A Clean Oven Chemical Free!

I think I'm going to blame this on the nesting instinct, but I keep getting these strange cleaning urges. The other day I felt compelled to clean my oven. I have never cleaned out an oven in my life. Mine wasn't super nasty, it just needed a little cleaning.

I didn't want to go out to the store and buy an oven cleaner because I'm cheap and I know there are a lot of scary chemicals in that stuff. After a little research (I love the internet) I found a super easy solution.

Sprinkle baking soda on the surface:

Spray with until damp and let sit. I waited for about an hour while I cleaned something else.

Spray with vinegar:

And wipe it up! Yes, wipe, not scrub! I was a skeptical, but it really worked. Now I have a nice, sparkly clean oven and can move on to other cleaning projects.

For other natural cleaning recipes you can visit:

VinegarTips.com

Natural Healthy Home Cleaning

The New Homemaker

Teaching the Toddler: Clouds and Rain

This morning I tried an experiment having a little "school time" with Little E. It went great! We had fun and he stayed engaged for a whole hour. We both loved the one on one time.

Little E has been fascinated with the recent storms, so we are doing a weather theme.

Today we did activities relating to Clouds and Rain:

• Colored a Sesame Street picture with a cloud and umbrella.

• Practiced identifying the letter "C" and it's sound.

I bought a dry erase board and some Crayola dry erase crayons. I highly recommend these! They are great! Ethan loves dry erase, but we were always loosing lids and having trouble keeping the writing on the board. These are just like crayons, except that they wipe right off the board.

• Glued cotton balls to cut outs of clouds and the letter C. Then we guled these to a paper and added raindrops and thunder with glitter pens. The glitter pens were the highlight of the morning.

• We learned a new song, sung to the tune of "I'm a Little Teapot." Little E liked to wave his cloud in the air while we sang.

"I'm a little cloud, up in the sky

You can find me way up high

Sometimes I'm puffy and stretched out

I just love float about."

• Read books:

These are all cute books I would recommend checking out from the library.

Little E's favorite was "Little Cloud." He loved identifying the shapes that Little Cloud turned into and was glad when he was re-united with the "Daddy Cloud."

Mommy's favorite was "Stormy Weather." The pictures are adorable and the text is so comforting.

All of this took about an hour and we had fun the whole time. I think an hour is plenty for us.

If you want more ideas, here are some fun websites:

Official Eric Carle Website

Guide for Mushrooms in the Rain

Rabbits in the Rain Craft

Weather Lesson Plan