Where do I live?

As our children get older the more questions they have. A big one they might as is “Where do I live?”.  Jackson has recently become obsessed with space. As parents, his father and I are super proud. But it started me thinking he knows earth, he knows how to give me directions to Target or Publix, but does he really know where he lives? So I set out through Pinterest to see if there was somehow to give him a correlation between Earth and where we live. And thanks to Teach Mama, she did just that. Breaking down the sections to make it easy on kids.  You start at our house, to your street, city, state, country, continent, and planet.  She even gives you a downloadable file that has the different sized circles to make it easy.

What you need:

•  Downloadable file from Teach Momma
• Construction Paper (This is what we printed our planets off on, trimmed to size)
• Scissors
• Glue
• Whole Punch and something to hold everything together. (We used a D-ring that I was able to slide the pieces of paper in individually and then super glued it shut)

Step 1:

Print your circles out

Step 2:

Collect your print outs for each location

Step 3:

Color and decorate

Step 4:

Glue

Step 5:

Whole punch and connect.

Now that we have finished with this location, I think we will have to do one with all the planets.

Resources where we got our maps:

Street and City maps- Google Maps

Continent- www.yourchildlearns.com

Planet – Google Images

State and Country – www.50states.com

Toy Car Storage

Little boys have cars… lots of cars. Yes little girls can have a lot of cars too, I just don’t have a little girl around me.  My son has been collecting Matchbox cars since before he was a year old.  He loves them.  For a while there I think he was more obsessed with them.  Thankfully they are fairly inexpensive.  But how do you store all the cars that your child has been collecting for over 3 years?  Matchbox has a toy car sorter, but have you really seen it? It’s pretty cheaply made for how expensive it is. But also keep in mind that if a boy has Matchbox cars then chances are he will have other cars of various sizes.

So how do we store our cars?  In a tackle box. I’m not talking a child’s size tackle box, but ours has 3 levels with a big opening in the bottom for larger or oddly shaped vehicles.   We went all out. The tackle box can hold at least 100 cars! But what’s even better is that I spent $25. It’s sturdy enough that it can be carried anywhere and I don’t have to worry about it breaking and all the cars spill out everywhere!

(not all his cars are shown, this was mid cleaning)

Let’s Make Memories

Baby clothes, if you have had a child before then you know how clothes just seem to magically add up.  However, they don’t wear them for very long, but you still have your favorite outfits! Photo shoots, birthdays, hitting milestones, you have those outfits that you remember everything that happens in them. What happens with the child out grows them? Well if you don’t give them away, you might save them for if you have another child, or save them to give to your child for when they have children of their own. Well I saved several pieces from newborn to 24 months and I didn’t want to keep them in a box anymore. I had some pieces I had to keep ( like his frog suit) in one piece, I just could not cut up. Some of his others I was painful to cut up but I did it. I MADE A QUILT OUT OF HIS BABY CLOTHES! This was my 1st real quilt.

My husband has a quilt that his mamaw made for him when he was little. Well that quilt is sitting right next to me. We use this thing constantly. I wanted Jackson to have something that he could take with him and have for always. Now my husbands quilt is probably a queen size, I wanted Jackson’s to be large just not that large. I was hoping for a twin size. It turned out to be in between a twin and a toddler size. Which is ok because Jack and I can both curl up with it on the couch.

 

Supplies:

• At least 50 articles of clothing ( remember the smaller the size of clothes the smaller the quilt it will be)
• Fabric for your backing
• Fabric for your border
• Embroidery Thread or Yarn
• Batting
• Iron
• Heavy Duty Starch or Interfacing
• Rotary cutter and mat
• Cardboard or plastic forms (I did 2 plastic forms, 5×5 and 6×2)

I am not putting how much fabric you need for your front and back because it really all depends on the size of your quilt.  This is what I went with for colors though.

Make sure all of your clothes are washed before you start.

Step 1:

Take a mental picture of your clothes and what size forms you have to cut them with. My newborn clothes I had use the 6×2 form on most of them just because they were so small.  It is easier when you cut just to lay the clothing on the mat and cut 2 pieces instead of one, just incase you need a few scraps for a fill in.

 

Step 2:

Stat laying out all of your scraps. You can kind of get an estimate on how big the quilt will be or if you need more clothes.

I had some clothes that had badges or little feet on them that I cut off and would sew on top to get it some dimension.

Step 3:

Now that you have everything where you want them, you need add your starch and iron your fabric. Then go back to your rotary cutter and make sure there aren’t any odd edges and everything matches up.

Step 4:

Start sewing one row at a time. 1/4 inseam at best. Do all your rows just like this. Then once each row is sewing you can start sewing the rows together.

 

 

 

 

Step 5:

I needed to work with a border on mine just to get it additional size.

 

Step 6:

Cut your back fabric to fit to size.

 

Step 7:

    Lay your interfacing between your clothes and backing and pin so that it doesn’t move while sewing on your border.

 

Step 7:

Slip on your border. I started by sewing the sides and then the top and bottom.

 

 

Step 8:

Start using your thread or yarn and tying your batting to your top and bottom fabric.  I did ties every 5 inches across and every 2 inches down in a staggering pattern.

 

You are done.

I love how this quilt turned out. Jackson even cuddled up with it the 1st time. He knows it is his quilt. It is very japanese, but since that is where we lived the 1st year of his life I love it!

 

 

Go Away Monster Spray!

We are at the stage of monsters. Monsters under Jackson’s bed (even though there are drawers under his bed) and in his closet (again no closet doors) are starting to go wild in an active 3 yr olds imagination. It doesn’t help when he loves Monsters Inc. We used Febreeze last night to spray the monsters last night but that was a little too strong. So we had to come up with something else…

What to do: Have a spray bottle and some essential oil (we added peppermint) and fill with water. Decorate the bottle and have your child lightly spray their room for monster’s every night.

 

 

 

 

*** Update – We have been spraying his room for a few weeks now when he goes to bed and he always tells me ” No more monsters in here!”. That is exactly what I like to hear.  I like to know that he isn’t so scared anymore, it makes mommy and daddy’s job a lot easier at night. ***