LIFE REALLY IS SIMPLE !!!!!!!

     As you all know one of the highlights of any adult is CHILDREN.  For some it's such a joy to add grandchildren to their lives.  I for one feel complete.  Today I had the privilege to have my grandson Andrew over.  Of course he does a wonderful job at watching his grandma lol.  But we had a wonderful time.

     I decided today to have some fun by not only helping my 3 year old grandson to cut paper but also to allow him to share some exciting stories.  Oh boy is he full of those.  They sure can make a person SMILE.

     Well what we did was take some leftover Christmas wrapping paper and I helped him cut some odd shaped paper out.  Then I gave him a pen and said hey Andrew would you like to give a special note from you to people for Christmas?  Boy did I say the right thing for once to him.  Why sure I would he said.  Then I listened closely as he would scribble away and share a message just for that person he wanted to give a note for.

     I listened then I took mental notes in my head of what he was saying.  After he was done, I then took a pen and wrote what he said by his wonderful writing.  Do you know that he wrote over 20 little notes, and do you know that even a 3 year old, almost 4 year old can think up more special words to say then most adults and they weren't even the same words,  well except that he wants CAKE for his up coming birthday.

    I sure was amazed and proud of Andrew. 

    So my simple idea for today is to THINK SIMPLE, AS A CHILD WOULD.  I am sure when everyone opens their special message from Andrew that not only will he be proud and beaming but every person on his list will be grinning from ear to ear just knowing that a SIMPLE 3 year old child, can make a whole bunch of people FEEL WONDERFUL!!!!!!!!!

    I want to thank everyone who reads GRANDMA'S ATTIC........  I am looking forward to so many more fun and exciting ideas headed your way in 2013.    In the mean time I sure hope that at this time of season you at least made ONE good old fashioned GINGERBREAD HOUSE with someone special.  I mean if there is ONE GRANDMA'S ATTIC COOKIE YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS IT'S THOSE YUMMY GINGERBREAD HOUSE COOKIES........ XOXOXOX

http://mormon.org/me/68S7

http://mormon.org/me/68S7

Thankful for those LITTLE HANDS!!!!!!!

     Do you know what the one thing I have learned the quickest about being a Grandmother is?   Just how those little ones LOVE to keep their little hands busy. Oh my, if you turn away for even a brief moment those hands are into something else.

     With the Thanksgiving season upon us and Christmas just around the corner, it's a wonderful time to combine your hands with those little ones and do some fun, creative things together.  Really for me it's a time for my grandchildren and I to let ourselves relax and as my kids say hang loose.

     One of our favorite Thanksgiving traditions is to help the little ones make a fun place tag/favor so that the guests know who sits where.  Now I didn't say for the adults to do it all and just let the little hands have a small part.  Does it really matter how fancy or perfect they look?  NO!!!!!!!  It's  far more important to help the little ones know that you trust them and believe in them that they can do something.  It builds their self esteem.

     So here are a few suggestions for those name tags/favors.

     One that I really like is taking a little paper nut cup and filling it with little dinner mints or nuts.  Then taking your child's hand and drawing the outline of it on paper and cutting out as many as you need.  This makes a darling turkey, just add two dots for the eyes on the thumb and a little red gobble and then glue it on the front of the little cup and write the names.  Easy and look who will get all the credit..... Why the little hands of course.

     Another one is taking a chocolate pin striped cookie, turning it on the chocolate side. Then taking a large marshmallow and slicing it into thirds,so it looks like the white trim on a pilgrims hat. Take some frosting and secure the white trim to the cookie.Then take some frosting and stick a Rolo for the top of the hat, and put it on the white trim.  Then cut a small, square piece of black licorice and stick it on the white for the buckle of the hat and attach a paper with your guests name on it.

    One idea I love a lot of course is, making Carmel apples.  If you have the funds then buying them is super, there are some darling, yummy made ones.  But if that's not a option because of a large group then, making them is really easy and you can buy the decorations and guess what?  The little ones love to do the decorating.  Now here we go with NOT worrying about having them look PERFECT!!!!!  It doesn't matter.  Then after they dry put them in a plastic bag and tie them up and write the name of your guest on a attached little paper or even a little sticker.

