In a college photography class, Sue Tenerowicz was introduced to letter art. Her assignment that was to go out in the world and find letters that the world created.  Then spell something.

She says, “A simple idea, but the concept stuck with me.”

“I’ve always used words in pictures to send a special message. Sometimes, it was a message written in the snow, captured in a photo, and sent to a loved one. Other times it was an “I Love You,” written in the sand to capture a beautiful testament with a glowing sunset on the beach.”

“When my husband, Rob, and I moved back to the Bay Area with our boys, I started noticing the letters that were all around us – like the great H on the span of the Golden Gate Bridge. I kept seeing letters in everything from fences to flowers.  It brought me back to that college assignment.”

I want to do this with my kids! I think it would be so much fun to go out on hunts for letters in their names, snap photos and then print them out for a bulletin board or the door of their room. (Although I’m sort of envying my friends who named their kids Max and Ty right now. I don’t know if any of us have the attention span to seek out Julian and Scarlett.)

I used images from Sue's site to make Scarlett's name

Want to try this?
Here are three ways to go (the first being the most hands-on):

1. Take your children on amazing scavenger hunts until you find (and photograph!) all the letters. Print your photos and choose one of these multi-photo frames to display your masterpiece.
2. Find your letters on flickr using this fun tool. Print and frame.
3. Let Sue do all the work for you and buy your chosen word from her on her website SpellItOutPhotos.com

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Letter art not your thing? Choose another fun makin’ it project from our growing list.

Reprinted from the wayback machine cuz I’m super busy today.

Holden and I used to cook together a lot. Before his little brother Milo joined our family, Holden would stand by my side at the kitchen sink and crack eggs, stir with a whisk, or rip greens for a salad. Unfortunately, I must confess, I now put the two of them in front of a 25 minute kid show while I race to get dinner together most nights. So I was a perfect candidate for this lesson a few weeks ago.

Holden and Shayna cooking at Eat Real Fest

At the Oakland Eat Real Festival, an amazing event aimed at helping folks “put the food back into fast,” Holden cooked on stage as part of the children’s cooking demo. Along with 3 other children, he helped make “Scissor salsa salad” under the guidance of Shayna Marmar.

Shayna is a from-scratch cooking teacher-extraordinaire. She started Honeypie Cooking & Events in Oakland to bring fresh, seasonal, and delicious foods back into our kitchens.

Scissor Salsa Salad, all kid-made

As she was leading the children through food preparation, Shayna talked about eating fresh real whole foods as often as possible. We sat on hay bales as she encouraged us to get our children more involved in the creation of their meals. She has seen many parents who said their children hated veggies eat their words while their kids ate salad for the first time.

I emailed her after the event to find out if she had any tips for the Rookie Moms who want to cook more with children, and she told us to get out the safety scissors:

While safety scissors are not generally thought of as a cooking tool, they work great in helping kids of all ages cut various fruits and vegetables. Keep a pair in your kitchen drawer, specifically for cooking, and your child will instantly be able to assist with food preparation tasks without the use of a sharp knife.

Help your child along by cutting the fruits and vegetables into slices/strips beforehand. Foods that can be cut with safety scissors include tomatoes, bell peppers, apples, peaches, cabbage, and cucumbers, among others.

She offered a ton of great hacks for getting kids involved in cooking; here are a few other tips I picked up from the demo:

• Leave your perfectionism at the door; better that the food products are kid-made than perfect.
• Do rough cut prep in advance so kids can avoid a lot of waiting time as well as large knives on counters.
• Think about what foods can be torn by small hands: lettuce, herbs, bread…
• For safer cutting, have a pair of kids’ safety scissors dedicated for use on food (see above) or use a butter knife for other foods that won’t easily fit in the scissors.
• 

  Mashing out some tortillas

  Don’t have a rolling pin? Wash some tools from the play-doh kit or use a cleaned can. Let kids use their hands to pound out dough and smash out tortillas.

• During the final tasting, ask kids “what would you change next time? what would you add more/less of?” to get them thinking and engaged in the process. Holden said “more tomatoes,” a big boy said “more spicy,” the little girl said “just right,” and the big girl refused to taste it. (can’t please everyone!)

Taste test, hmmm more tomatoes please

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I want to thank Shayna for sharing her tips with us!

Shayna offers cooking classes & parties for older children, teens, adults, and families as well as workshops for teachers & parents highlighting tips & tricks for involving children in the process of preparing and eating wholesome and tasty foods.

