Archive: Providers

Summer Activities for Kids

With warm weather finally here, it’s time to get outside! Kids do best with a little direction and encouragement for their imagination so Mom Trusted put together a list of fun summer activities for kids. Don’t forget the sunscreen!

Decorate the town with chalk.

Chalk is a summer classic that never gets old. Grab a fresh box and let your little ones go crazy. It’ll probably only be a matter or minutes before your fresh sticks of chalk start to snap, but don’t panic. Invest in a giant Tupperware container that can hang out in the garage and be a home to old, used chalk chunks every summer. This will also allow for a collection of colors!

Play catch with water balloons and slippery hands.

Fill up a bucket with water balloons and head to the back yard. Then, grease up with something like vegetable oil, lotion or good, old-fashioned soap. See how long you can play catch with the balloons sliding around through slippery hands.

Float ice boats.

Make ice cube boats by freezing a tray of cubes with a drop of food coloring in each. Have your kids help you decorate little triangle pieces of paper as flags for each boat. Then, glue the flags to toothpicks and stick one per cube before freezing the colorful ice cubes. Fill up a cheap, plastic pool in your yard and let your kids splash around and float their boats.

Have a bubble party.

Fill a plastic kiddie pool with dish soap and water. Then, get creative with different bubble makers. Hunt through your garage. Use hula-hoops, bend wire into fun shapes and dig around in your kitchen to pull out a strainer with extra big holes.

Go on a water balloon hunt.

It works like an Easter egg hunt except you’re using very full water balloons. Because they tend to burst when they hit the ground or are squeezed too tightly, the goal is to see who can fill their basket with the most full balloons. Then, have a water balloon war with your new-found treasures.

Make your own sprinklers.

Raid your recycling for the biggest plastic bottles you can find. Then, drill holes in them and give them to your kids next time they’re playing in the outdoor pool or running through the hose and sprinkler. Voila! Mini sprinklers!

Sources:

-Pinterest: Summer Activities with Kids: http://pinterest.com/melissa_taylor2/summer-activities-with-kids/

-“Water Balloon Games for Kids” Fantastic Fun and Learning: http://www.fantasticfunandlearning.com/water-balloon-games-for-kids.html

-“Summer Activities for Kids: Ice Boats” Spanglish Baby: http://spanglishbaby.com/finds/summer-activity-for-kids-ice-boats-water-play/

-“Tutorial: The Human Bubble and More” U Create: http://www.ucreatewithkids.com/search/label/bubbles

-“30 Summer Activities for Kids” Lil Luna: http://lilluna.com/30-summer-activities-for-kids/

-Photo courtesy of chrisroll/freedigitalphotos.net

Bug Crafts for Kids

Express some critter creativity with this bug crafts for kids:

Fuzzy caterpillars

Glue different colored and sized pompoms to a popsicle stick. Then, glue on two googly eyes and one pipe cleaner smiley mouth. You’ll have a herd of fuzzy friends in no time.

Paper inchworms

Cut green construction paper into three-inch strips. Tape the end to a sheet of paper and loop it around the first 1/5 of the paper strip (almost like a paper chain). With the remaining 4/5 of the paper, bunch it up, making waves and gluing the paper down at the bottom of each curve. Stick on two googly eyes and two pipe cleaner antennas. Draw on a smile and you’re good to go.

Painted butterflies

Grab some gigantic, white sheets of paper and a variety of paint colors. Have your children go to town. Show them how if you place a blob of paint on a piece of paper and fold it in half, it can come out looking like an abstract butterfly.

Styrofoam spiders

Take a three-inch Styrofoam ball and paint it black. Stick three pipe cleaners out of each side for the legs. Paint on a red smile and stick on two googly eyeballs. We’ll bet these little guys turn out to be the friendliest spiders you’ve ever seen.

Paper plate ladybugs

Staple two paper plates together, creating a small pouch. Paint it black. Next, take a third paper plate and cut a pie-slice-shaped chunk out of it, the remaining portion will be the wings. Paint the plate with the missing piece red with black spots and staple it onto the black pouch body. Cut legs and a round head out of construction paper and glue or paint on eyeballs and a smile.

Sources:

-“Bugs and Insect Activities for Kids” Pinterest

-“Kids Bug Crafts” All Kids Network

-Photo courtesy of Salvatore Vuono/freedigitalphotos.net

Help Kids PLAY Their Way to a Healthier Lifestyle

When kids think eating right, they cringe at brussel sprouts and broccoli, but the Eat to Win game makes learning about a healthy lifestyle fun. Not only does the engaging game help parents and childcare centers teach about the major food groups, but it also stresses the importance of staying active. This gives children the right tools to lead a healthy life for years to come.
 

Teaching little ones the importance of eating right and exercising regularly is more important than ever before. Childhood obesity has doubled in the last 30 years, affecting over one third of children in the U.S, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But Eat to Win makes teaching these life lessons fun!
 

Eat to Win was created by a concerned mom whose own child struggled with weight issues. The games were made to encourage nutrition and exercise for kids of all ages.
 

They’re also a ton of fun! Daycare director Chris Bicknell was shocked to find how the games captured her children’s attention. “I was able to keep 18 children all under the age of four’s attention while using the Eat to Win Flashcards,” said Bicknell. “Our center absolutely LOVES these products!”
 

At Mom Trusted, we want to get behind the health train so we’re offering our care and education providers a special deal:

Order now and save 20% on your Eat to Win games!

Just enter the discount code before you checkout.