     Something I also like to do is take the time to share all the GRANDMA'S ATTIC information you have on what THANKSGIVING is all about.  A wonderful time to do this when your hands are busy at work.  Even take the time to share about their PILGRIM ANCESTOR'S.  I mean aren't we all immigrants! 

     Oh and don't forget that at this time of year,  that The GRANDMA cookies get even better.  Yummy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip, Oatmeal, and Applesauce, Raisin Cookies.  Add a nice glass of Apple Juice or Warm Chocolate Milk or even some EGGNOG!!!!!!!  Enjoy and most important be safe xoxoxox

A SHELF THAT KEEPS ON SHARING!!!!!

     I am so excited to share this fun idea with all of you.  In fact this idea comes from my wonderful, beautiful mother-in-law, that I call mom.  Since I started dating my husband, his mother always had what she called a HOLIDAY SHELF.  Now she kept hers in the main bathroom of her house.  I am not sure why there lol, but at least EVERYONE saw it time and time again.  It made going to the bathroom fun just to see what she had on her shelf.  It wasn't a huge shelf but she would decorate it for EVERY HOLIDAY!!!!  When it wasn't a holiday she would decorate it with seasonal items.

     I loved looking at this shelf time and time again.  It had little nick- nacks on it and sometimes lights and garland of some sort.  Since that time I decided to do that in my own home and I have for 26 of our married years.  I love decorating it and love having the children help me decorate it. I love the looks on their faces as they walk in the door.  I put mine up by the door in the hall so they would never miss it as they walked in.

     My daughter who just got married decided that she wanted one in her home and so she now has one.  I told her that you don't have to decorate it all at once by going out and buying tons of things.  The object is to ADD to it every year with something new and simple.  Maybe its a holiday gift that someone has given you or you buy a little something each year and then you keep the items all together as your shelf decorations each year.  Since we have relocated I have now combined my holiday shelf with my holiday plate shelf and I am totally loving it.

     I have enclosed a picture of my new shelf and I hope you enjoy it.  I hope you will put one up in your own home to share with others.  I promise that your neighbors and friends and family will make it a fun  tradition in their own lives.
     In fact why don't you head on up to GRANDMAS ATTIC  to find what things you can add to your New Holiday Shelf!!!!!!! xoxoxoxoxoxox

It's Time to Get Out the Fall Time Fun From Grandmas Attic!!

     Here are some fun ideas to do with your family for Fall time! The Game of GHOSTBUSTERS. I took some plastic WHITE kitchen garbage cans and cut out two black eyes and a round black mouth with black paper and taped them on one side.  They looked like a ghost lol.  Then I formed two barriers out of a table tipped sides way and a long couch and then I divided the group into two teams and handed them each a Nerf dart gun and 12 darts.  When I said go, the object of the game was to see which team could get as many darts in the opposite garbage can in the time allowed. It was so simple to do and so so much fun.  Children and adults loved this and they could all participate in this.  Trust me they ended up shooting each other and laughing and having fun.

     Then we did a different musical square BOOGIE walk.  I numbered each square on the underside and turned the music on and when it stopped I called out a number.  That person got to choose a prize first.  I loved this because everyone was a WINNER!!!!!!!

     It was such a great family party and tons of fun.......... My daughter Emily brought, I am sure one of her Grandmothers favorite sugar cookie recipe's to share with ALL of us and let me tell you they were YUMMY!!!! I think I ate a total of 4 of them myself!!!!!!!

     With the Holidays coming and so much gathering, we have to remember that things don't have to cost a lot, in fact hardly nothing at all.  It's not the amount of money that is spent, but on the FUN you can create.........  It just takes some imagination and who knows what you can find up in  GRANDMOTHERS ATTIC!!!!!!!!!!

    

TO KNEAD AND BE NEEDED!!!!!!!

