Make It! Archives - Page 4 of 5 - The Ten Thousand Hour Mama

Chocolate strawberry pops {Kid friendly recipe}

June 8, 2016catherinemryan

Welcome back, strawberry season. And hellooooooooo chocolate strawberry pops!

If you haven’t been stuffing your face with fresh, just-picked, locally grown strawberries, what the heck have you been doing? Just walk by the farmers market and you’ll smell strawberries warming in the sun.

And it’s u-pick season! If you’re in the Portland area, check out this article about the best u-pick berry farms from PDX Parent.

Now, the girls and I aren’t opposed to simply eating strawberries plain by the pint. But if you’re looking for a healthy dessert your kids can help make, you’ve found it. Recipe below!

Chocolate Strawberry Pops Healthy Dessert Recipe Read more →

5 Little Monkeys craft {with download!}

May 25, 2016May 25, 2016catherinemryan

Five little monkeys jumping on the bed
One fell off and bumped his head
Mama called the doctor and the doctor said,
“For the love of all things holy I am not reading this book one more time!”

5 Little Monkeys craft process art download I have a love/hate relationship with the book 5 Little Monkeys. After about the sixth time of reading it, all that repetition makes me want to jump off a bed and knock myself in the head.

But the repetition is great for pre-readers: Books that have repeating sequences, like 5 Little Monkeys, strengthens a child’s neural pathways and primes them for learning to read later. For example, all that repetition helps kids add to their vocabulary faster, reports research from the University of Sussex in the UK. And the familiar rhythms of a repetitive book helps that child remember what comes next—a skill that later helps them predict or hypothesize what comes next.

I saw this all in action with Peeper and 5 Little Monkeys. I used to pass the book back to her while we were driving around. After a while, she would “read” the book to herself—including counting down the number of monkeys.

All that repetition really worked!

Turns out the repetitive motion of painting is a great parallel for this story. When I found Raising Fairies and Knights’s Monthly Crafting Book Club, I was in: I wanted to make a fun art project that went along with 5 Little Monkeys, too!

You may also know what a proponent of process art I am. So I didn’t want to create a craft that had a clear expectation of how the craft should look in the end. Instead, I created a project that let Peeper do her own thang while staying true to the spirit of the book. And with my hand-drawn download, you can, too!

5 Little Monkeys craft process art download 5 Little Monkeys craft download Read more →

The spirit of Christmas

December 14, 2015March 22, 2017catherinemryan

The other day Peeper and I shared a rare morning just the two of us: Eric and Kiwi were napping, so we headed downstairs to play out of earshot. It turned out to be the perfect time to get into the true spirit of Christmas.

After some jumping on the couch, reading books to dolls and building towers (then knocking them down, of course), I suggested we wrap some presents.

“These are for a little boy who doesn’t have any presents,” I explained to her. We are sponsoring a child whose parent is incarcerated, and I had bought him action figures, shoes and pants—his wish list items—earlier in the week. “Some children don’t have as many toys as you,” I added.

Christmas lessons in toddler-sized packages

Peeper chattered and jumped back and forth over the wrapping paper tubes as I cut, folded and taped. I unpeeled the backing from shiny bows, and she stuck them on the boxes.

I wanted to involve Peeper in our family giving this year. We have so much while others have so little, and I don’t want her growing up expecting that abundance is the norm. Providing for others so their holiday is a little brighter is a family tradition, and Peeper is old enough to learn some of these lessons. Read more →

Toddler DIY: Coffee filter bouquets

October 5, 2015June 11, 2016catherinemryan

Not long ago, we learned our next-door neighbor was sick. She had surgery and was recovering quickly, but I wanted to send over something to show we’d been thinking of her.

Naturally, I wanted to involve Peeper. We set to making a paper bouquet of coffee filter flowers.

Lessons in empathy

Peeper is still too young to understand why we were making the bouquet, and thank goodness. How wonderful to be unaware of things like cancer, anesthesia and prognoses. But it’s important to instill the value of doing nice things for others, so we made our own thinking-of-you package instead of buying a bouquet or card at the store.

One of the nice things about these coffee filter flowers is you almost definitely have the materials on hand. What’s more, it’s ridiculously easy and simple enough for even toddlers to do.

What are you waiting for? Even if you don’t know someone who’s ill, you do know someone whose day would be brightened by a hand-made flower or two. Read more →

Painting birthday party: Making a group easel [tutorial!]

July 13, 2015October 31, 2016catherinemryan

Peeper loves to create, so when it came to planning her second birthday party, I knew I wanted to incorporate art. Thanks to getting almost no sleep and leaving most of the party prep till the morning of, I had to scale back some of our painting plans, but one activity made the cut: the group DIY easel.

Peeper and her friends got to paint alongside each other in our front yard, and each kiddo took home a piece of art (or several!). Peeper’s painting is now hanging on our wall above the dining table.

