DIY Kid's binoculars

These fun fuzzy binoculars are sure to be a hit when you use them to go on Safari with the Safari Caboodle!

You will need:

2 heavy duty plastic cups

1 piece of adhesive felt- any color

1 piece of fleece (about) 9x13 or additional felt any color

18 inches of 5/8" ribbon

ribbon or string for strap

hot glue gun

Cut circle holes out of the bottoms of two cups leaving a 1/4 inch edge.

Cut adhesive felt in half lengthwise

Wrap felt on cup making sure to keep it flat on the fatest part of the cup (the top). Where ends come together, trim so it lies flat.

Place cup upside down on table and pinch the felt in two place. It should look like this.

Cut the felt close to the cup where you pinched it. This will make small "seams" on the sides which will be unnoticed. Fold down the felt on the top, pinching and trimming as you did on the sides. Cut extra felt away.

Measure the fleece around your cup and trim to fit. Try not to pull on it as you measure, you'll want to be able to stretch it as you glue it on.

Fold down over the top and trim it allowing enough fleece to tuck inside the cup. You'll be covering the sharp edge of the cup.

Working on small sections at a time, pinch and trim fleece so it lies flat on the top. Tracing the bottom of the cup onto extra fleece, make two disks per cup. Cut the center out.

Your fleece should look similar to this when you've finished trimming it.

Keeping the fleece at the edge of the lip of the cup, use hot glue to glue the first straight edge down the side of the cup. You'll be working in small sections and stretching it a bit as you go. Trim the edges where they meet if needed.

On the bottom of the cup, glue down the sections so they lay flat. Be sure to add a bit of glue to the tip and fold it under to the inside of the cup.

Hot glue one disk to the inside of the cup, covering the raw edges of the tucked fleece.

Glue the other disk on the outside of the bottom of the cup.
Repeat with the second cup, and then glue both cups together at seams.

Using a sharp knife or scissors, poke holes in the sides for strap. Tie a large knot on the inside of the ribbon and hot glue the knot to the inside of the cup.

Starting on the bottom of the binoculars where the two cups come together, hot glue the 5/8inch ribbon to the wide end of the binoculars. Continue around the outside with one long ribbon. Trim and glue where you began.

Voila!! Ready for Safari!!

Try them out on your little monkey.

Safari Preschool Caboodle

Go on Safari

with your tot!!

Download your free Safari Preschool Caboodle early learning kit.

Homemade Playdough

I ran across this homemade playdough recipe here and absolutely love it! Its so smooth, the perfect consistancy and kept in a sealed container- lasts for a very long time. (some of mine are working on 9 months)

I added flavorings to them and they smell delicious! Mint, tutti fruiti, orange, lemon, cinnimon, vanilla, blueberry, black licorace,  and bubble gum.

I tripled the recipe and store them in 1 cup containers.

Princess tot school

I fell in love with the preschool packs on 1+1+1=1, especially the princess pack. (I fell in love with the entire site- truth be told) Lovebug is obsessed with princesses! It was so much fun making this set and I couldn't wait to use them with her.

This week we were working on the Letter P, so Princess worked right into it.

P is for Penguin. I love the letter craft ideas from Totally Tots.

Okay- I love everything from totally tots.

 We worked on Love Bug's princess puzzle.

This is her favorite puzzle and she wants to do it several times every day.

Love Bug loves stepping on things. She walks on books on the floor, much to my dismay. She walks on school papers, coloring pages, toys, clothes, you name it.

I was thrilled when I saw this idea from Confessions of a Homeschooler. Floor numbers!

 Permission to step on something. Brilliant!

As expected, Love Bug adores them!

These weren't part of the princess set, I made them by printing extra matching cards and setting my printer to print 75% larger. I also used a few pictures from the knight preschool pack since there weren't enough pictures to make 10 cards from the princess set.

 We played with purple play dough and ate popcorn!

 The princess preschool pack.

