One for the Little Ones

We all have one of those sites where we can waste a lot of time.  For some of us, it’s Facebook games, for some it’s blogs, for some it’s gossip sites.  Here’s a site for toddlers to sit and play.  Based on the show BoohBah (is that even still on???), this colorful site takes your little one to all different pages depending on the clicks.  We particularly liked catching the apples here!

ScrapColoring Pages

I’m loving these online coloring pages!  There’s everything from kissing flamingos to knights to mermaids, all with wonderful colors and patterns to fill them with online for free.  You can even enter personalized text to color!

This is addictive fun, not just for children but for mamas too.  🙂

Budget Robot Maker!

Magical Daddy Daryl found this fun site and the kids have had a great time making robots.

I’d write more, but I have a toddler who just woke up sad and wants Mama.  The experts tell me I should train him not to need love when he wakes up sad at night.  Pah on experts.  🙂

Happy Sunday!

Make a Kaleidoscope from a Photo Online!

Thanks to Clickschooling for the head’s up for this nifty online kaleidoscope program that kept several of us busy for far too long playing today.  Simply paste the URL to a photo in and then move your mouse around to make a zillion kaleidoscope images.  You can also use the gorgeous flower picture they already have up. 

We found that close up shots of faces were just all sorts of wrong when turned into kaleidoscopes.  🙂  Ones like this led to some pretty neat images though, especially with arms linked every which way and rows of faces.

Fun!

Virtual Sand Art!

Here’s another fun web site to play with!  Thisissand is a simple little program that lets you create pictures with grains of virtual sand that fall from the cursor.  You change colors as you like and move the cursor around to plot your picture.  When you’re finished, you can submit it to their gallery.  There is a gentle sound of sand falling as you "pour" and the whole thing is very calming!  My kids made some very elaborate pictures with this today.

(Hint: Click on the tiny gray box in the upper left corner for instructions.)

If you want to follow it with some real life crafts, put some salt in a jar with a few drops of food coloring and have the kids shake it until it’s well blended.  Spread it on a foil-lined cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 10 minutes and cool.  Do up a few colors and then let them use glue and paint brushes to create a sand art picture of their own.  You can also make layered "sand" jars or use this as really inexpensive glitter!

Happy weekend!

Pigeon Presents!

Do you know Mo Willems and his fabulous children’s books like Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed and Knuffle Bunny?  If you don’t, you simply must go find some of his books to read with the nearest small child.  And if you do, then you’ll really appreciate this fun site!

Pigeon Presents is a website for kids (and parents and teachers and even random grown ups who like to be silly) with all sorts of wonderful stuff.  Play games like dress the hot dog (warning, the bowling ball is a really bad idea) and the elephant & piggie dance game, print coloring pages, learn how to draw favorite characters and more.  Parents can print out things like posters and there are even teachers’ guides to download.

What fun!

Big Green Rabbit

Do you and your kids know the Big Green Rabbit show and videos?

Alex (22  months) absolutely loves "Green Anaconda."  No matter how sad he is, if you play this video he’s good to go.  🙂

The song is catchy, cute and educational too.  It’s part of a series called "Big Green Rabbit" that is now being broadcast on PBS stations around the USA.  It’s not in my area but the kids and I are going to request it through our local station because they enjoy it so much.  It seems especially made for the preschool crowd, but kids younger and older in my house enjoy it too.

Here’s the website, where kids can view other videos, watch a show, play games and more.  It seems like sweet fun for little ones.