Won’t someone make a cake like this for me for my birthday?

One of the free craft activities was making horses.

Pulguito and I were home alone, and he was begging to make another sock doll. I let him pick out what he wanted from Sock and Glove: Creating Charming Softy Friends from Cast-Off Socks and Gloves, and he chose the cat. This time, I did almost all the sewing on the sewing machine. I’m so much better with the machine than by hand. I edge-stitched the ears so that they would hold their shape better.

Every year, I try to make a gingerbread house. Every year, I fail create something. Before kids, I made a pretty darn good one. But back then I had more time and energy.

This year, I tried to take a short cut by using store bought gingerbread cookie dough. It didn’t work. It was just too soft. The house collapsed beyond recovery. I need something more structurally sound. The recipe in Making Great Gingerbread Houses: Delicious Designs from Cabins to Castles, from Lighthouses to Tree Houses is a good one for houses. It’s okay for eating, too; at least, the pigs my fellow employees at work thought so.

This page features a background in Biocolors washable paint, but it doesn’t run when I watercolor on it. I used Biocolors because we have a lot of it. It’s a great paint for kids.

The face doodle is in colored pencil. The bird is Chunguita’s artwork, and the teddies were stamped out by Pulguito.

The fellow on the lower left is a colored pencil sketch. The fairies are watercolor and ink. Pulguito’s artwork is featured on the right.

Here’s How to Do it

Rules are important aspects of a community. Discuss with your child different types of rules, such as classroom rules, rules of games she plays and laws in your community. Talk about why rules are important and what might happen if there were no rules. Discuss who makes different rules and who enforces them. Are there good rules and bad rules? What’s the difference? Have your child come up with household rules such as locking the door when you leave the house and cleaning up after yourself. Have your child write down the rules. Talk about why these rules are important.

This activity is designed to practice beginning mapping skills. Children will learn that a map is a representation of an area.

Here’s How to Do It

Use the graph paper and draw an outline of your home. Fill in the room locations. Don’t worry about getting it exactly to scale.

If you wish, you can then place drawings on the map to represent furnishings. Ask your child simple questions about where certain things would be located on the map. As an extension of this activity, work out an escape plan in case of emergencies. Teach your child a couple of ways to get out of the house, using the map to develop the plan.

I love Oriental Trading Company. I bought this set to make ornaments with my kids. Before I sit down to make anything with my kids, I try to do a test. Glue projects have not been so successful in the past. Hot glue guns are dangerous to small children; heck, I really burned myself with one. White school glue takes a long time to dry and you have to hold it in place. Paste and glue sticks aren’t very sticky or gluey. I tried glue dots, and they worked very well. I’m not sure how they will work for a 4 year old. I’ll let you know if I survive the experiment.