     Now this will be a day that those little ones talk about over and over again.... and it all started with a recipe called:

MONKEY BREAD

 

 

2 cups warm water

1/2cup sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 T. Yeast

2 eggs, well-beaten

4 T. vegetable oil

6 cups flour

1 square butter

 

     Mix the water, sugar, and salt.  Add yeast and let rest 5 minutes.  Stir in 3 cups flour.  Add 4T. vegetable oil. Add 3 cups more of flour until smooth. Knead. Cover and let rise until double.  Stir down, let rise until double again.  Melt butter in a Bundt pan.  Roll dough to 1/2 inch thick.  Cut with a biscuit cutter.  Dip each piece in butter and line up in the pan around all edges.  Let rise 30 min. Bake 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.  Invert on a plate and let everyone pull a piece off.

 

     I pulled a chair up to the counter and of course washed all of our hands and then let the children help make this amazing monkey bread.  They laughed and laughed at just the thought of it being call MONKEY BREAD!

     After our hands were caked with dough and really messy of course, we soon realized that we needed MORE flour to make the dough just right.  I turned to Andrew and said ought oh!  Problem, look at our hands and who is going to dip the measuring cup into the flour for more lol.  Well Andrew said no problem, I will, as he took his doughy hands and sure enough just dipped them right in the flour and had a gooey hand full.  I just laughed and we both just laughed.  Then time to knead the dough, I gave him some of his own and then I had my own and we pushed and pulled and grunted ha ha.  Then we rolled and cut and dipped the circles in butter and just had an amazing time.  Well once the dough was raised we put it in the oven and we had a total monkey bread mess ha ha.  But we took it out and turned it over and He was so so proud to announce his MONKEY BREAD to everyone! It was so yummy!

 

     Along with this fun Bread, don't forget to sing the 5 little monkeys siting in a tree song and be sure and read.  5 little monkeys jumping on the Bed. 

 

     You know, it's really easy to wipe a little flour off of your shirt and apron.  It's even easier to just sweep up the extra flour and wipe off the chairs with the spilt leftovers.  But ...... 

 

     I CAN PROMISE YOU THAT IT WILL BE A LONG, LONG TIME BEFORE THE MEMORY YOU CREATED THAT DAY WITH THOSE LITTLE ONES, WILL EVER BE ERASED FROM THEIR MINDS.......

     and that's what happens when you go to good old GRANDMA'S ATTIC, to find lasting treasures to SHARE with those adorable little ones.

 

Here's to another wonderful day with GRANDMAS COOKIES AND MONKEY BREAD ADDED IN!

 

 

     

 



To Touch is to Feel!!!!!!

     One of my all time favorite days to spend with children is the day you talk about the sense of Touch.
     I love to create surprises, and one fun and exciting way to do this is finding a shoe box and then taping the lid to it.  Then cut one end of the box off for your hand and the other end cut a round hole the size of a child's hand in it.  Then take a piece of cloth and cut it to the size of the round hole and cover the opening of it.  Then tell the children it is a magic touch box and they cant look but they can stick their hand in the round end and FEEL what is inside and GUESS??????????????
     This is so so much fun to do especially at this time of year being HALLOWEEN ha ha.  Fun things you can put inside of the box.  I love the looks on the children's faces ha ha.  Sure to make you laugh as they let out gasps and shrills of fun.
     Another fun idea is to take brown paper lunch sacks and put a object in each one and fold the end over and staple it shut and pass them around for the children to hold and feel.  Then let them guess and then have them each open the bag and see if they were right.

     For a fun idea to send home with them is to make each child a GRAB BAG!  I know for some you don't even know what a GRAB BAG is but for some of us, it was the high light of our lives growing up.  I remember getting them at the carnivals and paying 25 cents lol.  Always such a fun surprise inside.  My children could hardly wait to head to the State fair to go to the booth to pick out just the right one for them for $1.00 each lol.  So much fun.  But it will be a treat they will never forget.

     If you have time, it is great fun to let them make and touch and feel book to take home.  Use sand paper and extra fabric.  Anything for them to glue on a page and draw a animal around it.  So so much fun and they can share it with their own family after.  Don't forget to READ to them and nothing is better then touch and feel books.  There are so many fun books to read to them.

