Camping with Kids

Submitted by Nancy of TutuCute&Moore.

Camping with kids is great family fun and we all become kids at heart when sleeping in the great outdoors. But with a few precautions and a little extra planning the adventure will be memorable for years to come.
Safety tips for happy campers:

• Young children should stay within eyesight, and older children within earshot.

• Children over the age of four should carry a simple survival kit, or at least a whistle to call for help if lost. The standard distress signal is three blows to indicate "I'm lost" or "I need help."

Felt Campfire Set from FranconiaRidgeStudio.etsy.com

• Pack a days worth of clothing for each child in zip lock bags, so clothes stay organized. Every morning your child can grab the bag, with their name on it, and have a full set of clothes for the day. At night the dirty clothes go back in the bag, thus keeping the clean and dirty clothes separated.

• The key to comfortable camping with kids is to dress them in several layers, which can be removed as the sun comes up or added as the sun sets.

Camping Memory Game from 2HeartsDesire.etsy.com

• Children love flashlights, and having one also makes them more at ease after dark. To prevent arguing over the flashlight, allow each child to have their own with their name on it.

• Flashlights are also handy when making trips to the restroom, for making shadow puppets on tent walls, searching for bugs and for reading before bed.

• Bring along a game you all like to play at home. Playing it outdoors with a lantern or flashlights will add to the fun.

Hanging Toiletry Bag for Camp from NannyBoutique.etsy.com

• Teach your kids to treat the outdoors kindly. Make sure all waste is disposed of properly when camping or hiking along the trails.

• Two or more children will entertain themselves for longer periods than will a single child, so you may want to invite a playmate along.

• Get the kids involved by making a check list of camping equipment, games and favorite toys for traveling, food and snacks, rainwear, camera, phone, bug sprays, medical kit, etc.. Don’t forget to check it twice before leaving home.

Play felt S'Mores Set from IFeltItUp.etsy.com

HAPPY CAMPING!

Keep up with TutuCute&Moore on the web.  Check out her Etsy Shop and like her Facebook page!   

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Natural and Eco Friendly Summer Activities For Children

At our home we are always looking for new activities in the summer time, especially ones that are natural and eco-friendly.  Summer is a time to explore the world around us and what nature has to offer.  Here are some eco-friendly and nature inspired activities we have done with our family late spring and early summer. At the bottom of the post I have also included a list of 5 blogs/sites that have great ideas for families. Have a safe and green summer!

Taking a hike







Participating in a 1 mile kids run









Growing our own veggies










                                                               Feeding giraffes at the Zoo

Building a fairy house

  A camping trip

Visiting a petting zoo

  

• Inhabitors
• Woman's Day
• Huffington Post
• teachhumane
• Sustainable Santa Cruz

Dorinda's shop, Raising Green Kids, offers eco-friendly products for your family. Follow her on Facebook and twitter and at her blog.

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Let's Get Dressed Up! EK SpringSale Feature

Melting snow and longer days meant one thing to me as a child; time to break out the summer dresses!
After spending the winter bundled in humiliating snow suits, dreaming of warmer days and flip flops, the day Mom replaced the wool sweaters in my dresser with parfait colored shorts and light dresses was a magical one. Spring has been a long time coming this year, making shopping for this wished for season a great way to melt away the winter blues.

Check out these shops for great sales and a spring preview.

Floral Mix Girls Peasant Dress

GirliePearlie3

36.00 USD

Organic Cotton Modern Blossoms Emma Dress for Girls size 7 8...ready to ship...from Sheree's Atelier

ShereesAtelier

50.00 USD

Purple knotted hat, Baby knot beanie, Infant hat - With lila flower

abeebee

20.00 CAD

TODDLER Girls Pink Polka Dotted SKIRT 2 to 6/7

boboandcoco

22.00 USD

Pastel Rainbow Chevron baby shoe

cuddlefeet

15.00 USD

Tickled Pink Sundress

kangacoo

41.80 USD

Baby Sandals - READY TO SHIP

HelensCrafts

10.00 USD

Daisy Chain Deco Rose Brown Amy Butler Fabric Covered Headband

ShopLittleKitten

10.00 USD

Set Of Pigtail Hair Bows In Up To 3 Solid Colors Of Your Choice

trendylilmonkey

12.00 USD

Pink Fairy Wings For Toddler - made from felt, no wires, child safe, elastic straps

HandmadeCuddlesShop

25.00 EUR

Spring Knot Dress Molly from Groovy Gurlz available in sizes 3t, 4t, 5y, 6y,

GROOVYGURLZ

47.00 USD

Set of 2 two-toned Woven Headbands

ALittleRosieBowtique

14.00 USD

Toddler Hair Clips - Citrus - Summer Hair Bows - Set of 4

KatelyB

4.00 USD

Custom Boutique Menagerie Peasant Dress

christinamcdaniel

32.00 USD

Vintage Rose Bobby Hair Pin... Set of Four... Pastels

SweetbeanzBoutique

8.75 USD

Toddler girl dress - Lollipop Pillowcase dress with lollipop applique and polka dots

Kosynka

25.00 USD

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Though the Weather Outside is Frightful

This was what my road looked like last week after 3 feet of snow fell in Connecticut.  I love the way the trees look in their winter white, but it's getting a little old. The snow, that is.  It's pretty at first, but now a week later, melting and refreezing, dirt thrown from the snowblower, the picture postcard charm is gone.

