Fisher Price Tool Bench

The Fisher Price Tool Bench is GREAT for Kids!

This toy is made with very durable plastic that lasts for many many years, safe for both indoor and outdoor use.  It includes a fun clamp for holding wood or other flat objects, plenty of holes to hammer nails through, as well as some great tool hangers! This is super fun for all of the little handy men and women in the family who love to learn just how their handy parents do what they do!

My Toy Review: 

With all of the video games, movies, tablets, and hand held gaming systems this awesome creative toy is a wonderful outlet for the little ones. All of the tools that came with it are kid safe and friendly and fun to use.

Pros: great fun for kids ages 2-8.  Great when brand new, but if you get one used and with nothing super easy and cheap to fix up for your kids.

Little Tykes Kitchen

Details: Durable plastic, may fade, but won't break.  Lasts for years, comes with kitchen wear and food when brand new.  Around $30 used.  Different models provide different modes of fun.  Comes in different colors.  Great for indoor and outside use.  Boys and girls with have hours of fun!

My Review: I bought this for $20 used at a thrift store, but have seen them going for between $50 and $30 used in the same condition on craigslist and ksl.com here in Utah.  All the kids love this toy, the girls and the boys alike.  All our friends love bringing their kids over to play with this.  Here's the thing, when I bought this there were no plates, cups, food etc.  So I wanted to provide my own.  I got very creative.  Check out the pictures.  I saved and washed 4 Odwalda juice bottles and put colored water in them and super glued the tops down.  I washed out 2 McDonald's chocolate milk jugs and super glued the lids on.  I washed out my used up spice containers, yogurt containers, Blue Bonnet butter containers too.  I washed out and filled with colored water: Kettle Almond Butter, Honey Bear, BBQ Sauce, Ketchup, and strawberry jelly containers and super glued their lids on.  I gave my kids old expired condensed milk and canned vegetables to play with.  They got rocks put in super glued vitamin bottles, sprinkles that were old that got super glued in, etc.

I went to the thrift store and spent $4 on saucers, cups, bowls and utensils for the play kitchen.  I recycled, reduced my trash and reused for some super duper fun for the neighborhood and my own family.

 

Kid School Time

Its time to start thinking about school.  Getting supplies, getting new school clothing, getting back on that school schedule, figuring out what kinds of extra curricular activities your children will be doing this fall and spring.  Yep, school is starting soon, so how can we make this year special and stress free?

This is my first year of having a school aged child.  My 5 year old is so excited to go to school, so we really wanted to make this year special and to help him really enjoy school, with out breaking our bank.  Here are some things we bought that are super awesome!

 



1. Avenger's back pack: $15 at Target, was on sale over the summer
2. Toy story pencil and pen holder $2 at Wal-Mart
3. Super Hero spiral bound note books $1-$2 at Wal-mart
4. Bendy ruler (so you don't have to buy a new one when the plastic one breaks) $2 at Wal-Mart
5. Batman pencils, pens with roller stamps, Avenger stickers and little book $1 each at Target
6. Colored number 2 pencils, and pencil top erasers $1 at Dollar Tree
7. Dry Erase mini boards, and large pad $1 each at Target
8. Dry Erase crayons $3 at Wal-Mart (great for kids because they wash out of clothing)
9. Brain Games wipe off pad $5 at Wal-Mart

My Rating

Rainy Day Activities for Kids

Rain rain go away, come again another day.  I don't know about you, but April and May are very rainy months.  That's great though, because April showers bring May flowers.  But just how much rain can a mom/ nanny/ child care giver take?  Here are some great, easy to do, fun activities with children and not go so crazy when its too wet, and or too cold to go outside and play.

Spider's Web: quick set up, fun for all ages, great for a play room, or go all out and do the hallway, living room, and dinning room too. WARNING: this may create a messy house, but then the fun and pictures, and memories are worth everything. There are a few different ways to create this, but I've always used yarn.  What You Need: Yarn, and imagination.  (If you use paper streamers you'll need tape too)  Make up rules as you go, and for different aged children.  Don't touch the web, you can only go through or under or over.  Try to save the animals tied to the web without getting tagged by the spider...

Plastic Finger Paint: let your kids finger paint without getting messy and wasting the paint.  Hours of fun, simple and easy to set up, and quick to take down.  TIP: this would also make a great home school or preschool lesson idea for learning to mix colors.  What You Need: Gallon sized double zip freezer baggies, paint (finger, or acrylic paint), painters tape or masking tape (thick), white paper, scotch tape.  Tape the white paper to the table where each child will sit.  Put the paint into the bag, and use the (thick) tape to tape all four sides to the table.  Let your kids paint!

Recycled Bowling: plan a head activity.  Use your imagination to figure out what things would make bowling harder, especially if you have limited or small play spaces. Try stuffed animals, pillows, balloons, small balls etc. Lots of fun for the whole family or team play with the kids against adults.  What You Need: 10 soda bottles or juice bottles (you choose the size, 20 oz, or 2 liter), water, food dye, item to bowl with, paper to set up score cards.  Fill the bottles with colored water to make them harder to knock over, and easier to stand up.  Bowl some strikes!

Building Blocks: Are your kids done playing with the wooden blocks, legos, Trio Blocks, Tinker toys, or Lincoln Logs.  How about if you introduce special new building materials?  How about keeping on hand rainy day tools?  What You Need: any of the following: tooth picks (I love the colored ones), mini marshmellows, gum drops, plastic or paper cups, sugar cubes, bendy straws, pom poms, any dry pasta (except the shells, they're hard to work with).  Let the kids go crazy, take pictures, heck get in on the fun yourself.  Most of the stuff can be reused if properly put away.

Monster Bubbles: Do you have scientists in your family?  Do you kids love reactions?  Do they love to explore?  Again, this will take a little bit of planning for fun exciting discoveries.  What You Need: vinegar, baking soda, food dye, clear plastic cups, table, cookie sheets with edges (to hold in the over flow).  Put the plastic cups on the cookie sheets (2-3 per sheet) pour 1-2 table spoons of baking soda into each cup on the cookie sheets.  Pour vinegar into separate cups and add food dye (make them light colored to prevent unwanted staining).  Gather children to table for demonstration. Help them pour the dyed vinegar into the baking soda cups and get ready for the magic bubbles take over the world.

Catch and Fly: Do your kids love bugs?  Do your kids love air planes and helicopters?  Do your kids love looking, exploring, and finding things?  Do your kids love to catch things?   What You Need: Butterfly nets for each child, paper, feathers, cotton balls, (pretty much anything that will flow in the air), an electric fan.  One by one put  the bits of paper, cotton balls and feathers in front of the fan while its on, and let the kids run around trying to catch them in their nets.  TIP: let the kids draw bugs, butterflies, air planes on the paper before they try and catch it. Make paper air planes or helicopters to throw around while the boys try to catch them.


Just remember the next time you are bored and so are your children, try a few of these activities for the rainy, cold, sick days.

To see actual pictures of some of the activities here that I have done with my children follow this link.