Pinterest is an amazing tool for connecting parents with helpful ideas, neat products and fun projects for kids. But we often find the large volume of images and information to be overwhelming and difficult to sort through. In an attempt to sift through all the kid-related pins out there, we are starting this new weekly column highlighting some of our favorite pins. Most of these will be ideas that we have tried out for ourselves and will include a short explanation as to why we think each one is worth your time. So, to kick things off, here are the pins we are loving this week:

Our four year old is really working hard these days on recognizing lowercase letters and letter sounds. Pinterest is a rich source of early literacy tips and ideas.

This free printable beginning sounds game from playdoughtoplato.com was a fun way to practice phonics sounds and seemed to increase my daughter’s confidence with recognizing letter sounds.

We also had hours of fun with this alphabet mail play idea from notimeforflashcards.com. My daughter loved making “letters” to stuff into each envelope and playing mail carrier. I don’t think she even noticed that she was getting letter recognition practice at the same time!

Art projects and crafts are always a big hit in our house and we had two favorites this week which I found on pinterest. I love this blog started by an elementary school art teacher with tons of kid’s art ideas. Her post on making collages with circles was great inspiration for my daughter:

Another good art project for teaching preschoolers about shapes is this robot craft from teachpreschool.org. We modified the craft a little due to the materials we had on hand, so that we ended up making robots from shapes that I cut out of colored card stock, instead of foam. They still turned out cute and my 4-year old LOVED this project!  I couldn’t find a copy of the suggested robot book from the original post, but we ended up reading two other robot books from the library and they were both delightful. Our favorite was Clink by Kelly DiPucchio, a short, simple tale about a robot who is trying to find a place to belong. Doug Unplugged by Dan Yaccarino was also a fun read as it follows a young robot on his adventure in the big city. Although he knows lots of facts about the city, his day of exploring teaches him many valuable lessons that can’t be summarized in facts, including just how much he loves his family. These can both be found on our Good Reads for Kids pinterest board.

Of course, no pinterest roundup is complete without a bit of food! Who can resist all those pictures of delicious delicacies that are always popping up?! For our weekly movie night, we whipped up a batch of these Oatmeal Chocolate Peanut Butter No-Bake bars.  Not only were they irresistibly yummy, but they are also a bit healthier than traditional no-bake cookies and were a great recipe for getting little helpers involved. My daughter loved stirring in the oats, dried fruit and chocolate and helping me smooth it into the pan.

Our What’s for Dinner? board has been a source of inspiration for me this past week when answering that all-important question. These Shrimp and White Bean cakes were both healthy and tasty and a surprising hit with both my preschooler and 10-month old baby. They were low-fat, packed with protein and easy to prepare on a week-night schedule.

That’s our first weekly pinterest round-up and we hope you’ll check in next week to see what we’ve been enjoying, as well as letting us know what pins you’re loving this week!