Weekend links

This weekend I am all excited. I have a good friend's birthday party, and hopefully will get to have lunch with a couple of friends the hubby and I love. I can certainly count on lots of laughter scheduled for Saturday! Do you have any fun plans? Here is what I intend to finish by Sunday:

Here are some links I find worth it during your down time this weekend. Enjoy!

Everything Etsy had these great ideas and pictures of crafting and scrap booking inspiration. Made me want to stay home and make something pretty!

The Cottage Market shared 25 meat-free dog treats from around the web. I MUST make my babies some of these! Anything to avoid giving them bleached leather munchies from the pet store!

Simple Homeschool shared a post about how kids don't need worksheets and fancy posters to learn. Although I don't agree 100% on what was said about letting kids run around and quote: "And, somehow, after a couple of years, he’ll just know all of the letters, numbers, shapes and colors", I did find the realistic approach interesting, from a teacher's point of view.

Lastly, Socialmouths posted on finding your sweet spot in blogging. Can I get an Amen?

Play dough recipe

I work in an early education school, and if I had to pick one item that is sure to be a crowd pleaser ages 2 through 5, I would have to say PLAY DOUGH! It never ceases to amaze me how the younger ones are fascinated by its tactile quality, while the older ones can get into some quite elaborate narrative over it.

To make it even more fun, you can make play dough at home. Online, one can search and find tons of recipes which involve elaborate items or some cooking time, but I prefer the simpler version. Here is what most schools I know use as a play dough recipe:

Source

Ingredients:

1 cup of flour

1 cup of boiling water

2 tablespoons of cream of tartar

1/2 cup of salt

1 tablespoon of oil

Just mix all ingredients. To make it more fun, add some food colouring! Make sure you are careful if a child is helping you, as the boiling water makes the mixture very hot!