Educational and Pretty Memory Game

Baby Bear... *ahem* excuse me!  Little Bear has decided that she is much too old to be called Baby Bear.  "Baby Bear is for babies, but Little Bear is a good nickname for a kindergartner," she told me.

Little Bear's kindergarten teacher, Mrs. B, sent home three sheets of pink paper last week.  They were printed with rectangles, containing pairs of the words the class has worked on.  The instructions included with these sheets directed me to cut the rectangles out and play a memory game with my child.  Of course, I couldn't just cut them out and leave it at that.

First of all, if the light was behind them, you could see the word right through the back of the cards.  To fix this problem, I got out my Valentine's Day cardstock.  I covered the backs of the sheets of sight words with my trusty glue stick and laid them on the cardstock, making sure the cardstock pattern was going the same direction on all of them.  If the pattern isn't consistant, Little Bear would probably notice and she would remember the backs of the cards, rather than the words I was trying to teach her.  I cut the cards out and then realized there weren't very many.  Using plain paper and the remaining heart-patterned cardstock, I added some more of the sight words for kindergarten, referencing the list Mrs. B sent home last month.  Once I had gotten as many card pairs as possible from my piece of cardstock, I decided they needed a box.  Every good card game needs a box, right?

I went to the cabinet under my kitchen sink, where my recycleables live until I take them out to the big recycling bin in the back yard, and found a allergy nose spray box.  **I feel the need to pause here and ponder the possible justifications for double-packaging things.  I realize that those boxes are easier to stack than the bottles, but what a waste!**

Okay, I'm back now.  On the open top of the box, there are four flaps.  Of the two longer sides, one flap is smaller than the other.  I cut that one off at the crease, taped it to the larger flap, then trimmed it to the size I wanted.  The idea here is to make a flap that folds over the top of the box and tucks into the other side.  I covered the box with some pink floral scrapbooking paper, adhering it with double-stick tape, and trimmed off the excess around the flaps.  I folded the bottom like wrapping paper on a gift.

On a scrap of pretty cardstock, I wrote, "Kindergarten Sight Words Memory Game."  Catchy, right?  I stuck the label to the box with more double-stick tape (what did we ever do without it?).  Little Bear was thrilled with the result and insisted on showing Gramma and Mrs. B her pretty new memory game.

Personalized Notebooks

When my baby brother, M, turned 12 last month, I just couldn't seem to settle on a gift.  He loves Pokemon and Hot Wheels, but I'm so tired of buying him more of the same thing.  I was browsing through the kids' section of Artmart and feeling quite frustrated, when I called Mom.  I told her my dilemma, as well as the fact that I kept circling back around to this display of blank books with plain white covers.

Mom, being the great mind that she is, suggested I make him a book to write lists in.  It might sound strange, but M loves to make lists; lists of Pokemon characters, his classmates, toys he has,  people in his family, etc.  I could go on and on.  Whenever he spends time with Baby Bear and I, weeks later I will find a list of made-up baseball players folded up in my purse, or will flip open my notepad at work and find a list of all of the fire Pokemon characters.

Working from Mom's genius inspiration, I bought two plain composition books at the local department store for about a dollar each and customized them for M's list making.  I chose the paper I wanted to use, then coated the front cover of the first book with my glue stick.  I lined the paper up with the binding, pushing it just under the edge of the black strip, and smoothed it onto the book.  Once it was firmly adhered, I opened the cover and trimmed the paper around the edges and did the same to the back, and then to both covers of the second book.

I cut shapes from coordinating paper using plastic templates and layered them on the front covers.  I titled the books "Book Of Lists" (original, eh?) and made a matching bookplates for the inside covers.  Next, I labled the first several pages with items to list, such as family members, favorite baseball players, years of Hot Wheel cars, teachers, etc, and wrapped them up. 

I thought it was funny when he opened them and smiled, then asked me why I thought he liked to write lists.  ;-)

Find It! Game

I was inspired last week by a game I found online called Find It.  It's basically a clear plastic tube filled with tiny colored pellets and tiny objects to find.  It's a totally self-contained game, which I thought would be perfect for the car. 

I decided to make my own version, of course, and here's how I did it:

I washed an empty sports drink bottle (because it has a wider neck than the individual soda pop bottles do) and let it dry COMPLETELY.  I then removed the label, using GooGone® to remove the glue.  I removed the date stamp from the bottle using non-acetone nail polish remover.

I searched the junk drawer in my kitchen, my desk drawers, the bottom of my daughter's toy drawer, and various other nooks and crannies for items small enough to fit through the neck of the bottle.  I ended up with 20 items - a button, pencil sharpener, feather, chain, toy ladder, paperclip, diaper pin, clothespin, jack, magnet, rock, thumb tack, coin, tag, candle, hook, bolt, chalk, toy gremlin, and an old key.

I put the items into the bottle, then filled it to an inch below the top with salt.  That's right - plain, old, inexpensive table salt.  I then superglued the lid onto the bottle and voila!  A new and mess-free travel game!

This was just a prototype, of course, but my daughter got quite a kick out of it.  We played several times yesterday, with me timing her and counting the items she called out.  Next time, I'd like to use more items.  I think that, for older children or adults, I would color the salt with tempera powder or use a colored material like sand.  For my kindergartener, however, the plain white salt worked perfectly.  Have fun making your own and happy playing!!