Month: May 2021

Destructive Artsy Things to Do

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Toddlers love to destroy things, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing! Those destructive urges often hone creativity, fine motor skills, imagination, and more. Many thanks to Bounce Back Parenting, which was the inspiration for most of the following ideas, all of which led to a great morning of destruction.

One: Rip Up Paper

First up was ripping paper, and I find that it’s easiest for Veronika if I make a small tear, then let her finish it. The ripping is great fun and it led right to…

Two: Dip Paper in Water

Veronika loved watching the changes that took place as soon as the paper hit the water. The texture changes, the color gets darker, and we even discovered that it was easier to rip! While she was at it, she wanted to pull something else apart, which led to…

Three: Tear up an Old Art Project

She couldn’t resist pulling the strands of yarn off a recent project, and then of course needed to see how those felt once wet, too. Pretty soon that led to wet fingers and toes. “It’s like a sprinkler!” she said. We quickly mopped up and headed to the living room for something a little less wet.

Four: Crumble Paper for Target Practice

I gave Veronika a few types of paper (paper towels, notepad paper) to crumple into little balls, the tinier the better. Then we could slam dunk them into a toy bin!

While that notepad was out, it was time to…

Five: Scribble on a Scribble

I made one line with a pen, then invited her to add to the drawing! Veronika loves to draw like this, so seriously that she looks like a mini studio artist. “I’m not done yet,” she told me, adding more squiggles and lines.

Six: Water on Chalk

The sun was shining, so we took our next bit of destruction outside. Chalk is fantastic because your child the instant satisfaction of watching chalk marks instantly disappear under just a little water. As a bonus, chalk is really fun to use on wet pavement.

Seven: Dry-Erase Board

Along the same vein as erasing chalk with water, other things are fun to erase, too! We headed back inside and I showed her how she could magically swipe away mommy’s dry-erase board with a paper towel.

Since she was already seated in the highchair, that led to…

Eight: High Chair Tray Scribbles

Yup, I let her draw right on that high chair tray! Use washable markers and watch your child’s eyes pop when he or she is allowed to scribble directly on the tray.

Then, simply hand over a damp paper towel, and watch the marker magically swipe away.

Nine: Styrofoam Destruction

For the grand finale in our day of destruction, I set up a block of Styrofoam on our craft tray, along with her toy tools, and told her she could chisel away. It as tough for her to crack into the block, so I made a few divots and holes and then she could work on making them deeper. She even tested out the real screwdriver (but be sure to supervise any play with grown-up tools closely).

She loved the tiny pieces that resulted, more so than the act of destruction, pretending to “feed” them to her stuffed puppy.

Chances are that toddlers will love clean-up from this activity, too, when it’s time to pull out the vacuum and get up all those Styrofoam bits!

What’s your favorite destructive thing to do with a toddler? Please share in the comments!

Dirt Day!

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Armed with a giant bag of potting soil, Veronika and I had a day all about dirt! Here are three ways we played.

We started out inside, with a giant Mud and Dirt Sensory Box. Pour in dirt (or the above-mentioned potting soil), and add a few items that are fun to get, well, dirty! That meant a few of Veronika’s toy construction trucks, plastic cups for scooping and dumping, and some marbles.

First she explored with the trucks. She loved digging through the dirt with the bulldozer and then dumping into one of the cups.

We then pretended that the marbles were little seeds for planting, perfect imaginative play for springtime! She loved digging holes with a spade and pressing the marbles down in the dirt. Then we decided to make some of the dirt into mud; simply pour in a few cups of water and stir. Veronika marveled at the new consistency, as well as the earthy smell that resulted right away! When you’re done, take that sensory bin outside for a rinse down with a hose.

But we weren’t done yet with the dirt! I made a few circles with chalk on the back patio, labeled with point values. Older kids can play a classic game of bullseye, with concentric circles. For Veronika, I spaced the circles all over the patio with different point values based on their size.

Now we needed mud! I scooped some potting soil into a cup and we poured in water. Veronika was in charge of stirring until it was thick and goopy.

Big kids can now stand back, pick up handfuls, and take aim!

Veronika preferred to scoop up the mud with our spade and dribble it over the point values, delighting in the splat of the mud hitting the patio.

Bullseye!

Finally, we took some of that mud and decided to make art! I divided the mixture among 4 plastic cups and we squirted a generous amount of food coloring into each.

Dip in paintbrushes, and brush onto thick white paper. This made surprisingly beautiful colors, from vivid yellow…

…to a deep blue.

Veronika loved pouring and mixing the “paints”, too, or sometimes pouring them directly over the paper and then scribbling through with a paintbrush.

Older kids (and grown-ups!) can have fun making artistic paintings, like this little fishy fellow.

In sum, we had fantastic fun on this dirt-y day!

Fruit Salad Trio

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Here are three very different ways to whip up fruit salad, all delicious, and all quite different! I’ve arranged them in order from most parental prep to most kid-involvement!

Fruit Salad in a Shell

This one is all grown-up work, thanks to lots of chopping and a classic presentation in a scooped-out watermelon!

