Sharing Saturday #29

Is anyone else amazed by all the wonderful ideas that are shared here each week? I  know I always am!! Last week was no exception. If you have not had a chance to visit and leave some comment love to any of the 52 entries, please go and visit them. There are so many great ideas!!

Well it has been on the hot side here and summer is in full swing. So as I picked my favorites this showed. (Sorry to all of you in the Southern Hemisphere who are in winter now.) Apparently I am not alone though since our most clicked was about staying cool.

Most Clicked

From Mama of Many Blessings: 10 Fun and Inexpensive Ways to Beat the Heat This Summer

A Few of My Favorites

From Watch Me Learn and Play: Sunscreen Experiment

From Making Memories...One Fun Thing After Another: Bannock: Native American Skillet Bread

From School Time Snippets: Handprint Dolphin

From Momma of 4 Cutiez: Saving a Baby Bird Fallen from a Nest

From Mommy Lessons: Camouflage: Snow Rabbit, Spring Rabbit

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! I hope you will join us and share again!! If you are featured here, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog.

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From Your Host:Fireflies Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3

  Now for This Week's Party  
A Few Simple Guidelines:
1)  Please follow both hosts via GFC (or one of the other ways that work for you).  

Hosts are Crafty Moms Share and Mama Mia's Heart2Heart. 

2)  Link any kid-friendly, child-centered post. Please no etsy shops or giveaways, etc.  Remember to link to your actual post.

3) Post the button on your sidebar or somewhere on your blog to help spread the word.

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Disclaimer: By sharing here, you are giving Crafty Moms Share and Mama Mia's Heart2Heart permission to use your photos for features and to pin your craft at Pinterest. 

All right everyone...This is a PARTY!! Have Fun!!

Fireflies Part 3 & More Summer Fun

Now for our third and final installment of firefly crafts at least for this summer. If you missed the first two you can check them out here: Part 1 and Part 2. For part 3 we were inspired by Tippytoe Crafts. We had a huge thunderstorm so I couldn't go check them out before we started so we did them a bit from memory. And we made a few changes. First Hazel painted the ends of spoons with glow-in-the-dark paint.

 
 After letting the paint dry, I cut out shapes from black construction paper. Had I looked at Tippytoe Crafts I would have realized it would be easier to do several shapes, but I did not. We glued them onto the spoons and then added googly eyes and pipe cleaner antennae. On some we added six pipe cleaner legs as well.

Next we used a glow stick. I found glow stick necklaces that are thicker and just have a top with a string attached. I thought these would be perfect since I didn't like the glow coming through the materials on Part 2. We basically did the same thing but glued the black construction paper onto the glow stick. We let the glue dry longer before adding everything else since the glow stick is heavier and bigger. We added legs and eyes and antennae and then hung it in Hazel's house/Horsey's shed depending on what she wants to use it for (today it was a school and a restaurant as well). 

Our final ones are similar to Tippytoe Crafts first ones. However Hazel was not too interested in crafting at this point so we did not use the tissue paper to make the tails. I used a coffee filter and her yellow and green dot markers. Glued that to the black paper and cut out the shape.

We have been having a few hot days here in New England. Well today wasn't but the previous few have been. To cool off we decided to make some popsicles. This is the first year that Hazel has really liked a popsicle, but she seems to love them, so I figured we would make some with less sugar. I had bought popsicle molds previously and just never used them. 

Our first attempt was just simply watermelon. We put some watermelon pieces in the food processor. Hazel pureed them and then I put them in a measuring cup so she could pour it into the molds.

 Then we put them in the freezer. Hazel could not wait to try them, but she had to wait until the next morning. Yes, I let her have a popsicle this morning. I figured I would feed her watermelon in the morning and these popsicles are just frozen watermelon. She enjoyed it, but did not eat it all.

 The second flavor we tried was with fresh blueberries, fresh strawberries and plain, non-fat Greek yogurt. Sorry I didn't get many pictures of these, but Hazel and our babysitter enjoyed them this afternoon. Again Hazel did not eat it all, but her eating was very off today. To make them we put some blueberries, cut strawberries and yogurt into the food processor. Hazel pureed them and then I put them in the measuring cup so she could pour them into the mold. Then they went into the freezer.

Since this mold only made two, I ate the leftover yogurt mixture. Our babysitter said the popsicle was really good. So these are our new summer treats without all the added sugar. Such a fun way to keep cool!


