Andy Warhol quiet time basket

So last month we went to the Andy Warhol exhibit at the BYU Museum of Art. And it was awesome and we loved it. And while we were there, Jason found this cute little board book to give Juno for Christmas: Andy Warhol's Colors. It's become a favorite and last week when I was changing our quiet time baskets (for the first time in like three months, oops), I put together a little Andy Warhol basket. Yes. An Andy Warhol quiet time basket.

I chose about 25 of my favorite pictures of our family and printed them in black and white on cardstock. Paired with some fluorescent crayons in a pencil box, they provide--well--maybe not hours, but quite a bit of fun for my girls. Juno especially loves coloring pictures of herself with her paci or pictures of Daddy!

And here's my most recent masterpiece. Isn't it fun?

Quiet time baskets: Pirates and Doctors

I started putting together quiet time baskets back in June or July. Since then, the purpose of the quiet time baskets has changed, and so have the contents. I used to put learning activities in the baskets--things like workbooks, counting tools, writing practice, stuff like that. We used the quiet time baskets for structured learning time after lunch and before naptime for Juno/movie time for the big girls.
Well.... that lasted until Tempe started prechool in the fall. Now our quiet time baskets are just themed baskets that the girls can get out and play with whenever they want. They usually include a book or two and some pretend play props and costumes. I also have a sensory bin that I rotate once a month or so, but that's harder because most sensory bin items are not toddler friendly. I need more ideas of things that are safe for Juno to play with in the sensory bin!

Yesterday I put together a Pirate basket and a Doctor basket.

First Tempe and Helena had to help me make a treasure map. I cut a square from an old tablecloth pad and let them go at it with sharpies. Tempe had a whole storyline about palm trees dripping blood, and monkeys, and an ocean... she has a great imagination (which is a nice way of saying I have no idea what she was talking about).

After our treasure map was done, we took all the pillows off the couch and turned it into a pirate ship, complete with a crow's nest and a sail. Tempe and Helena played happily for quite a while with the contents of their pirate quiet time basket: a wooden sword, a cardboard tube for a spyglass, a treasure box, and a few books about pirates.
Our Doctor basket is kind of skimpy, but still fun. It has a toy doctor kit, a white felt Christmas stocking that is a leg cast, and two handmade arm casts that I made a while ago.

Oh, here's a picture!
The doctor stuff was buried at the bottom of our dress ups (which I purged today) and the pirate stuff was scattered around the house. I was happy to find it all so I could put it together and the girls could find a way to use it all. So while the purpose of quiet time baskets has changed quite a bit, I'm glad I still put them together. It gives purpose to previously unused toys!

Quiet time baskets: Thanksgiving

I should have posted this basket last week, before Thanksgiving--in case any of you needed some ideas to keep the kiddos occupied while the Thanksgiving cookfest was going on!Our Thanksgiving quiet time basket was simple, but fun. In fact, I'm going to keep it out for another week or so, because the girls really like it. I included a book by Tomie dePaola that I got at Seagull Book for $1. Then I raided my girls' play kitchen for Thanksgiving-esque food. I ended up with two green plates and a wooden Melissa and Doug crate with a turkey leg, corn on the cob, a baked potato, a roll, and a piece of cherry pie. I also included an old kitchen timer and two empty spice containers that I added dry beans to (mostly for Juno's benefit, but the older girls liked shaking it, too)

Need ideas on how to play with this?

We turned the basket on its side and used it as our pretend oven. We shook the "seasonings" all over the food, put them in the pretend oven, and then set the pretend timer. While our food was "cooking", we read the Thanksgiving book and pointed out what foods in the book we ate at our own Thanksgiving feast. This is also a great opportunity to talk about table manners or food groups!

Want more ideas? Check out the rest of my quiet time baskets!

Quiet Time Baskets: Nature and Halloween

It's been a while since I posted any quiet time baskets, and that's because I haven't changed them out in a while. But I got some fun stuff for a Thanksgiving basket and a snow basket, so I had to make room.

Nature basket

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  I painted the cupholders of a fast food drink caddy red, orange, yellow, green, and brown and the girls were supposed to take it outside and fill each container with things of that color.


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  Assorted pinecones and rocks


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  A magnifying glass, a small flashlight, and a makeup brush for examining rocks


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  A birdhouse


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  Four flipbooks of insect, bug, and bird trivia with magnifying glasses to look at the slides

Halloween basket

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  Halloween playdough (lime green, purple


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  Rolling pin and cookie cutters


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  Glow in the dark skeleton (it's the same size as Helena)


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  A test tube of glop from the dollar section at Target and a Halloween segmented plate to play with it on (ONLY ON THE PLATE!!!!)


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  A science experiment workbook


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  A picture book about pumpkins


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  A picture book about a haunted house


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  Geeky glasses to go with the mad scientist stuff

Be sure to click on the quiet time baskets link to see more ideas!

Quiet time basket: America

We've had this Quiet Time basket around for a while--I put it together in late July.