Ingredients:

  • 1 mini watermelon
  • 1/2 cup finely chopped cantaloupe
  • 1/2 cup finely chopped honeydew
  • 1/2 cup finely chopped pineapple
  • 1/2 cup thinly sliced strawberries
  • 1/2 cup blueberries
  1. To start, scoop the flesh from half of a mini watermelon. Chop the flesh to equal 1/2 cup and reserve the remaining watermelon for another use.
  2. Combine the watermelon pieces in the shell with the remaining ingredients, stirring gently.

Needless to say, the kids loved looking at this one almost as much as eating it!

1-2-3 Fruit Salad

For the next version we made, care of High 5 magazine, not only was Veronika involved, but she got to practice counting!

 

 

Ingredients:

  • 1 teaspoon agave nectar
  • 2 teaspoons raisins
  • 3 tablespoons plain non-dairy yogurt
  • 4 grapes
  • 5 banana slices
  • 6 cantaloupe chunks
  • 7 kiwi slices
  • 8 strawberry slices
  • 9 blueberries

After combing all that in single-serving bowls, we gave the fruit salad 10 stirs! I loved setting out index cards for each ingredient, making this culinary math at its finest.

Veronika read me each number before we added that item, and I helped her select out the right number to plink into her bowl.

You can see that the tasting began before the counting was complete though!

Canned Fruit Salad

For this final version, Veronika got to be in charge! Purchase snack fruit cups of pineapple, peach, and pear pieces, and all your toddler has to do is dump and stir.

In a bowl, combine the canned pineapple, peaches, and pears to taste. Let your toddler use a butter knife to slice a banana, and add to the bowl, along with a (grown-up) chopped apple. Now spoon a carton of vanilla non-dairy yogurt on top as the dressing! Stir to combine.

Note: If you can’t find individual snack cups, simply purchase one can of each fruit. In this case, you will need to do some grown-up slicing!

Painting with the Rain

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The next time you have a rainy day, take advantage of it for this art project! There are two “artists” who will complete each painting: your child and the raindrops!

To start, I set out cups of water and watercolors so Veronika could paint all over thick white paper. To be honest, she was much more interested in the cups of water today; after just a few swirls on the paper, she turned her attention to swirling the water around in the cups!

I made a second painting with big dots of watercolor, too, so we’d have two pictures to set outside for the next step.

Now we made a quick foray out into the rain and placed down our paintings. It’s useful to secure the paper in place with rocks or pebbles, especially if your rain storm is accompanied by wind.

Wait until the pages are covered in raindrops, then bring back inside! The rain makes neat effects, sometimes diluting our colors, sometimes making them run together, and no matter what resulting in a pretty final work of art.

Rice Sensory I Spy Bag

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This activity is part sensory bag and part “I Spy” game, and a great option to take in the car for long rides!

The goal is to hide a few trinkets in a bag of rice, but you’ll need to take a picture of those items, first. You can use a variety of items (think buttons, thimbles, pennies etc.), but I decided to make the game about color, too. That meant I used all one item (flower-shaped beads) but in different colors.

Thanks to a recent gift of a Zink jet printer, I snapped a pic and was able to print it right from my phone, saving the need for a trip to the one-hour photo!

Next, I poured 1 cup rice into a small zip-top plastic bag, then added the flower beads from the picture. Press out the air, then seal and shake to distribute. Place this bag inside a second zip-top bag (for security against rips and tears); seal and then add an edge of colored duct tape for a finished look.

Now, I handed the Veronika the bag, along with the picture! She picked a color from the picture, then searched for that matching bead in the rice. Or sometimes she did the reverse, spotting a bead and then looking over at her picture to see which one matched.

To make this easy to take along in the car, punch a hole in the corner of the picture and in a corner of the bag, then attach them together with a small length of yarn or string.

Flower Power

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Just in time to fill a homemade flower vase for Mother’s Day, today Veronika made cupcake-liner flowers!

You’ll want to use green straws as the stems to start, but since I couldn’t find green ones at the store, a quick coat of green paint did the trick! We left the stems to dry and turned our attention to the flower petals.

If you have brightly colored or patterned cupcake liners, those would look beautiful just the way they are. I only had standard cupcake liners, so we decided to add a little flair. Veronika loved that she was allowed to use permanent marker for this step, making swirls and dots all over.

Of course then they needed a few squirts of glitter glue! Finally, we put a dot of glue in the center of each cupcake liner and added a pom pom.

Flatten the end of each green straw slightly, and apply a drop of glue. Press onto the back of the cupcake liner and let dry. (Note: you can also use tape for this step if your little one is impatient).

Set into a vase and the flowers are ready to present to a special someone this Mother’s Day!

In fact, I might just keep these around the house since there’s no shame in orchestrating your own Mother’s Day gift!

Smeary Paintings

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Veronika loves the look of watercolors, but they can be hard for her to use because she often forgets to alternate her paintbrush between the cup of water and the tin of dried paints. This alternative method creates a similar smeary, watery look, but was easier for her to do.

