Winter Wonderland Blog Hop: 10 Winter-Themed Activities

I'm so excited to present the Winter Wonderland Blog Hop. For the next month (Jan. 13th-Feb. 13th), 35+ bloggers will be posting about a winter-themed activity, craft, recipe or printable. You can find a calendar list at the bottom of this post of the dates and bloggers who'll post on those dates. Each day I'll pop in to update the link to show the title of the blogger's winter-themed activity so check back often to beat the winter doldrums with super fun activities from some amazing bloggers! 

To kick-off the Blog Hop, I'm posting about 10 of our favorite winter activities! 

1. Build Your Own Snowman Muffin Tin Meal - Our favorite muffin tin meal of all time! 

2. Snow Glad We're Friends Cards - Send a card to a friend just for fun!

3. Winter-Themed Sensory Bin - Use rice as snow for a fun way to explore!

4. Coffee Filter Snowman - Perhaps the simplest snowman you'll ever make!

5. Bring Snow Inside! - If it's too cold (or dark) to play outside, bring the snow inside!

6. Simple Snow Play Dough - Try our simple snow play dough recipe!

7. Snow Tracks - Find and explore animal tracks in the snow!

8. Tot School: Snow Edition - Fun ways to learn with snow-themed activities!

9. Fingerprint Snowmen - Make a village of snowmen or turn them into a card!

10. Build a Snowman - Last, but certainly not least go the traditional route and build a snowman in the snow. Find fun items around the house for the face, arms and buttons, or use Mr. Potato Head pieces!

CALENDAR LIST OF POSTS:
January 13th: The Iowa Farmer's Wife - Introduction Post
January 14th: B-Inspired Mama - Snowflake Drop DIY Baby Toy
                    Kid World Citizen - Ice Sun Catchers
January 15th: Love Play Learn - Snowman Felt Story Board & Song
January 16th: KC Edventures - Fun with Kids Books and Winter Activities
                    Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails - Winter Bath for Kids
January 17th: Milk and Cuddles - How to Make Snow
January 18th: Putti's World - Craft Foam Snowman
January 19th: Nurture Store - Bake a Snowman - Cake Recipe for Kids
January 20th: Creative Playhouse - Homemade Cold Snow
January 21st: Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas - Packing Peanut Snowflakes
January 22nd: Teach Preschool - Snowman in a Bag
                     This Reading Mama - Snowflake Window Wonderland
January 23rd: Housing A Forest - Creating Colorful Icicles
January 24th: Royal Baloo - How is Snow Formed?
                    Home Learning Journey - Potato Print Penguin
January 25th: Two Big Two Little - Comparing Different Types of Fake Snow
January 26th: Ready Set Read - Winter Word Work
January 27th: CraftoArt
January 28th: The Outlaw Mom Blog - Easy Sticker Snow Globe
January 29th: JDaniel4s Mom - Snowflake Mobile
January 30th: Creative Family Fun - Polar Bear Masks
January 31st: Kitchen Counter Chronicles - Snowy Day Felt Board
February 1st: Caution! Twins at Play
February 2nd: Enchanted Homeschooling Mom - Groundhog Day Round Up
February 3rd: Blog Me Mom - Cotton Rounds Snowman Craft
February 4th: Mama Miss - Snowflake Stained Glass Mobile
February 5th: Living Montessori Now - 25+ Snow-Themed Sensory Tubs
                    Ingles 360 - Playing with Ice
February 6th: Glittering Muffins - Peanut Snowman Magnets
February 7th: The Pleasantest Thing - Winter Song: Today is Monday
February 8th: Here Come the Girls - Create an Inside Winter Wonderland
February 9th: 3 Dinosaurs - Paper Roll Snowman
February 10th: Train Up a Child - Penguin Sensory Bin
February 11th: Little Artists - The New Year of China
February 12th: The Chirping Moms - Snow Inspired Crafts
February 13th: My Nearest and Dearest - Winter Picnic

What's your favorite Winter-themed post? Share your post with us in the comment section!

Olympic Family Fitness

For the past few weeks we've been talking about the Olympics non-stop. We've made medals, rings, an outdoor arena, a torch and created an obstacle course (look for that post coming soon), but we haven't talked much about what goes into being an Olympian. My theme for Kids Bloggers Go Olympics is Health/Fitness and the Olympics was a great way to explain those to Sweet P.

While thumbing through our copy of My First Encyclopedia, I found a page about Sports that included the Olympic Games. I set it aside and gathered a few other things we'd need for our Family Fitness activity.

In December I won a giveaway for Family Time Fitness' PE curriculum, but we haven't used any of it yet. I thought this would be the perfect way to introduce her to fitness and the importance of exercise.

The whole family went up to her room (which has a pretty big space for jumping/moving around). Sweet P and I sat on her bed (the Farmer and Sprout took the floor) and read the excerpt from the encyclopedia about the games and a portion about healthy eating. We'd also eaten the Olympic rings that day so I talked about how each of the things she ate provided vitamins, nutrients and minerals to help her grow healthy bones and strong muscles.

I asked, "And do you know who has strong muscles? Olympians!"