She can also turn your next kids birthday party into a healthy cooking party, emphasizing fun in the kitchen. How brilliant is that?! She also blogs at Peas and Carrots 123.

We are big fans of the I Spy books, starting with the board book versions I bought when Julian was a baby. We play “I Spy” with regular books, too, and now we’ve graduated into Where’s Waldo? territory.

When Julian was four, he and I did a little photo shoot with big plans — still unfulfilled as of this writing — to make our own I Spy book. We ended up with unbound printed photos. (You can do it, that way, too.)

DIY I Spy Book

1. Set up a solid colored background on the floor. We used a foam play mat.
2. Gather a laundry basket full of {insert nice word for “junk”}. Include favorite objects and personal items.
3. Spread your items on the background as you like. Since there’s no wrong way to do this, let your preschooler help.
4. Try to talk your preschooler out of being in the picture himself. I failed. See above.
5. Photograph the scene.
6. Arrange new items and repeat.
7. Upload set of photos to your choice of photobook makers and order yourself a book.
8. Alternatively, cheap out and simply print the results on your own printer. Paper clip the photos together to make a set of I Spy cards for use in the car or on the plane.

Another fun version of this activity is to dump your purse and photograph the results.

This is part of our year-long series Makin’ It with The Rookie Moms. To contribute your own idea, click over here.

Scarlett is four-and-a-half today, and one of my favorite things about her is the way she speaks. She has the voice of a chipmunk, for one — loud and high-pitched — but in a charming way, and two, she has a knack for inventing words that make so much sense to the rest of us that we start using them in our regular speech around the house.

Here are a few of my favorite Scarlettisms:

1. Yanky – this adjective describes a sensation to which we can all relate. When you are wearing a long-sleeved shirt and you slide your arm into a thin sweater and the friction between the two fabrics is uncomfortable, you might say, if you are four years old, “I don’t want to wear that sweater. It’s too yanky.”

2. Tearous – Scarlett was having so much fun with my husband, when she turned to him and said, “Daddy, when I am so so happy, sometimes I cry a little bit. I get tearous.” I think hearing her describe that event made him tearous himself.

3. Unsleeve – to turn a garment right-side out. One of the most common requests made by a girl who changes back and forth from regular clothes to leotards on a regular basis. “Can you unsleeve this shirt?”

4. Todding – this verb describes the act of a ponytail bouncing along as it’s owner walks or runs. Often seen on gymnasts in the 2-4 year old age bracket, the word derives from the term toddler, a child who walks funny and causes visible todding of their hairdos.

5. Shoot it out – another frequent request made to parents or any available adult with solid motor skills. Blankets and sheets that are being used for play with dolls, forts, or indoor picnic-related activities are hard to lay down flat, no matter how many times you shoot them out. “Mommy, please bring my green blanket and shoot it out right there.”

Happy four-and-a-half, Scarlett! May your favorite stuffed animals continue to be soft, not scrubby.

I am sincerely thankful to Wonderforge for sponsoring this giveaway because it seems incredibly well-timed. There’s nothing like having a stack of great games hiding in your garage so that when you realize you need a gift in a pinch, you can simply go browse your pile of unopened toys. In my house, my husband is the smart one about maintaining a supply of versatile gifts that we use for birthday parties we’ve forgotten until the last minute. Today, we’re giving you a chance to win an entire stash of easy-to-wrap games.

Too wet to go out? Too cold to play ball? Too sick for preschool? With a can of shaving cream or a bar of soap, here is lots of good fun that is funny:

Microwave Ivory Soap. Take a cue from our friend Wendy and put a quarter bar of Ivory soap in the microwave for 90 seconds. Ooze. Squish. Awesome. Great for preschoolers through adults. Though it is incredibly cool, Wendy cautions, “Be forewarned — it only takes about 5 minutes, so don’t plan your day around it or anything.” Do it yourself or click the picture to see the incredible results.

Squishy fun. For toddlers who can’t grasp the amazement of microwave science, spray a dollop of shaving cream into a bowl and let them go for it. Sensory nirvana. Details and more pictures at champuru.net.

Santa beard. Seasonal fun for all ages. Pant on a shaving cream beard and take pictures. Could this be your very clever holiday card?

I’ll be sharing a few foamy art projects in two weeks, in the meantime, what clean fun can you get into with shaving cream or soap?