Included is a United States workbook from the $1 Spot at Target (seriously, my kids love those books), a United States puzzle from DI, a United States learning wheel that had fun facts about each state (also from DI), some postcards about great American monuments that I cut out of a box of cereal, an old schoolbook about Pennsylvania, and a really neat book about America from Seagull Book. It's one of those "suitcase in my attic" books that has tons of flip out pages and replicas of old flags, ticket stubs, etc.

Quiet time basket: Space

By far, our best quiet time basket yet.

This basket included a book about the solar system and a space workbook from the Target dollar section (they have a whole bunch on lots of different subjects! My girls love doing "homework"), glowsticks, a bouncy ball full of gold glitter that swirled around when you roll it (we lost it, so sad), a rubbery ball that lights up, astronaut bubbles (also from the Target dollar section), and "galaxy dust"--aka the most awesome playdough ever.

This picture absolutely does not do justice to the galaxy dust. It was sooo cool! I could barely keep my hands off of it. I used my favorite playdough recipe (found at the bottom of this post) and added an entire bottle of blue food coloring, an entire tube of neon purple gel food coloring and a TON of purple glitter. It was so deep and rich and glittery.

I found this divided tray at Wal-Mart. It actually has robots on them, but some of them look like aliens, so I thought it was perfect for the playdough tray. To go along with the playdough, I provided googly eyes, pipe cleaners, fuzz balls, and glow-in-the-dark stars. We had a blast making aliens!

The Best Playdough

2 cups flour

2 cups water

1 T cooking oil

1 T cream of tarter

1 cup salt

Scented oils or extracts

Mix liquids in a large pot over medium heat. Add dry ingredients. Stir until dough gathers, thickens, and gets a sheen to it. Let it cool slightly, and then knead it to the right consistency. When I add glitter, I knead it into the dough.

Quiet time basket: Counting

This basket was one of the first four that I put together and for some reason was Tempe's favorite (I think it was pretty boring).

1 is One by Tasha Tudor: gorgeous illustrations and fun rhyme.

Two child-made abacuses. They made these in Bible School out of dowels, beads, styrofoam, and duct tape!

A calculator.

Number flash cards from 1-20 on a ring with 20 beads.

A jar of pennnies and a piggy bank. I didn't actually do this, but I was going to trace the pennies on a piece of cardboard and number each circle, so the girls could lay the pennies out in the circles and count them. I chose pennies because they are worth 1, as opposed to nickels or dimes. But I never got around to that, so I just added the piggy bank and they had fun filling it up, dumping it out, filling it up, dumping it out, over and over and over...

Quiet time basket: Alphabet

One of the first quiet time baskets I put together was this very basic alphabet basket.

Books

AlphaOops! The Day Z Went First by Alethea Kontiss

A, You're Adorable by Martha Alexander, Buddy Kaye, Fred Wise, and Sidney Lippman

Tempe's personalized alphabet book

Activities
Alphabet sorting game: the alphabet cardstock cards are from a craft store and the container is a bead sorting container.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom activity: I swear I thought of this on my own, over a month ago, but I just saw it on someone's linky. BOO! I hate when that happens. Anyway, it's an old cookie sheet with a tree painted on it and a set of alphabet magnets. We had fun playing with this! I would cover the whole tree with letters and then ask the girls to pick me a letter A, or a letter H, and they would find it for me. You could teach vowels and consonants with this, too.

Quiet time baskets: Pioneers

The worst thing that could ever happen to a SAHM happened to me the week Juno was born.

Helena gave up her nap.

Tempe gave up her nap years ago, but was still perfectly happy to play quietly in her room while Helena slept so I could have a break. But Helena refused to play by herself in her room, and if she was downstairs, of course Tempe wanted to be downstairs, too. I tried everything, but I finally had to accept that my kids were done napping. I suffered through it for a few months but I soon realized that for my sanity, I need a break after lunch--to nap, to read, to recharge. So I started letting the girls watch a movie every day after lunch.

I hate doing that. I hate setting my kids in front of the TV, but I realized that it's better for them to watch a bunch of TV and have a happy mom than for me to scream at them all the time.

Anyway, I still let them watch a movie every day, but before we do that, we spend half an hour with our Quiet Time baskets. I put the four baskets out on the rug and set the timer for 10 minutes. The girls can choose to play with one of the baskets, look at library books, or do an art project. After the timer goes off, they can stay where they are or choose something new.

My Quiet Time baskets are inspired by these Montessori-style baskets. Currently we have an alphabet basket, a counting basket, a getting dressed basket, and in honor of Utah's upcoming holiday, this pioneer basket.

There's a Little House picture book, a book called Pioneer Tales (I wanted I Walked to Zion but it's out of print!!), a pioneer bonnet, a teeny log cabin we got at DI, a dollhouse cast iron stove, and two of the dolls from my childhood dollhouse.

I'm excited to rotate activities and themes through these baskets! The girls still don't understand the point, but I hope soon they enjoy playing quietly for a few minutes each afternoon.