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The Garden Classroom--Book Review

One of the gladiolas blooming in my yard

As you probably have guessed I love gardening. Or maybe I should say I love the products of a garden (I am lucky enough to have a wonderful husband who likes to do much of the labor for me). I also love the planning. Well my love of nature comes from how my parents brought me up. Each of us girls had our own flower garden in our yard. We also helped choose and plant the vegetables in my father's big vegetable garden. I still remember the day my father dug out my little flower garden in the middle of the grass between the patio and the evergreens bordering our property. I cannot tell you how young I was, but I wanted my own garden space so he made me some. Each spring we would go to a local nursery and get to pick out flowers for our garden space. We would also go through the Burpee Seed Catalog to choose which vegetables we would try. I remember several years trying carrots, because I love carrots. Needless to say my upbringing taught me how important it is to love nature and to garden. Ever since I have always tried to grow something. Even when I lived in apartments without garden space I grew plants on balconies. Today I have the pleasure of sharing with you a wonderful e-book written by Cathy over at the Nuture Store.

Cathy just released the e-book, The Garden Classroom: 52 Kids Gardening Activities this week. I was lucky enough to get an advance copy to review for you!!

The Lower Garden in My Parents Yard

First let me start off with if you have not visited the Nuture Store you are really missing something. It is one of my favorite places to go and get ideas. Now this book takes so many of the wonderful gardening with kids ideas floating around out there and puts them in one place as well as introducing some new ones. 

Hazel helping Pop water the flowers at the Cape

The book starts with the introduction as to why gardening with kids is important and goes into the basics of gardening from starting seeds to choosing the right plants for your area, etc. Yes, even if you haven't planted a seed before, you will be able to use this book!

Let's face it, children love playing with dirt, leaves and water. Thus they will love gardening. It combines all of it and you can also teach them while doing this. The Garden Classroom goes beyond just the garden and crafts for the garden, but also gives you math activities, science experiments, literacy activities and so much more. If you are homeschooling, this book is a perfect addition to any curriculum.

Hazel's Sunflower Garden (First Planted)

I, of course, love the crafts and art that goes along with it. There are the creative ideas for planters and watering cans to the flower related crafts that can be done in the colder weather. We will definitely be doing some of these and you may see us delve into some of the sunflower activities as Hazel's sunflower garden grows. I love all the different ideas introduced there.

So I recommend you go visit the Nuture Store and purchase a copy of this wonderful e-book. It will be a wonderful addition to your library for great activities to get your child outside and moving!

Fireflies Part 2

Did you check out our firefly paintings and the books we have been reading last week? As promised here are some more firefly crafts that we have been trying. This time we used some glow sticks to give our fireflies their light.

The first was inspired by somewhere on-line, but I cannot seem to find where again. I thought it was Family Fun Magazine, but I cannot seem to find it again. Anyway, you need a plastic Easter egg and a glow stick, some construction paper and googly eyes or marker and pipe cleaners if you want antennae and legs.

Put the glow stick inside the egg and then glue the construction paper wings on and eyes and pipe cleaners (we skipped this part). Let them dry and then play with them or hang them for a nighttime scene inside.

We also tried this with toilet paper rolls and construction paper. We put a glow stick inside and then put orange paper over the head end and yellow over the tail end then covered the roll in orange. We added white and orange wings and drew on a face.

I apologize now for my camera. It does not do well with the glow in the dark pictures or any nighttime pictures. 

Finally, our last inspiration was from Lorie at Reading Confetti. Using glow sticks to make fireflies or butterflies. Ours looks more like a butterfly.

 


We have a few more ideas to try with fireflies and then we are going to move onto butterflies. Of course, yesterday's story time got me thinking more and more about butterflies and bugs! I want to try a few ideas from Betsy over at Tippytoe Crafts. I always love her ideas!!




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Readathon Week #5--Earth and Being Green

For this week's theme, MemeTales Readathon has chosen Green/Earth. There are two free books along this theme. Through the five weeks over 5500 meals have been donated to FoodForEducation.org. Has your child(ren) joined yet to donate another meal?

The books this week are Let's Go Chipper! Into the Great Outdoors published by Let's Go Chipper and What Does It Mean To Be Green? by Rana Di Orio. Let's Go Chipper! Into the Great Outdoors is about a suburban squirrel going on a camping trip and meeting all sorts of new friends there. The purpose of the book is to remind children to get outside and discover the world even in your own backyard.