[photos by wendolonia, champuru, and portraitsimple]

I am so proud of our buddy Marie who has just published her first book. The team at her publisher, Wiley, who maintain a pretty solid crafty website themselves, put together an adorable package of Marie’s ideas and photographer Nicole Gerulat’s images.

As you can see in the table of contents above, the projects are organized by month. My own kids love making things in anticipation of upcoming holidays, so this layout would draw them right in.

If you don’t already know Marie’s site, head over to Make and Takes to browse the zillions of projects she and her contributors have posted. She often uses her own kids as models on her blog, and they each make an appearance in her book. Aren’t they the cutest?

If you need inspiration for unplugged time with your family, consider buying a copy of Make and Takes for Kids. If you’d like to win a copy, simply leave a comment before November 21 telling us what your go-to creative activity is with your child(ren). On 11/21, I will select a winner at random from the comments to receive a copy of the book.

By the time you have a toddler, you probably know the best way to keep a small child occupied is to show them something they’ve never seen before (no, not TV).  And how about something that they can smoosh, squeeze, or secretly taste a tiny nibble of?  Even better!

In our not-so-recent blog blast, SusieJ generously imparted a bit of wisdom that must come only with being the mother of four boys.  Her amazing post regarding eating out with the whole family (especially for those of you who aren’t rookies, but are dragging a larger crew around with you) is packed with tips.  My favorite part, however, is the suggestion to ask the chef or waiter for some dough for your children to play with.  I’ve been to a Mexican restaurant where giving the kids tortilla dough is part of their schtick, and it’s just brilliant.  I’ve never thought to make this special request at a different restaurant before, and you can bet your sweet buns that I’m going to start.

The uncooked dough is smooshy and wonderful to touch, and guaranteed to keep kids busy making “doughnuts” and snakes. And if you want to get all Martha on me, you can even bake it when you get home.  Or just toss it and be grateful for a relatively peaceful meal.

Argh! Shiver me timbers, Monday is Talk Like a Pirate Day, so I offer a thematic scavenger hunt for little kids.

Some folks might tell you that to be a pirate, all you need is an eye patch. Or a parrot. Or a peg leg. But in my house, all you really need is the head scarf (and please, don’t call it a ribbon!) Holden got this little outfit as part of a pirate-themed birthday party he attended. And luckily Milo got a matching ensemble.

When we want to indulge our inner pirate, we don’t need to go any further than the house because a scavenger hunt can be as easy as you want to make it.

My friend Sunny says that she and her then-four-year old could wile away the minutes with their indoor hunts:

I make a list of things around the house (mirror, refrigerator, etc.) and ask him to find these things, then he crosses them off the paper. I try to challenge him a little by saying, “where do you see your reflection?”, “what keeps the food cold?”. You get the picture. He loves to cross things out. We did this one day for about 1/2 hour.

If thinking of household items is not your specialty, I have a brief list for you to adapt (oh yeah, worth noting, these are things you FIND, not things you grab and put in a box) — make it longer or shorter based on what your kid can handle:

1. bathroom mirror (where do you see your reflection when you brush your teeth?)
2. refrigerator (what keeps our food cold?)
3. front door (where do we leave the house?)
4. kitchen sink (where do we wash the dishes?)

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I originally wrote this post for the Savvy Source blog and it appeared there when my big boy was only three. Awww. I share it with you now as an attempt to be on maternity leave from my mommy blog.

photo by Sarah Gilbert

Years ago, I went to a silly “roll your own” sushi and head-shaving party hosted by some people I barely knew. I dragged my sister, Meggan, along to keep me company and we enjoyed the general goofiness of the theme. For example, I did a non-keg stand on a cooler full of soft drinks, I’m crazy like that.

Rolling your own sushi is quite easy if you have all the ingredients. So, that’s the big trick, assemble the right stuff before you enlist your preschooler to play with you.

1. Nori (seaweed) wrapping “paper”. It is available at most grocery stores with an ethnic foods aisle.
2. White sticky rice (less than a cup). Plain is preferred because nori is salty; make sure it is cooled to room temperature before you begin.
3. Filling. Time to personalize! You can stay traditional with strips of cucumber, avocado, cooked salmon, or cream cheese; or go wild with anything your kid likes that can be cut into strips: hot dogs, turkey breast, strawberries!

Leftover rice is perfect for this task. If you have a rice cooker — I do not — set it and forget it and then go shave each other’s heads (I’m kidding!) while you wait.

