I found some Hula Hoops on sale this week and when I introduced them to my kids, they had so much fun! They did not set them down for at least a half an hour! If they had actually been able to, you know, do the hula, they may have played all day! While they played, I was impressed with how many games they came up with using those hoops. I jumped in and introduced them to more ways to play.

Here’s the best ones from our day of hoopin’…

1. Around Your Waist

The basic balance on your hips. Asa tried. He did. But he just couldn’t get it. {I happen to be a pretty good hula-hooper. I even won a contest once. But I could not get these hoops to stay up. I think maybe I need a bigger one.}

2. On Your Arms

This is the basic spin, just on your arms. If you’re really good, you can do multiple hoops on one arm. Or multiple hoops on BOTH arms!

3. Like a Steering Wheel

Lydia learned this from their favorite Boz DVD, Thank You God for Bananas, Bubbles and Busy Bodies. This is our new watch-every-morning-dvd. In the “busy bodies” segment, Boz and the kids sing “Hoop Dee Hoop” and learn fun ways to play with their hula hoops.

4. Hopscotch

It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3…or however many hoops you have. Just line them up and start hopping!

5. Ring Around the Rosies

Instead of holding hands, we set the hoops into a circle and walked from hoop to hoop until it was time to “all fall down!”.

6. Three Ring Circus

Maybe this is just for my dramatic daughter…but setting a hula hoop on the floor becomes an instant stage. Add a few more and you’ve got enough stages for a full circus, a rock band or a ballet recital! I’ve got some pictures…but I’m going to share them in tomorrow’s post. You’re gonna like it!

7. The Boomerang

I couldn’t get a picture of this because *I* was the only one that could do it. You take the hula hoop in your hand, then roll it as fast as you can with a backward twist thingie on it. *whew* I’m not good at explaining this. Basically you roll it, it comes back. Know what I mean?

8. Target Practice

Set up a hula hoop against a wall (or even better, hang in on a tree!). Then set another hula hoop on the floor. Stand in that hula hoop and try to throw a bean bag, ball or if you’re like us a plush hammer into the hoop!

9. Jump Rope

Another hoop trick only I could do. And it wasn’t pretty. Hold your hoop in front of you with both hands. Spin it around behind you, over your head and back down to your feet—then JUMP! All while keeping hold of the hoop in front of you. Keep spining and you’ve got a hula hoop jump rope hoop!

10. The Trinity

I tried to get all the hula hoops on the ground so we could all sit inside of them and still be connected. I thought it would be a great picture of the trinity—you know, The Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But I couldn’t quite figure it out… {you know I’m kidding, right?}

linked to ohAmanda’s Top Ten {Tuesday}

Hiking is a huge part of summer camp!  I remember hiking every day it didn’t rain… and I loved every minute of it!  We currently live in central Virginia, and we are only an hour or two away from some fabulous hiking trails that I can’t wait to explore.  I also grew up in a pretty rural area with a lot of forests and a lot of time to explore them.  But how do you share that experience with a 4 year old and a 2 year old in a fully developed urban/suburban area?

Hike your city’s parks!

Armed with our sit-upons and some creative hiking ideas, and accompanied by a friend, we visited a park in Richmond, VA that we typically don’t get to visit.  It’s a lovely park that’s a bit further away from our house than our regular park - and because we don’t typically go there, it was fresh and new!

About a hundred feet in to our hike, we were greeted with a fabulous bridge…

…that took us deeper into a little forest.  It is wonderful how cities can carve out pieces of land in the middle of all the development so people can still escape to the woods if they’d like.

There were so many things to explore in our little city park adventure that we didn’t even have to pull out any creative ideas for our hike.  They boys were fascinated by everything we encountered and asked plenty of questions without any prompts!

The little creek that the bridge crossed was easily accessible from the other side of the bridge, so we had to go visit the creek and have some fun…

There were several downed trees along the way – so the boys got a quick lesson on the rings of a tree…

…And there were these tree identifying signs along the way that helped us know what we were seeing.  I love that – I can tell what an oak tree and a pine tree is, but that’s about it.

