You can’t go wrong with a classic BLT sandwich filling. Wrap it up in a tortilla for a novel spin.
Ingredients:
Repeat as needed for extra sandwiches!
I confess that none of the following bottles turned out exactly the way I hoped! But with a little improvisation, I created three autumn-themed sensory bottles for Veronika that she quite enjoyed.
For all three, you’ll need to start with a clean and dry plastic water bottle, with the lid.
I poured white rice into the first, and then sprinkled in a few hidden autumn “treasures”, like miniature gourds.
She could shake this one, which made the rice hide the gourds, then turn it until she found them. She loved playing peek-a-boo with them! I had hoped to include other fall tidbits like mini scarecrows and pumpkins, but she seemed perfectly happy with this scaled-back version.
For the second version, I filled the bottle with water and tinted it an autumnal yellow with a little food coloring. I originally intended to add leaf-shaped confetti to this one, but couldn’t find any at the store. Instead, I simply added red and yellow buttons.
These fascinated Veronika, so it worked out well! She loved shaking this one and watching the buttons settle, or turning it this way and that.
For the final version, I had originally hoped to add silk leaves. Again, no dice. But what’s better than silk leaves? The real thing!
We added handfuls of small leaves we had found on a recent walk along with a few acorns (real ones!) for sensory sound. The bottle turned out so pretty.
This one was light as a feather and made fantastic clicking noises.
She spent some time with all three of them, but the button-and-water version was clearly her favorite. In fact, she then wanted extra buttons to hold, since she was frustrated she couldn’t screw the lids off.
Between the buttons and the bottles, she kept quite busy with this activity!
Perhaps I should have held off on this particular indoor sandbox for a couple of days until October is officially here. But when I spotted my bulk bag of dried black beans, the color instantly made me think of all the Halloween decor I just stocked up on. So it was a spooky indoor sandbox a few days early!
I poured the beans into a shallow tray and added a few Halloween items that lent themselves well to sensory play. These included cupcake liners (with spiderweb and black-and-orange print designs), as well as felt skeleton figures.
First her attention went to the little skeletons, and she loved putting them in the cupcake liners, or burying them under the beans and then digging them back up again (spooky!).
She could also use the cupcake liners for scooping and pouring, which was great for fine motor skills.
She spent quite some time transferring beans back and forth this way.
I had planned just to let her use her hands, but she requested a spoon to scoop through, too.
Then to my surprise, she first sat in the beans…
…and then stood right up in them! This gave her the giggles.
In sum, the bin was a great one for keeping her busy and for introducing the upcoming holiday!
This art project is on the messy side, but it’s a great way for even little toddlers to paint fall foliage!
To start, cut a piece of watercolor paper (or similar thick paper) in half lengthwise, so you have two rectangles.
Next, cut strips of yarn and arrange over one of your rectangles. The more the yarn loops and curls the neater an effect you’ll achieve. That said, I had to work quickly before curious Veronika pulled up all the pieces of yarn I was laying down!
I set out red, orange, and yellow paint, and Veronika immediately wanted to open them all. Carefully, we poured a blob of each color over the yarn. Again, I had to work quickly and only managed one blob of each color; be more deliberate and dot a few blobs of each for a more marbled effect.
Place the remaining rectangle of paper on top of the yarn, making sure one end of each yarn piece is sticking out. I showed Veronika how to pull on these ends; they were like little worms she could tug at.
Lift up the top sheet of paper and reveal all the fall colors!
Veronika, I confess, was decidedly unimpressed. She decided it was a lot more fun to dump out extra orange paint and then smear her hands through it.
To add to the mess, she loved running the paint-covered strands of yarn through her orange hands.
But she had a blast, and I loved watching her enjoy this part of the art process!
Meanwhile, once the original paintings had dried, I added a brown trunk to each with marker to complete our fall trees.
These will look so pretty up in the playroom for the rest of the season!
Here’s a fun way to dress up vegan pork from the freezer aisle and make it a little more gourmet!
Ingredients:
With buns, these are almost like Sloppy Joes.
With tortillas, it’s more of a fun spin on taco night!
We love making “paint” that’s good enough to eat, and today’s version was super-quick. Use store-bought vanilla pudding and the cups themselves make the perfect paint pots!
Zen company makes vegan pudding cups, though in a pinch, you can whip up a homemade batch and divide among ramekins. Still, I preferred store-bought here because of those individual pudding cups.
I wanted rich, deep colors for the paint, so used 20 drops of food coloring for each pudding cup. For purple, mix 10 drops of red + 10 drops of blue.
I then laid down a big sheet of craft paper as Veronika’s canvas and set the pots around my little artist.
She instantly asked, “Can I eat it?” Needless to say, the eating of the paint was way more fun than the painting with it. I quickly switched from paint brushes to spoons once I realized she wasn’t going to stop taste-testing.
I did show her how to draw a few images with the paint, like flowers and a blue sky, but snacking won out.
