Sirena Van Schaik

Author's posts

Mother’s Day Craft: Painted Terracotta Flower Pots

Since Mother’s Day is only a few days away, I thought that I would post one final craft that you can do with your kids. I actually thought of these when I was at the grocery store and I was passing the flower department.  There were small terracotta pots with paint brushes and paint sold …

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Kids’ Craft Project: Building a Volcano

Well, since I did a cheat sheet on volcanoes, and I have talked about them a few times, I thought I would give you a how-to on building a volcano. This is actually a pretty fun activity and many kids can take advantage of this when they need a science project in school. It is fairly …

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Mother’s Day Craft: Handprint Garden Stone

I know that Mother’s Day is still a month away but it can take some time to decide upon (or create) the perfect gift.  I wanted to give everyone a chance to get started or to have a few options to choose from so I will be putting up a craft each week until Mother’s Day. The …

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Crafty Recipe: Cooked Playdough

As many of you know, I am a big fan of playdough.  Usually, I prefer to make a non-cooked playdough since it takes less time and I can make it with my kids.  Sometimes, though; I like to make the cooked playdough since it usually lasts longer than the non-cooked. What you need: 1 1/2 cup of …

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Fun with Science: Baking Soda and Vinegar

You have probably seen this experiment before but it is one of my favorites so I wanted to share.  If you can’t tell by the photograph, I do this activity often enough to warrant purchasing the big box of baking soda.  I think it has something to do with the fact that I feel like …

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Crafty Recipes: Milk Paint

Okay, this is a very interesting paint since the end result provides a very shiny finish to the painting. It isn’t a paint that you will want to save but much like tongue painting, you can have a lot of fun with this paint. It is very easy to make, it provides a different texture …

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Crafty Recipes: Non-Cook Playdough

This is a recipe that I created when I was working in preschool.  There isn’t too many opportunities when you want to make playdough with the children, especially since our kitchen was upstairs and didn’t have enough room to sit and make it with 16 children.  This meant that teachers in my center often made …

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Your Budding Artist: Age 1-3 Years

You may not know this but children develop art in a series of stages.  Early Childhood Education has broken those stages down to 3 stages ranging from 1 year of age to 5 years. It is important to remember that when we discuss any type of developmental milestones, we are looking at a “range of …

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The History of Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has been a holiday that we have celebrated for centuries but do any of us really know what Thanksgiving is all about or where it started?  Many of us are aware that the first Thanksgiving was considered to be held between the pilgrims and the Native Americans many centuries ago but that is about …

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Thanksgiving Dinner: Bringing a Little Thanks to Others

Mmm, Thanksgiving dinner. Everyone loves Thanksgiving dinner and no matter what you are serving there is just something about the day that makes it so much better than other meals. I love to cook on Thanksgiving Day. It is actually the only holiday of the year that I do. Sure I will cook for Christmas …

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