Ghost

For our G craft, we made a cheesecloth ghost. It's a little early for Halloween, but we're ready!

Materials:
newspapers
balloons
drinking glass or vase
cheesecloth, cut into double-layer 14 inch squares
shallow bowl
1 tablespoon water
2 tablespoons glue (I used Elmer's)

1. Prepare your work surface with newspapers. Blow up the balloons (one per ghost) and set them in drinking glasses; this will let you mold the damp cheesecloth in a ghostly shape that you like.
2. Cut square of double-layer cheesecloth. In a shallow bowl, mix the glue and water. Dip the cheesecloth square in the mixture and squeeze out excess. Drape the cheesecloth on the balloon in a ghostly shape of a flying or standing ghost. Let it dry overnight on the glass.
3. When dry, add a face (we used googly eyes), then remove the balloon by popping it.

Our finished version:

G Books

General Store by Rachel Field. Emma loved this book because of the pictures; at first she thought it was about a house. There weren't all that many G words, though.

The Growing Story by Ruth Krauss. With the arrival of a new baby and comparisons to pictures of baby Emma, we have been talking a lot about growing lately. This is a sweet book that talks about how things grow over time: trees, crops, puppies, and children. My only complaint is that it's a bit wordy and Emma got a little bored.

Double Trouble Groundhog Day by Bethany Roberts. What makes a better G book than one about groundhogs? A book about groundhog twins named Greta and Gregory. LOTS of Gs, both big and little, to look for in the text!

Glasses: Who Needs 'Em? by Lane Smith. Smith has a fabulous, if slightly offbeat, sense of humor. This book, which has fabulous illustrations, is about a doctor who tries to convince a boy why it's cool to have glasses. Besides the fun story, one of the best things about this book is that the little Gs are normal, not the funky Gs you get with many fonts, so they were easy to recognize.

Grown-Ups Get to Do All the Driving by William Steig. Steig has such a distinctive style to all of his illustrations, and it this book it's combined with all of the things that pertain to grown ups: in addition to "get[ing] to do all the driving," grown-ups also "always have to know what time it is" and "like hands to be clean." Funny and fun. The font is also all upper-case letters, which can make it easier to spot the Gs.

Gingersnaps

Can you tell that we love baked goods? As with our previous ventures, Emma was especially good at dumping the mom-measured ingredients into the mixing bowl. Oh, and she's quite adept at tasting the final product as well. :)

3/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
4 Tablespoons molasses
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons cloves
2 cups flour

Cream butter and sugar. Mix in egg and molasses. Combine baking soda, spices, and flour, and add to mixture. Bake at 350* for 10-12 minutes.

Games

Emma is just at the cusp of understanding rules to games, so for our G activity we played "Candyland." She knows all of her colors, so actually playing the game isn't a problem; however, her obession with playing "people" was, sort of. When my mom came to take care of Emma when Madeline was born, they spent a lot of time playing with Fisher-Price Little People. In particular, their Little People would go on pretend trips to the zoo. Hence, any time Emma sees any sort of figurine (such as the playing pieces in Candyland), she uses them to go to the zoo. So we played about half of a game of Candyland following the specified rules, and then it fell into a game of going to the zoo. Either way, Emma now knows that game starts wtih G. Oh, and she had fun too.
PS. Originally I had planned to play "Go Fish"--double points for a game that starts with G! But I didn't have time this week to search out a card game with actual fish on it, and I thought she might get confused if we played with face cards. Maybe I'll find one by the time Madeline is ready to learn the alphabet...

F is for Flowers

Our craft project for F was flowers. I had a lot of ideas to make them fancy, but at the end of the day (or, more accurately, the beginning of the afternoon when I sat down to do this with Emma), I realized that easier was going to work better, so we simplified to using strips of paper.

The supplies:

Construction paper, glue, tape, scissors, pom-poms, and colored straws
We glued strips of paper together:

Added pom-poms for the centers and straws for the stems:

Voila! Paper flowers. Emma has been carrying them around for a few days now.