To mix it up, next I taped construction paper to the high chair tray, and this time I poured on blobs of the pudding paint.
She dipped her hands in and did some swirling around.
Needless to say, though, she still preferred to snack than to paint! So this was a delicious activity, if not a terribly artistic one.
I rarely see packing peanuts anymore, so when we received a batch in a recent package, I instantly knew I needed to save them for an activity instead of tossing them. An indoor sandbox fit the bill!
I thought about how best to use the big puffy layers of peanuts to my advantage, and decided the material would be most fun to shovel through.
To set up, I placed a few of Veronika’s Duplo toys in the bottom of a bin, then covered with the packing peanuts. Colorful pom poms added some visual pop!
I handed over a sand shovel, and it was time to dig. Veronika loved the way the peanuts felt (they are a recyclable material, not Styrofoam, and squished nicely if pressed in the hand).
She liked the feel so much that she was soon more interested in using her hands than the shovel.
She was quite determined to find her Duplo people, since she had seen me bury them, so I helped her dig down.
Peek-a-boo toys!
Then she loved having the toys either “sleep” or take a bath in the bin of puffy peanuts.
This was a nice way to keep her busy at least for a little while on a lazy Sunday morning.
Unseasonably warm and dry weather has meant the leaves are slow to change this autumn. Finally we’re spotting the first of the fall color, and we celebrated with a nature walk and leaf activity!
First up was a walk in the woods. We brought along a paper bag to fill with leaves, and Veronika loved dropping in our treasures.
She also discovered the delightful crunch that the leaves made if she scuffed her feet through them!
Once home, we dumped out the bag of leaves so they filled an old box. I showed her how she could simply scrunch her hands through the leaves…
…or toss them out and then fill the box back up again.
The drier leaves crumbled in her fingers, to her delight. Or, she could rip up the softer ones into small pieces, which kept her busy for quite some time.
Thanks to a gentle breeze, she soon had the idea to toss the leaves off our patio. I loved watching the wheels of her brain turn as she discovered that leaves don’t go as far as other things she can throw, like pebbles and acorns!
Then we picked up armfuls and tossed them over her head, where they scattered to the patio.
Or landed right in her hair.
As a final component of the activity, we took some of the prettiest ones inside and I showed her how to press them onto sticky contact paper.
Fold the paper over itself, and you have an instant autumn placemat!
In sum, there was so much joy to be had in this first batch of fall leaves!
Believe it or not, my kids have never seen Sesame Street, even though I remember enjoying it as a child. I thought I would test out a few clips with Veronika today and see what she thought. We added an activity to each clip, too, to make the play hands-on.
First up was the theme of friendship. We watched Sesame Street‘s “What is a Friend“, and then we made very simple friendship bracelets, threading pony beads onto pipe cleaners.
Veronika loved the activity, and even lovingly helped me put a bangle on my wrist. Toddlers can make these for siblings or friends, too!
Next up was a clip about emotions. Try “Happy/Sad Balloons“, featuring Big Bird. To help Veronika further understand the concept, I repeated an old craft, Feeling Friends.
For healthy eating, head over to the clip “Hurray-Hurrah for Broccoli“. After watching this one, Veronika helped polish a shiny tooth with white paint. Your toddler might also enjoy making a happy tooth/sad tooth food collage.
For a quick video about family, try “Five People in my Family“. We then drew a family tree and talked about everyone in it. For a more intricate version, try a photo family tree.
For a Sesame Street segment on recycling, try “Mayonnaise Jar“. If you have an old mayonnaise jar on hand, you can quickly make the lesson a reality! Lacking that, I wanted to show Veronika the value of recycling, so we made a quick recycled box guitar!
The verdict after all that? Veronika does not like Sesame Street any more than big brother Travis. I think both of my children are afraid of the puppets and voices. “I not like the video,” she said each time. So… a lesson learned for mommy, too!
Today was Veronika’s first time at the stove! She’s not quite yet 2, so needless to say I supervised this activity very closely. But dripping pancake better is an excellent first stove-top activity, and will make toddlers feel like big helpers in the kitchen.
First up was whipping up a super simple pancake recipe, by whisking the following together in a big bowl:
1 and 1/2 cups almond milk
2 Ener-G eggs
4 tablespoons canola oil
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 and 1/2 cups flour
Toddlers can help with this part, too!
I poured the batter into a liquid measuring cup and helped Veronika climb on a stool by the stove. Together, we held a big ladle and dripped the batter into a heated pan coated with cooking spray.
When it’s your toddler’s turn, chances are the “design” of the pancakes will be completely random. But Veronika loved that she made “baby pancakes”, and we thought one looked like a caterpillar.
Some of the small ones looked like little clouds in the sky.
While she enjoyed sampling the first batch, I prepared a slightly more deliberate design: a pancake gingerbread man! Chocolate chips made eyes, a nose, and buttons.
Veronika absolutely loved this activity, both the cooking and the eating of it.
joyful parenting 