And then we flexed our muscles. Don't forget your intimidating face!

I explained that Olympic athletes have to work really hard and exercise almost every day to get to the Olympics. And while we aren't training for the Olympics, we can still exercise and increase our cardiovascular fitness (I'm sure my 3 year old really knew what that meant!).

After reading, we turned on some music (This Land is Your Land) and started the fitness lesson. The lesson included a warm-up, activity and cool-down. We modified it a great deal for our 3 year old's attention span, but I think she got a big kick out of all of us doing arm circles and leg lifts!

We bear crawled, frog jumped and then made a river with two ribbon belts to jump over. I talked about the importance of cooling down at the end as we stretched our legs and then she played with the river for another 15 minutes. The entire lesson probably took 15 minutes from start to finish.

We had such a fun time and we can't wait to do the next lesson! I'm all about teaching your child that exercise is fun!

Thanks so much to Inspiration Laboratories for passing the torch to me! I'm passing the torch to Living at the Whiteheads Zoo!

Join the Kids Bloggers Go Olympics Blog Hop and link up YOUR Olympic activities! 

{Weekly Kid's Co-op} Features & Link-Up

Welcome back to another awesome week of the Weekly Kid's Co-op! Missed last week? Check it out here (don't forget to check out my features!). It was full of awesome ideas for kiddos. Here are my 3 favorites from last week:

How super duper is this Goodnight Moon Tot Bag from Living Worlds Apart? What a fun way to talk about shapes and colors while patterning, developing fine motor skills and playing! This book is a fav at our house and I think Sweet P would love these activities!

I've been collecting things to use for an emotions unit for awhile and will be adding Tutus and Tea Parties' Emotions Unit to our list! Great ideas like painting emotions, paper plate emotions and fun songs to sing!

We're all about new ways to paint and create so I loved this Salt Painting post from Juggling with Kids. Check out her post for the fun her son had making these! 

Were you featured? Don't forget to grab a button!

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{Weekly Kid's Co-Op} Link Up: Come & Play!

Yikes! Has it really been a week since I posted?! We have been B-to the-U-S-Y at the Farmer's house. With Baby Blue's baptism and Sweet P's birthday party, it's amazing we get any sleep around here. But I'm back and excited for our 2nd week as a hostess for the Weekly Kid's Co-op.

But let's talk about you! We had over 200 ideas linked up last week and I was lovin' all the Earth Day ideas! I'm delighted to share my 3 favorites with you!

I love this flannel board picnic from Miss Courtney Meets BoBo. Don't you just LOVE the salad? And peanut butter, jelly and marshmallow creme? YES please! 

This Earth Day craft from little lucky is so simple and lovely! I may need to try this with Sweet P even though Earth Day has passed...but isn't every day Earth Day?! 

I'm diggin' this sensory and motor skill Fishing for Shapes activity from Memorizing the Moments. We have some water beads we've been waiting to play with and may try this with something a bit more advanced like letters or numbers since Sweet P is a bit older. 

I'll have an "I've been featured" button up soon and I'll let you know via comment!

Let's see what you've been up to this week! Please remember to try to visit a few others and comment on, Pin, tweet and share your favorites!

Eating A Rainbow and a Blog Hop

Today we are excited to be part of a Weather Blog Hop! Please link up your own weather-related posts and be sure to visit other posts and other bloggers who are hosting this Blog Hop!

Yesterday we ate a rainbow! Well, Sweet P did, anyway! I've been thinking about this lunch for a month now and was so excited to create it for her! 

Here's what I used:

Cloud: Greek yogurt
Red: Fresh Strawberries

Orange: Fresh Mandarin oranges and carrots

Yellow: Frozen (thawed) pineapple

Green: Fresh kiwi and spinach leaves

Blue/Indigo/Violet: Fresh blueberries

Pot of Gold: Chopped cheese stick

While she ate we talked about rainbows and how they are made with the help of my handy dandy weather book I found at Goodwill. Did you know a rainbow is what you see when sunlight has been bent and spread apart by millions of falling raindrops? Isn't that cool?

Link up your weather-related post and don't forget to visit a few other posts while you're here! 

I'm hosting this Blog Hop with these other fabulous bloggers! 

NurtureStore :: The Golden Gleam :: Rainy Day Mum :: Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas :: Putti Prapancha :: Sun Hats & Wellie Boots :: Montessori Tidbits :: Kitchen Counter Chronicles :: Reading Confetti :: Dilly-Dali Art :: Growing A Jeweled Rose :: The Iowa Farmer's Wife :: AngeliqueFelix.com :: Kindergarten Basics :: Mommy With A Selective Memory :: Glittering Muffins :: Creative Family Fun :: Living Montessori Now :: Toddler Approved :: Living at the Whitehead's Zoo :: Sense of Wonder :: Make, Do & Friend :: Creative Connections for Kids The Educators' Spin On It :: RainbowsWithinReach :: A Mom With A Lesson Plan :: Creativity my Passion :: Mama Smiles :: Teach Preschool :: JDaniel4's Mom :: The Outlaw Mom Blog :: Mama Mia's Heart2Heart