5 Ways to Write Secret Messages

As a kid, I loved the idea of being a detective or a secret spy.  They got to wear cool clothes, go on adventures, and solve mysteries.  A couple of weeks ago I tried playing a detective game with Chuck.  I hid his favorite stuffed pig and then left 5 clues for him to follow.  The clues were all written as secret messages.  We had to do something to the paper to revel the hidden words.

5 Ways to Write Secret Messages

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Chuck was onboard with the game.   We've recently been gobbling up Nate the Great books from the library, so he really enjoyed being a detective and solving the case.

Shape Touch and Find Game

Now that Chuck is almost 3 I'm trying to do more educational activities with him.  Besides learning our numbers, we're also working on identifying different shapes.  Here's a fun shape activity that we've recently been doing together.        

Let's learn about shapes!

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Early childhood mathematics education is something I feel quite strongly about.  Before I was a mommy, I was working on my doctorate degree in education. Although I never finished writing my dissertation (for reasons that you can about here),  I did spend  many years observing and studying how preschool children learn mathematics.  I also had the wonderful opportunity to work on a research-based preschool math curriculum called  Big Math For Little Kids.

This Touch and Find Shape game is one of my favorites from that curriculum.  It's a great activity because it helps young children to learn the number of sides and corners in shapes in a really fun and interactive way. 

Let's play the touch and find shape game!

Let's Explore Art Materials like Scientists

Whenever we do art projects, I always hand Chuck certain drawing materials because I know their properties and how they'll look and interact with each other.  In this activity I thought it would be fun to change it up a bit and let Chuck do some exploring.  So we tried our hand at exploring art materials like scientists!    

Scientifically exploring Art Materials with Kids

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Quick way to jazz up old pens

As a kid I remember loving the way new pens and notebooks looked at the start of the school year.  I also remember that by January, things just didn't look as good anymore.  Today's post shows one quick and easy way to update boring school supplies.

Tada!  Check out these clear pens that I jazzed up with colorful magazine pages.   

Let's Jazz Up Old Pens!

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 Materials:

• Pens with clear barrels (I used these super cheap pens)
• Magazines
• Scissors

Directions:

1.  Take your pens apart so that the tube of ink is out of the clear plastic barrel.

2.  Cut out a scrap piece of paper that, when curled up, will fill the clear barrel.  Once you know what size paper to use, use this as a template to cut out from colorful magazine pages.


3.  Curl up your colorful paper and slide it into the barrel.  Then, put your pen back together. Now you've got yourself a set of "new" and colorful pens.  (And it didn't cost you one dime! *High five!*)

Happy crafting!

One stamp to rule them all

Currently I'm no longer adjuncting at our local college.  I've generally been happy with that decision because now I get plenty of time to get to know and care for Baby Chuck.  Even though he's awfully cute and wonderful to hug and kiss, I do miss adult conversations and the satisfaction that comes with creating and giving lectures.

While perusing the blogosphere, I recently I spotted this stamp.  And just for a moment, I wished that I was teaching again...just so that I could use it.

Sorry student, you have balrogs for brains