Sunday Boxes

We've been trying to find a way to teach our little girl that Sunday is a special day and we shouldn't be doing the same things on Sunday that we do every other day. It's kind of a hard concept for a two year old to grasp, but one we think is important for our children to learn early. We decided to buy a container for our daughter to fill with toys and movies that she could only use on Sunday. We let her decorate it, and we keep it put away in her closet all week. She has a doll that she can get ready for church, a Noah's ark boat, a few church games and books, some Veggie Tales movies, and an aquadoodle for no mess coloring. She gets excited to play with her church box every Sunday and it keeps her entertained for most of the day, but around 7 or 8 she's always ready to play with the toys in her room again. We know she needs some better movies and books to put in her box, but so far it's working great.

Free Family Mondays at the Utah Museum of Natural History

First Monday: Late Hours and Free Admission

On the first Monday of every month, the Museum stays open until 8:00 p.m. and offers free admission! Free Family Mondays are our "thank you" to Salt Lake County voters for support of the Salt Lake County Zoo, Arts and Parks Fund.

This was taken from the museums website. For more information, visit http://www.umnh.utah.edu/freemondays

Superhero Masks

We made some awesome Superhero masks out of cardboard. We just cut the basic shape out of a cardboard box and then painted them with cheap acrylic paints. We then used a hole puncher to punch holes in both sides of the mask, and then tied them on with yarn. My daughter wanted all of us to be Kitty Superheroes, hence the catlike shape.

Monster Shoes

My 3 year old saw some monster shoes on my cousins blog and wanted to make some for Family Home Evening. And since she was in charge this week, here's the little monster.



The shoes were easy to make. We just cut the basic shape out of 2 cereal boxes and then taped the sides together. We cut a hole in the top so she could slip her feet in, and then decorated them with construction paper. Her favorite color is blue and she wanted them to look kind of like dinosaur feet. The great part about this craft is that the monster shoes look great in any shape, style, or color, so get creative.



As you can see, the shoes are a little cumbersome, but by attaching one long piece of string to each side of the shoe, it creates a handle and makes walking easier.

Write your own story!

This first idea for a family activity comes from my 3 year old daughter.  She wrote this story and then wanted us to illustrate it. Unfortunately my husband was asleep while I was drawing the first 2 pictures, so this is what she got.



Blue raspberry loved to fly.


So he flew up to the sun and had a picnic.


He ate marshmallows, hot dogs, and chips. The end.



Help your kids write and illustrate their own stories. You can then use a hole puncher and yarn to bind your own book. Or for a more professional look, copy places usually do 3 ring binding for fairly cheap. And then last of all come back here and share your project.  I would love to see what you come up with.