Code: MomTrusted

Ant and Worm Activities for Kids

Mom Trusted put together a few fun ideas for critter-crazy children. These will help them expand their scientific knowledge and have a great time. Here are some bug activities for kids. Some are educational and others are even tasty:

Invest in an ant farm. Your kids will have fun for hours watching the ants dig mazes.

Eat dirt for dessert! Make some chocolate pudding, following the instructions on the box, and pour it into small, plastic cups. Then crumble chocolate cookies on top of the pudding. Stick a few gummy worms in each cup. You can even add green coconut shavings (dyed using a few drops of food coloring) for grass if you want to get extra fancy.

Make a worm hotel. All you need is a big glass or plastic jar and some worms. Fill the jar with dirt, stick a few worms in and watch them wiggle through it. Note: the worms will be happiest if you alternate dirt and sand every few inches. Make sure to return them to their natural habitat after a few days.

Make compost in your own backyard. Gather veggie kitchen scrapes, some leaves or cut grass and place in a large pale with a lid. When it starts to decompose into dirt, add a few worms to help the process along.

Feed the ants and watch how much they can carry. Be sure to do this activity far away from your home! Grab some lunch leftovers and take them out to a field with a few ant hills. Drop the food in large chunks and watch as tiny ants come to take away pieces many times their size.

Sources:

-“Bugs and insect activities for kids” Pinterest

-“Creepy crawly activities for kids who love bugs” education.com

-Photo courtesy of antpkr/freedigitalphotos.net

Teaching Kids About Flowers and Plants

In the final days of spring, it’s the perfect time to start teaching kids about flowers and plants. Here are a few tips that Mom Trusted put together to make the learning process easier and more fun:

Grow a flower

Decorate a simple pot with paint. Try stamping colorful handprints all over it. Then, plant easy to grow flowers in it. Try daisies, since they’re such a hearty flower.

Sprout a bean

Have your kids help you place a bean in a damp paper towel in a plastic bag. Then, place in light and wait for them to sprout.

Plant a vegetable garden

Plant seeds to a veggie garden. Try out tomatoes, potatoes, peas, beans and carrots. Watch as they grow and munch on them when they’re ready! Nothing tastes better than homegrown veggies.

Sort seeds

Sort different flower and plant seeds. Use simple ones like pumpkin, sunflower and tulip bulbs.

Visit a florist

Take a fieldtrip to a local florist. Look at all the different kinds of plants and flowers and buy a bouquet so that you can give each little one a flower to hang onto.

Smell the roses

Blindfold your kids and have them take turns smelling different types of flowers. Older children can also turn it into a guessing game and try to name the flowers they’re smelling.

Sources:

-“How to teach your child about flowers” Yahoo! Voices

-“Interactive plant biology: a kid’s guide to the life cycle of a flower” Pro Flowers

-“Teaching children with flowers” BorBer

-Photo courtesy of David Castillo Dominici/freedigitalphotos.net

Fun Carpets and Rugs Made Just For Kids

Whether you’re looking to carpet your daycare or shopping for play rugs at school, our pals at KidCarpet.com offer a variety of options at shockingly low costs.

Kid Carpet offers a wide variety of colors and patterns to choose from. From colorful ABC, sitting rugs to rugs with educational number patterns, there’s something for every care provider and teacher. Check out states, countries and continents with map rugs. Learn new languages with bilingual rugs.

Kid Carpet is the only place where care centers and schools can purchase carpet and rugs directly from the factory, cutting back on any unnecessary costs from the middle men.

And because we know just how much you’d love Kid Carpet’s products, we want to make their low prices even lower by offering you this special deal:

Save $10 on your order when you enter “Mom Trusted” at checkout.

Offer expires October 31, 2013. Offer good for one order.

To top it off, you’re even spreading a little love when you buy from Kid Carpet. A portion of every single purchase goes to Cooperative of Education so order your rugs from KidCarpet.com today!

Looking for a way to make naptime easier?

Happi-Nappi provides naptime necessities to make snooze time simple for children, care providers and parents with quality products. At Mom Trusted, we know how stressful childcare can be and we’re here to make it easier for you. We’ve found that Happi-Nappi’s cot sheets, mat sheets and nap bags will do just that!

Most states require each child to have both top and bottom sheets covering the cot or mat. Providing two separate pieces for every single child makes washing a hassle. Plus storing and keeping up with the covers becomes a mess. Happi-Nappi offers one unit instead of two. It saves lots of time because the entire lightweight naptime sheets or nap bags can be thrown in the wash for a quick cleaning. It makes the center look clean and crisp with matching sheets or nap bags. The children love the security of the attached pieces when they’re snuggling in for their afternoon naps.

The cute sheets and bags come in a variety of colors and patterns. The sheets are made with high quality USA sheeting materials. The nap bag is made with soft, quilted material. Each item is sewn closed on one side to make for easy opening and simple naptime. You will not find scratchy Velcro, inexpensive elastic or paper thin fabric used in any of our products. Every item is sewn with reinforced seams. Happi-Nappi offers high-quality products that are made right here in the U.S. and will stay in great shape for years to come.

Since the sheets and bags are nice and light, they’ll fold up easily to be stored on a shelf or in a cubby. They fold to the volume of a folded beach towel. It is much easier to store than a bulky sleeping bag or towels.

The sheets and nap bags even come with a sewn-in, oversized nametag for quick and easy identification. Order your Happi-Nappi’s today! When ordering, make sure you use the code “MT” to receive a discount of 15% off!

http://www.happinappi.com/