Easter Hunting

Lent is upon us and Easter will be what's on our minds soon.  My 2 teens fondly remember the activity we did with them every Easter and have even suggested we do it for them now! Dollar Tree & Everything's a Dollar, as well as Walmart & Dollar General have little gifts and novelty gifts that make this activity work. Also, the Yahoo Group FREECYCLE could prove to be beneficial as well, especially if you're on a very tight budget.  One can post what they want and people are willing to give away things someone else can use. 

So, what we did was hid these little gifts and candies all over the house with hints to lead to the next. Each child started with a note with a hint. For example: It can really get hot in here.  The child would look around until they thought of a warm place. They'd think of where the house had warm places, perhaps looking around the fireplace and kitchen only to find a Hot Wheels in the bottom oven drawer. With that is included the next clue such as: Who said I was dirty? They might think of  looking in a sink or bathtub. If not, we'd do the "Warm.  Warmer.  Hot.  On fire." method of leading them to it. We made the notes very basic so the kids could read them themselves, some times with help.  I had my kids reading when they were very young so this was a fun reading activity, as well as an exciting indoor fun! We usually had 5 clues and treasures. You could have more. I don't think they'd get bored.  Less works too. I remembered them getting so excited that even 3 would make it a great experience.

LINK to GREAT quick meal ideas

I'm really confused on this blogging stuff. This is my first attempt so I do not know why the meals aren't showing up so I'm putting the link on here. 
http://quickeasyandtastyrecipes.blogspot.com/

FUN WITH COLOR

Things to keep your pre-schoolers busy is a challenge at times. "The Experts" tell us we're exposing our children to too much TV, which does make a great baby-sitter. I Love Barney! When my kids were little I could rely on Barney for a decent morning shower. Here are some other ideas for what to do with your child, many costing little to nothing.

Fun with Color ~ mixing colored water. My kids' favorite.
supplies needed:
Styrofoam egg carton/s
eye dropper or medication dropper (rubber squeeze top), new or well cleaned
food coloring & water

Place newspapers on your table or work areas and change the kids into play clothes. Fill all 12 egg compartments with a couple teaspoons of water. Fill 3 compartments about twice that. Those 3 are your primary colors (good teaching there) so you must stress that the Blue, Yellow, & Red are the starters b/c they're primary colors and start all other colors.
Demonstrate how to "pinch" up colored water and transfer it to a clear cup and what happens when you add a few drops of another color.  And, despite stressing that the starter colors are not to be mixed into to my kids always did so good luck.  The nice thing is that food coloring really isn't expensive and it takes only a little dab. If your children are young, it'd be a great investment to purchase the Wilton paste type.  My kids are teens and still remember doing this activity. I know if I got this out and set it on the table they'd not pass up the opportunity to relive some childhood fun.