If I can't look outside for signs of spring, I'll try inside instead.  In my studio, I pulled out 50 yards of pastel and floral prints that I bought in the Garment District in New York, last year.  Why I haven't done anything with them yet, I can't imagine.  But I was very glad to have their cheery prints flung over my table. I am going to sew up a spring.

 If you can't wait for April showers or May flowers either right, now is a great time to check out these Etsykids Shops on Etsy.  Here are a few signs of early spring, delivered right to your door.

Leilas Flower Garden has everything you need to grow a garden on a bedroom wall.  You don't even need dirt or a shovel.  Never mind my daughter's room, I want these for my studio right now.

Crochet Village sells every pattern you could need to whip up your own bit of warm whimsy. The flamingos make me want to book my Florida plane tickets, right now!

A trip to  Masterpiece of Fun Art shows pages of little critters, cupcakes and cuties that will delight anyone with the winter blues.  The google eyes on these suns, made my day extra sunny.

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Kids Summer Paper Crafts

When I lived in the UK I was a member of Girlguiding (or Girl Scouts in the US), and often helped plan meetings and activities, especially the craft ones. So I am digging out some of my past projects to share with you to keep the kids busy this summer.

So some summer paper Crafts

Paper Ice Lollies

Print off the pdf design (2 lollies a sheet) and let the kids colour them in. Then cut out the shapes, fold in half and stick together with a popsicle stick in the middle.
Download pdf file

Flip-Flop Matching Game

Print off the pdf file and cut out the squares. For younger children they can just match the colours, for older children they have to match colour, and left and right foot.
Download pdf file

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Fun Snacks this Summer

This summer I have seen so many creative ideas to make fun creative foods for kids. Fruit and vegetables, breakfast, lunch and snacks! Here are some of our favorites, enjoy!

Berry Fish Bread from Funny Food Recipes

Peanut Butter Banana Split Sandwich from Inspired RD

Carrot & Zucchini Bars from MOMables

Rainbow Fruit Kebabs from Sumptuous Spoonfuls

Lemon Squares from Babble (plus other deserts)

UFO Banana Bagel from Spoonful

Peachy Parrot from Kitchen Fun with my 3 Sons

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Book Nook:: Summer Reading Programs

As a little kid my mother took us to the library every week.  It was a staple in her daily routine (one of her many techniques for maintaining sanity) and was a place we loved to go!

My siblings and I outside the public library, circa 1983.

Last week was our first week of summer, and the kids and I made the first of our weekly trips to the the public library.  We came home with a stack of books for each member of the family:

The 6th grader is loving the series, The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, by Michael Scott, the 5th grader is blazing through all the Harry Potter books, the 3rd grader is captivated by Percy Jackson and just started Rick Riordan's 2nd series, Hero's of Olympus, the Kindergartner picked up a stack of Star Wars graphic novels and beginning readers, and the preschooler and I had great fun picking out great story and picture books.

We also got everyone in the family (even mom an dad) signed up for the public library's summer reading program.

Summer reading programs are all around ... each with their own set of rules and incentives for finishing the program.  In most cases you read a certain number of books or minutes within a time frame set up by the sponsoring organization and when you turn in your log they will give you incentives/prizes/discounts for turning in your completed reading log.

Summer reading programs help encourage children to continue reading throughout the summer to help prevent regression in the progress they've made in the classroom.  They also provide added benefits for those kids who love to read, and needed incentives to those whose first instinct isn't to pick up a book.

Here are just a few of the summer reading programs you might consider taking advantage of in addition to doing your local public library's summer reading program.

• Half Price Books, Feed Your Brain. 
• Barnes & Noble, Imagination Destination. 
• Scholastic Summer Challenge. 
• Pottery Barn Kids Summer Reading Challenge. 
• Chuck E. Cheese, Reading Log. 
• PBS Kids and iVillage team up for Summer Reading Sweepstakes.

We want to know what books your children are reading, and let us know of other great national summer reading programs we should . 

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Ice Cube Painting

By Cori of Peace, Baby! Batiks

My son really likes to paint, so I’m always looking for different methods of painting. I don’t always want to get into the messiness of finger painting – especially indoors -- and water colors aren’t always as much fun as the bright colors of poster paint.

I saw ice painting demonstrated one day while we were watching Sprout, and I was intrigued. I modified our activity a bit from the directions posted online, using watercolor paper instead of paper towels and cardstock. I like the heaviness of watercolor paper; it can take a lot of paint!

The night before you want to paint, prepare your ice cubes. Put a little poster paint in the bottom of the cubes of an ice cube tray. Fill with water and mix well. Add half of a craft stick to make a handle. Pop into the freezer and let them set overnight. We’ve had success with solid colors as well as glitter paints.

When you’re ready to paint, take the ice cube tray out of the freezer and let them sit for a few minutes before trying to get them out of the tray.

Pull the cubes out, give each kid a piece of watercolor paper, and let them go! First, the kids rubbed the cubes on the paper.

When they were fresh from the freezer the colors were lighter.

Then, as the cubes thawed, the color went on thicker and darker.

Then, the boys discovered pieces of the ice cubes fell off if you hit them on the paper or pressed them like a stamp. By the end, we had soaking wet, colorful pieces of art!

Variation: In honor of Earth day, I made green, blue, white, and silver glitter (just for fun!) paint cubes and cut our watercolor paper into circles.

My son discovered it was fun to paint his hand and then stamp it onto the paper.

My son told me his painting shows Earth right after it was formed. (He’s a bit of a space and planet nut.) Mine shows Earth later in its developmen, or so he tells me. J

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