To start, I used a wide paintbrush to spread water all over a sheet of thick paper. Veronika then used a smaller paintbrush and picked out pink and purple tempera paints to dip into. The colors bleed and run across the sheet in such a pretty way!

I wondered aloud if we could achieve a similar look with markers, and then “painted” water over a second sheet of paper. Veronika tested it out, and while the effect was neat, I only recommend this with markers that are near the end of their life, as it quickly wears them out.

Veronika now became inventive with the project. First, she poured the cup of water I’d used into the cup of paint, and tested how this mixture looked on the paper.

Then she poured the whole watery mix over the paper; it was a good thing the paper was thick! She made swirls through the goopy mess with her paintbrush, making deep lines.

As a side note, this watery method is great for kids who love to paint rainbows, since the ethereal quality captures the fuzziness of a rainbow on a true rainy day. So for our final sheet of wet paper, I drew a rainbow with markers, and then she “painted” still more water on top.

Rainbow Crayons

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In the past, I’ve recycled bits of old crayons into interesting shapes, but never before have we made one giant recycled crayon! This project involves a lot of adult prep, but the resulting rainbow crayon is a delight.

To start, I removed the wrappers from the few crayons remaining from our once-giant box. It helps to soak the crayons briefly in water, after which the wrappers slip right off.

Next, you’ll need an empty tin can (I used an olive can), cleaned and dried. Working with one color family at a time, break the crayons into smaller pieces and place in the tin can. Place the tin can in a saucepan, and add boiling water around it. The wax will begin to melt almost immediately! Pour into a plastic container (empty play dough canisters were perfect!) and let set.

As the red layer set, it was time to melt the orange crayons and so on until I’d worked my way through the rainbow. I didn’t always let the old layer set long enough, which meant the yellow, green and purple layers weren’t as easy to see. Next time, I would be a bit more patient!

Still, the end result was a beautifully-layered crayon. Snip off the plastic container and hand over to your waiting toddler.

Veronika loved that she could change color depending just on how she held it. “This way is red…” she said.

“And this way is blue!” I also showed her how she could rub the crayon along on its side, showing multiple colors at once, or make big circles with it.

“The crayon is so big!” she marveled. This is the perfect crayon for toddler hands and sure to be a delight.

Cheesy Hash-Brown Cups

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Veronika has officially moved up from Hello magazine (the Highlights edition for tots aged 0 to 2) to the company’s High 5 magazine, aimed at 2 to 5 year olds. And that meant she was ready for her first recipe side-by-side with me!

To start, I did a little grown-up prep and chopped 1/4 cup green onions and 1/4 cup red bell pepper. Set aside.

Meanwhile, thaw 1 (16-ounce) package shredded hash browns. Drain in a colander and transfer to a large bowl.

Time for Veronika to join in! She helped stir in the green onions and bell pepper, 3/4 cup shredded non-dairy cheddar, 3/4 cup shredded non-dairy Parmesan, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

Next, she lined muffin cups with cupcake liners, proudly depositing each one!

I helped her spoon some of the hash brown mixture into each cup, tamping each one down as needed (You can use your fingers or the back of a spoon for this step).

Finally, together we drizzled each portion with 1 tablespoon non-dairy creamer; the slightly nutty flavor of almond-based creamer was nice with the rest of the flavors.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour, then let cool slightly before serving. These were fantastic as part of a breakfast-for-dinner night, including vegan bacon and breakfast burritos!

Playing with Tees, Three Ways

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Brightly-colored golf tees are a fantastic item to repurpose as toys for toddlers. To wit, here are three ways Veronika has played with them lately!

First, we used a batch of homemade play dough and I set out a tray of various items that could all poke into the dough: tees, pipe cleaners, and cut pieces of straws. This activity was great for honing fine motor skills, and it was interesting to see her discover how much easier it was to poke in the sturdy tees than the bendy pipe cleaners. “It got curly!” she said with a bit of disappointment, of the latter.

She marveled at the way a tee, on the other hand, could pass straight through a ball of play dough, from one side to the other.

After decorating some blobs of playdough, the upright tees looked like birthday candles. Thinking quickly, I pulled out a muffin tin and we made little cupcakes, dotted with candles for a stuffed animal’s party.

The next day, we pulled out the play dough again, but this time I flattened it into a base and challenged her to hammer in the tees with her toy hammer. She wasn’t as into it as I hoped, but she did like poking the tees into the second alternative I offered for a base: a few blocks of Styrofoam (the kind you can purchase for floral arrangements).

Now, the tees were standing at attention and I had a final challenge for her: To balance a marble on the cup of each one!

This took delicate fingerwork, but not only did Veronika excel at it, she absolutely loved it!

Even more fun was lining up a few marbles, and then flicking them off. She quite enjoyed the noise as the marbles plinked down.

From here, I was thrilled to see her come up with her own ways to play. She could squish a marble into the playdough, and then “hammer” it in further with a tee.

Needless to say, tees are a great way to keep a toddler busy!