Month: September 2019

Stacking Rings

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Stacking rings are such a simple and classic baby toy, but they bring such joy and fantastic learning! Your baby is problem solving as he or she figures out how to stack the rings, as well as honing fine motor skills. Because many are brightly colored and ordered in size from largest to smallest, they are also great for language development.

Today, Veronika and I mixed things up to bring new life to her standard stacking ring set! Instead of threading them onto the provided post, I gave her a wooden spoon to slot them on to (you could also try the game on your arm).

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She was immediately intrigued.

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The spoon itself was fascinating to her, and I think she believed herself to be Queen Veronika, brandishing it like a royal scepter and chatting to the spoon for quite some time.

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Eventually I coaxed her into adding more rings onto it.

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She was delighted when she saw that her spoon now had three fun rings, not two.

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She loved to stand up holding it, as well!

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If you want to challenge your baby with smaller rings, try stacking on shower curtain or window curtain rings instead! How do you and your baby play with stacking rings? Please share in the comments.

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Floor Art

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Veronika is entering such a fun stage of development. No longer are projects and crafts simply things I make for her, but she’s old enough now to get involved in the process. To wit, today I gave her a crayon for the first time. The moment was, quite simply, beautiful.

I laid a long piece of craft paper down in the playroom, securely taping it at all four corners. If you prefer, or worry that your little one will rip up paper, use cardboard instead.

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I set out a box of jumbo crayons, the perfect first crayon for the under-age-one set. She took to it more immediately than I ever imagined, not putting the crayon in her mouth, but instead testing out a few scribbles.

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I thought I might need to guide her hand..

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…but nope! She delightedly began scribbling all over the paper, and even stayed on it instead of wandering to the floor by accident.

As she “drew”, I drew along with her, including a few simple shapes I pointed out.

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I added a few simple patterns like black, green, black, green, or square, circle, square, circle. I chatted about these shapes to her as she continued to scribble.

Then I laid her down on her back and traced her! This got giggles.

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I guided her hand to show her where eyes, a nose, and a mouth would go on the resulting outline. As I drew on a purple shirt, she happily scribbled over this first “self-portrait.”

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For additional art fun, I drew a second human outline on cardboard and cut out a few clothes from construction paper.

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I let her help me glue these down with a glue stick, a slightly sticky but delightful process. Clearly she enjoyed this first art class!

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Black Bean & Carrot Mash

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Black Bean & Carrot

This mash of beans and carrot puree will thicken as it cools. Once thickened, it’s perfect to pick up by the handful for little ones who are baby led weaning!

Ingredients:

  • 1 (15-ounce) drained and rinsed can black beans
  • 4 ounces carrot puree
  1. Combine the ingredients in a saucepan and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, until warm.
  2. Remove from heat and mash with a potato masher to desired consistency.

Yogurt Ice

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These easy “popsicles” will be fun for your baby to eat in the high chair, or perhaps just amusing to play with! You can puree any fresh fruit to equal 1/2 cup for the recipe; in a pinch, use a fruit pouch from the baby food aisle. Veronika’s favorite is a peach/apricot blend.

Since I didn’t want Veronika to hurt herself on long popsicle sticks, I found a great alternative; milkshake-sized straws cut to about the length of her fist. Just supervise closely at feeding time and remove the sticks if they come free from the yogurt.

Ingredients:

  • 1 (5-ounce) plain non-dairy yogurt
  • 1/2 cup fruit puree
  1. Stir together the ingredients in a small bowl.
  2. Divide evenly among the compartments of an ice cube tray, and insert the straw “sticks”. Freeze until solid.

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Play Dough Sensory Bag

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I’ve been on a recent kick of making sensory bags for Veronika, a great way to enable my little imp to play with messy materials that might otherwise end up in her mouth. Safely inside a plastic bag, even the messiest items are a go!

Normally for a ten-month-old I’d whip up homemade play dough for added security, but since it was going in the bag, I used the store-bought kind.

I added a few craft beads in fun flower shapes that she would be able to squish into the play dough. Now it was simply a matter of sealing and watching her squish away!

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Veronika loved grabbing at the bag.

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I showed her how to squish the hard beads into the soft dough, talking about texture as we played. The contrast seemed to really interest her.