The paved sidewalk ended, and we chose a dirt track that I thought would take us around the park in a big circle – and we ran into the creek again!  This time, we got to hop over rocks to cross the creek.  It was easy to forget that my boys had never done that before – they talked about the creek for the rest of the day!

The trail wandered along the side of the creek for a bit, and we hopped over a couple downed trees until we got back to another paved track…

…that brought us back to the beginning of our hike again.

Another bonus to hiking a city park?  The playground awaits you at the end!

Last week I was sitting on the porch steps (yes, being a lazy nature lover) and the kids were begging me to get out in the grass and play with them. But I just couldn’t muster up enough creativity or energy to do so. Suddenly, inspiration hit! I told Lydia we would play a special game. We would start a mini-game and when I yelled STOP, she had to freeze until I told her what the next mini-game was. She was thrilled!

We played this game for an hour at least. Each mini-game lasted anywhere between 1 minute and 10 minutes depending on how much she liked it. When I yelled STOP she would freeze (and giggle) until I gave new instructions.

We have done this several days since then usually at her request. Here are some of her favorite mini-games:

1. Nature Soup–pick 10 different pieces of nature and put them in a bucket, mix, “cook” and serve to everyone else.

2. Rock Names–find one rock for each letter of your name. Place in order on the ground.

3. Animal Mimic–pretend to be a monkey {oooh! oooh! eee! eee! aah! aah!, search for bananas and pick fleas out of each others’ hair}, a bunny {hop up and down, wiggle your nose, look for clover and look for your bunny burrow} or other favorite animals.

4. Hopping Patterns–make patterns out of hopping or steps (ie. jump on one foot, two feet, two feet, one foot; giant step, baby step, hop} and see how many times you can do it before messing up.

5. Personal Relay–run to a bush, pick one leaf and then bring it back to starting point. Continue until you have collected  5 leaves.

6. Knothole Sidewalk Chalk–use the knotholes on your porch to create sidewalk chalk illustrations. We make bunnies, flowers, birds and our favorite–owls!

7. Nature Collection–send kids on a scavenger hunt to find specific items {ie. 3 sticks longer than your hand, 4 different nature items, 1 small rock/1 medium rock/1 large rock}.

8. RUN–there is nothing better than telling your kids to just run up and down the yard 15 times.

9. Ball in the Bucket–stand with toes touching a bucket and drop a ball into it. Then take 1 step back and drop the ball in. Then 2 steps back and drop the ball in. See how many steps you can take while still sinking the ball!

10. Mystery–find something in the yard or woods that does not belong {trash, a strange piece of nature, etc.} and come up with a story as to how it got there.

Do you have quick and easy outside games to add?

I’m a lazy nature lover. I love being outside. I just don’t love running outside. I don’t like sweating or getting spiderwebs and dirt in my hair.

I’ve been taking the kids outside every day but I usually just want to sit on the porch and watch them run around. Bad thing is, they end up just sitting next to me. Which of course, defeats the purpose.

So, I’ve been trying to think of fun things to do while being outside. But nothing like flag football or hiking with a 30 lb one year old on my hip.

Today we made Nature Letters! We collected rocks, leaves and sticks then formed the first letter of their word. Like this rock “R”…

It was fun because we had to sound out the words, figure out how many pieces we’d need to collect to make the letter and then actually put it together. Here’s some more of our creations…

(fern F, stick S, mica M, berry B)

Then we got a little more creative and made Lydia’s name. My favorite part is the stick “I” with the berry dot on top!

What do you and your kids like to do outside?

I have become quite the thrift store book shopper. I find myself drawn to the thrift store and I can’t stop at just glancing at the book section. Oh no! I have to look at each and every book. At first I was buying any and all books I had ever read as a kid. Then I got captivated by “vintage” books and couldn’t pass up anything published before 1975.

I have finally decided to step back and look for books that I know we will love and are in good condition. This is tough for me because I don’t care what a book looks like as long as it is a good story! Anyway, yesterday I spent a very long time at the thrift store while my kids played with all the dirty play kitchens and toy pianos. I found a few lovely books but our favorite so far is Miss Mary Mack: A Hand-Clapping Rhyme.