One hint: the pom-poms stay on better if you use special felt glue. (Elmer's doesn't do jack.) I found some at my craft store for about $2, so we added it to our supply closet.

Fondue

For F week, a friend gave me a great recipe for cheese fondue. I thought it might be a fun way to get Emma to eat some vegetables, as well as learning about the letter F. I was wrong (on the vegetables), but it did make for a fun and delicious dinner.

Simple Cheese Fondue:
2 cans Campbell's cheddar cheese soup
1 fresh garlic clove (whole/peeled)
1 cup vegetable or chicken broth
8 oz.+ Monterrey Jack cheese, shredded

In a pot over medium heat (or a fondue pot), heat broth with one peeled garlic clove. Heat to boiling. Remove clove and add soup--stir until combined. Stir in desired amount of cheese. If stringy, add 1 tablespoon milk.

Dipping ideas: Sourdough/French bread, steamed broccoli, roasted potato chunks, cubed baked or grilled chicken

Here is our spread:

Emma, dipping bread (her favorite, though occasionally she'd dip chicken too; she wasn't convinced that the roasted potatoes tasted like french fries):

F Books

I've decided to condense the books into one post for the week, as I don't have all that much to say about each one.

<First Day by Dandi Daley Mackall. This book is a cute, rhyming story all about the first day of school. Even though she's never been to preschool or daycare, Emma really identified wtih the illustrations and enjoyed the story. And there were plenty of Fs!

Froggy's Baby Sister by Jonathan London. Frankly, I find the main character, Froggy, a bit annoying, but the story line is something we can identify with at our house. :)

Fast Food by Saxton Freymann. This book is all about modes of transportation, illustrated with carvings of fruits and vegetables. An interesting and different book.

Fancy Nancy by Jane O'Connor. I've heard of this book before, but have never read it until now, and I think it's absolutely delightful! The main character is adorable and I love how her family reacts to her quirks. This book is definitely a keeper--for F week and beyond.

The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark by Ken Geist. If you couldn't tell, this book is an underwater take on the story of the three little pigs. Lots of fun.

Finger Painting

For our F activity, we did fingerpainting. Just like when we make the apple prints, Emma was a little freaked out by the activity at first. But she quickly warmed up to it and has asked to fingerpaint again several times since.


PS. I highly recommend Crayola's Color Wonder fingerpainting set, as pictured below. True, traditional finger paints are probably cheaper, but the lack of mess, especially when you have a new baby around? Priceless.

Craft Supplies

I have emerged from my pregnancy/newborn fog with renewed vigor for the Alphabet Project. This week I took the girls to Target to stock up on crafting supplies for a toddler. Here is a random list of things I have stocked in my closet. Is there anything else you would add?

*Beads
*Construction paper
*Cotton Balls/pom poms
*Crayons
*Felt
*Finger paints
*Glitter
*Glue/glue stick
*Markers
*Patterned paper/paper scraps
*Pipe cleaners
*Popsicle Sticks
*Recycled items: egg cartons, paper towel rolls, etc.
*Child-safe scissors
*Straws
*Stamps and ink pads
*Stickers
*Tape
*Ziploc bags
*Tissue paper
*Thread
*Yarn

Eggs

I don't think I ever posted our E cook and do activities, and unfortunately I don't even have pictures! I blame it on pregnancy slacking, though I'm over that condition now and hope to move on with the rest of the alphabet.

For E cooking, we made eggs. Nothing fancy, just scrambled. (I thought of other ideas--enchiladas, eclairs, but they all seemed a bit much for a two-year-old). Emma practiced cracking eggs, though she was a bit vigorous and I had to fish some shells out of the bowl.

For our E activity, we had a practice Easter egg hunt to prepare for the real thing. But unfortunately we never got to do the real thing, because it was raining buckets on Easter and I was too busy cooking the ham to hide the eggs inside.

Alas, I hope to make up for my slackerdom during F week.