 Lovebug really enjoyed the matching game.

 Floor counting cards

 Patterns- she doesn't quite get it yet.

 Lovebug likes to point to the shapes. She can't do the number cards yet.

 She also loved rolling the die and helping put Cheerios on the graph.

 We aren't quite to the "what's different" card, but she did love the story and helping me read it.

I love that the preschool packs have room to grow. There are things that she can do now, and things she'll grow into. Lovebug's older brother Jedi is VERY excited about some of the other preschool packs that I've made. (and honestly, so am I)
Thanks again Carissa!

Chicka Chicka boom boom tree

One of my favorite books is Chicka Chicka Boom Boom! How can you not love an alphabet book, especially one that is as catchy as this one?

My kids love to take stories a little farther than the pages we read them on. Of course the most fitting way to do that with this book is with our own coconut tree!! Here is how you can make your own:

The tree is 16 inches tall when finished.

 You will need:

Green felt cut in two 20x20in pieces and one 9x9in piece

Brown felt cut into one 17x17in piece and two 6 inch circles

pillow stuffing

beanie baby filling

3 wooden 1 inch beads

brown yarn

4 pipe cleaners, any color

large eyed needle

Start by folding your first piece of green felt in half and tracing the pattern. Line up the edge of the pattern and trace again. Repeat with second piece (or you can pin them together so you are cutting through both pieces).

 Fold the smaller felt piece in half and trace the smaller leaf pattern onto it. Cut out all leaves.

 Pin the two large leaves together and sew along the outside edge, completely.

 Fold leaves in half, then half again, finding the center. Mark the center.

 Measure from the center to 6.5 inches on all leaves. Mark the spot.

 Sew a casing .5 inches wide on each leaf. Don't worry about it overlaping in the center.

 Cut the center with a seam ripper, pulling up the overlaping threads.

 Fold two pipe cleaners in half and turn up their ends so they are rounded.

 Push half of the two pipe cleaners into one side of the casing, then the other half through the casing across from it. Repeat with the second set of pipe cleaners.

 Sew along the edge of the smaller leaves to give it a finished look. Sew lines down the middle of each leaf using zigzag stitch set tight.

Mark brown felt diagonally from the bottom corner to 5 inches in at the top, then cut excess off. Repeat on other side.(or use a rotary cutter as I did) The picture shows one side cut already and the other side being marked. It will now be 7 inches across the top and 17 inches across the bottom.

 Fold in half and sew along the open edge.Lay with seam in center back and cut off excess fabric making a straight line. (the picture shows it turned so the outside is out. You don't need to do this at this point)

Pin the two circles to the right side of the felt on the bottom opening. Sew it closed and turn right side out.

 This is what it will look like. I used two pieces for the bottom because I know it will get tossed around a lot and not treated gently. It's for reinforcement only.

 Fill bottom with beanie baby beads or other weighted beads.

 I put in about 2 cups to make sure it would be stable.

 Stuff with pillow stuffing until its firm. You want the tree to stand tall and not slouch over.

 With the open edge of large leaf down, stitch to top of tree by hand.

 This is how it should look now.

 Place smaller leaf on top and hand stitch it on larger leaves to tack it down.

 Use a large eyed needle to thread yarn.

 Begin at the back seam and pull the yarn through.

 Wrap yarn around the tree and pull it through again about 2 inches lower than the first stitch a quarter turn around. Continue down the tree in this manner until you reach the bottom.

 Tie a large bulky knot at the base. You will now continue back up the tree, tying bulky knots at each previous stitch.

 They should look similar to this.

 Tie off the yarn well at the top. Then tie on the three beads at the top to look like coconuts.

 Finished tree with knots showing.

 You are done!! Now add letters made out of foam or felt. I also made blue polka dots and apples out of felt and made the numbers to go along with the book Chicka Chicka 123.

Enjoy!!

I'll add the patterns for the leaves as soon as I get them scanned into my computer :)