Month: March 2017

Footprint Butterflies

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Painting doesn’t get messier – or more fun! – than this.

We needed a harbinger of spring with a sleety snowstorm outside, and I thought butterflies would be perfect. First, Travis and I selected blue and green paints, and swirled them together on a paper plate. I was hoping this would give the butterfly a patterned look like in nature, though mostly it just meant we had a lovely turquoise.

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I thought Travis might be squeamish about stepping right in the paint and planned to apply it to his feet with a paintbrush – but he surprised me!

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He let me hold the plate to his foot and mush it around (“It’s cold!”) and then was patient as I pressed his foot down on poster board, angling his toes slightly out, for one butterfly wing. Repeat on the other side.

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We made two butterflies on our poster board, but after that, things would have gotten too muddled. He was having so much fun though that I laid out additional sheets of paper for him to slip and slide and stomp on – make sure to hold your little one’s hand.

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Finally, our butterfly wings were dry; I added in bodies and antennae and Travis drew a few scribbles of his own.

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Send to a loved one as a happy spring card!

Button Tree

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We haven’t let the icy weather deter us from outdoors adventures, including collecting treasures like sticks and winter leaves. But that doesn’t mean we’re not excited to see blossoms on the trees! This adorable button tree is a nice harbinger of spring.

The first step of course is to collect your sticks – head some place beautiful in the summer sunshine for this part!

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Once home, Travis loved sorting through our collection. I quickly realized that he would be way more in to playing with the sticks than shaping them into a tree on poster board…

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…so after he had fun for a while, I took care of gluing our sticks in place.

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Once the glue dried, it was time to add the buttons! Travis was very proud to add big drops of glue and press a button “leaf” into place over each one.

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We had fun choosing which color buttons to place where.

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The final creation was so whimsical!

Bubble Wrap & Paint

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This project is messy but so worth it – paint, cool textures, exciting results… What more could a toddler want from an art project?

To start, I set Travis up with a disposable cookie sheet and paints, and told him he could squeeze on whatever colors he wanted. This alone was cause for excitement, since usually I measure out a portion of paint for him to use. He was very deliberate choosing which color should go where!

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Now it was time to smear it all together with a plastic spoon, which he loved.

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Once our baking sheet was filled with paint, we placed a piece of bubble wrap, bumpy side down, over the paint and pressed to make sure it was fully coated.

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Carefully peel up the bubble wrap and transfer to a piece of poster board. Press down again, then lift off and reveal your painting!

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We had to make several prints of course, adding new colors each time.

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Then Travis wanted to get his hands on the painted side of the bubble wrap, and pressed his painted hands onto a clean piece of bubble wrap, which was nearly as fun since it led to popping the bubbles.

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Great messy fun!

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Animal Bath Time

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We were stuck inside with a late winter snow storm, so it seemed as good a time as any to get messy!

In the bathroom, I laid out several of Travis’s animal toys (definitely use ones that are plastic and washable), along with various colors of paint on a paper plate and a few paintbrushes. He seemed almost disbelieving when I said we were going to paint the animals, but then dove right in!

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He loved choosing which colors each animal should be, including blue cows, yellow donkeys, and purple rabbits.

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After the animals had been covered in his artwork, it was time to give them a bath! Arguable this part was even more exciting than the painting had been.

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I had a bucket of soapy water ready to go in the tub, and Travis loved rinsing off the animals.

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He wanted to run them under the faucet too before we declared the game all done! In sum, a super nice snow day distraction. Although on a summer’s day, you could probably play this entire game out doors with big soapy buckets!

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C Week!

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Wow, just three weeks to go on our Letter of the Week journey – so let’s c what we did in C week!

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Car: Believe it or not, we haven’t taken the time just to play with Travis’s car toys in a while, so this week was a nice reminder! We pulled out our town car mat and garages, set up a race course made from duct tape, drove cars down ramps and through tubes, and more. Want something more crafty? Make a car out of a box!

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Clean: Getting children in the habit of cleaning up should be on your list every week, but this week in particular we made a game of it. Try simple ideas like setting a timer to see who can clean up the fastest, giving clear instructions (“Let’s put all the Duplo away first!”), or – for toys that are especially hard to part with at night – tucking them in to a cozy place to “sleep.” A tot-sized set of cleaning tools makes clean-up even more fun.

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Cardboard: Cardboard is everywhere and it lends itself so easily to the imagination. Check out the two crafts we made this week, with cardboard tubes as the base!

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Camping: Pitch a tent (or a blanket over a stool) and camp in your living room; your child will think they’re in heaven! We added a few cozy blankets, a campfire made of straw logs and felt flames, and then cozied up for books by flashlight. Check out Flashlight by Lizi Boyd or the Shine-a-Light series from Usborne.

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Castle: We headed to the non-fiction section of the library and got out a few neat castle books to help Travis understand more about what they are this week. From there, of course, we had to build our own from blocks at home! Fast Forward Castle and Look Inside a Castle are both neat options.

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Captions: For several art projects this week, we added captions, so that by the end of the week, we had a mini art gallery! I loved this idea so much that I hope to continue it beyond C week. After your child finishes a project, simply ask him or her what is happening in the picture. Write down their words on a little index card. It’s a neat way to get them excited about art and reading.

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Construction: In addition to cars, play with any construction vehicles you have. Better yet, make a construction site sensory bin.

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Cloud: We made a shaving cream cloud on a rainy day, then went cloud watching the next afternoon when the sun came out!

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Caterpillar: Very Hungry Caterpillar delights everyone from babies on up. This week we made a color match caterpillar, and also played with Travis’s other caterpillar toy, which happens to be appropriately named the code-a-pillar, his first foray into computer coding.