I know, it doesn’t sound very interesting but to Lydia? She thinks this is the funniest and most FUN book she’s ever read. The first page has the music and instructions to the handclaps. I fancy myself a very good handclapper and did not even understand how to do the moves they suggested. Plus, I figured they would be too hard for Lydia. So, I taught her a basic hand clapping game routine:

SLAP your legs

CLAP your hands together

PAT your partner’s hands

OK, so it’s only one step up from Patty Cake. But it took her quite awhile to be able to keep up with me AND say the words along with the clapping. She was so excited she could barely go to sleep last night and even called me up one extra time to remind her of the words!

Today we played for a long long time and she wanted to read and clap to the entire book! (I think the original rhyme only had 3 verses. The book has about 25!) Here she is playing Miss Mary Mack with YOU:

Miss Mary Mack Mack Mack from oh amanda on Vimeo.

I looked all over the internet this afternoon to find some more hand clapping songs but honestly, some of them are kinda inappropriate (Miss Suzy? Hello My Enemy?). But I think we’ll keep it up because this is such a fun non-toy concentration activity. I love that Lydia is lovin’ it!

Did you play hand clapping games as a kid? Which one do you remember most?

photo by ***karen

As soon as Lydia saw these egg carton butterflies in Family Fun she oohed and aaaahed. I promised we’d make them. So, I thought it would be a fun craft to share with you after my “earth day” craft yesterday.

Well, we started it this morning and about halfway through Lydia ran out of steam. They weren’t looking like the gorgeous butterflies in the magazine and honestly, I was getting a little bored, too. What’s wrong with me? Do I not know how to read directions? Do I pick crafts that are too hard for her? *sigh* I should have known better—we’ve done one of those tissue paper mod podge crafts TWICE before and it never turns out well.

Anywhoo, instead of a gorgeous recycled craft, we ended up having a VERY exciting time exploring God’s great earth instead!

I’ve always been really inspired by 5 Orange Potatoes which is a blog dedicated to helping kids love and experience nature. As a Christian, I totally love this because I feel like being around and interacting with nature is one of the best ways to catch a glimpse of the greatness of God. This week (month?) 5 Orange Potatoes is hosting The Great Outdoor Challenge—which is exactly what it sounds like: challenging YOU to get your kids OUTDOORS!

Ever since Spring has sprung, I’ve been trying to get the kids outside, but now I’m trying to get them IN nature. Not just playing ball or blowing bubbles or playing with sidewalk chalk, I want them plain old PLAYING OUTSIDE.

So, if that wasn’t wordy enough, here’s a few pictures of our Outdoor Adventure today!

Lydia went on a photo scavenger hunt. I’d give her a topic (all green things, 4 different colored plants, leaves with your finger in the photo, etc.) and then she’d come back and show me all the pictures she took. She LOVED this and found so many fun things!

Then we found a dead bumblebee on the porch. We pulled out Lydia’s magnifying glass (a must after we started watching Sid The Science Kid!) and started investigating it. Lydia was a little freaked out by it-especially when the wind would blow and make it move! I would look through the magnifying glass first and say, “Oooh, I see it has fuzzy legs! What neat thing do you notice, Lydia?” And we’d go back and forth noticing interesting things about the bee. I finally swept him under the porch and Lydia cried.

Then as we were walking to check the mail Lydia found a snail shell on the ground. As we laid on the ground to examine it, we found another one. The kid were absolutely enthralled with them because they expected them to move at any moment.

We found more bugs–centipedes, ants and roly polies. And with each one the kids got more and more excited. It was the highlight of our day!

I went to Bible College and learned the term “general revelation” which just means that creation reveals God to the world. And today, I saw that. My kids were loving and enjoying the creation of a mighty and creative God. Being around the handiwork of God opens up my heart to Him. I pray my kids’ hearts were opened today, too!