Once you’ve assembled the ingredients, let your kiddo scoop out one or two spoonfuls of rice onto the nori sheets and lay out any desired filling before rolling a genuine hand roll. There are fun sushi-rolling tools like bamboo mats that can enhance your fun but the only thing you really need are clean hands and some food to express your artistic side.

For more detailed instructions and inspiration on kid sushi, here is a lengthy sushi tutorial on family fun.

A few weeks ago, a stroke of genius hit and I laid these “train tracks” down on the rug in Julian’s room. At four-and-three-quarters, he is over the whole Thomas thing, but larger scale train action definitely still turns him on.

All you need is a roll of painter’s tape, the kind that removes from walls with minimal damage.

As you can see, Julian has he has an extensive dress up collection (see his cowboy hat, santa hat, and tiger suit?) , and he put his engineer get-up on every day after school for about a week. We collected all of the stools and small chairs in the house and lined them up in rows of two. He sat in the front with a cardboard box that was his “control panel”.

The icing on the cake was the hole puncher we gave him. He passed out magazine reply card inserts for us to use as tickets. When he announced “Tickets, please!” we would present our paper for him to punch a hole through. Somehow this made it all very official. I think a toddler close to two would be inspired to play imaginatively these tracks, too, but of course without the hole puncher aspect.

When I was a little girl, I had no siblings. At my birthday parties, I frequently received board games as gifts, but they mostly sat on the shelf in my closet until I got too old for them. Sure my mom and step-dad and I played Monopoly from time to time; I played Sorry! with my next-door neighbor/best friend; and Candyland with my grandma. But, back then, the assortment was more limited.

After Scarlett’s recent birthday party, during which she collected quite a few board games, I was chatting with Heather about which ones our children really like to play. After we collaboratively listed out a bunch of them, I realized that three new companies stood out as excellent designers of preschooler games. Blue Orange, I Can Do That! Games, and eeBoo are responsible for most of the organized turn-taking fun we have around here. While I still appreciate Hasbro and the other old-school brands, I think it’s cool that there are so many new kids on the gaming block.

And of course there are more. Here’s the rundown of eight games that we personally own and enjoy:

1. Angelina Ballerina Dance With Me! Game. Children get up and perform the moves on the game cards. The board is a diorama of a stage. Not only is my 4-year old enchanted by this game, but my 6-year old son also likes to perform.

2. Zingo. I should add another reliable brand to the list of game producers: ThinkFun. We love this bingo-style game and the plastic game pieces are fun to play with for three-year olds, even when not engaged in an actual game. Find it at Barnes & Noble.

3. Honey Bee Tree. Another refreshingly gender neutral toy, this game doubles as a solitaire activity when no siblings are available.

4. Picnic Game by eeboo. Comes with a gingham picnic table cloth to set the mood. Players spin to fill their plates with main dishes, desserts, and drinks. This identical “spinner game” format is available in other themes: a tea party, building a robot, and fairy tales. Again the materials in the game can be used for open-ended pretending as well.

5.  Discovery Beach from I Can Do That! Games features Curious George and tests kids’ memory. A reviewer on Amazon wrote: The thing I enjoyed best was watching my 5 year old daughter help my 3 year old son to find things–they played together, rather than against each other.

6. Pengoloo is a good one from Blue Orange, as is Coocoo, an all wooden game in which you take turns balancing balls on a rocking clown. For kids who aren’t ready to compete, this can be approached as more a cooperative building activity than a game. (Refrain from yelling “In your FACE!” when your three-year old knocks the clown over with her naive placement of the balls.)

7. I Never Forget a Face is a memory and matching game. The kids faces are from all over the world, and it’s lovely to see all the skin colors and hair textures together in one game. Like I said, I’m a sucker for everything eeBoo. See all their products at Barnes & Noble.

8. Busytown – The board game is half the fun in Busytown. It’s longer than your preschooler’s body.

This is a search and find game where everyone works together. My kids loved it for months but when I tried to validate their opinions for this post, they claimed not to. (See Thingamababy’s review for details on this game.) We have another search and find game called Pictureka that was distracting them. I think they are both quality games and as my kids get older, even just month after month, they get more out of these.

What games do your kids like to play?

(Disclosure: I received Busytown and the Angelina game from my friend Kimberley, a rookie mom who does public relations for the company who makes them. Kimberley and I worked together at LeapFrog Toys well before our children were even a twinkle in our eyes.)