Gruffalo Birthday Scavenger Hunt

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Gruffalo Scavenger Hunt - Mud Hut Mama

We were so lucky to be able to rent a house with beautiful gardens on a tea estate right next to Mount Mulanje for our Gruffalo party. It was a great place to spend time with both sets of the girls’ grandparents and the gardens were a beautiful setting for one of the party games – a birthday scavenger hunt with a Gruffalo theme. I printed the Gruffalo sequence cards from Primary Treasure Chest and pasted them on card stock with the clues on the back. The clues all had quotes from the story and my Dad, who organizes a scavenger hunt for all the grandkids every Christmas, found places to hide each clue. See below for our clues and hiding places:   Will you [...] Read more »

Preschool Homeschool Lesson Plans: Week 36, Age 3

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Preschool Homeschool - Week 36 - Mud Hut Mama

I can’t believe that our first year of preschool homeschool is over – it absolutely flew by. Our last week was actually spread over a couple of weeks as we were even less scheduled than usual (or not scheduled at all) while my parents were visiting. More important than any school work was reconnecting with MomMom and PopPop and the girls had a wonderful time doing that. This post contains affiliate links. Literacy and Language Arts: It’s probably not surprising that the girls were showered with gifts both from their Gruffalo birthday party and from their grandparents. My parents were visiting from the States and my husband’s parents came in from Botswana for the party so there are lots of new things to play with [...] Read more »

The Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop #4

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Welcome to the fourth Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop! There were some really wonderful posts linked up last month – here are a couple of my favorites:  My Catch a Star Classroom used a trip to China Town as a springboard for introducing her preschoolers to Asia. Click over for lots of fun ideas – this is the dragon mask they made for their parade Navigating By Joy studied early Australian history and made some beautiful Aboriginal dot paintings. Go visit for some book recommendations and to find out what the dots and symbols in the paintings mean. Please link up your posts related to sharing cultures with kids and check back to find other great resources. Posts on language, books, travel, food, crafts, playdates, activities, heritage, holidays [...] Read more »

Five Backyard Water Conservation Tips

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Conservation Corner - Mud Hut Mama

We feel incredibly lucky to have a lifestyle that is centered around conservation, but you don’t have to live in a wildlife reserve to make a difference. Conservation Corner is a new series where I will be highlighting the many ways people around the world are making an effort to tread a little lighter on our planet. Today Rebekah from The Golden Gleam is sharing five backyard water conservation tips. I love the focus of Rebekah’s blog (and parenting style) on providing her children with time for unstructured play. Her respect for childhood shines through in every post and here she shares some of the ways she has ensured that her children have a beautiful outdoor play space while living in an area prone to droughts. I plan to highlight [...] Read more »

Welcome to the first annual Backyard Barbecue Bloghop!

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A place to link up all your summertime recipes, activities, games and crafts! Hotdogs and hamburgers on the grill with fresh tomatoes and corn on the cob were summer staples when I was growing up and they bring back memories of playing running bases in the backyard and then catching fireflies after dark. While my family and friends in the States are gearing up for these summer traditions right now, in Malawi we are moving into winter – but luckily our winters are nothing like the Pennsylvania winters I grew up with and they most certainly won’t keep us indoors! In fact cold evenings are perfect for sitting around a fire after a southern African braai and gazing at the stars in our enormous sky. [...] Read more »

Gruffalo Party Food Ideas

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Gruffalo Party Food - Mud Hut Mama

This blog has been quiet as we’ve enjoyed my parents’ visit and celebrated the girls’ birthdays. I thought I’d post some photos of the food we had at our Gruffalo themed party. It was such a fun theme to develop a party around and I especially enjoyed coming up with the menu. Here are our Gruffalo party food ideas: For lunch we had roasted fox (a ham with some braaied/barbecued sausages and chicken pieces) and scrambled snake (a pasta and cheese bake or fancy mac and cheese). We used spiral pasta for the snakes and added some olives for snake eyes and chopped tomato for blood and guts – yum! I made some signs to describe the food with Gruffalo character printouts from Primary Treasure [...] Read more »

Preschool Homeschool Lesson Plans: Week 35, Age 3

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Preschool Homeschool - Week 35 - Mud Hut Mama

It’s been a little quiet in this space but that is because we have been very busy enjoying a visit from my parents. Mom Mom and Pop Pop arrived a little over a week ago and we have been having a great time catching up with them. It is so nice to see how easily the Littles reconnected with their grandparents even though it has been well over a year since they saw them last. Homeschool has been on a bit of a go slow but we’ve still managed to get in a few fun activities in. Literacy and Language Arts: We made word family wheels for Boo (and for Kooks too just because). I got the idea from Mrs. T’s First Grade Class. It’s [...] Read more »

Preschool Homeschool Lesson Plans: Week 34, Age 3

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Preschool Homeschool - Week 34 - Mud Hut Mama

Happy Earth Day! We celebrated Earth Day a little early but you can see our Earth Day lesson plans here and find seven Earth Day ideas for kids here. I hope you are having a wonderful day and that the weather wherever you are is nice enough to spend some time outside. I am having a hard time believing that we only have two weeks left before we finish our first year of preschool homeschool. This post contains affiliate links. Literacy and Language Arts: We worked on blending again this week with another game from Reading Rockets. I put some pictures from our alphabet card set on the table and said a word slowly, as if I were sounding it out. Boo then had to find the picture that [...] Read more »

The Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop #3

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Welcome to the Creative Kids Culture Blog Hop! I thoroughly enjoyed reading through all the posts linked up last time and wanted to share a few of my favorites. I love how Lisa at The Squishable Baby taught her kids about Passover by making Seder placemats and having a Seder meal. Click over to find out what each food represents. The Educators’ Spin On It traveled to Ireland with Around the World in 12 Dishes. Hop over for a look at their fun learning activities (including these sweet cookies) and for lots of links to other Irish recipes and crafts. And last but not least, Angelic Scalliwags studied India. Look how beautifully their homemade saris turned out and go visit to see all the other activities including [...] Read more »

Seven Earth Day Ideas for Kids

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Conservation Corner - Mud Hut Mama

We feel incredibly lucky to have a lifestyle that is centered around conservation, but you don’t have to live in a wildlife reserve to make a difference. Conservation Corner is a new series where I will be highlighting the many ways people around the world are making an effort to tread a little lighter on our planet. Today Frances from Discovering The World Through My Son’s Eyes is kicking off the series with Seven Earth Day Ideas for Kids and I’m so excited to have her here. I love reading Frances’s blog and hearing about all the fun she and her son have cooking, crafting, playing and learning Spanish together. I plan to highlight one story a month and I hope to make this a space where [...] Read more »