But ask the animals what God does.
They will teach you.
Or ask the birds of the air.
They will tell you.
Or speak to the earth. It will teach you.
Or let the fish of the ocean educate you.
Are there any of those creatures that don’t know
what the powerful hand of the Lord has done?
He holds the life of every creature in his hand.
He controls the breath of every human being.

Job 12:7-10 NIrV

When was the last time you and your kids just played outside?

Today, at the “northern”-most Impress Your Kids household, my boys were not having anything to do with anything I wanted to do.  It didn’t matter to them that I wanted to teach them something special about God – it didn’t matter to them that I wanted to write a blog post about it.  They had their own agenda for the day.  So what is a mom to do when her children don’t want to be impressed in anyway?

Turn on some Seeds Family Worship music and have a dance party!  You don’t even have to have a dance party (in fact, I was the only one dancing – the others were rolled up in a ball on the floor or running away from me) – just turn the music on! The whole Seeds library is great to have on as you go about your day.  While we’ve talked about how great these CDs are, we haven’t really talked about the quality of the songs yet.  They are good.  Seriously – coming from a music background, and thinking that a lot of Christian music is cheesy – I love these CDs.  I have not gotten tired of them yet – and we listen to them a lot!  The lead vocals are done both by a man and a woman on different tracks, and frequently there are children singing in the background or singing the Scripture references.  And even with the children singing, I still don’t think the CDs are cheesy!  They are so well done.

If you do want to have a dance party, might I recommend Seeds of Courage?  Very up-beat danceable music on that one… looking for a more relaxing CD to play on a car trip? Seeds of Faith would fit the bill – nice and melodic, with catchy tunes, but not too bouncy, if you know what I mean…

And my history with Seeds Family Worship?  I got these CDs (volumes 1 through 4) way back when Elias was 18 months old, because I wanted to have songs with pure Scripture playing so he could soak up God’s word.  At 18 months, he started singing along with the CDs – some of the simpler, more repetitive songs.  And now he sings along with most of the songs (of course, not when I try to get some video of him doing it.  Then he stops. And runs away.).

And I’ve learned so much Scripture, too!  The songs are catchy and repetitive (again, not annoyingly so), and I find myself singing them throughout the day.  Today when we had our “dance party,” the song that kept going through my head was “Do Everything in Love,” from 1 Corinthians 16:13-14: “Be on your guard, stand firm in the faith, be men of courage, be strong. Do everything in love!” And as my children broke down in fits around me, I heard “Do EVERYTHING in love, do EVERYTHING in love, do EVERYTHING, do EVERYTHING, do EVERYTHING… in love!” With that verse ringing through my head, my reaction was one of love – not of rage, as my flesh cried out to force the kids do what I wanted them to do.  I sat down with the child balled up at my feet and hugged him, thinking that we’ll just do my activity later.  Then I got up and danced!

The more you listen to it, the more God’s Word sinks in.  You never know – you just might hear your 4 year old walking by singing, “John eight one, John eight one two, John – eight – TWELVE! Jesus said I am the light of the world...Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have… the light of life, the light of life!”

Music in the background?  It canNOT get any easier to impress your kids than that!

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If you leave a comment on this post, you’ll be entered in our Seeds Family Worship CD giveaway. And if you do THIS activity with your kids, blog it and leave the link on our MckLinky, you’ll get FIVE additional entries! If you have no idea what I’m talking about, see our Ultimate Blog Party intro page!

Picture by peta since my kids would not have their pictures taken today.

So what is a mom to do when her children don’t want to be impressed in anyway?

I turned on the CD Seeds of Courage tonight while we were eating dinner. Lydia is always working on being brave and strong. So, these are scriptures she needs to hide in her heart! The very last song, Do Not Fear is from Isaiah 41:10:

So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

If you knew the complete and utter fearful meltdown we had with Lydia on Saturday, you would understand why just listening to this song brought tears to my eyes! I was thinking about doing some role-playing with this verse because role-playing really seems to bring up a lot of questions and scenarios for us to talk about. I was actually going to write a social story type thing with her about being afraid and remembering this verse.

