The Mama Workshop

Letter D Activity Worksheet & Video

D is for Dinosaur. It definitely is! Especially in my house. My kids love running around pretending they are dinosaurs. They have some foam dinosaur masks that they put on while they see who can roar the loudest. It’s really fun to watch! So, naturally, when it came to learning the letter D, I made a toddler activity that included tracing a dinosaur, coloring it and identifying the letter D.

But, why stop there. Keep the dinosaur fun up too! Here is what we did for our dinosaur activity:

Make a dinosaur out of paper towel rolls

I found this pin on Pinterest to make a dinosaur out of paper towel rolls. It has pictures to try and replicate the dinosaur. But, I figured I make a DIY video for you all to follow along and make these. It takes less than 5 minutes to do (2 minutes and 54 seconds to be exact). Watch the DIY video below (don’t mind how dorky I am; I feel really weird making videos – my brain goes blank and then I sound, well, weird. I will get better the more DIY videos I make for you mamas):Continue Reading…

Slow Cooker Chile Con Queso

Slow Cooker Chile Con Queso is a must during Game Day! It’s delicious. It’s simple. It will soon become a game day favorite.

My husband loves to watch football on the weekends. It’s his way of relaxing after 12-14 hour days during the week. So, we make the weekend fun-football weekend during football season. So for snacks during the football games, I like to keep it simple.

To make Game Day fun for the entire family, do a fun victory dance every time there is a touch down, wear your favorite team’s jersey, and cheer for your team as though you are there at the game! It makes it so much fun and I am not really a football fan.

So, back to the Slow Cooker Chile Con Queso. Here is what you need:

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Pita Pizzas (A Quick Lunch Idea)

Pita Pizzas are a favorite in our house. They only take 7 minutes to make. Plus, a quick lunch idea that the kids love is a mom’s best friend because, well, you know why.

Pita Pizzas are awesome because you can top them with whatever you like (mushrooms and olives, pepperoni and sausage, pineapple and Canadian bacon, or go a little nuts and try fig and pine nuts).

We chose to top our pizzas with cheese, pepperoni, olives and fresh parsley. It’s so good. I think we will make these once a week.

We had a lot of fun as a family putting the pita pizzas together. The kids sprinkled the cheese and picked their toppings. I have little chefs in the making. One day they will be able to make it all on their own {enter a squeal of joy}!Continue Reading…

Toddler Activity: Learning Shapes and Colors

We are learning shapes and colors in our house this week. So, I made a toddler activity for my son to find shapes, learn colors, trace shapes and cut the shapes out.

I doodled it. You can see it on my Instagram feed. But, I made a digital version to share with all of you. I like to do activities more than one time; so, my son gets extra practice and can refine his skills. So, this will come in handy to print out a few for him to do at least twice a week.

With the doodle version, I had more shapes on it. We have been practicing these shapes out of books we have. So, he was familiar with all of them. I wanted him to be able to trace the shapes to practice holding a pencil more. And I wanted him to be able to cut the shapes out to practice using scissors.

He did rather well for only his second time using scissors (he’s 3 by the way – I forgot to mention that). He did the bottom 5 shapes in the picture below. They are a rectangle, circle, square, triangle and hexagon. With more practice they will be more recognizable. Continue Reading…

Keeping the Magic of Santa Alive

“There’s no such thing as Santa.” Those words burned in my ears and trickled down into my heart. I cried. I refused to believe what my neighborhood friend just told me. My 8-year-old heart couldn’t take the pain.

I yelled at her with tears rolling down my face, “there is a Santa!” Then, I ran home to tell my mom. I wanted so badly for my mom to tell me that what I just heard wasn’t true (that he did exist). Maybe she was taken off guard. Maybe she wasn’t prepared. Maybe she thought I was ready. But, she confirmed what my friend had told me that day.

I looked at her in disbelief. My life was changed forever. The magic of Santa was gone.

I ran to my room and decided, no matter what people told me, I was still going to believe.

Fast forward 22 years later, I’m now a mom of two little kids (a 3 year old and a 1 year old). So, of course they believe; and, I’m going to keep it that way as long as I can.

Why? I want them to be little as long as they can. I don’t want them to have to grow up too quickly. Taking away their imagination at such a young age takes away creativity. We need creativity. Great entrepreneurs need creativity to come up with innovative ways to start a new company. Artists need creativity to make masterpieces. Authors need creativity to write. And so on.

Yesterday, I heard a different view. He shared that we should tell the truth right away. That if we lie now about Santa, what else will our children think we’re lying about later. So, this made me think.

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