NYTTJA? I dunno what it means, but I'll take two.

I love IKEA. I have an IKEA problem. I need a 12-Step IKEA program. It's about 45 minutes away from home, but I still manage to go there every other month or so. The stuff is so cheap, I just can't help myself!

A few trips ago I bought a couple of $1.99 frames - with other intentions, of course. They ended up being the wrong size for my original purpose... so I re-purposed!

I made a dry erase board for The Punk! It was easy as pie. Well, a whole lot easier than pie, because pie is actually a fairly complicated pastry to make, but I digress...

I simply put a sheet of printer paper in the frame. Bam! Done! Dry Erase Board!

I feel so accomplished. I think I deserve a pie :)

The "glass" is actually a pretty flexible plastic that I feel pretty safe handing over to The Punk. I doubt it would/could shatter or hurt someone (unless thrown like a Ninja Star) but your mileage may vary.

It's perfect for a kitchen thing. And by kitchen thing - I mean something-to-keep-The-Punk-busy-while-I-load-the-dishwasher toy. Plus it has educational value, and encourages art!

I love IKEA. I love IKEA. I love IKEA. I love IKEA. I love IKEA. I love IKEA. I love IKEA.

Leaves, Picks, Pins

Tweezers and fall leaves - sorting by color into small containers

Toothpicks into a Shaker Jar

Attaching the mini-clothespin to the matching lower-case letter

Who cut the cheese?

Practical Life : Lessons are used to develop concentration, attention span, fine motor skills, eye-hand co-ordination, decision making power, patience and independance.

In other words - practical stuff you need to learn how do do.

Today's lesson - using a knife. Today's snack - cheese. Today's Punk - Thrilled beyond belief.

Using a knife is Big Boy work. And he craves the Big Boy title so bad it hurts. He's well on his way. And I am so proud of him.

I Greater than Three this Craft!

The Punk and I made hearts for Valentine's Day today. This craft took me to a happy place. Melty plastic, bright colors, hearts... love! They are called Perler Beads at most craft sores, but I (of course) bought ours from IKEA. We also bought the shapes set that goes with the beads. I sat up late last night and picked out only red, white and pink beads and sorted them on one of the Punk's crafting trays. We got started right away, and we both had a lot of fun picking out each bead to go in each spot. This is a GREAT way to work on fine motor skills, and it's fairly difficult (even for me) I was proud of him for having the patience to stick with it.

After we set our beads in place I melted them. The Punk was safely in the living room playing Hotwheels, and I went at it. Parchment paper, iron and a washcloth was all I needed (The IKEA directions just show a stick figure and an iron, so I Googled some better instructions).

Paper under, paper over, press with a hot iron.

Voila!

We ended up making 3 hearts today. I am thinking about gluing some magnets to the back so they can have a bit more purpose.

We talked about patterns, colors, heat, all kinds of interesting stuff. And while he's not able to do the magical-amazing-melting part of the activity, I can still see it being something we work with again and again.