Today we are pleased to have Kristy from HearMyHandsASL.com guest posting for us. Hear My Hands recently became one of our sponsors and we are so thrilled to be working with her! Jamie has a special place in her heart for ASL (American Sign Language). She started learning it in First grade when her elementary school partnered with a school for the deaf a few miles down the road. Years later, Jamie took ASL as a second language in college. Unfortunately Jamie has not kept up with her ASL skills and has lost most of it. She was hoping to teach her girls sign language at a young age but her husband wouldn't let her due to popular myths. We now have Kristy guest posting for us so that others don't fall into those same myths! Check out Kristy's website HearMyHandsASL.com. She's got some GREAT info on there and has frequent signs for words up on her blog. If you're in her area, check out her classes! Without further ado, here is Kristy... The most common myths when … [Read more...]
Archives for 2012
Pipe Cleaner Dragonfly
I was inspired to have my girls make dragonflies when I came across a cute dragonfly craft activity while searching the internet. Unfortunately that webpage no longer exists so I can't link to it. The craft involved supplies that we did not have and also contained pins which I did not want my girls to play with... so...we adapted that idea with what we hand on hand...pipe cleaners, markers, and coffee filters! Yep, that's all you need (oh, and a little water and scissors) to make these super cute pipe cleaner dragonflies! Step 1) Have your kids color with non-permanent, water soluble markers on coffee filters. Step 2) Spray the coffee filters with water until the colors bleed. Don't spray too much or you'll dilute out the colors. If you don't have a spray bottle, you can sprinkle water onto the coffee filter with your fingers. Step 3) Let the coffee filters dry completely. If your kids are impatient like mine, use a hair dryer to get them to dry … [Read more...]
Chocolate-Peanut Butter "Dip"
Ok, this is going to seem like kind-of a cop-out post for a Tasty Treat, however, I kid you not, my girls (and I) LOVE this "dip"! One day when I was younger I was craving Reece's Peanut Butter Cups but couldn't go to the store to get them (because my mom wouldn't let me). I dug through our cupboards and found chocolate chips and peanut butter and decided that would be close enough. After a few times of simply eating a spoonful of peanut butter with some chocolate chips on top, I decided to actually mix them together. I took a spoonful (or two) of peanut butter and sprinkled some chocolate chips on top. (Semi-sweet will work fine but milk chocolate is the best!) I put the peanut butter and chocolate chips in the microwave to melt the chocolate. My first attempt was a complete failure. WARNING: Chocolate chips will burn in the microwave! I learned my lesson the second time. (Put it in for 30 seconds or less. Just until the peanut butter starts to look runny. The … [Read more...]
Gardening with your kids
For Earth day the kids and I decided to plant our veggies for the summer! It was GREAT fun! Last year was our first year growing our own veggies and we learned a lot. We learned that weeding is VERY important, we learned that the deer will not leave our garden alone without a little electricity (insert evil snicker here) and we learned that we did not plant ENOUGH of anything. This year we decided to add a few more (OK actually 24 more) crowns of asparagus to our crop. This time next year we will have asparagus coming out of our ears and I cannot wait (and neither can my kids)! We just finished planting three varieties of lettuce, radishes, onions, red potatoes, green beans and peas....and to top it all off we have room left over for a few tomato plants! I am....oops I mean the kids are, SO excited! Source Gardening with my kids last year changed the way they looked at vegetables. They actually enjoy them now. There is something magical about plopping a few … [Read more...]
Fun Stuff Friday #19
Remember when Linkys were all the rage in blogging? They were a great way to find and get to know other bloggers before social media and Pinterest became mainstream. It didn’t hurt that they brought a ton of traffic to your site too. Lindsi and I started our Fun Stuff Fridays linky back in 2011. We kept it going for 20 weeks before it fizzled out (or we got sick of doing it, I’m not sure which happened). It is now soon to be 2017 and at lot of the links in those linkies no longer exist. Plus, I’ve let my link up subscription lapse so you can’t get to them anyway. Instead of deleting the Fun Stuff Fridays posts, however, I have decided to clean them up and make sure our featured links are still valid. After all, on a rare occasion I get traffic from one of these old posts. The linky may be gone but the featured posts are still valid as of December 2016… Welcome to Fun Stuff Fridays. We love seeing what our readers have been up to and cannot wait to share some of our favorites! … [Read more...]
The Evolution of the Dandelion
So my experience with my kids reaction to dandelions is similar to the way life changes much like the dandelion changes. Last summer my oldest brought me a handful of "flowers" for my kitchen. How could I resist such a sweet gesture? First, you see dandelions as pretty flowers you can pick for your friend, teacher, or mommy. As a child reaches the age of 3 or 4 they soon learn that life is about love. They want to share their love and show it to you by picking pretty dandelions for you. You drive in the car and hear them joyously shout out "look mom!!! Lots of pretty dandelions." They have yet to be tainted by the evils of the world and and they see things in such an innocent way. Source Next, you see dandelions as these beautiful fluffy things that blow in the wind. They are different and often they don't see them as the same flower as they once were. Much like a child grows, they change and become a little person, rather than a kid. Its different and often the … [Read more...]