     For a treat I love to make what I call a GRANDMAS CREATURE COOKIE that not only they will love to feel but the taste will be even more amazing!!!!!!!!  Besides there is nothing that compares to a HOMEMADE GRANDMAS COOKIE...................................

    

Rock and Roll with SOUNDS!!!!!!!

     OK so if you have ears that hurt with the sound of banging pots and pans or crashing lid cymbal's then just maybe you shouldn't keep reading! 
     But let me assure the rest of YOU this will be one day that the children will never forget about.  SOUND.....................


     First take a stroll outside and have them listen to the sounds around them.Sounds like, vehicles or sounds from the sky.  What about the sounds of  music.  Talk about them.  Then let them make SOUNDS.  All kinds of sounds with different items.

     I enjoy using spoons and tapping pots and pans.  Or filling things with water for different sounds.  Even planning ahead and cutting pipe at different lenghts makes some awesome chimes.  Then add some scraping down a cheese grater.  For added fun turn on a great song with a beat and let them see if they can figure out the beat.  They can do it even at a young age.

     Then when its time to head in it will be snack time and hopefully you have made some delicious homemade Grandma Cookies or for fun you could make some rice krispie treats in the shape of a guitar or note and let them add some licorice ropes for the strings and M&M's for the tuner screws. 

     Then when its that tough time to have to head home, which I know they wont want to lol.  You can help them make a rain stick.  Get wrapping paper tubes and push large and small nails through the sides, not to many.  Then cover the outside of the tube with shelf paper that is sticky.  You will have to do the nails for the little ones first, but all ages can add the beans at the last and put the lid on.  Then tape it shut really really good on both ends and let them listen to the sound of rain.  They can even decorate the outside of the shelf paper.

     What a great day for exploring the sense of hearing.  What a great day for another fun and exciting adventure, and the best part is..........
You can find it all in Grandma's Attic, where the fun never stops and  our imaginations run wild.  Be sure and take some Grandma Cookies along, for when you get the munchies!!!!!!

    

The fun of bringing the outdoors indoors!!!!

     So it's time for another fun filled adventure with those little ones.  This time lets bring the outdoors...... INDOORS!!!!!  Let's go camping.  There is nothing more exciting then gathering ALL the blankets you can around the house and then putting all the chairs you can around the house and of course using the kitchen table if needed to create one of the LARGEST HOMEMADE TENTS IN THE THE WORLD....(well according to those little ones).  Tons of fun.... Then once that is all put together you can bring in the pillows and flashlights and of course one of my favorite stories.... GOIN ON A BEAR HUNT!!!!!!

     Then it's time to take our little backpacks and well HUNT for TREASURES.  You know the kind you can only find OUTSIDE!!!!  Then you have to have SHOW AND TELL and what child doesn't like to be able to show off what they have in their back packs.

     For treats, make some indoor SMORES and POPCORN !!!!!  YUMMY!!!  Be sure and not only send home their backpack's loaded with their treasures, that I am sure every mom and dad want to see.  But do some leaf coloring pictures with the leaves underneath, then color on the top of the paper over them.  Cool prints.

     I can promise you this, once you start the MAGIC of INDOOR TENT MAKING, your children will be BEGGING and BEGGING to do it all over again......
               REMEMBER........  A GRANDMA'S COOKIE JAR IS
                                         ALWAYS FULL!!!!!!!!

           

Let's go fishing!!!!!

     Day 2, A Day Of Fishing.  Lets start out with that wonderful, fun book by the famous Dr. Seuss, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. Then it's on to a snack of Swedish fish and fish crackers, along with some blue ocean Hawaiian punch for water and its outside for a fun time. Kids love to fish and even if you don't have a fishing license you can fish it our way.  Great for letting kids figure out how to catch those fish using a magnet on the end.  Great for small motor skills and very tricky. You can give out small prizes for the fish they catch. Then its time to make a under the water fish picture.  Simple way of using water on paper first and then touching the water with different water colors and they run into a master piece.  Then add some leaves from outside and some sand with glue after the paint dries and add some color fish and you have the perfect masterpiece.
      It's a proven fact that children who are read to everyday, yes parents everyday are able to retain more information and memorize.  I spent 1 week reading everyday to my grandson, and he now has 5 books memorized with emotion in his reading.  Not to brag by any means.  But we started the Nursery Rhymes, which I am not sure why everyone stopped having the children memorize them.  But he knows them, we put them all to singing.  Super way for ALL children to learn.
     There is nothing better then giving praise for a job well done, I mean after all don't we all like to get a pat on the back when we come home with a load of fresh fish after along day!!!!!!!