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Clock: Toy clocks are great because you can gently introduce the notion of time as your child absorbs a little here and there while playing! Travis loves spinning the hands on his talking clock, and we read clock books like Tick and Tock’s Clock Book and Telling the Time.

For our weekly extras…

Fine art: Colors are the name of the game this week! First, try color mixing with paint. I gave Travis a little each of red, yellow, and blue… Soon enough we had a big goopy mess, but it was a great way to get talking about how colors combine to make different ones.

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Read about colors with My Very First Book of Colors by Eric Carle or A Color of His Own by Leo Lionni, then continue the play by color mixing with ice cubes!

Food: Fun foods this week included carrot-raisin salad, homemade cornbread, crackers, cantaloupe, clementines, and a decadent bite of vegan cheezecake.

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Books: We covered cats and cows in books this week. Some fun titles are The Cow Who Clucked by Denise Fleming, Click Clack Moo Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin, and They All Saw a Cat by Brendan Wenzel. Travis also enjoyed Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina.

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Songs: Travis was in hysterics laughing over Never Smile At a Crocodile (from Peter Pan), and also enjoyed the changing pace of Little Red Caboose.

Math: You can try teaching your child to classify this week, or better yet – classify by color! We used our color match caterpillar for this, but there are toys you can purchase such as a color sorting pie as well. It’s also a great week for calendars; daily magnetic calendars are a nice tool to teach about the year/months/weeks/days.

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Be back soon for B week!

 

Sensory Construction Bin

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This simple sensory bin is heaven for any kid who loves playing with construction trucks!

I ordered play sand from Amazon, and although the quantity I received wasn’t nearly what I expected, the amount ended up working well. I poured it into our plastic storage bin, just enough for a thin layer; this shallow sand meant we could make tire tracks, pile sand in some corners while leaving other spaces with only a thin cover, and otherwise have a grand old time. However, make the sand deeper if you want to!

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When Travis woke up from his nap, I had the bin set up and ready to go – sand, trucks, and various materials to be construction truck lumber, including wooden craft sticks and some real wood chips we’d collected outside earlier in the day. The wood chips turned out to be home to a few tiny bugs, which gave our construction site a feel of authenticity!

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Travis set right to, driving bulldozers, filling dump trucks, and making aforementioned piles of sand.

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Soon, he announced he needed to wear his construction vest!

The craft sticks were great for setting up as the beams of a building.

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We did this activity on our balcony in the sunlight, making for beautiful afternoon play.

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Milk Carton Animals

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With several empty Silk cartons around the house, we decided to play with them instead of relegating them immediately to the recycling bin!

This was a craft that I largely had to put together for Travis (too complicated for a two year old’s fingers!) but he was so into it, watching intently every step of the way, and mimicking making his own version with all the materials that were out.

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First, we turned a creamer carton into a pig. I covered it with pink construction paper, which I cut to fit and taped in place (sorry, my woeful crafting skills are on display here, folks!)

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Travis then helped glue two googly eyes into place and to tape on the curly pink pipe cleaner tale. He loved the pink cap that we turned into the nose!

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No sooner finished than he asked if we could make a cow. We were all out of brown and black construction paper, so our cow was white with very vibrant orange spots – why not? Travis loved “helping” cut spots for the cow.

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Once finished, he had a blast moving the animals around the living room, making them oink and moo.

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Great imaginative props to play with!

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Color Match Caterpillar

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The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a much-loved book around here, so after a cute read of it this week, we made our own caterpillar, and “fed” him fruit – the game involved both imagination and a nice lesson in color sorting!

Preschoolers may want to put together their own caterpillar, but I largely assembled ours for Travis, gluing down circles of different color construction paper for the body, drawing on a face, and adding pipe cleaner antennas and googly eyes.

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Once the glue dries, set out the caterpillar along with pom poms in colors that match your circles. We had “blueberries” “strawberries” “oranges” “lemons” and “grapes” for our caterpillar to eat.

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To be honest, Travis wasn’t that into getting the correctly colored pom poms onto the corresponding circle, but he did think our caterpillar was very cute!

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Carrot-Raisin Salad

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Carrot-Raisin (4)This salad is simple enough that kids can help prep it with you – squeezing lemons and oranges is sure to be a hit! The perfect salad for busy bunnies in springtime!

Ingredients:

  • 1 pound shredded carrots
  • 1 cup raisins
  • 1 lemon
  • 1 orange
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • Pinch of salt
  1. Combine the carrots and raisins in a bowl; set aside.
  2. Cut the lemon and orange in half, and squeeze with a juicer. Add the juices to the carrot mixture, along with the brown sugar and salt.

This recipe was the first that I’ve gotten my son to eat with raw carrots instead of cooked – a winner!

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Cloud in a Jar

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Turn a rainy day into a science lesson with this cute experiment! With thick rain clouds covering the sky, it was the perfect day to test out the craft (care of Parents magazine), and to ask Travis he thought would happen when our cloud become too heavy with water.

To demonstrate, fill a jar or clear bowl with water until almost full, then add a layer of shaving cream.

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Fill a second, small cup with water and dye it blue for your rain. Travis definitely needed to help with the drops of food coloring.

Now it’s time to make a rain storm! I wanted Travis to use an eye dropper so we could saturate our cloud gradually, but he was much too impatient so we started pouring on our rain instead.

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Needless to say, we soon had a monsoon! Travis loved seeing the blue color swirl down beneath our shaving cream cloud.

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And then this happened of course! A stormy good time.

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