Drawing and Doodling

My daughter really enjoys art in any way, shape or form!  We already think Ed Emberley's drawing books are wonderful but I came across two Joy Sikorski drawing books that she loves!  My daughter didn't get her art interest from me, I'm not even good at doodling (it was fun to do in a boring school class though)!

Printable art fun:

• Free Usborne doodling downloads
• Nick Jr. Doodle Doodle, Guess and Draw

Free online art lessons:

• Ed Emberley's drawing book sampler
• Free drawing lessons from Joy Sikorski
• Step by Step animal drawing lessons
• Learn drawing for kids on Kids Front
• How to Draw Funny Cartoon Animals

Digital art fun:

• Digital Doodle Pad on My Digital Masterpiece 
• Digital Canvas on art.com
• Color, paint and draw on ABCya!

Hooray for Hopscotch!

I have fond memories of playing hopscotch in elementary school and loved having my own hopscotch marker.  Last year in my daughter's bunny basket there was chalk and a Hoppy Taw and she had no idea what it was for!  Now she regularly draws her own hopscotch and gets jumpin'-- I even join in the fun now and then!

Spring weather in Utah is unpredictable and crazy!  The time we spend outside is usually minimal so indoor activities to get some energy out are necessary!  That's why I really like this creative Hopscotch Play Mat by A Girl and a Glue Gun (guest post on The Idea Room). *image from A Girl and a Glue Gun

Playing outdoors requires drawing the pattern first but that's part of the fun!  Check out some great and different hopscotch pattern ideas and rules on Squidoo (scroll down a little to see the 6 pattern images) for making outdoor hopscotch just a little more exciting! *Dizzy Dragonfly Hopscotch image from Squidoo




*post contains an affiliate link

10 Cute Printable Paper Dolls

These cute paper dolls would be fun for lots of things: a SUMMER car trip, *fridge magnets, boredom activity for a rainy or snowy day, little girl birthday gift, party activity or favor, stocking stuffer (*in a little magnetic tin), etc..  All of the free printable paper dolls are for non-commercial use.  *One Pearl Button has a Magnetic Paper Doll tutorial.

Wee Wonderfuls has download freebies (mostly patterns)!

paper doll (1)

Patty Reed Designs has 6 printable dolls! (2)

 

Babalisme has many free printables (*memory game made with her reindeer tags).  If you place your cursor over a download link on her blog and the link shows in the bottom left of the computer screen as going to ziddu I would caution you to not go there.  Babalisme has changed her hosting site to Scribd (only a few links are still ziddu) and it's a much nicer site.  You will have to sign up and skip past a couple of 'offers' before the download will happen.  It's worth the trouble though!  Her paper dolls are really sweet!

fairy tale paper doll (3)

Halloweenie dress-up boy and girl (4)

Santas's little helpers and decorate a tree (5)

Kireei has free printable stickers and paper dolls.  The site is in spanish but all you need to do is click on 'english' under the image and then 'download'. (found via How About Orange)

Clementina (6)

Terri Pettit has a whole page of paper doll links that she's scanned; she created the Vector Strawberry Shortcake. (found via How About Orange)

Little Kiddles (7)

Vector Strawberry Shortcake (8)

The Graphics Fairy has many vintage paper dolls. (9)

Wee Life has paper dolls with clothes and Halloween costumes to color! (10)

This Mama Makes Stuff made a cute Fabric Scrap Paper Doll Kit.  (I had to include this, even though it's (11) and there's no printable for her sweet and simple doll, because it's such a fantastic idea.)  A little metal box would be perfect for storing regular and magnetic paper dolls.

• This top ten eleven paper doll list is linked to Top Ten {Tuesday} on Oh Amanda.  The dolls listed are in no particular order!  **part 2: black-and-white printable paper dolls

S is for Snowman

A winter tradition we have is to make a SNOWMAN!  Our snow was wet enough to pack earlier in the week and my daughter happily made a snowman with only a little help from me. We have a wooden kit with a long carrot nose perfect for a larger snowman.  This smaller snowman has a nose like Pinocchio!

A snowman looks great no matter what you choose to build him with! Here's two more of our silly snowman pics:

Three fun kits:

▬ Buy a Snowman Building Kit from Bronner's
▬ Make a Snowman on the Go kit from Make and Takes

▬ Make a Snowman Kit from Make It Do

You can have fun indoors too with snowman stuff!

○ Frosty and Friends craft on Parents

○ Frosty the Snowpuddle treat from Gourmet Mom on-the-Go

○ Snowman on a Stick snack on Family Fun

○ Smiling Snowman Cake on Family Fun

○ Snowman Cake Pops from Bakerella

○ Once There Was a Snowman song with Music from LDS.org
○ one, two, and three online Build a Snowman activities on akidsheart.com

Stick Puzzles

I babysat a lot as a teenager and had a fun bag that the kids enjoyed.  In my bag was videos, puzzles, treats, books and games.  My senior year of high school I was a preschool teacher and more good things were added to my fun bag like file folder games and popsicle stick puzzles.  My little sis was my artist back then and did the cute elmo and worm puzzle. Stick puzzles are a simple and fun craft!

•Tape, number/add a symbol, draw/color, untape/stick in labeled baggie•

I like big Woodsie craft sticks for these puzzles much better than popsicle sticks. My daughter's the artist of this robot puzzle.  She sometimes 'cheats' when putting the puzzles together by looking at the numbers on the back.  The numbers/symbols are also good to keep track of which sticks belong where if you get more than one puzzle out at a time.

▬ linked to Kiddos Create and Friday's Showcase ▬

Two Fun Ideas for Playing in the Snow

Our snow is dried out and crusty so we can't make snow angels or a snowman.  That won't stop us from having fun outside though!

I found this colored ice cubes activity on Parents.com-- 20 Games to Play in the Snow.  My kids ask often to have a colored ice cube scavenger hunt.  I keep the colored ice in a bag in the freezer.  Salad tongs add more fun and help prevent gloves becoming soaked.  If you don't have ice cube trays use small plastic containers.  A scavenger hunt for colored ice would be fun in any season!!  In the summer it would be a race to find them before they melt!





A home preschool activity in January '08- color the snow.  My daughter had a lot of fun!  All it takes is food coloring and water in a good spray bottle.