                
 Oh and don't forget to pack along some of those Grandma Cookies!!!!!

Let's PLAY DOH Day!

     One of my FAV all time things to play with is Play Doh!  Now I have heard over and over again how MOM'S HATE PLAY DOH.....  Really?  well you are missing out on some wonderful small motor skills, and creativity magic.
     The reason I hear Mom's don't like is because of the MESS!!!!  Well I am here to let you all know a few secrets for controlling the mess.
First:  Get a plastic table and either take it outside in the warm sunshine for hours of fun or put it on the kitchen floor.  It washes up in a cinch and it makes it easy for the kids to get their cutouts off of it easy.
Second:  Put plastic underneath the table or just let the Play Doh dry on the floor and then just simply sweep it up or if in plastic just gather it up in the plastic and throw it away in the trash, you can do the same thing if you put plastic on top of the table also.

See NO MESS!!!!!!!!

     For fun, create a Shapes and numbers day!  Talk about the numbers and shapes.  Also you can add a WHOLE THEME DAY, which I LOVE TO DO, Make Shape sugar cookies, with cookie cutters, you can make the shapes out of empty cans if you want.  Then while they are baking, let the children play with the same shapes with Play Doh.  Tons of fun.  Then for a added measure for lunchtime, have shape sandwiches.  Be sure and make a paper with dotted shapes and numbers that they can trace.  Then for activity time do the human number count or have a shape cookie walk and the treat is eating the shape cookies.  

     So now it's time to act like a child, and pull up a chair and join in the fun!

WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF GRANDMA'S ATTIC!

     Don't we all wish we would have had some practical and fun ideas to do with our children and grandchildren.  Well now you have it.  I will be giving some fun suggestions for not only creating fun family time or much needed one on one time with that special little one.  But also some simple ways to help them to create the land of make believe and adventure.  The best part about it is that they will be getting the education they need to begin that magic time in their lives..... SCHOOL!


     After spending time with my GRANDMA TERI'S PRESCHOOL, for several years.  I decided to get involved in the school system, being a para professional aide,  Substituting in Head Start, Elementary, Middle  and High Schools,  I was also involved in the After School Program.  I have enjoyed every moment of my time.  But I soon realized that many of these wonderful institutes and programs lacked some huge factors.  WHERE DID THE MAKE BELIEVE COME INTO PLAY?  WHAT HAPPENED TO SPENDING ONE ON ONE TIME WITH A CHILD?

     I remember very well such a profound statement that my Father told me about his mother and his childhood.  I would love to share it with all of you.

     " Teri, my childhood home was tidy, and picked up.  But my wonderful, loving mother believed that us children would NEVER remember how well the house was kept but WE WOULD REMEMBER all the times that she PLAYED WITH US!!!!!"  My Father went on to tell me the COUNTLESS HOURS that his mother spent outside high jumping with them, playing basketball and softball with them.  He can remember all the songs and stories and poems and nursery rhymes that all her children knew and had memorized.  The many summers they spent CAMPING. 

     So with this NEW BLOG..... I hope to in steal the sense for each and everyone of us to put away all OUR DISTRACTIONS in life and just simply SPEND TIME with those we love especially THE LITTLE ONES, WE ALL ADORE!!!!!!

     So LET'S GET STARTED, IT'S TIME TO BECOME A LITTLE CHILD AGAIN AND TO SIMPLY THINK LIKE THEM!
                                    OH, and be sure and keep some
                                    of those grandma cookies handy!