The setup was surprisingly easy—and cheap—and we’ve left it up in our yard for now. Peeper continues to use it, and when we do decide to take it down, we’ll recycle or reuse all the pieces for projects later!

Want to get in on the artistic action, too? Here’s how to make an easy group DIY easel for your kids to paint their own outdoor masterpieces. Read more →

Super easy DIY baby shower gift: Fingerprint tree [tutorial!]

July 8, 2015May 7, 2018catherinemryan

This DIY baby shower craft is an easy, personal gift your loved one will treasure forever. Here’s how to make a fingerprint tree for guests to “sign.”

A while back, a dear friend from high school had a baby shower in anticipation of welcoming her first child. She and her husband live in Chicago and there was no way I could zip over for the party, but I wanted to send something special for their baby shower. I didn’t want to just get something off the registry; I wanted to make something by hand (but that was easy and didn’t take up hours of time). Enter: the fingerprint tree, a gorgeous, thoughtful and easy-to-make DIY baby shower gift!

The fingerprint tree doubled as a gift and a guest book that baby shower guests could “sign” with their fingerprints. To me, the tree shows this little baby that her family came together to celebrate her even before she was born.

That’s the best thing about this DIY baby shower gift: The fingerprint tree lets this new baby know that she is being born into a world filled with people who loved her—people who would always be there to support and encourage her.

The baby shower craft is super easy—basically all you need is paper, ink and a sharp X-Acto knife. I drew the tree I used, but you could also print an image from the Internet and cut that out (or trace it onto nicer stock).

Here, then, are instructions to make a DIY fingerprint tree for the next baby shower you attend! Read more →

Handmade change jar: Watch your savings grow! [tutorial]

July 3, 2015June 3, 2016catherinemryan

Eric is really, really good about saving his change. I tend to spend mine, getting way more excited than is warranted when I get to use pennies at the store, whereas he empties his pockets at the end of the day to watch a jar fill up with dimes and quarters.

Not too long ago, the peanut butter jar we’d been using was too full to accept a single more cent. I took it to our credit union—and walked out more than $135 richer.

Aw, yeah.

The problem: I could not go back to using that scuzzy plastic jar. It was dirty, it was ugly and I didn’t want it sitting on our mantle, no matter how much money it held.

So I enlisted Peeper’s help! Together, we made a brand-new/upcycled change jar so we can (ahem) watch our money grow. (Get it?)

Here are the instructions so you can make one, too! Read more →

Apple-Carrot Muffins [recipe!]

May 28, 2015October 29, 2017catherinemryan

One morning on Memorial Day weekend, we had grand plans to go disc golfing at Milo McIver State Park near Estacada, a fabulous hiking/disc golfing/throwing sand into the river spot we go to again and again. The weather was less than cooperative, though, so rather than head out in the rain and muck, we stayed in. And instead of bemoaning the absence of park-going weather, Peeper and I stayed cozy with a baking project: making healthy apple-carrot muffins!

I pulled a chair up to the counter so my toddler sous chef could help (i.e. dump grated carrot on the floor and dunk every single measuring cup we own into the batter). She loved pouring ingredients into the bowl and stirring everything together. Remarkably, she lasted the entire apple-carrot muffins recipe!

What is process art? Letting kids craft whatever the eff they want

May 26, 2015February 28, 2018catherinemryan

Toddler process art clay — Process art: When a honey dipping stick becomes a ceramics tool

For anyone reading this blog, it should be no surprise that Peeper loves her some art. Most of her hands-on time is very open-ended: I set her up with some paper and crayons or a paper plate full of paint, then let her go wild. (And by wild, I mostly mean become speckled green, black and orange in art supplies.) I thought she was just intuitive; turns out she is loving her some process art. But what is process art?

It turns out that free-spirited approach to crafts is good for kids’ creativity. “Process art is more important than end product,” writes Rachelle Doorley, artist and author of Tinkerlab: A Hands-On Guide for Little Inventors, on her blog. And focusing too much on what kids make, and especially what projects are meant to look like, is stifling.

Doorley also polled a whole slew of educators, artists and parents on what they wished they’d known about kids’ art and rolled it up into a fantastic blog post. Just about everyone agreed that art is all about the doing—and encouraging kids’ creativity—not about what gets done.

5 tips to make bomb twice-baked sweet potatoes

April 30, 2015December 27, 2017catherinemryan

Twice-baked potatoes were one of my favorite dinners when I was growing up. I’d wait impatiently for them to bake and snag a top—a little piece of potato skin with melted cheese—as soon as they were out of the oven, inevitably burning my mouth. But it was so worth it! Now that I’m a little older (and more into easy, healthy dinners), twice-baked sweet potatoes are my go-to.

If you haven’t worked twice-baked sweet potatoes into your weeknight menu, here are 5 tips to make them delicious, every time. Twice-baked sweet potatoes are a phenomenal vegetarian dinner any day of the week!

5 tips to make the best twice-baked sweet potatoes, an easy weeknight vegetarian dinner! Ten Thousand Hour Mama Read more →