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I felt comfortable leaving this one around for her to play with since there was no liquid to spill, even in case of a slight tear.

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A fantastic way to keep her busy, in sum!

Leaf Canvas Craft Challenge

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What was this month’s craft challenge from Highlights magazine? To use a leaf as the canvas for painting! You’ll want to use acrylic pants for the craft, which will hold up better than tempera paint.

No doubt there are fantastic artists who could create a whole miniature scene on their leaf. For my kindergartner, the project was more about the novelty of using nature as the canvas.

We found some giant leaves on a nature walk and knew those were the ones to use!

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At first, he painted along the lines of the leaf’s veins, which was great for reinforcing a recent science unit on trees and nutrition.

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Then he had fun blending colors and seeing how they mixed on the leaf.

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At the end, he liked making big blobs of paint.

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Whether your little Picasso makes something abstract, something highly detailed, or just has fun smearing paint, this was a simple and fun alternative to painting on paper.

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Memory Game

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Object permanence is probably well-established now for your baby at ten-months old, but this game will help strengthen the concept that an object exists even once hidden. And your little one will love finding it!

I decided to use two foam blocks for the game, because I wanted objects that were different in some ways, but similar enough not to confuse Veronika. One block was a blue square and the other was a yellow triangle. Working with one at a time, I described the block to her: colors, shapes, texture. Let your baby feel (or mouth on!) the toy if they are interested.

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Then I hid the block behind my back. She was instantly curious where it had gone, and trotted around to find it.

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We repeated with the yellow triangle. Again, your baby won’t be acing quizzes after games like this, but it’s great way to introduce vocabulary about shapes colors and the element of hiding will keep your little one excited.

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Shoot and Splash

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Following up on yesterday’s simple game of “boom!”, today I made a cause-and-effect game that was a little more sophisticated for Veronika. This game is also great for talking about words like in/out and fast/slow.

I filled a shallow plastic tub with water, and got out two small balls (golf balls or ping pong balls are about the right size) along with an empty paper towel tube.

I held the tube against the bin of water and let Veronika see me put the ball inside. “In!”

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Now tilt the tube slightly and let the ball fall in with a splash. There was a great element of surprise here for Veronika, who was wondering where the ball went!

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We played around with different variations for quite some time. Sometimes I let the ball fall fast from a steep angle, or sometimes held the tube nearly horizontal so it would roll slowly and build her anticipation.

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Soon, she was the one wanting to put the balls in the tube, making this almost like a one-shape shape-sorter!

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When we were done with the tube, the leftover balls and shallow water were a big hit.

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Build-Ahead Breakfast

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Mornings are crazy enough without having to worry about making a hearty breakfast and packing a bagged lunch. Take one piece out of the equation with this fantastic wrap you can put together the night before. Bonus points: Kids will love helping, and can alter the ingredients until they find their favorite combo.

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We like these with the California burger from Amy’s Kitchen.

Ingredients:

  • 2 small flour tortillas
  • 1 veggie burger patty, cooked and chopped
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh chives
  • 1/2 cup shredded Daiya cheddar
  • 2 tablespoons chopped sun-dried tomatoes
  1. Place the tortillas on a flat work surface. Arrange the ingredients in rows working from left to right, dividing evenly among the two tortillas.
  2. Fold up the bottom of the tortilla over the toppings, then begin rolling from the left and roll up tightly.
  3. Wrap in parchment paper and refrigerate overnight. To serve, microwave for 30 seconds.

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Boom!

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Cause-and-effect is big at ten months, and this simple game is sure to delight!

I sat down with Veronika in front of an empty plastic bin. Making sure she was watching, I tossed in a bean bag and said, “Boom!”

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Well she sure thought that was funny!

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I repeated with a ball, “Boom!” She immediately began mimicking the word. “Boo boo boo!”

Now it was her turn; I handed her a ball which she placed in rather than dropped into the bucket, but she had the idea!

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For some extra fun, I sprinkled flour in the bottom of the bin.

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The bean bags and balls made just enough of an impact for a light dusting to fly up when items landed, further enhancing the notions of cause and effect.

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And it was so fun that big brother wanted in on the action!

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