unicorn Kisses Jar is the perfect topic to kick off Monday morning!  It just screams fun… and who doesn’t need some extra fun on Monday?!  My last few Rocking Motherhood Mondays have focused on learning activities to do with your little ones, so I decided this Monday I would talk about guiding our littles ones’ behaviors with positive discipline.  Before getting into the details of the Unicorn Kisses Jar, I thought it was important to clarify what positive discipline is and how we can practice it with our children.

Positive Discipline

“Positive Discipline is a program developed by Dr. Jane Nelsen. It is based on the work of Alfred Adler and Rudolf Dreikurs and designed to teach young people to become responsible, respectful and resourceful members of their communities. Positive Discipline teaches important social and life skills in a manner that is deeply respectful and encouraging for both children and adults (including parents, teachers, childcare providers, youth workers, and others).

Recent research tells us that children are hardwired from birth to connect with others, and that children who feel a sense of connection to their community, family, and school are less likely to misbehave. To be successful, contributing members of their community, children must learn necessary social and life skills. Positive Discipline is based on the understanding that discipline must be taught and that discipline teaches,” (https://www.positivediscipline.com/about-positive-discipline).

What is a Unicorn Kisses Jar?

With Miss Sassy Pants getting older, we decided it was time to start working on guiding her behaviors in a positive way.  We wanted to teach her to be accountable for her behavior and the consequences associated with that behavior.  We decided a behavior jar was the perfect option for her age.  Generally, you fill a “behavior jar” as you catch your child behaving as desired.  Though my kiddo would think this alone was fun, we decided to take it one step further to really encourage and help her connect with the concept (her age is a huge factor).  Hence, the Unicorn Kisses Jar was born!

Our kiddo is obsessed with unicorns, pink, and anything pretend.  Her imagination sees no limits.  Instead of a simple jar that we track her behavior with, we decided to get a jar with pretty glass stones and call them “unicorn kisses.”  We then discussed how she could earn unicorn kisses.  We did keep it simple because of her age, but we still covered the basics.  Right from wrong, using our words, keeping our hands to ourselves, being kind to others (and what that means… using examples), and following directions.  We also discussed how her dad and I model these behaviors, and that if she had questions or needed help, to ask us.  Again, this is really where you need to personalize this for your child.

We then discussed rewards for her good behavior.  We ended up with a total of six rewards (this number doesn’t mean anything… it’s all I had room for on the glass jar I bought).  Here is our list:

1. Go to the store and buy a new book
2. Ice cream treat with the family
3. 10 Minutes extra bath play time
4. Pick what’s for dinner
5. Pick a family activity
6. Get a toy at the store

Tips and Tricks for Success

• Customize the jar to something your child likes or enjoys. Unicorn kisses work for Miss Sassy Pants, but I feel that might not be the case for all kiddos.
• Be consistent.
• Give the unicorn kiss immediately after the desired behavior is demonstrated.
• Allow your child to pick out the unicorn kiss and put it in the behavior jar.
• Don’t take away stones for bad behavior… positive jar for positive behaviors.
• Be a cheerleader for your kiddo!

I hope you liked today’s installment of Rocking Motherhood Mondays!  We have had great success with it and wanted to share the idea to help other parents and educators.  Please feel free to leave a comment below!

Cheers to Unicorn Kisses!
Lisa

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This Cactus Rock Garden Tutorial creates the perfect gift for Father’s Day for the busy dad in your life!  Happy Monday friends, and welcome to this Rocking Motherhood Monday’s educational project.  I was so incredibly happy to get the opportunity to make this Cactus Rock Garden with my littles, that I just had to share it with my readers.  It was so much fun to make and I just loved how creative and thoughtful my kiddos were while creating this masterpiece for their daddy.

