A few months ago we emptied our big container of black pepper. I held on to the empty container because I knew someday I would think of something to do with it. Then one night I was trying to make dinner. Husband was still at work and Little Brother was demanding attention. I did a quick scan of my cupboards to see what I could find to entertain him while I finished dinner. I spotted that empty pepper container and some spaghetti noodles, and it reminded me of something I had seen on Pinterest. So I pulled out a few noodles and showed Little Brother how to drop them into the holes. He sat and played with them for a solid half hour while I finished dinner. It was awesome!! Plus it was a great way to develop his fine motor skills.

Sweet Girl got in on the fun by taking the extra noodles and using them to make letters. It's always nice to have a few minutes of peace to get some work done, and it's an added bonus when it something educational or creative.

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Okay, I'll admit these aren't real turkey feathers, but since Thanksgiving is right around the corner it seemed like the perfect opportunity to pull out the feathers. I've had these feathers forever. They get pulled out for random projects here and there. When I taught school, I had the kids write Thanksgiving words with the tips. For Little Brother I thought it would be fun to put them into a sensory bin.

We had so much fun playing together. We talked about colors and texture. He loved it when I tickled his face with them. My favorite was when we dropped them from up high and watched them float down. Sometimes it's those really simple activities that are the most fun.

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Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and I may be a little late getting this posted, but better late than never. I love Thanksgiving! The food, the family, the colors. I hope you enjoy these simple preschool pages. Just click on the picture to download and print.

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A few years ago my husband discovered a delicious Thai restaurant in town, and he immediately fell in love with their curry. He kept telling me we needed to figure out how to make it. I kept putting him off because Thai food is not always my favorite. Then last fall my little sister made us this delicious chicken vegetable curry. It is amazing. It has a little sweet from the coconut milk, and some spice. It is based on a recipe from Favorite Family Recipes, but with a few additions. The ingredient list is a little long, but don't let it overwhelm you, this is actually a pretty easy recipe. We usually half it for our family of four, and we always have leftovers. Which is fine with us because it is yummy for days.

Ingredients:

3 T Vegetable Oil

4 oz. Jar Curry Paste

2 Cans Coconut Milk

1/2 t Ginger Powder

2 T Chopped Cilantro

2 T Brown Sugar

2 T Fish Sauce

1 T Lime Juice

1 T Worcestershire Sauce

1 Small Onion, sliced

4-5 Medium Potatoes, cut into cubes

2 Carrots, sliced

1 Green Pepper, sliced

1 Red or Yellow Pepper Sliced

Sugar Snap Peas, They go in whole. Just add a couple handfuls until it looks like a good amount.

1-2 T Peanut Butter

Siracha Sauce

Red Pepper Flakes

Serve over rice.

Directions:

1. In a large pan, I use my wok, Heat the oil, and add the curry paste. Cook for 2-3 minutes.

2. Add one can of coconut milk, and mix together.

3. Add ginger, cilantro, brown sugar, fish sauce, lime juice and Worcestershire sauce. Mix in and bring to a boil.

4.Add onion and chicken. Bring to a simmer and cook until the chicken is cooked through, about 5 minutes.

5. Add the last can of coconut milk and bring it back to a boil.

6. Add in the potatoes, carrots, peppers and peas. Mix in the peanut butter. Squeeze in some siracha sauce. There's no real measurement, Sprinkle some red pepper flakes. Stir everything together and simmer for about 20 minutes while all the vegetables soften.

7. Serve over rice.

Just typing this makes me want a bowl of curry right now. It's so good! It's a great meal for fall because it is so warm and filling. 

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Fall is in the air. Even here in the desert. We are getting so close to being below 90 degrees! I am ready for some cool weather. Every time we get a few clouds in the sky I'm ready to make soup and make some fall crafts. Since it's still too hot for soup, I spent my time making some apple preschool printables instead. Just click on the picture, and if all goes according to plan you should be able to just print them off and use them.

What's a preschool pack without a writing page?

You can either print this off and trace the words with pencil or crayon, or you can slip it into a page protector and trace with dry erase markers, so you can do it over and over again.

Counting clipcards are a favorite. Count the apples and clip a clothespin on the correct number. Great for practicing counting and number recognition.

Apple pattern cards for practicing patterns or for use with the counting pies below. Count out and place the correct number of apple cards onto each apple pie. You could also use red, green and yellow poms poms as the apples for the pies.

Happy Fall!

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Little Brother and I had fun playing with our new insect sensory bin while Sweet Girl was off to preschool. I found these cute insect finger puppets on amazon, but you could also look at the dollar store. (To be honest the only reason I didn't get the ones from the dollar store was because the bugs in their collection were too creepy for me. I need less scary bugs like ladybugs and butterflies.) I buried them in a tub of leftover Easter grass, you never know when you're going to need that stuff. Little Brother managed to take a small amount of Easter grass and pull it apart until it looked like I had given him three full bags of the stuff. I'm still finding strands of grass all over my house.Little Brother loved when I made the butterfly fly around or made the grasshopper jump up his arm. What little boy doesn't love digging through the grass looking for bugs? And this way you know they at least aren't touching real bugs, cause that's gross.

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D is for dinosaur was a fun preschool unit. I have never been really into dinosaurs, so I was afraid I wouldn't be able to find any fun activities, but it's good to branch out. We ended up finding lots of activities to keep us busy. I like to do a mixture of printable activities and more hands on things. Here are some of the printables I made for us. Feel free to click on the pictures, download then and use them with your own preschooler. And don't forget the joy of laminating!

As I have said before, I am very picky about my handwriting pages. I like the big letters and having just a few to practice with beginning writers.

If your preschooler isn't quite ready for writing letters, you can start with this prewriting page. It helps with learning to control that pencil and strengthening those hand muscles.

We practiced adding using the number cards below. Cut the cards apart, shuffles, choose two cards to put on the first two footprints, and add together. If you laminate the footprint page you can write the sum with a dry erase marker, and then wipe it off for the next problem. If you can't laminate, put it in a plastic page protector and it will work the same way. 

You can use these number cards for the above addition game or as flashcards or cards for memory, or really any of a hundred other activities.

I have seen this cute D dinosaur all over Pinterest, and decided to put together all the pieces so I could just print them off, cut them out and assemble them. I included a little picture on the bottom to show how it's kind of supposed to look.

Cut these dinosaur footprints apart and order them from biggest to smallest or smallest to biggest.

These ABC dinosaurs can be used in lots of different ways. You can put them in a bag and draw them out one at a time and practice sounds. We matched the upper case letters with the lowercase letters. It's up to you.

Okay, get printing, cutting, laminating, playing and learning. Most importantly, have fun with your preschooler! More dinosaur activities to come, but probably not for a couple weeks.

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