As we were listening to the song at dinner, I said, “Lydia this is the song we’re going to do an activity about!” And I told her the words as they sang. Her eyes got big when I said “Do not fear” because she knows we talk about this all the time. Then she said, “What’s a righteous right hand?” She’s a leftie and is really into right and left hands!

So, I pantomimed holding my hand out and pretending there was a little person inside. Then I closed my hand and covered them up. She thought this was hilarious! She grabbed a napkin, wadded it up and put it in her hand. She pretended to be God and protect that napkin. Then we had an even better idea! We took her gummi bear vitamins and let them be Lydia-Bear and Asa-Bear. We had Lydia-Bear and Asa-Bear get scared and run around our hands. Then we closed our fists tight to protect them. She was having SO much fun! (Especially when I dropped Lydia-Bear and asked her if that’s what God would do. She said “Noooo!”)

As she played with her gummi vitamins and had them dance to the song (I put it on repeat), I grabbed the video camera. She finally started dancing and singing in our living room. Then we made up motions/dance to the song.

So do not fear hold both hands to mouth like you’re biting your fingernails in fear
for I am with you take both hands down and place on heart
do not be dismayed shake hands  in front of you like you are very upset
for I am your God. jump up and shake hands in the air as if motioning to God
I will strengthen you make big muscles with both arms
and help you scoop flexed arms in front of you like you just helped someone up
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. make a big muscle with right arm and point to your closed fist with your left hand
Isaiah 41:10 hold up 4 fingers, then 1 finger and then 10

It was such fun and also made me cry. I can’t wait for that little seed to grow in her life. I’m even excited for the next time she gets scared and then pictures Jesus holding her in the palm of his hand–his strong, helpful arms, His righteous right hand.

Impressing your kids with God’s Word doesn’t always take a detailed lesson plan, an intricate craft or a lot of preparation. Sometimes it’s just going with what your kids like and what the Holy Spirit quietly speaks to you.

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If you leave a comment on this post, you’ll be entered in our Seeds Family Worship CD giveaway. And if you do THIS activity with your kids, blog it and leave the link on our MckLinky, you’ll get FIVE additional entries! If you have no idea what I’m talking about, see our Ultimate Blog Party intro page!

A couple of weeks ago I saw Kristen’s post about Mason nerfing cancer, and his wish to hold the WORLD’S LARGEST NERF PARTY! I knew we needed to join in, because we love Nerf, and we have a family friend named Joshua who is in battle with cancer right now – he is 12 years old and just started chemotherapy this week.  So to honor Mason and Joshua, and to satisfy our love of Nerf, we found some super fun Nerf guns (of the pellet and the ball variety) and have been having fun with them for the past couple of weeks.

I had hoped to have Elias’s best friend over for our official Nerf party, but due to scheduling conflicts, it wound up being just us.  And I didn’t get many pictures, because as one of the main targets, I was constantly on the run.  But here are pictures from prep time…

This post is linked up to The World’s Largest Nerf Party!

I am writing to you from my brand new MacBook Pro! Last week Lydia spilled a glass of water on my old laptop and it died immediately! The only computer I had was my husband’s work computer. It’s not a Mac and it felt like I was using all thumbs and one eye to type. I’m an official Mac-girl and was lost! So, I’m sorry I wasn’t around last week. I couldn’t get here and I was missing you!

While we were computer-less, it decided to snow again. So random in Georgia. Especially because the day before we were outside playing in 65 degree weather! So, when you are computer-less AND snowed in you need some fun and quick ideas to entertain and teach.

I finally decided to make a sensory tub for the kids. I just poured in a few bags of dried beans and gave the kids some measuring spoons. They did not move for a half an hour. Just pouring the beans in and out, hiding their hands and letting the beans drop through their fingers is an adventure!

I’ve read about sensory tubs on other blogs but for some reason never thought to do it. I didn’t understand what it was. And I still don’t–all I know is that my kids love it! It’s great when I’m cooking, they can sit right beside me and stir, mix and play.

Or they can throw the beans on the floor and make a mess while drooling all over your measuring spoons.

Either way, it’s a fun time!