Father’s Day spurred this project, because my husband enjoys plants and gardening.  However, he tends to not have enough hours in the day to do much gardening or caring for plants.  Last Father’s Day, the kiddos and I picked out a cool terrarium for him, but unfortunately it did not survive the busy life of my husband.  While we were at Home Depot he mentioned how he would like to get some succulents and try planting them… and the Cactus Rock Garden Tutorial was born!

Cactus Rock Garden Supplies:

• Rocks
• Pebbles
• Terracotta Planter
• Mod Podge – Sparkle – If you don’t want sparkle, just pick a different Mod Podge… just be sure to check the drying and curing time
• Paint Brushes – 1 thin paint brush for the details on the cactus and one thicker one for the larger painting items like the pot and rocks.
• Paint – I used Apple Barrel Outdoor Multi-Surface Satin Acrylic Paint in the following colors:
  • Cacti Colors:  Clover Fields, Mountain Forest, Evergreen, and white
  • Pot Colors:  Read Red, Spiced Carrot, Dandelion Yellow, Calypso Sky, Perfect Purple, Parisian Pink, and Black
• Black Sharpie Fine Point
• Flower – Miss Sassy Pants had a blast selecting the flower
• Tacky Glue
• Scissors
• Pencil with Eraser

Steps to Make Cactus Rock Garden:

1. Rinse rocks off with water and dry.
2. Paint each of the rocks and the inside and outside of the pot then let them dry.
3. Using the thinner paint brush, decorate each rock and let dry.
4. Cover each decorated rock with one coat of the Sparkle Mod Podge and let dry completely.
5. Select your flower and completely remove the stem and any plastic. Using the Tacky Glue secure it to the selected rock.  Let it dry, then add additional glue in any areas that seem like the flower may not be fully secured to the rock and then let dry.
6. Flip the pot over and on the bottom, write some sentiment that marks the holiday… we wrote “Father’s Day 2017 Love, Miss Sassy Pants and Moose” for an additional personal touch!
7. Lightly pencil on the side of the pot “Our Dad Rocks”
8. Then I utilized the kiddos’ pointer fingers covered in paint (aren’t I brave?!) to dot over the words and then I set it aside and let it fully dry.
9. I let each kiddo pick a color to decorate the top and bottom of the pot with more finger polka dots, but feel free to get creative and do whatever you want, and then let it dry.
10. Once the paint is fully dry, I used the Sparkle Mod Podge to seal the inside and outside of the pot. I wanted to make sure the kiddos’ beautiful and very thoughtful artwork was protected.

Assembling the Cactus Rock Garden:

1. Fill the pot with the pebbles and then place your little cactus rocks into the pebbles. You may have to play around a little bit to get them to fit and stay exactly how you want them.
2. I was not brave enough to wrap the gift, so we will just present the gift to daddy on Father’s Day by having it setup for him to see. Fingers crossed the kiddos don’t spill the beans prior to Father’s Day… they have a hard time keeping gifts secret!

A Lesson in How to Care for Others

This is the perfect project to discuss the topic of caring for others around us.  I utilized this project to discuss the great things their daddy does to make our life so wonderful.  We talked about him going to work so I get to stay at home with them, and how we have a home to live in because daddy works so hard, and we also touched on the nice things he does daily (reading stories, magic shows, going for bike rides, etc.) for the kiddos.  Then I turned the topic to what we could do to help take care of daddy.  I let them brainstorm and share the things that came to mind… picking up their toys, following directions, giving snuggles, etc.

The next thing I discussed was how we take care of plants.  Miss Sassy Pants is really into gardening and loves talking about it.  I thought this was the perfect time to discuss how plants grow, also the variety of plants that are out there, and how we take care of them in different ways.

The great thing about this lesson is that it is so adaptable.  You can talk about anyone or anything that your life is focusing on currently.  You could also talk about self-care with your kiddos.  I do suggest keeping your child’s age in mind and their abilities.  There is nothing worse than a fun project/lesson being ruined because it overwhelmed the kiddos and then they lost interest in doing it (I wish I could say I have never had this happen).

I hope you give this project and lesson a try with your little ones!  Plus, you get a wonderful handmade gift to give for Father’s Day or to the special person in your kiddos’ lives.  And as always, please feel free to share your experience or pictures of your completed project below.  Happy Monday!

Cheers to a Rocking Monday!
Lisa

Good morning and Happy Monday!  Today I will be sharing my tutorial on how to create Story Rocks.  This Story Rocks Tutorial will be the first installment of my new series I’m calling Rocking Motherhood Mondays (great name, right?!).  Every Monday, I will post an activity, craft, or insight on various teaching methods to help engage and encourage you and your child through the journey of development and education.  My goal is to help you better prepare your child for their future all while having fun!  Now back to my current post about my tutorial on Story Rocks…

This idea for the Story Rocks came about a few weeks ago when my mother-in-law brought over a little gift for Miss Sassy Pants: Create A Story Cards (check them out on Amazon… they are amazing and great for long car rides), which my kiddo just loved.  The idea is that you draw cards from the deck and then you create a story using the pictures on the five cards you drew.  It is a lot of fun and allows the imagination to run wild.  Some of the stories my kiddo has come up with so far just blow me away.

Since the cards were such a hit, I decided that we could create our own using rocks.  Originally, I had planned to utilize an outside activity that would encourage us to go exploring to find rocks, but we were having such bad weather that I scrapped that idea and purchased crafting rocks instead (don’t judge).  Then we just decorated them however we wanted.  I did try to encourage a variety of decorations so each rock would be different, but other than that, I just let her do whatever.  To say this Story Rocks Tutorial is a blast is a complete understatement.  My daughter and I are both crafty and love anything that can include glue, glitter, and the color pink, but this activity doesn’t stop there.  There are endless possibilities, which makes it great for anybody… even those that don’t like glitter or for those who are NOT crafty!

Story Rocks Supplies:

• Rocks
• Stickers – do not use puffy stickers (as seen below) or stickers that do not fully fit on the rock! No matter how many tears are shed… those stickers won’t stay on the rocks!  
• Googly Eyes – Use the Tacky Glue to attach
• Paint – I recommend a satin finish
• 2 Paint Brushes – one for the Mod Podge and one for the paint
• Mod Podge – sparkle
• Sequins – I used the Tacky Glue to secure them to the rocks
• Tacky Glue
• Any other decorations that you can think of or already have on hand.

Tutorial Steps for Story Rocks:

Step 1:  Rinse the rocks with water then dry them off

Step 2:  Decorate… feel free to decorate all sides of the rock!

Step 3:  Mod Podge… I used the glitter Mod Podge and as you can tell they look awesome!

Step 4:  Let them COMPLETELY dry

Step 5:  Start creating fun stories together!

Here are some of our Story Rocks:

Meet Roxy the Rock… seriously, how adorable is she?!  And then there is our buried treasure rock that is covered in “diamonds.”

This project is ideal for any age… all you must do is adjust the difficulty for the age you are working with.  Remember that you’re dealing with heavy rocks, so if your little one likes throw things – beware!  Also, don’t choose supplies that could be choking hazards if that is an issue for your kids’ ages.  Since my focus was for a toddler, I utilized stickers, and crafting supplies that were easier for her to manipulate independently.  I also encouraged her to do the work so that she was practicing her small motor control.  And lastly, it taught her patience to wait to play with the rocks after they completely dried (this was a challenging task even for me)!

Story Rocks are a great way to encourage literacy.  Literacy is how we communicate with each other in our society.  The ability to read, write, speak, and understand are all parts that make up literacy.  Through storytelling, your child will build on their literacy skills.  Learning and understanding word order, comprehension, and narration through telling stories… all while having fun!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial for creating Story Rocks!  Stop back by next Monday for the next installment of Rocking Motherhood Mondays.

Cheers to Education!
Lisa